I took the opportunity this morning to have a bit of a lay-in and slept until 8:30 or so. Then it was guilty pleasure time – I watched the director’s cut of Robocop, but since it had been so long since I’d seen it last I couldn’t tell the difference. Still, good flick.
I did a load of laundry, cooked up some curry and rice, and hit the books. I studied for a couple hours – vocabulary memorization and grammar. At one point the sun started streaming in through one of my windows, and I realized that the promised rainstorm just wasn’t going to show up today. I put on my hiking shoes and headed east.
This time I kept walking to the next town – Uozumi. I’ve been to the northern part of Uozumi before to pick up packages at the post office. The southern part had been largely unexplored by me – the Sanyo line goes right through there on the way to Akashi but I’ve never gotten off the train.
As I walked around the town I kept my eyes open for things I couldn’t find in my town – I’d hate to stumble on a Taco Bell or something out here… that would change everything.
Walking back west towards Futami I found a manmade beach in front of some large high-density mansions. The beach was nowhere near as nice as the one in Suma, but it had sand, it had water, and there was plenty of sun. It’s a beach! The day was very warm, and I was tempted to wade out in the water, but I couldn’t help thinking of all those factories just a couple of kilometers away. Too risky.
Back home I rinsed myself off and crashed on the couch for a little nap. I was just starting to think about what to cook up for dinner when the phone rang, and it was Kuniko.
She was doing the same thing – wondering what to cook up for dinner, and decided to give me a ring and invite me over. I jumped at the chance and was on the next train out of town. Kuniko was waiting for me at the gate in Shin-Osaka, and we walked back to her place. She cooked up spaghetti with alfredo sauce. The sauce had bits of sauteed bacon in there, and she even toasted up some bread to soak up the extra sauce. Excellent.
We caught up with each other – she hadn’t heard my Hanshin Tigers story and I wanted to hear how she enjoyed the movie “Ladykillers” (she thought it was boring), so it was good to see each other.
Finally at around 10 o’clock we walked back to the station. I stepped up to the ticket machine to buy a ticket home, but Kuniko stopped me and pressed a card into my hand. Her father works for JR Railway, and she got a pass from him. It’s one of the new integrated circuit cards – you just wave it in front of the gate and you go through. She had charged it with 2000 yen for me. What a cool present. I’m not clear on whether I am borrowing it or if it’s mine, but it was certainly a timely gift.
Now I’m home and getting ready to go to bed. It turned out to be a good weekend. I’m going to have to prepare for a short week at school and the big ALT re-contracting conference in Kobe.
