I almost forgot that I’m part of the club this year!  It’s kind of like suddenly realizing you get to celebrate another birthday, only sweeter.  All I really wanted to do was sleep in, which I did (until 11:30).  The boys and I brunched at the Officer’s Club on base.  I’m starting to love Officer’s Club and Enlisted Club brunches.  There’s always the trusty carving station.  The help yourself mimosas.  The overly steamed/scorched but still delicious steam table entrees. The omelet & crepes stations. The peel-em & eat-em shrimps.  And for Mother’s Day they added fresh oysters on the half-shell.  It’s always a dern good meal for a pretty cheap, government subsidized price that makes Mama Bear (and Papa Bear) really happy!

After brunch we headed to Iidabashi (that’s a double I… I’ve been calling it Lidabashi for 2 years now).

The train ride into town was typical.  Japanese girls cooing at Henry and vice versa.

The Iidabashi + Kagurazaka neighborhood is one of my favorites in Tokyo.  We discovered it we first got here and thought it was so romantic & European-like.  There’s the historic Canal Club on the water.  Quiet maze-like side streets.  Jazz music piped into the street lamps at sunset on the main drag. But best of all: like Europe (and unlike Japan) kids and babies are welcomed everywhere!   Perfect place for Mother’s Day.  An early evening stroll down Kagurazaka Dori feels like the hour in Italy after reposo when people reappear refreshed and dressed in their finest, children run around the streets and cocktail hour begins.  We stopped by the Canal Club Cafe for a sun-downer beverage.

The champagne was reeeal good.

As I mentioned before, Henry is happy as a clam as long as we’re outside. Either that or he is too distracted by all the city sights to be unhappy.

Blowing bubbles.  His latest trick!

For dinner Travis had originally planned on taking me to Pizzaria Da Isa  in Nakameguro (voted best pizza place in Tokyo) but we were enjoying strolling through Kagurazaka so much that we decided to stay and have pizza at a place we had visited before on the main street.  We’re not sure what the place is called other than the sign that extends out on the street reads ‘Pizzaria Trattoria’.  The same guy was there to welcome us, delighted to see that we had brought a baby.  For people who have kids in Japan, you know how shafted you can feel when you walk into a restaurant and get turned away or awkwardly seated as the hostess hesitates to welcome you.  You know the feeling.  Like the only acceptable place to go is the mall food court with a million screaming children and no place to sit!  {I have a theory that this contributes to the ultra negative birth rate problem in Japan}.  Not the case in Kagurazaka!  “Oh you have a baby!  Come right in, this is a small restaurant but please! Let me clear out a space at the table for your stroller!”  That’s the treatment we got at this little pizza establishment and Henry was one of 3 babies in the house.

If I had to spend Mother’s Day away from my momma, this was the perfect day with my boys.  I’m so blessed to be Henry’s momma!