Friday was a pretty calm day at work. I had three classes, I spent some time talking with Yamamoto sensei and Maeda sensei about the upcoming open high school lesson, and mark lots of journals to return to the students.
I had a few good conversations with my students, who seem to be just getting more and more comfortable speaking to me in English. Some students in the hallways still avoid speaking English – they are more comfortable with Japanese. I lure them into a trap by starting the conversation with Japanese, and then suddenly asking them something in English, which catches them surprise. Mostly they answer in English without even realizing it.
After school, I went into Kobe to meet up with Kuniko and take a look at some of the restaurants that host wedding “Second Parties”. The first place we looked at seemed great on the website and in a magazine, but when we got there it was completely decorated like something out of Aladdin.
We nixed that restaurant right away – just a little too cheesy for us. The next place was more promising, but just a little dark inside. I like dark restaurants and bars, though, so maybe it will be a contender. The chief chef talked with us and he seemed like a really nice guy. He also seemed really flexible about what they could cook and what they might do.
The last place we checked out was called “Colonial Living”. It was the lower section of a big office building and had some unique architecure. I liked the feel of the place, but for some reason it was fairly dark, too. The guy that guided us around seemed a little on the snobbish side – not nearly as friendly as the other guy we talked to. We peeked around the place, and then took some brochures and left. They seemed pretty serious about the party, and seemed to think we would be serious about it, too.
The second party will hopefully be a much more casual affair than our wedding reception – just drinking and eating with our friends and family, and having a good time. Less speeches, less formality, more fun.
While we were out we managed to get a hold of two slices of pumpkin pie to take home, and we had dinner at the gigantic sushi restaurant. It is gigantic sushi, not a gigantic restaurant. The same guy served us this time, and he seemed to remember us.
Finally we went to catch the train and found that there was an accident somewhere along the JR line. We took the Hankyu line instead, but since everyone else was doing that, we had a seriously crowded train. People just kept packing in and shoving, and when you are on board you can’t believe that they let the trains run with that many people. You are literally pressed against everyone around you, and I had to do a constant pushup against the wall to keep from squishing Kuniko. It was jammed for almost five stops before it got better, but it was definitely the most packed train I’ve ever been on.
