Another Gaijin

Kenzo and Osamu are the best guys you could hope to hang out with. We headed out at 9 a.m. bound for the traffic park in Wakabayashi Ward. The boys call it the new traffic park because we discovered it after we had been going to to old traffic park near downtown in the Kawauchi area for a few months. I really don't know which one is newer or older.

The surly old lady at the reception desk explained to us how part of the park was closed off to bicycles because there was still snow piled up, and when I went to write the name of the kindergarten the boys go to she said, "Don't worry about that part, they go to MeySen right?"

I packed a bunch of snacks and bottles of green tea and stopped at Lawson for coffee (for me) and salmon roe rice balls (for the boys).

We threw snowballs, the boys rode bikes and go-karts, we ran around laughing and chasing each other. There was a family there who, judging by their accents, may have been from Australia. Their little boy and girl were about the same ages as Kenzo and Osamu. As I criss-crossed the park keeping an eye on the boys I came across the Australian dad, who seemed like a very fun guy. His son, who seemed to be about a year younger than Osamu, saw me and exclaimed, "Dad, there's another gaijin!"

I laughed and told the dad, "My boys always say that."

He laughed.

My boys have never said that. I was trying to be polite/funny.

Kenzo and Osamu have a curious journey ahead of them. Their dad is a gaijin and their mom is Japanese. Which makes them... 

... little boys with big potential.

My instinct was to chat up the Australian couple, but I ended up remaining a little aloof. They seemed super friendly, but I know how annoying it is when you're trying to enjoy your time and some random person keeps talking to you and can't get the hint that you're kinda busy with stuff, no offense.

Even after snacks and rice balls at the park the boys claimed they were still hungry. After three full hours of traffic park play time it kinda made sense. We stopped at one of our favorite greasy spoons in Ichinazaka on the way back. It's a Showa Era type cafeteria - old ladies behind the counter, slide your tray along the track, grab plates from under the heat lamp. It reminds me of places I used to love when I was little. I wonder what the boys will reminisce about in twenty, thirty years and beyond.