This weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday I hit the books pretty hard, but I squeezed in time to watch two of my favorite TV shows on my computer, Lost and Battlestar Galactica. I did a little jogging in the afternoon, and then killed off the last of the Mexican food leftovers for dinner.
Kuniko came in around 10:30 Saturday evening, and we worked together on some exams that her students had to take.
The next day we slept in late, had some spam and eggs for breakfast, and then went into Kobe to meet Tamura sensei and her new boyfriend. We met them at the station, and he was really nice. He even said “Nice to meet you” in English, and shook my hand.
We went out to the theater inside the Oriental City hotel, near Kobe’s bullet train station. We were here to see the Acapella group Takarabune (Treasure Boat). It’s the same group that we saw during the New Year’s Eve party at the theme park. Kuniko has two friends that are members of the group, and they had arranged some great seats for us.
I’ve never really been into acapella, mainly because the only time I saw it live was with a bunch of barbershop-quartet-looking gay guys. This group was all women, and they put on a great show. Also, when you have a connection with the members you also have a little more interest in how the show goes.
The lead vocalist was raised in the United States, so a lot of their songs have pieces of English inside of them. They did covers of some old American tunes, and really did a great job. Even though most of the audience couldn’t really understand the lyrics to those songs, they got really excited. They also had lots of songs with Japanese lyrics, and even a traditional type song called Kono Michi (This Road) that was really great.
Afterwards we went out for cake and coffee, and then Tamura sensei and her boyfriend went back home. Kuniko and I walked through the shopping centers and looked at clothes. Kobe is a great place to people watch, and conversely, to be watched.
We decided to have dinner at a ramen restaurant that Kuniko was familiar with. It was really good. I knew it was a good sign when they have bowls filled with garlic cloves and a garlic crusher at each table. I ordered up a ramen filled with chunks of slightly sweet roasted pork, onions, a boiled egg that was somehow infused with garlic, and of course lots of noodles. The restaurant was a hole in the wall kind of place, so we were sitting with lots of other people, everyone slurping their noodles like crazy. I’m starting to slurp my noodles, too – it’s a lot of fun to make loud noises like that in public.
We headed back from there, and we’re both getting ready for a busy week.
