Blueberry boys

A couple of weeks ago, in a lull between various colds, we went blueberry picking. To be honest, I'm a bit indifferent to blueberries, but thought it might be a fun activity all the same. K's reaction was pretty much the same as mine, although he enjoyed himself and picked quite a few.

T though. T loved it. He grabbed great handfuls of the berries from H's container and shoved them into his mouth, pointed out all manner of wildlife, and ran about between the bushes waving grass seedheads and scattering grass clippings to the wind.

It cost 300 yen per adult to go into the blueberry fields, allowing you to stay as long as you like and eat as many as you like while you were there. H paid a little extra (I think another 200 yen) to be able to fill a container to take home too. K also had a container but, as a child, he only paid 300 yen anyway, and T, who probably ate the most, was free. We went, picked and ate and then had a picnic of bakery goodies bought on the way there. Then it was back to eating a few more blueberries before heading off to the park in Mizoguchi with the super-long roller slide.

No, don't worry, T didn't go down that great big slide all by himself. That was just him messing about at the bottom while we waited for K to come down.

Later we did all go up to the top though...

...and then arrive at the bottom with big smiles all round.

Next to the park is a small museum dedicated to oni, a kind of Japanese demon, with a giant green oni sitting on the roof. The town-run museum has been closed down for a while now but it happened to be open that day, in conjunction with some other event going on. We were able to climb up several flights of stairs inside the oni, and look out of his mouth over the town below...

Coming back down the stairs, K said 'Thank you for bringing me here today Mummy. I didn't know about this place and it was great!'. That's OK sweetheart, glad you enjoyed it :-)