I posted some more pictures from Mark’s trip in the picture gallery. Check them out when you have time!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the site – I’ve been busy wrapping up Mark’s visit, and lately we’ve been cleaning up and organizing the house. Next week is the start of school for Kuniko and me, and I’m looking forward to getting in front of some students and teaching some classes. More updates as they come!

Today Mark and I met up with Kuniko’s dad to drive around and see some of the local sites that are really best seen by car. He picked us up in Takasago, and from there we drove to Shoshazan Temple in northern Himeji. The temple is accessed via a ropeway from the base of a mountain, and once you arrive at the top you walk for about ten minutes to get to the main temple.

The walk there was beautiful – we were away from all the noise of the city and the cars, just walking through a peaceful forest. We turned a corner and descended to the base of a hill. On the side of the hill was Shoshazan Temple. It had a dramatic balcony and colored silk flags were suspended across the front. We took lots of pictures, and then walked up the steps on the side of the hill to enter the temple itself.

The temple is pretty famous already, but it was a location where The Last Samurai movie was filmed, so it became even more famous. As we walked in the main entrance, one of the monks asked us to walk in the back way – there was a special exhibit going on. There was a special statue of buddha that was so holy that they keep it hidden away from public view. However, they had it on exhibit to celebrate somebody’s 1000th birthday. They brought it out for the first time in 800 years for the public to see, and then in June they’ll put it back for another 100 years or so. It was pretty cool, but no cameras allowed so we can’t share it with you.

In the front of the temple we lit some incense and candles and did some prayers, and then walked around the rest of the grounds for another hour or so. The whole time Kuniko’s dad told us what he knew about the area and kept us in information. I translated the best I could, but I wasn’t able to pass on all the detail that he was giving us.

After Shoshazan we went to lunch at an izakaya-type place. We had a set meal – Kageyama-san and I had a sashimi and tempura set, and Mark had an eel, rice and tempura set. It was really good, and despite our best efforts to get the check, Kageyama-san picked up the bill.

The next stop was a sake brewery that the Kageyamas often visit. We got a great tour from one of the workers and learned about the process in detail. Even though it was a fairly large-scale operation, the process was pretty primitive, and coming from a winemaking background I was especially interested to see how it worked.

Afterwards we went shopping and tasting in the tasting room. They let us taste anything we wanted, and they poured pretty big portions. We found some bottles that we liked, and Kageyama-san wanted to pay for those, too. We ended up sneaking in and paying for them, and we felt pretty satisfied. Kageyama-san bought some bottles for himself, and then we left.

On the way home we stopped in at the Kageyama farm to check it out. There had been some major improvements in the trailer – now there was carpet, a refrigerator full of beer, and a very comfortable space to relax. A regular home away from home.

Our last stop was the Kageyama household. We tried to get him to take us back to the train station, since Kuniko would be coming home and we wanted to have dinner ready for her. He insisted we visit for just a cup of tea. When we arrived, however, Mrs. Kageyama was cooking away and by the time we got out of there we were carrying loads of takoyaki, a cake for dessert, and the bottle of sake that Kageyama-san had bought… he fooled us by saying it was for himself but then he gave it to us to drink.

He drove us home from there and we arrived right after Kuniko arrived. We ate up the takoyaki for dinner, and then played a couple of games of Sorry. Tomorrow Kuniko has to go to work, but Mark and I will do some shopping in a bid to fufill his souvenir needs. It was a great day today, and we both felt like we saw a side of Japan that most people don’t.

Kuniko and I struggled to get up this morning at a decent hour – it was a chore. We both had to go to work. Kuniko has to work this whole week – I just have to go in today and Friday. We were out the door around seven, leaving Mark in charge of the homestead for the day.

There were several big events at my school today. We had our new teachers showing up for the first time, and so there was a big meeting to introduce the new teachers and staff. Also, everyone had to move their desks to a new location for the new year. That is, except for me. I’m in the same seat that I’ve held for almost three years.

Since I wasn’t moving it was just a matter of staying out of people’s way. I worked on the 2000 flashcards that I haven’t had time to memorize while Mark has been here, but I wasn’t able to catch up completely.

In the afternoon we had the meeting, and they introduced all the teachers. They seemed to be a nervous bunch, which I guess is to be expected – I was nervous my first day, too. There are two English teachers in the group, and I was able to talk to one teacher – Nosaki sensei. She seems really nice, and the early rumor among the other teachers was that she was a superstar in English. I didn’t really think so after talking to her, but if it makes everyone else nervous maybe it’s a good thing.

The cute girl in the office was replaced by another cute girl, and she was introduced with everyone else. I can’t understand the system of always having one cute girl in the office. Do they have a job description for that? Why does the position turn over every year? There’s something odd with that system.

At the very end of the meeting a couple of teachers stood up and complained about the new rules on smoking at school. Today was the first day that it was enforced, and I occasionally saw teachers sitting at the park adjacent from our school smoking. The complaint was that the students that were practicing club activities in the park were teasing the teachers that were smoking, and if the rule was made to keep the sight of teachers smoking from the students, it was having the opposite effect. I’m not sure where they left it, but it must have been an eye-opening experience for the new teachers to see them duke it out over tobacco.

I had a meeting in the afternoon with the English teachers to react to the original meeting, and we decided that a different teacher will be in charge of me this year – Yamamoto sensei. He’s the laid back teacher that invited me to see a concert in Osaka, so I was really happy about that. He’s an easy teacher to get along with. Hayashi sensei will be doing a student trip to Australia when my replacement shows up, so he wasn’t able to perform the duties again.

Now I’m home with Mark. Mark went shopping at IY and got some supplies for a Mexican dinner that he’s making for us. It smells great – I can’t wait until Kuniko shows up so we can eat it…

Mark put together some pictures and posted them in the photo gallery.

We went over Sunday night to have dinner at the Kageyama’s place. This was Mark’s big chance to meet them, and try some home-cooked Japanese food. We ended up having sukiyaki, and it was really good. Mr. Kageyama filled us with beer and sho-chu and keep the stories coming about the area and I did my best to translate them for Mark. Kuniko took over now and then to give me a break – it was hard work.

As usual they sent us home with loads of gifts, and Mark presented them with some gifts, and some stuff from America from my parents. During the evening we arranged to have a tour of a sake brewery on Tuesday from Mr. Kageyama. There might be some other stuff, too – I’m not sure what will happen. Kind of like a mystery tour or something.

Kuniko looked exhausted, so we decided to head out a little early. We got home around ten, and Kuniko spent two hours sewing some bags up in the dining room/kitchen, so she was completely wiped out by the time we went to bed.

Today we’ve finally got some downtime to catch up on what’s been going on. Thursday we went to Nara with Atoine and his parents. Antoine is taking the hands off approach to his parents’ visit. They are staying in Kobe and he’s not really taking any time off to do anything with them. Thursday was an exception, and so we met up with them in Osaka.

We introduced ourselves to his parents because Antoine hadn’t arrived yet, and they seemed really happy to chat with English speakers. Antoine’s dad spoke with a thick French accent that was really hard for me to pick up. His mother spoke clearly and so it was much easier to follow what she said.

Once Antoine showed up we navigated our way to the JR trains and caught a series of trains towards Nara. I wasn’t exactly sure how to get there – the last time I went to Nara I cut through Kyoto, so it was a new route for me. It worked out, though, and we arrived OK. I got directions in Nara from a nice college student who went way above and beyond in describing how to get where we wanted to go.

We toured around Nara all day, and then headed back to Kobe to have dinner. We went to the Belgian beer place, and met Kuniko there, and then tried to go to Asian Days – an all-you-can-eat dim sum place. Unfortunately, the wait was too long, so we went instead to a yakiniku place that I knew about. We gathered around the hot grill and cooked up several plates full of meat.

Afterwards we said goodbye to Antoine’s folks. They are considering a trip to Hiroshima on their own, so I hope that works out for them.

Friday we went for a drive around the southern Kansai area, but first stopped in at a local restaurant for Akashi-yaki. Akashi-yaki is just like takoyaki – little balls of dough with a boiled octopus piece inside. The difference is that you eat Akashi-yaki by dipping the balls into a bowl of broth and ground up hot peppers.

After three plates of Akashi-yaki we walked back to the house, and then jumped in the car and headed to Tarumi. Tarumi has some good views of the Akashi bridge, and we thought we might do a little shopping there, too. Mark found an ATM that worked with his bank card, so we were rolling in dough after a visit there.

Once we had finished shopping in Tarumi, we hit the road for some random driving around. We somehow ended up near Kobe Winery, so we bought some snacks there even though the tasting room part of the facility was already closed.

At home we were definitely Miller time. We are working on drinking Asahi beer just because there is a chance to win a refrigerator robot that pours beer for you. Kuniko drank wine and we sat around drinking and resting until dinner time. We went to Ito Yokado for dinner and ate at the Korean restaurant on the third floor. It was new food for Mark, and I think he enjoyed it.

We got home and played some very competitive games of “Sorry” using the new board that Mark brought. Kuniko was taking it very seriously, and wouldn’t let us quit until she won a game.

Saturday we got up early and met up with a gang of friends in Sannomiya. We met up with Tamura sensei and her boyfriend, Yuri and her mom, and one of Kuniko’s ex-coworkers from Shoyo high school. Together we caught a train to Kyoto, and spent the day sightseeing around there. We went to a couple of new places for me, and managed to avoid huge crowds. We did get stuck in some long lines of people marching down the streets shopping, but for the most part we were able to move fairly easily around the city to see what we wanted to see.

At the end of the day we went to a tea house and had some authentic Kyoto green tea, and then we all caught trains home. On the way back I coordinated with Yasu and invited him over to dinner for pizza. Mark had wanted to try Japanese pizza, so this was his big chance. He agonized over the menu, and finally we got some pizzas to try out and we ordered. Yasu had brought loads of alcohol and by the end of the night we had supplemented that alcohol with some sho-chu that Kuniko’s father had given us.

It might have been tough on Mark since Kuniko and Yasu and I lapsed into Japanese quite a bit, but it was a highlight to see Mark trying to explain a air quotes and a penis pump to Yasu. Finally we sent Yasu pretty drunk with a bottle of sho-chu for his family to drink.

Guest Blogger on the Scene!

After a couple days we are finally taking the time to update the web site. It has been a lazy day today, Bryan and I went over to visit his school. Most of the students are away on spring break, but we met a few and a lot of his fellow teachers and office staff at the school. Everyone was very interested in me and what I thought of Japan. After that we had a tasty lunch in town at a coffee shop, then walked around the Sun Mall there. We decided to head over to Akashi after that, where we spent a long time in Toys R Us indulging me in my love of toys. I managed to get out of the store only spending 300 yen. We also spent some time in Tower Records where Bryan picked up a cd for Kuniko. After that it had started raining, so we headed to the train station post-haste to get back to Futami. Now we are relaxing for a while before heading to a hard night of enjoyment at the local yakitori.

Yesterday was Kobe, and a very busy day. We spent most of the day browsing through different shopping areas. A storm forced everyone indoors in the early afternoon making for a very hectic trip. Kuniko got a massage while we were in town, so Bryan and I did our part by hoisting a couple in a nice bar downtown. I’ve got my eye on a few items in some of the shops there, so the next time we get to Kobe I will probably be picking some more things up. We also had some awesome sushi for lunch, huge pieces of fish on top of a very small amount of rice. Very tasty!

That is the update for now! Tomorrow we are meeting Antoine and his parents who are visiting in Osaka, and we will be heading to Nara for the sights. We haven’t transfered any pictures yet, but that will be coming soon!

Tonight we went to the airport and picked up Mark. He was carrying tons of luggage, most of which was gifts and presents from America. We got him home and then went out for okonomiyaki at a restaurant nearby. He’s a little overwhelmed right now with Japan. Tomorrow we’ll sleep in a bit and then go do some exploring.

I had forgotten how much whispering, running around, sudden meetings in spare offices and the last minute emotions that go into another announcement of teacher transfers. Today I sat back and took it all in. With nothing invested it is easier to focus on how people behave and how they handle the situation. I love watching people – if I could make money doing it I would.

The upcoming spring term is my lame duck term – I’ll be teaching classes for the term but then I’ll be gone forever and the students will have to get used to a new teacher during the fall term. This made it a little less interesting to see who I would be teaching with next.

The teachers filed up to the meeting room at ten o’clock, and the principal read off a short list of teachers that will be leaving and teachers that will be coming to replace them.

Overall, there weren’t really any main players making changes. I mentioned the two yesterday, and there wasn’t anybody else that really gets written about in this journal. We lost three English teachers, but gained one. They added a school nurse, so now we have three, and the part time teacher lineup changed quite a bit. Other than that, not much exciting happened. The history teacher will still be around to torment me next term, but with the light at the end of the tunnel, I think I can persevere.

The purpose of the rest of the day is for the teachers to meet and discuss the changes. They met as different groups – first they met by school year, then by groups, and then finally by subject. I had to stick around for the English meeting in the late afternoon, which meant I sat around the empty staffroom most of the day.

To compensate for all the free time I walked over to the bank to get some money, and I stopped in at Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. It’s not my favorite place to eat, but I thought I’d just grab a chicken sandwich and run. It turned out that an ex-student of mine was working there, and she made my sandwich and then came out to say hello. Her coworkers were impressed that she knew me and we chatted for a little while.

Since the history teacher gave me a present the other day, he intends to cash in on the goodwill that he supposedly bought. In other words, he wants value for his money. I spent a lot of time dodging him today and yesterday, and I hope that this isn’t a trend that continues. Yikes.

As for the English meeting, it was a strange one. This meeting is where people traditionally take new roles and responsibilities for the new year, and since nobody wants to take on new work, the moderator would ask a question, followed by about 1-2 minutes of total silence as people stared at their paperwork hoping that the moderator would stop asking questions. This went on for 30 minutes. It would be painful to watch if you didn’t like watching people.

As I was coming out of the bathroom the principal took me aside and told me that one of the new English teachers is coming from New York – her husband had been working there at a bank. He said that her English is supposed to be top notch, and he spent almost a half hour with me talking about how he wants to improve the English level of his staff. It was fun to talk to him, but I’m a little frustrated that I can’t add more to the discussion. He doesn’t seem to mind though, and he expects me to sit and listen anyway since he is older than me and that is my role – nod and agree with everything.

Lastly, before I left for the day the vice principal pulled me aside and told me that he is being promoted to principal of a special public high school for the disabled and blind. When I get back from my vacation he will be gone. I was sad to hear that he will be gone, but I was glad to hear about his promotion. It was still top secret when I left – he said I was the third person to know about it. I’ll miss having him to chat with around the staffroom. I wonder if the next guy will be as relaxed.

Now I’m back home with some pork steaks marinating in the fridge. Kuniko should be home pretty soon, and then we can maybe kick back and relax for a little while. She’s got to work tomorrow, so I’ll be on the hook for laundry and cleanup duties. I anticipate that the biggest decision I’ll make tomorrow is what music to listen to while I’m working around the house.

We continue with weird schedules at school this week. The students came in today for a cleaning session, and the closing ceremony. We had the closing ceremony in the newly-refurbished gymnasium, which smelled like fresh paint and had a beautiful new floor. I hadn’t realized how crappy the old one was.

The ceremony was the same old thing, the opening words to the closing ceremony, the closing speech by the principal, the school song, the closing ceremony to the closing ceremony, and then we were out of there.

At one o’clock, the new students for next year came in and sat through an orientation session, and then walked around to buy their uniforms, textbooks, school bags, gym clothes, etc. I dropped by the orientation just to check it out, but I didn’t stay long. Not so exciting.

I spent some time talking with the principal in his office, and he confirmed that the job he mentioned to me before is located in Tokyo, and that’s a lot farther than I want to go for a job. He said that he’d keep his eyes open for anything else, so I’m hoping that it might pay off down the road. I’m not holding my breath, though.

Tomorrow there is a meeting to announce who is getting transferred, and who will be coming to join us at our school after spring break ends. This is a yearly ritual, and is always a hot topic for gossip with the teachers. Today I heard that Kimura sensei and Kawamura sensei will both transfer to Akashi Nishi high school, right near my apartment complex and across the street from Ito Yokado. I congratulated them – Akashi Nishi is what the Board of Education calls a “Super English High School”. They have three native English speakers there, instead of Takasago Minami which has just me. They have a big budget and really focus on improving English skills. It’s kind of a pilot program to see if adding more money and staff will make any difference in how well students learn English. Kimura sensei and Kawamura sensei aren’t our top English speakers, though, so I’m a little worried about them. I hope they do OK.

Kuniko had the day off today, and she had already made plans for dinner – salad udon. It was something new for me, and it turned out great. She cooked up udon noodles like normal, but then served them over lettuce, tuna, corn, and cucumbers with a somen sauce and a squirt of mayonnaise. Very, very good. With dinner we watched one of the movies we rented, “War of the Worlds”. Mah.

Tomorrow is my last day before a long spring vacation. My brother gets into town on Sunday night, so from there it will be lots of touring around and eating. Looking forward to it!

Tuesday was a holiday, celebrating the spring equinox. I was happy to take the day off, and because Kuniko was free too it was that much better. We didn’t do much all day but sit around the house reading in the kotatsu, eating up leftovers from the refrigerator, and relaxing.

I have been reading a lot of books in English lately, and it is a real pleasure to read at full speed in English after taking months and months to finish a Japanese novel. I spent most of Tuesday reading “Memoirs of a Geisha”. It’s my first time reading the book, and it is a lot of fun to read.

Monday the principal of my school came to me with a job posting – the prefecture is looking for a couple of people to work as “program coordinators” starting next year. The principal read the job posting to me, as it was all in Japanese. Of course, he read it in Japanese, so it was still a struggle to figure it out. As for the job duties, it sounds like a lot of communication between ALTs and the powers that be, and putting efforts into internationalizing various government branches. No teaching.

I meet all the requirements, except for one: exceptional Japanese language skills. I think I have passable Japanese skills – certainly not exceptional. So, on Tuesday I thought about whether to go for it or to hold out for a teaching position. When I went to bed on Tuesday I was thinking I should just give it a shot, but I’m thinking this morning that it probably would end up being a waste of time – mine and theirs. I can’t even understand Japanese TV and it is a struggle to read most documents and newspapers. And, I have really enjoyed teaching and I’d like to keep doing it.

Later in the day today I found out that the job may be based in Tokyo, so that pretty much wipes it out right there. We’ll find out more information tomorrow apparently.

Tonight Kuniko cooked up yudofu (tofu cooked in hot broth and then dipped into a orange ponzu sauce with grated radish and onions) and we ate that along with some leftovers from the other night on the side. It was a great dinner, and we were both very full afterwards. Now I’m going to do a little reading and hit the sack. Kuniko has tomorrow off, but I’ve got to go into work.

It was a very sleepy Monday morning, and so we got a late start to the train station. I arrived with plenty of time to spare, however, and settled in to work on the leftover vocabulary that I didn’t get to on Sunday.

The history teacher dropped by and gave me a present. This was a present of appreciation for helping him with the desktop publishing problem he had on Thursday. It also is a little bit of a guilt alleviation device for him; he knows that he takes up a lot of my time everyday, and this is a way for him to feel better about it. A year or so ago he took me out to dinner to show his appreciation, but I’ve avoided his invitations since then since he wants to use me as a wingman to help get one of the part time teachers at our school.

As for the present, it was a cocktail glass – handmade, Italian, probably way too expensive. Only one, but I guess I can have a scotch or a tequila in there sometime. Weird.

The teachers this morning were very busy with various exam announcements and getting the students through several different meetings and ceremonies. We didn’t have the big closing ceremony today, however – I guess that will happen later in the week.

The students were gone by 1 p.m., so the afternoon was a good chance for everyone to catch their breath. I sent a letter off to the California DMV to try to get a copy of my driving record. I’m not sure if they’ll send it to me all the way in Japan, but I need it to prove that I’ve had a valid license for more than three months before I came to Japan. Normally I could use my CA driver’s license as proof, but in a turn of bad luck I had it renewed just a month before I left, so the issue date is too recent to be valid.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty mellow – just studying at my desk and enjoying the peace and quiet.

Later on that night I headed over to Denya to have drinks and conversation with Atsushi-san. It has been a very long time since we’ve met up. We caught up on each other’s lives and ordered lots of delicious yakitori foods from the master. I got to spend some time talking with the master and it sounds like he is doing a fair amount of English study. He’s also busy taking a seminar about selling insurance. I think the master is always looking for ways to supplement his income from the restaurant – maybe he’ll end up selling insurance to people with their yakitori sticks.

At one point a group of three guys invited me over because they wanted to speak English with me. I indulged them for a while, enough for the guy to impress his coworkers. He invited me over by saying, “Will you enjoy me?” He said it twice before I realized he was trying to say “Will you join me?” I hung out with them for just a little while, until the conversation headed towards the length of schoolgirl’s skirts. Then I excused myself and headed back to hang with Atsushi-san.

When I got home Kuniko had just arrived, and it sounded like her dinner/drinking party was a success. I was glad to hear it. Tomorrow is a day off for a holiday, so we’ll get another chance to sleep late.

Kuniko and I are enjoying a nice easy weekend. Saturday we slept in and did a whole lot of nothing all day. I kept up with my vocab work, and we did a little bit of laundry. On the whole, not a lot to write about.

We did watch one of my favorite TV programs, 女王の教室, which means “The Queen’s Classroom” literally – I’m sure that it has another subtle meaning. The show on Saturday was a prequel to the original series which I watch occasionally with Kuniko on Saturday nights. I am able to understand about half of what is said – it’s pretty tough to catch everything and sometimes I have to ask Kuniko about some plot point that maybe I didn’t get.

It was very entertaining, though, and after that was over Kuniko and I stayed up late reading and finally went to bed after 1 a.m.

Today we slept in a gain and did lots of laundry, and then got the house cleaned up for Tomo-chan’s lunchtime visit. We made up tacos, and ate a nice big lunch. It was good to see Tomo-chan – I hadn’t seen her since our wedding. She seemed really happy and to be enjoying her married life. We talked in a mixture of English and Japanese, since her English is so good. It was really fun to chat with her and practice my broken Japanese.

She seemed to enjoy the tacos and guacamole, and it turns out that she is a daily reader of this journal, so she knew all about my experiences with Homo Sausages.

We gave her a packet of taco seasonings to take home – so maybe she can make tacos for her husband sometime. She had brought some desserts for us, and there were lots of really delicious looking cakes, and a cherry blossom cake that was really good. Lately I’ve been going crazy over the cherry blossom stuff.

After we walked her to the station we cleaned up the kitchen a little bit, and now we’re going to spend a quiet evening catching up with studying and maybe watching some TV. I think we might be able to skip dinner – it was a very big lunch.

Tomorrow it’s back to school for both of us, but there’s not much on the schedule – I think we just have a closing ceremony. Kuniko is doing a drinking party after school with her teacher’s group, and I am going to meet up with Atsushi-san at Denya for some drinks and conversation.

I woke up with Kuniko in the morning and together we cooked up some breakfast while she got ready. Right after breakfast I went back to sleep and then woke up once more when Kuniko was leaving. Then I went back to sleep one more time and woke up around ten in the morning.

I heated up the bath to superhot, and then spent about twenty minutes in there steaming. After the bath I cooked up another Homo Sausage for lunch with ketchup, mustard, and garlic salt. If you close your eyes you can almost imagine that it is not made of fish matter.

In the afternoon I was looking for some files in my computer and ended up on a trip down memory lane – I found some old backup email files from 1997-1999. It was fun to look at the emails that I sent and received around that time. Talking about my first website, chatting with Haven – chats which would eventually turn into the birth of our company.

I was able to merge all these old emails in with my current pile of email, so now I have almost ten years of emails stored on my machine. Efficient? No. Useful? Probably not. Still – it’s part of my history and it feels good to have them around. Maybe I’m an email packrat. I also found some old pictures that I forgot that I had – they were fun to look at, too.

Kuniko in fact did get home early, so we shopped for dinner together, and ended up deciding to make curry and rice. We made lots of curry, and watched “Howl’s Moving Castle” in Japanese with English subtitles. It was a good movie – I think I need to watch it without the subtitles and see just how much I am really getting.

This weekend should be very quiet. Kuniko has both days off, which is a rare thing. On Sunday we’ll have Tomo-chan over for a Mexican lunch – that should be fun. She is a really cool person.