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crow chasing butterfly

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Today we watched one of The Boy's basketball tournaments. On the way I watched a determined young crow trying to catch a butterfly. I don't think the bird was ever successful, but it was amazing to watch it try to match the butterfly's seemingly random flapping about.

The Boy's team seemed to enjoy the game. They got trounced of course - they don't even have enough players to allow their best (our son) to take a break. He was injured toward the end and now Mari and I are split on whether this should be continuing. The coach visited us (Mari and I were two of only three parents to attend) and apologized for the poor results. Apparently he mostly focuses on the high school program, and these kids are still a year too young. The other parent was another dad, and we talked about the school and the life that the kids are leading here in Japan. We agreed that there's way too much school work and that rote learning is ridiculous in this age.

The Boy had, on the train on the way to the event, managed to leave the school's ball bag on the train. So Mari tracked it down and The Boy and I spent 2.5 hours going to 30km-distant Tokyo station to pick them up. He studied Japanese, I did my Japanese homework, and prepared for a presentation to my CEO this coming Thursday. It was okay.