Last night Kuniko got home early and cooked up a really good dinner Рnikumaki onigiri. We had one at a festival a long time ago and she pretty much nailed the taste. Take a small rice ball, wrap it in raw beef and some flower stems and the saut̩ it in sauce until it contracts and forms what looks like a giant steak meatball. The sauce is intense and soaks into the rice inside. Yummy.
At work I’ve been saying goodbye to some students. With just three more days of classes, there are a lot of farewells on the horizon. Luckily I’ll be sticking around, so there is a good chance of bumping into them again in the future. My students seem pretty optimistic about studying in the future – that’s good to see. I think it means that I did my job.
In disaster news on the TV and in the newspapers everywhere you see people pitching in and helping to move supplies, organize cleanup crews, and donating things to help people in the affected areas. There is a lot of work going on, and every day more and more trains are running in Tokyo. My students are attending meetings again in Tokyo (and bringing toilet paper and batteries for their families and friends) so it seems like things are getting a little bit closer to normal.
In another sign of normalcy, the high school baseball tournament is starting on schedule at Koshien. Kuniko’s students were participating yesterday, singing songs at the stadium. The coverage of the baseball tournament will be a big boost for people’s spirits, I think. The image of crying teenage boys seems to be a popular one this time of year.
