Today is the day we take Toria to see some roller slides.
Rorasuraido= roller slides
This cement hill is on the way to the train station. Stairs come next. "Stairs. I out. Hold hand. Kami's hand. Mama's hand. I do it. Down, please." Mama says "No, Kami Lou," and keeps talking to Victoria. I wiggle and whine. Toria makes bird noises and I laugh at her.
On the train, we sit in front! "Ride! Bus. No, train. I on it. Toria there. I go there, please."
Take bus #1 or bus #2. Times are listed below. Mama can never remember if the blue lines are weekday or weekend schedule times. It doesn't matter, a bus comes every twenty minutes or less. We wait because the park is uphill and we aren't exactly sure where.
Here is the sign for animals. "Horse, monkey, goat, elephant," I identify the animals proudly. Mama Roo looks at me and giggles. We keep walking. I keep looking at her to see if she will explain her outburst. She never does.
Just steps Into the park we see it. A ROLLERSLIDE! Since Godzilla park, we have been wanting to go down more. Well, Mama wants to go down them. "Bumpy. Zilla," I say with a scrunchy face. I just want to go where Mama goes. I guess by default, that means I want to go down more rollerslides too. Sigh.
Here we go again. "Feet! Hold it. Here. Help, Mama. Ok, ready. Feet in."
Victoria reads the no-no sign and is ready to go too. Weeeeeee.
This slide is MUCH bigger than the one at Godzilla park. "Stairs! Stairs. I climbing." I race over while Mama Roo walks it off. Her bottom is sore. She is laughing and laughing. Apparently, the rollers get hot when we go so fast. I always sit on Mama's lap, so I don't know. I climb the stairs and don't look back.
You can see how big the stairs and slide are because I am in the bottom right corner above. I am the little pink shirt at the base of the stairs. Below, I am in the middle bottom of the frame, climbing. This park has so many fun play structures. I just need to be a little taller.
I find a friend to climb the stairs with. He loves the slides more than me. I'll follow him over there. When he goes down, he laughs and laughs.
I go down the slides many more times with Mama and Toria. They laugh and giggle the whole way down every time. Despite the fact that I looked concerned the whole way down, I ask for more. "Stairs, again. I climbing. One more time. Bumpy slide." Toria finds cardboard to sit on. "What a relief," Mama says. "We can go down hundreds of times now. Before, I thought my rear was going to light all the way on fire if I went just one more time." The cardboard comes out from underneath Toria one time. She dances like her pants are on fire. I look and they are not.
We get our fill of the slides. It is really starting to get hot out here! We need shade. Shade, flowers, a bathroom that looks like a space shuttle, and a place to sit, perfect.
"Lulu, time to find our way home."
"I walking. I do it. Ready to go."
"Stay with us. Do you understand?"
"Yeah." I whisper and follow Mama Roo slowly but surely. We make it out of the park.
I think we are a little lost. We find one street, then a bigger one. Is this where we go? Keep walking downhill. We are bound to run into the ocean at some point. Then, we will know we went too far. Oy, the beauty of traveling on a whim (at least a partial whim). I go to sleep.
Mama and Toria are hungry. Just a little snack here before dinner. Potstickers and noodles, yum. They also get some potstickers for Daddy Bear and me to share. This is a hole in the wall, and so delicious. Later, I ask Mama for more potstickers. Yum.
After my nap, we look for the big fish market. We find a park instead. They have a cool climbing wall! It's only a few minutes from Daddy's work.
While Toria is taking a nap, I eat my snacks. A Japanese woman comes up to rub my cheeks like they all do. Yikes. I try not to squirm away. She points at my shirt that Oma got for me. "Jojo, jojo," she says. I learn how to say butterfly. She points to our pumpkin seeds and wonders what they are. Mama gives her some. She likes them. I ask for more and so does she. She laughs, thanks us, (I think???) and walks away. People are so nice here, but also very confusing.
Daddy Bear takes me home on the bus. "Bus! BUS! I on it. Own seat. I sitting." Mama and Toria go out to see some more sites and another restaurant.
****This is Mama now***
Victoria and I had to try a restaurant that came highly suggested, not exactly for the food but for the experience.
There is no way to tell if the restaurant is open or closed. If the wedge is in the door it is probably open. The flags up or down don't matter. The open sign doesn't matter. Take off your shoes when you come inside. There is no menu and he (the owner) will suggest the special. You are suppose to agree. When you get your food, act like you don't know where to put the sauces and such, he will do it for you then prompt you to eat. This are all the instructions I was given prior to the situation.
We stopped by earlier in the day and the door was open, but nobody was around. We called out in English and in Japanese....nothing. When we came back hours later, the owner (we assumed) was on the phone at the bar top. The door was cracked open, but we didn't want to be rude. We waited outside until he came to get us. He invited us inside. I almost forgot to take off my shoes.
He didn't say anything more to us. We sat down and he made himself busy. Eventually, he got us water, then busied himself again. First, we were looking around to figure out what to do. Eventually, we stopped worrying and just caught up on each others lives. He came back to ask what we would like. Shrugging, I said, "Special?" "Hai!" a reply and he shifted to keep working.
The food was very tasty. The best part was the sauce and salad dressing. Neither was very heavy, but both were bursting with flavor. It didn't take as long as we thought because nobody else was in there. While we were waiting, I did notice a "menu" on the walls. I will try to order off that next time. Come to find out, the special was pork. Not my favorite.
This was definitely one of the best experiences yet! This chef really loves food and has a meticulous way of chopping and building the dish. He took very good care of us and showed us how to eat the dish. Right in front of us, he garnished everything and ground up our sesame seeds. We will come back very soon!
We talked and laughed and finally had to ask for the bill. Then, a walk to the train and home to my loves. I couldn't have asked for a better ending to the day.
