Another grueling day at the office had me heading home at 11 in the morning. I walked by the traffic cops at Ito Yokado, and they all watched me go by wistfully – probably wishing they had the kind of job that pays like mine and lets me out after three or four hours.

I got right down to it and made a big bowl of ramen. We had gotten a kit from our visit to a interior design exhibition, and it turned out really well. I had put in some meat that I bought from Ito Yokado (the lady there put in some extra AFTER she weighed it out for price) and it was the closest thing to perfect homemade ramen I’ve had.

Afterwards I spent the afternoon studying, reading, and relaxing. I got a surprise phone call from Kuniko who was in town getting her hair done. I’ve got to get used to having her so close now. She dropped by and we hung out for a few hours.

Her timing was good because I had plans to take Yasu out for dinner to thank him for watering my plants while I was away. Together we all went out for okonomiyaki at a local restaurant.

Kuniko ordered a variation called Doroyaki, which means “grilled mud”. It was served on the hot plate looking like a muddy pile. We scooped it up with spoons and it was actually pretty good. It wasn’t the prettiest dish I’ve ever seen.

Yasu looked pretty tired but I was happy to get a chance to talk with him. He’s hoping to get a job at a Yamaha music store, but I think he was a little depressed because he hasn’t heard back from them after two weeks. His life is kind of up in the air right now – I know how that feels, and it isn’t fun.

After dinner we went out for an ice cream cone at 31 flavors, and then went our separate ways. Tomorrow I’m doing another partial day at work, and then I’ll probably meet up with Kuniko’s friend Yuri to talk about lesson plans over sushi.

Recently Ito Yokado had a promotion at their store next to my house selling what they called “ekiben”. I didn’t know the word, but Kuniko explained to me that it means a boxed lunch available from a train station. Why was a big supermarket like Ito Yokado selling lunches that were supposed to be sold at train stations? Why would anybody want to eat them?

They were actually selling ekiben from different stations all over Japan. You could look through them and pick a lunch from a train station hundreds of miles away, and taste the flavor of that region.

This was really interesting to me. Japan is an isolated country – being an island will do that to you. Also, to some extent Japanese people are isolated from others because of their language. Whereas an English speaker can travel freely and exchange topics with people from Australia, Scotland, Singapore, Guam, South Africa, etc., Japanese people generally can only interact with other Japanese. Maybe that explains why English language instruction is so popular here.

Within Japan people love to travel. One thing I hear about different parts of Japan is that such-and-such town is “famous” for their noodles, or “famous” for their rice balls. Sometimes the towns are as close as only a couple miles away, but this “fame” is held on to and prized – it gives the town or area something to boast about, and brings in tourists from other parts of Japan. Sometimes it seems that every town in “famous” for something.

“Ekiben” was a good example for me of how people in an isolated culture can strive for diversity, even if it’s something as simple as what you eat.

To simplify things a little I’ve posted our vacation pictures into two galleries –

Actually, most of the pictures are from Kuniko’s camera, but there’s a couple winners in among my gallery. There’s two pages of pics in Kuniko’s gallery, there’s a link to page two at the very bottom.

What a nice weekend. Saturday Kuniko came over with some furniture from her place so I put it in storage in my spare room here. She also had lots of little household things to give me, so I’m slowly absorbing what used to be “hers” into what will eventually be “ours”.

In the evening we went over to the yakitori to deliver souvenirs from our trip to America, and we had a great meal there. Kuniko had me trying some things that I didn’t know were on the menu, including an interesting rice dish that had hot tea added – yum!

Kuniko stayed over Saturday night, and it will be interesting to get her parents’ reaction – maybe it’s best to do this early on so they know what to expect. Sunday we took a long walk inside the park on the little man-made island to the south of town. Afterwards we went into Okubo to do some shopping, have lunch, see a movie (National Treasure), and to visit a part-time teacher from my school who is doing part time work somewhere else until she can land another teaching job.

The part time work was at an interior design place that specialized in kitchens, bathrooms, etc. She was there to help people that were taking the tour and she led them through a drawing for a small door prize. We chatted with her a while, and tried to look interested in some things so that her boss wouldn’t come down on her. We pulled a prize out of a box and got a ramen kit, with three different kinds of ramen. The grand prize was a small bike for kids, and luckily we didn’t win that.

Now I’m back home and getting things in order around the house – tomorrow it’s back to work!

Friday was a slow day around school. Well, at least for me it was. There were a lot of preparations going on and last minute meetings and some panicked running around, but I calmly ate sushi at my desk and studied Japanese. Mr. Hayashi spent some time with me doing translations, and we talked about the proposed teaching schedule for next year. Mr. Hayashi is stuck with a lot of classes, and I get the feeling that other people have started to notice how easy he has it. I think he was really surprised – he’ll be teaching most of the first year classes with me.

I also taught a class with Mr. Komuri – we actually taught English together. That’s significant because he’s a Japanese teacher. Still, his English is pretty good, and we had fun doing the class.

Finally around 3 p.m. I left school early and headed home. From there I met up with Antoine in Kobe and we did some bar and restaurant hopping. It was good to catch up with him and see what he’s been up to.

We hit lots of different places, but the last one we went to was an Irish bar called Ryan’s. It was my first time there – I usually avoid it because it’s a foreigner bar. We went in and there were just lots of foreigners there, being loud and singing to 80’s songs. There were some lonely looking Japanese guys there, and one old Japanese guy dancing with all the foreign girls. It didn’t take us long to get out of there.

We had a good time, but I’m looking forward to relaxing this weekend.

Things continue to be really weird at work with the ongoing fallout from the teacher transfers. We had a meeting today to assign teachers to different roles for the next year, and that had people jumping, too. One of the English teachers, Mr. Yamamoto, came by and was whispering to me about some inside information that he had received, and he wanted me to think about this and that – it was just strange.

In the end I think most things are going to be the same for me, just teaching with a new set of teachers. I’m hoping that I get a lighter load of classes this year – at 18 classes last year I was one of the busiest teachers, and I’m supposed to be a part time worker.

I’m glad I don’t get embarrassed much anymore, because today would have been a perfect time. The new English teacher came to our school this afternoon to meet with the principal of our school. I don’t know who she is but some of the other teachers came by to give me a complete briefing – she’s from Yashiro, she’s 35 years old, she’s married, she’s really cute, etc.

When she came into our staffroom all the other teachers were jumping around to say hello and some of the male teachers were paying very close attention to her. I was sitting at my desk studying flashcards, and tried to ignore all the commotion and concentrate. After a little while I had to get up to use the restroom, so as I got up my elbow bumped into somebody walking behind me, and I looked and started to apologize at the same time, and found that my elbow was kind of pressed up against the new teacher’s rear end.

Hi, nice to meet you, I’m going to touch your ass to make a good first impression.

Her reaction was a little surprised but fairly composed considering she was walking around the staffroom and suddenly found some foreign guy throwing elbows into traditionally personal areas of the body. I’m sure she’ll remember me once the formal introductions happen. Yikes.

I was stuck attending a fairly boring English teachers’ meeting, but I did manage to sneak out a little early and get home. I cooked up some soup for dinner and spent the evening watching Survivor, unpacking (still!), and doing laundry.

Tomorrow is Friday, and it looks like we’re throwing an impromptu going away party for Mr. Komuri. I’m trying to decide whether to go or not… it’s at the same old place, Amuse. I’m thinking about bailing on that one and taking him out to sushi some other time. We’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow.

Wow, what a day. At one point I had to sit and write down all the things that were going on so I wouldn’t forget to write about them tonight.

I got to school and had some paperwork on my desk. One paper was the official acceptance of my contract for my third and last year. That was good to see. Over the vacation Kuniko had the great idea to chat with the vice principal of my school to get some advice on how to handle telling everyone about our upcoming marriage. I got some time with him today, and told him everything. He was really happy, and we talked about next steps. He understood that there may be some potential fireworks with Mr. Hayashi, and he very graciously offered to handle anything that might happen if anyone gets upset.

Today was also a big day because they announced who was being transferred from our school. It was a long list of eight teachers. I was pretty bummed out – one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Komuri, is being transferred. He was pretty bummed out, too. He asked if maybe I could transfer with him. There was a 30% chance that the history teacher would get transferred, but he made the cut and I’ll have to deal with him for another year. Another one of my favorite teachers, Yoshizumi sensei got transferred.

One of our English teachers is getting transferred – Terano sensei. That means that the new teacher will have to come in and take over the ESS club management. I heard that the new English teacher is a 35 year old female, a former student of our school. That fact alone has convinced Mr. Hayashi already that she won’t be able to do a good job. I’m reserving judgment until I meet her.

We had a big cleaning day today, and Mr. Hayashi went up to my classroom with me. I was shocked to see that the classroom was completely stripped. Everything had been torn off the walls, all my maps and postcards and decorations, everything was gone. The books were all gone, even the bookshelf was gone. Why? Mr. Hayashi’s explanation was that one of the students is wearing a diaper now and he needed the room. Huh? I decided to take it in stride and to use the opportunity to get a fresh start for next year.

More excitement – our girls Kent team is going to the Japanese National Finals. That means fame and glory, and so we had a big assembly to send them off, and lots of members of the community and the PTA were there to wish them good luck. The girls looked a bit overwhelmed, but I hope they do well.

Mr. Hayashi took Mr. Komuri and me to lunch. We drove out to northern Takasago for a lunch special that Mr. Hayashi was excited about. It was really good – I was glad to be eating Japanese food again. Mr. Komuri was recognized by one of the waitstaff. He tried to pretend that he remembered her from his class, but she corrected him and told him that it was her daughter that was in his class. Whoops – busted.

Mr. Hayashi got a phone call during lunch that his father was taken to the hospital nearby. After lunch we headed over to the hospital to check in on him. While we were driving I was stunned to see a California Highway Patrol car drive by. It was an older one, maybe from the early 90’s, but it was completely intact – black and white with the CHP logo still on the door, lights and sirens on the roof, everything. How it came to be driving around Japan I’ll never know.

Mr. Hayashi’s father was stable but not doing great, and Mr. Hayashi just checked in with the doctor. After a few minutes of waiting around, we went back to school, and I spent the afternoon studying. I spent lots of time passing out omiyage to everyone, and the reactions from people were great. Some wondered where I was, some I could tell were jealous that I was gone before vacation had really started, and some thought that I was no longer in the JET program for some reason. Anyway, everyone was really happy with their gifts.

After school I walked out to Azusa’s house for her last lesson, and it went really well. We had some great conversations and at the end of it she and her mom not only paid me, but they gave me a bonus – a little Starbucks coffee maker and a bad of ground coffee. Azusa and her mom were really nice to me – I can only hope all students will be like that. I said goodbye to them for the last time, and came home.

Now I’m just getting caught up with everything. I’ve still got lots to do, but I hope by the weekend things will be getting under control!

Well, last night I pulled back into Japan late, and began unpacking all my goodies from a really great trip. Later I’ll get my pictures together and post a bunch, but for now I’ll say that it was a really great time.

Thanks to everyone that we got to see and/or stay with. We had a couple of parties, did San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Disneyland, Universal Studios, the ocean, the redwoods, wineries, and lots and lots of shopping. We even taught an elementary school class with my dad. My vacation has left me completely exhausted.

The best part of the trip was spending so much time with Kuniko, and seeing America through her eyes. She did a great job with what must have been a stressful situation – experiencing a new country, living with new in-laws for a couple of weeks, and doing all of this in a foreign language. In the end California left a good impression on her, and I know she’s looking forward to visiting again.

While we were in America, one of my cats, Maggie, passed away. Unfortunately we were on a trip to Southern California when it happened, but at least I got to see her before we left. I had no idea that it would be the last time I would see her – she was a really loving cat.

It was a wild couple of weeks full of fun things, but it was also nice to have a couple weeks off from blogging everything. Now I’m back in the saddle, and I’ll do my best to report what’s going on.

Today we finally had my listening test, and I stuck around for an extra hour or so to grade the papers from my students. For the most part they did pretty well – I was especially proud of how well they did with giving directions in English. If you are ever in Japan and want to find out how to get somewhere, ask a kid in a school uniform. They’ll totally help you out.

I went home and spent the afternoon packing and straightening things up around the house. Outside the weather has become really windy, and the occasional howling and whistling is a little unnerving.

Around 7 p.m. I was in the mood for dinner, but since I’ve already cleaned out my fridge I decided to check out the sushi restaurant five minutes walk from my house. I tried to go there before, but it was closed, but this time it was open.

I went inside, and got the usual reaction from everyone in there – holy shit! A foreigner! People are wondering, “does he know how to speak Japanese?”, “what will he order?”, “can he eat octopus?”, etc. I sat down, by now used to all the attention, and ordered up a mid-priced, mid-sized sushi dinner.

I was sitting next to two gentlemen, who turned out to be a father and son pair. The father was really hard to understand, but the son’s Japanese was much clearer. They really enjoyed chatting with me, and the father kept ordering me bottles of sake to drink. He also kept me in food once I finished my sushi dinner. The master was laughing as he kept making dish after dish, and I kept eating and saying “thank you”, and “you’re too kind”, and “that’s way more than I can eat”. The master’s wife and her friend came out to chat with me, and all in all I created a big stir in a small restaurant.

We exchanged stories and talked for a couple of hours, and I ate my fill and then some. The two guys complemented me on my looks, my Japanese, and one even asked me to visit his daughter(!). When I told them about Kuniko they were both really happy – it somehow showed them that I was serious about being in Japan. Both of them were named Mori-san, and the older Mori-san was the one that was hard to understand. He bought me a giant handmade roll of sushi for tomorrow’s breakfast, and wouldn’t accept no for an answer when he ordered the sake. I must have drank nearly six small bottles of sake. I poured my sake (paid for by him) for him, and he poured his for me.

In the end I tried to pay the bill, but they ended up covering the whole thing. They both said what a treat it was to meet a foreigner, and how nice I was and they hope they can meet up with me again sometime. I left the place with a belly full of sushi and sake.

The thing is, things like this happen to me in Japan all the time. If you go into a mom and pop type place like this sushi restaurant, or Denya (the yakitori restaurant), you are most likely going to meet someone really nice who will take care of you and really enjoys the opportunity to speak with you (in Japanese or English). It’s fascinating for me and it always reinforces what a great experience I’ve had here.

I’m back home with a little bit of a sake buzz, and looking forward to getting some rest. I’m meeting Kuniko in Sannomiya tomorrow at 12:30 p.m., and then we’ll take the bus to the airport and fly to America.

I won’t be updating the site every day when I’m in America, just because I’d rather spend that time with Kuniko exploring and seeing everything we can. I’ll post occasionally, though, and try to get some pictures up of all the people we’ll see.

So that’s it for now. Tomorrow it’s bon voyage, and I’ll post more later on!

Lately at work I’ve seen all the symptoms of the end of the winter term. People are starting to pull each other aside, whisper things to each other, and look around suspiciously. The principal will pull someone away from their desk for a closed door meeting, and everyone looks nervous.

This is the time of year when they are getting ready to announce who is being transferred to another school. It’s the big shakeup time, and the only people whose jobs are safe are me and the janitors.

I even get to hear some of the rumors, and I’m at the bottom of the totem pole. Early favorites for a transfer are Mr. Yamamoto, the third year English teacher. If he goes, then I’ll be teaching with a new teacher next year. That’s not a bad thing, actually. I taught with Mr. Maeda last year, and we got along great – he’s even been inviting me to his place for dinner now and then.

Another name I heard was the history teacher, but I think somebody was pulling my leg. I don’t want to get excited about that, but it would definitely change my daily routine big time if he wasn’t around.

Mr. Komuri’s name also came up. It came up last year, but he’s still here. I’m hoping that he doesn’t get the transfer – he’s a big part of why I like the people I work with.

Anyway, the announcements won’t be until after I get back from my vacation, so I’m glad I’m going to miss all the fun.

Today Mr. Hayashi took pity on me and let me go even earlier. I used the time to go to Akashi and do some last minute shopping for the trip. I had some sushi for lunch, and then came back to Futami.

This evening Yasu came over for a minute to take a look at the plants – he’s going to be doing the watering duties while I’m gone. He’s looking healthy and happy, and enjoying some time off from studying. He’s doing an intense job search, so I hope that he finds something cool.

Tomorrow is my exam, finally, and so I’ll be busy tomorrow afternoon grading papers. Once I get it all taken care of I can come home and finish packing.

I was studying hard for four hours this morning, and I was rewarded with steak lunch. Mr. Hayashi wanted to send me off in style to the United States, so he treated me and some other teachers to a big steak lunch. We made a drive over to north Takasago, and ate at a restaurant called, “The Western Restaurant”.

Mr. Hayashi sat us down at our seats in a particular order, and he ordered my meal for me. The steak came and was quite good – it was soaked with sauce and it was delicious. I had the 180 gram steak, and I scarfed it right up.

After the steak lunch, Mr. Hayashi was nice enough to drop me off at the station, so I could take the train right home, and that wrapped up my workday. I spent the afternoon punching in information into my flashcard program, and then quizzing myself on the new information.

For dinner I decided to go over to the yakitori and say my farewells to the master. The place was pretty empty, and so I had a good chance to talk a little bit with the master. He was doing pretty well and cooked me up a great dinner. I tried some new things, and washed it down with a couple of beers.

Now I’m back home and looking at all the stuff that I have to fit into my suitcase – it’ll be a challenge, I think. Tomorrow I’ll try to cram it in there – it’s almost time to leave!

Today I had nothing to do but re-record a listening test for my first year students. They won’t get the test until Friday, which leaves me with a lot of free time between now and then.

My vice-principal invited me out to lunch, and so we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant and sat on the floor. I ordered kushikatsu, which is just fried food on skewers. It was greasier than I expected, but as you might expect, it tasted great. We talked about all kinds of things in English. About ten years ago the vice-principal was an English teacher, in charge of ALTs like me. He had some interesting thoughts on what makes a good ALT, and he even told some war stories about his days working closely with newly arrived ALTs.

He asked me if I hang out with other ALTs, and I said that I do occasionally. He said that when he was in charge of an ALT, they often had “sex parties”. I asked him for a little clarification, but he turned red and didn’t want to repeat it. He told me that it was top secret, and that he was sure that I wasn’t doing something like that. What a weird lunch conversation.

Once I got back I got the word that I was free to take off, so I went home and spent the afternoon planning for the upcoming trip. I did some last homework for my Japanese correspondence course, and listening to lots of 80’s music. Around five o’clock I caught the train to Himeji to meet Carrie for dinner.

On the way I was fooling around with my cellphone, and in a classic moment of “what does this do?”, I ended up completely erasing everything on there. Phone numbers, emails, everything. Gone! Bummer. Now I’ll have to collect all the information again. Oh well.

Carrie and I met up in front of the 31 flavors in Himeji, and on the way to the restaurant we bumped into some other ALTs, including Yuri, who I had dinner with just two nights ago. They said that they had to get going, so we all went our separate ways.

Carrie was raving about this new ramen restaurant that she found, and I’ll tell you that it was well worth raving about. The gyoza were delicious, and vegetarian. The ramen was also great – smaller bowl, smaller price, and really good. I got “milk ramen” which had a good creamy flavor to it, kind of like what I imagine the ramen in like in Sapporo. Yum!

After dinner we had cake at another restaurant nearby, and we talked about all kinds of things, including my upcoming wedding, our future plans, Carrie’s sister who joined the program last year.

Finally we took off from there, and I went home via the JR train line to do some shopping at Midori and Carrefour. Now I’m back home and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is another easy day, and Mr. Hayashi has promised to take me out for a big steak lunch.

Today was a big day for our third year students – they could finally get out of our school and go to college. In Japan, college is a comparatively easy ride compared to high school, so it’s nothing but smooth sailing until they hit the job market.

I spent the morning decorating the ESS room and getting it ready for the farewell party for our graduates. I blew up some balloons and hung some streamers, and the result was quite festive if I don’t say so myself.

The ceremony was pretty much the same as last year. The antics had calmed down quite a bit, and the crowd was unusually solemn. Luckily I remembered to dress warm, because it was freezing in the gym. The ceremony lasted about an hour and a half, and I was able to understand a lot more this year than last. Still, lots of parts left me baffled.

After the ceremony we had a nice bento lunch waiting for us, and it was full of really good stuff this time. Fresh sashimi, lots of fried things, and some of my favorite sides were in there – it was really good.

I met up with the first year students after lunch and we put the finishing touches on the party room, and soon the third year ESS students showed up. We had plenty of cookies, snacks, and drinks to keep everyone happy. We chatted about all kinds of things, mostly in Japanese, unfortunately. Still it was good to see them again – it had been a long time since I’ve seen some of the students. The party was a hit, and Ms. Tsutsumi, the third year teacher who I will be teaching with next year came by to take lots of pictures, too.

All day I was posing for pictures, mostly with the ESS club, but later on students that I haven’t even taught were asking for pictures and a message in their yearbook.

I was leafing through the yearbook with a couple of ESS students towards the end of the day, and they were trying to get me to tell them which one of the girls was “my type”. I knew better to fall into this trap – as soon as I point at a picture that girl’s cellphone will be ringing with the news. I just gave some non-commital answers and tried to change the subject.

Soon after the party ended I was on my way home for the day. Around six o’clock Kuniko dropped by. She was in town to stay with her folks, but she had forgotten to give me some stuff. She’s feeling much better. We ate some soup that she brought, and looked through the yearbook. She had taught a lot of the students that had graduated this year, so it was a good chance for her to look at all the pictures.

It was a great day, especially for the graduates. They are spreading out to colleges all over western Japan, so I hope they get some good opportunities to use their English!

What a nice relaxing day. I got up fairly early, and got organized and cleaned up. I called my folks, and also my grandparents – getting things finalized for our trip over there next weekend.

Kuniko came by around lunchtime, and we walked over to the ramen place that I tried for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I tried to explain what a “greasy spoon” restaurant was, but it was tough. I’ll just have to take her to one when we get to California.

After lunch we did a little bit of shopping for my ESS party tomorrow, and then we went back and took a long afternoon nap. Kuniko was complaining of a stomach ache, so I was worried about her catching something.

We woke up around 5 p.m., and then got going to Akashi to meet up with Tamura sensei and Yuri. Tamura sensei had her boyfriend along, and together we went to a restaurant to eat nabe (hot soup). We had a good time catching up, and I had a good chance to practice listening to Japanese. Yuri speaks half English/half Japanese, switching between the two almost mid-sentence. It actually makes it easier for me to follow the conversation.

After dinner we went over to the train station, and said our goodbyes. Kuniko still wasn’t doing so hot, and I hated to send her off when she wasn’t feeling good. I have a graduation ceremony at school tomorrow, so I couldn’t really do anything to help her. Tomorrow night she’ll be going home to stay with her parents for the night, so at least they can take care of her if she needs it.

Now I’m at home getting ready for the aforementioned graduation ceremony. It should be fun – compared to last year I know a lot more of the students, so it feels like I’ve got more of an attachment to them. Looking forward to it!

Today Kuniko came over fairly early and picked me up, and we drove into Osaka to move some stuff from her apartment to her house in Kakogawa. On the way to Osaka we saw a sign for the Kobe Winery, so we decided to drop by.

The winery was pretty nice. There were some strange statues in front of the building, but inside it was a typical winery. The tasting room had lots of different bottles for sale. Kobe wine is typically a blended or flavored wine, so they only had a few natural wines there. They were OK, a bit thin, but considering the weather in that area, they weren’t too bad. Just for laughs I tried the blueberry flavored one – eck!

We walked around the facilities, and they had some unusual items laying around to amuse the kids. We walked through the cellar, but it was filled with old unused barrels and tanks – just for display now. However they did have a big high tech bottling line that looks like it gets a lot of use.

From the Kobe Winery we drove straight into Shin Osaka, and loaded up Kuniko’s car with boxes and clothes. It was weird to see her apartment being packed up and organized. I’m going to miss that place!

Next stop was lunch – we grabbed a burger at a restaurant inside an office building, and then stopped in at Starbucks before we left. We also stopped in at a gigantic American sized mall on the way home. It was huge – full of interesting stores. It was weird to walk through a typical American mall filled with typical Japanese stores.

That evening we went over to Kuniko’s house, and her parents cooked me dinner. We had inari sushi – delicious. I’ve never had it homemade before, and it was really good. We took lots of pictures of the cats (named Miruki and Kuro) and Kuniko’s parents, and I gave them some presents that my folks had sent over as kind of an introduction gift.

The gifts were a hit, and it was fun to watch them check ’em out. As usual I left with a full stomach, and Kuniko was nice enough to drive me all the way home.