Sunny Wednesday!

Things are starting to turn around here: we're officially unpacked, the kids are sleeping past 6 am and the sun finally came out (briefly) so I took the boys to Arisugawa Park for a bit. The bubbling brook, shade trees and stone steps were as lovely as ever.

Later on we joined our neighbors Karen and Sienna and hit the Children's Castle's rooftop pool, a temporary, shallow thing with lifeguards, a poolside shower, and benches and tables under tents, where parents sit and watch and supervise swimsuit changes and snack breaks. As we entered the pool zone -- after purchasing tickets for 200 yen a piece from a vending machine, which also dispenses little speedos and one-piece suits for girls, for a small rental fee -- the attendant handed each of us moms a little plastic crate for our stuff (with handles, like the baskets you carry around the grocery store when you're only getting a few items).

I don't know if the staffers in white shirts were trained lifeguards, all I know is that they kept a closer eye on this pool than the teenagers in charge of my parents' country club pool back home. One of them stopped Conor from completely stripping off Dylan's suit during some sort of dragging game. She even waded into the water to help retie his drawstring. It's okay to show your bare ass in the onsen, but not here!
It's too bad that this pool, and every other outdoor pool in the city, I'm told, closes for the season on Sunday, August 31 -- the official end to summer. Apparently the locals also stop going to the beaches once August is over, which is why expats are advised to take their weekend shore trips in September, when it's still hot and humid but the crowds have gone. We are thinking of going to Kamakura next week.

At one point I had to bench Conor for shoving his brother down in the pool. Sigh. (How many more days until school starts?)
The ramps you see in the distance behind him lead to a few different tricycle-riding areas and a basketball hoop, all part of the castle complex.