Recuperation

My eyes open around 6:30 a.m. No alarm clock today. It's Sunday.

Eri's been sleeping with the boys in their room since they're going through a needy phase. Good for me because the last couple of nights have been cool and I looooove having the window open. Eri is sensitive to the elements so she tends to close the window, though often politely after I conk out, which on average takes between 70 and 95 seconds.

This morning I can't move though. My body and my mind are immobile. Technically, if there was an earthquake or a ninja burst in through the sliding glass door I could muster up something. Although, who knows. This happens every few months. I just run out of fuel, physical and emotional. If the Kool-Aid Man burst through my bedroom wall there's a good chance I would just lay there and accept my fate.

Eri and the boys were busy. She took them shopping with their own money for the first time. They've both been working for me doing special jobs like cleaning hard to reach floor areas and wiping down the inside of the car. I pay them for their hard work (10 yen per job). They also never miss checking the change return slot of every vending machine we pass. They've had some good luck on those. On more than one occasion they found 400 yen.

So today they used their hard-earned (and ill-gotten) money to buy toy police gear, complete with guns that shoot suction cup darts. They are truly awesome toys (used up almost all their money), and the suction darts stick really well. The boys are so excited to finally be cops. Eri and I are hoping the money-using lesson wasn't lost on them. She made it clear they were using their hard-earned money to buy something and now they will have less money so they have to work again if they want things. They just kept shooting stuff and saying, "This is the police! You're under arrest!"

I just slept and slept. Around 10 a.m. when everyone was gone I went downstairs and made coffee. It was raining all morning so I just stared out the window. Then back to bed. 

When I finally woke up, I saw that Eri had put a glass of water on the bedside table. I gulped it down. Then finished that coffee. It was 1:30 p.m. 

Eri and the boys were napping, so I discreetly snuck out to walk. I always head through the Dounji Temple area first. That place is like a magnet. Quiet, picturesque, close. I was hungry, though. I hadn't eaten today.

I headed out of the secluded temple and out to the Route 4, which actually connects Tokyo with Aomori. It just happens to run by our neighborhood. Lots of trucks go by.

There were a few options for food, but I decided this was the day I finally get to try out that greasy spoon pork cutlet chain place by the fire station, Katsuya. 

I have been wanting to eat here for years. I pass by it all the time and think, "Why am I not eating pork cutlets more?" I sat at the counter and ordered their standard katsu-don. When it arrived I added some of their weird pickles and some hot mustard. Perfectly hit the spot.

Summer is starting to loosen its grip, so today the sun was hot but the breeze was cool. I ended up walking through Shogen to Izumi-chuo, picked up some yum-yums for Eri at her favorite dessert shop, and headed back to the place I call home. The sky after the rain just kept getting more and more blue.

Eri made Morioka noodles and other amazingness for dinner.

I was in bed half the day. The other half I felt the love of the world and my family, even though my sons slapped me in irons and took me to jail because they're certified policemen now. 

It's clear I need to find balance. Not work-life balance. Just balance in general. Part of it is work and life. But saying it's just work-life balance issues would, in my estimation, ignore the fact that my work and my personal life are intertwined socially and emotionally and that the balance I need is inside of myself. When do I focus on one or the other? Is there such a thing as "business hours" anymore? 

As I was walking today, I thought about what this blog should be about. It seems I just found another candidate topic: finding balance between your personal, family, and work life. I am an American in Japan raising a family, but that's too one-dimensional a perspective. And it's not that rare these days, especially when you swap out the nationality and the country.