By reading this journal you not only get to share in my successes and accomplishments, you also get to see the other side of the equation.
I went into work today a little tired, but feeling OK considering the late night last night. I was surprised to see that Inoguchi sensei called in sick. He had an easy schedule like me, though, so why not?
I had a simple day studying – no classes, just one long staff meeting in the afternoon. I sat through the meeting, and there was only one scary moment when it sounded like they may argue about smoking at school again. The last argument lasted almost an hour, and I wanted to get out of there to go catch a concert in Osaka. Luckily, the guy rolled over, and we were out of there. I had previously asked to leave early, so I grabbed my bag and went into the bathroom to change into suitable concert clothes.
I was out the door and I bought a ticket to Akashi, and then stored away my stuff in a locker there. From there it was about a half hour to Osaka. I was actually there early, so I walked around a little bit and browsed through the big bookstore in the Hankyu building.
Finally it was around six o’clock – about the time to meet Yasu, Antoine and Kuniko. Kuniko arrived first, and then Antoine, and I sent a message to Yasu to see where he was. He called me back a moment later, laughing. He told me to look at the concert ticket, and sure enough, plain as day it said March 14th on it.
I laughed and laughed, and then hung up with Yasu and then told Antoine and Kuniko that they had come all the way out to Osaka for nothing. I had given them the wrong date.
There was all kinds of good ways to look at the situation, but the end result was that it was pretty embarrassing and I felt bad that they had made time in their schedules for this. What was worse – Kuniko couldn’t go on the correct date, so we’ve got an extra ticket to try to get rid of.
The evening wasn’t a total loss, however. We went out to a Korean restaurant and had a really good dinner and a couple rounds of beer. We laughed and laughed and really had one of those warm dinners with good friends that you remember for a long time. Antoine was in rare form, and together we talked about his family coming to visit, my brother coming at around the same time, and how important it is to actually look at the tickets that you buy.
We got out of there early, since Antoine and I will be back the next day for the concert. Kuniko and I took the long train ride back, but we were both in really good moods, and we even remembered to get my luggage in Akashi on the way home.
On the way back we were talking about Inoguchi sensei taking a day off, since he didn’t really have any responsibility that day. I realized that I didn’t really have anything going on Tuesday, so we decided that I’d call in sick. Inoguchi sensei must be a bad influence on me…
