Usual Shenanigans

Around 6:30 I woke up thanks to leaving the hotel room curtains open. I was pretty groggy and still sleepy so I brushed my teeth and went back to bed. I could really go for a few more days in a hotel with nothing to do. It felt weird waking up by myself with no one around. That used to be the norm, but I've become accustomed to my crazy family life. And I am thankful for that.

I suited up and walked to Kobe Sannomiya Station, skipping breakfast. On the way I passed a standing bar that was packed and hopping. At 10:15 in the morning. Kobe is more fun than I thought.

When I got off the train at Osaka Umeda I was so hungry. I love being hungry. It's full of possibilities and it motivates me. Being full or even just satisfied doesn't make me feel good. I sometimes wish I was normal.

I wasn't sure what the wedding menu was gonna be, and the reception wasn't until 15:00, and I'm in Osaka, so I got myself some okonomiyaki and a draft beer. Ohhhh man it hit the spot. Perfect Saturday brunch. Just a random middle aged gaijin in a suit chowing down on some local grub and washing it down with Kirin Ichiban. I must've looked like an insane person.

At the wedding venue my friends and I were up to our usual shenanigans, one of which is taking photos together in the same poses as the bride and groom.

Today's celebration was at a place right across the Dojima River from the office building I worked in for three years after Eri and I got married in 2015. I was focused on the wedding ceremony, of course, but every once in a while I'd look out the window and think, "Oh man I used to eat lunch in that cafeteria all the time."

The wedding reception was pretty fancy.

The groom is from Kansas City. The bride is from Shenzhen, China. The party is in Osaka, Japan. I couldn't be more lucky that I've been able to attend events like this on the regular for most of my adult life. The people you meet are unforgettable.

I enjoyed quite a bit of beer and hugged lots of people and grabbed my suitcase and walked to the ol' Maru Building nearby to catch the Itami Airport bus to make that last flight to Sendai. Upon arriving back at the end of the Nanboku Line of the Sendai subway I made the decision to just walk home. Tired, slightly tipsy, dressed to the nines, pretty stinky, and dragging a noisy rolling Samsonite suitcase through the north Sendai night. It drizzled a little, but thankfully no snow.

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Mr. Blue Sky

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Not About Baseball

I stayed up past my bedtime again last night. I almost made it. I watched a couple of episodes of Ted Lasso and came to a good stopping point where I was satisfied with myself for enjoying some quiet TV time with my favorite show and even though it was after midnight, I was confident I could still get a pretty good night's sleep. But no. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to just lay on the living room carpet and put on a movie. I saw the first seven or eight minutes of Goodfellas and then I woke up when the end credits were rolling with Sid Vicious' is cover of My Way . I brush my teeth and I can see the light of day already shining in through the bathroom window. "It’s almost the longest day of the year," I told myself, to at least rationalize why I'm brushing my teeth and crawling into bed at this hour. I was trying to minimize the mental anguish I regularly put on myself for not just going to bed like I should. I told Eri that I was thinking a...

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Osamu said he had to go pee, and I make it a habit to believe him most of the time. Another habit I have is taking him to go pee, much of the time. When we came out of the restroom I decided it was time for a beer, so with Osamu holding my hand we waltzed over to the food concession and I was checking out the selection, and the prices. Seven hundred yen for a draft beer. I had a feeling. It was only 500 for a whiskey cocktail (whiskey with water on the rocks) but I wasn't about to be that much of a derelict this early with my four-year-old son in tow. The tickets were free, the seats aren't bad, might as well spend seven bucks on a beer. The problem was that the dude next to us with his little boy about the same age as Mumu-chan loudly and with braggadocio you don't often see in these parts ordered a Blue Hawaii snow cone for his kid. I heard this and panicked. Last weekend at Michinoku Park I got a Blue Hawaii snow cone for Osamu and he loved it. I looked down at my l...

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