As we wandered about, we found everything on our list, as well as a couple other things that we decided we needed as well. One of those items was a huge plastic tub for our son to use as a pool in our yard. Since the yard is covered in rocks, he can't use a typical swimming pool out there. We haven't had one in the past because we've always gone out to splash in fountains and streams around town.
My son has always loved playing in water. When he was little, all we had to say was "o furo?" (bath in Japanese) and he would go running for the bathroom. Not much has changed these last few years. We've had him in swimming lessons, but those have been cancelled for months and who know how long it will be before they reconvene.
Thank goodness my son rode his own bike to Shimachu. I perched the pool on the child seat affixed to the back of my bike for the ride home. It is always entertaining to see how much we can balance on our bikes in order to get random things back to our house.
As we traveled back through the park, there were even more people there than the hour before. Park officials were announcing over the loud speaker that there were too many people in the park and were asking people to leave. I think the announcements fell on deaf ears, because no one was packing up to go. Reports of new infections has been really low for the past couple days (under 10 for the past 3 days), so I think people are being really complacent and ignoring the warnings to stay vigilant. We biked right through and headed home without stopping.
Before we even walked through the door, our son was planning his water fun. It took a four buckets to fill the tub (no faucet or hose outside, so we have to haul water to the yard using a bucket - even to water plants). He had a ball, splashing about and just being a kid.
I have a feeling this tub will be used again and again this summer, as he tries to cope with the suffocating heat of Tokyo and I try to figure out when it is okay to venture out into public.
No comments:
Post a Comment