The Black Button

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 happening and gave an irritated grunt.

Kenzo's passport expired so today the boys and I headed to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Kids under 16 have to appear in person for passport bureaucracy. Osamu had no business to speak of but if he found out Kenzo and I rode the bullet train to Tokyo without him he would remember that for the rest of his life, like how Auntie Misty remembers being left at home when I went with Tibor to see The Empire Strikes Back at the movie theater. That was 43 years ago. It still comes up.

Sendai was a little cool when we caught the subway at 6:11, but when we got on the bullet train it got pretty warm so the boys took off their shirts and hung out in their undershirts. Tokyo was warm and humid so they alighted from the train looking as casual as you can get on a busy Friday morning Tokyo Station platform.

And they couldn't have been more excited about being in the big city. The biggest city, really. The Tokyo metropolitan area apparently has over 37 million people. Sendai only has 1 million people, and we live on the very edge of that in a pretty quiet neighborhood, so the boys were totally captivated by everything.

There's a G7 summit in Hiroshima starting today so security was tight at a lot of places. Cops were everywhere, which made the boys even more excited. And they had all their gear and all the different vehicles on display - patrol cars, motorcycles, vans, buses. We walked right past the Prime Minister's Official Residence and it was just one big conglomeration of Tokyo cops.

Security going into the U.S. Embassy is as tight as you can imagine. Osamu, still in his undershirt, announced loudly, "This is like an airport!" The security guards chuckled.

Kenzo was pleased that the American citizen services entrance had no people waiting so we just waltzed right in, while the visa applicant entrance was backed up and dozens of tired-looking people were in line. I was super prepared and had all the paperwork in order so we were done in less than 40 minutes. The clerk who helped us gave Kenzo a couple of American flag stickers and told him he was a very good boy. Osamu missed out because he was off causing mischief in the visa waiting room.

With our official business done at 10:30, we had four-and-a-half hours to run amok in Tokyo. Walking down the street in Akasaka after leaving the embassy Kenzo saw a bus stopped up ahead and asked where it was going. I told him it seems to be headed for Roppongi, to which he responded, "Let's ride that bus!"

So Osamu, Kenzo, and I hopped on the bus and headed for Roppongi. I kinda had it in my mind to check out Tokyo Tower, but once we got to Roppongi Hills I remembered there's an observation deck on the 52nd floor with a terrific view of the city, including Tokyo Tower.

I'm a little afraid of heights. I love the view, so I always just take a deep breath and get in the elevator or book the window seat on the plane. Even though 52 floors isn't that high, I stayed a few steps back from the windows.

The boys made fun of me, and I deserved it. They saw something down below and wanted me to come closer to see it but I told them I was fine and Osamu ended up yelling, "Papa, come to the window!" I could hear some quiet chuckling from the surrounding visitors.

There's a lot going on at this observation deck. I think they're trying to justify the price: 2000 yen for adults and 800 for kids. Who am I to complain, though? I got away with Kenzo riding round trip on the bullet train for free even though technically elementary schoolers are supposed to pay the kids fare. Osamu can ride for free if he sits in my lap. Luckily the non-reserved seats weren't full today so we all had our own seats coming and going.

We ended up riding two Tokyo buses, the Sendai and Tokyo subway, the bullet train round trip, and to top it off I purposely headed to Shimbashi from Roppongi since it's a cool area to check out and Kenzo said he wanted to ride a JR line, so we hopped on the Tokyo-Ueno Line and made it to Tokyo Station with plenty of time to use up the rest of our energy and even catch an earlier train. The boys were pretty wiped out.

I had never really been to the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. The boys loved it. The architecture is noteworthy and there's tons of space to run around and be silly. There's a craft beer taproom on the Yaesu side, but that's for when papa travels solo.

The interior of Tokyo Station made the boys crazy. They would stop and just stare at the people and down the long corridors. I used up all my mental and physical energy keeping a balance between letting them enjoy the experience without papa's constant harping about holding hands and not losing them in the 8th busiest train station in the world. Four of the seven busier train stations are in... Tokyo.

Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, the boys didn't sleep on the ride back to Sendai. I did, though. Intermittently. They both loved using the bathroom on the bullet train, and after drinking a ton of juice and water all day they had to go a lot.

Kenzo was playing with the buttons on his seat and he asked me what they were for. There was a white button that reclined the seat, and I showed the boys how to look behind them and signal to the person sitting there that they are going to recline their seat.

There was a black button and I had no idea what that was for, so I told Kenzo it was an ejection seat button, and he asked me what that was. I told him if he pushed it a door would open in the ceiling and his chair would go flying out. He liked that idea, but he didn't push the button.

We got home a little after 18:00. The boys had been with me every waking moment of the day, so they did 7.6 kilometers just like I did. Maybe more since they ran around a lot more than me.