Today at work I showed up a little later so that the heater would be in full operation when I arrived, and that worked out just fine. Everyone was in a good mood because today is the last day of “work” for us before the New Year’s holiday.
The history teacher made a stop to catch up with me. He asked about what I did over Christmas weekend, and I told him “oh, lots of things. I went here and there. It was fun! How about you?”
Usually this works to change the topic, but he was pretty persistent.
“Where did you go?” he asked.
“Oh, various places. East of here,” I replied, looking for some breathing room.
“Which places did you visit?”
Finally, I said that it was a little rude to ask so many times, and maybe it’s a sign that the person doesn’t want to tell you. He understood then. He apologized, but I said that it was no problem. He really was onto something, which makes me think that he saw me somewhere, or just wanted to confirm a guess. Weird. I’d love to be able to tell the truth, that I spent time with Kuniko in Osaka, but we’re still in secret mode for the time being.
I jetted out of there after an hour or two and went home, where I did more studying through the day. I took a break to grab lunch at Ito Yokado, and the makings for a big pan of fried rice for dinner later on.
When dinner time rolled around I brought out the ingredients.
The most important ingredient is beer, and I picked four types of Kirin, and I had a leftover Suntory winter beer. Once I broke into the beer I could properly cook up the rice.
The rice had egg, grilled pork, mushrooms, snow peas, kimchee, and green onions in the mix, as well as plenty of garlic and good dose of seasoning salt. It turned out really well – I made enough for three or four meals, because it stores really well. I only drank two of the beers, actually, so I’ve got some extras for later.
After dinner I cleaned up and continued reading a book that I borrowed from my tutor Tsuji-san. It’s a kid’s book in Japanese, probably about third or fourth grade elementary school level. It’s still really tough – I have to have the dictionary right there to figure things out.
I think reading is definitely the best way for me to study Japanese. I’m always challenged by grammar and words that I don’t understand, but I’m also forced to recognize words in kanji that I’ve memorized a long time ago. I’ve got probably 15 or 20 sets of 100 flashcards that I’ve memorized in the past, but it’s getting to the point where it’s unwieldy to keep reviewing them. Reading is good because I will bump into these words a lot and it keeps them fresh in my mind.
I read for about an hour and a half, and then hit the rack. Tomorrow is a full day off, the start of many lasting until after the first of the year. Antoine and I are planning to meet up to shoot some pool. He’s been sick lately so we’ll be taking it easy. We might go catch some Mexican food at the restaurant in Kobe that I’ve been wanting to visit.
