One my favorite times of the week is Sunday afternoon with the kids. I always try to get out and do some sports. Despite the cold day, we got out and played soccer and football at Park #4 in our neighborhood. We call it the “sand park” because as with most public play spaces in Japan, it is sand instead of grass like in other countries. I don’t know why grass does not grow well here or why the Japanese use sand instead of grass for most parks.
I felt my age yesterday, or maybe it was the jet lag, but Owen and Oliver were running circles around me. I am just happy at age 50 to be able to get out and play with them! Owen and Ocean beat Oliver and me in soccer 11-10. Owen beat Oliver and me in basketball 20-2.
Capturing a small moment, Owen and I were laughing so hard I started crying. Several times previously at this same park, Owen batted a ball into the neighbor’s yard and the woman came out and yelled at us. Another time he threw a frisbee too hard and it smashed into shutters of another neighbor to the park, causing the family to be frightened. I gave him a hard time about it, asking him to be more responsible. Anyway, I missed a penalty kick and on the rebound from Owen, I kicked it again in frustration and it went up and over the fence, into a neighbor’s yard! I couldn’t tell myself to be more responsible. Ocean and I did the right thing and went and got the ball, sheepishly ringing the bell and asking the owner to retrieve our ball.
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