I walked into the community center and there were a bunch of old people playing some sort of a shuffleboard game in the hall. Some of them noticed me waiting in the front entranceway but none of them cared. I find that refreshing these days. There was a time many years ago when I would walk into places and people would either freak out or welcome me in a weird sort of Fantasy Island Mr. Roarke kind of way, or else they would stare at me in awe like the awkward caucasian deity that I am because they had never seen a white dude before.
Thank goodness those days are over.
It's why I love my therapist, too. My non-Japanese-ness has never come up even once, except in the context of my family history as it relates to our conversations. Not one Japanese person has praised me for my Japanese language ability after saying konnichiwa or my chopstick use for many years, and I think that is social progress.
It was getting close to time so I went outside and looked through my pictures on my phone and Nakabachi-san showed up and gestured for me to get into his car.
As I got in and shut the passenger side door I had that feeling I get sometimes where I am aware of my odd personality. I’m not prone to being uncomfortable in pretty much any situation. Like getting into a person's car who I barely know but we have a very specific and relatively brand new relationship. He's the chairman of the neighborhood association and I'm the vice-chairman. Before a few months ago we had never met, and now we talk on the phone, email, and text multiple times a week. And now I'm in his car.
We went around to a few people's houses and gave out information on the neighborhood weed cutting that's coming up next week. There are a select few dudes who have the tools and the talent to carry out this twice a year task. Apparently, according to Nakabachi-san, the neighborhood association used to hire a company to do it, but it got pricey and they didn't do it right. So now they get guys from the neighborhood and reward them with gift certificates and a six pack of beer.
After that I walked to Izumi Chuo and picked up some cake for Eri. It’s Mother’s Day after all and she prefers cake over flowers. I also picked up some fancy stuff for dinner; gratin and shrimp salad from this one deli counter I always drool over when I walk by. And took the bus home. I sort of fell asleep on the bus and almost didn’t wake up for my stop. I figured oh well if I get back to the end of the line I’ll just catch the next one home. It wouldn’t be the first time.
We gave grandma her Mother’s Day present this morning, which is one of those presents like where you give someone tickets to a concert for their birthday but the concert isn’t until a few months away. In this case we are going to visit grandma's house and spend some time in the old country this summer. It’s just 11 weeks away. There’s a lot to plan out but it was so gratifying to finally tell grandma about our plans that we made a while back and that we’re all gonna be together and have some good times this summer.
The boys and I went trekking around the neighborhood for three hours before lunchtime, stopping to play and eat snacks and blow dandelions and search for lizards all along the way. Osamu and I saw a cool snake at the Dounji temple creek.
Kenzo brought his lizard terrarium. I told him if he wanted to bring it he has to carry it because papa isn't gonna carry it.
I ended up carrying it. For a bit. Plus jackets and sweatshirts that the boys took off along the way because they got hot running and playing. I always announce I'm not going to be their personal valet, shortly before I turn into their personal valet.
Eri was busy while we were out. One new accessory she set up was a pair of cork boards for Kenzo and Osamu to display their many works of art. Up to now they've been taping stuff to the walls and sometimes that leads to pieces of drywall coming off. This is much more aesthetically pleasing and neat.
I heated up and prepped the good stuff I got for our Mother's Day dinner, and we feasted on cheesy gratin.
Eri bought some boxed pinot noir the other day so we opened that and the boys had apple juice boxes and Osamu raised his juice box for a toast. The boys love toasting.
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