Friday means a whole lot more when you’ve actually been working all week. Today I had three classes that I taught, and one Japanese class from Mr. Hayashi. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do a lesson, but I think it went better than usual. Still, I found some words that I should have recognized but didn’t.

The classes went well, but I was definitely ready to hit the road around five o’clock. I went to my last YMCA Japanese class in Sannomiya, and learned a couple of new tricks. The class is down to just a couple of people, a far cry from the big group we had when we started. They have one more class on Monday, but I’m starting a regular lesson with Tsuji-san, so I’ll be busy.

I skipped the usual ramen stop in Sannomiya and went home instead. I changed clothes and walked down to the yakitori. I had a good chat with the master, lots of chicken, and a couple of beers. His big sign over the front of his shop was torn off during the last typhoon. He said that this weekend he’ll be getting it replaced. He also invited me to a volleyball tournament that several of the regulars are participating in. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go – it’s pretty far away and only accessible by car.

He also said that they broke down and opened the bottle of wine that my mom had sent along from Bartholomew Park, a late harvest zinfandel. He said it was great – he opened it with some of the members of the softball team. The image of a bunch of athletic Japanese guys sitting around a yakitori quaffing Bart Park zin is stuck in my head – too funny.

Around midnight I got home and had a glass of port before hitting the sack. Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with an older guy that wants to practice English in Takasago. Should be interesting.

Today I got a late start for school because my bed felt so good. The good news is that my late is still other people’s early, and I had plenty of time to spare.

At school I got a chance to chat with Ms. Miyake, who is always fun to talk to. After giving me some advice about proposing to Kuniko, she’s been dying to tell people about it. I’m a little worried that she might let it slip. Talking today she told me that she almost told Andy’s (my predecessor) wife Michelle about it. Andy is still in touch with lots of teachers here, so that will almost certainly spill the beans. I explained that we’d like to keep it under wraps for just a few more months, and I hope she’ll be able to do it.

Because we had exams for some of the students, I had only one class today. I spent most of my time preparing for tomorrow’s busier day. After lunch I had finished what I needed to do, so I spent the second half of the day, about four hours, studying Japanese.

I also got to chat with one of the part time teachers that I don’t know very well. I haven’t talked to her since well before summer, and she mentioned that she thought my Japanese had improved since last time we talked. I was happy to hear that – lots of hours without some positive feedback once in a while is tough. It occurred to me today that I’ve been studying Japanese for two years now. That seems like a long time, considering I still can’t speak it very well.

After school I caught the train home, and then knocked on my neighbor’s door. During the typhoon lots of their junk blew onto my patio, so I put it all in a box and delivered it to them.

The funny thing about knocking on a door in Japan is that people will ask who is there and want to know more information before opening the door and greeting you. The result is that part of your conversation is clearly heard by your neighbors.

Anyway, the wife speaks a little English, so we chatted in English for a while. She was excited to get the chance to talk. I still can’t get over how great it feels to be able to make so many people happy by doing something as simple as smiling and chatting.

It was leftover night tonight, but tomorrow is my last Japanese class at the YMCA in Kobe. I don’t have lots of money to buy a Kobe steak to celebrate, but maybe I’ll get the big bowl of ramen instead.

Today was my first full day back at school. It was a little hard to get used to sticking around for the whole day, after a whole summer of abbreviated workdays. All the students were in today, but they didn’t have classes – just a couple of homerooms, a cleaning session, and a long ceremony full of speeches and sub-ceremonies.

I worked for about an hour of my day on class preparation. I chatted with various people for about an hour. The rest of my day was studying Japanese. I’m hitting the books hard in preparation for the big test in December, and today was pretty useful. Japanese adverbs are pretty tough to get my brain around.

Around four o’clock teachers started sneaking out – it’s their last day to do so before school really starts. I had plans to meet my new Japanese tutor at 5 p.m., so I just watched them go. I swear they even looked a little guilty.

I met my new teacher, Tsuji-san, outside the gates to my school. She lives right across the street, so it’s easy to drop by when I get off work. I’ll be visiting for about an hour and a half each week on Monday. She’s a private English teacher, and she’s hoping to pick up some American English from me. In fact, we worked out an arrangement where we would switch languages back and forth, and that way I don’t have to pay her for her time.

We sat in a very Japanese style room, surrounded by kids books since she teaches elementary school and junior high school students part time. Her English is quite good, better than some of our teachers. She’s 31, and got her major in Portuguese. She is also studying Spanish, as well as English. I wish I could remember some more of the Spanish that I knew, but so much is gone. Maybe I’ll pick up a Spanish textbook sometime and see what happens.

Anyway, we spent about an hour and a half chatting, and during that time her father and mother made an appearance to say hello. The mother brought two iced coffees for us to drink while we were working, and some assorted chocolates to snack on. Wow! I think it will be useful to be there, since my YMCA classes are ending soon.

I had a semi-traditional Japanese dinner tonight, rice and some green vegetables and Nagano chili peppers soaked in some soy sauce. To make it more non-traditional I had a side of kimchee with it. Tomorrow is my first class, and then on Friday I get really busy.

So I went off to school this morning, walking around the debris all over the ground. Some intrepid homeowners were already out cleaning up, and the Ito Yokado construction site was already being repaired and replaced. What a mess!

At school I arrived early and got assigned to a cleanup crew. We worked outside for an hour or so, and during that time some strange looking mosquito bit me on the face three times, and the arm twice. I went to the nurse afterwards for some ointment, and that seemed to do the trick.

Today at school there were still no classes, and none tomorrow either. The students didn’t come today, but they’ll be there tomorrow for the opening ceremony, the speeches, and a homeroom class. My first classes will be on Thursday.

We did have a staff meeting today, and it was a perfect illustration of the Japanese meeting. We all went inside and sat down, and the principal, vice principal, and other staff stood up in turn to make announcements and speeches. I’ve been to a lot of these meetings, and it’s always the same. The teachers don’t hide their boredom, and the speakers don’t seem to care if anyone is listening or not.

The best part about today’s meeting was about halfway through, the groundskeeper was cleaning up outside the open windows, and started up a chainsaw to cut up some bigger branches that had fallen. Nobody could hear anything – maybe not even the speaker. I waited for him to stop and go ask the groundskeeper to hold off for half an hour, but he didn’t. He just kept on talking.

What’s better, the reactions of the teachers didn’t change at all either. Listen to a boring speech, listen to a chainsaw, either is fine.

Anyway, there’s this whole idea in Japan that it’s not the content of the meeting, it’s that there IS a meeting. It’s not the amount of work you do, it’s the fact that you showed up. Meetings seem to be largely ceremonial, and they certainly won’t let something like a chainsaw get in the way of getting the meeting over with.

I got to leave school a bit early, thanks to Mr. Hayashi, who told everyone that we were going back to the doctor (even though it was really just him and Mr. Komuri). I went home and called Kuniko, who was getting ready to leave school and go home to watch a DVD somebody had loaned her. I kind of invited myself over to help her eat dinner and watch the movie, and so we had a great evening in Osaka. I got there around 5:30, and left around 9:30. It’s an expensive trip for me, but every once in a while you’ve got to do something a little wild on a school night.

I should really be getting to bed – I’ve got to be up early tomorrow!

It’s Tuesday morning, and I’m still here! My power went out last night until around 2 a.m. so I was working by candlelight. The streets are a mess, and so is my patio. I have to go to school now, so I’ll have to clean it up later. I’ll write more later!

We woke up early this morning because Kuniko had to go to work. We were both kind of hoping that the typhoon would come early and she’d get a day off, but it was running late, so she had to go. Bummer!

I headed up on the train to Kobe, and then had a snack at McDonald’s while I waited for the CD store to open. When it did I exchanged my CDs, and headed back to Kuniko’s empty place and slipped the new CD in her mailbox. At least she’ll get to listen to it tonight.

From there I headed back, well ahead of any signs of typhoon. The skies were calm, and it was just a bit windy, but nothing to worry about.

I talked to my folks on the phone, and spent the afternoon relaxing and doing some pleasure reading. I secured some items out on my balcony, just in case. For dinner I made three or four rice balls that turned out nicely.

Then the typhoon arrived.

Holy crap! Even now it’s blowing harder than any wind I’ve ever seen. Lots of junk from my neighbor’s balcony is landing in mine, and every once in a while you can hear sirens from emergency vehicles. I went outside on my porch to check it out, but I could barely get the door open, and when I was out there, lots of leaves and branches were flying around. I think I’ll stay inside until things calm down.

I sent off a message to Kuniko to see how she was doing – I imagined her holed up in her place like me, but she had gotten off work and was going drinking with some of her co-workers. It’s just a typhoon, nothing to get worked up about. I guess I would probably act the same about an earthquake.

Well, it’s blowing like crazy and I should probably save this entry before the power goes out. See you in Oz!

Today I slept in big time. I slept in from the depths of my soul. In Japanese, slept in is described as “sleeping slowly”, and when I arose from my bed around nine in the morning fully rested, I felt like I had slept slowly all night.

I fixed a bit of breakfast and spent the morning doing laundry and studying. Just after noon Jane came down and rang my doorbell. She asked me to do a little bit of translation for her. Her grandparents and uncle were up in her apartment, and she wanted me to communicate a few things. I went upstairs, and with a big smile and a bit of luck managed to translate for her. It was fun to do – it’s a mental challenge to translate something so quickly, and answer questions from both sides. I still have a long way to go – I definitely am not anywhere near able to do it professionally.

Around three o’clock I went into Kobe, because at four o’clock I was supposed to meet Kuniko there to see a movie. I went a bit early to buy the soundtrack for the movie, a Japanese movie called “There’s No Love In The Center Of The World”, or something similar. Japanese movies always seem to have one big hit song, and I wanted to get that for Kuniko in case she liked it. I had the CD wrapped, and then I stashed it in my backpack for later.

I met Kuniko at JR station, and we walked together over to Starbucks to catch up over iced coffees and review the answers for an exam she had taken in the morning. It was really tough – one of them I couldn’t figure out myself. Kuniko was the one that finally got it. I can’t believe they expect people to figure these out when a native speaker is stumped.

After coffee we killed some time around Kobe and then went to see the movie. There were no English subtitles for me, so I really had to concentrate. Even so, I could only understand about a third of what was said. I certainly wasn’t picking up subtle nuances – just the gist of conversations. Still, it was enough to know what was happening and to follow the plot. The movie was a bit of a tear-jerker, at least to the people that could understand – I think I was the only one with a dry face.

As we walked to the restaurant after the movie, we talked about the movie. Kuniko said that she loved the music. I asked her if she had the CD and she said that she didn’t – but she wanted to pick it up sometime. It was looking really good for me – I’ve got the CD giftwrapped in my backpack as we’re walking.

While we ate dinner I gave her the CD, and she opened it – very surprised. I was thinking what a perfect moment, and in the midst of patting myself on the back she noticed that the CD was in fact the soundtrack for a TV spin-off of the movie, and her song wasn’t on there.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I re-examined the CD, and sure enough, it said something about TV series, and even in English in one part it said TV. Man, I felt stupid. She just smiled and said she was sure she’d like it anyway, and I insisted on taking it back to exchange it.

Sometimes life in Japan can be tough – this is a great example. It’s the little stuff like this that is so easy to pull off in your own language, but a monumental task in another.

We caught the next train back to Osaka, and since we were both wide awake we looked through one of Kuniko’s more interesting study books – filled with lines that foreigners might use to pick up Japanese people. They were hilarious – and I was amused to note that some of mine were in there. I didn’t take her by surprise – not for a minute.

It was a good day. Monday is a holiday for me, and there’s a big typhoon coming, which is rumored to be one of the biggest to hit Japan, ever. Woo-hoo!

I had to get up at the mind-bendingly early hour of 5:30 this morning, in order to make it on time for the Hyogo prefecture teacher interviews. The interviews are there to choose new teachers for the various openings every year. Mr. Hasegawa, the prefecture director, had asked six ALTs to help out with the interviews.

It was held pretty far away, so together with Chelsea and Struan we made it there by train and subway. After that, we just followed the trail of nicely dressed Japanese folks. The location was a prefectural college campus, and we were ushered into a secluded room where we were given our final instructions. We were each partnered with a honcho from the prefecture, and I didn’t know if it was a good thing or not but I was working with Mr. Hasegawa himself. This is like working together with the equivalent of the California Superintendent of Education, so I was a little nervous.

We set up shop in the room and Mr. Hasegawa gave me a couple of last minute bits of advice. My role was to moderate a thirty minute discussion in English between three prospective teachers. Mr. Hasegawa was behind me taking notes and evaluating the teachers. The process was rather complicated, and I had to listen carefully to the sometimes unintelligible responses, and create more questions on the fly to keep the discussion going. My goal was to have everyone talk for the same amount of time, so I had to work hard sometimes to coax something out of shy people, and to keep quiet the outgoing ones.

We had all kinds of people interviewing, from the bubbly cute girls that crossed and uncrossed their legs trying to distract us, to the old fashioned “Force Feed English” type teachers that were looking to move to a new prefecture. It was a tough job, and hard work. If somebody was shy and clamming up, that meant I had to ask them more questions to get them to talk, and it felt like I was kicking them while they were down.

On the other hand, working with Mr. Hasegawa was a challenge that I enjoyed. He gave me good marks for my questions and flexibility, and I hope that I made a favorable impression with him. You never now what a good word from him might drum up down the road.

After each group of interviewees, Mr. Hasegawa and I would discuss our impressions, and I was surprised how much weight my opinion carried. Several times what I said seemed to make or break candidates. Ostensibly Mr. Hasegawa had full responsibility for evaluation, but I felt like I was part of the process too.

We finally got out of there around four o’clock. I caught a train to Akashi and went inside the park to see the Akashi matsuri – a town festival that was in full swing by the time I arrived. One of the JETs that I had dinner with the other night in Harima had done a live show earlier that I missed. He was the lead singer for an ACDC cover band. The rest of the band was Japanese, and I would have loved to see that. Instead, I walked around and just enjoyed checking out all the booths.

As I walked by a booth I saw a sign that said, of all things, VALLEJO. Akashi is the sister city of Vallejo, California – something that I had indicated on my application and one of the ways that I picked where to live in Japan. They had a whole booth there showing pictures of Vallejo, selling T-shirts, and pouring Delicato wine for 100 yen a glass (around $1).

I stepped up and they started telling me all about Vallejo, and I told them that I used to live right near there. The lady got all excited, and we talked in English for a while – she had quite good English skills. She had gone to Vallejo six years ago and met the mayor. The pictures of Vallejo that were hung up were heavy on the vineyards, and light on the heavy industry, but they were Vallejo all right. It was fun to talk to her. The glass of wine for a dollar was the best deal on booze in the whole festival, so I walked around the place with a glass of red wine the rest of the night.

As for food, the lines were huge – out of control. Instead I walked across the street to a okonomiyaki place that I know, and had tonpeiyaki (pork and egg okonomiyaki) and negiyaki (green onion okonomiyaki). The master of the place is always really nice, and a friendly guy. His wife did all the work, and it was delicious.

After dinner I got back on the train and continued home. Now I’m just getting ready for an early trip to bed. Tomorrow I’m going into Kobe to meet Kuniko, and I’ll likely stay in Osaka Sunday night. Monday is a day off for me as a trade for my workday today. I’m trying to enjoy these last days of summer – soon enough I’ll be busy teaching classes again.

My day at school was a breeze – there was a volleyball tournament during the day, so I went over to the gymnasium to root on our team. Unfortunately, they didn’t play until late in the day, so I had to leave before they played. Still, it was cool to say hello to them, and I think they were glad to get the support.

Mr. Komuri brought in some hot peppers from Nagano that he wanted me to try. They are really good! He gave me a sample and said that he can provide more if I’d like. They are hotter than jalapenos, but a little milder than habaneros. Really tasty!

After school I went home to do a couple of loads of laundry, and clean up the place a bit. At five o’clock I was out the door and headed to my class in Kobe.

Today was a really good class. The teacher that was in charge repaired a lot of the damage done from last time, and we learned a few new things that seemed to make sense. It was probably the most useful lesson that we’ve had. There were only four students this time, and so we all got a lot of attention, and were called on quite a bit. That seemed to help me learn.

After class I went to the ramen place that I like, the one with the free kimchee. After last week’s dining disaster, I’m back to the old standby. It was delicious! I got on the next train out of Sannomiya, and was home just before ten o’clock. A nice easy day – tomorrow will a bit more difficult with the prefectural teacher interviews.

Today Mr. Hayashi and I both went into town to get our teeth cleaned. He told me the trick was to complain about some imaginary pain in your teeth, and then it counts as a medical examination and it’s covered by our insurance. No problem.

It went really well, actually, and I got a clean bill of health from the dentists. I only had one problem where they asked me to spit and I got a little enthusiastic – it went into the bowl and shot out the other side. Oops – so sorry.

Anyway, we were out of there and the next stop was to pick up the blood analysis that we had run on Tuesday. We each sat with the doctor for a bit, and he described the results for us. Mine was perfect – completely healthy and within normal limits. He said to just keep doing whatever it is I’m doing.

Mr. Hayashi had a few things to worry about, but nothing major. He’s got high blood pressure, but apparently that runs in the family. Mr. Komuri even came in to get his checked, but the doctor didn’t like his results at all. He said that Mr. Komuri couldn’t drink for three months. Yikes! Mr. Komuri managed to negotiate two drinks a week, but I don’t know if he’ll really stick to it. He usually has two drinks a day.

After all the medical stuff we were hungry, so we went to an Italian restaurant in Kakogawa. They were playing country western music, and the Italian food really wasn’t, but it was still a good meal. After that I caught the train home to get ready for the potluck tonight.

In the next town over, Harima, there are quite a few JETs. Chelsea and Timote offered to host a potluck to welcome the new folks, and so Jane and I were invited to attend. At home I cooked up some jambalaya, and around six o’clock Jane and I walked over.

We picked up Jennifer and Ben on the way. They are both new JETs – Jennifer works with Jane at her school, and Ben works at another school a bit farther away. We chatted for just a bit before walking over to the potluck.

There were about ten people there, and it was a lot of fun to see some people who I don’t see very often. Chelsea and Timote really put on the dog and we had so much good food. They are also big fans of Carrefour, so I recognized a lot of the products. Chris showed up with tacos fixings, but he didn’t know how to make tacos since he’s from Hawaii. After looking around for a second I realized that I was the only one qualified – Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, and English – I was the only Californian. I stepped up and we put some together – they were pretty good. Chris must have spent a fortune on the ingredients.

Lots of good food, too. Jane brought a big green salad, Chelsea and Timote made quiche, kebobs, and curry. Other people brought dessert or appetizers. Yum. It was so hot I couldn’t really eat my fill. The summer has slowed down my diet quite a bit.

It was around nine o’clock when I decided that I should probably be going. There were faint murmurs of going to karaoke from some of the veterans, and that was definitely my cue. Jane came along with me and we walked back together possibly carrying more food than we brought. We got a couple of cold beverages from a vending machine and had a nice walk back.

I was in bed studying, and just about ready to go to bed when I got a phone call from Kuniko. I hadn’t heard much from her lately – she is back on the super-tough schedule, so it was nice to chat with her. Her friend Tamura sensei was there – and they were really having a good time. Tamura sensei got on the phone with me, and spoke in such drunken rapid fire Japanese that all I could understand was 9-11, terrorists, and weekend. She finished off the one way conversation with a big laugh and then handed the phone back to Kuniko. We chatted for a little longer, and it was a nice way to end a long day.

I woke up early this morning with a bit of a hangover, the other side of the partying coin. With a bit of effort, lots of water, and a couple of aspirin, I was on my way to work on time.

There I studied hard for about two hours, with the occasional break to chat with a teacher or student. Mr. Komuri was back at school, and in his honor several teachers went to the next door cafe to have lunch. He told us about his trip, biking around Japan in seemingly random directions, and staying at inns along the way. It sounded like a great trip.

We had a long lunch telling stories, and then I went home. I wasn’t home long before Jane dropped by to ask about where to pick up packages – she had received a notice in her box, and she wanted to know where to go. She also wanted to do a little shopping and was wondering where some good places to shop were. I had already planned on going to Himeji to meet Carrie for dinner, so I offered to take her to the post office, and then take her to Himeji for some shopping.

It worked out great, actually. We made the short trip to Uozumi so that she could pick up her package, and then we got on the super express which took us to Himeji. We arrived right about on time, and we met Carrie right outside Baskin Robbins.

Carrie had worked in the orientation seminar at Yashiro this year, so Jane already knew her, at least by sight. Carrie gave some helpful shopping suggestions to Jane, and then we sprung her loose to go on a buying spree. Carrie and I went to the Persian restaurant and sat down to eat.

The food was great – just as good as the last time we were there. Carrie had lots of great stories and we spent most of the time comparing notes on the new JETs, talking about our plans for the future, and how our impressions of Japan have changed over the year that we’ve been here.

After dinner we went back to 31 Flavors for some dessert, but on the way I saw one of my students sitting with a friend. As we approached them she recognized me – I could barely recognize her. Her outfit was pretty suggestive. I couldn’t believe this was the same girl from my class – she looked like a hooker out on the town. She asked if Carrie was my girlfriend, and I told her that she was just a friend. We chatted for just a little while, and then we continued on to the ice cream. Maybe word will get back to Mr. Hayashi that I was with a girl, and he won’t worry about whether I’m gay or not.

Instead of ice cream we had crepes, which seem to be pretty popular around here. I’d never had one before, and after much deliberation picked a banana, ice cream, corn flake, and chocolate one. It was good! We sat around and watched the people walking by. It was a fun night. Tomorrow I’m going over to Chelsea and Timote’s place for a potluck dinner. What to bring, though? I haven’t been shopping because I knew that I’d be so busy this week. Something easy, something local. Hmm…

Just before I left for my trip to America I had a standard health checkup as required by my school. Everything was fine, but there was a weird result in my urine test. They wanted me to check it again when I got back, so today I went with Mr. Hayashi to a doctor that he recommended.

Health care in Japan is a little different. It seems like you can choose any doctor you want, and just walk in. We sat in the lobby and after about 30 minutes they asked me to come in a pee in the cup. They checked it right in the office, and it came back fine. The doctor offered to do a blood check for about 2000 yen – what a deal. I went ahead and gave some blood for them to check. Thursday I will go back and get the results. I’m not expecting anything crazy, but you never know.

After the medical stuff was taken care of I went back home, stopping in a Carrefour on the way to pick up some meat for dinner.

I had invited Struan over a couple of weeks back, and then Antoine came back from America, so I invited him too. They came over and we had a great time drinking beer and wine. I kept the grill busy – we had pork steaks with a pineapple honey pepper glaze, and then we had lots of sausages, and a platter of thinly sliced steak. I also made some weird rice with chicken chipotle bouillon that my mom sent me a while back. I also served up some mixed vegetables that I had found in Carrefour. We went through a couple bottles of wine, a Chilean cabernet sauvignon and an Australian Shiraz Cabernet that Struan brought along.

It was good times, and while I was quite busy cooking I was also quite busy drinking. By the end of the night we were all a little drunk. It’s been a long time since I’ve been buzzing like that – wow. During all the fun a lady called that I had been trying to contact about doing some Japanese study. We tried to work through the conversation with Antoine and Struan talking loudly in the background – she must have had one hell of a first impression of me. She did agree to meet me on Monday, so that’s good.

Antoine and Struan left around 10 p.m., and I did a few dishes and then went right to bed. What a night.

This morning I had the pleasure of walking just a short distance to the new train station and catching a nice easy ride into work. Once I arrived at work I was able to study for about half and hour, and the rest of the time I chatted with various people and relaxed. I’m just now starting to think about my first lessons – hmm… what should I do?

At around noon I went outside and met up with Keiko-san, one of the locals that organizes an English conversation every now and again. I was surprised this time to find that we had lots more participants… three more folks came by. I had my hands full keeping everyone in the conversation, but it worked out well. They paid for my lunch, and we even had a Japanese conversation to help with my learning curve. They are a good group of people, and it’s fun to chat with them. They are remarkably frank about some issues, and it’s interesting to get their take on things with the safety off.

I spent almost three hours chatting and eating with them, and then I headed home to change and get ready for my Japanese class in Kobe. The class went pretty well, although there was one concept that I kept getting confused on. The South American guy in the class was heckling me in Spanish while I was trying to make a sentence in Japanese – pretty confusing. At the end the teacher had trouble with a concept, and I think we all ended the class totally confused. I hope that they can pick up the pieces on Friday night. This was one class that did more harm than good.

Usually I stop in at a ramen place that has free kimchee on my way home, but this time I thought I’d try a new restaurant. The place had some delicious looking plastic food in their window, so I went inside and ordered up. The dish was strips of steak, noodles, rice, corn, a soft boiled egg, and bits of garlic all mixed up in a sauce and served in a hot clay pot. It looked great, but it turned out the sauce was almost completely oil. It was damn near the greasiest thing I’ve ever eaten, anywhere. I ate about half and left the rest to coagulate.

Now I’m back home – the weather is starting to pick up and there’s talk of another typhoon approaching tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully it will blow itself out tonight and tomorrow will be a dry day.

Oh, almost forgot, they’re putting in signs in the food court at Ito Yokado and I identified another place – Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a coffee shop in there somewhere.

This was a nice, relaxing Sunday. I slept in until eight a.m. or so, and around ten o’clock Jane came downstairs with breakfast for me as kind of a thank you for all the help I’ve been giving her over the last few days. She worked on my computer while I leisurely ironed shirts, and then I cooked up some curry and rice for both of us for lunch.

Around noon I left Jane hard at work on the computer and went down to the yakitori to meet up with one of the guys, who drove me to the softball fields on the Mitsubishi Heavy Industry property on the southern peninsula of Futami. There we met up with the rest of the yakitori gang who were getting ready to play a couple of games of softball.

As soon as I walked on the field the other team started looking over, and then they sent someone over to me to ask me if I was on the team. I shook my head, and the guy smiled and went back to tell the other team.

It was great to see some of the guys – I haven’t been to the yakitori so often since my return from America, and we had some catching up to do. Everyone was warming up in their expensive uniforms – I noticed that while most of the players had their last names printed on the back, the master had “MASTER” printed on the back of his.

The game was off to a rocky start, with our pitcher struggling to find the plate. He gave up five runs in the first inning, and he was pretty embarrassed about it. He made up for it in the last inning by hitting a grand slam to win the game. The other team was a little upset with their own pitcher.

I had a great time just sitting in the sun in shorts and sunglasses enjoying a good game. After all the pressure from yesterday it was nice to just relax and spend a few hours watching a ball game.

The master had to go to work after their first game, so he gave me a ride back, and I went home. The only other thing I did today was run to Carrefour to do some shopping for later this week. I picked up some great sushi for dinner, and also a couple of cold beers that looked good.

This week is going to be pretty social for me. Tomorrow (Monday) I’m meeting the group of ladies in Takasago for lunch and some chit-chat in English, and then that night I have my Japanese class in Kobe. Tuesday I’m hosting Antoine and Struan for BBQ sausages and red wine. Wednesday I’m having dinner with Carrie, but I’m not sure where yet. Thursday is dinner at a couple of ALTs, Chelsea and Timote, who are a couple of stations away on the Sanyo line. Friday is Japanese class again, and I’m hoping that I can meet up with Kuniko Friday night. Saturday is my secret project stage II interviews in Kobe. Sunday, seven days from now, will be my next free day.

At about 8 a.m. I was awakened by the sound of a helicopter buzzing by overhead. It was really low and really loud. I rolled out of bed and shuffled off to make some breakfast, and then I got organized and went across the street to check out the opening of the new Nishi Futami train station.

This new station is only about 150 meters from my place – really convenient. It was really only built to accommodate the gigantic new Ito Yokado market that they built next to my apartment. The grand opening of the station today was accompanied by lots of events and fun for people that might otherwise be bored on Saturday.

I walked over and took lots of pictures. They had loads of Sanyo Train Line souvenirs for sale, and they were doing a good business. Lots of people had bought tickets to get on the train platform and take a picture of trains arriving. I don’t know why that would be worthy of a photo – the trains had been running at the new station since 6 a.m.

This station is the one that I’ll be using about 90% of the time now, so I enjoyed walking through it. There was a flea market type thing going on outside, a TV station was there, and the aforementioned helicopter was taking off and landing in an adjacent parking lot.

The Ito Yokado had a big sign showing that they will be opening on September 17th, so I definitely scratched that on my calendar. I can’t wait to see the setup in there. I saw that they had at least one restaurant inside, a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yikes!

Around noon Kuniko came by to pick me up – we were looking to spend some time together before going over to meet her parents at six. We ended up going to a park in Akashi situated directly beneath the Akashi Pearl Bridge. We had a little picnic in the shade of one of the trees and just enjoyed relaxing with each other. It was some good quality time before the main event.

We walked along to Tarumi and did a little shopping in the outlet malls. We didn’t buy anything, just looked around. While we were shopping in one of the women’s fashion stores they played “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” by The Offspring, and that was kind of a surreal moment.

After the picnic we went back to my house where I took a shower and put some decent clothes on. Then we headed over to say hello to her folks.

They live in a dense neighborhood, in a nice big house. We went inside and I followed Kuniko’s verbal cues as we took off our shoes, trying to say the right things. They had laid out a small pair of teddy bear slippers for me to be comfortable in. Didn’t quite go with my outfit, but I didn’t want to appear rude.

We went into the kitchen and I met Kuniko’s mom. She was fluttering around the kitchen with a big smile on her face. Kuniko introduced us, and we chatted for a little bit before she disappeared into the next room to take care of some things. Kuniko’s sister, Tomo-chan, was also there, so I got a chance to catch up with her. She was cooking up tonight’s dinner, sukiyaki.

I gave my gifts to Kuniko’s mom, and she seemed very happy. I was waiting for her dad to show up, but he was conspicuously absent. We all sat down for dinner, and about five minutes into the meal he showed up looking very tired from working somewhere. We introduced ourselves, and watched me carefully, maybe a little suspiciously, for a while while we ate.

I asked him a couple of questions in Japanese, and he opened up a bit. He seemed surprised that I spoke a little Japanese. I think maybe Kuniko low-balled my ability just a little, which seems like a good tactic. We talked about all kinds of things, and Kuniko helped fill in missing information when I didn’t understand something. It went really well, actually.

After dinner we went out to the living room and watched a little TV, looked at my picture album that I brought, and had some watermelon for dessert. Everyone really enjoyed looking at the pictures, and seeing my family and where I came from. At around ten o’clock, Kuniko made the motion that it was time to go, so we excused ourselves, and after countless thank-you’s, bows, and excuse me’s, we left.

While we drove back Kuniko and I chatted about how we thought it went, and we both agreed that it went pretty well. She dropped me off at home, and I drank half a bottle of Norton Malbec to celebrate. What a relief – they’re nice people!