We woke up fairly early Monday morning. Kuniko has a day off, so she was planning on just hanging out around my place until I get off work at 10:30. I got cleaned up and headed out the door in shorts and a T-shirt. Today at school is the second half of the mini-sports day, so it’s casual dress.
At school Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Komuri were raving about how well the dinner at Graciani’s went. They both said that I missed out on a great opportunity, and they showed me pictures of everyone having a good time. I stopped in later and asked the office lady how it went, and she said that it was excellent. She even got a birthday cake from the staff.
I hadn’t heard anything more about doing the recording job that my principal had asked me about earlier, but today I found out that I’ll be doing that on Tuesday. This caused a bit of a problem, because by the time they figured out when and where it was, I was already out the door and heading home. In the end, Mr. Hayashi called me at home to ask me to check with the principal, but I could tell he was curious. He’s getting cut out of the loop on this one, and nobody likes it when that happens.
When I got home, I got a warm greeting from Kuniko. She had bought me a takoyaki grill! What’s takoyaki? Little balls of dough, cooked up with a little chunk of octopus inside, and then served with sauce and some mayonnaise. They’re very good, and pretty popular in this area. Now I can make them at home! Kuniko fired up the grill and showed me how it’s done. They turned out great. She had bought a big chunk of octopus to cut up and put inside, and seeing that sitting on the counter was a real eye-opener.
While we were preparing the takoyaki, I called my folks and chatted with them for a while. Kuniko got on the phone with everyone, which was her first chance to talk to my family. I think it went pretty well – Kuniko was really nervous, but she did just fine. What do you say in a situation like that? Maybe now the ice is broken and we can have some more chats later on.
After a big lunch my phone started ringing, and I pretended I wasn’t home. Instead, Kuniko and I went and took a nap that lasted almost three hours. After the nap, we gathered up all our stuff, and headed to Sannomiya.
Originally, that is, before the three hour nap, our plans were to do some shopping in Sannomiya, have dinner, and then I would go to my class and Kuniko would go home. As it ended up, we skipped the shopping and did dinner only. What a dinner it was!
Kuniko suggested on the train ride over that we have dim sum. I haven’t had dim sum in years – not since I was working for Synapta in Palo Alto. Kuniko knew a place near the station, and since it was early we sat down without waiting and Kuniko ordered up some 食べ放題 (all you can eat) dim sum. The price was amazing – $15. In a place like that, foreigners can really do some damage. There was a big menu of different kinds of dim sum – you just tell the nice lady which ones and how many. There was also noodles, dessert, the works. Unbelievable. Kuniko was ordering like a pro, and I was enjoying all the food. It tasted great.
After dinner we walked to the YMCA, and I showed Kuniko where my class was. I saw some of my teachers walking around beforehand, and they smiled at me but didn’t really stop and chat. I think they probably saw me with Kuniko and thought, “So that’s his motivation…”
Kuniko and I walked down to the end of the street, and we said our goodbyes. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to see her walk away. I won’t see her again for almost a month – it will be tough. I’ve gotten used to looking forward to the weekends and knowing that she’ll be around soon enough. I know people that are maintaining relationships over long distances – seeing each other only a couple of times a year, and here I am sweating it out over a few weeks.
Class went really well, and we are moving along quickly now. I’m going to miss the next six meetings, so I’ll be playing catch-up big time when I get back. Between that and the jet lag, I’ll have my work cut out for me.
I got a message from Mr. Komuri – he wants to throw a going away party for me at his favorite sushi place. I’ve been there once before, but a week after we were there the owner found out he had cancer and closed the shop. Now he is opening it up for us because Mr. Komuri is a friend. I hope he is careful with the blowfish sushi – that’s my favorite, but it’s also the most dangerous. Just what I need – a sushi slicer that is looking death square in the eye.
