This weekend was been pretty nice so far. Saturday Kuniko came over to get some studying done for her teacher’s interview on Monday. She brought along a gift from her parents, a big box of somen noodles. They are short, dry noodles that you boil and then use for anything you like. Delicious.
In the evening we watched “The Incredibles” on DVD at home, eating Hiroshima okonomiyaki and drinking beer. We went to bed fairly early, and since it was so hot out we ended up both waking up around two in the morning. We decided to open up the house and then go take a late night walk around town.
It was pretty quiet around my town as we walked around. We went down to the 24 hour convenience store and bought some cold drinks, and I bumped into one of the yakitori part time workers who was just getting off work. He was hanging out with his girlfriend, so I said hello and we chatted for a little bit.
Sunday I wanted to give Kuniko lots of time to herself to study, so I went into Osaka to see a Van Gogh exhibit. It was at an art museum just west of Osaka, and I had no trouble finding it following a printed map in Japanese. There was a big line waiting to get in – I had to wait 75 minutes just to get into the museum. It was the last weekend of the exhibit, and it was a holiday weekend, so that explained why there were so many people.
I waited patiently in line, reading my copy of Harry Potter as I stood there. Once I got inside they had metered people in carefully, so you had as long as you wanted to see the exhibits. They had all the famous Van Gogh paintings there, and it was great to get right up close and see them. The oil paintings were particularly impressive – the textures of the oils aren’t immediately apparent in photographs and prints.
After the museum I caught a quick lunch of shrimp tempura donburi, and then caught the train home. It was a fairly packed trip, but I was lucky to get a seat early, so I could finish off the Harry Potter book in comfort.
Back home Kuniko and I killed a little time over at Ito Yokado, and then drove over to a yakiniku restaurant that I haven’t had a chance to try yet. It was really good – we had a great dinner, and I avoided the grilled liver (Kuniko loves it). There was plenty of other kinds of meat to eat, a big bowl of bibinba, and a green salad. We polished it all off and it was only about 4000 yen for two people. Much cheaper than the sushi dinner that Antoine and I were shocked about the other day.
As we were leaving one of the employees recognized me – it was one of the ladies I say good morning to every day at the train station. She caught me off guard because I couldn’t immediately place her – she was wearing a uniform and was completely out of context. She explained how she knew me to Kuniko which was a good thing – I don’t think I could have right then.
Kuniko went home to get plenty of sleep for her test tomorrow, and I went to bed fairly late, staying up to watch a downloaded episode of Battlestar Galactica. Tomorrow I’m going into Kobe to meet up with Kuniko after her exam.
