Kuniko and I are wrapping up a three day weekend, and getting ready to go back to school tomorrow.
The weekend was busy, but not as busy as it could have been. On Saturday we ended up postponing our trip to Nara with Inoguchi sensei because of snow in the area. He didn’t feel comfortable driving, so thought it would be better to wait.
Instead Kuniko and I cleaned house and stayed inside where it was warm. We left early in the afternoon to do some shopping in Kobe. We found a book that I had been looking for in the bookstore, and we looked around some of the sales in the department stores. There were tons of people in the stores – and I couldn’t believe that this was after the mad shopping rush at the end of the year. I could barely walk without bumping into people.
We went over to Asian Days for some dim sum, and then got out of there and rushed over to catch the bus to the airport.
Kuniko was going to see of one of her international students, Tesa. Tesa is from Australia, and has been studying in Japan for almost a year. I decided to come along to keep Kuniko company, because it is a pretty long trip out to the airport and back.
We got to the airport, and we didn’t see anybody we knew – I guess we were a little early. I amused myself with walking around taking photos, and we each got a coffee at Starbucks to kill time. While we were walking around they paged “Mr. Peter, Mr. Little Peter” over the terminal intercom. Some foreigner was having fun killing time.
After about half an hour we found Tesa sitting with her host family, and another teacher from Kuniko’s school, Hakogi sensei. We sat and chatted with everyone while waiting for the plane, and I had a fun conversation with Tesa’s host mother. She asked me how long I have been in Japan, and I mistakenly answered “Two hours” in Japanese. Oops.
Tesa was fun to talk to as well. She seemed like she was ready to head home, though. She was quiet but I think she understood Japanese fairly well. According to her host mother she was a picky eater – no fish!
Hakogi sensei gave us a ride back to Sannomiya and saved us a lot of money, so that was nice. We came back and took a hot bath, and we were ready for bed.
Sunday we had some guests over for tacos. An old friend of Kuniko’s came over with her husband, a Canadian guy named Robert who has been living in Japan for almost eight years. He was a big friendly guy, and we sat around the table eating cheese that they had brought and then started in on tacos, chips and guacamole.
We hung out with them for a few hours and they seemed like an interesting couple. Robert is working on his MBA and looking for a job. It sounded like he’s having a tough time getting something good, though, so I had to think about that as I’ll be looking for a job myself pretty soon. They are really big into movies, and so are we, so we might get together sometime and catch a movie.
The rest of the day was pretty mellow – I worked on a project on the computer, watched a little TV, and we just relaxed. We made a short trip to Kuniko’s parents’ house to pick up some rice, and we just had leftover cheese and crackers for dinner back at home.
Today was “Coming of Age Day” in Japan. People that turn twenty years old this year get all dressed up and go to a ceremony at the city hall to recognize that they are legally adults. The girls usually dress up in beautiful kimonos and look great, the boys dress like an Oakland pimp. I would have taken pictures today, but I always feel like a pervert walking around taking pictures of 20 year old girls.
Kuniko and I hiked up to a waterfall in Kobe that I’ve been to a couple of times. There wasn’t much water flowing this time of year – it hasn’t rained in a while – but it was a big event because it was the first time that Kuniko and I have gone hiking together. She’s not a big fan of it, and I am, so it was nice of her to indulge me a little bit.
We did fun going up and down the hill – we kept it short – and enjoyed a view of Kobe from the top, and met a cat that lived up there. The cat was just basking in the sun, enjoying the attention from the people passing through.
After the hike we went to Yoshinoya for a quick bowl of rice, and then came on back to Futami. We got a couple of new pillows and a warmer bed cover – it turns out that Kuniko is pretty aggressive while she is sleeping. I’ve woken up without covers a couple of times, and she will literally growl in her sleep if I try to steal them back. Hopefully this new arrangement will work out.
I put a few pictures from the weekend in the gallery – just click on the link at the top right of this page to see them!
