Every time we go to Europe we have a great time.  We have been wanting to go back since the last trip and finally we found some good flights and a time schedule that worked for us.  The plan this time was for three countries – Turkey, Spain and Greece.  We’ve been anxiously awaiting this trip since it has several destinations that we’ve wanted to see our whole lives, and the last six months it has been just about all that we talk about.  Trip, trip, trip.  So when the day finally came, we were more than ready.

Our first flight was delicately scheduled at 10:30 pm on Thursday, and since we were both working, we felt that five hours was more than ample time to get to the airport two hours before departure.  But actually, we almost missed the flight.

In order to make sure that we made it, we took precautions and drove to work that day with our suitcase and clothes inside.  We wanted to avoid the worst case scenario of a train stoppage, so the car made sense.  The plan was to drive home after work, change clothes there, leave the car, and then take the train to Kobe and then the bus to the airport.

During the workday I watched the train schedule carefully, and looked for any delays.  There weren’t any problems at all, until one minute before I left.  Suddenly my cellphone alarm went off – it was an emergency alert for an earthquake nearby.  What that also meant was that the trains were shutting down.  Also, to make things tighter I had some last minute student visits, so I left a few minutes late.  Kuniko was waiting outside in the car, and we dashed off.  It turned out the earthquake was pretty mild, so we figured we’d stick to the original plan, hoping that the trains would resume service by the time we got home and changed.

Luckily, the trains were running by the time we got to the station.  Unluckily, there were still periodic delays and we missed a few chances to change trains and catch up.  Finally we made it to Kobe, and we caught a bus from there to the airport.  Several times we had to stop for traffic, but we made it about two hours before the flight.  Safe!

Kansai airport was pretty quiet, actually.  He had our customary pre-trip cocktail at our usual bar, including a light dinner because we figured we’d be sleeping on the plane soon enough.  The pre-trip cocktail is one of our favorite routines – work is done and only vacation ahead to look forward to.

We easily caught our flight on Turkish airlines, and enrolled in their mileage program since we’ll be flying with them quite often this trip.  The food on board was actually pretty good.  The eleven-hour-flight was smooth, and we even landed early in Istanbul (at 5 am).  We walked out of the arrival gate and there were many guys standing around holding names on paper.  We hadn’t arranged any transportation for this stage, but a guy had Kuniko’s name on a paper.  We are used to this – the hotel sells the names to guys who will arrange some driver to take you to the hotel.  It ends up being more expensive than a taxi, but we went over and asked him how much it would cost.  He couldn’t quote a price right away and desperately tried to reach his driver by phone.  No luck, though – so we left him behind to take the train, which was our original plan.  He called out in desperation as we left, “There’s no train running at this time!”  We sneered because we had already researched it and knew the truth.  Scam, scam, scam.

One thing I noticed right away was the interesting blend of Middle East and European in the people walking around.  I know the city straddles the border between Asia and Europe, but you can really tell by the appearance of the people.  Maybe it is the fashion, the attitude, I don’t know.  Another thing I noticed immediately was that the men seemed to hung up on machismo.  Living in Japan you don’t really see that kind of thing, but this was like a flashback to my visits to Mexico when I was young.  Guys were dressed up and checking out girls, and they looked very meticulous about their image.

We figured out the train system easily enough, and caught the next train into town.  There was one transfer, and then we arrived in the historic Sultanahmet district.  There was a scent in the air when we arrived – it smelled like cinnamon or clove, and I noticed it for the first few days of our visit before I got used to it.  The area where we got off the train was deserted (it was awfully early after all) and so we started walking to our hotel based on the GPS direction that I had on the cellphone.  We ended up walking right by the Blue Mosque.  It was beautiful to behold from the outside, and I couldn’t resist parking the suitcase and taking some pictures right there.  Around us there were tons of stray dogs running loose.  I noticed later that each one had an electronic tag on their ear, but I’m not sure why they were bothering to keep track.  We also saw some dogs chase a passing BMW sedan and try to bite the tires.  The driver stopped the car and the dogs just stood there looking bored until the car started up again, and they chased after it again.  Weird neighborhood!

The hotel was actually just a few minutes from the Blue Mosque, and we were able to check in right away.  We even got a bonus breakfast while we checked in – they had laid out a pretty nice spread of traditional Turkish breakfast foods that consisted of olive pastes, hummus, breads, eggs, and lots of cheeses and meats.

Our room was on the top floor, and it enjoyed a beautiful ocean view.  From our room we could watch the ships coming into the BosporusStrait.  The view was very nice from there, but it turned out that it was even better from the rooftop of the hotel as we found out later.

We cleaned ourselves up after the long flight, and then went out to explore the city.  We stayed in a big arc around the hotel, but managed to skirt the northeastern port and see all the activity around it.  Cruise ships, a palace on the hill, and some fat old guys swimming in the ocean in tiny rubber trunks.

After we covered a lot of territory and really stretched our legs, we were starting to feel the heat of the day.  During our trip we noticed that because there was comparatively lower humidity than in Japan, simply staying in the shade was a great way to cool down.  We ended our loop on a cross town trip through empty streets.  Apparently today was a religious holiday, and people were busy spending time at home with their families.  That meant empty streets for us, which was no problem.  Near our hotel we stopped and bought a couple of cold beers from the convenience store across the way, and then took them upstairs to the roof to watch the ships come and go.  The view was superb – almost 270 degrees of ocean and city.

For lunch we went back into the historic part of town which had turned into the crowded touristy part of town since we had walked through last.  We found a small restaurant that served some meatballs that are supposedly the local specialty.  Each dish we ordered in Istanbul came with a giant puffed piece of bread approximately the size of a watermelon.  As it cooled it deflated to look more like naan bread, but a little more firm.  It was good but filling, and we avoided it hoping to concentrate more on the main courses.  We also discovered that it is pretty hard to say thank you in Turkish.  “Tay-shay kkuray durim” doesn’t exactly pop right out as the waiter is walking away.

After lunch it was getting hotter and even more tourists were piling into the neighborhood.  We made a judgment call to head back to the hotel and take a nap.  We cranked up the air conditioning and enjoyed a few hours of restful sleep.  This kind of method of avoiding the heat became a bit of a habit in the first few days while we were resting up from our busy work schedule.  I know that siestas are supposed to happen in Spain, but we started practicing early.

When we finally got up and moving again it was close to dinner time, so we went to another restaurant that looked good.  It was billed as a BBQ house, and they served so many kinds of kebabs it was overwhelming.  I had the bright idea to order several kebabs a la carte instead of the way they were presented on the menu.  I wanted to try different meats but I didn’t want so many salads and veggies and rice on the side.  Technically it was a success – we received everything a la carte, but on the bill they went ahead and charged us for the full meals anyway.  Expensive dinner!  The meat was very tender and delicious, but it was difficult to finish all of it.  Eyes were much bigger than my stomach. I was interested to note that throughout our stay in Turkey we only saw male waiters – I can only guess why.  We also tried our first Turkish wines of the trip.  The white wine was pretty good, but the red was disappointing.  It was almost more sherry-like to me.

We walked back across the historic square in front of the Blue Mosque and found a festival going on.  It was perhaps related to the religious holiday.  There were tons of locals out celebrating, and only a few tourists walking around.  We walked around enjoying the atmosphere, and even had a chance to buy some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor and go through a street market located right near the big mosque.  Finally we ran out of gas and headed back to the hotel and headed straight to bed.  We were a little alarmed to be awoken at 4:04 a.m. by morning prayers blaring from the nearby mosques.  Loudest prayers I’ve ever heard!

We knocked out last week in a flash, and now we’re sitting pretty the weekend before our trip.

Friday night I finally won the battle against technology and I’ve got a new server running upstairs.  Smooth, quick and without a hiccup, I am looking forward to reading this post ten years in the future and wondering what I was thinking when I set it up.  Hopefully it lasts ten years.

The Yamaji’s invited us to watch the fireworks in Kobe with them on Saturday night.  Usually things are crazy in Kobe that night – crowds of people, jostling for position, and being sweaty and fighting mosquitoes all night.  Luckily, the Yamajis had a connection to miss a lot of that hassle.

We went to Port Island, and then walked a little ways over to a company called Nichirei.  Their business is cold storage and transport of food products.  There was a four story warehouse there, and on the shaded side the company employees and their families had set up BBQs and pallets to have a dinner party.

We sat down, opened some beers they provided, and enjoyed their hospitality.  They brought over food that they had cooked, including some huge prawns they had grilled, steak, sausages, fried chicken, oden, yakitori, and many others.  The kids were kept busy fishing things out of a small pool that they set up, and they had a contest that was kind of like a pinata, but instead they used a watermelon on the ground.

Although it was a warm day in summer, we were set up in the shade, and that helped a lot.  In addition, we were right outside a huge refrigerated warehouse, so anytime we liked we could step inside where the temperature on the first floor was 10 degrees C (compared to 30 C outside).  In freezer storage it was -10 C, but there was no reason to go in there.  10 C is quite enough to see your breath and cool down quickly.

The company employees sometimes came over to say hello, and Mr. Yamaji had a chance to talk to some of his business contacts, and we were introduced to many people.  Everyone was very friendly and hospitable, and there was a good vibe there.

This is something that the company does every year, and so they’ve got a system going.  Just before the fireworks started they lined us up inside the warehouse.  We filled our pockets with snacks (and drinks) and went up the service elevators to the roof.  There we picked out a spot on top, and we had a spectacular view of Kobe at night.

The fireworks lasted for about an hour, and we enjoyed watching, taking pictures, and just drinking and talking.  It was the perfect place to sit and enjoy the show, and with so few people around, plenty of food and drink – it was a lot of fun.  We’re already planning on coming back next year, if they’ll have us.

There was a huge rush of people leaving Port Island, so we decided to walk over to the Portopia hotel and have some drinks upstairs until the rush passed.  It was nice to sit and talk with the Yamajis in the relaxed air conditioned atmosphere instead of being in the crush of people waiting to catch trains and head home.

In the end we got home on the late side, but with Sunday completely off it was perfectly OK to sleep in a take it easy.  Nice!

We noticed something curious lately.  We’ve had a lot of guests come over for parties and what not over the years.  Some people are married, some are single.  The weird thing that we noticed is that the ones that visit us as unmarried couples usually break up sometime afterwards.

Not sure why – but we could think of a pretty long list of relationships that were broken after a visit to our place.  It hasn’t worked on any married couples, though.  That at least is good news.

So a warning to any singles coming to our place.  The chances for continuing your romances are not good.

It is quiet around here lately.  With the server crashed and the new one under gradual construction, we are a little limited in our musical library.  I can stream it from the iPhone, but it lacks the depth of what we’ve got stored on servers. And it skips if we use the microwave…

Today at work was the first time for me to see some of my students after they returned from overseas trips.  We had three days off last week, and it is an easy matter to take the last two off and make nine consecutive holidays.  One student went to Italy, and on a whim suddenly took a high speed train from Venice to Paris to watch the start of the Tour De France, and then go back to Venice the same day.  That was a cool story.   The rest of his trip seemed like it went well, but he was clearly exhausted and jetlagged.  Poor guy.

Another student went to Laos and Vietnam.  His trip to Laos completed his quest to visit every Southeast Asian country.  He said that of all the countries he has visited, Laos was the least developed.  I mentally scratched it off my list after I heard that.  He spent just two nights there, and then spent the rest of the time in Hanoi and the outskirts.

So it was great to hear some of the stories, and I can’t wait to hear even more after the holidays next month.

It has been a long time since I had a chance to blog.

I’m not sure why, since I’ve had a lot of time off recently. But as it turned out, I had less free time than I expected. This always seems to happen during long holidays – a similar situation occurred during Golden Week last May.

Anyway, this time around it was quirky behavior with our home network. Suddenly when streaming music and movies over a wired ethernet connection there would be sudden drops and over slow behavior. I spent two days troubleshooting, and after buying a new router and having no change in the situation, I think I narrowed down the problem to our little home server.

It has been problematic before, but I think it is time to move the data off the little beast and put it into retirement. I haven’t had it that long, a couple of years, but I get nervous with all our music and photographs residing on it. What if it just up and died one of these days.

So my next project is to put together a new server, and then transfer the information over to it. I don’t mind putting together a computer, but it is time consuming.

Yesterday Kuniko and I went into Osaka to do some shopping, see a movie (Monster University) and then have dinner at a Greek restaurant. We weren’t able to find a Greek place in Kobe, and this restaurant was the only Greek restaurant in Osaka. I guess Greek isn’t that popular here. Even at this restaurant they had to pad out the menu with some Italian dishes. Still, the food was better than average. I guess I was just hoping for a little more variety. I can’t wait to try to the real deal soon.

Today it was back to work after the long holiday. A two day week is always good!

Tomorrow after work we’ll go pick up my friend Rico’s son Dino, who is here in Japan playing football for a week. We thought we’d take him out to yakiniku in Kobe. I’m looking forward to seeing him and hearing how his trip is going!

On Sunday we had a relaxing time with friends.  But before that, I was pretty busy.

Saturday morning I got up at a reasonable hour and spent the first half of the day cleaning the house, from top to bottom.  Things don’t get so messy around here, but we were having guests on Sunday afternoon, and I wanted things to look spotless.  I spent a lot of time on everything, and it turned out nicely.  I sure used a lot of cleaning supplies, though.

After housecleaning I donned some cleaner clothes and trekked out into the heat to Kobe.  Kuniko was working on Saturday, so the plan was for me to meet her there, and then head over to Costco together to buy party supplies.  I decided to go early to Rokko Beer Diner for a couple of pints to reward myself for all the sweat and labor I put into the cleanup effort.

Rokko Beer Diner (R.B.D. for short) has become my favorite place to drink in Kobe.  They have a nice bar that I can belly up to, lots of local beers on tap and even some craft beers from other countries tapped, too.  I enjoyed a pint of Coronado Islander IPA, and then a lager that I’ve never had before.  Great stuff!

Kuniko and I met up and then we went over to Costco to spend too much money on things that will eventually kill us.  Like beef and alcohol.

We were hoping to get some takeout from Costco for dinner, but they didn’t have any of our favorites.  Instead we went over to the local yakitori and ate the usual course over there.  As always – delicious.  There were a lot of female customers in the place.  The master gets his share of attention from the local ladies, I guess.

Sunday we were grilling in great weather starting in the afternoon.  Anthony, Risa, and their son Koki came over and we celebrated nothing in particular.  It was good to see them – they are really friendly.  Anthony is always full of questions, and Koki was running all over the place making himself at home.  He is 2 years old now, but he was talkative enough.

The grilled foods turned out great, and the conversation was also a lot of fun.  They are going to travel to Bali this summer, so we shared tips and talked about some of the other travel adventures.  Koki is only 2 years old but he has already traveled with them to Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  The kid is shaping up to be an international jet-setter.

They ended up leaving around 3 p.m., and we cleaned up the kitchen and the grill and then covered things up.  As I was covering the grill I could see huge black clouds on the horizon.  I got inside, we sat down to watch a movie, and the rain came pouring down like crazy.  Thunder, lightning, high winds, the works.  Talk about good timing, though.  Luckily the BBQ was all finished before we got hit.  Just in time.

Today was a holiday for the rest of Japan, but I was off to work as usual.  Kuniko could enjoy a well-deserved day off, though.  The day went well today, with nothing special to report.  My students are continuing to work hard as the lessons get more challenging, which is all I can ask of them.

This week should be interesting – I’m looking forward to a couple of highlights.  Anniversary dinner, curry with a coworker, and Game of Thrones in Japanese.  Should be fun!

Last Saturday we had some sudden squalls come in and it rained like crazy.  Starting the following day it has been hot and humid with blue skies.  I think that means that the rainy season is over.

This week has been going very quickly.  It is already hot and sweaty when we leave the house at 5;30 a.m., and then we can cool down once we get on the train.  After twenty or so minutes it is time for me to get off at Hyogo station, and then it is another 10 minute walk in the heat.  Rinse, repeat.

I don’t mind actually.  Once I get to work I have control of my own air conditioner in the classroom, so I can be sure that I’m comfortable.  Most of the people that work in my office building share a big office with others, and are not allowed to adjust or modify the company-dictated temperature.  I never really thought about it, but there are a lot of benefits to having your own office/classroom.

We’ll keep this schedule for the next three months or so.  Luckily we can duck the most intense heat in the middle of August and go seek a different sort of heat traveling in Europe!

Friday night I went out to dinner with an ex-coworker in Kobe.  He had recommended an Indian restaurant near the station, and I was looking forward to trying something new.  Ever since we got back from India ourselves we find ourselves at Swaad in Okubo anytime we crave Indian food.  They do it very well there, but I was hoping to find some new places to go.

Unfortunately, this place wasn’t good.  Lifeless, weak curry.  Overly greasy biryani.  Pale orange tandoori.  It was pretty depressing.

Luckily the company was quite good and we had a good conversation.  We finished up with full stomachs and wrapped up the evening early, as he had to get back to his family.

So Friday wasn’t all that great, but Saturday was much better.  I had the entire day to myself to read books, copy DVDs, and dream up a dinner.  I prepared a 1 kg pork roast for the grill, but just as I was getting ready to put it out there a sudden squall came through and dumped buckets of rain everywhere.  I did some quick thinking and roasted the pork instead with some beer and onions, and it turned out very nicely.  We drank a bottle of Rafanelli Zin that I had laying around that knocked our socks off, so the evening was a complete success.

Sunday we had considered going out to see a movie in Kobe, but Kuniko was dead tired, so we spent the day inside with the air conditioner running all day.  Summer is here in a big way, and the rainy season appears to be over.  So hot and humid today…

This week is sure to be a tough one at work – I’ve got some extra lessons coming up, so I’ll have plenty to do!

The weekend is getting closer, and I’m starting to look forward to the inevitable relaxation. It has been a pretty productive week for me and my students. We are wrapping up the mid term interview tests, and I think this group of students is one of the most confident I have taught.

Tonight Kuniko had a party in Kobe, so I enjoyed watching “Julie & Julia” which is partly based on Julia Child’s biography. Half the movie was good, but I could clearly tell I wasn’t the target audience of the other half. Entertaining, but I enjoyed the book much more. Now it is off to bed!

Things have been going pretty well for us lately, and I don’t mind saying this knowing that things could change in a second.  We’ve been counting ourselves lucky since we got married.  Other than Kuniko’s brief hospital visit earlier this year we’ve been in really good shape in just about any way that you can measure it.

And yes, I realize this is a gigantic whammy.

I’ve been around long enough to realize that life is a cycle, and you go through good patches and bad.  Even though you’re stuck in some hard times, you can guarantee that things will get better sooner or later.  Then you can start prepping for the inevitable return of the bad.

Every year that we’ve been together we’ve been remarking to ourselves that things are going surprisingly well, and we’re trying to enjoy the here and now and not worry too much about the future.  But if I really believe in this kind of cosmic karma balance, I have to remember that we’re in for some serious trouble sooner or later.

I’m sure you’ll read all about it here when it happens…

We had a busy but very enjoyable weekend.  Friday night Kuniko was out at a party, so I took the opportunity to go out to Kanegasaki park to watch the fireflies.  It was a little late in the season, but there were few fireflies floating around the creek.  I walked there from our house, and stood alone for almost an hour watching them float around.  Finally I headed back and had dinner on the way home at Junpu.  The owner of the place was happy to see me and was my dinner companion while her sons worked the grill and picked up some English words from me.

On Saturday night we met up with the Fukumi’s for dinner at our favorite Spanish restaurant, Oliva in Sannomiya.  The food was delicious as usual, but the conversation was great.  The Fukumi’s recently found out that Sayaka is pregnant, so that made for a good topic to discuss.  We also happened to run into our friend Mr. Ota from Okubo eating there with some friends.  Exciting times!

After dinner we dropped in at wine bar “D” for a bottle of red and some cheese.  It was good to introduce the place to Sayaka and Koki.  We had an interesting journey home, with a drunken old man collapsing (by chance?) into Kuniko’s arms, and all the fallout from that.

Sunday we spent the day in recovery mode, sleeping late, doing odds and ends around the house, and then having a superb grilled steak with a caesar salad for dinner.  We are pretty lucky with all we have, and we could really feel it this weekend.

I just realized the other day that I need to head out to the nearby park in the evening to see if I can see some fireflies.  Last year about this time I was able to see quite a few in the park, but that was a little bit past the peak season.  I decided today to head out tomorrow night after work and try to see some.  I love being within walking distance them – I just have to make sure not to miss the season.

Tomorrow Kuniko has a party after work, so I can take my time checking them out, and then maybe hit a restaurant on the way home for dinner.  Where to go….

For some reason things this week are moving fast.  It’s hard to believe that I already knocked out Wednesday, and there’s just two workdays left.  Part of what made the day go fast was the ride to and from work from Kuniko.  We left at 5:15 am and got back at about 5:45 pm.  In those 12 hours I had nine classes in total, 45 minutes each.  That’s a pretty concentrated day!

We’ve got some things to look forward to this weekend.  The big event is meeting the Fukumi’s for dinner in Sannomiya.  We’re headed to our favorite Spanish restaurant Oliva, and then perhaps to a wine bar for the next stage.  We often have dinner at each other’s houses, so it’ll be nice to go out and let someone else worry about the cooking and dishes.

We are truly in the rainy season.  Every day is cloudy and threatening rain, and now and then the rain just shows up.  Right now it is pouring rain outside, and I think we are going to drive to work.

I don’t mind – that saves me about 20 minutes of walking outside in the rain, but I’m sure Al Gore wouldn’t be too happy.  Especially since the train is a viable alternative.  But it is hard to argue with a dry car, air conditioning, and a comfortable ride to work.

This week I get rich.

Well, not really rice, but today is my pay day – the 25th of each month.  On top of that, at the end of the week I get my summer bonus, which is not insignificant.  It’s like getting several paychecks at once.

Bonuses work differently in Japan.  In many Japanese companies they are more expected than surprising, and people include their appearance in their yearly budgets.  My case is a little different as I am a contract employee rather than someone with a lifetime contract, but the basic thrust is the same.  Bonuses can be quite substantial, too.  When Kuniko worked for her school in Osaka years ago, the bonus made up nearly 50% of her annual salary.

I think companies like the bonus system because unlike base pay they can easily adjust it down citing business conditions, whereas any decrease in base pay means a confrontation with either the union or the employees themselves.  And confrontations aren’t really popular here in Japan.

So it’ll be good to see my bank account topped up, especially after the damage I’ve done to it paying for tickets to Europe and the USA.