There was a time when I would visit Japan once a year.  But, for the past two years, the fates have conspired against me.

First and foremost are the unfathomable delays we’ve faced in attempting to get Akemi’s permanent resident card renewed.  It’s been about ten months that we’ve spent, filling and re-filling and re-re-filling out those forms, sending them in, only to have them sent back for the most nitpicky of reasons.  We’re hoping Fifth Time’s the Charm.  The issue is that, while she can travel out of Canada with an expired card, she won’t be able to return and then who would those oven-roasted match stick Okinawan potatoes and remind me to put on sunscreen every morning?

The second obstacle to unfettered travel are our senior pugs, especially the adorable-in-photos-yet-extremely-cantankerous-in-real-life Suji.  They’re both high maintenance pooches and I feel badly leaving them to someone else’s care. Not badly for the dogs, mind you, but badly for the people who have to put up with their surly attitudes for two weeks while we’re away.

The third obstacle is work.  Between Dark Matter‘s cancellation and, oh, next week would’ve been the perfect time to go away as I juggled various development projects with mercurial often magical (in their ability to completely disappear like they never existed) schedules.  But it seems more likely than not that I will be signing on to showrun a new series soon.  How soon?  Well, the writers’ room starts in a little over a week and will run to early October after which I will need to complete the pilot script, then two more scripts while overseeing various re-writes and pre-production in the lead-up to the  mid-February commencement of principal photography.  I suppose I could carve out a week or so sometime in there provided things come together – but, honestly, what’s the last show you worked on where everything came together as planned?

To be honest, this blog entry was going to be a reminiscence of my Top 10 Most Memorable Tokyo Meals but I got carried away with the intro so I’ll save my reminiscing for a future blog.

I leave you today with this snapshot conversation I had with the skateboarding four year old I crossed paths with today at the dog park.

Kid: I like your dog.

Me: Thanks.

Kid: I have a dog too.

Me: Well, say hi to your dog for me.

Kid: I also have a cat.

Me: And hello to your cat, to a lesser extent.

Kid: I had another cat, but he died.

Me: You’re bumming me out, kid.

Who says I wouldn’t be a good parent?

Oh, right.  That was me.