Day by day I am making headway on my lesson plans for next week’s classes. There are three classes next week that will be fairly intensive, and then after that it will be a regular schedule until September. Just a bit more work to get through before I’m ready for the students next week.
Last night I agreed to go out to a tachinomi place with Mr. Kiriki. He works in my department (Human Resources) but I’m not exactly clear what his role is. He’s always the life of the party, and that can sometimes lead to trouble.
I wasn’t exactly sure why he wanted to go out, but he tried to explain by giving me a copy of the passport of a young man from the United Arab Emirates.
As it turned out, Mr. Kiriki is hosting the young man for a few months, and he is a friend of Mr. Kiriki’s son. He spoke perfect English and just a little Japanese, so it was a good chance for him to talk with someone who could understand him. We went to a local place and had beers and talked for a while. Mr. Kiriki was happy to put the two of us together, and sat contentedly drinking shochu and making comments now and then.
I didn’t stay too long, but I promised to try to meet up with his guest in the future, and started to make my way out of there. Mr. Kiriki wouldn’t let me pay for my drinks, which was very nice of him, but he did ask me to do him a favor. After buying my drinks I could hardly refuse him, so we ended up walking a few hundred yards to another drinking place, and he led me inside and introduced me to the whole place.
It was kind of a snack style place, but all of the customers and staff were women. The customers seemed to want me to join them, but I was able to avoid that situation. The owner of the place produced her daughter, who was probably high school age, and they made her try to speak English with me. I tried to make it easy for her because it is no fun to be forced to speak another language under the pressure of an expectant audience.
After a little more chit-chat Mr. Kiriki and I left, and I was able to head on home. It was an interesting evening… not the usual pattern I follow, but definitely entertaining.
