Last night I met up with Nozaki sensei and Hosokawa sensei, to recap their thesis writing experiences and to settle up on some old debts. It was interesting to meet Mr. Hosokawa, who was younger than I expected. He was very shy and pretty quiet, so it was a little tough to get comfortable with him at first. We were eating dinner at a Japanese-style restaurant on the 18th floor of a building near the waterfront of Kobe Harbor.
We had a pretty good conversation that improved as we drank more and more beer, and Nozaki sensei started getting a little tipsy towards the end of the night. Luckily there was plenty of food to absorb the alcohol. The whole evening we switched between Japanese and English and I learned a few new expressions.
As for their theses, they both received a pretty good result, and they asked me to interpret some of the comments on their papers. The comments were written by Japanese instructors of English, and sometimes grammar that I had used threw them for a loop. I simplified some grammar structures and hopefully that will clear things up.
At one point both Hosokawa sensei and Nozaki sensei had left to use the restroom, and I was left sitting at the window looking over the Kobe skyline. As I looked over the major landmarks I was surprised to find how many connections I had with each place. From the restaurant window I could see the Hotel Okura, where I had enjoyed a party with the Takasago Minami teachers five years ago, then directly on the waterfront you could clearly see the Oriental Hotel, where Kuniko and I spent our wedding night. The more I looked around the more I realized how close a connection I had formed with the town of Kobe, and it really felt comfortable. It really felt like home.
After dinner we went back to the station, and parted ways. I may or may not be involved with more projects like this in the future – we’ll have to see how things go. It was a nice way to wrap up the job, though.
