Thursday, May 5th was Children’s Day in Japan. There are a lot of things I don’t know about this holiday, but one thing I know is that people fly giant Koi Fish Flags above their houses. For interested parties, read more on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Day_(Japan)

Our Preschool (day care? I don’t know the right word …. I’ve never heard the term Nursery School used in the U.S.) had an event for families and Marina, Rio and I attended! It was only a short 80 minutes, 30 of which were spent eating snacks. We ran in a piggyback relay, and did our best to chat up some of the other families (spoiler alert, Marina and I didn’t find people we vibed with, one of Rio’s teachers who goes surfing every week ….).

We then left for a gathering of Marina’s friends from college. And, as Hassan Minjah so eloquently stated on a Jimmy Fallon interview recently, “Guys don’t have friends. Your wife has friends. And you have the husbands.” It was absolutely a gathering like that, and after spending a considerable time figuring out how to say ‘hey dudes, is it cool if, since I’m the only one who’s different and all, have a normal convo in English?’ It kind of worked, but it’s such a weird delicate line to straddle. At one point, I was able to vent about work stuff, which was helpful but ultimately I kind of felt a big plexi-glass wall between me and the other grown-ups. Maybe this isn’t a cultural/linguistic thing …. who knows. But I did have (some) fun playing with the kiddos (all boys) …. and hopefully shedding light on what quality English education looks like.

Meh. Anyway, I’m at work now, and it’s lunch break time but nobody ever takes a lunch break so I’m feeling like a bandit. Much love.