I'm Not Japanese

The boys love public phones. One day soon I'm gonna put some money in one and call somebody so they can experience it for real.

Kenzo drew this and explained it to me several times. The green thing on the left is a mushroom. The thing on the right is a heart... I think. He wrote an explanation below and his teacher seemed to approve. 

After my group therapy session tonight I walked a bit and enjoyed the downtown Friday night atmosphere, and when I got to Kita-Sendai Station I was struck by something. I don't know why, but I was somewhat mesmerized by the aesthetic beauty of the subway entrance.

The boys don’t like going to the dentist. Especially Kenzo. 

Osamu has his moments. Sometimes he waltzes into the dentist office like he owns the place and once in a while he’ll make a fuss.

Kenzo consistently freaks out upon arrival in the dentist parking lot and tries to use the death grip so we can't extricate him from the vehicle. Once I loosen his fingers one by one and shut the car door he screams and shakes as we push him in the entrance and apologize profusely to the receptionist and everybody in the waiting room. One time he got so upset he threw up.

I think it was the last time we went to the dentist that Eri and I decided we weren’t going to tell the boys we were going there until we pulled into the parking lot. Well, that wasn’t a great idea in retrospect. It didn’t make it any worse, but it also didn’t make it any better. This time around I’ve been prepping the boys for our dentist appointment tomorrow afternoon by talking to them about it as we brush our teeth together each morning and evening. It's on the family wall calendar and Kenzo can read it. He knows it's coming.

Osamu seems fine so far. Kenzo is already showing signs of having a mental breakdown as a result of having to go.

I don’t even really know what the big deal is. One time Osamu had to get some sealants because he almost had a cavity, but both of them have very good teeth brushing habits so their teeth are great. All the dentist ever does is take a picture of their mouth, do a visual check with that little mirror thing, brush their teeth and sometimes ask them to show him how they brush their own teeth, and then he applies a little fluoride that tastes like apples and they're done. Easy peezy mac & cheesy. 

It rained all morning and through most of the afternoon. Kenzo set off for school with his rain boots and his umbrella and I waved him off and he yelled back, "Bye-bye Papa!" and I reminded all the kids to watch out for cars and bicycles. 

Eito-kun, the boy who loves bugs, was taking his bug box to school again and he had it in a plastic bag to keep it dry in the rain. I wanted to ask him what he was expecting to do. It seems impractical to me to try and catch bugs when it’s raining and nobody’s gonna be playing outside. Maybe I’m missing something. I’ll ask his mom this weekend. 

I had a three hour manager meeting this morning. I also had a lot of coffee. Which isn’t unusual, but for some reason, maybe it was the fact that I’ve been taking my anxiety medication in a more consistent way, I was feeling particularly frisky. 

Japanese business meetings aren’t generally known for their infusion of humor. But I’m not Japanese. At one point the sales manager was explaining something that I was supposed to be listening to, and I was, but it was so boring that my eyes were rolling into the back of my head and our department manager told him to stop because it looks like Miklos is getting confused.  I didn’t miss a beat with unmuting myself and saying, "Oh no, that’s just my regular face." 

I’ve never seen the marketing manager crack a smile during one of these meetings, but that seemed to do the trick.