I've made a friend!

AND what's more, I've discovered that there are play groups ALL OVER Numazu that are run all day every day for FREE!!

So at last week's kids' activity in the park I met another woman, L. Her situation is similar to mine; her husband has a job here in Japan and she's stuck at home with her toddler son, looking for stuff to do. She's from Laos (Laotian?) but speaks English well and her husband is American. They've been in Numazu since earlier this year and in Japan for longer. Anyway, L knew a lot more of the ropes around here than I did, and told me about a play group called Poppo right near the train station. We made a date to go there together, and that happened yesterday.

Poppo was cooooooool. A nice big room with heaps of different toys and activities for little kids to play around with at their leisure. Twice in the day they have music and dancing followed by story time - in Japanese of course. I can hardly believe that a) this sort of thing is available all over the place totally free and b) I knew nothing about it until now. But hey! It's great, and I will definitely be going back.

***** ***** *****
Location of Poppo for anyone googling playgroups in Numazu: On the fourth floor of the building next to Lawson (the convenience store) on the left immediately south of Numazu station. The building is on the corner of that block for added reference. If you use the main elevators, Poppo will greet you enthusiastically as soon as the doors open. The main elevators are well inside the building though, so you have to go for a little walk around the corridor to find them. Poppo is open every day of the week except Wednesday, from 10:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m.