This'll Just Take a Minute

Kenzo was like, "Papa, you ring the bell." And I was like, "No way dude. This is your thing. You ring the bell." So he did. But when it came time to speak he froze up. And that's okay. It was his first time doing an official confrontation. I could've encouraged him more or maybe even coached him up a bit on the way there, but when the moment came I had to step in or else total (as opposed to the regular partial) confusion was going to ensue. We will never know what really happened. Like Rashomon . But something did happen. And that thing was that somehow there was an altercation between Kenzo and his classmate Ruan, either at school or on the front porch of Ruan's house, that led to Kenzo being upset because his lizard was no longer in his possession. So I told Kenzo, "Let's just walk over to Ruan's house and figure this out." And we did. Ruan's mom answered the door and did the thing that people do around these parts where they ...

We're a few days into a new morning routine I initiated where instead of the boys coming downstairs and immediately heading for the TV remote, now they do their English app on the iPad,  then  eat breakfast, and  then   if they have time  they can watch some TV. So far they never have time for TV. Apparently taking reptiles to school is a thing. Eito-kun is a huge bug enthusiast and Kenzo looks up to him for his passion and knowledge. I do too, actually. When I need to know the best bugs to catch to feed to lizards or mantises Eito is better than Google. The last couple of summers I've spotted him creeping around behind our house collecting cicada exoskeletons from after they molt. By September he has a trough of them in the garden in front of his house. Kenzo took one of his lizards to school today, too. Apparently there was drama because all of his friends wanted to touch it and play with it. Kenzo is quickly learning lessons about the practicalities of having...

Kenzo beckoned to me after dinner and quietly said, "You didn't ask me about my favorite thing today." I said, quietly, "Sorry, dude. What was your favorite part of today?" I already knew, and that's why I was being discreet. Osamu was right there. It occurred to me that Kenzo knows how to whisper now. Up until recently he was "whispering" in that little boy way where he cups his hands around his mouth and talks quietly into my mouth and not my ear. Kenzo had a day off from school today since his elementary school field day was on Saturday. Osamu went to kindergarten as usual, happy as a clam even knowing that Kenzo was off from school. After Osamu took off on the kindergarten bus I was settling in for a busy Monday at my desk in my home office and Eri popped her head in and said she was taking Kenzo to the movie theater to see the Super Mario Movie. And off they went.  I was busy with my Monday morning tasks and meetings and before I knew it lunc...

It was perfect barbecue weather yesterday, but today the skies were cloudy and it rained off and on. It was humid and not quite hot and not quite cool. We had friends coming over for a barbecue, though. I had everything ready and I was considering lighting up the charcoal grill under the roof outside the living room sliding glass door. Eri said why don't you use that old electric barbecue plate that's been stored in the cellar forever. The "cellar" is just a space under the floor where we keep wine and ume-shu and back-up bottles of soda water and tea. And an electric barbecue grill. It turned out to be perfect. My friend Michael and his boys Max and Milo arrived around 10:30, just after Eri left to go run her mama errands, and the fun began. I stood and grilled in the kitchen for about five straight hours. The first course was hot dogs for the boys. The drizzle outside came and went all day. We had a few windows open to keep a good breeze flowing through. I had the k...

I was just heading out after eating lunch to see what Kenzo‘s progress was with getting home from school and right as I stepped off the porch there was a lizard basking in the lunchtime sun. Right then Kenzo and Rinka-chan walked up, so I motioned to them that I needed them to not come up the steps because it'll scare the lizard away, but for some reason words didn't come out of my mouth and I was gesturing awkwardly and doing a bizarre pantomime and Rinka-chan surely looked at Kenzo and said something like, "What is up with your dad?" I caught the lizard, though. And he's a beaut.  I fell asleep last night sitting at the kitchen table again, I think. My memory is a little fuzzy because I was extremely tired and after just a few sips of wine I was already starting to fade out. I remember waking up with my head pounding. I either hit the floor or the humidifier. Either way, it was the worst one yet. This is the 3rd time in about 6 months. This photo doesn't rea...

At the end of my morning walk I was walking down the steps from the main road to our street and I ran into Mogi-san and his wife. They're long-time residents of this neighborhood. I need to make time to ask them how they've seen it change over the years. Even in our short five years since moving here we've seen some curious changes. For the better, luckily. Mostly just old and vacant houses being torn down and brand new houses replacing them, with more and more younger families with kids breathing new life into each street. Mogi-san is always very friendly. He's a quiet retired guy, but busy. He loves wrenching in his garage. This morning he and his wife greeted me warmly as always and then he told me he's worried about something.  I was thinking, "Oh boy, what could this be?" He said he knows I'm the vice-chairperson and in charge of the neighborhood care division and told me it can be hard. I said I'm learning about all the duties little by littl...

Kenzo's friend Ruan came over after school and they played with the three lizards Kenzo now has. One died the other day and he buried him under the evergreen tree, the same place he buried his beloved first lizard Kiki-kun last summer. Mama wasn't home yet and I was in a Zoom meeting in my office. Kenzo kept opening the front door and yelling upstairs, "Can we go to 1-Chome Park?" and I muted my Teams meeting and yelled back, "Wait until mama gets home!" and then a few minutes later came, "Can we go to 5-Chome Park?" and I muted my meeting again and shouted downstairs, "Stay on the grass in front of the house and mama will be home in a few minutes!" Eventually he opened the front door one last time and asked if they could go across the street to look for bugs and I said sure and then when Eri got home she asked me where Kenzo is and it turns out he and Ruan had taken off somewhere. After driving around looking for the boys I gave up and a...

Hidekazu came over crying. His grandma brought him in her car. His mom informed him that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when Kenzo has Friends Club, it's not good to come over and play. He was upset because up to now it's been a relative free-for-all of playtime and now there are some new rules. Eri talked with his grandma and everything seems to have been worked out. They've got a play date tomorrow at 3-Chome Park and Hidekazu's mom is coming so she and Eri can talk about setting expectations for the boys. Eri informed me early that she was gonna make taco rice for lunch. She knows I have a random schedule these days, especially when it comes to lunchtime. Sometimes it's early, sometimes late, sometimes no lunch break. She asked me around 9 when I "officially" started work what time would be good to have lunch together. Because of today's meeting schedule we did lunch at 11, and it was delish. I'm not sure when or how "taco rice" ...

When all the kids were gathering in front of our house to go to school, I told Eito-kun that I used his method of gathering up bugs for the lizards to eat and it totally worked.  However, some confusion arose because I was using adult speak in Japanese and the poor kid had no idea what I was talking about. He's in second grade. His mom said kinda jokingly I should just tell him in English. She actually has said to me more than once that she would like me and Kenzo to talk with Eito only in English. Last weekend I regaled her with my pseudo-knowledge about language acquisition and I think I may have riled her up. She really wants her kids to learn English, but I wonder if she's the "must pass the proficiency test" kind of mom or the "must be able to communicate your ideas confidently" kind of mom. We shall see. Kenzo has homework now.  I have thoughts about homework, but this homework looks good to me so far. Kenzo is supposed to read a passage from his langu...

The Sendai baseball team, the celebrated Rakuten Eagles, apparently give out free Eagles baseball caps to all the new first graders in the city each springtime. Not a bad marketing plan. Kenzo brought his cap home today and the moment he wasn’t looking Osamu claimed it as his own. I'm kinda jealous. It's not some cheapo cap. It's the real deal, complete with a cool Yamaya logo on the side. The boys have been to a bunch of Vegalta soccer matches and a Sendai 89ers basketball game, but this year it looks like we’re gonna finally head to a ball game. They're gonna be more excited about riding the subway downtown than the actual game, but that's fine. I'm more excited about hot dogs and beer than the actual game, so we're kinda of the same mind. Eri and I are in deep discussions about setting rules and expectations for Kenzo‘s after school activities; specifically, his neighborhood wanderings with his friends to look for lizards and bugs and mischief. The other ...

I called the neighborhood police box for the second time in a week, and once again my call got forwarded to the Izumi Chuo Police Station. The cop who answered immediately asked me if I was okay, which took me by surprise. If I wasn't okay I don't think the neighborhood police box would even be in my top five places or people to call. No offense. After telling the officer I was totally fine I proceeded to explain that I had just walked by a park in my neighborhood and a small group of high school kids were pulling down their pants and taking pictures. He asked me some obligatory follow-up questions, all of which I was expecting. How many kids are there? Do they have alcohol? Did you talk to them? Did you see any indecent exposure? There were five kids and the rest of the answers were, thankfully, no. Then he asked me for my name. Last week when I called about the high school kids being noisy in the park in front of my house after midnight they didn't ask for my name. I paus...

I stopped into Lawson to grab a small can of beer and a snack for my Saturday afternoon walk. Sometimes it's nice to stop for a break in a park or at Dounji Temple and just listen to the trees and bugs and have a cold beer.  The snack was just a bite-sized fried chicken thing with curry in the middle. Man it hit the spot. I don't wanna be full; I just don't want my stomach growling. A few minutes later I was walking down a backstreet and felt a really good fried chicken and curry burp coming on. I did a quick scan of my general vicinity and went for it, and man it was a spectacular emittance of curry-infused, fried chicken-seasoned virtuosity. I had to kinda shake it off, actually. My head even recoiled a bit. A second or two later I regained my senses and my balance and I was staring at a family of four sitting in their front garden having a mid-afternoon barbecue. And in a split second they all jerked their heads and pretended like they had never seen or heard me. I walke...

I got up from my steak and beer and went stomping across the restaurant to where Kenzo was  supposed  to just be refilling his water cup and declared a little too loudly but very earnestly, to the amusement of the other lunchtime patrons, "Don’t mess with that robot!" We hit up the Roppongi Saizeria for lunch. I kinda wanted to do something a little more special since we were in Tokyo and all, but in the end Saizeria won because the boys like it, it's super kid friendly, it's reasonably priced, and most importantly it was there. They also had a robot waiter that goes around bringing drinks and salads and other things that aren't on hot skillets. We are seeing this more and more, and the robots are really good at navigating. Kenzo decided he was gonna mess with it as it came out of the kitchen, playing a game of chicken. The robot lost. It swerved to go around Kenzo and eventually just gave up and stopped. I intervened as a human waiter came out to see what was h...