It has been a busy weekend after a busy week cramming to get my paper done. I turned in the paper Thursday evening, and spent Friday in Osaka talking with people at my company office. I did manage to sneak in a burger at the Hard Rock Cafe in Osaka before heading back home. In America I would scoff at the overpriced burgers at a place like the Hard Rock, but living in Japan without grilled burgers makes a trip to the Hard Rock a unique dining experience. I even had a Budweiser to wash it down. Ha!
Saturday Antoine and I went on an interesting hike north of Takarazuka. I haven’t looked up the history yet, but there was an old railroad that was pulled up, and we hiked along the old railroad bed through six tunnels (some of them so long that we hiked in complete darkness), over an abandoned railroad bridge and alongside a pretty impressive river. The weather was perfect for the hike, and the tunnels provided air conditioning along the way. We capped the day with a couple of cold beers at the train station and then headed home.
Sunday we did some house hunting. We’re actually looking for land, then we’d like to build a house on it. We found one interesting spot in Okubo, so we have to spend some time thinking about it, comparing it with another piece of land we like in the area, and also think about how we’re going to pay for it. Once I leverage my new degree into a full time job we should have some more options.
This week I’ll need to catch up on all the readings and projects that were on the back burner during the paper writing marathon, so it should be pretty quiet. I want to get back into a daily blogging routine – this might be the week that it finally happens…
