Drop- Kohoku playgroup.

There is a great "jidoukan" (children's public play space) in Okurayama that is not too far from the station. On foot and carrying a little one (we know that takes twice the time as just doing anything by yourself), it takes about 5-10 minutes. I really like this place as there are parking spaces nearby. I used to pay for parking, but these days I park at Life Supermarket which is about a 5 minute walk away, and then go shopping at Life afterwards. Usually I only stay for an hour or so.

This play room is very large, larger than the Tsurumi Jidoukan (here is the post). It has a big back yard (though, it is often filled with mud most of the year) with a sandpit, and in summer they have minipools and buckets and hoses for the kids to have fun in.

Inside is very large, and filled with hand-made toys. There is a table for "mama goto" (playing house), dress up and book area. Lots of blocks and balls, wooden trains, a little wooden slide. It also has a piano (a big one) that the kids love to bash the hell out of (and are allowed to). There are all sorts of big foam blocks. At the very back in a sectioned off area is a play space for babies younger than 1 year old.

They also have a craft corner with crayons, glue, scissors and origami. Near that, they have a few fish tanks. They often let the kids feed the fish too. Pi loves watching the goldfish. They used to have turtles (terrapins) there, but they have since moved to the new satellite Drop which has opened up in Tsunashima. I haven't been there yet, as so far I haven't found parking, but I would like to go,

Drop is really multicultural. They print their event calendar in English, and once a month they have a "Multicultural Support Meeting". I have been there once, but it was conducted in Japanese- which is understandable, but I didn't find it super useful.

The mums at Drop are friendly. I have met quite a few that speak English too. One of the workers speaks a bit of English, and they are all really friendly.

This link has information about Drop: http://www.kohoku-drop.jp/publics/index/10/

From that link, download the PDF Guide under English for more information.

I highly recommend this play space if you are near.


 Okurayama station to the '*' is Drop


You can see the entrance to Drop, between the parking lot and the dry cleaners. Walk through the gate to get the the building behind. There is space the park your bicycle, or pram inside the gate.



The layout has changed since this photo was taken, but it gives an idea. It is larger than what you see here.

Swimming pools

As we have discovered, unsurprisingly, that Pi loves swimming I have been on the google search for pools in Yokohama. Unlike Australia, most leisure pools only open during the summer months: namely July and August.

I came across a wonderful list of Outdoor, and Indoor swimming pools in Yokohama.

Outdoor:

http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/lang/en/10/9-10-2.html

Indoor:

http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/lang/en/10/9-10-1.html

I have noticed that some of the links are broken, but for anyone else who is interested in a bit of summer fun, it should help get you started.

Pete's beach day

Husband had to work last Saturday, but in return he had Monday off in lieu so we all went to the beach while it wasn't crowded- and a sneaky breakfast at Bills in Kamakura before hand.

On a good day, from our place in Yokohama you can get to Kamakura/Enoshima in just over an hour. Which is about as much as Pi can stand in the car. We actually stayed overnight at a hotel in Fujisawa (another post on that will come), so it was only a 20 min drive the next morning to get to the beach.

We took Pete to the beach when he was about 4 months old. He enjoyed it about as much as he enjoyed looking at the curtain, or sticking his hands in his mouth- which is to say a fair amount, but young babies enjoy everything about the same amount.

This was the first time he really went to the beach as a toddler, and he freaking loved it. He loves sandpits, and we were sure to bring all of his toys. Best of all, the water wasn't too cold so we could go swimming. We brought his swimming clothes, and my husbands, but I thought it would be too cold for me so I didn't bring mine. However, I borrowed a pair of Husbands shorts and went in like that.

Little Pi's face was just amazing. Squeals of delight as the water splashed up on him. He loved the waves, and went nuts when we took him into the water up to our waists. Unfortunately it was a bit too cold for him though, and while he had the biggest smile on his face, he was also shivering.

We took him back to the shore and out of the water, but every time we did he just ran straight back to the water. We ended up having to call his swimming session early as his little lips were turning blue. It was so much fun though, and he had such a great experience.


Here are some tips for beaching the in Kamakura/Enoshima area:

Park somewhere that has showers. It was a little expensive where we parked (400yen-600/hour), but they also had showers with hot water (for 300yen). It was so nice to wash off the sand and salt afterwards. It made it much easier to get baby into clean fresh clothes too,

Don't forget the sun protection. Sunscreen is a must, but also long sleeved rashies (rash vest, rash guards) and a hat (slip, slop, slap- for the Aussies). We bought Pi's rashie second hand online, and you can find many good ones on yahoo Auctions. Otherwise sport stores have them in the summer months. If you wanted to search online in Japanese they are called: ラッシュガード (Rash guards). His hat we bought from motherways; it has a legionaires flap that pulls down, and chin strap and a great brim.

Swimming nappies can be bought from drugstores, babystores and supermarkets in the summer months. We paid for a reusable cloth one, and it was well worth it. We bought ours from akachanhonpo.



We bought a pop-up sunshade too. Last year we had a sunshade, but it wasn't pop up, and was IMPOSSIBLE to put up on a super windy day. The tent was ripped in the end- due to a combination of wind and Husbands frustration. We bought our pop up tent from a camping store for 4000yen (including tax). It is GREAT! You can also buy them online, from sports stores, big department stores like Aeon, and even Ikea. I strongly recommend paying the money for a pop-up one. So much easier. Ours is only 1.8 kgs too.

Don't forget the sand toys :)

Healthy snacks

I am very lucky that my boy likes food, and more importantly, vegetables. I like to think that the main reason is that we keep him away from sweet food, and junk food, and never mixed his vegetables with fruit puree when he was a baby. In saying that though I realise that no matter what you do, sometimes babies just don't want to eat what you want them to. Fingers crossed Pi still likes eating veggies and that it continues.

Today's snack is due to his octopus arms at the supermarket (the kid grabs EVERYTHING). If he breaks something, then I buy it out of obligation. Today's grab was a cucumber.

I don't mind cucumbers, but don't see the thrill of them like some Japanese people seem to- I have seen 'cucumber on a stick' vendors at festivals before.



But I figure it's a vegetable. So I roughly cut it into little sticks and put a little bit of mayonnaise at the bottom of a cup (more for the fun of dipping than anything else), and viola! Snack!

He quite liked it too, was simple to make, and healthy. I think this will be a summer repeater.

 

Shop-keeping game

Pete has way too many toys, and for some reason he had put a bunch on the kotastu (coffee table), which gave me an idea for a game- shopkeeping. I got a bag out, and jumped on the internet and printed off some play money. Originally I was looking for Japanese yen, but found some character themed money on the same page and decided to use that.

http://www.eslkidz.com/money.html <--- this is the site where there are lots of easily printable options.

http://www.eslkidz.com/uploads/1/0/5/7/10578029/fun_bucks_sheet_3.pdf ----- this is the one I used...

http://www.eslkidz.com/uploads/1/0/5/7/10578029/japanese_money.pdf

So then it was just setting up the merchandise:

It was quite a good educational game. I would tell him them item I wanted and he would get it and either say "here you are" or "dozo" depending on his mood. I would then ask him how much it was. his answer was: "one do(llar)" for just about everything (It must have been a 100yen store..) Though occasionally he said, three, or five or"'nine do". If he were much older, we could even do addition and subtraction practice with change. 

We already had a play wallet ( one that we bought for him from the dollar store months ago and filled it with old I.D's and point cards). 

I also had an bag that I would put my purchases in. After each purchase I would say goodbye and leave, and then come back as a different person.

 We counted his earnings at the end of it, and then played it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again..... Even after we had packed it up, he pushed the table back and wanted more. I had created a little shop keeping monster. 

All in all, some good, educational fun.