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A Dozen Better Ways

Add Coach Ono to the list of people whose unmasked face I just saw for the first time and was shocked by how wrong I thought they actually looked. I've been having that a lot recently as people here start to move about without masks. It's both wonderful and perplexing. 

I am thankful for seeing people's smiles and teeth and noses again. Coach Ono doesn't have the smiley face I thought he did. The boys love him. He's one of the assistant soccer coaches at Saturday soccer club. Osamu especially loves jumping on him and watching him kick super awesome goal shots.

Kenzo and I watched from the sidelines while Osamu played a scrimmage with his group. 


I fear Osamu has a touch of Ralph Wiggum. Not in a bad way. Just that he is completely oblivious to things that most of us are concerned about, one of which being that his scrimmage team jersey was on backwards. When the boys got done Osamu came over to get a high five and I said, "Hey dude, your jersey's on backwards" and he replied, "I like the number on the front."

Not so oblivious after all I suppose.

Clouds and rain were rolling in so the boys invented new ways to entertain themselves indoors. Yet again.



After two hours of watching Osamu and then Kenzo play soccer, we headed over to Miyagi Seikyo for some lunch shopping and to grab some curry that Eri said was on sale.

The boys were complaining about being hungry so I set them up with a healthy vegetable cracker snack and they sat on the bench outside the supermarket to people watch and munch. I headed inside and told the boys to come in after they eat their snack. They know where to find me. Also I was just grabbing a couple of things.

The store was pretty crowded. I grabbed the curry and lunch stuff and got in line at the checkout. I saw Kenzo and then Osamu peek their heads around an aisle behind me. I motioned for them to get over here but they decided on mischief instead. Too bad for them, though. They missed out on stickers at the checkout and I made sure to let them know afterward. I told the old checkout lady my kids are over there somewhere and she said they have to be present to get the stickers. I quietly thanked her.

Basically the boys made the supermarket and the adjacent clothing store and pharmacy their rainy day indoor hide and seek playground. I took deep breaths, went out to drop off the groceries in the car, and came back in to apprehend Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

I realize there a dozen better ways I could've managed this.

When I walked in the door Kenzo came running up to me and said Osamu was crying.

Fantastic.

I asked him where and he gave his popular recent response to questions, "I have no idea."

He did lead me in the right direction, though. Toward the clothing section.

As we got near I could see a crowd of heads in the middle of a bunch of racks. Osamu was on the floor crying, a boy about his age was standing next to his father, and three store clerks were asking me if this was my kid.

I bowed and apologized a bunch and picked up Osamu and the old lady clerks were super nice but I could tell the dad of the other kid was kinda thinking "damn foreigners."

As best as I can surmise, the boys were running around, made friends with this other kid, and eventually ran into each other. Osamu was the only one who sustained any injuries.

I may need to keep a low profile on my next few visits to Seikyo.

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