Totally Unqualified

I had neighborhood association meetings at 14:00 and 18:00. At 47 years old I am the youngest member of these groups by decades.

The 14:00 meeting at the community center up the street was one that I called. I am, after all, the vice-chairperson as well as the head of the neighborhood betterment committee. Totally unqualified, mind you. Luckily these nice old folks know what to do. 

We spent about an hour-and-a-half going over plans for the flower planters at Higashi Park, how to get volunteers for grass cutting cleanup, and fertilizer delivery, all of which I have to organize. My to do list at the end of this meeting was an 8 bullet point opus, including submitting an application to the ward office for a neighborhood beautification subsidy and faxing a manure order. I asked my octogenarian colleagues if there was a fax machine in the community center, and they laughed and told me the convenience store was the place to go.

Kenzo had his first elementary school open house this morning, so he went with mama and I took Osamu to soccer. He sported his shorts and knee gauze and ran and kicked without a care.

I like seeing people's faces more and more. The head soccer coach was fully maskless today for the first time I can remember, and it definitely makes a difference. The human face communicates way more than we are conscious of. Obviously, if there's a plague or whatever it makes sense to cover our disease exhaust pipes, but now that things are kinda calming down it's so refreshing to see what people look like.

There are people I have met since the pandemic started whose faces I have never seen. Last week one of the moms at the bus stop showed up without a mask and I was floored by how different I imagined she actually looked.

My 18:00 meeting was with the governing board of my greater neighborhood association. I really have no idea what it was for. We went over budget reports and minutiae that I sorta zoned out on. I think these guys just like getting out of the house now that they're retired, which I like. 

The meeting was in a place I'd never been in before, the community center in the next block over. While we cleaned up the chairs and tables after the meeting was over I noticed some stuff on the wall. I love old pictures, and this one caught my eye.

Upon close inspection it was photo from around 1965 of a train that ran from Kami Town to Sendai down what is now the national Route 4. I was particularly interested because Kami Town is where Eri grew up and where her parents live. The legend on top of the photo lists the train stops, one of them being where we now live.

I did a Google search for where that old station was and lo and behold the location is just down the hill. All remnants of it are gone, but I walk by there several times a week and didn't even realize what I was walking past.