Kevins

Many, many years ago when I first came to Japan, I needed to get my alien registration card.

To get it, I needed my passport. Simple enough.

Except Japan doesn't really do middle names.

My passport has my middle initial: S.

And Japan is a stickler for rules. The name on my alien registration card had to match my passport exactly. Also, for "reasons", it couldn't contain a space.

So: Kevin S Dias

became: Kevins Dias

Kevins.

Plural Kevin.

And basically every other official document you get in Japan, like your driver's license, is based on that registration card.

So the mistake propagated. Government database after government database. Document after document.

There was no going back.

For nearly two decades now, I have not been Kevin.

I have been Kevins.