Saturday, September 3 and we have to get up earlier than we want because the boys are due back at the Tsubaki’s house at 10:30am for soccer and a Korean style BBQ afterwards. Halyard and Kaiyo went back and forth about whether they wanted to go. They were feeling self conscious about being poor soccer players and also not knowing many kids. I said to Kaiyo, well Dad will go with you and he can be your crutch if you need someone to talk to. He said, oh, now I really don’t want to go. Whaaat? I couldn’t believe he said that.
I think the Friday night birthday party helped a lot and put them at ease about soccer in the park. They realized that everyone is friendly and there’s no pressure. So John took them on over and they had a fantastic time – of course. I heard later that Kaiyo ate too much meat. He almost got sick.
Halyard actually left the BBQ early and rode his bike to Expo City to hang out with other school friends. They stayed out till 8pm (20:00) but Halyard decided to stop at Starbucks for a Chai Tea on the way home. Expo City isn’t particularly close to our house and he said he got lost for a bit, so he didn’t get home till almost 9:30pm (21:30). What freedom he is experiencing here in Japan! Never in America.
Halyard’s friends (2 other guys) were going clothes shopping at Expo City so Halyard decided that he should update his wardrobe too. Halyard discovered Uniqlo! Uniqlo is now in the South Coast Plaza in Orange County, but I’ve been told they have South Coast Plaza prices there so it isn’t quite the same experience. But here in Japan, Uniqlo is very popular for having simple, stylish clothes at reasonable to cheap prices.
So Halyard’s first – on his own – shopping for himself without me (!) – purchase included… A PAIR OF PANTS. Now if you know Halyard, he doesn’t wear pants. Ever. Unless it’s a band concert or cotillion, he does not wear pants. Period. Not even at night in the snow in Big Bear in winter. I don’t even know how to say never in Japanese. So it came as a shock when he called to ask what size pants he wears. And an even bigger shock to see the stylish, slim fit, grayish with a slight sheen pants that he chose! He also picked out two V-neck shirts. Wow, Japan is going to be a great influence on Halyard’s sense of style. I’m excited! [Update: It’s late January 2017 and I’m re-reading this for fun. We are in the thick of winter and Halyard is wearing pants everyday. He has decided he really likes pants after all.]
I wasn’t around for any of this. I stayed behind with Avalon and she and I had our first joint playdate with Avalon’s new friend Haruna and her mom and little sister. We planned to meet at the Senri-Chuo subway station at Mister Donut. This is a very popular chain of donut stores. They are everywhere. Haruna has lived in England until now. Her little sister is in kindergarten and her parents are from Japan originally, but they’ve been in England for the past 9 years. In fact, her Dad is still in England and he’ll be there for another year! They will see him for a few weeks here and there. They have come back to Japan to be closer to family.
After our donuts we went to the Namco arcade to play games. Avalon and Haruna spent a lot of time inside a photo booth where you can make glam shots of yourself with your friends and you can add all sorts of funny accessories to your photo and make funny poses, etc. These booths are in every arcade.
After that, Haruna’s mom, whose name is Hiroko (and she’s actually a Mum not a Mom), invited us over to their flat because it isn’t very far away. I can tell that Haruna and Hiroko are going to be really fun friends because they are very outgoing and funny and typical Japanese moms do not usually invite people over for playdates. After the girls had played a bit we all piled into Haruna’s family car and her mum drove us home. Then we invited them inside our house and they stayed for a while. I asked Hiroko to help me figure out some of our appliances. She admitted my appliances are very complicated!
A quick recap on Sunday, September 4: Halyard left us again. He went off to go hiking to the Minoh waterfall with his friend Luke. The rest of us went downtown to Umeda. Kaiyo was so anxious to see the arcades that I’d told him I’d seen there. Avalon was being bratty and she didn’t want to go. But I’m sure she was happy we dragged her along after she got to play a ton of games at yet more arcades. It was so loud in there that I couldn’t even hear myself talk.
Kaiyo actually screamed, “oh my gosh!” when he saw this game, Time Crisis 5. He immediately took a photo and texted it to Halyard. He and Halyard are aficionados of the Time Crisis series and he didn’t even know that a Time Crisis 5 existed.
These claw games are everywhere in arcades… rows upon rows upon rows of them. They are large and small. You can win all sorts of stuff in them. They have big gigantic stuffed animals and little ones. They have Anime and Bandai figures. They have candy and make up. They have electronics. One claw game I saw had Haagen-Dazs ice cream in it! And the girl that was playing that game did not win any ice cream.
John and I actually left the kids at Namco arcade for 45 minutes on their own and stepped out for a walk around. We discovered a British pub and John had an irresistible urge to step inside for a Guinness. So we had our own fun where it was much quieter.
One last mention for today and that is on the way home from the arcade, it was probably 6pm, Halyard texted to ask if his friend Luke could spend the night. Sleepovers are not typical in Japan but we are American and we want to get to know Halyard’s friends. So even though it was a school night we said yes. Luke came and had dinner and spent the night. Luke’s parents are apparently typical Japanese (so he said) and Luke could not believe that we were talking about arcade games during dinner. He said his parents would never discuss anything but grades, politics and news. When we were talking about the smartest girl in class I joked to Halyard, “Now that’s the person you’re going to want to cheat off of!” Luke was absolutely shocked! Dude, I was joking.
He also said he makes his own meals, washes his own dishes, washes his clothes, packs his backpack the night before and gets to school an hour early. These are all outrageous concepts to Halyard so I thought it was kind of funny in the morning when Halyard was running around packing his backpack and forgetting things and having to take his shoes on and off and it was absolutely driving Luke crazy. Luke kept saying how late they were for school, even though they still had plenty of time to get there before the bell. However, even Kaiyo and Avalon had already left for school!
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