Wednesday I met up with Carrie for lunch in Higashi Kakogawa. I first met Carrie in Tokyo when I arrived with her on the JET program in four years ago. She wrapped up her three years on JET last year and headed home to Seattle, and now she has a job that lets her travel to Japan once a year to interview students that are hoping to study abroad in America.
We had arranged to meet up for some okonomiyaki, and after a few transportation mishaps we found each other and went over to a restaurant that I had found on the internet. The place was a little off the beaten path and looked kind of like a locals type place. We got a lot of attention sitting down in there and the server looked only at Carrie while we ordered which made us both smile. Carrie looks Japanese so everyone was assuming that she would handle the ordering and any translation that might be needed. This hardly ever happens when I’m out with Kuniko, so it was strange to see it here.
As for lunch, it was great. It was tough to eat the food since we were both talking so much, but eventually we got caught up. After lunch we had some suction coffee at a small coffee shop on my walking route to work. Then Carrie was off to Sannomiya and eventually the airport to head home. It was good to see her – she looked happy.
After that it was off to work for me. My students were in a pretty good mood, despite some of them catching colds. These days I have about two students a day missing due to some sort of illness. I found out that I’m on the hook to design the school New Year’s cards this year. I’ll have to dig up my old graphic design skills and dust off Photoshop to come up with something interesting.
Tomorrow it is Christmas shopping with Kuniko after work, and then Friday we’re going to meet in Sannomiya for burgers after work and do some last minute shopping. Saturday is Tomoko’s wedding in Okayama, and Sunday will be a day to relax before jumping back into work. I can’t believe it is almost December already.
