Lots of things to catch up on in today’s blog. At the end of the last week I finally got a chance to eat ribs at Tony Roma’s in Kobe, and I was very pleased with the quality of the ribs. Unfortunately, everything else really wasn’t that exciting. The restaurant had an odd ambience, also. It seemed like a temporary setup rather than a permanent restaurant. But overall it was a good taste of America for me, and we were able to introduce Kuniko to the baked potato.
Over the weekend we spent most of Saturday at home watching movies and cleaning house, and on Sunday we went out to Kobe to see Kuniko’s students performing in a concert for their mandolin guitar club. It was a long concert but they did a great job on the performance, and Kuniko tells me it is the last time we’ll ever see a mandolin guitar concert. We’ll see about that…
On Sunday night we took care of a few things that we’ve been working on lately. The first was that we booked a flight and hotel for our trip in the winter holidays. We’ll be going to a beach resort in the Philippines, and hopefully it will be a good experience. It should be quiet – the last part of the journey to get there is by boat.
Also I indulged in a little present for the home – a tiny cleaning robot that we received last night. It isn’t a vacuum cleaner, but a mop and sweeper. Since we’re all hardwood floors and we have almost no carpets it makes sense. We’ll be experimenting with it the next couple of weeks to see how it works, but so far it is a lot of fun to watch in action.
I have a short week this week, and I get Thursday through next Tuesday off for the Golden Week holidays. I’m looking forward to catching up on some sleep and doing some household projects. We’ve also got a busy social calendar, with a party on Friday in Kobe for Kuniko and myself (separately) and then Yoshi and family coming over on Saturday and finally a visit to the Yamajis for BBQ on Sunday. Can’t wait!
