I had a very nice three day birthday weekend, with a little bit of excitement at the end as typhoon #19 passed through. As it turned out it had lost a lot of power by the time it got to us, and it was pretty anti climatic.
But the birthday celebration was all I was hoping for and more. On Saturday afternoon I met up with Kuniko in Sannomiya and together we rode the train into Osaka to have dinner. We used the train to get to a different part of town to check out Abe no Harukas, the tallest building in Japan (for now). There was a long line of people waiting to go to the top, and they were charging about 1500 yen a head to ride up the elevators, but we decided our time was worth more and we just did some shopping.
From there we went on foot across town to go riverside have a beer before dinner. The part of the river we visited was the same area where we attended a beer festival with Yoshi and family a while back. I remember clearly at the time that I looked across the river and saw the tables and restaurants lining the river and thought that it looked like a nice place for a drink. Turns out that it was a very nice place. We had a couple of beers and watched the activity on the riverside. There were several squads of dancers on the other side of the river practicing their routines, and along the river there were some flat riverboats carrying sightseeing tourists. One even went by with a live jazz band playing “When the Saints Go Marching In”.
Afterwards we caught the nearest subway and went to Santa Lucia, an Italian restaurant recommended by Kuniko’s friend Chiemi, who is the resident expert on Italian restaurants.
The place had a very nice atmosphere, and our food turned out to be quite good. I really enjoyed the buffalo mozzarella that came with our appetizers, and we had one and a half pizzas as our main course. The wine turned out to be just OK, not super-duper, but all together it was a great experience. Our waiter took every opportunity to speak to me in English, which is actually pretty rare these days.
After dinner we did just a bit of shopping, and then headed home. I was experiencing one of those weird allergic reactions that happen about twice a year, so that was a little bit of bad timing. Luckily by the time I got home things were largely back to normal. I still can’t figure out the mystery of these reactions. The best guess these days is that it is something in the air – the only common factor in the reactions is that it starts when I am outside.
Kuniko had a birthday present waiting for me when we got home, a beautiful silk tie. This is a family tradition – she gets me a new tie every year, but this year she really came through with a beautiful color. It is a dark red that shimmers in the light – going from almost black to a red wine color. It’ll go perfectly for any wine dinners that might come up.
Sunday and Monday we spent in the house, waiting out the typhoon and cooking, eating and drinking. It was a nice chance for Kuniko to enjoy two days off in a row. On Sunday afternoon I got a phone call from an unknown local number, and it was the head of the neighborhood committee. He asked if he could talk with me for a bit about something, and I thought that maybe our BBQ smoke was causing problems for the neighbors. But it turned out it was a simple request. Every year they hold a human rights event at the nearby community center in November, and he was wondering if I would be willing to speak to their members this year and talk about my impressions of Japanese culture, discrimination, and any equality issues that I might have noticed. Apparently the neighborhood members watch Kuniko and I walking around hand in hand and that made them think that maybe we have a different outlook on things than the locals do. Anyway, I said yes, and hopefully it’ll go smoothly. I have a month to think about it.
Now I’m back to work and putting through this short week. I have plenty of classes to keep me busy and a party with Mr. Minamimoto and his wife on Friday to look forward to.
