Friday night after school Kuniko and I met up for a Christmas concert that was performed by members of her school’s music program. Whenever I join Kuniko for a school event, we get a lot of attention. Her school is a girl’s school, and the students are always laughing, giggling, and smiling in our general direction.
Bringing someone’s spouse to a school event is kind of unusual in Japan. In my three and a half years of teaching at public schools in Japan I’ve only met one spouse of a teacher. I feel lucky to be invited along to these things, and I think it helps Kuniko out at work – nothing like living with a walking English reference book.
Saturday I spent the day cleaning house, and Kuniko was at work teaching four morning classes. When she came home we went out shopping to prepare for the little party we were having with Chiemi-chan and Ai-chan. We drove to Carrefour, and did a final shopping trip through the store. They will be closing at the end of the year, and we won’t be able to go there anymore. I look forlornly at the wine aisle, the beer, and the Mexican food section. Bye, bye!
We scored some steaks and some other goodies, and then came home and started working on dinner. Ai-chan and Chiemi-chan showed up around seven, and we had steaks, cheese fondue, and salad for dinner. We had two really nice bottles of wine – one from France and one that I bought during my visit to Australia two Christmases ago.
It wasn’t just wine, we were drinking sake, tequila, and white wine. After dinner we played the Wii and it turned out to be really, really fun. We all played bowling, tennis, boxing, and towards the end of the night some drunken golf. It turned out that we ate and drank right past Ai-chan’s last train, so she and Chiemi-chan decided to stay the night.
Since they had a place to stay, we poured more tequila. Lots more tequila. Ai-chan really went to town, and she was paying the price at the end of the night. I was trying to show her how to bowl on the Wii again, but we couldn’t seem to figure it out. People were not walking anymore – crawling was just easier. We stayed up late talking and joking around. The sleeping arrangements had to be pretty creative, but I think everyone got to bed around 2-3 in the morning.
Today I got up early and walked to the nearest combini for breakfast supplies. Ai-chan had to get to an appointment in Shin-Osaka by 10 a.m., so she and Chiemi-chan hit the road early. I hope everyone made it OK – it was a pretty heavy duty hangover I think.
Luckily cleaning the house coincided with Kuniko’s planned “end of year cleaning”. In Japan, at the end of the year people clean their houses thoroughly – it’s like spring cleaning in the USA. This is detail work – and Kuniko really threw herself into it. We cleaned everywhere, and we decided to throw out some old crap and buy some new crap when we get home from our trip. The place looks good now, except for the two giant suitcases in the middle of the living room.
I’m almost finished packing, and pretty soon we’re going over to Kuniko’s parents’ place to do our New Year’s cards and to drop off our houseplants for them to take care of while we’re gone. I’m looking forward to seeing them one last time before we go.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be leaving early for our respective workplaces toting a big suitcase. I’ll be leaving early from work to head to the airport, and then hopefully everything is fine and we’ll be able to get on the plane without any trouble and get going towards San Francisco. Looking at all the weird stuff in our suitcase makes me a little concerned about the customs and inspections stateside. It seems like they are really strict nowadays. I hope it’s not too much trouble getting presents to everyone this year.
Well, that’s the latest. I’m going to bring my computer with me on the trip, so I’ll try to post when I get chance. Merry Christmas!
