Probably my biggest surprise in planning things for my family to do while in Japan was how much walking is involved. I don’t think about how much walking I do every day, and especially when you throw in a bunch of sightseeing trips – it makes for some very sore legs.

My family pushed through and did a great job. When it came to sitting around a table on the floor, they sat. When it came to eating strange unidentifiable things, they ate. I was really proud of them. I was especially proud of my mom, who subjected me to a lot of “eat this, eat that” when I was a kid. She wasn’t afraid to try anything.

Kinsey flew in on Friday night, and despite a miscommunication with Kuniko we got it figured out and Lynn and I took the bus into the airport. It was a long ride, but we swapped stories and talked all about the fun we had at the soba party the night before.

When Kinsey appeared at the gate she looked like she was full of energy. She grabbed the attention of everybody waiting for her, and the attention stayed on her for most of the trip.

We came back on the bus, and lugged her hot pink luggage onto the train and all the way to Akashi. She struck up a conversation with a very surprised guy in the elevator, and I think until then it hadn’t really dawned on her that people don’t speak English. The guy rebounded nicely, though, and spoke to her in rusty English. I think he thought that she and I were on our honeymoon in Akashi.

We checked Kinsey into the hotel and then went across the street to the okonomiyaki restaurant. The master was happy to serve us up again, and I enjoyed watching everyone showing Kinsey the ropes. She ate the onion and beef tendon okonomiyaki without a problem, and Lynn had a sly grin as he let her say how much she loved it. I understand he told her what was inside the okonomiyaki the next day.

Saturday was the day before the wedding, so we took it easy. Kuniko served up a traditional oden dinner, and everyone gave us presents. We had so many presents laying around, and little did I know at that time that it was only the beginning.

Sunday was the day of the wedding, and I wrote a whole entry just on that – you should go check that out.

Monday was the day after the wedding, and I think everyone was exhausted. I had caught a cold the night before, so I was pretty miserable. We had some people come over in the middle of the afternoon to hang out, and then we bundled everyone up in two cars and drove to the Kageyama farm, just about 15 minutes away from their home in Kakogawa.

I think everyone enjoyed seeing the fresh vegetables growing, and there were lots of questions for Mr. Kageyama. He answered and Kuniko or I would translate, and then there would be more questions. It was a really challenge for the translators, but we did the best we could. After touring the farm we continued up the hill to a temple that I had never visited before. We walked around and took some pictures. Kinsey and Kuniko rang the temple bell once, but apparently it was OK to do it – nobody came running to stop them. Apparently the bell was used in the past to signal that a fire was spotted, but I think those days are gone.

From there we drove out to a yakiniku place and my family had their first experience with self-grilled meat. Everyone ate a lot – even Kinsey who usually doesn’t like the idea of mixing her chopsticks with other people’s saliva. Since everything was being cooked on the fire, it was OK. My family treated the Kageyama’s, and they gave a big protest but finally relented. It was a real battle, though.

Tuesday was an early trip to Himeji, and then on to Hiroshima on the bullet train. That was a great experience for my family – the bullet train is very expensive, so to get a chance to ride that was really cool. Kuniko organized the tickets, and we jumped on board and in an hour we arrived at Hiroshima. We were sitting in the “silent car”, which was for people that might want to get some sleep in. There was a ticket holder to hold your tickets in case you where sleeping and didn’t want to be disturbed. Kinsey and Nancy loaded up their tickets in the holder, and when they got off they left them there. Oh, no! Kuniko did some talking with the station manager who ended up letting them through, mainly because they were foreign and we all had the same tickets.

Hiroshima was a whirlwind trip, but it was awesome. Our first stop was Miyajima, a kind of sacred island full of shrines, deer, trees, and shopping. We had to take a ferry to get there, and once we arrived everyone enjoyed playing with the deer. From there we walked through a ton of shops to get to the main attraction – the view of the shrine gate on the water.

We spent some time looking around, taking pictures of the trees changing colors, we had a quick lunch with some oysters, and then headed back to the heart of Hiroshima to see the Memorial Peace Park, the Atomic Bomb Dome, and the museum. By then Kuniko and I were both pretty bushed and we had seen both things before, so we waited outside. Before long everyone came out, and so we caught a taxi back to the station for a bit more souvenir shopping, and then we caught the train back.

We ate dinner in two groups upon arriving in Akashi. There was a sushi group and a ramen group. Kuniko lead the ramen group over to a pretty good ramen place across town, and Kinsey, Ray, and Lynn followed me underground to the tiny sushi place for a full on sushi dinner. He kept us in sushi and rolls and enjoyed the attention – it is a really good atmosphere, and we ordered plenty of hot sake to keep us warm.

Kuniko came and picked me up after they finished the ramen dinner, and together we went over to get a surprise for Lynn over at her house. Finally around 11 o’clock we hit the sack.

Wednesday was spent in Kyoto. We brought the surprise to Lynn on the train, and everyone was staring more than usual at a foreigner walking around with a gigantic Japanese bow and quiver of arrows. The bow is more than 7 feet long, so we made quite an impression. Lynn loved the bow. He was talking about it for quite some time and really enjoyed playing with it, checking the angles, and asking questions. Kuniko’s dad had used the bow during his school years, and it seems they both have a big interest in archery.

Wednesday was a national holiday in Japan. There were tons of people in Kyoto. For the first time, my family could see wall-to-wall people and get a feel for what it can be like sometimes around here. We split up into two groups for lunch again, and from there took a wild cab ride across town to Kiyomizudera. It was so crowded. The road that we walked up was filled with people, and there was a huge line just to get into the temple. We ended up skipping the actual temple and walked around taking pictures of the trees and scenery. Because of the crowds and a little bit of a late start we couldn’t see very much of Kyoto at all, but I think it was enough to give everyone a taste.

Finally we headed back to the station, walking almost the whole way, and then took the train to Sannomiya. There we ate at Asian Days, a really good all-you-can-eat dim sum and shabu shabu place. I think that everyone liked it, and we all went home with our bellies full.

Thursday we got everyone packed up, checked out of the hotel, and headed to the bus stop in Sannomiya. Kuniko met us there, carrying bags of presents from her students, and we got my family tickets on the bus to the airport. There were lots of tears, lots of hugs, and lots of staring from the people walking by. Still, it was a good chance to thank everyone for coming all this way. Kuniko gave them one last gift – a CD of music from our wedding, and a stuffed Anpanman for Kinsey. After we sent them off, we traveled all the way back to our place and completely crashed out. Kuniko is getting my cold, so a lot of rest seemed like the best thing.

Friday it is back to work, at least for one day, so we’ll try to take it easy until then.

I thought I might be tossing and turning the night before Kuniko and I got married, but we both slept soundly, got up like any other day, and dressed up in some nice clothes. Luckily the hotel had a bus picking up my folks, so we had an easy morning without having to worry about the logistics of getting them to the wedding in one piece and on time.

We took the train into Sannomiya, and walked the fifteen or so minutes down to the wedding place. We had made this walk so many times before – late at night, on weekends, after work, in the rain, in the heat, and it felt great to be taking that walk again, maybe for the last time.

I relaxed in the lobby and Kuniko went in to get her makeup and dress started. About fifteen minutes later they came and got me, and I got all dressed up in a flash, then together we went out in the hallway, bumped into my family who were just arriving in their dress clothes, and we all went up the elevator together and into the lobby.

In the lobby there were lots of friends that had already arrived, so we said some quick hello’s while the wedding people tried to herd us into two separate rooms – one for the bride and her family, one for the groom and his. I tried my hand at making tea, but I guess I screwed it up… it turned out that it wasn’t tea at all. The lady came in and made it properly. Everyone seemed nervous, but I wasn’t feeling nervous at all. Soon the photographer came in and introduced himself, and then we all kind of broke out of our defined rooms and went into a photographic frenzy.

When I say frenzy, I mean it. We went inside a huge lobby and sat down on two seats set up for the purpose. There were tons of people there. Kuniko’s ex-students from last year were there, all the people we invited, and it was overwhelming. Everyone was taking pictures, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that I felt like a movie star surrounded by papparazzi. We would sit there and smile into the flashes, and just go from side to side, with people switching places behind us. Kuniko had an assistant to help her with anything she needed – she kept things in her kimono for us and stayed out of the way just enough to not be noticed, but if anything came up she would come forward and take care of it. She was a big help that day.

After almost an hour of greetings and photographs we went down to do the ceremony in the chapel. Everyone was seated inside, and as we walked to the door our wedding organizer picked that time to say that she was sorry but she couldn’t find another priest for us, even though we had specifically asked not to have the one that was there today. Oh, well – nothing to do about it now! Good timing on her part.

While we waited outside for everyone to get seated, the priest tried to relax me by chit-chatting, and he asked me if I remembered everything. I answered truthfully that I remembered about half, and he didn’t seem too concerned. He gave me the address of his church and tried to get me to drop by and say hello some time. Thanks, dude.

The doors opened and we went inside, and although I’ve never been to a Japanese wedding I’ve seen plenty of pictures. The groom always looks like he’s on death row, so I really tried to look as relaxed as I felt. I think I pulled it off, but we’ll have to wait for the pictures to know for sure.

Then, they played “Here comes the bride”, and Kuniko was walking through the door with her father. They walked up to where I was, and her dad and I bowed to each other. He made his move to his seat, and I took Kuniko’s arm and we stepped up onto the altar.

The ceremony was very simple, and we avoided any major disasters. The ring exchange went perfectly, and everyone said “I do”, so it was a success in my book. I didn’t get as long a kiss as I would have liked, but at least I got a kiss on the lips.

We went out the door, hid in a little room, and then they had everyone go outside. We came out another door into the empty chapel, and then out onto the steps. Everybody clapped for no other reason than we pulled a nice disappearing act. Then we walked around the perimeter of people and they threw flowers on us. I’ve never down a flower shower kind of thing in a circle. Usually isn’t it with people on either side of you? Anyway, everyone got their licks in, even some of my students who made the trip all the way from Takasago.

Once that was finished we took a group photo, and then got everyone inside. Kuniko and I set up in the first room of the reception area, which was set up like a lounge/bar. I had a staff of two waiters who helped me pour drinks. Really, they did all the work. I opened one bottle of wine and that was about it. I’d rather spend my time talking and taking pictures.

Kuniko and I worked the crowd separately, and came together now and then for a picture for people. We had paid a lot of money to have the photographer on hand to take pictures for us. We both thought he was taking a lot of pictures of other things, though. I would see him taking a picture of a wedding present, or an artsy picture of the organist’s hands. Hey, those pictures could be from anybody’s wedding. I want pictures of my guests, buddy!

Then, we ushered everyone into the room, and made our own grand entrance. From there the whole thing was pretty well orchestrated. We tried to keep it simple. We had a couple of speeches, but mostly it was hanging out with friends and family. Their were two musical performances – one on piano by Kuniko’s friend Tomomi-chan, and one by Komori sensei playing the ocarina. Both of them were great, and everybody raved about the performances afterwards. It’s hard to play in front of a lot of people like that, but they did a great job.

At the end Kuniko read a letter to both sets of parents, and got lots of tears from everyone. We wrapped it up soon after that, and got everyone out in the lobby. The Denya yakitori gang wanted to get us out on the balcony, and there they tossed me in the air three times Japanese-style. Then, they got Kuniko and threw her up three times, too. I was there helping – kind of like a hip-hip-hooray on steroids.

We held a second party at a place called Arcobaleno in Sannomiya. There was a pretty good turnout, and the master of the yakitori organized the whole thing. We had picked the place earlier, but he handled all the money and the attendance. I had been to a second party once before, and it was pretty organized and centered around karaoke. Not much talking to people – at that time I don’t think I was introduced to anybody new.

Kuniko and I were determined to avoid that, and I think we succeeded. There was a little table for the two of us to sit, but neither us was there for long. We spent our time introducing people, talking to people that seemed to be lonely, and trying to bring together friends from all parts of our life.

There were some interesting connections – Tsuji-san, my Japanese teacher had been a student of Tsutsumi-sensei. Carrie’s vice principal was Miyake-sensei’s husband, Maeda sensei and Yamamoto sensei hit it off with the yakitori gang, and even set up a date to drink together over there. My dad was a big hit with Kuniko’s friends, who kept trying to get their picture taken with him. Lynn and Antoine and Kimura-san (the big guy from the yakitori) had a really interesting discussion in both English and Japanese about muscles. It was a blast to see, but there wasn’t much time for me to eat or to drink, really. As long as everyone else was enjoying themselves I was happy.

To wrap up the second party everyone in the place did one big clap of their hands, and then we started filing out the door. The master did a great job of wrapping things up, and Kuniko and I distributed small gifts to everyone that hadn’t been to the wedding.

We all gathered at the steps at the bottom of the restaurant and said our goodbyes. Kuniko and I had arranged for Tsuji-san to guide my folks back to their hotel, and so we were pretty free. We had previously agreed to head home and have some leftovers and then just relax. But – I had a surprise in store.

We broke apart from the crowd and walked along the Motomachi towards Sannomiya station. We were rolling a suitcase that we had brought just for this occasion – we had to transport lots of stuff back home from the ceremony.

I rolled the suitcase to the right suddenly and told Kuniko to jump in a cab. I threw the suitcase in the trunk and then got in and told the driver to take us to the Oriental Hotel. The Oriental Hotel is a really nice hotel on the ocean that is pretty dramatic – Kuniko was really surprised.

We got there, checked in, enjoyed some steak sandwiches via room service, and went out on our balcony to enjoy the view of the Kobe port and the ocean beyond. What a nice way to end a great day.

Yesterday we had another full day – starting off with a run to Mr. Donuts. This is one of my favorite donut places in Japan, and they have some unusual flavors. While Lynn went over to Starbucks for a coffee, Nancy bought us all donuts and coffee. I had some nikuman and an old fashioned glazed, while everybody else was eating a croissant type roll with a hot dog and cheese embedded inside.

From there we went to my school in Takasago, and really surprised all the students. They were really friendly, and came by to say hello. They were hoping for a glimpse of Kuniko I think, but unfortunately she had to work this week.

We were led into the principal’s office where he greeted everyone and said I translated as best I could until the vice-principal made it there. We talked for a little while, and then had a chance to sit in on Mori sensei’s international understanding class. She wasn’t aware that we would drop by, so I felt a little bad. Afterwards she said that she was very happy that we stopped in.

My dad was right at home, and went over to talk to a couple of students. Luckily he was talking to one of the better students, so I think they had a good conversation.

After that we had a chance to walk around and meet lots of students who were very curious about us, and we also got to meet Tsutsumi sensei, who is really a great person. Finally we wrapped things up and left. I thought it went really well. Everyone was nice to us and I think they were genuinely interested in my family.

Next stop was the grocery store for a quick snack to eat at the train stop, and then we caught the train to Himeji to tour the castle with Kuniko’s parents. They met us at the train station and gave us a big bottle of sake that we forgot last night, and then we walked to Himeji castle.

I’ve been to the castle several times before, and it is always very dramatic. As we walked there we could feel the temperature starting to drop – the weather is really changing up around here.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the tour, and the tour guide was really nice and did most of the tour in English. At the end we headed back, and everyone was trying to make conversation with the Kageyamas. The language barrier is tough, though. My mom managed to have a short exchange with Mrs. Kageyama, and she was really happy about that. I talked with Mr. Kageyama on the way back, and we were happy with how things went.

They walked us to the station, and so we got on board the Sanyo line and headed to my station.

We met Kuniko at the station by chance, and after a pitstop at my place for a bathroom break we went to the yakitori for a little dinner party. The master was there cooking away, and he greeted everyone, and even spoke some English for everyone. He must have been working hard on studying for us.

The food was great as usual, and we ate plenty of food. We went with an assortment of different foods, and the master kept serving us my favorites. The pork/kimchee dish was popular, and the mushroom dishes were also very popular. For a while we were the only people there, but soon a couple of regulars came in. They called some friends, and then I was able to introduce five regulars to my family.

They’ll be at my wedding, so we’ll get a chance to hang out again, but I was glad for them to be able to meet in their “natural environment” – at the yakitori.

Nancy was really enjoying the Okinawan Aomori, and by the time we got out of there, everyone was really happy. My dad bought everyone’s meal, and a round of drinks for the regulars and one for the master. What a nice guy!

The final challenge was for everyone to get on the train without assistance and go home to Akashi. They did great – dad called in once they arrived and said they had no problems.

Today we’ll be taking it a little easier, and going to Komori sensei’s house for a soba party. Friday will be Osaka – I’ll need to dream up some fun things to do there.

We are continuing to cram everything we can do into each day, and I think everyone is holding up well. Last night we went over to Kuniko’s parent’s house, and it went really well. Considering the culture and language barriers, everyone seemed happy to find out the new members of the family are nice people.

We ate and ate and ate and ate, and talked about all kinds of topics. At first it got started very slowly. The Kageyamas were working hard in the kitchen, and when Kuniko arrived she started helping them, leaving all of us to sit in the living room staring at each other.

Finally we coaxed Mr. Kageyama out of the kitchen and we all did a quick toast. Once the alcohol started flowing, people seemed to be a little more relaxed.

We had sukiyaki for dinner, with some rolled sushi on the side. Everyone did really well with their chopsticks – nobody asked for a fork. After dinner there was a big gift exchange. The Kageyamas seemed to like their gifts from my family, and they returned the favor by giving everyone giant bottles (twelve!) of sake and sho-chu.

We came on back to Akashi and tucked everyone into the hotel. Today we’re going to visit my high school, tour Himeji castle, and then finally have a party at my local yakitori.

It has been a challenge to squeeze everything that I think they should do into the schedule. I’m really hoping that we don’t have to sacrifice too much, but I don’t want to drive everyone to exhaustion. We’ll see how it shakes out!

So everybody showed up safely last night at the airport, and we gathered everyone up and took them back to Akashi. It was a long trip back by bus, car, and train, and during that time we were able to hear all about their plane trip. I guess it wasn’t so bad – no screaming babies and just a little turbulence.

My mom did really well according to the rest of the family. She’s never been much for flying, but apparently she did great. Everyone was in great condition and great spirits as they checked into their tiny hotel rooms and set themselves up.

After checking in, we all went across the street for okonomiyaki. The restaurant wasn’t so crowded, and the master gave us a funny smile when he saw how many foreigners were coming inside the place.

They served up some great food – and it was Nancy and Lynn’s first time eating okonomiyaki. We had tonpei-yaki, Hiroshima-yaki, butakimchee-yaki, and negisuji-yaki. I think everyone liked the food.

We went for a quick beer at Donkey, and again we got a funny look as the Donkey master watched us all file into the bar. By now, everyone had been drinking at least a couple of beers, so one more seemed like a good idea. But people were starting to fade fast, and it ended up being a quick drink. These guys had been awake for a long, long time. We took them back to the hotel, and then Kuniko and I drove home. Tomorrow will be a recuperation day for them, and then dinner at the Kageyama’s.

I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in this morning and seeing Kuniko off at the door. She’s a real trouper – she’s driving to work today which is a major pain in the ass in Japan. The commute is scary, and the toll roads are expensive. But the good news is that we’ll meet again in Kobe soon and drive to the airport together.

Since her car is so small, and there is quite a bit of luggage and people arriving, we’ll probably have to split up things a little. Still, we were both up late last night, too excited to sleep.

We’ll get them all settled into their hotel tonight, and then tomorrow we’ll take them over to Kuniko’s parents for dinner. Hopefully we’ll have some time to walk around Futami a bit and look around. I guess it depends on how hard jetlag hits them.

More later!

Today we slept in again, getting our sleep while we can. My back is still bothering me, so I popped some aspirin and did some stretches. Unbelievably bad timing, I’m telling you.

Kuniko and I had a long discussion about what to do about the photo albums for the wedding. Along the way I managed to hurt her feelings, we came up with three different ways to do it, and in the end decided to just do something very simple. Now I’m in the doghouse with a week left until the wedding.

We went to Kuniko’s parent’s place to pick up some wedding stuff, and a big blanket to keep us even warmer, as it’s getting colder these days. Then we stopped into a few stores on the way home. We went to Uniqlo, which is my favorite clothing store in Japan. While we were shopping there I bumped into one of my students. He is a cool third year student. My big memory of him was when Kuniko and I were teaching his class together. She used to walk by him and he got a dreamy look on his face. So you can imagine his surprise when she came walking up next to me and said hello. He didn’t know that we are married, so he asked if she goes shopping with all the English teachers – maybe Kimura sensei is next? It was a good joke, but I only got it after Kuniko explained it to me later.

But we weren’t finished breaking hearts. We left and went to lunch, and on the way back to the car parked in front of Uniqlo we walked by two women, one of whom I recognized as somebody I say good morning to every day on my way to work. She had a look of surprise, and I smiled and said hello, and Kuniko was wondering who that was, and I think everybody walked away surprised.

We stopped in at two more stores on the way home, and now we’re back here getting everything prepared to drop off at the wedding place tomorrow. Actually, I’m doing the website and Kuniko is doing all the preparing. I better wrap this up and help out. I’ll probably post a little more tomorrow before I head to Osaka to pick up the family. Maybe we’ll have a guest blogger soon!

I woke up Saturday morning with a tweaked back. I don’t think there was any specific time when I did it, but it’s pretty painful. It feels like I just need to stretch it, so that’s what I’m trying to do. Bad timing. Getting old is a bitch, I guess.

First thing I had to do was community cleanup. I worked side by side with Yasu who had invited Kuniko and I over for breakfast after the cleanup job. We staked out a small corner and snipped branches for a while. Not a tough ordeal. I came back after cleanup, took a shower, grabbed Kuniko and went over to Yasu’s place.

They had a great big breakfast set up, and we ate like kings. Yasu had made French toast for us, and those were great. I think I had four pieces, and I still had my eye on the ones on the plate when we left. They are really nice people, and they will be going to both the wedding and the second party.

Kuniko had to go into work for a little while, and then afterwards she ran off to Osaka to pick up some things for the wedding. I spent the afternoon doing laundry and talking with my folks. They are getting close to coming to Japan – it’s just a matter of days now. They sounded really excited about it. It’ll be fun to see them at the airport in Osaka.

It was a pretty mellow day otherwise. We cleaned house and did some chores and laundry. Just getting ready for lots of busy times ahead.

I’ll work on getting my back back into shape, and we should be good to go for next week. I’m still not sure if and/or when I’ll be updating the site while my family is here. I have a feeling I’ll be busy showing them around. We’ll just see how it goes, but I’m guessing there won’t be daily updates for the next few weeks. A little more spotty, I guess – sorry!

Kuniko and I split up some bakery breads for breakfast and took some to work for lunch. We’re skipping the bento lunch today because we will have to go into the wedding place one more time for some last minute decisions.

At work we had a short schedule, with only four classes lasting 40 minutes each. The classes were shortened to make room for a speech our school is attending at the community center near the train station in town.

Before the day ended two of my classes were conducted by a visiting professor from one of the local junior colleges. He is an American guy – he came to our school last year, too. I wasn’t too impressed with his lesson last year. He just pointed the kids towards a web page with lots of English games and activities, and then walked around making sure they understood everything. He gets paid a lot to come here, but whether he guides the kids on the activities or someone else does – I don’t think it matters a great deal.

Anyway, today was much the same as last year. He speaks one or two words of Japanese, but mainly he tells the students how to do things in English, which is great. The activities that the students did were created using an online website, and they were Jeopardy-like quizzes. The kids really enjoyed them, and for the most part it was a successful lesson. The students’ skills on the computer varied quite a bit, so I walked around and helped here and there. The students liked getting help from me rather than the strange short old foreign guy from New York.

One of the kids followed a wrong link somewhere on the website, and ended up with a tough question from somebody elses quiz. It was about landfills, and so one of the Japanese teachers asked me what a landfill is. I thought to myself that it was a pretty tough question for a high school English quiz. As it happened the guest teacher came by and saw it. He pointed at the screen and said, “That’s not mine!” in a defensive voice. That confused the student and the teacher, and they both thought that they had done something wrong. The guy could have calmly apologized and put in the right web page, but he just kept saying “That’s not mine!” in a louder and louder voice. I was beginning to think he might have snapped, but he shook himself out of it, and I set up the kid on the right page.

At the end of the lesson he pulled me aside and showed me his web page. I politely watched as he showed me his page, and he clicked on link after link to various internet resources. He led me to a movie script archive and said “Name a movie, any movie! They’re all here, and they’re free!”

I mentioned “Gone with the Wind” off the top of my head, and he said “Oh, that’s easy”. As you might have guessed, he couldn’t find it on the list. I just smiled politely and thought about how much money this guy was making to be bumbling through this lesson. I’m thinking I should do something cool on the web and show them how it’s really done sometime.

After classes ended I got a really nice wedding gift from the first year teachers, a set of cherry blossom ice cream bowls with pink plates and gold spoons. It was a really nice thing for them to do. I took all my stuff with me to the train station, locked up my gear in a coin locker, and then went with the rest of the students to Takasago City Culture Center.

The students all lined up outside under a sky that was threatening rain. We were a little worried that everyone would get rained on, but as it turned out only a few drops fell. My job was to walk around and chat up the students. We joked around and talked about how exciting the speech was sure to be. Little did we know….

Once we got in, everyone got settled, and they introduced the speaker. He was an older guy from a college somewhere in the area. He started the speech with everyone awake, but within 45 minutes nearly half the audience was asleep in their chairs. I was struggling myself to stay awake, but in the end I made an activity out of estimating the number of people still conscious in the auditorium.

The speaker made no attempt to make his speech interesting. It was mind-numbingly boring. He just spoke and spoke, never checking with the audience for feedback, no visual aids, no pictures, illustrations, or props. I haven’t done much public speaking, but I do know that keeping your audience engaged is an important part of it.

The students weren’t the only ones crashing in their chairs. I’d say about 40% of the teachers were asleep, too. Down the row from me Mr. Yamamoto was sleeping soundly. Around 90 minutes into the speech he started snoring.

At first it was just heavy breathing, but soon it turned into audible snoring that had some of the students who were still awake looking. I started giggling to myself, and the students near me saw me giggling and I think that undermined my status as a teacher a little bit. After a few minutes, an embarrassed teacher came over and woke up Mr. Yamamoto. I steadily looked the other way so as not to cause him further embarrassment.

As soon as the speech ended I wandered to the lobby looking like I was stepping out for a cigarette. I walked along the front of the building, took a look around the corner as if I was wondering if there was a restaurant around here, turned the corner, and BOOM – I was gone, baby. Fourteen days off in a row, oh yeah.

I hightailed it to the station, raided the stuff from the locker, took the train to Akashi and put the stuff in a locker there. Then it was a train to Kobe to meet Kuniko. We had dinner at Taro – one of my favorite ramen places – and then we went to the wedding place to make some final decisions.

Actually, it was pretty easy tonight. We did a run through of how we are supposed to stand, which hand to hold the gloves, how and where to kiss her, etc. I’m sure I’ll forget all that the day of the event.

Finally, we headed to Starbucks for a nightcap and then went home collecting my packages on the way back. The last stop of the night was at Denya. I stopped in to chat with the gang about the second party. They are really looking forward to it, and they asked me all sorts of mysterious questions, including how much I weigh. Sounds scary.

Life is just getting busier and busier. It won’t slow down until the end of this month after my family returns home to America. For now, time is flying by.

Thursday I had just one class in the afternoon – the last “restaurant” lesson. The students really were into this one, and when students were acting out the parts of waiter and customers up on stage, other kids would hoot and comment. The funny part was every once in a while, they would make comments in English. Another cool thing was the students would try to improvise occasionally, ordering things that weren’t on the menu and making the waiter do a double-take. I found myself laughing along with the students, and really enjoying the class.

I set my standards pretty high for keeping the classes entertained while they are learning. I’m always interspersing questions and feedback from the students in between my “lecture” times. My lectures by necessity usually only last a minute or two because they are in English – and that is a lot to digest for the students. By keeping the questions and activities coming it keeps the students interested, or at least, awake.

I get lots of positive feedback from the students. They say that my class is their favorite, or that my class is always very interesting. You can see it in their faces when they show up for the class – they look a little livelier, and they know they are in for a show.

All of this compares favorably to the atmosphere of most high school classes. Students stare at their text or notebooks and listen to the teacher talk for 50 minutes straight. There are exceptions, of course, but that seems to be the standard all over Japan.

Since I had only one class I expected to get a lot of studying in, but instead I mostly tied up loose ends since next week my vacation starts. There were a surprising amount of things to take care of. I wrote a script for our listening test, and wrote some sample lessons in case they need them while I’m gone.

I continued to receive money from some of the teachers. Today the office manager gave me some money, and the English teachers all chipped in to give me money. It’s a nice gesture and a Japanese custom, but it sure feels weird to me.

I sit with the first year teachers, and they have decided to pool their money and get me a gift. They were talking about what to get in Japanese with me right there, and I’m not sure if they think I can’t understand, or if they don’t care if I know. It was weird to hear all the discussion about what I might or might not have at home already.

I left school and did a short lesson with Tsuji-san, and then I stopped in for a 1000 yen haircut in Befu on the way home. The barber was surprised to see me again. He was wondering if I planned to live in Japan forever. I said that was the plan, and I think he was trying to imagine this old American guy walking around town forty years from now.

The week of nabe continued at home. Kuniko cooked up some kimchee nabe that was delicious, and we ate a lot. Maybe too much, but we don’t want to let the vegetables go to waste. Lately it seems like we are having trouble with the balance of eating too much or wasting too much. It seems to be a fine line.

I’m tired out in front of the computer and it’s getting close to eleven o’clock. Kuniko is headed to bed and I’m not far behind. Today was a busy day, and there is a lot of stuff to write about, but I’m just exhausted right now and couldn’t begin to do it justice.

I made a speech in front of the teachers at the morning meeting in Japanese, had a couple of good classes, and then came home and had a private lesson with the three high school girls that Miyake sensei has sent to study with me once a month.

After that, Kuniko’s friend Jimi came over for dinner with her boyfriend, who turned out to be a kick in the pants. We split a bottle of red wine between us, and communicated as best we could while Kuniko and Jimi reminisced. He was lots of fun, and the more he drank, the more outrageous he got.

After a big dinner of kimchee nabe we walked over to Ito Yokado to do purikuras. We waved them goodbye, and then came on home. Now I’m sitting here trying to stay awake. This might be one of the nights where I’ll have to let the details slip away.

We finished up the open high school lessons today. Nobody could be more happy about it than me – the beleaguered singer of a band thrown together during desperate times. I don’t think I’ll be pursuing a solo career after this.

The class itself was fun – the students were all girls except for one boy, who was clearly and completely embarrassed with being surrounded by girls, and with our cheesy lesson as well.

The teachers at school are starting to realize that my wedding day is coming up, and people have been stopping by to say congratulations. Tomorrow I’m going to have to make a short speech in front of the staffroom, so today I was practicing what to say. Speeches are no big deal in your own language, but in a foreign language it is another thing entirely. I can’t just “wing it” in Japanese.

After school some of the teachers that had open high school got together at a local okonomiyaki restaurant to drink beers and tell stories. The food was good, and it was another good test of my listening skills. Even though I seem to do better at Japanese when I have a couple of beers, the Japanese speakers around me were harder to comprehend the more they drank.

The place is run by a lady who is really nice, but she was busy making us food so she told us to serve ourselves from the draft beer tap and just tell her when we take a glass. Self serve beer? Oh yeah. Suddenly the foamy head of our beer was a lot smaller – cutting into the owners bottom line.

One of the teachers, Sakano sensei, pulled from the wrong tap and got a giant glass of shochu. That’s a pretty strong undiluted drink, in a big mug. He hammered it down, though, and turned a nice shade of pink the rest of the evening.

I came home relatively early, and Kuniko and I took a look at the pictures that had been delivered from the portrait studio. These are the pictures with us dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes, and they turned out really nice. I’m going to take them into work in the next few days and scan them into the computer.

We’re both tired already, and it’s only Tuesday. Three more days to go before the weekend. And counting.

Kuniko and I struggled to get out of bed this morning, make our lunches and breakfast, and then finally lurch out the door towards the station. It is still a good comfortable temperature, thanks to some clouds and a little rain now and then. It makes the mornings a little easier to take. Soon it will be so cold we won’t want to get out of bed.

My schedule was pretty tight all day long, with just a few minutes here and there to squeeze in conversations with my co-workers. The classes that I had went really well – the kids seemed to be more into the lessons today.

Today in the afternoon our school was hosting an open high school event, where students from junior high schools around the area could come and see some propaganda, see the sports clubs in action, and take a sample class. As usual I was doing the English conversation class.

The students had fun with the class and seemed to get over their shyness pretty quickly. Some of the girl students really impressed me with their English, and the boy students were less shy than normal. It was a good group. We held the class outside, and sat in a circle and played guitar and sang songs and I’m not making this up.

The sight of all of us hanging out having a good time and learning a foreign language was more than enough to draw administrators with cameras, and I’m sure we’ll be featured in a future school publication.

I invited a few more people to the second party, and got some positive responses. It looks to be like a good group of people there. I hope we have time to talk to everyone!

On the way home from work I picked up some ingredients for a nabe dinner. Thanks to Kuniko’s parents, we’ve got loads and loads of vegetables. We’ve got so much that we’ve decided to have nabe week here at home. We’ll be eating a different kind of nabe all week in a bid to rid ourselves of vegetables. Tonight was tan-tan nabe with gyoza, shitake mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, onions, and enoki mushrooms. Yum!

Tomorrow night Maeda sensei and Yamamoto sensei and I are going out to eat okonomiyaki after week to celebrate the end of the open high school lesson. Kuniko will be home alone, continuing nabe week. Luckily, I’ll be back to help out with the vegetables on Wednesday.

Sunday Kuniko went off to work early, and I managed to squeeze in a few hours of extra sleep. Afterwards I bummed around the house during the day and then went into Kobe to meet Kuniko after her work ended. I took the opportunity to do a little bit of shopping at the import food store, as well as a drop-in at the bookstore to look for some practice exams for the upcoming Japanese test.

Kuniko had taken a bunch of leftover food that nobody wanted at her school – some sandwiches, and a giant bag of yakisoba. I threw them in my backpack, and from there we went to catch dinner at Wendy’s. There are a couple of Wendy’s in Kobe, and I haven’t eaten there in years, so it was fun to go check it out. They have chili there – I had totally forgotten about chili cheese fries. Kuniko bought me dinner and I had a work down the gastronomical version of memory lane.

Finally we headed over to the wedding place, and made lots of important, and expensive decisions. It took a long time before we were out of there – several hours of sitting in the same place. I’m really looking forward to not going back there after the wedding is over.

By the time we left there we were hungry all over again, so we ate the hijacked sandwiches while we walked back. It is a little rude in Japan to eat and walk, but we were both hungry so we did it anyway. They hit the spot.

We got back to Futami exhausted, and crashed right into bed. This week is going to be a monster week of classes and preparations. I’ve got a tough schedule at school, and home is looking busy, too.

I was telling Kuniko while we were walking to the train station this morning that I actually am starting to feel guilty enjoying all the holidays this week. The first two were guilt-free, but having another Friday before the weekend seemed like too much. Oh well, I guess I’ll get over it.

My morning was filled with classes, and in the afternoon I was busy preparing lessons for next week. That meant that I didn’t have any time to study. When I don’t study I can feel the words disappearing from memory by the minute. Maybe this weekend I can catch up.

After school I met with Tsuji-san to practice conversation, and then I got home about an hour before Kuniko. Neither of us were all that hungry, so we just had some cheese and crackers for snacks, and then I watched Survivor while Kuniko did some sewing. Another wild Friday night!

Saturday is a free day for us, but Sunday Kuniko has to work and then we’re meeting for the last time at the wedding place. We’ll make the final decisions, and then we can concentrate on getting ourselves ready for the big event!