When we moved to Japan, we were extremely excited. On the third day of living in Japan, we got our jet lagged asses on the train and went to the park. We had no idea how to use the train system or even how to communicate. So, we did what any intelligent person does-- we went to the train station and stood there looking utterly confused and panicked. Luckily, it was in the morning and there were school children there. (In Japan, small kids ride the train by themselves- we are talking about 6,7,8 year olds alone on the train. In the states, this would never happen!! Your kid would be taken by some sicko pedifile in a heart beat!) So, I stand there in the train station looking stupid. A young boy relizes that I'm a dumb foreinger and I have no idea what in the hell to do. He points to the ticket machines and utters about 50 million Japanese words- none of which I know. He grunts and points, and I grunt and point. The only word I know is the name of the park where we want to go to. He helps me buy my tickets and saves us.
Jude loves the train. It's like a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine to him. So we make it to the park by train. (Most of the signs are in English & Japanese. If you are lucky and get on a newer train, it will even have a flat screen TV on it with a map and the location of the train in English and in Japanese. )
Showa Memorial Park is huge. It is like Central Park for Tokyo. It's beautiful and has tons of stuff to do. We make it over to the kids area where there are "bouncy clouds" for the kids (and adults) to jump on. Jude is having a great time jumping when all of a sudden he is mobbed by 5 little girls. They LOVE him! They try to pick him up and carry him away. He doesn't like it, of course, and hops away. They follow. They are trying to make him hold their hands while they jump. He wants no part of it. All he wants to do is jump and play. He has no idea that he is now the center of attention and other kids are coming to check him out. By this time, there are about 10-15 kids now staring at him and trying to make him play. Husband and I are sitting on a park bench about 10 feet away watching all of this go down. At first, Jude is okay with it. But, as the crowd of kids gets bigger, he gets pissed off because they are in his way and he can't freakin' jump. One of the little girls knows a teensy bit of English and asks me what his name his. I tell her and she LOVES it. They all start to scream his name. Jude freaks out and runs to me. Keep in mind, he's just 3 years old and has only been in the country 3 days. We grab him for his safety and I motion for them to go away. They don't understand. So I ask "Where's your momma?" Then, they look at me and know I'm not happy. I look at them like 'Hey you little shits get the hell away from my baby before I Kung Fu your asses.' They leave. We leave.
Just another day in Weenie's World!
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