Over the weekend we had Kuniko’s folks over for dinner to try out the BBQ and to hang out at our place for a change. Niro and I played around with the grill and I managed to slightly overcook the steaks, but they still turned out pretty tasty. Next time I’ll cook them a little less – the grill works pretty quickly.
As usual they brought tons of veggies and other gifts – so we’ll be on vegetable eating duty this week. I think they were pretty comfortable at the new place.
Monday was really busy with a schedule full of classes in Kobe and Akashi. The weather all this week is supposed to be rainy and hot, and the humidity has routinely been near 100%. This makes walking around between classes a very sweaty affair, and I’m always a mess by the time I get home. There’s about another month of the rainy season, and then we’ll only have to worry about the heat.
Tomorrow a new rule goes into effect in the JR stations in western Japan, banning smoking in all stations and platforms. Currently people can smoke in designated smoking areas, which is usually an ashtray located at the very end of each platform. Apparently these will be gone starting tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see what happens. There are lots of smokers in Japan, and given Japan’s strong resistance to change I’m sure that it will take more than a day for people to stop smoking at stations. Probably there will be lots of rule breakers, at least at first, and it’ll be interesting to see how they are treated by others. I’m a big fan of people watching (which may explain my attachment to reality TV) and this should prove to be an interesting social experiment for me to follow in the days ahead.
