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Hey Papa

Kenzo's friend Ruan came over after school and they played with the three lizards Kenzo now has. One died the other day and he buried him under the evergreen tree, the same place he buried his beloved first lizard Kiki-kun last summer.

Mama wasn't home yet and I was in a Zoom meeting in my office. Kenzo kept opening the front door and yelling upstairs, "Can we go to 1-Chome Park?" and I muted my Teams meeting and yelled back, "Wait until mama gets home!" and then a few minutes later came, "Can we go to 5-Chome Park?" and I muted my meeting again and shouted downstairs, "Stay on the grass in front of the house and mama will be home in a few minutes!"

Eventually he opened the front door one last time and asked if they could go across the street to look for bugs and I said sure and then when Eri got home she asked me where Kenzo is and it turns out he and Ruan had taken off somewhere.

After driving around looking for the boys I gave up and as I was pulling into the driveway Kenzo came walking up eating some snacks he'd gotten from the neighbors and casually said "Hey papa" as he munched Pocky.


Obviously Eri and I are still navigating the rough seas of expectation-setting for our sons.

After getting canceled on Tuesday because of rain, today was finally Osamu's big zoo field trip. 


I drove him and mama to the kindergarten bus stop. The sky was cloudless and the air was fresh and warm. The smell of freshly cut grass is everywhere this week.


According to Osamu, his favorite parts about the zoo were...


Hanging out with his good friend Kotona-chan.


And feeding the monkeys.

At lunch I walked over to the Yamada electronics big box store to get some gift certificates for the guys who are doing the neighborhood grass cutting this week. The guy at the counter was very curious about me. It's been a while since someone chatted me up about my non-Japanese-ness. He told me he speaks no English but then immediately asked me, in perfect English, "How long have you been in Japan?" Turns out he memorized that one phrase. 

I asked for an official receipt to get reimbursed by the neighborhood association so I had to write some stuff for him and his eyes bulged when he saw me write kanji. I told him I usually have to use my phone to check kanji before I write, but today I just happened to be confident.

The supermarket across from Yamada had pastrami hoagies in their deli so I grabbed one and moseyed home and back to work. Shoulda gotten two. 

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