This morning we slept in a little bit. Since we weren’t making bento lunches today we enjoyed a little extra sleep. I could still taste the sake on my breath from the night before. Yuck.
I was at school early again, and the place was quiet, and warm thanks to the heaters. I heard from Yamamoto sensei that they left around 10:30 from the yakitori the night before, and that they did get a chance to chat with some of the regulars before they left. I was glad about that.
Two of the youngest teachers in the first year group, Ageshi sensei and Matsumoto sensei, came in this morning with bags of stuff. They had spent the last three days in China, and they brought lots of souvenirs. I was totally surprised – I didn’t know anything about the trip. As it turns out, Matsumoto sensei took two years of Chinese in college, so they were able to get by without a guide. It sounded like a fantastic trip, and I can’t wait to see the photos. I scored a couple of Chinese Snickers bars as omiyage, and we are all drinking authentic Chinese oolong tea, which is in a box strangely similar to Lipton tea sporting the English phrase “Iron Buddha Tea Bag!” on the side.
I wrapped up a project to update the school brochure, and so now I don’t have much else that I am required to do the rest of the week. I’ll be able to spend some time studying and relaxing, and that is a very welcome thing.
As I was leaving I talked to the vice principal about my hours during the exam week. I thought it would be a good idea to clarify what my hours have been like, and I think it was good for both of us to have a talk. He had been thinking that I should stay until two or three p.m. during exams, but after crunching the numbers it is more like noon on exam days. I took advantage of his newfound enlightenment and left early.
I went into Kobe early, bought a textbook, looked unsuccessfully for a DVD player that will play American DVDs, and then met up with Kuniko. We walked together to the wedding place and picked up a huge bag of photos, and then we walked all the way to Kitano to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Graciani.
It has been more than a year since we ate at Graciani – the last time was my birthday. We had really been missing it. The place was pretty quiet, and we sat down really hungry and left really full. The meal was delicious. We started off with little pie appetizers stuffed with different vegetables, then had some really tasty rolls filled with crab, peppers and cream. Next up was sweet potato soup, and then we had some sauteed fish with mushrooms. The main course for me was tender pork with little white beans that I couldn’t identify, floating in a sweet mustard sauce with vegetables. Kuniko went with the beef which I ended up getting about 30% of. It was so good.
We had a cheesecake for dessert with fresh fruit and homemade chocolate ice cream, and then we hit the road and walked gingerly back to the station. The train was starting to get full with rush hour traffic, but we weren’t too crowded in there.
When we got back we did a bit of shopping at Ito Yokado, and then looked at the pictures. I have to say that the professional pictures really look great. We’ve got almost 400 pictures, and we’ll have to sort them out and get them organized. There are some awesome photos in there. I’ll work on that a little bit tomorrow during the afternoon – I get to leave early the rest of the week!
