On Tuesday we had a very sunny and warm day, so Greg and I set off for the park in the morning, but unfortunately no one was there. Greg (2 years, 11 months) had the idea to keep going south, and going…and going…and going… and refusing all suggestions to turn back.
Once Greg sets his mind on going in a particular direction, he starts jogging — or trotting — at a good speed, and Yoshiko and I seem to be following him quite a bit, catching up to watch out for safety at intersections.
We went to the shopping mall, Qanat, on Kitaoji Street and played in the padded playroom for a while, then, because it was so unseasonably warm, we had a picnic lunch by the river. Well, the riverside trail is just too inviting, so Greg turned south and just kept going…and going…and then he said he wanted to run all the way to Grandma’s house, which is really quite far, about 5 km from our house. When we got to Nijo Street he suddenly wanted to turn east, so we went into the Heian Shrine area and jogged around there a bit.
There’s a bus that goes directly from Heian Shrine to our home (how convenient), so I thought we would congratulate ourselves and head home, but Greg was adamant about continuing on to Grandma’s house, so we went south across Sanjo, walked around Maruyama park for a while and then said some prayers at Yasaka Shrine, where Greg was ceremonially presented when he was one month old. He loves praying at shrines and temples, and not only says “Thank You Kami-sama” in a sincere voice, but follows with “Bye-bye Kami-sama.!”
From there it was only a few blocks west, and a few blocks south to Grandma’s house near Gojo. Unfortunately, Grandma wasn’t home, so we continued west to Kawaramachi, then north to Sanjo to catch the bus home, adding about another kilometer to the total distance covered. Thus, I think we went a total of approximately 6 km on the day. Quite a trek for a 2-year old (almost 3).
