Fun on the cheap

After the Tokyo funblitz, we thought our boys would be bored with nothing less than lighting the house on fire. So we got out of the house. We kept it simple this weekend and visited two parks. The first was Takaragaike Park in Northern Kyoto.

We got a little lost at first.

But soon got back on track and found the children's park. (I am getting so good at asking directions!) Just as the lady said, the children's park was ippai with asobiba!

This one's for you, Cathy. Caught this girl in the middle of a double-take. Gaijin boys in the wading pool!

A combini is never too far away. Darrin ran to town and picked up some food for a snack picnic:

Hugo is modeling a spider web climber just like the one at our park at home.

There was an area with old-fashioned toys. A man showed us how to wrap the top just right.

Then, you hold it just so, and flick your wrist.

With luck, the top flies out....right on the dirt. Oops.

It is supposed to spin on the board, like this!

These tops were addictive. When we got it to spin, we wanted to do it again. When it didn't spin, we wanted to get it right next time. There were some other toys, and stilts. And romper stompers made of bamboo.

And a homemade hut.

Our boys decided that the hut needed some major repairs. They worked on that a long time.

Finally, we had a shot at making some paper airplanes. Max's landed right in this pile of deer poop.

Here's Alek's. My Japanese is not so good, but I do believe that the ladies in charge of the paper airplane table might have been giggling at this plane. I think I learned the word for "aerodynamic".

But, Alek showed them, alright.

On the way home, we stopped at a mall and picked up a toaster oven (yay!) and an electric piano, on sale (it just happens to be lavender). Scenes from the Toto section:

What does this do, you ask?

Here is the bento box section. Actually no, this is about 1/4 of the bento section. Just the most colorful quarter of it.

p.s. Aunt Lisa won the postcard! Our train from Tokyo was over 30 minutes late because of rain. You heard it here first, folks.