Friday after work I met up with Antoine in Kobe for some drinks and to catch up on our job situations. We started the evening off at the Belgium beer place, because it is close to where we meet up usually, and all that Hoegaarden on tap is just too good to pass up.
They didn’t have seats at the bar, so they set us up in the cafe, which is usually full of women eating cake and getting ready to party for the evening. We were surrounded by by them, and on the whole it was a pretty enjoyable situation from our perspective. Antoine told me all about his new job prospect, and it looks like he landed a job with the Takarazuka board of education as an ALT.
Antoine has been working on a temporary basis through a staffing company like me, waiting for the start of the school year. I found the ad for this job while I was digging around on the internet, and I forwarded it onto him. The process was pretty intense – he had to go in for three rounds of interviews, a Japanese test, and a physical exam. The Japanese test surprised me – I couldn’t believe he passed, but apparently it was good enough to get to the last round. He finally got a letter from the board the other day, and it looks like they are offering him the job. He couldn’t read the contract so he couldn’t give me details, but it sounded pretty promising. I’m glad that he found something a little more permanent – it helps with his wedding plans and his future.
As for me, I came to a career crossroads a while back, and I decided to take the road that is a little rougher hoping that it leads to a better place. While Antoine is thinking about being an assistant teacher for the mid to long term, I think that I want to do a little more than that. I’m hoping to go to school and use that education to get me teaching at a higher level – maybe at a college somewhere. That will take time, though, and I need something to pay the bills in the meantime. I’ve got some ideas, but nothing solid yet.
After talking and drinking at the Belgian place, we went across the street to the Sapporo beer hall and had a big mug of beer there. The waitress insisted on speaking English while she served us, and she even gave us the hard sell on the appetizer menu. We were able to stay away from the greasy food and save our appetites for dinner.
Dinner was a place that I saw featured on television a couple of days ago, Kim Katsu. It’s a chain, but a little more upscale. They have custom tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets) that were really good. Instead of using a thick pork cutlet and frying that up, they roll together lots of thinly sliced tender pork, and then add some flavors inside and then finally fry it up. You can choose lots of different kinds – we had three different ones – garlic, cheese, and onion. They were really good – I’m ready to go back and have more.
The waiters and waitresses were really good there and kept us in drinks long enough for the alcohol to start taking effect. As we were ready to go, Antoine went to use the bathroom. I commented that it was literally behind the wall we were sitting next to, and so he went in there and then knocked a couple of times to show me how thin the wall was. When he knocked everybody in the restaurant looked over, and I pretended that I didn’t know what was going on. Antoine was in the bathroom and didn’t know that everyone was staring, so he knocked again – just in case I missed it the first time. I knocked back and he seemed satisfied, and the other customers seemed a little perplexed.
Next stop was up the hill at the House of Pacific. They have a really nice bar with a good view of the city, but when we arrived it was full. While we waited in the lobby on couches they served us drinks. We had a really nice Burgogne Pinot Noir by the glass for only 500 yen – it was a great deal. While I was there I took the opportunity to make some arrangements because I had made reservations there for Sunday night to celebrate Kuniko’s birthday. I talked with the lady that I made reservations with. She spoke fluent English, so it was easy to make the arrangements. I wrote a birthday message on a piece of paper for them to use on her dessert, and I also ordered a bottle of the Pinot Noir to go with our dinner. The things I did that night played a big part in the story on Sunday night, so keep this in mind for later.
As we were wrapping up the first glass of wine and the waiters were trying to get us to smoke cigars, Kuniko called and invited us to hook up with her and her coworkers who were drinking near the station. We finished up at the House of Pacific and headed to the station, and after some fumbling around we found them in a tiny bar on the eighth floor of a building tucked into an alleyway.
Kuniko was drinking with Yamaguchi sensei and Ono sensei, the two teachers that had come over and had a tequila party with us. One sensei was the one that tumbled down the stairs later that evening, but she appeared to be doing fine with no ill effects. Antoine and I ordered some beers and hung out with them for a while – it was pretty clear that they were just as drunk as we were, and that made it much more fun.
Finally we hit the road just before the last trains, and everyone made their separate ways home. Kuniko was a little tough to manage on the way back, but it was a fun trip. The train was starting to get full, but she managed to squeeze into a seat that had about a half a seat of room next to it. She turned to the old man next to her and asked him “Would you mind scooting over a little bit so my husband can sit down?”, but she asked him in English. The guy didn’t even bat an eye – he answered in English… “Nooooooo. No. No. No.” Luckily the person on my right moved a little and I was able to sit down. Across the way there was a guy completely passed out taking up three seats and a lot of the aisle. His mouth was hanging open and I thought that it would be bad news to be him tomorrow morning.
We got home safely, and tucked into bed. Kuniko had to work the next morning, so we fortified with vitamins, water and aspirin and hit the sack. Good times…
