Just Around the Corner

This guy had his big debut as a 2nd year kindergartener today.

He was up early and brimming with confidence as he and mama headed to the bus stop. All the mamas rode the bus today along with the kids since it was the opening ceremony for continuing students. Plus there was the obligatory parent meeting where the teachers explained all the details of what's expected going forward. It's pretty intense. The school isn't messing around.

Eri got dressed up and was looking particularly enchanting. Osamu prefers the playground to picture time.

I took a late lunch break and went to meet Kenzo on his way home from elementary school. Today was the last day that the teachers were walking home with the new first graders and making sure they know the way and to look both ways before crossing streets.

I could hear Kenzo's laugh from a block away. He's having the time of his life. When he saw me he shouted, "Papa!" The old guy who was leading the kids confirmed who I was and gave a bunch of formal Japanese greetings and Kenzo and I walked the rest of the way home together.

Some of the kids are already fine with walking home by themselves. Kenzo is fine, too, as he has told me numerous times. Eri is worried about him crossing the main street behind out house. I'm worried, too, but I'm more worried about his self-esteem. He can do it. He wants to do it. He has to do it.

Kenzo held my hand as we walked. I made a mental note to cherish this moment. I know there will be a time when he will outgrow holding my hand, and it's just around the corner.

He told me about his new friend Hidekazu, who lives nearby. Hidekazu already walks home by himself apparently. His mom and dad trained him. Kenzo said that when we get home he wants to write a letter to Hidekazu and invite him to our house to play, which I am all for. I want the boys to invite all their friends over. I want them to value friendship and togetherness and the joy of having friends over. When they are adults I want them to have tons of amazing memories of the good times they had having their friends come play at our house.

I gotta work on Eri. She's way more practical than me, which is a good thing. She's concerned about Kenzo's friends disturbing me because I work from home and also letting it be known to the kids and their parents that our house is an after school day care. I get it. It's easy for me to be cavalier about these things but it's Eri who has to actually deal with it. And she's not naturally into little boys doing little boy stuff around our house.

Recently Kenzo and Osamu love collecting wine corks from when mama and papa drink wine. They play games with them, one of which is hiding a cork under a paper cup and shooting it with a suction dart from across the living room. I've participated on occasion. It's crazy good fun.

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Mr. Blue Sky

Man, I conked out so hard on the living room floor tonight. Right after bath time, before story time. I barely remember. Completely exhausted. Big adventure day. Another in a long series I hope the boys will remember when they’re older... our first IMAX movie, a downtown city outing, and some life lessons in the game center. We left the house at 9:15 a.m. and didn’t get back until nearly 6 p.m., totally spent but full of pizza and memories. The Wild Robot in IMAX was totally stunning. The scale, the colors, the sound. We could feel every gust of wind and rustle of leaves. I made sure we had prime seats, row G, right in the center. Two big buckets of popcorn too, which, according to Kenzo and Osamu, I absolutely should not be sharing. “You should get your own!” they kept saying. I think a little bit of popcorn thievery is well within my rights as the papa. After the movie, we headed through the cold and wind across to the game center on the other side of Sendai Station. Being...

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...

Sendai vs. Tokushima

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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