I’m back in the swing of things here at work after a nice relaxing weekend. We enjoyed a sushi night out on Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday I was mainly on my own during the day to clean the house, read books, do laundry, and shop for dinners.
Last night after work I attended a nice dinner organized by the company VP. He wanted to thank me for helping him with lessons during the past year, and also for translating his annual greeting speech to the company into English. He invited a couple other people from different departments that I know, and we went out for some delicious Chinese food at Evolve in Sannomiya. Evolve is kind of an upscale Chinese restaurant, with a slightly different take on the traditional favorites, and we had a good time talking and eating. We ordered a bottle of Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel, which I didn’t expect to find on a wine list in a Chinese restaurant. I drank a bit more than I usually do on a Monday night, but I was in good company and it was a surprisingly relaxed time considering I sat next to a company executive the whole time.
During all the conversation and alcohol the VP mentioned that he may go to some kind of reception this Friday at an affiliated company – big companies in Japan tend to form long term relationships with other companies in different industries – and this company is an importer of wine and other foreign foods. Previously he gifted me a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau from the company, and it was quite good. The VP kind of invited me to join him in attending the event, and even mentioned that I might want to bring along my wife as well. He didn’t seem concerned that I wasn’t actually invited by the affiliate company.
The thing about these kind of spur of the moment invitations is that they may or may not pan out and after further investigation it may actually be difficult to do (“difficult” means impossible in Japanese). We’ll see what happens, but just in case I’m keeping my Friday night schedule open.
Now to get back to my regular work schedule. It should be a pretty standard week at work, but these days you never know!
