5Y8M 3Y 11M バンコク Bangkok again

水曜日の真夜中近くにペナンに戻った。

今回はJasonも合流してバンコクで２泊。アラタカラは前回行った所をJasonに見せたかったので、サイアムパラゴンのおもちゃ売り場やフードコートを再訪。

川を行く船のフリーチケットを購入したので、寺院や王宮で降りて観光・・・と思ったけれど、アラタカラには観光の意思はないから、船に乗って終わり。ま、いいんだけど、暑いから。そして動物園に行った。

子供がいると、どの国へ行っても公園探して動物園探して・・・なのはまだまだ続きそう。もう少し大きくなったら少しは名所旧跡にも興味もつかな。

サイアムのメリディアンは、デザイナーズホテル風で綺麗だった。（一泊１万円ちょっと。街並みの写真はホテルの窓からの風景。）バンコクはホテルやバス、トゥクトゥクやタクシーは安いが、食事はペナンより若干高め。屋台でも割高感があった。おいしかったけど！

フットマッサージを４人で並んで受けた。タカラは、この写真を撮った後、気持ちよくて寝てしまった。

We came back to Penang on Wednesday nearly midnight.

On our way back, we spent 2 days in Bangkok. Jason joined us as well. Aratakara felt they knew Bangkok better than Daddy. They showed him the food court and toy section of Siam Paragon. We decided to go up the river. Our initial plan was to pop off at one of the temples or the palace, but boat ride was more than enough for boys, and we didn't do any sightseeing. Doesn't matter for me, since it was hot! We also visited the Bangkok zoo.

With small children, wherever we go, we always look for a park, playground and zoo. How many more years will it be like this?

We stayed at Le Méridien in Silom, just behind the Pappon street. It has a designer's hotel taste, stylish and clean. (It was only a bit more than 10,000 JPY per night. The photo of the city was shot from our hotel room.) In Bangkok, TukTuk, bus, taxi are cheaper than those in Penang. But food is not as much. Even the food stalls on road side seem to be slightly more expensive than the ones in Penang. Of course, it was as tasty as in Penang!

4 of us went to a foot massage. After being taken this photo, Takara just fell asleep....

5Y7M 3Y9M 箱根 Went to Hakone

3泊で箱根。那須、軽井沢、四万温泉と、旅行先に迷ったが、子供が一番楽しめそうな箱根にした。

箱根に行くという事は、ロマンスカーに登山鉄道、ケーブルカーにロープーウェイに海賊船。男の子にはそれだけで楽しい。ついでに芦ノ湖では白鳥の足こぎボートに乗って、帰りは小田原までバスで一直線、新幹線で帰ってきた。

アラタカラは新幹線には大興奮で、東京駅でも大宮駅でも停車している新幹線を見て回った。大宮では、E5系はやぶさが試運転中に停車していた。（写真）

箱根はというと、とにかく暑かった。定番の芦ノ湖はよかったが、ユネッサンスは料金の割に設備がいまいちでがっかり。その上、この暑さで屋外の温泉プールに入る気もしなかった。

宿泊先の日本旅館、早雲閣はよかった。リニューアルしたてで綺麗。隣の旅館花扇にもらい湯も行けて温泉三昧。なんと言っても料理が上等で、飛騨牛や松茸の握りも出てくるフルコースでみんな大満足。

We went to Hakone for a short holiday. I couldn't quite decide where to go: Hakone, Karuizawa, Nasu or Shima Onsen. In the end we chose Hakone because we knew there were lots of attractions for kids.

Going to Hakone already means riding on Odakyu Romance Car train, Mountain train, Cable Car, Rope way and Pirate ship. It's quite fun for boys. (We even hired a small boat on Lake Ashi to puddle for half an hour.) On our way back home, we decided to take a direct bus to Odawara then took Shinkansen.

Of course, Aratakara loved watching Shinkansen. We spent hours at Tokyo and Omiya stations to watch Shinkansen coming in and out. At Omiya station, we happened to see the new Shinkansen, E5 type Hayabusa. (The last photo.)

About Hakone. It was just too hot. Lake Ashi was a good half day trip but Yunessun, a theme park with lots of small hot springs, was not as good as I expected and it wasn't cheap. In any case, I didn't feel like dipping in hot springs outside on such a hot day!

The hotel, Japanese Ryokan, Souunkaku was really good. They have recently renovated and it was very clean. Guests are allowed to make use of the hot spring at the next door Ryokan, Hanaougi, as well, so we really enjoyed hot springs every day. But the best part of our stay was the food at Souunkaku. It was unbelievably gorgeous with more than 10 courses of Japanese dishes including Hida beef and Matsutake sushi. We were all happy!

５Ｙ７Ｍ ３Ｙ９Ｍ 最近の甲子園 High school baseball tournament

久しぶりに夏の甲子園を観た。

いつの間にかラッキーゾーンが無くなっているし、昔の高校球児よりも自信満々で負けていても悲壮感がないと思っていたら、本当によく打ち予測不可能。

そして、一番驚いたことは、試合に負けた選手が泣いていること。それも、泣きじゃくっている。昔は悔しくても涙を見せず、めったに泣いている球児はいなかった。悔しさをこらえ切れない一部が涙を「こぼして」いた程度。

私が日本を離れている間に時代は変わり、日本男子も昔ながらの価値観から開放されたのだろうか。ということは、今後は、「ダンナと喧嘩して泣かしちゃった」と言っても驚かれなくなるのかしら？

（欧米の男性は自分の感情に素直なので、男は人前では涙を見せないものだと教え込まれている”一昔前（？）”の日本人男性より簡単に泣く、と思っています。）

写真は処分した母のピアノの前で最後の記念撮影。

I watched the high school baseball tournament this summer. As I didn't watch it for such a long time, I realised lots of things have changes.

First of all, the special buffer zone behind the outfield, which was for high school players to make the baseball field slightly small, is no longer existing. And the players don't show much nervousness even when they are losing. No wonder, they are very good at batting and anything can really happen until the very end of the game.

Among all, the thing which has made me feel a bit strange is the fact the players cry openly and emotionally when they lose the game. It's not only a few of them, but nearly all of them.

When I was a big fan of high school baseball more than 20 years ago, we didn't see many players crying. Only a few who couldn't control their emotions was "sobbing."

Does this mean boys/men in Japan have been liberated from the old value of "men shouldn't cry in public"? I have been away from Japan long enough, 20 years...

If I say, "My partner started to cry when we were arguing last night..." in this modern Japan, nobody would get surprised any more? Good!

(I think Western men cry more than Japanese men, who have been brought up with our traditional values "men shouldn't show much emotion.")

Aratakara are in front of the piano of my mum in this photo. A day later, she sold it to a second-hand piano dealer.

5Y7M 3Y9M 子供の記憶 Can't remember any more

一年程前までは、イギリスで一番遊んでいたトーマの事を覚えていたアラタ。いつからか、「覚えてない」と言うようになった。あまり親しくなかった友達に関してはもっと前から「わからない」と言っていたし、Wokingで住んでいたフラットや、ロンドンのダブルデッカーの写真を見ても「覚えていない。」

子供って、いったいどんなタイミングで記憶が消えるのだろう。

夏休みで一時帰国中のWokingのお友達3家族と、新宿で再会ランチ。アラタより一学年上のまなちゃんやおうたろうくんもアラタや私のことを覚えていなかった。

Until about a year ago, Arata could remember his best friend in England, Thoma, very well. But it's been long since he started to say, "I can't remember Thoma." Arata started not to be able to recall other less close friends much earlier, and he can't recognise our flat in Woking or double-decker bus in London now.

What the mechanism of children's memory?

We had a re-union lunch in Shinjuku with 3 other families from Woking. They are back in Japan for summer as well. A little bit older children, Mana and Otaro, also couldn't remember Arata nor me.

5Y7M 3Y9M アンパンマンミュージアム Anpanman museum

横浜のアンパンマンミュージアムは残念ながら期待はずれ。アトラクションはアラタカラよりも小さい子供が対象だった上、この猛暑の中、アンパンマンしか登場しないショーはなんと屋外。それなのに親子連れでごった返していた。

それでも、アラタカラは一年ぶりにひろおじちゃんに会えて嬉しかった。タカラはひろおじちゃんに、「ぼくのうちに来て！」と誘っていた。

去年、アラタと弟で外出した時に（なんでこの夫婦からハーフ？と）周りが不思議そうにしていたが、今年は日本人顔のタカラもいたので、この女性、外人と離婚して日本人と再婚したのかしらと、事情はもっと複雑に・・・？


We went to Anpanman Museum in Yokohama. It was quite disappointing because the attraction is for younger children and Aratakara were a bit bored. On top of that, only Anpanman appeared on the show, which was performed outside in such a hot weather, but still, the place was packed by loads of families.

Aratakara were anyway happy to see their Uncle Hiro after a year. Takara even wanted Uncle Hiro to come back to my parents together.

When my brother and I went out with Arata last year, people stared at us, perhaps, wondering, 'Why this couple have an European looking boy?' This time, more oriental looking Takara was with us too. Probably they thought, 'This woman must have divorced from an European then remarried to a Japanese.'

5Y7M 3Y9M 日本の夏 Summer in Japan

日本の夏を楽しんでいるアラタカラ。町内会の盆踊りでは、綿菓子食べて、ラムネを飲んで、射的、輪投げ、ヨーヨー釣り。おじいちゃんの入っている囲碁サークル凡人会は囲碁テーブルも出していて、アラタもやってみた。

タカラは相変わらず太鼓が気になるようでじっと見入っていた。幼稚園で習ったので、炭坑節は踊れるボーイズだけれども、ちょっと恥ずかしかったかな。

昨日はおばあちゃんちで生まれて初めての花火。

Aratakara are enjoying summer in Japan. We went to Bonodori last Saturday. They tried candy floss and Ramune drinks, then did shooting and throwing hoops, fishing water balls. Bonjinkai, an Igo circle my father joins, also had a table. Arata tried one game.

Takara is still interested in the drums and he wanted to play them and watched the drummers enthusiastically. Boys can dance 'Tanko bushi' because they learnt it at the kindergarten but they were too shy.

Yesterday, they did fire works for the first time.

5Y7M 3Y9M ステラモール Stellar mall

最近は日本に帰っても、大宮まで出るのさえ億劫で、車で10分程のステラモールで時間を潰すことが多い。

アラタは本屋で座り込んで一時間近く本を読む。そして、しましまタウン跡にできたプレイエリアがアラタカラのお気に入り。質素な設備だけれども、子供達は時間を忘れて遊んでいる。

I am too lazy to go to the centre of Omiya and we usually end up to go to Stellar Mall, which is about 10 minutes drive from my parents.

Arata sits and reads books at the book store for more than one hour. At the small indoor play area, which used to be ShimaShima town, Aratakara kept playing for hours. It only has simple facilities but it doesn't seem to matter to boys. They love the place.