Watching movies in our household has always been a little complicated. Thanks to the greedy bastards who designed the DVD format we are restricted to only watching DVDs that are sold in Japan, and unfortunately they are way overpriced here (a typical DVD is about U.S. $30-40). Since I have a significant collection of DVDs from the USA, a couple of years ago I managed to find an off-brand DVD player here in Japan that accepted a secret code entered into the remote control (found via the internet) that allowed access to all our movies without any restrictions. These region-free players are hard to find in Japan, mainly because the big electronics makers here are also involved with the selling and marketing of DVDs, so it is in their interest to prevent people from buying cheaper stuff overseas and using it here.

All these restrictions made it tricky to watch movies that we already own, but with the region-free player everything was simplified. Recently I found a blu-ray player that had a lot of great features and a low price tag, so we took the blu-ray plunge.

Blu-ray has been fairly popular here in Japan as a recording format for quite a while. For the last few years the only way to buy a blu-ray machine (other than a PS3) was to buy a blu-ray recorder (and those were way too expensive). Now stand-alone blu-ray players are starting to show up, and the one we got was just under 20,000 yen (about $200). Out of the box the player handled our Japanese DVDs just fine. Then I downloaded some sneaky code off the internet and burned it to a CD, and once I inserted it into the player it became region-free as well.

The bad news is that the blu-ray playback remains region-restricted as nobody as found a way around that yet, but the good news is that for blu-ray Japan and the USA are in the same region, so we shouldn’t have any problems playing discs from either country (although I have yet to test it).

The player also has a USB port so I can put the TV shows that I download via bittorrent on a memory stick and watch them on the big plasma screen in the living room – that’s a big plus. Anyway, so far so good, but I’ve got to get my hands on some blu-ray discs from both the USA and Japan to test ’em out.

We had a nice dinner over at Yamaji-san’s place last night. They put together a whole selection of fish, and we rolled our own sushi while drinking beer and talking. In comparison to the last party this one was a little less formal (which is a good thing) and everyone seemed to relax and have a good time. Kuniko and I decided that we must host a cocktail party or a BBQ sometime soon for them and the other neighbors at the party, Fukumi-san.

Partly as a result of too many bourbon-and-sodas we ended up sleeping in. The windows were open all night and for the first time in a long time we could sleep without air conditioning. I woke up feeling a little more refreshed than usual, and the morning weather helped out, too. The temperature was a little lower today, less humidity, and just breezes, blue skies and a couple of big clouds passing now and then. Kuniko and I walked from Okubo to Akashi (about a two hour walk) and soaked in the weather and tried to burn off the alcohol calories from last night before we go at it again tonight with another sushi party, this time at a restaurant. We’re celebrating Kuniko’s mom’s birthday, so we’ll take them out for 100 yen conveyor belt sushi.

This week I’ve got only a couple of obligations, so I’m going to try to cram in as much fun as I can before starting the new job on September first. It looks like the weather will cooperate, and I should be able to get outdoors and enjoy the weather a lot more.

We’ve seen rain around here almost constantly for the past three days, and we’re getting a little sick of it. Today I’m off to teach the last three classes before my mini-vacation starts. I’ll be teaching three hours of classes at Nozaki sensei’s place, and then I’ll come home and finish packing. The weather reports for Beijing are looking good (hot and clear) and so it’ll be nice to get out of this weather for a while.

We’ll be in Beijing for three days or so, and then be back by the weekend here. Updates and pictures when we get back…

So things have started to pick up on the job front. The product of thrashing around in the job market looking for some full-time employment for the last year has been a couple of realizations.

I want to continue to teach corporate English. My experiences teaching with OTC have been uniformly positive. Compared to teaching at the elementary school level, and junior/senior high schools, business English students show much more motivation, patience, positive learning behaviors, and their deeper life experiences are easier to leverage into good learning opportunities. I love getting to know the students, and I’ve gotten some really positive feedback that has helped me grow as a teacher.

Actually, conventional wisdom in Japan is that the best jobs for teaching English are in the universities. While this may have been the case at some point in the distant past, it seems to me that it is an outdated idea. In fact, I think that things will get worse in that area soon. There are a lot of private colleges in Japan (formed during the economic bubble of the eighties and nineties), and now these institutions are having more and more problems filling classrooms. As the double crunch of a tough economy combined with the problem of a low birth rate in Japan over the last ten years starts to hit these colleges more and more will go under, making the availability of English teaching positions even smaller. Most teaching positions at universities are limited contracts – so even if you got a job at a university you’d need to look for another one in one or two years. That means job insecurity every few years, which is no fun at all. It is a bad situation for foreign teachers, and one that is not likely to change any time soon.

Businesses, however, don’t face exactly the same challenges (at least for the time being), and international businesses are always looking to improve their English skills in order to be more successful in the world marketplace. This demand will only increase in the future as the world becomes smaller. Although it is still hard too get a permanent position at a business, with the right connections and a lot of patience, it is possible.

My challenge has been to get an “in” at one of these companies. Companies like to hire temporary teachers through an agency like OTC because if the teacher is in any way unsatisfactory they can be gone with a phone call – no mess. In contrast if there is a problem with a teacher that has been hired directly by a company they have to figure it out themselves, and often these teachers don’t have very good Japanese skills, and sometimes these situations can get quite uncomfortable for everyone.

So my strategy has been to get to know the decision-makers at these companies while I am there on a contract basis, and eventually try to figure out a way to get directly hired once they see that I am not the typical foreign teacher. Actually, I had made some serious progress in this with a recent job at Mitsubishi – the coordinator requested me as the teacher specifically, and told the salesman that if they couldn’t get me as the teacher, they wouldn’t hold the class. During this class I’ve gotten to know the coordinator even more, and we’ve worked really well together. I was trying to figure out when the best time might be to float the idea of working there in the future, when something quite unexpected happened.

The other day OTC sent me a message and asked if I would be interested in working full time at Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Kobe. It is a six month contract, and they felt that I was the right guy for the job. After some negotiation and discussions we worked out the details, and so I’m going to start working there September 1. This was a good move for a lot of reasons, but I was a little bummed out that I won’t be available for Mitsubishi in the future.

The pay is solid, I was able to easily get time off in October to host my parents when they come to Japan to visit, and they will work around my schedule at the end of the year when I’m teaching at Kobe University. The six month contract is renewable if they are interested in continuing the course, and the OTC people said they expect it to continue at least another couple of years.

My mission: first, get the contract renewed by working my ass off to make a good impression, and then maybe down the road try to figure out a way to get on staff directly. I don’t know how possible it is (I haven’t even met the folks at this location yet), but it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to make friends and influence people.

Yesterday I wrapped up my last class at Mitsubishi, and the OTC guy there told the coordinator that I wouldn’t be available for more classes in the future because of this new job. She was so disappointed – she looked almost shocked. She said that she was hoping to have me teach more classes in the future, but she understood the attraction of a full time job. If things don’t work out at Kawasaki, I might just knock on her door again down the line.

So, between now and September first when I start full time work again I’ve got a two week gap in my schedule. In the next twenty days I only have the final two classes at Kawasaki in Akashi, a training session in Osaka, and one day of classes for Nozaki sensei. Even when you take out the time in China that leaves about 16 days with nothing in them. Any ideas?

Yesterday I was working over at Nozaki sensei’s house, getting ready to teach two classes of kids. All this week I’ve been over there in the afternoons, teaching many of the kids I taught several years ago, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing them growing fast both in height and in behavior. Some students that I was almost dreading came in yesterday and were some of the best behaved students of the bunch.

While I was preparing for lessons yesterday the doorbell rang, and I could see from the window that it was some religious visitors. Usually I play dumb at the door when they come around, and so I got up and headed to the front of the house to put on my “I don’t know no Japanese” act. I opened the door and a stunningly beautiful woman looked up from rummaging in her purse and began to start her prepared remarks. We both suddenly stopped out of surprise. She clearly wasn’t expecting a foreigner to open the door, and I wasn’t expecting this gorgeous woman to appear at the door. I recovered first and said hello in English, and the lady recovered soon after and said hello in Japanese. I noticed that she was accompanied by an older man with a big smile, but he was standing back as if he was in a supporting role only.

The lady evidently decided the situation wasn’t going to work out how she imagined it, and so she stammered that she’d come back later, and retreated to their car. I smiled and waved goodbye, and then went back inside to finish getting ready.

About five minutes later the doorbell rang again, and again I could see the same car and same pair of people waiting outside. I opened the door again, and the lady gave me a bright smile and said that she came to give me some literature and read me a passage from the bible. I gave her a bright smile back and said “sure”. Besotted by her beauty, and emboldened by the fact that I didn’t live there, I was more than happy to listen to whatever she said. For all I knew, Nozaki sensei had asked them to come back sometime and give her the pamphlets. After she finished reading me the bible verse she handed over some papers, and asked me in Japanese if I read the bible. I replied honestly that I didn’t really read it much, and she smiled and said goodbye.

Back in the house I put aside the tracts for Nozaki sensei. What a cunning move – sending around her around to convert people. The only religious folks that show up at my house are old ladies dressed in their Sunday best ready to chat the afternoon away. In an odd way it made my afternoon, and as such it obliged me to write about it here.

Last night I met Kuniko at the station after work. She had gone out for drinks with the usual group of her coworkers. It is kind of like a stress relief group – when somebody has an especially bad day they meet up in like an alcohol-fueled support session. I think Japanese teachers have one of the most stressful jobs in Japan.

So I met Kuniko at the station and she was primed for some drunken shopping. The Lawson convenience store right next to the station is good for this purpose, since it is filled with seasonal and temporary items to try out. We got a few items of junk food, and the clerk (who knows us well) just smiled and filled up our bag for us. He’s always trying to sneak in extra items because he likes us, but I live in fear that it will get him fired someday.

On the walk from the station to home we heard a familiar noise – kind of a bugle call playing from a recording. And as luck would have it, we stumbled across a ramen truck. Ramen trucks are a lot like ice cream trucks in that they travel all over and play loud noises to attract customers, but of course the clientelle are completely different.

I’ve heard this particular ramen truck before, but every time I run out to find it, it is gone. This time there was no escape – we ran up and waved him down. The truck was much larger than I expected, and it turns out that it is a converted camper/small bus. The guy stopped the bus right in the middle of the street so We could get into the bus and sit down at a booth inside. We ordered up a couple of bowls of noodles, and the guy moved to the back of the bus and boiled the noodles and started assembling the meal. Outside the sound of the bugle still played loudly, and all around us cars, pedestrians and residents looked out the windows, snapped pictures, and stopped whatever they were doing to check out what was going on. This ramen truck was unique in that you can actually get inside and eat, and so it got a lot of attention. The owner seemed oblivious of the traffic problems he was causing, and didn’t seem to worry about bothering the neighbors. In his case this attention had the potential for drumming up business, and while we were finishing our noodles a lady came running up with a tray and ordered three bowls to go.

We drank a beer with our noodles and talked with the owner a little bit. He has a set route, based on his experience of where and when business will be. Mostly he tries to be where the drunk people are, so the evenings have him patrolling the train stations all over Akashi city and Kakogawa. It sounded like he only comes to Okubo once or twice a week, so it explains why it is hard to track him down. He gave us his card, though, and said if we want he’d be happy to drive anywhere to serve us noodles.

I’ve been here six years and this was my first time eating ramen inside a mobile restaurant. I didn’t even know this was on my list but I guess I can cross it off now.

It has been a busy week around here. My Mitsubishi course is wrapping up, and the paperwork and time involved in planning the final lessons really took up quite a bit more time than I expected. We also have been having a little bit of a social weekend, with a house party for some of Kuniko’s coworkers that ended up kind of wild, and an extraordinary dinner at Inoguchi sensei’s house in Miki.

As for the party – we had it in two waves, since the first group of teachers were able to come early, and the second group couldn’t make it until later. We created a variety of Italian foods to serve, thanks largely in part to our recent visit to Costco in Amagasaki. I grilled a giant beef roast that turned out well, and everybody kept eating and drinking until late at night. Several teachers missed the last train, and so we had some unexpected houseguests that night. It was a lot of fun, but we were pretty tired out after the event.

Friday night Kuniko and I met up after work and took a train to visit Inoguchi sensei and his wife in Miki. For the first time I had a chance to walk from Kobe station to Shinkaichi station – completely underground. It is about a twenty minute walk, and was entirely fascinating, even to a Japanese vet like me. The underground passage was full of small bargain shops, a huge ping pong parlor, a bookstore specializing in old Japanese books, and countless shops, both open for business and shuttered for good. The art work and murals throughout the place were loud and sometimes bordering on tasteless, so that added even more to the flavor. There was a section of food places that looked really interesting – it was the kind of place where you could find a favorite tacky restaurant or local watering hole.

After catching a train out of Shinkaichi station we rode for about 40 minutes north, and then caught a taxi that Inoguchi sensei had arranged to pick us up. His house was close to the station, so we arrived in no time. It was the first time to see their house since they built it, and it was really nice. The layout was efficient and the decorations elegant – a reflection of their time spent traveling the world.

We relaxed for a little while until it was time for dinner. Inoguchi sensei got us started with some appetizers while he worked in the kitchen. It wasn’t the kind of dinner where we sat and talked around the table, but where he created the dishes in the kitchen and then introduced then upon presentation. Kuniko and I sat at the table with our mouths hanging open in surprise as each new dish made a dramatic entrance. Soon after the first dishes appeared Inoguchi sensei’s wife made it back home from an unexpectedly late night at work, and joined us in trying to eat all the food.

One of Inoguchi sensei’s favorite destinations is Singapore, and the dishes of the evening were based mainly on his experiences eating the Chinese food popular in Singapore. While I’ve eaten Americanized Chinese food and Japanized Chinese food this was something completely different.

It would take a complete blog post just to describe the dinner, and I found myself without a camera and without notes, so I’ll quickly give the highlights. One of the appetizers had “century eggs” and it was my first time eating them. There was a seafood soup filled with sea cucumber and abalone, a gelatinous dish with chicken floating in suspension that tasted great with a fermented soybean/mayo/mustard sauce. Other highlights included a sweet and sour dish with sea bream, stir fried Chinese mushrooms and chicken, an excellent beef and broccoli dish, and my personal favorite, sections cut out of a winter squash and stuffed with meat and scallops. Dessert was ice cold coconut milk with sweetened figs as a topping.

It was clear that Inoguchi sensei put a lot of time and effort into the planning and execution of this dinner, and we really were amazed at how good everything was. It was one of those dining experiences you’ll never forget. Now I’ll feel bad if the next time they come over I just throw some burgers on the grill…

Today we were supposed to have some houseguests, but because Tomomi’s baby was a little sick they decided to postpone to some other time. Kuniko and I are using the time to relax and take care of some errands at home. We’ll watch a few DVDs and just chill tonight. Tomorrow is also a day off – that’s good news as well.

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of our “paper” wedding in Akashi. We decided to try something new and have dinner in Akashi to celebrate. We had both heard about a particularly delicious Italian restaurant in Akashi, so Kuniko did some research and made a reservation.

Reservations aren’t quite so simple – the earliest they take reservations is one week in advance, and it is a very small place so it fills up fast. Luckily we got a table, and so after work we met in Akashi and walked to the south. I was surprised that the restaurant was right on the water, on the second floor of a huge apartment building. There were other interesting-looking bars and restaurants next door, and it looked like a fun place to come back in the future. The place had a beautiful view of the ocean and the Akashi bridge, and once in a while the ferry to Awaji island would steam by.

As for the restaurant itself, it turned out to be quite good. They had a big wine list of all Italian wines (we had a nebbiolo) and the menu seemed to be pretty authentic. We had heard that the pizzas were excellent, and walking in you could get a good view of the old fashioned pizza oven – it was really cool. Our seat was in the back of the restaurant next to a glass case filled with what appeared to be homemade Italian dishes – kind of like a deli case full of different mysterious foods.

Besides a pizza we ordered a plate of antipasto, and the way it worked was that we picked whatever we wanted, and they squeezed it on the plate for us. We picked out a few things that looked really good, and left the rest for the waiter to choose. He brought back the plate heaping with foods, and we had a chance to try everything at our own pace while sipping wine. The food was unlike any other Italian food I’ve had in Japan – it was pretty close to authentic, and was styled more towards Italian countryside than your traditional pasta/pizza/meat dishes. They had lots of those too, but the antipasto was really unique, and every bite was different and interesting.

When the pizza arrived it was pretty damn good, too. More like real Italian than American or Japanese pizzas, the toppings were simple and flavorful. The crust was excellent, and our pizza had a lot of buffalo milk mozzarella that really hit the spot. Dangerously good pizza – made me wish I had room for another.

I ordered a couple of ice creams for dessert, but they turned out to be huge, and we barely killed them off. Delicious, but huge. We finally gave our complements to the owner and headed out – but I’m sure we’ll be back soon.

One of the old ladies that lives in my neighborhood, Ohori-san, has been nice enough to give us a loaf of bread now and then. Like many older people in Japan she has her groceries delivered to her home since she isn’t able to get around well. She does like to chat with me in a 90% Japanese/10% English mix and a while back she gave us a big loaf of bread to say thanks for chatting with her.

This is a serious loaf of bread, too. It comes from one of the department stores in Takarazuka, and probably costs her $10 a loaf. They are really good, and we ended up cutting the first loaf into slices and then freezing it, pulling out pieces when we wanted to make toast or sandwiches. There’s no way we could get through the whole loaf without freezing it.

A couple of weeks back she dropped by and gave us another loaf of bread, and we responded by dropping off some homemade Japanese sweets. Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from her saying that her grocery order came in, and she’s headed my way with some more bread. I told her we hadn’t finished the last loaf yet, and she said, “So you don’t like the bread?” Oh, great. Sure, we like it, but it appears now she is ordering a loaf of bread for us every time she orders groceries.

I went over and picked up the bread before she could shuffle all the way over to our house, and she was very happy that I accepted the bread. There’s really not much we can do but give her a return present, and hope she doesn’t keep up with the bread. It’s one of those vicious present cycles that are easy to get caught up in living in Japan. Even Japanese people have these kinds of social problems, and I’m really at a disadvantage because of the different social customs that I am used to as well as my language disadvantage.

Still, the bread IS tasty.

Today I got the air conditioner sorted out. It turns out that because of the large change in distance between the internal unit and external unit, there wasn’t enough coolant gas to do the job. At the time of the installation apparently it tested out OK, but as the weather warmed up I guess there wasn’t enough to make the long trip upstairs from the condenser. So we’ll be able to sleep in comfort from here on out.

Also I’m patting myself on the back for coming up with some really good playlists for my home music listening needs. It’s pretty geeky, but now I’ve got my computer choosing what I listen to every day, mixing songs I really like with songs I haven’t heard lately and songs that I haven’t heard at all yet. All this is done by genre, so there is always something interesting waiting for me when I turn on the stereo system.

The hard drive that I bought yesterday is destined for a backup and media server, and the existing hard drive that I’ve been using for the last few years will continue to serve up music for everyday listening. Today I’ve been copying the music over so that there is a backup – it is taking a long time but it’ll be nice to have some peace of mind.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I have an interesting class to look forward to in the morning. My Mitsubishi students will be doing a role play exercise on negotiation. This is the first of three exercises, the final one to be videotaped and used for a reference on their progress in the course. I hope the students show up for class – I think they are a little nervous about it already. Tomorrow’s task is a one-on-one negotiation, and then the next two weeks are working in groups. I really hope they do well.

Once Friday’s class is over I’ll be on an early summer break. All the companies where I teach are closing their factories for a week to cut costs. This is a big deal – a sign of how bad the economy really is here. My students seem at a loss as to what to do with all the extra time they have. Some are going to go to the pachinko parlors all week, while others will stay home and help their wives out with things at home. Still others have no clue what to do, and I may end up going drinking with some of the students since we all have lots of free time. I wish I could figure out a way to charge it to my company, though…

Yesterday I headed into Osaka on a day off to see about arranging a visa for our trip to China next month. The nearest consulate was in Osaka, so after a phone call to confirm the details I set out to find the place deep in the heart of the Honmachi area of Osaka.

The place was a lot busier than the Vietnamese embassy – there were lines of people. Most people were Chinese residents of Japan, and there was hardly any Japanese being spoken in the building. Luckily the application form was in English and Japanese, so it was no problem filling it out. They took my passport and paperwork, so I’ll need to go back next week to pick it up and then I should be set.

One kind of sucky thing was that as a US citizen I need to pay a lot for just a tourist visa – it cost 15000 yen, which is about $150. Japanese citizens get in for free, and the most any other nation’s citizens need to pay is 3000 yen. Luckily after talking with the clerk in the embassy I was able to apply for a year-long multiple re-entry visa, so at least I’ll have the chance to get a little more value out of the visa if I visit again. Flights are pretty affordable from Japan, so for the next 12 months it is officially the year of the Dragon for me. Hopefully I’ll enjoy this first visit and be able to go back for more soon enough.

Since I was in Osaka with an open schedule I decided to have lunch at an Indian restaurant nearby, then browse through Yodabashi camera and a monster bookstore near the Hankyu train station. I ended up coming home with a new hard drive for the network, so backups should be more smooth from here on out.

Today I’m stuck at home waiting for the air conditioner guy to come over. When they installed the air conditioning units after we moved everything was working fine, but the other day we turned on the AC unit in the bedroom, and nothing but hot, wet air came out. This is a pretty new machine, so something is definitely wrong. I tried all kinds of troubleshooting tips from the manual, but nothing helped. We’ve got to get it sorted out before the weather heats up even more, otherwise we’ll have to sleep in one of the other air conditioned rooms.

Last night I headed back to Futami to hit Denya yakitori, my old haunt. It was an easy enough walk to the nearest Sanyo railway station, Nakayagi station. On the way to the station I walked past a large hospital that is probably the nearest to our house – something to remember for the future. Just as I passed the hospital I walked across the path of about forty female college students. I realized from their conversations that they were nursing students working at the hospital for experience.

I decided to take the long way through Futami and followed the old footsteps of my commute to work at Takasago, and even walked by the local shrine where I sometimes get to participate in carrying around the portable shrine and narrowly escaping injury.

As luck would have it one of the regulars from Denya was there drinking alone, so between the master and Toita-san we had a lot to talk about. Toita-san got on the phone and called another regular (nickname = “Crazy Boy”) and we sat and caught up with each other and the master.

The place was semi-busy, with an odd mix of older folks, families, and us middle-aged alcoholics. “Crazy Boy” was talking with an older guy in the corner and his wife, and it turns out that he is one of the Futami “elders” that organize, manage and run the local festival. He called me over, and I was reminded of the movie “The Godfather” as he asked me what I’ve been up to, if I’m going to attend the next festival, and so on. We had a good chat, and then he called over the master and “Crazy Boy” and the had a quick huddle. I was wondering what that was all about, but soon enough it was time to go, and Crazy Boy offered me a ride to the station since his wife was coming to pick him up. While she drove us to the station he explained that the elder wanted me to serve as kind of the matsuri ceremonial leader next year. From what I understood of “Crazy Boy”‘s drunken explanation is that this spot is taken each year by a male that is between 30 and 40, and since I am going to turn 38 this year I guess they think they better hurry up. I’m not sure what the responsibilities are, but it involves dressing up all in white, and that this is an honor that is very rare even for Japanese people. I think these guys just want to shock everyone with a foreign guy, and I’m betting this will work. I’m a little leery of that much exposure, but everyone’s heart seems to be in the right place, so we’ll see what happens. Anyway, this year they’ve already got someone assigned, so I can go to the matsuri and check out what that person’s responsibilities are. As “Crazy Boy” said to me in Japanese, “it’s a great way to pick up chicks”.

Back in Okubo I realized that despite an evening at the yakitori I wasn’t even close to finished for the night, and so I walked down the street to Red Spanky, for a different sort of Japanese culture.

Red Spanky was fairly busy, and so I sat down at the bar between two other people drinking alone, and ordered up a daiquiri and some onion rings. The owner dropped by to say hello, and I had a great conversation with the part time helper who is a movie fanatic like me. The lady on my right must have been working up the courage, because she leaned over and asked me what I was drinking. We struck up a conversation in Japanese, and it turns out that she lives in Okubo. I saw that she had a wedding ring on, so it was a little weird to me to think that she was out at a bar alone. She was pretty drunk, but not out of control. The guy on my left was also really nice to talk to – he is a big snowboarder, and he has been trying to speak English more and more with the other foreigner guy that comes into Red Spanky, Rob. Rob doesn’t speak much Japanese, so I think everyone is more comfortable talking with me, but probably they are learning more talking with Rob.

Since Kuniko is out of town I was there alone, even though often Kuniko will join me there for drinks. I noticed that the bartender didn’t ask about my wife at all while I was sitting next to the lady, and that was the mark of a pro. Eventually it was time to go, and the lady, Kyoko, also said she had to leave, so we left at the same time. All the guys in the place watched us leave together, and as I write this the next day I’m thinking that maybe that was by design. Outside I waved goodbye to Kyoko and headed home.

The evening was interesting to me because of the drastic differences between Denya and Red Spanky – Denya serving the working class in the working class part of town, and Red Spanky taking care of the younger folks in Okubo that aren’t quite ready to go to bed yet. For now I am able to move in both circles, and as a Japanese language learner that is a big plus. I’m lucky to have made lots of friends at both places.