We made it! After hours of research through the Internet and guides, we found a swimming pool, which was open, which allowed children and which was not too far from our home... I explain why: there are only a few indoor swimming pools here, and they are only open for swimming classes, where you have to go every week... we didn't want that! The outdoor pools are only open during the 2 summer months (this one was open from 10th July to 5th September) even though the outside temperature doesn't vary from 30 degreees during at least 4 months... never mind! Then, lots of places don't accept children with nappies (even swimming nappies) or even without nappies (like Oscar now ;-) ), children below 4 years old... Lastly, the 3 times we tried to go to this pool, the Honmoku Shimin Pool, which is very close to our place (10 minutes by car), we couldn't park (there was a 3 hour queue at 9.20am although the pool opened at 9am!!!). We finally went by taxi (that's why it was a good job it was close to our place!). But we had a very good time...
Plusieurs choses sont assez surprenantes pour des etrangers comme nous: il y a des dizaines de tentes que les gens apportent pour se proteger du soleil (en plus des parasols), beaucoup de personnes ont des combinaisons integrales ou des shorts/t-shirts pour eviter les UV... mais le plus surprenant, c'est que toutes les heures, il y a 10 minutes de pause pour... l'eau! Tout le monde sort de l'eau pendant 10 minutes pour que l'eau se repose, nous a-t-on dit... regardez-bien la photo dessous: personne dans l'eau! Oscar n'a pas tres bien compris et n'a pas ete tres cooperatif la 1ere fois (pas comme tous les petits Japonais qui obeissent a la lettre!).
Several things are quite surprising for foreigners like us: there was dozens of tents which were brought by people to prevent them from sunburns, many people were wearing integral swimming costums or shorts/t-shirts to avoid UV... but the most surprising was that every hour, there was a 10 minutes break for... the water! Everybody had to go out of the water for 10 minutes for the water to "rest", at least that's what we were told... look at the below picture: nobody in the water! Oscar didn't quite get it the 1st time and was not really cooperative (unlike the little Japanese kids who were very disciplined!).