As I write this I’ve just finished polishing off a green tea and white chocolate muffin that Kuniko made for us over the weekend. Anytime we’ve got some downtime Kuniko is drawn to the kitchen, and so far she hasn’t failed to disappoint. The green tea we used is some leftover premium powder from her school’s tea ceremony club, and the quality macha really made the difference.

Not to be outdone I’ve been working the grill quite a bit lately. The weather has been crappy lately, but I’ve been sneaking out between rain storms to make dinner and experiment with new foods on the grill. The other night I made homemade shisomaki (my favorite kind of yakitori) on the grill, and it turned out really well. Extraordinary, in fact. You cut up a breast of chicken into bite sized pieces, skewer them on a wood skewer and slightly salt them. Finally I wrapped them in a shiso leaf, grilled them for a minute or two on each side and then dipped them in a sour plum sauce that we’ve been using a lot lately. They were as good or better than what I can get at a yakitori. Dangerously good.

I’ve been experimenting with grilling cheaper cuts of meats, because I’ve noticed that in Japan there is a huge gap between daily meats and premium. Take steaks, for example. For $10 you can get two or three thinly-cut steaks that are usually pan-fried in people’s homes. The meat isn’t really marbled, but there is some fat on the outside. The next step up is wagyu steaks that are completely marbled but also thinly cut – these will cost more like $40 for a single steak. Finally for a normal “American-sized” cut of wagyu steak you are talking $100, and you still have to cook it yourself.

Still, there are a lot of lower priced meats that you can marinade and grill to make even more delicious. I’ve had a lot of luck with pork – the cuts that are supposed to be used for tonkatsu are easy to grill, and if you add some flavor rub they are easy to grill. You can get three pork steaks for about $3. Chicken is really cheap here – two fresh large breasts of chicken are about $2, and you can do all kinds of interesting things with spices to make something interesting.

All this talk of grilling would give the impression that we’re doing this all the time, but we’re only grilling twice a week or so lately. The heat of summer has us making salads and cold noodle dishes quite often, and our diet is still rather vegetable-heavy. Eating veggies and rice makes it that much nicer when we opt for the carnivore route now and then.

One of the big knocks on Japanese society these days is that people don’t take time to get to know their neighbors. I often see TV programs and surveys that show that rarely people really spend much time with people outside their homes, and while I suspect this issue is much more prevalent in cities rather than where we live, I do notice that people around here rarely slow down in their daily lives to talk with other people living around them. The idea of chatting with just anyone you meet isn’t very popular, and despite signs everywhere in Japan that tell you that “a warm greeting will warm you up on cold days” and “a smiling face and welcome will make for a better neighborhood” rarely is this a reality.

I should say that as a weekend-sociologist I observe with great interest how people treat each other in normal and unusual situations, but as long as I live in Japan my interactions with other people will always be an unusual situation for them, and as such normal social rules probably are not in effect. So please take my observations with a grain of salt.

It does seem to me that the aspect of Japanese culture that involves the formation of groups, and the clear delineation of members and non-members makes it easier to treat neighbors as outsiders… that is, not members of your “family group”. Certainly in America I treated neighbors differently from family members, but depending on your personality it may not be that dramatic of a difference. Here in Japan neighbors are treated somewhat differently than what I’m used to – rather like you would treat an unexpected but socially high level guest in your home.

The other night while grilling some beef on the back patio I exchanged smiles and waves with the neighbors two doors down while they were gathered on their patio eating dinner outside. After I finished grilling the beef I cut a few slices off and walked over to give them a sample. The husband has been eyeing the gas grill and had some questions, and I thought a taste would be the best way for him to check it out. We had a nice conversation, and I invited them over for cocktails next weekend. This is very un-Japanese behavior, and for everyone but me it appears to be a social stretch (including Kuniko).

Hopefully we’ll have them over soon and we’ll see how it goes. I guess this is part of why I love to live in a foreign country – even a simple thing like inviting some neighbors over for drinks turns into a social experiment.

Last night after my last class at Kawasaki Yoshi and I went out for a couple of beers. We had hoped to drop in at the local tachinomi (literally “standing drinking”) place, but it was packed with people. The streets of Nishi Akashi were pretty quiet actually – people were avoiding the oppressive humidity by staying inside where there is air conditioning and cold beer.

We finally picked a place near the station that looked promising, and bumped into a few of Yoshi’s coworkers drinking there. It isn’t a surprise – the whole southern side of town is surrounded by the Kawasaki complex, and so we’re bound to bump into people we know.

The food was pretty good, and the beer was cold. We ate some dashimaki and tempura, and talked in English and Japanese for about an hour or so. Yoshi filled me in on how things were going with him, and we talked about his experiences in China – and he gave me a few pro-tips for dealing with the locals there. He said the exchange rate is pretty good between Japan and China, so I’m looking forward to eating and drinking everything in sight.

I headed back home around 8:30, and Kuniko had already made it back and had dinner. She’s got a party on Tuesday night, so I’ll be on my own for dinner tomorrow. The week should be pretty quiet, actually. I’ve got some classes on Thursday and Friday, but otherwise not much going on during the day Tuesday and Wednesday. It’ll be job searching and Japanese study for the next couple of days. I’ll try to come up for air and post a little more this week!

Over the weekend we had Kuniko’s folks over for dinner to try out the BBQ and to hang out at our place for a change. Niro and I played around with the grill and I managed to slightly overcook the steaks, but they still turned out pretty tasty. Next time I’ll cook them a little less – the grill works pretty quickly.

As usual they brought tons of veggies and other gifts – so we’ll be on vegetable eating duty this week. I think they were pretty comfortable at the new place.

Monday was really busy with a schedule full of classes in Kobe and Akashi. The weather all this week is supposed to be rainy and hot, and the humidity has routinely been near 100%. This makes walking around between classes a very sweaty affair, and I’m always a mess by the time I get home. There’s about another month of the rainy season, and then we’ll only have to worry about the heat.

Tomorrow a new rule goes into effect in the JR stations in western Japan, banning smoking in all stations and platforms. Currently people can smoke in designated smoking areas, which is usually an ashtray located at the very end of each platform. Apparently these will be gone starting tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see what happens. There are lots of smokers in Japan, and given Japan’s strong resistance to change I’m sure that it will take more than a day for people to stop smoking at stations. Probably there will be lots of rule breakers, at least at first, and it’ll be interesting to see how they are treated by others. I’m a big fan of people watching (which may explain my attachment to reality TV) and this should prove to be an interesting social experiment for me to follow in the days ahead.

Mondays are already Kuniko’s toughest day, and now they are my busiest day as well. In addition to a full morning of Mitsubishi classes I have a new set of classes at Kawasaki on Monday evenings. That means coming back for a short break at home and then off to Kawasaki for a couple hours in the evening.

Late Sunday night/early Monday morning a huge storm came through dumping tons of rain – loud enough to wake us both up in the middle of the night. The next day was cloudy and rain was coming and going, but still very hot. That meant there was a lot of humidity in the air, and it made Monday even more exhausting. Walking around in a business suit through the soup-like weather is not my favorite part about living in Japan.

By the time I got home late at night I was covered in sweat. When I first came to Japan it was weather like this that had me convinced I would never last the summer, let alone a whole year. Here I am still bitching about it six years later.

Saturday we had Antoine and Miwako over for cocktails and dinner. It had been a long time since we’ve gotten together, and it was good to catch up with them. They both seem to be enjoying married life, and they’re still loving their new place.

We grilled up some fat burgers out on the grill while sipping blue margaritas, and then spent the evening listening to music, playing wii and snacking on junk food. It was a good night – lots of fun, those two.

Sunday we had some of my ex-students from Mitsuboshi Belt in Kobe come over for a potluck lunch. They really wanted to see the new house (probably because while I was teaching their class we were in the planning stages so I talked about it a lot) and everyone seemed to like the setup we have. They also really wanted to spend some time talking with Kuniko and getting her take on relationships, careers, and living with foreigners.

We had plenty of food – a Korean noodle dish, paella, a daikon/pork/ginger dish that was spicy and delicious, some large pork sausages, quesadillas, caesar salad, and once they saw the gas grill they insisted that I barbecue something, so we had some pork loin medallions as well. For dessert it was mango and vanilla custard, some rare Japanese cherries ($1 a cherry!) and some Hokky Pokky ice cream.

The students presented us with a digital picture frame for a housewarming gift. It was the perfect gift, since we’ve been looking around for one lately. They took lots of pictures, and we drank lots of cocktails and champagne, and then they headed home in the late afternoon. It was so good to see them again – they really are a great group of people. Everyone was still trying hard to speak English, and that more than anything made me certain that they’ll continue to do well in speaking a foreign language.

We’re headed into a big weekend, with a visit from Antoine and Miwako on Saturday night and some of my students from last year at Mitsuboshi on Sunday. That means that once I wrap up my classes on Friday it is back home to clean up the place and get ready for visitors. The tentative plan is burgers on Saturday, but I haven’t figured out what to make for Sunday’s party with my ex-students. They wanted to do a potluck, so everyone will bring food. Maybe I’ll just throw some meat on the grill and keep everyone in drinks and dessert.

Every day has been getting hotter, and the advent of summer can no longer be denied. It will be interesting to see how the house does in the hot summers. I’ve noticed that it does tend to stay pretty cool so far. There isn’t a lot of sun exposure since we are surrounded on three sides by other houses just as tall as ours, and also our house is stuffed full of insulation (the first time for me having insulation in Japan).

The layout of the windows is also pretty conducive to air circulation, and the breeze rolling through the living room feels nice. Later it’ll be too hot for windows to be open, and we’ll have to see how the air conditioner units fare against the heat. I’m hoping everything works well – I hate sleeping in sweat.

I spend a lot of time at home listening to music, and recently a couple of cool things have happened to make it even more fun. I’ve got all my music on a networked hard drive, and combined with the wireless network in the house it is easy to play whatever I want wherever I want. Usually I play it through the big stereo in the living room, and since the house is so small it pretty much covers the whole bottom floor.

The downside to playing music over the wireless is that if there is a drop in the wireless signal, or interference from other devices (like our microwave oven) then the music stops, and that can be a real bummer if you are really into the song.

The first good thing is that some software that I am using with my computer to play the music recently updated, and it is playing much more consistently. The other good news is that I got an iPod dock for the big stereo, so if the network goes down (or we’re microwaving lots of stuff for a party) the tunes will go on. It may not seem like much, but all this new stuff has made it even closer to the ideal of listening to whatever music you might want to hear, whenever you want to hear it.

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven’t updated the picture gallery in a while – you can check out two new galleries here.

A good friend of mine, Yasushi Hayamizu (or Yasu for short), got married on Saturday. He invited me and Kuniko to the wedding in Sannomiya. The wedding place was very nice, and the ceremony and reception were some of the nicest I’ve ever attended.

The size of the wedding place was such that there could only be one wedding at a time there, and so it was easy to just show up and go through the process of giving gifts, signing the register, and wondering who everyone was. Luckily they gave out a big seating chart, so I could see everyone’s name (provided I could read the kanji) and their relation to the bride and/or groom.

The reception went very smoothly and Kuniko and I both commented that the food was really good. A lot of wedding places serve “French” food, but these guys made it pretty close to authentic, with an emphasis on seafood. Yum.

We were both exhausted after staying out late Friday night (Red Spanky until 2 a.m.) so we skipped the second party and went home soon after the reception. Yasu and his wife looked really happy at the end, and Yasu’s mom was really nice to us and invited us over sometime.

Yasu shows up a lot in the archives of this blog. Here are a couple of my favorite stories… Yasu helping out as my predecessor goes to the hospital, a visit to Kyoto with Yasu and his then-girlfriend and future wife Reiko, and a drunken pizza party with my brother and Yasu.

Well, a quick report on the first official grilled meal:

It was awesome – much better than any first meal on a grill had a right to be.

I went around town gathering ingredients in an attempt to make a superior cheeseburger yesterday. We have been searching for a good burger place in Japan for years since our favorite place, Starchild, closed. Burger places in Japan like to fry their burger patties (probably figuring that since McDonald’s does it, it must be the American way), and Starchild was the only one we found that grilled their meat.

After doing lots of research on the web I went out shopping and found some key ingredients: two full size burger buns (actually I used some wheat and brown rice rolls that I found at a bakery), some cheddar cheese (made in Cheddar, England), the meat (a blend of domestic pork and beef that is popular here since beef is so expensive), avocados, tomato, and lettuce. I molded up the burgers at home, then grilled them up just flipping once. The new grill left some beautiful grill marks on the burgers, and everything was done in about 10 minutes. Lots of hissing and smoke from the meat – I kept looking around to see if the neighbors were going to call the fire department. The last minute or so I put the cheddar on the patties and then brought them in and built the burgers.

They were delicious – very juicy and great flavor. I had kept the flavoring simple, just sea salt and black pepper, and it turned out pretty good that way. The only thing I would change in the future is the size… I had built the patties big expecting them to shrink, but they maintained their size pretty well. It made for a pretty big dinner for us, and they tasted so good. Definitely better than Starchild, making it the best burger we’ve had in Japan. Kuniko was really impressed, and I think it is starting to dawn on her how much this new toy is going to affect our diet and our waistlines.

Tonight she is attending a party for the first year junior high school teachers, so she’ll get home late. That leaves me at home with just a grill, a bunch of wine and my imagination. What’s the next experiment?

I promise I’ll return to talking about regular topics soon – if you’re sick of hearing about the grill you don’t have too much longer to wait for non-grill related information!

This morning looking at our living filled with boxes from the recent arrival of cargo from America I knew I had to get it cleaned up and cleared out. Initially my goal was just to put everything away and spend time in the evening putting together the grill, but as it worked out things cleaned up pretty quickly, and by 7 a.m. I was working on assembling the BBQ.

It took a couple of hours to put it together, with extra time as I had to figure out what modifications I needed to do to convert it to natural gas as I built it. About halfway through the process I cut my thumb pretty deep as I was reaching underneath the steel – and so I also lost some time to first aid. By 10 a.m. I was pretty much finished, and so I hooked it up and flipped the switch, and the goddamn thing worked.

Not being prepared for immediate success I had no steaks or burgers laying around to test out the grill, but I improvised with some thinly cut pork leftover from our yakisoba dinner the other night. The grill got nice and hot, and cooked the meat quickly. Maybe a little too quickly – it’ll take some getting used to. I haven’t grilled anything on a gas grill since I first moved to San Diego about nine years ago, so I am way out of practice. Luckily I have lots of time to experiment with things and hopefully make some delicious meals for guests this summer.

I spent the rest of the morning putting away all the packing material (and there was a lot of it) and doing some grocery shopping. Tonight I’m going to try to make burgers for Kuniko, but I’m not sure how it’ll turn out. What did people do without the internet to find recipes and advice?

So thanks again to my folks and Nancy, Lynn and Kinsey for the great housewarming presents! Fredricks East Bar and Grill is officially open for business.

After consulting with Kuniko and thinking hard about taking the trip down to Kobe alone behind the wheel of the Kageyama family truck, we decided to ask if Kuniko’s dad Niro was willing to go along with me to help smooth things over. He said he was happy to do it, and so we met up in the late morning and he drove on down to Kobe. I was in charge of navigation, but it wasn’t really that hard to find, and since I had researched it for over an hour the night before with the idea that I would have to make the drive, I knew the roads well enough to give good directions. Today was a very rainy day, so we battled the weather every step of the way.

The warehouse was on Rokko Island, which is another one of those man-made islands off the southern coast of Kobe. We drove across the bridge and then found the warehouse almost immediately. I went inside, got some paperwork from my contact there (who kindly explained the entire process in English for me) and then we left for the customs office.

The office was just down the road, and after we entered Mr. Matsushita (my contact there) flagged us down. I guess he saw me coming – he was already waiting and ready at the door. He led us upstairs to the desk of a young worker who was sitting in for the guy who is usually in charge of personal customs declarations – and it was his first time actually going through the process. Luckily everyone was patient and we worked on the paperwork right up until lunchtime. The officers were really friendly, asking about the grill, our neighborhood in Japan, and what kind of work I do. Niro really enjoyed chatting with these guys, and time flew. Finally, we went outside to eat lunch in our car, and at 1 p.m. it was back inside to finish up.

The tricky part here was that I was declaring what was in the cargo before I actually saw what was in it. My folks had sent a list of items, so we went through the items one by one and I explained what it was, and then Mr. Matsushita translated for the other guy, and he looked them up in a giant book to find out what if any duty was required. The book even had an English translation so I could check to make sure I was being charged for the right thing, so it was easy. It was just sometimes difficult to find out what category “BBQ sauce” might fit into. The biggest break was that the most expensive item (the BBQ itself) was duty-free. The whole time I was just hoping that the list matched what was actually in the cargo – since I hadn’t even yet had a chance to see the package yet.

Finally, once we had the paperwork done we all drove over to the warehouse again, where they showed us how to get the cargo. A big red forklift brought out the pallet and box, and it was in beautiful condition. He loaded it onto the back of our truck, and it fit with room to spare. No problemo!

Then it was back to the underbelly of the customs building. There they unloaded the pallet and set it in a corner of a big warehouse, and asked us to open it up. We cut through all the packing material, and unscrewed the lid to get at the contents of the big wooden box. The BBQ was easy to open up, and it was in perfect condition – I’m glad I didn’t lie and say it was used to try to save some yen, because it was all in the original packing and obviously new. That would have been awkward.

While I was unscrewing the wooden box, Kuniko’s dad unpacked the BBQ. As it turns out they just wanted us to lay things out so they could see them, but Niro got a little carried away and was taking every little piece out of the boxes. Luckily a customs guy told him not to worry too much about it. All I was thinking was how we were going to get it all back into the same box again. As for unscrewing the wooden box, another officer brought a screwdriver and helped me and we made good progress until the last two screws – all the screws were phillips, but the last two were flathead. For some reason all the customs guys laughed at that, and Mr. Matsushita said to me in English that it was easy to tell which packages came from America. I didn’t know quite what to say about that, but I had brought a flathead screwdriver as well so it was easy to finish up.

As everything was laid out the customs agents from all over the warehouse came over to check out the BBQ. Nobody had seen anything quite like it, and so they were discussing what each part might do. The highest custom duty was on the BBQ sauce listed on the manifest, so the officers wanted to see the sauces. We took them out and they asked lots of questions. The questions weren’t the suspicious kinds of questions, rather they were asking what kinds of foods they were good on, what flavors did they have, and if they made a big difference in flavor. I never felt like they were looking to bust me for something – they were just having fun checking out these strange items from overseas.

Once we had everything laid out they brought in a drug-sniffing dog and had the dog go through the whole shipment. They walked him/her through the boxes about ten times – it was cool to watch the process. I wanted to take a picture, but everywhere there were “NO PICTURES!” signs, so I couldn’t document the process properly. Once we passed the doggie test, we were free to load everything up and put it back on the truck.

The next step was to go upstairs and fill out some forms and then I had to pay the custom duty. It was only 3600 yen (about $36) but for some strange reason, I couldn’t pay at the office – I needed to go to a local post office to pay and then bring back proof. As we finished the paperwork he said that I needed to hurry – the post office was closing in 30 minutes. The situation got more complicated when they realized that since they had loaded up our truck we couldn’t take it off the premises until we paid, so we couldn’t leave in our vehicle. In the end they bent a few rules and we worked something out – but I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone how we did it.

After payment we made a final trip to the warehouse to give them some paperwork, and then we were on the road heading back to Okubo. The whole process took about three hours (not counting the lunch break), plus an hour there and an hour back, but it was expedited greatly by all the help we got from the customs agents and the warehouse people. It would be easy for them to say “here are the forms, good luck” but they instead guided us every step of the way and really bent over backwards to help us out. Kuniko’s dad also deserves a medal for taking the trip with me and doing so much to help get the cargo from the dock to our doorstep. He even helped me unload everything into the house in the pouring rain, and then took off to get some much-deserved rest.

Tomorrow I’ll try to get the grill put together, but until then it is relaxation time. When Kuniko gets home it’ll be like Christmas as we check out all the stuff that arrived from America. Can’t wait to start grilling!

This past Friday the Paris Express steamed into Kobe, and today the cargo was unloaded and put into storage awaiting customs clearance. I got a notice by email saying that I was officially good to go, and now the ball is officially in my court.

Apparently the process is that I need to go down to a warehouse on Port Island in Kobe, fill out paperwork, take the paperwork to the customs office, bring a customs official with me back to the warehouse to inspect the cargo, go back to the customs office to finish the paperwork, then go back to the original warehouse to load up the cargo and go.

Talking with the customs official today he said that it was very unusual for normal people to deal with this stuff – usually it is on a larger scale – but it will just take some time, and that I should plan for the whole day. I called Kuniko’s dad and he’ll let me borrow the truck on Wednesday to go down and pick up the goods.

So Wednesday should be very interesting. I’ll be driving on my own to Kobe (for the first time) in Kuniko’s dad’s manual transmission truck (for the first time), to find the offices and go through the paperwork to get things cleared through customs (for the first time), and then drive the loaded truck back to Okubo. Nervous? Oh, yes. But as the title of this post says, you’ve got to weather a little risk to get the good rewards.

But after spending time on the phone today with the customs clearance warehouse people as well as the Kobe customs office I’m convinced that Japan really is a great place for foreigners to live. Both offices had somebody who could speak English and help me out, and they were both very polite, patient and positive. They gave me names and phone numbers to use during the day in case I get in a jam, and the customs office offered to dedicate the English-speaking officer to me for as long as the process takes. He seems really nice – he laughed when I said that the main part of the cargo is a BBQ grill. In his mind he’s probably wondering why I’d ship a grill all the way from America when normal people only use a grill 2-3 times a year.

Tomorrow I’ll be using Google Earth to plot my course and prepare for the big trip on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

I had a fun weekend – starting with an interview in Osaka on Friday afternoon. I ran down there based on an ad that I saw on the web for a teaching position in Kobe/Osaka. I’ve been looking for something a little more permanent in the Kobe area, but as it turned out this position was for a part time position closer to Osaka. It might be better for me to stay busy in this area with my current company, but maybe in the future they might have some work for me. We’ll see….

The plan was to meet up with Kuniko in Kobe that evening after she got work and grab some Mexican food, so I got in some Osaka time walking around Nanba and Shinsaibashi. The weather was cloudy and a little humid, but comfortable enough for walking around. I don’t get to Osaka much, so it was cool to walk around without a schedule and explore a bit.

Back in Kobe I killed time drinking wine at Sigassiga. The staff are always really friendly, and they’ve got a pretty good wine selection. I had an Australian blend of Viognier, Gewurz and Sauv Blanc that was refreshing, and then a glass of Cline Syrah to wrap things up. I really earned my winegeek cred when I name-dropped Charlie Tsegeletos – the sommelier was a big fan of Cline and knew the name well. Thanks, Charlie!

Kuniko and I went to the new location of our favorite Mexican restaurant – Gitchi. We used to always go there when it was located near Kobe station – we were very eager to try it out now that it had moved to Sannomiya. Here’s the quick review – it sucked.

At the old location we put up with the grouchy owner because the food was good (for Japan). Unfortunately the food was pretty blah – so there isn’t much left to recommend at Gitchi. The prices aren’t bad, I guess. The quesadillas are OK, but it is pretty hard to screw up a quesadilla. The tacos suffered from sweetened meat syndrome (why do Japanese people add sugar to taco meat?) and everything was just too bland for us. So with no good Mexican restaurant in Kobe that just leaves our own house as the best source of delicious Mexican food. Luckily we have a source for pretty much everything we need to make it. Still, it was a little sad – like mourning the passing of an old friend. Goodbye, Gitchi. Maybe we’ll come back in a year and see if you’ve improved.

Saturday Kuniko was off to Himeji to attend an overnight conference for her school, and I went into Kobe to attend a ship launching ceremony at Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Yoshi met me at the station with his wife and son and also some friends from the neighborhood. We walked about fifteen minutes to the shipyard and then followed a secured path to the waterfront. The ship was there in drydock – and it was huge. It was called the ‘African Kingfisher’, and according to the pamphlets we received it is 190 meters long and 31,000 tons. We could walk right up underneath it, and it was pretty impressive.

There was about 20 minutes of pomp and speeches (including the breaking of a bottle of champagne) and then they let the giant ship slide down the rails into the water. It was a lot like a controlled fall, and it was amazing to think that they launch one of the these every two months. Once the ship is in the water they move to another dock and spend another two to three months finishing it up. I took lots of photos and a video the big ship sliding by – but it was with my digital camera so the quality ain’t great. Still, it was one of those events you’ll always remember.

After the launching ceremony we all went to Harborland for lunch at a Korean restaurant, and there Yoshi and his wife invited us over to his place for dinner that night – they knew that Kuniko was gone for the night, and I think they were afraid I might starve to death. Since my schedule was open and I was having such a good time with them I accepted, and after running some errands around Akashi and Tarumi we took a bus out to their place.

They’ve got a nice two-story house in an older neighborhood in Tarumi, and the place was really comfortable. There is a nice yard out back, and we spent most of the time sitting outside in the shade drinking beer and enjoying the beautiful weather. After we had arrived we heard a bell ringing outside, and Mamiko (Yoshi’s wife) sent us outside to buy tofu from a tofu salesman – kind of like the ice cream truck in the USA, this guy drove around selling tofu door to door. That was a new one for me.

Mamiko made a series of delicious homemade pizzas with lots of interesting toppings (shrimp, lotus root, pesto and cheese!) I had bought a couple of bottles of wine to enjoy with some cheese and we had a great time sampling, eating and drinking. Mamiko is a lot like Kuniko in that they are both strong drinkers and they love pairing food with wine. Yoshi’s family really put on the hospitality – it was great night.

Now it is Sunday night, and we’re taking it easy here at home. Tomorrow is Kuniko’s busy day of the week, so we’re taking advantage of the down time while we can.