Unagi at Bincho
After the croquettes, the train to Skytree, with BB Bagel still out cold. I’ve learned not to question this.
First, lunch: unagi at Hitsumabushi Bincho in Skytree Town, grilled eel over rice, eaten three ways. Bagel woke up just in time to sit at the table and watch us eat it.
Baby Garden
Then, honestly, the best thing we found in Tokyo for a one-year-old: Baby Garden, the zone for under-threes at Chikyu no Niwa, an indoor playground on the 5th floor of Tokyo Solamachi. We paid 2,600 yen to get in, and after two days of pulling his hands off things he wasn’t allowed to touch, here was a room where he could touch all of it. Soft yellow floors, everything at his height, and nothing we had to apologise for.
The ball pit came first. Minmin climbed in to keep him company, and he sat in the middle and pointed at the balls like the landlord.
Then he did the full tour on his hands and knees. He crawled off across the floor, found a box of toys and emptied it, then found a see-through drum with a busy board and stayed there.
The drum was the winner. He banged it, hugged it, and looked inside it to see where the noise was coming from. For the first time since Changi, both of us got to sit down at the same time.
Spring festival under Skytree
Right outside the aquarium, Skytree’s plaza was having a spring festival: lanterns, beer tables and food stalls under the tower.
Then in through the door to the main event, Sumida Aquarium.
Postcard from Tokyo Solamachi, Skytree Town
An indoor playground on the 5th floor of Tokyo Solamachi. Baby Garden is its zone for under-threes: soft floors, a ball pit and everything at baby height.