Tonight I took the train out to Kobe and met up with Miss Kageyama and two of her friends. On the way to the train station it began to snow heavily but after about five minutes it briefly turned to hail, and then to rain. By the time I got off in Sannomiya it was just slightly raining – and it stopped a few minutes later. I was very eager to meet Miss Kageyama and her friends.
One friend I had met before in Osaka, and the other was in town to visit from Tokyo. At first I only spoke Japanese, which is pretty scary considering my level of Japanese. Gradually we started to switch to more English, and then I was more comfortable. Miss Kageyama’s friends were a lot of fun, and both very nice people. We talked a little about our jobs and what we do, and also about websites. I gave one of them the address to this site, so she can follow along and see what I’m up to.
I was very impressed with both of Miss Kageyama’s friends – their English was great! They put together sentences nicely and it was easy to understand what they were saying.
We had dinner at a izakaya type place near the station that Nel had pointed out to me a long time ago – he said that it was pretty good. The place didn’t disappoint, and the interior design was traditional and very nice.
Everyone else had a late lunch, so dinner was fairly small. It was nice just to sit and talk for a little bit. I tried to do my best to understand the Japanese, but it is still tough – I’ve got a lot of studying to do to get it down.
After dinner we walked across the street to the station so that Miss Kageyama’s friends could head home. I got the idea to go get pictures taken, so we ducked into a booth and did a set of pictures. They turned out pretty good – everyone got to keep a copy so it worked out well as a souvenir.
After dropping them off at the train station Miss Kageyama and I walked over to get a coffee, and then decided that it was too late to go home. We went south to the monstrous Daimaru department store and Miss Kageyama searched for bargains while I practically passed out reading the price tags. I’m glad my clothes are cheap – some of the skirts were going for $300! Wow.
Afterwards we walked back along the Motomachi, and then uphill towards Tokyu Hands. Miss Kageyama walked through the homewares section getting ideas for her apartment. We still felt like we hadn’t done enough, so we went up the street to the “Old England” – the infamous English pub with the 10% service charge. It was cold enough that we both ordered Irish coffees and split some fried potato wedges. Delicious.
We sat and talked for about an hour and then finally decided that we’d seen enough of Kobe. We walked back to the station, and grabbed the rapid train back towards Akashi. Next week is Miss Kageyama’s last at both her schools, so she’ll be saying a lot of goodbyes – it will be a bittersweet time for her.
I had a long wait at the Akashi Sanyo station, so I listened to some music I hadn’t heard in a while on my player and tried to stay warm. It seems to be cooling off again. Now I’m back and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow it’s back to work. My first paper airplane “lesson” is tomorrow!
