Parks all over the place!

One of the best things about Japan, or at least Akita, is a park within two blocks in any direction, with a children's playground. This is because parks are safety zones during earthquakes. Noi loves the sandbox at this park near Hideto's parent's home. Japanese children don't sit in sandboxes or take off their shoes outside, but when no Japanese are looking, Noi and I love to play in the dirt! We take off our shoes, sit in the sand and she even dances around in it- but don't tell anyone!
Yesterday, Sunday, a papa came with his daughter and the child said, "Noi!" Turns out they go to the same daycare. Her name is Nao (pronounced Now). Then he walked away and started to use his cellphone. 5 minutes later, the girl's mama came to the park. She didn't say anything to me, just stood by the sandbox and I was trying to get Noi to leave, as we were on our way out when Nao came. As we were leaving, she moved closer to my bike. One trait of Japanese is they have "hesitation." They don't approach you directly. I was tired, Noi was crying (way past her naptime), but I thought, "That is rude if I don't say Hello, because they are at the same daycare and maybe she is hesitant to say Hello to me, because she doesn't know if I speak Japanese," so I asked her in Japanese, "Are you Nao's mama?" And she answered in English! She is fluent in English and works for Victoria's Secret and it turns out her sister went to the same university Hideto and I attended in Akita.
I gave her my business card and she already emailed me.
So, now I met my first "potential" Japanese friend in Akita.
Here is a photo of Noi and Nao in the sandbox. This child amazed me, she talks like she's at least 2 years older than Noi. There is more story to this, but in brief, another lady was there with her 3 year old and she said, "Let's do paper, scissor, rock to see who is going home first," because Noi did not want to leave, she wanted to play with Nao, and Nao said, "I'm not going home." I wanted to burst out laughing, but held it in. This was the same lady that came and said to Noi, "Oh you are so healthy, you can play in the sandbox without your shoes!" A round-about way of saying, "You are not supposed to do that," and then because she said that, Nao said, "Noi has a lot of sand on her." Then Noi felt embarrassed and gave me a sad look and said, "Mama I want my shoes." Noi is smart, she's already learning that she can do certain things with me, but not with Japanese people.