Friday I went into Sannomiya to meet up with Antoine. We met up under the movie theater signs near the Hankyu station, and then from there went to the Belgian beer place. Antoine was covered with sunburn from being outside all day – he had to work at an English camp and ended up spending almost two hours outside in the hot sun.
A cold beer in an air conditioned room did a lot to improve his condition, and we sat and chatted while watching a middle-aged Japanese woman hitting on guys down the bar bfrom us.
It was good to catch up with Antoine – last time we met up as a group and so we didn’t get to talk too much. He’s worried a little bit about his future – the next year will be his last on the JET program, and then he’ll need to find something else. He really enjoys teaching small groups – maybe doing private teaching will be something he’s interested in.
He was craving sushi, so we went to the same sushi bar that Kuniko and I went to the last night. The sushi chefs recognized me and smiled, and we were served giant pieces of sushi again – awesome. Antoine asked for some lemon for his drink, and he ended up getting a menu in English. I asked for a lemon, and he got the lemon, cut into slices on a plate. The lemon request really shook them up – they were talking about it behind the sushi bar for a while.
From there we walked around and tried to get some exercise, and finally wrapped up the night at a yakitori type place that seemed to have a big emphasis on fried foods. We ordered some healthy stuff, though: a tomato, sliced and served with some mayonnaise on the side, and some mushrooms cooked with a pretty good sauce.
I picked up some donuts for our breakfast the next day on the way home and then came home and crashed next to Kuniko – I’ve been on a sleep deficit lately.
