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04 Apr 2009: Five Years On



A picture

Harajuku

Wednesday was almost a "failed" day, plans just didn't work out properly. Aki and I met up in the rain at Omote-sando, "Shibuya for sophisticated people" as it was once related to me years back, and we followed up on our original intentions to see a new development, Omote-sando Hills, in the area. We didn't find it particularly exciting and it was certainly no Roppongi Hills - this was a small scale shopping mall. We don't flock to these developments for the shops, we go to them for their architectural aspect, somewhere to explore and observe and sometimes, just sometimes, get lost in.

Later, we walked to Harajuku and ate at the only Pizza Express in Tokyo. We'd been there a few times when I had lived in the city. I was then reminded that smoking was still permitted in Japanese restaraunts. Although Pizza Express had a "non-smoking section" it was simply an arbitrary table designation with no real difference - we were seated adjacent to smoking tables. Now this is something I don't miss about Japan.

That night we brought Kai back to the hotel, even though it was probably better for his health and mine to stay apart. I had had enough of the family being separated. Having not seen Kai for a few days, I was shocked to find him in such a bad way: raspy breathing, nose pouring, throaty coughing.

But despite all that, he still seemed to be in an upbeat mood. OMG. Did he really carry my genes?