SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29th
- blogger was down yesterday, so I'm posting today, but this entry is actually from the 29th...

Post number forty! This must be some sort of record for me!!
Also, check out one of the noted blogs this week - Upgrade Travel - its got some interesting stuff on there, and some good links...

We all got up fairly early for us today, and I made French toast and bacon for everyone. After we all got organized to leave, Peter and Venus and I dropped Hitomi off at the station, and she headed home, and then Pete and Venus and I continued on to the dog park.

Venus was in heaven playing with all the other dogs in the off leash area at Komazawa Olympic Park. (not an official website, but there are some nice photos). There were TONS of dogs there, and Venus made lots of friends, though most of them were human, the dogs, she could take or leave :) We saw pure bred dogs of all varieties including a few labs, a couple of weimeraners, about 6 jack russells belonging to the same family, tons and tons of veeerrry cute long haired dauchsaunds, a whole whack of tiny little guys, and one very interesting dog that looked like it was a black lab/golden retriever cross, very dramatic!

Venus made fast friends with a little group of small dogs, including one wearing a dashing pumpkin costume, and they played fetch for quite some time. There were several small dogs in outfits ranging from jeans and a tee shirt, to frilly skirts, to school girl uniforms. There were also several bows on little poodle ears.

After the dog park, we walked/lurched around part of the rest of the park, with a VERY pully Venus! There happened to be a huge soccer tournament for the eight and under set at the big stadium, so we checked that out, and there were hundreds of kids all kitted out in very nice uniforms when we were walking around. We went to check out a pond/water feature around a tower where there was a flame for the Olympics, and while Venus was wading in it, we noticed that some kids had lost their soccer ball into the water. It was kind of a two tiered affair, so one of the kids who was about 8 or 9 was elected to walk out along the ledge in the middle and reach down to collect the ball, which was in about 3 feet of water at that point. It was all going well enough for him, until he decided to throw the ball back across the water (about 15 feet) to his friends. Unfortunately for the poor kid, he threw himself into the water with the ball! This wouldn't have been that big a deal, except that on his way into the water, he bounced, crotch first off the sharp ledge prior to splooshing into the water.

The poor guy hauled himself out of the water with a very sad mixture of shock, embarrassment and pain. It was pretty funny though, in a 'I really shouldn't be laughing about this, but there is no way that I can stop now' sort of way. The poor kid wrang himself out a little bit and then went back to the dry side, eventually, an adult came and a bigger kid VERY carefully walked across to get the ball, and brought it back, no throwing attempted.

We continued on our walk, and I had V since Pete had a coffee, we were getting into a good natured discussion about who was leading our walk, until she spotted an errant ball, just as we were on a slick patch and pulled me straight onto my ass. Unfortunately, Pete was right in the way, and I very nearly used him as a bowling pin on my skid through the mud. I guess it serves me right for laughing at the kid, since there were little kids laughing at me and my errant Labrador.

We finally dragged ourselves through the park (which was very nice!), and then went to Sizzler for a very yummy 'linner'. Salad bars to go with your meal are a very lovely idea! Then, we headed home and now Pete continues to catch himself up on Desperate Houswives, while I update the blog... I'll post photos of the dog park and of the Olympic Park (complete with 16-18 year old guys practicing their hip hop moves with skipping ropes!) in the next post, once I get them off Pete's camera (and mine).

D.