I’ll make a note of it here – I think Matsubara sensei is pregnant. She already has a one year old daughter and she’s always talking about her. After the summer vacation I’ve noticed the slightest bulge under her dress and her wardrobe has slightly changed. However, as a comedian once said, you never ask a woman if she is pregnant, not unless you can actually see the baby coming out. So I’ll keep it quiet and silently observe her midsection. That sounded creepy.

Due to a quirky schedule I got to teach one of my first year classes today. My class was their first class after four periods of exams, so it was the first chance they could have a normal class after a month and a half of vacation. I had various strategies to take care of some of the energies that might be running loose, but as it turned out I was teaching with Yamamoto sensei, who is really strict with them.

My new lesson is about directions, and it went really well. Most of the students have had a lesson on directions in junior high school. They did pretty good, and everyone had a good time, I think. I really enjoyed being in front of students again. I was feeling nervous after almost two months without teaching, and I was worried how things would go. Of course they went fine, it’s just I’m a little rusty getting back into the saddle.

Mr. Yamamoto spent two minutes telling the students in Japanese that I was in the staff room every day during summer studying Japanese. He told them that if they spent the effort that I have been putting in they would know English completely by now. It was a little embarrassing, and my cover was completely blown. I’m still going to stick to English in the classroom, though.

I came back to the staffroom and enjoyed a great bento that Kuniko made up for me this morning. As usual people stopped by to admire my lunch, and ask me lots of questions about my diet.

I studied the rest of the day and now I’m back home rocking out and waiting for Kuniko to get back. I’m thinking of cooking up some kimchee fried rice tonight – not healthy, but cheap! Today while buying the groceries for dinner the clerk asked me all about it. She really likes asking me tons of questions when I’m checking out, and I’m sure the other patrons behind me hate me for taking up lots of time.

Last night Kuniko and I made up some Hawaiian Poke. Susan and Dave in Hawaii sent the seasoning packet to me a while back, and so I bought some raw tuna and some fried tofu and Kuniko and I mixed it up. It was really good – salty and spicy!

Oh, and one last thing – I’m blogging at school now. It’s just once every couple of weeks, and here’s the link. One of the English teachers, Yamamoto sensei, really is getting started with designing web pages and you can see what I mean. My eyes! My eyes! Still, I thought it was best to let him go for it and have fun.

Today was an interesting day on a lot of different levels. I woke up still a bit drunk from the night before, and no amount of toothbrushing would get that taste out of my mouth. I also put on an entire kilogram of weight according to my scale, so all this partying has got to stop! Or, at least slow down.

We had our school opening ceremony today, and that was really the only reason the students even showed up. We did a cleaning session in the morning, so I hung out with the students assigned to clean my area, and we talked mostly in Japanese with a little bit of English. We didn’t clean much but we did have some fun.

The school gymnasium is the only place big enough to have an assembly, and today it was super-humid inside. It gets even hotter after you pack it with a thousand students. The staff told the students to hang in there, and they did their best. There wasn’t much else to do but sit through the speeches and remember to breathe. Four students had collapsed because of the heat before the principal’s speech even started, and then about six more collapsed during the speech. One kid fell and hit his head, and so they had to keep him laying there for a while. Maybe it’s just me, but when so many people are collapsing because of heat exhaustion, you are doing something wrong. Other teachers aren’t alarmed by this, probably just because that’s the way it has been done for so many years. Change comes slowly in Japan.

After the assembly I walked over to the post office and sent off my application to take the Japanese Proficiency Test in December. You have a one week window to apply in September for an exam in December. If you miss the deadline, you can pay just 3000 yen more, and then there is no problem. Last year that happened to me, and I’m convinced this is just a way for the test company to make some more money. What’s the deal with a one week window for a test that comes only once a year? Oh well… I’m going to fail the exam, I’m just curious to see the margin of failure.

Around 11 o’clock I went over to Tsuji-san’s place to chat. She had one of her students there who wanted to meet me. Her name is Haruka. She is about 22 years old, and has a hearing problem so she wears hearing aids in both ears and she reads lips. If you’ve never had your lips read it’s quite strange to talk to somebody while they are staring intently at your mouth. It makes you wonder if you brushed your teeth thoroughly that morning. Haruka’s English was surprisingly good. Because of her hearing problem her pronunciation of all words (English and Japanese) is difficult to understand. Still, I could follow what she was saying and for the most part that side of the conversation went well. She had trouble understanding what I was saying, though – partly because she is a beginner and partly because reading the lips of a foreign language speaker is much more difficult. We talked for about an hour, and it was pretty inspiring to see her working hard and against adversity to learn English. She wants to be a teacher someday, so she’s been studying hard to get there.

After the lesson Tsuji-san and I went over to a tofu restaurant and had a nice lunch. Tsuji-san insisted on paying – she felt like she was getting more out of our lessons than I was. During lunch we talked about the upcoming meeting between her parents and her fiancée. It sounds like there is a lot of pressure about to be applied on her fiancée, Mikitoshi. I sense that Tsuji-san is not really happy with how things have been going lately, and she’s really thinking about the fact that she’ll be living with this guy for the rest of her life. I guess they haven’t had many deep conversations, and Tsuji-san may be wondering if they ever will. She was curious about how Kuniko and I handle the deep stuff, and so I gave her as much information as I could think of. Anyway, she’ll be watching Mikitoshi very carefully during the first meeting, and his behavior will be a big part of what happens in the future. He’s really fighting an uphill battle, because Tsuji-san’s dad already doesn’t like him, and they haven’t even met. What will happen? I’ll have to wait until next week to find out all the gory details.

For Wednesday we had no classes, just a long involved staff meeting in the morning. Everyone was there, and there were a variety of topics. The most interesting involved the new tobacco policy that they are considering. I guess there is some serious teacher resistance to the idea of a no-smoking campus, and it sounds like they have been exerting pressure in various areas. The principal appealed to the teachers to do their best to quit smoking by the next spring, and asked them to consult with him if there were any problems. Some of these teachers are heavy, heavy smokers – this will be tough for them to deal with.

I hung out the rest of the day studying at my desk, and talking to students here and there. My new resolution is to talk to students more, even if it’s in Japanese. I’ll still be using only English in the classroom, but I want the students to have more chances to interact with a foreigner.

Around 5 p.m. Maeda sensei gathered up a group of about 15 teachers, and we walked across town to an okonomiyaki place. We all sat down, and the menu had been pre-arranged. The beer situation was really unusual: whenever you needed a beer you just went to the fridge and grabbed it. People were constantly getting gigantic cold bottles of Asahi Super Dry and pouring them to their neighbors in the Japanese style. The owner of the restaurant kept our okonomiyaki plates full of food all night, and everyone drank and chatted and chatted and drank.

The owner came by our table and I said “thank you” in Japanese when she gave us our plates, and she commented that “I’m very good at Japanese!” This is pretty common in Japan – you say one word in Japanese and you are talented. It just shows you how low the expectations are for foreigners. That in turn is a great motivator for me to learn.

I sat at the middle table with Maeda sensei, Arauchi sensei, and Yamamoto sensei for the first part of the evening, but later found myself sitting with the school nurse (also named Yamamoto sensei) and Arai sensei, a P.E. teacher. I spoke only Japanese with Yamamoto sensei and half and half with Arai sensei. Everyone kept my glass full, and so it was really hard to tell how much I drank – which is one good way to know if you are drunk or not.

The school nurse and I rarely talk at school, but we have some things in common. We saw each other in Carrefour a long time ago and we were both with our secret “significant other”, so we kept each other’s secret for a long time. We also both get chased around by the history teacher, for quite different reasons.

We talked a little bit about her mystery boyfriend, and it sounds like that relationship is on the rocks. She’s the same age as me, so the clock must be ticking, but she’s pretty relaxed about it and isn’t bowing to any pressure. She was the only woman at the party, and was nice enough to translate drunken old man Japanese into normal Japanese for me.

Drinks were poured, I made new friends, one of the math teachers admitted that his English nickname is “Crazy Monkey”, teachers began calling for crazy orders of more and more food, and we all just kept drinking. The refrigerator was always full of cold beer – and it didn’t seem to matter how many we took – nobody was keeping track.

Around 10 o’clock I made my move out of there and headed to the station, briefly accompanied by the school nurse who probably wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost in Takasago. I assured her I knew the way back, and headed off to the station. I got home just after Kuniko arrived from her dinner date with a friend. I guess the atmosphere of their place was good, but the food wasn’t. Too bad. Kuniko got a new haircut and had gotten lots of bread and cakes for us for the next day. We talked for a while about each other’s day, but I made a poor conversation partner due to inebriation and so I fell asleep sure of the fact that I would have a pretty good hangover tomorrow.

After I got to school today the rain came down like crazy. It looked nice enough when I left, but I was stuck at school with just my reserve umbrella.

There were a few more teachers at school today, but it was still pretty quiet. They’ll all be there tomorrow, and we’ve got a thrilling staff meeting in the morning. One of the part time teachers came in and said hello – she offered her congratulations on the paperwork wedding.

I went home around two o’clock, likely my last short day for a long time. I was dodging raindrops with my tiny umbrella, and I was able to get back to the station reasonably dry.

Tonight Kuniko was home a little late, so I tried to make California sushi rolls. I don’t think they turned out so hot. They were good, but they didn’t quite taste like California rolls to me. Maybe they needed more crab. Maybe less avocado. I don’t know. We’ll have to order them sometime in a restaurant for Research & Development purposes.

Tomorrow night I’m going out to okonomiyaki and beer with some of the teachers, and Kuniko is going out with one of her friends after work, so it’ll be quiet around here. I’m looking forward to the dinner – it’ll be good to hear the stories from the teachers about what they’ve been doing over the summer.

So I was minding my own business in the staffroom today. Wednesday is our first all-hands meeting, and so I figured there’d be more teachers back working. Actually, there was hardly anyone there. I guess these last two days are the last chance for a vacation for quite a while, so people are taking advantage.

I’ve mentioned the guy two desks down that has a hobby of picking his nose. He’s a strange dude all around. He’s got a big dandruff problem, he speaks so quietly you can hardly hear him, and his desk is covered with books. He has only enough space to write on a piece of paper, and then the other areas are towering with books. Lots of privacy, I guess.

Anyway, I overheard him tell some teachers that he is getting married next month. I wasn’t the only surprised person there. I think the teachers were asking him to see a picture – out of curiosity or as proof – I’m not sure. Anyway, I couldn’t catch the whole conversation, but I’m sure we’ll hear more at the big meeting Wednesday. Can’t wait to see the pictures.

The vice principal came by my desk pretty early and told me I could split. I had finished up my lesson plan for the first years in the morning and I was busy reviewing vocabulary, so I didn’t take him up on it until around 2 o’clock.

When I got back home I found that Kuniko had done all the dirty dishes from last night and also a big load of laundry was hanging out on the patio. I think we need to eat some stuff out of the refrigerator just to make room – it is packed with food. Tomorrow is another exciting teacher-free day, and then things will settle into a normal schedule and hopefully by next week I’ll be able to teach some classes!

Sunday night Risa-chan and Anthony came over to see our place, tell us all about their wedding in Brunei and also, to eat tacos for the first time.

It was a good night. We had to pull some crazy tricks to get everything to fit in the refrigerator – ours is just too small for more than two people (or even one Japanese and one big American guy). We drank tequila, beer, and a sweet Muscat from Italy. The tacos turned out pretty nicely. I’m never sure how much heat the guests can take, so I err on the side of caution and offer plenty of hot sauces to add on top. We had Risa and Anthony spinning their own tortillas and making their own tacos, and I think it was a unique dining experience for them.

We exchanged presents, too. Anthony and Risa had brought back omiyage and other souvenirs from Brunei, and we gave them a couple of wedding presents, and a can of refried beans (Risa liked the beans). They went back to Akashi with a couple of armloads of loot.

By the end of the night Kuniko and I were both feeling pretty awake, so we put aside the dishes to wash tomorrow and watched National Treasure on DVD. It’s a great movie – clever, Disney family fun.

1. central heating
2. a taco shop
3. automatic sprinklers
4. guns
5. local beers
6. kissing in public
7. insulation
8. rude waiters
9. clothes dryers
10. SUV’s

Friday I went into Sannomiya to meet up with Antoine. We met up under the movie theater signs near the Hankyu station, and then from there went to the Belgian beer place. Antoine was covered with sunburn from being outside all day – he had to work at an English camp and ended up spending almost two hours outside in the hot sun.

A cold beer in an air conditioned room did a lot to improve his condition, and we sat and chatted while watching a middle-aged Japanese woman hitting on guys down the bar bfrom us.

It was good to catch up with Antoine – last time we met up as a group and so we didn’t get to talk too much. He’s worried a little bit about his future – the next year will be his last on the JET program, and then he’ll need to find something else. He really enjoys teaching small groups – maybe doing private teaching will be something he’s interested in.

He was craving sushi, so we went to the same sushi bar that Kuniko and I went to the last night. The sushi chefs recognized me and smiled, and we were served giant pieces of sushi again – awesome. Antoine asked for some lemon for his drink, and he ended up getting a menu in English. I asked for a lemon, and he got the lemon, cut into slices on a plate. The lemon request really shook them up – they were talking about it behind the sushi bar for a while.

From there we walked around and tried to get some exercise, and finally wrapped up the night at a yakitori type place that seemed to have a big emphasis on fried foods. We ordered some healthy stuff, though: a tomato, sliced and served with some mayonnaise on the side, and some mushrooms cooked with a pretty good sauce.

I picked up some donuts for our breakfast the next day on the way home and then came home and crashed next to Kuniko – I’ve been on a sleep deficit lately.

No problem, no hangover.  Just a little sleepy. Kuniko made me a fantastic lunch and breakfast, and after that I marched off to work. Kuniko called in sick yesterday to take the teacher’s test, so now she has to go into work today and play the barely healthy teacher role.

More and more teachers are trickling into work, and it’s nice to see some familiar faces. I worked straight through the morning – focusing on kanji and new vocabulary. I learned the word 赤字 (pronounced akaji), which means deficit or ‘in the red’. The kanji symbols make the word easy to remember. The first one means ‘red’, and the second means ‘letter’. Too cool.

As I write this there is a news crew in the next room interviewing some of our students and teachers that went on the trip to Australia.  The principal told me that I should stick around through the interview just in case they wanted to talk to me.  Hopefully I’ll be out of here by 2:30 – I need to meet up with Kuniko in Sannomiya.  We are going to the wedding place again to make some more decisions.

Things are going to be fairly busy this weekend.  Friday night I am going out with Antoine for a boy’s night out, Saturday Kuniko has a business trip but I have a free day.  Sunday Risa-chan and her husband Anthony are coming over for dinner.  They recently got married in Brunei, so I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of photographs.  I’m going to cook up tacos – it has kind of turned into my signature dish these days.

Just got back from our trip to the hotel in Sannomiya.  Kuniko talked with the hair and make-up person, and they discussed the plan of attack.  It’s a very Japanese way to do things – they just talk about different things and let you look at a lot of pictures.  Very few decisions to be made at this point.  The way they dance around decisions and discuss things is very foreign to me – but that’s what makes it interesting.

After the wedding place we went into Sannomiya searching for a wedding present for Risa-chan and her husband.  We struck out at several stores, and when we started buying stuff for ourselves instead of them we knew it was time to leave.  We went to a sushi restaurant near Sannomiya station that was recommended by the ALT association in my area.

Usually a recommendation from a foreigner publication would be the kiss of death for me, but instead it turned out to be quite good.  It’s a chain restaurant, but there are very few locations, and it has a really cool “So this is Japan” feel to it.  We sat down and ordered and got huge pieces of fish on tiny lumps of rice.  The fish was fresh and delicious, and the pieces were way too big to fit into your mouth.  Some where nearly impossible to eat, and it’s the kind of place only advanced chopstick users should go.  The menu was all in Japanese, and you order directly from a sushi chef.  The chef offered to cut ours into smaller pieces if we liked, but we both got the feeling that it would be like cheating somehow – like having your mom cut your steak.

After dinner we tried a few more stores looking for the perfect gift, but ended up surrendering and heading home.  Now I’m back, I’m tired, and I’m ready for bed.  Tomorrow I’m going to go back to Sannomiya to meet up with Antoine, so it’ll be déjà vu all over again.

On Wednesday I spent the morning working hard on my studies at school, and starting to put some work into our first lesson for the first years. The other first year teachers have agreed on where to start for this term, so I’m cleared to make up some new lessons. I’ll work on it gradually over the next few days, but we are still two weeks away from classes.

This was the first day back for the vice principal – he’s been out sick this week. The last time I saw him he had talked to me about checking in with him before he left, so I was determined to put in a long day today so that he would see that I’m not some slacker. When two o’clock came and I still hadn’t come to his desk to ask if I could go, he came by my desk and said I could leave anytime. I think he was feeling a little guilty or something, or maybe he thought that I was. I put in another half hour or so and then took off.

I went home and soon Kuniko came back from her teacher’s exam. She said right off the bat that she failed. She seemed pretty sure of it – I guess the native English speaker interview was tough and she was matched with some great speakers. Also during her Japanese language interview one old teacher was actually kind of yelling/arguing/repeating and throwing her off. Maybe that’s part of the interview, but Kuniko was confident that she didn’t make the cut. The official results aren’t until the end of September, but we’re not holding our breath.

We met up in Akashi with Yuri, Tamura sensei and her boyfriend in the evening. Tamura sensei also took the teacher’s exam, and so there was some steam to blow off. We went to a restaurant that Yuri and Tamura sensei had been to before, and ordered various things from the menu including garlic and lettuce pizza, “Mexican” tacos, spaghetti carbonara, garlic bread, camembert cheese, and a tomato salad that was excellent. We drank lots of beers – Kuniko, Tamura sensei’s boyfriend and I kept the pace. It was good to relax and joke around, and it was great practice for listening in Japanese. I’m still too slow to speak at parties, but I guess that will come eventually.

On the way back home we were drunkenly walking through Ito Yokado and they had their “50% off frozen food” sale. They have it fairly often, actually, so we never pay full price to keep the freezer stocked. We picked out a whole load of stuff for our lunches and emergency dinners, and then came on back home. With a glass of pineapple juice, two aspirin and a vitamin, we assured ourselves of a hangover-free morning tomorrow.

Today the history teacher was trying to convince me that most homes in Japan cost $20 million.  Each.  Including the land.  Yeah right.

I figure he got some decimal places screwed up in the conversion, but there is no way.  I ran it by Kuniko and she agreed – things are expensive here but not that expensive.  The history teacher managed to rope in another teacher into the conversation, but as soon as the history teacher left Tanaka sensei gave me a look, like “Sorry he bugs you so much…”

Things are still pretty quiet at school – the vice-principal has been out sick the last two days and so teachers come in, assess the situation, and take off soon after.  I’m sticking to my same old schedule, though.  

Kuniko cancelled her party tonight, and so we had om-rice for dinner.  Afterwards we did some last minute preparation for the big interview tomorrow.  It’ll be interesting to see how it goes – I know that Kuniko will do well whatever happens, but we’re not sure what the format is, so that makes it tough to study for.

Well, I’m tired out from studying and I’m ready to hit the sack.  I’ll just take a quick peek at a kanji book that Kuniko got me and then go to bed.

I was back at work for the second to last week of summer vacation.  I ended up studying a lot more than I expected to.  Things went well though, and I worked with little interruption throughout the day.  The history teacher came by two or three times to ask me questions about CNN news, and the background and history of some English words like “angel” and “pull out”.

After I finished all my grammar, kanji, and vocabulary study Yamamoto sensei caught me reading “Holes” in Japanese and made a big production about how great that was.  He’s got a really loud voice, and as he heaped praise on me all the other teachers on this side of the staffroom looked on smiling.  He exclaimed that every time he comes in I’m at my desk studying, and it seems like I’m learning a lot.  I appreciated the compliment, but not the attention.  I’d rather study quietly and modestly.

One thing that struck me today while I was studying was how rarely I’m used by other teachers.  Today I was watching Oshita sensei listening to English conversation on CD, and thinking how rarely he actually talks to me.  I represent a very rare commodity in Japan – a native English speaker on call.  In a country where it can cost up to $50/hour just to talk toa native speaker of English, it seems strange for him to just ignore the opportunity.  Obviously he has an interest in studying – he just doesn’t want to speak English.  I try my hardest to find people in Japan to speak Japanese with – it’s harder than you think!

I left work around 2:30 and headed home.  I cleaned house just a little bit before Kuniko came home.  She is gearing up for her big interview on Wednesday, so we’re going to work on studying for it tonight.  

We went over to Ito Yokado and bought some groceries for dinner, and bumped into Ishii sensei and his wife.  He used to be the computer teacher at Takasago Minami, but he was transferred.  He knew both Kuniko and I before we told everyone our big secret, so when I told him several months ago he was really surprised.  Today I met his baby for the first time, and his wife for the second time.  His wife is really beautiful – she’s much younger than him, and I found out earlier from Komori sensei that she used to be his student.  Wow!

Kuniko cooked up a great dinner of nikujaga and soumen noodles.  We drank the rest of the pinot noir and practiced Japanese and English as she cooked.  The meal turned out really well.

This week should be pretty crazy for Kuniko.  She’s going to a work party tomorrow night, the interview on Wednesday, we’re going to the wedding place on Thursday night, Friday night she’s got another work party, Saturday is a business trip for her school.  Very, very busy.  Comparatively, I have tons of free time. I’ll try to enjoy it while it’s around.

Kuniko and I went over to the yakitori to have dinner and a few beers tonight.  We had a chance to chat with the master before things got busy, and talked him into collecting the addresses for the people that I want to invite.  We ordered tons of food and really ate too much.  The master has a fairly new part time worker working for him, and he was ordering him around trying to get him to do the right things in the right places.  He’s not as cute as the other part time guys, so Kuniko was a little disappointed.  

After the yakitori we went over to Ito Yokado and did some quick shopping, and now we’re settling in for the evening here.  The weather has been slightly rainy, and a little cooler.  Kuniko actually said that she felt cold on the way to the yakitori – that was a big surprise.  

Tomorrow we’re both back to work, but neither of us has classes to teach.  I’m not expecting to be able to teach until September, so I’ll just be studying away until then.

We spent Saturday evening with Kuniko’s parents, celebrating her mom’s 52nd birthday.  We had brought along a platter of sushi, two boxes of gyoza, and some different slices of cake to enjoy afterwards.  

I really enjoyed myself, mainly listening to the conversations around me and chipping in when I felt I was capable of a coherent sentence.  The conversation was fairly easy to follow, but now and then I’d miss somebody’s name, and then I’d know all about their living conditions, marriage plans, etc and not know who we were actually talking about.

Kuniko’s folks are really excited about meeting my family when they arrive, and I think they are realistic about how much we can communicate.  They asked me lots of questions about whether they are used to sitting on the floor or on chairs, and they are looking for ways to make everyone comfortable.  I told them that my parents were just as excited to meet them.  

Today Kuniko was up and out the door fairly early.  She looked exhausted – she wasn’t able to fall asleep last night.  I made her a lunch while she was in the shower, and we had a quick breakfast before she hit the road.  She’s just keeping an eye on her club activities, so she’ll be back at a reasonable hour tonight.

Last night I stayed out with Struan late.  We went to a yakitori, to the underground sushi restaurant, to Donkey, and finally to the spooky Indian restaurant.  At the yakitori one of the waiters was really talkative and enjoyed chatting with us.  We tried a variety of yakitori things – they were pretty good.

At the sushi place we had a small plate of sashimi and a couple beers, apologizing to the master that we couldn’t eat very much.  It was pretty quiet in there, so he didn’t mind.  From there we went to Donkey, and there was a whole squad of foreigners there playing darts.  Struan and I played for a little bit, and I was throwing darts better than I think I’ve ever thrown in my life.  Lots of bull’s-eyes, and it got the attention of the other people in the bar.   A couple of Japanese girls cheered my name every time I threw the darts, and then when Struan stepped up they didn’t say anything.

It was getting late, and I was starting to worry about the last train.   Struan convinced me to stop in at Bombay, the Indian restaurant in Akashi.  Apparently the owner is in jail, so a friend of his opens it up at night and sells drinks to pay the bills.  The restaurant part is closed, apparently.

There were a lot of foreigners there, too, and so we sat and stared at our drinks for a while and waited for something fun to happen.  Kuniko gave me a call and was wondering where I was – I hadn’t expected to be out late tonight, so she was worried.  I decided it was probably time to get going, so I scrambled to the station and missed the second to last train out of town.  I had to sit on the platform for 15 minutes until the last train came, and then I finally got home around 1 in the morning.  

I spent my whole day at school reading “Holes”, and ended up leaving around 1:30.  The vice-principal came by as I was leaving and asked me to check in with him before I leave next time.  He wants to know where I am, and so even though I’ve been on a routine lately of leaving in the afternoon, I think he’s still worried what other people might think when they see me walking around when I should be at work.  

When I got home Kuniko had already left to take one of her international students to the airport.  I went right to sleep, and slept for a few hours in the air conditioned bedroom while the heat blazed away outside.

I had promised to cook dinner for Kuniko, so when she got home in the evening we had pan fried steaks with garlic sauce, mushrooms, a small Caesar salad, and a tiny Japanese sized baked potato.  We also had a bottle of Hang Time Pinot Noir that went pretty well with the red meat.  It turned out to be a pretty good dinner.

This weekend Kuniko had a psych exam as part of her teacher’s test, and we’re going to go over to her parent’s house to celebrate her mom’s birthday with sushi and possibly, gyoza.