outing with friends

Mirah and I had our first trip on the train today. We took the Odakyu line to Hon-Atsugi with the assistance of our new friends Rika and her son Haruki. First we met for lunch at Denny's. It happened to be very kid-friendly, which was a relief. Haruki is a sweet little boy, but he likes to be on the move. Rika chases after him quite a bit.

We had a nice lunch. I had chicken, greens, miso soup and rice from the set menu. After Denny's we went on the train. I was oddly nervous and kept laughing excitedly. Rika showed how to use the train pass (it's simply scanned at the entrance) and we went to the platform on the elevator. Hon-Atsugi is only two stops away from Ebina and the train was an express so it skipped "fake" Atsugi. I say "fake" because Rika explained that Hon means "real".

From the Hon-Atsugi station, we walked a short distance to the children's play space. It was on the 5th floor of a building. Luckily Rika had asked in advance if it was okay that we come to the play space. Of course there was the initial paper work to be filled out. Mirah's name, my name, address, phone number, etc. Of course I didn't have the address of the hotel or a phone number (I think soon I will be getting a cell phone with a Japanese phone number). The aproned authorities still let me in and Rika explained my situation.

The play space was awesome! It was a mostly open room with different play areas--kitchen, tables, climbing things, slides, books, etc. They had this great musical puzzle floor mat that had a note associated with each puzzle piece. Stepping on a piece made the note sound. And the notes were labelled with their tones, do-re-mi, in hiragana of course. Mirah enjoyed the mat and she was really into the two slides.

There were quite a few moms and kids / babies there. Everyone was quite welcoming. It turns out that this play space was free and there's one in Ebina as well, but apparently there's an admission fee.

After the play space, Rika was kind enough to escort us back to Ebina. We stopped for coffee and visited a grocery store for a few items. This grocery store was new to me and no doubt a better value than shopping at the food area in the department store!

We had a wonderful day and I hope that I expressed enough appreciation to Rika for being so friendly to us. Good times!