We’re headed into a big weekend, with a visit from Antoine and Miwako on Saturday night and some of my students from last year at Mitsuboshi on Sunday. That means that once I wrap up my classes on Friday it is back home to clean up the place and get ready for visitors. The tentative plan is burgers on Saturday, but I haven’t figured out what to make for Sunday’s party with my ex-students. They wanted to do a potluck, so everyone will bring food. Maybe I’ll just throw some meat on the grill and keep everyone in drinks and dessert.

Every day has been getting hotter, and the advent of summer can no longer be denied. It will be interesting to see how the house does in the hot summers. I’ve noticed that it does tend to stay pretty cool so far. There isn’t a lot of sun exposure since we are surrounded on three sides by other houses just as tall as ours, and also our house is stuffed full of insulation (the first time for me having insulation in Japan).

The layout of the windows is also pretty conducive to air circulation, and the breeze rolling through the living room feels nice. Later it’ll be too hot for windows to be open, and we’ll have to see how the air conditioner units fare against the heat. I’m hoping everything works well – I hate sleeping in sweat.