It’s the middle of the weekend, and I’ve been so busy running around lately that I’ve not been able to post in the last few days. Thursday I had a short day at work. The highlight was going into the principal’s office and explaining to him that because Kuniko had passed the first stage of the Hyogo teacher’s test, I’ll have to be pulled off interview duty.
He took it really well. He called up the board of education and chatted with them, and we’re all set. Now there is no conflict of interest. I had to look up that phrase in Japanese to explain to the principal – it was a tough one.
That evening we went over to Kuniko’s parent’s house to visit. Her sister was in town, and we had dinner together and caught up with her. We watched TV, I listened very carefully to the conversations to follow what was going on, and we played with the cats quite a bit.
Friday we slept in. I had taken the day off and Kuniko was free, so we could sleep until almost nine. Kuniko made croquettes for lunch with the deep frying pan that we bought recently. They turned out great – she made some potato ones and some pumpkin ones. There was a lot of preparation time, and it was hard work, but in the end they were delicious.
Friday night we went into Kobe to meet up with Antoine and Miwako. Antoine just got back from his sister’s wedding in France, and he had a great time there. He had lots of good stories, and we ate a huge dinner of dim sum and shabu shabu at Asian Days. It was all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink, and we got out of there for about $25 each. Nice!
Afterwards we went to the European beer place and had a few to celebrate Friday night and then took some pictures in a nearby purikura booth. Miwako is starting to get more and more comfortable with us – and the more relaxed she is the more fun we have.
Today we had a college friend of Kuniko’s come over for lunch. We had a salad and an udon noodle dish served cold with cabbage and spicy pork. This was my first time meeting Kayo – she seemed just a little shy, but really nice, and even though I struggled with the Japanese I think we did OK.
A huge thunderstorm just blew through here, with the thunder sounding like it was happening directly over our heads. The rain came down hard, and we stayed inside watching the fireworks.
Later on tonight we’re heading to the Kageyama family grave to pay our respects as part of Obon. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’ll go with an open mind and see what it’s like. The thunderstorms have moved on, leaving it hot, wet and sticky.
