Sunday in the park

Blaine left today for Seoul for the week, and I stirred myself to get the kids out of the house by 10 a.m. I sometimes find this hard to do, especially if I allow myself to get sucked into reading newspaper websites or start to answer overdue email - and then I start to resent that I'm supposed to entertain the children. Better to face up to it and get on with it!

I plotted out a simple itinerary: a visit to Isetan, a big department store that the "Kids in Tokyo" tour book credits with a rooftop pet store (sounded exciting), and then our first visit to Shinjuku Gyoen, a gorgeous park that friends have been raving about recently.

We made our way to the Shinjuku neighborhood in central Tokyo, home to several big dept stores, including Takashimaya, the elegant store with an outpost in Manhattan.

This was the outside of Isetan, which reminded me a lot of Bloomingdale's on Lex/59th St. Note the big red sign on the top right of this photo, because you will see it again.



We went straight to the 8th floor roof, in hopes of finding the pet shop. Out the elevator and door, and this is what we found: a pretty amazing rooftop garden. We'd come up to the red sign, on the right.




But there was no pet store - maybe it will re-open in the spring? We went down to the sixth floor - the kid and toy section! There was a fantastic collection of very expensive German (I think) wooden building toys - the sort of toys that Lucinda and Arno spend 2 minutes looking at before moving on, not worth considering. (Sorry, photographs not allowed.)

I told Lucinda and Arno they could each spend 1,000 yen (less than $10). Arno found a red Power Ranger doll that he and Lucinda pronounced "cool." Lucinda settled on a flower-girl doll; she has absorbed my refusal to buy her a Barbie, but this doll was at least more kid-like. (The doll cost 1500 yen, oh well.)

We made our purchases and walked a few blocks to Shinjuku Gyoen; the tiny entry fee of 200 yen ($1.75) for adults, free for kids under 6, keeps out the crowds. Today was chilly, probably in the high 40s in the shade and a cold breeze, not the best park weather, but the park was lovely - by far the best I've seen here, like Central Park with wide, soft, grassy fields to run on.



This is the map of the park.



We will definitely go back with a baseball, bat and soccer ball on a sunny day. Today, the children made do by running around with their new toys.