This'll Just Take a Minute

I'm still full from yesterday. I somewhat regret getting the extra portion of carbonara plus the ajillo and garlic toast when I kinda knew Osamu wasn't going to eat that whole pizza. Which I ate. I will eat until I'm sick if it means not wasting food. And that makes zero sense I know. And this was me eating lunch with a six-year-old. Kenzo was home again today even though he's fine. It's the strict flu quarantine. Today's the last day. He stayed in his PJs all day and lived it up doing his aquabeads and watching Doraemon on Netflix and coming up to my office and asking me to print obscure Beyblade coloring sheets. There's this ideal I have come to adhere to... the world is changed by your example, not by your opinion. It sounds great in theory, but in practice it’s obviously a whole different story, especially when life keeps throwing tests your way. With Kenzo still home under flu quarantine, honestly, I felt annoyed. But instead of dwelling on it, I just ...

Osamu announced at breakfast this morning that he wanted to go to Nobisuku, the kids' play area above the Izumi Chuo Library that we've been taking the boys to since they were babies. Well, since Osamu was a baby. Kenzo was already a toddler when we moved here. Nobisuku is subsidized by the city government (free!) and staffed by a team of incredibly helpful ladies who you can talk to about raising small children. That place has been a lifesaver over the years. They even offer childcare when no neighbors or aunties are available. But it's only for pre-elementary school-age kids. Elementary school kids are allowed under strict guidelines, but only if they're accompanying a younger sibling. Osamu has no younger sibling. In 50 days, he will no longer be allowed to play at Nobisuku. I think that might be one reason he suddenly declared his intention for the day... a little piece of his early childhood is coming to a close, and a big step awaits him in April when he suits up ...

Kenzo could've gone to soccer this morning. He had energy. He's played soccer under way worse conditions. But doctor's orders. He's technically still contagious so of course it would be irresponsible to risk giving the other boys the flu, even though most of them go to Kenzo's elementary school and just about everyone's had it already this year. This is how I rationalize retroactively. So it was just me and Mu today. Two dudes. Two muchachos. Batman and Robin. Woody and Buzz. Beavis and Butthead.  I have way too many pictures and videos of soccer Saturdays so I took a break from that today. What I should've grabbed footage of was the snow sliding off the dome over the soccer pitch. It snowed a ton last night and the dome was covered of course but it was sunny this morning and even though the temperature was below freezing that sunlight was loosening the snow on the dome and it slid of in huge sheets and landed with big powdery thuds. They have cones and stuf...

Late in the afternoon I went downstairs to refill my water and Eri was taking refuge in the back of the kitchen with a little sparkling wine.  "The boys are sooooo hyper," she murmurs to me. They were. They are. Every day. It's always like Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil are loose in our living room and they're trying to pin each other down but every time one of them gains an advantage the other one wriggles out of that piece of clothing and escapes and the woohoo woohoo carnival continues.  Kenzo is on flu quarantine and there was a bear spotting at Osamu's kindergarten this morning so they closed everything. "It's a blessing," I said. Eri glared at me, as she does. Often. She gets how I am but she can't relate to it. I'm that way with her too so we're even. "A blessing..." she trailed off. "I've never heard you say something is a blessing before." I thought for a second and I said, "Yeah, I guess you'...

Kenzo had to miss his Friends Club Valentine party yesterday because he had a fever again. He was so sad to miss having donuts with his friends. This flu season is hitting everyone hard. Eri surprised me with one of my favorites; something that I don't often indulge in these days, especially at the scale she loaded up my rice bowl with last night. Karashi-mentaiko. Spicy cod roe. Oh man I devoured it so fast. Osamu was pretty energetic even after using up his fuel keeping Kenzo in good spirits, and for some reason he decided he wanted sliced lemon for his dessert. I was mesmerized watching him. It had to be super sour but he seemed so pleased. This morning I opened the bedroom window to a splendidly snow-covered morning. I dutifully shoveled snow and brushed down the car so Eri could smoothly take Osamu to the bus stop. That's normally my job but I'm still technically persona-non-grata due to the flu. Japanese societal rules are pretty strict.

I knew the moment I opened my eyes I was running a fever. Everyone knows that feeling. Your body feels like it's being wrung out by giant tin foil hands, and you're hot and cold at the same time, and you wanna lie down, but it makes your back hurt, so you turn to your side, and somehow that back pain moves to the side you're now lying on. I started getting real sick while watching The Cat from Outer Space on Saturday night. The boys and I had the living room all done up like a movie theater as always, and we had our own bowls of popcorn, which Osamu finished before the opening credits ended and asked for more. So I told him to hang on, or else he'd get a stomach ache from too much butter. We were at a pivotal expositional scene where the cat from outer space reveals to Frank that he can talk, and then Frank's unwitting neighbor and co-worker, Dr. Link, comes in to watch a game on TV since it has already been established as a running gag that he is a degenerate gamb...

The boys had been looking forward to this all week.  Eri signed them up for a trial lesson at a robot building school. Obviously they're recruiting students so while the boys did their thing this other dad and I had to listen to their sales spiel. It was pretty good and Eri and I really wanna send the boys since they're genuinely interested, but I have a feeling we should hang back a bit. We're already kinda maxed out with the activities. I want to send the boys to everything. When we got home I started feeling not great. Actually really terrible. I crashed out in the tatami room and Eri covered me with a blanket and in the evening I checked my temperature and it seems I may be the next in the line for that flu.