Fruit Inspection

To get the full effect of the story I am about to tell, I must preface it with the following:

First, a couple of weeks ago, Emery had to give a presentation at school about what he wanted to be when he grew up. He stood confidently in front of the class and told them all about how he was going to be a super hero someday. How his super power would be speed and his wife would have the ability to become invisible.

Second, last week while Jeremy was stranded in Louisana with his truck broken down, he met a young guy from Japan. He came to America to fish the FLW Series and even though he speaks very little English, he and Jeremy hit if off. When it was time for Jeremy to come home on Monday, he called to let me know Naohiro would be coming with him to stay for 2 weeks until the Table Rock tournament.

I thought it would be best to prepare the kids for this and tried to explain to them that he didn’t speak our language. I also wanted to make sure they could say his name correctly by the time he got here. Naohiro is pronounced “Ni-Hero”.

Emery: “My hero?”
Me: “No. Ni, Ni, Ni-Hero.”
Emery: “Whose hero?”
Me: “Nobody’s hero. That’s his name. Naohiro.”
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Okay, with that in mind, fast forward to dinner that night. Both kids were totally fascinated with the poor guy, but he took it all in stride. They were asking him how to say everything from “hello” to “sing”. They wanted to show him all their favorite toys and teach him how to say the names. He was playing along until Emery brought in his Buzz Lightyear. Naohiro’s face lit up and he exclaims, “Oh Yes!!! Buzz a-Lightyear!!!”

Well, Emery was beside himself!

At that point Jeremy calmed everyone down so we could actually finish our dinner. It was quiet for a moment, then Emery began saying the colors of everyone’s hair. Jeremy and I made eye contact across the table because we knew what was coming. You see, Naohiro has black and orange hair. Like maybe he tried to bleach it, but it never got blonde? Anyways, one half of his head is orange.

So Emery gets to him and says “Naohiro’s hair is black AND orange! I’ve never seen black and orange hair before. Why IS your hair black and orange?”

Naohiro gets very serious, leans down, and looks Emery dead in the eye. In a soft voice he says, “Becuss, in uh Japan. I Japanese Sup-a-hero. I good friend with Buzz a-Lightyear.”

Oh how I wish I had a camera to capture the look on my son’s face. It was really too much!