Volleyball, Dinner Party At Hayashi’s Place

Today was the first day of midterm exams, and so most of the teachers had it pretty easy. The teachers just administered the exam, and the students were gone by noon. We had a free bento lunch, but it wasn’t as good as the usual ones we get. No raw fish in this one – just cooked fish, shrimp, and lots of veggies.

Mr. Hayashi ducked out just before the teacher’s volleyball game. I went over to the gym and played three games. It was pretty fun, and you could tell which teachers were super-competitive, and which were there to just have fun. Somehow, a winner was determined, and the winners got a case of beer that they split up among the team.

I did pretty well, actually – I tended to screw up as many plays as I did well on, so I figure in baseball that’s batting .500, which is pretty good.

After volleyball was finished Mr. Hayashi mysteriously reappeared, and soon after we piled into his car to go to a dinner that he was hosting. During the drive over we picked up Miss Yamamoto from her house, and also Mr. Komuri came along.

Mr. Hayashi had bought a veal tenderloin from his favorite restaurant in Kitano, and so I helped him slice it up and he pan fried it outside on a portable burner, since it was raining and we couldn’t use the BBQ. The meat was great, and I had brought a bottle of Sangiovese that I had purchased at Costco. It tasted great. Mr. Hayashi also contributed a box of Franzia California red wine. I don’t think many people noticed the difference.

There were some other teachers there, and everyone was very happy to be visiting. Mr. Hayashi’s friend was there who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I guess he doesn’t have all that much longer to live, and Mr. Hayashi wanted to have a big party for him to “send him off” (his words). He was a mountain climber, so we exchanged stories as much as we could in Japanese. He’s a really nice guy, and his wife is the new P.E. teacher at our school.

After dinner they gave Mr. Komuri and I a ride to the JR station, and I took the train to Tsuchiyama station. From there it was a 20 minute walk in heavy rain to my apartment, but my new ultra large umbrella kept me dry.

This weekend should be interesting. Tomorrow I have a short day at school to try and even out all the extra hours I’ve been putting in. Antoine is planning on coming over for some steaks and vino. Saturday I’m planning on visiting Kuniko in Osaka, and Sunday the school librarian is taking me to see monkeys somewhere in Hyogo. Monday and Tuesday will also be short days, but I haven’t come up with any plans for those days yet.