One of my students has been looking for a place to build a house for the last six months. He started his search in Tarumi, halfway between where we live (in Okubo) and Kobe. Because of it’s location by the sea and the proximity of good shopping areas, and also because of two train lines running directly through it, Tarumi is an expensive place to live. You can lower the price by getting a place to the north, and then taking a bus to and from work every day, but near the station is way too expensive.
We discovered this pretty quickly, and we started moving west, away from Kobe until we found someplace we liked – that ended up being Okubo. As it turns out one of my students followed pretty much the same path, and the property he is looking at in Okubo is in our neighborhood.
Yesterday he spent most of his lesson with me asking me about the area, the neighbors, and any other information he might need to make a decision. It sounded like they are serious about the place, though. I would love to have some more friendly neighbors, but I tried to give him unbiased advice. We should hear sometime in the next few weeks.
Last night was taco night (again). This time we made chicken and avocado tacos. The availability of cheap and plentiful tortillas has made Mexican food sort of a staple in our house lately. Usually we have some kind of Mexican dish at our parties, and so it falls to us to eat the leftovers. I don’t mind – like Kuniko says, I could eat Mexican every day.
