I’m Back!

Well, I’m back to updating after an extended break. What happened?

The server that hosts my website, all of fredricks.net, my dad’s stuff, my brother’s stuff, everything – it died. There was no warning, and it left me and my hosting company standing around looking confused. My hosting company is still standing around looking confused, but in the meantime we’ve moved to another server and things should run a little smoother now.

The nice thing about all this was that I got a couple of weeks break from blogging. I’ll try to sum up all the highlights here, although I’m sure I’m going to miss some stuff.

The biggest change is that now Kuniko has completely moved into my place, and now it’s not my place anymore but our place. We’ve been getting along pretty well, and settling into a daily routine that works for both of us. Right now we’re both on a summer schedule, which is always variable and hard to predict. Some days Kuniko goes into work late and some days she comes home early. My schedule is pretty much from 7:30 in the morning until sometime in the afternoon – I do like the nice air conditioned environment at school.

As for living space, we’ve both had to make some adjustments. Kuniko doesn’t have that much stuff, so it’s been fairly easy finding places to put things. Still, I seem to have a lot of junk leftover from the previous occupant, and I didn’t get rid of it because I was wondering if Kuniko would have some use for it. As we start to go through stuff we’ll make more room.

This past week we started to bring bento lunches to school. It was Kuniko’s idea for us to save money, and it’s a good idea. Right now at school my cafeteria is closed, so I would always go out and buy a sandwich or sushi or something cheap. Still, it’s a lot cheaper to bring your own lunch, and so Kuniko wanted to do ours Japanese style.

In Japan it’s a man’s world, and around here if you are married your wife will often make you a bento lunch in the morning before you go to work. Kuniko wanted to make one for both of us, and I felt (and still feel) pretty guilty about her getting up early to make the lunches. There are some things I can do to help out though, so I’m getting up at the same time to help out.

I’ve always been impressed with the lunches that other teachers bring to school, and Kuniko has made some really good ones for us. We picked up a bento box at her parents’ house, and it has several layers. The bottom level is for rice, the top is split three ways and you can put whatever you like in there. Little hot dogs, tamagoyaki, pumpkin, cabbage and pork, bacon-wrapped asparagus, fried chicken, tomatoes, salads – all kinds of good stuff.

My work schedule is very easy. I study around four to six hours a day, and then head home to do some chores and relax. At work the vice principal is in charge of my schedule, and he enjoys dropping hints during the day on when I can leave, even though I already know that anytime after lunch is OK. There are hardly any teachers here at all, so it’s a quiet and cool place to study.

One interesting development at work is that Yamamoto sensei, the head of the English department, asked me if I would be interested in doing a weblog in English for the school’s website. I thought that was a great idea, so he’s going to check with the school to get approval. I’ll probably update it once a week at first, and if it’s fun I’ll do it more, and if not I’ll scale it back to twice a month or so. I couldn’t imagine doing it in Japanese, but maybe the parents will be interested to see some English on the website.

Speaking of Japanese, I think I’m marginally improving. I’m starting to read more Japanese books, and even though I’m very slow and spend a lot of time looking up words it is a great way to learn vocabulary and grammar structures. Right now I’m reading “Holes” in Japanese, and it is a really good choice because I’ve read the English version and I’ve also seen the movie.

I’m getting more comfortable speaking Japanese, and I think it’s just a matter of knowing your limits and to a certain extent, just going for it. There are lots of times when I say something and people look at me like they completely don’t understand. If you say a word tentatively, often it is hard for them to understand. If you say it confidently, they will very often understand it, or at least pick up on your confidence and pretend they do. I’m also starting to build useful phrases and structures in my head – I just mentally switch out words and then they pop out more or less intact.

We caught a pretty good movie last week called “Team America: World Police”. It just arrived here in Japan and it’s only playing at small theaters – it’s not getting a big run. We really enjoyed seeing it, and I downloaded the soundtrack to listen to while we are hanging around the house. There are some really catchy (and raunchy) tunes on there, and it is one of the great joys of my life to see Kuniko walking by singing “America, Fuck Yeah!” or “Everyone’s got AIDS!” Hard to explain without seeing the movie, I guess. Never mind, moving right along…

Last week we went into Kobe to spend some time at the wedding place planning the ceremony. We made a few big decisions, and some of them were surprisingly tough. For dinner afterwards we went to a Spanish restaurant that served tapas, and we had an assortment with some good draft beer. The sirloin steak on top of the cheese risotto was mind-blowing. It was a really good place, and it’s right along the road to the wedding chapel, so we’ll have plenty of chances to be tempted by it again.

Kuniko and I have been splitting the cooking duties this summer. Once school starts, I’ll probably be doing the cooking during the week, since she’ll be getting home pretty late every night. I’m the one with the easy work schedule, at least for the next year, so I’ll be taking care of dinner. Once we both are working tough schedules, then it’ll be a little tricky to figure out.

Finally, this weekend Kuniko has a seminar (in Japanese: 合宿) for the weekend, and so she’ll be living with her students in Nishinomiya for the next few days. She’ll get to come home on Monday, but that leaves me with an empty house for the weekend. I’ll spend this weekend studying, cleaning, and staying out of the hot, humid weather.

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I’ll get back in the routine of writing daily, and hopefully there will be some interesting things to say during this slow, hot month of August.


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