So after lunch it was various planning - how to get to the Furui Lab party the next day, the visit to Eisei Byoin (the hospital in which Zoe was born), the studio Ghibli museum, and bike hire.
The bike hire proved rather problematic. The only place we could hire from - at a very reasonable 2,000 Yen per month was at another Echi (station) and the problem of how to get 3 bikes (we had 1 at the house already) back to our place was somewhat thorny. By way of digression, a bike is a key part of most people's lives in Tokyo. They're used to ride from home to the trainstation, or to the local shops. As you can imagine bike parking spaces is a big problem with sidewalks cluttered with bikes and the
local council hiring old men to help manage the situation. Finally, I should also say that with very very few exceptions the bikes are all stately, heavy, women's bikes with the step-through frame, and a basket on the front. Racing/road and mountain bikes are almost never seen.Back to the bike hire, we needed our passports so Matsubara-san drove us home. On checking we found out that there were no child sized bikes. Therefore we tested whether Zoe and Grant could ride the bike we had here at the house. While Zoe could, Grant really couldn't, ... And they were both accidents waiting to happen in the packed streets where cars, pedestrianns, and bikes all weave in and out between each other at extreme proximity. So, the hire was off. The kids were very disappointed.
So instead we sat around here at the house, watching live Sumo (one of my most favourite "sports" - the Spring Basho is on at the moment down in Osaka) on NHK, and chatting about a wide range of topics with Matsubara-san. Then it was a quiet night at home - which was needed.
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