Today at work they revealed the worst kept secret by announcing officially who is being transferred, and who is staying. Everyone seemed to know already, but I guess they had to announce it anyway. In the morning between meetings I went into the weight training room and did a 30 minute workout to kill some time. Later, Mr. Komuri invited me to go for a drive with him in his car – a 2000 VW Beetle. It’s bright red and the license plate is 911, because it is as close to a Porsche as he’s going to get.
He let me drive around the parking lot, so I got to drive a car for the first time in seven months. It felt good. The Beetle is a left-hand drive, just like in the U.S., so it was easy to get used to. He offered to let me out on the road, but I declined – the last thing I want is to get tossed in jail for illegal driving.
The rest of the day was spent in meetings, where we tried to establish who was teaching what class and when. I have little to no say in the matter, so I just sat there and tried to understand the rapid-fire Japanese. Just from the outline I got it looks like I’ll have fewer classes next year, so I might have some more free time every week. That’s fine by me – I’m hoping to study Japanese even harder in the near future.
After school I went home and Yasu came over. He just got back from a trip to Bali, and brought me back a T-shirt and some tea. I had only brought him back a cookie from Korea, so I had an embarrassing omiyage moment there. We talked for a while, and then we went to the yakitori for some food. We came right back and drank some more beers here and made plans for Sunday’s free concert in Kyoto.
The band is Kururi, a Japanese band that Yasu turned me on to. They sound pretty good, and the free show is at Kyoto station, so it will be easy to get to. We’ve got a good plan to get there, and even a backup if it is too crowded to see. They have a giant screen somewhere else that he knows about, so we can see it from the screen in case of emergency.
Speaking of concerts, a long time ago Yasu had called in to a radio station and earned the right to buy tickets to a Radiohead concert in Osaka next month. It is sold out, but since he did this so early he thinks they are great seats. The guy that was supposed to go with him bowed out, and so he asked me to go with him. The tickets are expensive – live music is way too expensive in Japan – but I said I would. I’ve never seen Radiohead and this will be a good experience to see a live show in Japan.
Tomorrow is a quiet day at work. I’m meeting Carrie in Himeji for dinner to catch up – it’s been a while since we’ve done anything together. Friday night I’m planning on going into Osaka to visit Miss Kageyama and see her new place. Should be a fun weekend!
