Out and about

I haven't had a chance to put together a post about another room in our Reversible Destiny Loft because we've been so busy out and about introducing Elliott to old friends. So I think this blog will be not only about life in a Reversible Destiny Loft with a baby, but also about life in Japan with a baby. Here goes!

As I posted before, our Canadian-sized stroller is impractical in Japan. Yesterday I took Elliott to Harajuku to meet friends at a pub, and I took him in our Beco carrier. It went well! I needed to feed Elliott while we were there, and ended up just using my nursing cover right at the table. Perhaps because of the wonderful company, it didn't feel awkward at all.



Also perhaps because it was a pub, there wasn't a change table in the bathroom. I ended up laying a change pad on the floor and changing Elliott's nappy there!

This morning we left the house relatively early in order to meet other English-speaking babies at a breastfeeding circle in Shibuya. Again, I ditched the stroller in favour of the Beco:



This seems a good choice, considering that even the barrier-free bus was pretty narrow!



Just in case I ever do want to bring my stroller, there were these helpful instructions on the wall of the bus:



It seems a lot more trouble than it's worth, which might explain why I definitely see more babies in carriers than I do in strollers!

The breastfeeding circle was in a community centre in Shibuya, and the ladies and babies were lovely. Elliott and I were there an hour and a half, so of course he needed to be fed and changed during that time. I was really happy to see another adult-sized change table in the community centre bathroom. My favourite way to nurse Elliott is lying down, so we were able to do that here. I also read the instructions on the change table more carefully, and have solved the mystery of why the change table is adult-sized! It's for people who take care of their elderly relatives and need to change their adult diapers. So clever!



Elliott falls straight to sleep in this position, so it made it very easy for us to then go out for lunch:



As we headed home in the train, I had a chance to mull over some of the subtle changes that have occurred in Japan since I left three years ago. Nowadays, information about stations is available in Korean and Chinese, not just in English:



And Japan is showing signs of the international culture of fear caused by 9/11 and subsequent bombings:



Japan had it's own terrorist scare back in the nineties when a religious group called Aum Shinrikyo was responsible for killing people in a sarin gas attack in the subway. Note that the photo above only talks about bomb scares, however. For some reason we are all supposed to fear fundamentalist Muslim attacks on a daily basis these days!

After getting off the train, we were one bus ride away from home. Elliott decided we wanted to be fed, so we looked around the station for a place to do that. I'd heard about "nursing rooms", and found one that really impressed me. There were two private cubicles with a change table each and a simple chair for nursing in, and in a kitchen area there was a machine for heating bottles in case that was more your thing. There was a line-up starting by the time Elliott had finished eating (he likes to take his time), but people seem accustomed to waiting to use the facilities.








We left this great nursing room and were heading towards the bus when Elliott let it be known that he was still hungry. We were close to a department store, so decided to check out the nursing room there. It was also very nice, although this one didn't have a device to heat bottles. It did have an extra seat in the cubicle though, which was useful for Grant considering we were there an hour and a half as Elliott blew through three changes of clothes!!



I think all the stimulation from meeting many new babies really tuckered my Reversible Destiny Baby out, because he has been asleep since we left the station and it's now five hours since then... Let's hope he hasn't forgotten how to sleep at night!