I popped into work around nine o’clock, and popped right back out of there at eleven. I went home and did a combination of laundry, studying, and organizing my mp3 collection until it was time to leave for my class in Kobe.
My train pulled into Kobe and I headed underground to do some shopping. Saturday night I’m headed over to Kuniko’s parents’ house, and having dinner with the whole family. It’s a good idea to bring some gifts along, so I found a couple of different things that I’m hoping will make the right impression.
With my shopping completed, I walked north through Sannomiya to the YMCA near the Kitano part of town. The class was unusually active this time around – lots of chatter. I have a couple of pet peeves about this class – but the big one is that if somebody gets something wrong, they tend not to point it out.
I’m sure this is to keep things positive, but if I’m doing something wrong I want to hear about it. This leads to people hunting around for the right word, slowly, agonizingly, unsuccessfully. Other people throw out words to try to help them, but half of those are wrong anyway, and you end up with a room full of people shouting out random words while the teacher exercises no control. And I’m trying to learn something here.
As soon as class wrapped up I stopped in at my favorite local ramen shop to pick up a jar of kimchee for the Kageyama family, and then headed home without eating dinner.
Once I arrived home and put everything away I headed over to the yakitori for dinner. There the master and I chatted and I even bumped into one of the locals that I haven’t seen in months. He owed me a beer since I bought him one months ago, so he settled up. He was there with his four year old daughter, Miki, who was so shy. She wouldn’t even look at me while we talked, and when I tried to chat with her she curled up in a little ball to try to avoid conversation.
I asked the master for advice on what to bring when you meet your future in-laws and he described something pretty similar to what I bought – I should be fine, then! I had a dinner of tori-don, shisomaki, and grilled bacon wrapped cheese – yum!
After a couple of beers I headed back home. I have big plans to sleep in tomorrow since I’ve been up fairly early lately.
