Today is a big day for a lot of reasons (of which I can speak of only a few here), not the least of which is a night out for sushi in a new restaurant. Our neighbors (The Yamaji family) recommended a sushi restaurant a while back that is about a 15 minute walk from the station in Okubo towards the ocean. We tried to make a reservation last night but Thursday is their day off, so I’ll try to make a call sometime today between classes. We haven’t had sushi in about a month, which is a long time when you live in Japan. This place is a small sushi bar, so it should be fun to check out.

It is finally Friday for Kuniko – she’ll have two days off in a row for the first time since we came back from Thailand. We’ll probably make that Costco trip that was postponed from last week, as well as clean up the house and do all the chores that have been piling up because we’re too exhausted during the week. There are a couple of recipes we want to try out for some home cooking also, so we’ll have to devise some form of exercise in there to burn off calories. Maybe a hike in Kobe?

Yesterday on the way home I stopped in at a new eye doctor to get some contact lenses. The new doctor is right along the path to the train station in Okubo, so it is much more convenient than going all the way to Futami where my old doctor is. Also, this doctor stays open to 7pm three days a week, so it is pretty easy to drop in after work.

The nurses were very helpful, and the eye tests were fun as always, and before I knew it it was time to see the doctor. We talked a bit about whether I wear glasses, where I come from, and his experiences in America going to school at Yale. His son is studying at Johns Hopkins currently, and I got bonus points for recognizing the name and praising the school. No discount on the contact bill, though.

I picked up some yogurt for Kuniko to mix into our curry dinner, and then headed home. Just before arriving I bumped into Ms. Fukumi, who just got back from a trip to Las Vegas with her sister. She was looking forward to using English, and lately she has tried to speak English with me whenever possible. She handed over some souvenirs from the trip, and she had brought back a big pack of Reese’s peanut butter cups.

We’re looking into writing her into our will.

Seriously, we don’t get much Reese’s products around here, and after we had introduced them to Mr. and Ms. Fukumi she must have remembered them and searched them out in Vegas. It was very thoughtful of her.

Dinner turned out great and we had a low key evening watching Haneru no Tobira. Two members of the comedy cast had secretly been training in some strange skill for months, and tonight they demonstrated the skills. One member had learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube in under one minute, and how to high dive Olympic style. Another member had learned how to drive a bus and even got his large vehicle driver’s license so that he could drive the bus to the studio and impress everyone. It was a pretty good show last night.

I don’t speak a lot of Japanese these days, mainly English in class and at home, but when I do speak it, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Lately I have been shortening some important sounds in the interest of smoother speech. Here’s an example:

To say “It’s cold, isn’t it?” in Japanese, you would say “寒いですね。” (Samui desu ne.)

But recently, I have been trimming off the “de” from “desu” like this:

“Samui ssune.”

Probably the “de” sound is a little out of position for my tongue, and so seeing a chance to be lazy I have been lowering the sound of “de” until it is almost inaudible, and then hissing a little to combine the “su” and the “ne”.

Actually, it sounds very authentic, and I hear it often on TV and in other places in Japan. Unfortunately, it is almost exclusively a characteristic of older male speech.

That’s right – solid linguistic proof that I’m getting old.

I need to work on cleaning up this bad habit now. I wonder what other bad habits I’ve picked up over the years that I’m not aware of…

One of the big national convenience store chains has two stores between the train station and our house. We prefer using Lawson because they tend to stock a lot of different items, occasionally weird ones, and that makes for superior drunken shopping. We’ve been visiting for a while now, and thanks to my unique appearance we are familiar with most of the clerks. They always give us an extra smile when we come in, and sometimes throw some extra goodies in the bag.

This is one of those cases where being different is good – I’m sure most people that shop there don’t get extras. But I guess they like us a lot, and we are scoring little snacks here and there. They occasionally say hello when walking on the street, and it sometimes takes a second to recognize them without their signature uniforms. There are other choices nearby – 7-11 and Family Mart, but the friendly service (and chance of freebies) at Lawson brings us back.

It is interesting to see this kind of customer service in action. For most Japanese people I think that any convenience store will do, and there are a lot of them to choose from. Usually the transaction is quick and without any warmth. The workers are paid very little and the customers are in a hurry to get on with their day, and so there is no time for small talk (in fact, it probably would piss off the other customers). I wonder what the effect would be if a convenience store chain encouraged a little more warmth in their employees for everyday transactions.

There is a cultural difference in what makes a good transaction – I put a high priority on friendliness, smiling, and the efficiency and speed of the worker. I’m guessing that most Japanese customers have only one priority – efficiency and speed. They may throw in politeness, but the repetitive mechanical chant of “thanks, please come again” passes for politeness here.

The local convenience store is a little sociological snapshot just around the corner – and as you can see, it provides a lot of food for thought for me day to day…

It turned out to be a much less busy weekend than we had expected, mainly because we postponed the trip to Costco and slept in until about 10 a.m. instead. That turned out to be a great decision, because we both woke up refreshed and looking forward to the week. The weekend included a get-together with Antoine, who was doing well at work and had a great holiday in Boston. We hit a few places – the Belgian, an Ebisu pub, Reset, and finally Ankh, a “girl bar” in Sannomiya that was empty of people.

One of the things I spent time on this weekend was following up on paperwork for my healthcare and pension, as that is something that I am responsible for myself. My company and I will have a meeting down the road where we discuss this issue and my future, but until that is resolved I have to figure out very complicated paperwork in Japanese, and follow what I consider are archaic rules to deal with them.

At first blush this week is remarkably uneventful – there are no parties/meetings/events scheduled, so it should be a piece of cake. Kuniko was so refreshed that she woke up early this morning and made us bento lunches – we’ll see how long this burst of energy lasts.

The weekend is finally here, and there is just one more block of classes today to get through. After work today the plan is to meet Antoine for drinks/dinner in Sannomiya. It has been a very long time since we’ve met up, and while we were in Thailand, Antoine visited Boston to see his sister’s family for the holidays. It’ll be good to see what he has been up to.

Our plans this weekend aren’t really set, but Kuniko has a few morning classes on Saturday and then she is free for the rest of the weekend. It is possible that we’ll sneak out to Costco for some shopping (we’re almost out of cheese!), but more likely that we’ll stay around Okubo and rest up, since it has been about three weeks since Kuniko’s last day off.

The other day I got a phone call from an old friend, Vishnu Moola. He was an international student studying winemaking with me back in Fresno State University for a few years. We really hit it off based on our mutual interest in rock music, wine and winemaking, and partying (it was college – what else would we do?)

Anyway, he is back in India near Bangalore, he’s got a family of four to support, and he’s working in the family business of real estate and managing his extended family since his father passed away years ago. He still sounds happy and carefree despite all the changes, and it was great to spend some time talking to him on the phone. We’re back in contact via email and facebook, and it won’t be long before one of use visits the other’s country. I’d love to get to India and check it out, even better if there is someone there who can help show it off.

Between classes the other day I was clicking through the news online and was shocked to find that one of my favorite authors, Robert B. Parker, had passed away at 77 years old. I had never really thought much about the possibility of him dying, and I realized just how much died with him – all the characters, all the details of Boston, and the clever wit that sewed it all together. It was quite a shock to take in two or three minutes before a student arrived in my classroom.

As I read more news about his passing, it turns out that there are several novels due to be published, so there will be a few more books to satisfy my craving. Actually, I’ve fallen a little behind in reading his books, so if I take it slowly I can probably make it last five years or so before I run out of his material.

There are many exceptionally well written tributes to Mr. Parker all over the web, and I won’t add mine here, but his writing style made a profound impact on me. Anytime I opened one of his books it felt like a I was entering a world that I left behind for a while and was waiting patiently for my return. He will be missed.

This article reminded me of quitting jobs and finding something new. I’ve been lucky enough to leave almost all my jobs on my terms, except for the time that nasty dot com bubble burst. Although I often didn’t have something lined up right away, I always found myself in a better position than I started with. I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of friends and family (you know who you are), but there is a lot to be said for taking a chance and trying something new. In Japan most people have one or possibly two jobs their whole life, and sometimes I can see the trapped feeling in their eyes as they suffer through stress, boredom, and overwork in order to make the payments and support the family. I count my blessings that I started out in a society that is so tolerant to change and transition. So if you aren’t enjoying what you do, take a chance – you will be surprised how things can work out.

We had one of those epic eating weekends that ended up spilling into this week. Last Friday we had purokogi pizza delivered in, Saturday was grilled pork tacos, Sunday was kimchee and cheese okonomiyaki, and last night was chicken and red pepper pho. I’m feeling pretty full as you might expect, so the plan this week is to get back to basics. I think we’ve got some salads and udon noodles in our future. My waistline will sure appreciate it.

I’ve blogged the recent trip to Thailand – you should be able to see it right on this page. Also, check out the pictures here.