After I finished my last lesson at 9.15pm on Tuesday, I went to meet up with the other bb mothers at a restaurant (which belongs to one of the husbands). By the time I got there the 'discussion' must have been over because all we did was eat, drink and have a very loud night! It was same as always - another late night/early morning - and I arrived home about 1.30.

Today, after classes, we took Keita to get a new bb glove. In his next team, they use a much harder ball so he needs a different glove and bat and because it has to 'soften up' before he can use it properly, we had to get it at least a month before he'll start to use it. The salesman must have heard me gasp when I looked at the price ticket - 50,400 yen (roughly 250 pounds believe it or not). There were another two different kinds that were up to 50 pounds cheaper but there was a big difference in the weight and leather (plus they were a much tighter fit) so we went for the better one since he'll use have to use it for a while. I thought he would get away with the same one for the 3 years he is in jnr high school but according to the salesman, they usually need to buy a new one after about 1.5 years. Looks like I need to start saving.....
He also got a pair of gloves since his hands were all blistered after just a couple of hours the other day but thankfully the salesman said the cheaper ones were best for practising with. Needless to say, we didn't buy the bat as well (they are around 26,000 yen). Before we went, Keita said he would use his 30,000 yen that he has left from New Year towards the cost so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

That wasn't the worst though - while we were there I asked what size the bb shoes went up to and it turns out that they only have up to 29cm (what he's in now and which cost around 6000 yen) and to get the next size you have to order them which also more than doubles the price. He called Keita over to measure his feet with the special laser thing they have connected to a computer and he said that he should already be in a size 30! We'll wait and see what kind of spikes he needs in the new club before ordering any. I just hope his feet stop growing because anything over size 30 needs to be order made and the price shoots up to 40,000 yen a pair - I think I'll be cheaper flying out to America to buy them in bulk!!

After that we went for dinner and then on to Jusco to buy more trousers and sweaters for him (he's already outgrown what we bought just before Christmas) and as we were passing a window, I saw our reflections and it looks like he is the exact same height as I am which means he's around 178cm.

All in all, it was a VERY expensive day so I doubt we'll be going shopping again for a while!