It has been raining continuously for the last 30 hours or so. Ugh. Last night I walked home with my umbrella and still managed to get soaked, because of the brutal combination of heavy winds and rain. The forecast says that this afternoon should be back to clear and warm, but it has been wet and cold for the past couple of days. I guess I should count my blessings that I’m not sweating. Just a few days ago I was considering short sleeves.

Classes are going well at work and the students are starting to wake up from their weekends and remember English. I’m hoping that after carrying a lot of conversations for the students I can start shifting more of the burden on to them in the next few weeks. Some of the students are ready for it, but they still wait for me to direct the conversations. Part of this may be a confidence issue, but part of it is the deeply ingrained notion here that students listen and teachers speak.

OK, I’ve made my lunch and now I’m off to try to get to the train station without getting too wet…

I was on my own this weekend, and as you might expect it was a very low key couple of days. Friday night after work I came home to do a TV marathon, finishing up Survivor and the Amazing Race, while eating Chinese food and drinking beer. It was a late night, but I managed to see the endings of both shows without being spoiled by reading something on the internet.

Saturday was just relaxing at home – reading, drinking and BBQ, and then yesterday I went into Amagasaki to see a concert. One of my students plays the oboe, and his orchestra was doing a performance of Gustav Mahler’s symphony no. 9. I got to Amagasaki a little early, so I grabbed a coffee across the street before the performance. The venue was actually pretty nice, and there were a surprising amount of people attending. The orchestra itself was quite big – more than a hundred musicians – and they sounded great. It has been a while since I’ve seen an orchestra play live, and I had forgotten how clean and clear it sounds.

After a few warm up tunes they started the symphony, which lasted about 80 minutes. There were four movements, but no breaks between the movements, so I think some people might have been a little uncomfortable. Luckily I had only one coffee before the show. As for the music, it was all over the board – slow at some points and lively at others, and it seemed like just about every instrument they could find was included. I even got to see my student do sort of a solo, which was great, since otherwise it would have been near impossible to pick his sound out of all the other instruments playing.

When the show completed I headed home, but stopped in at Swaad for some curry for dinner. I barely got in – they were pretty busy in there, and there were even two Indian guys eating there. That is certainly a good sign. The cook came out and said hello to me with a smile, and as they have done in the past he gave me a free lassi to wrap up my meal. It was delicious – as usual.

Now it’s time to get back to work. It’s a rainy day today, and I’m not looking forward to going out in it…

Today Kuniko is off to Canada, and I’m off to work. Kuniko is all packed up and ready to go, and her suitcase is immaculate. It is unbelievable the packing skills that she has. When I pack I err on the side of protection rather than wrinkles, but she manages to do it all with the aid of plastic bags, straps, and folding skills. This afternoon the group will fly to Narita airport, and then change plans and fly to Vancouver from there. It’ll be quiet around here!

Although I haven’t really come up with much of a schedule for this weekend, I do have one plan – I’m going to see a student of mine perform as part of an orchestra in Amagasaki. He plays oboe in a rather large orchestra, and he offered me a free ticket to go see the performance. So if nothing else, I’ll get a little culture this weekend. I also have to catch up on a lot of TV, so it may be a pretty low key weekend.

This week Kuniko has a lot of extra time off during the afternoons while her students work on tests. For teachers the testing times are the actually the easier times – once their students take their tests it is just a matter of marking. Last night Kuniko finished marking, so she’ll have an easier time of it before her trip.

Last night we had some free time so we went off to do a bit of shopping at Vivre, bumping into Mr. Tojo along the way. He was getting ready to go to Jonetsu Horumon – a restaurant near our neighborhood that specializes in selling pieces of meat that are considered trash in the USA. Intestine, cheek, the base of the tongue – all this kind of stuff is grilled like yakiniku. Kuniko and I have consistently held the position that if we’re going to go out to eat meat, we can spend a little extra and eat the real stuff. Later Mr. Tojo sent me a mail saying that the restaurant was indeed not worth a visit. At least the beer was cheap.

So after about a month of reading I’m now completely up to speed with R. R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series. I haven’t inhaled books like this since I decided to read through Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series years ago. Martin writes big monsters of books that take several years to write, so after the newest one comes out in July it’ll be a long time before I see another one. Probably I’ll go back and read the series again in the future – they are full of enough detail that it would certainly be worth re-reading.

Last night Kuniko arrived home well before I did, so she cooked “nikujaga” without the “niku” – potato, onion and carrots cooked in the rice cooker with a slightly sweet savory sauce. Yum. We used to make this dish on the stove, but the rice cooker really gets the vegetables tender and full of flavor, and in record time, too. We’ve been eating (and drinking) healthy recently, and a it is going a long way to getting rid of all the weight I probably gained during the Golden Week of wine and tacos.

Today is recycling day, so we’ve got to move all those empty wine bottles, champagne bottles, beer bottles and beer cans out to the curb at the end of our street. We missed the last recycling day two weeks ago, so we had an incredible amount to take out. Luckily Kuniko was driving to work today so we could throw the bottles into the back of her car.

Yesterday I had a full schedule of classes, plus another student came in for some discussion during my “office hours” at the end of the day. That meant I was working with students all day with just an hour break for lunch, and so I came home pretty tired at the end of the day. I put together a quick dinner of avocado toast (with a layer of prosciutto for flair) and Kuniko and I spent the evening talking about her work and listening to music.

When we listen to music at home, I’ve got our computer set to send all the stats to Last.FM. You can see the profile page here. It’s kind of cool to see what we were listening to last week, last month, and the last six months. When I haven’t been listening to music I’ve been reading – the R.R. Martin books are hard to put down. I should finish up with them this week, and then I’ll be caught up with the rest of the world waiting for the new one coming out in July.

Off to work – just two more weeks of wearing a necktie and then Cool Biz kicks in and I can enjoy cool collars again.

Friday night I went out after work with Mr. Minamimoto, Nao Yoshida and Shu Yoshida for dinner and drinks in Sannomiya. It was the first time going out with these guys since the infamous dating party, and it was fun to hang out with them again. Really nice people, and everyone has a good sense of humor. Our first restaurant was a yakitori place called 鶏貴族 (torikizoku – chicken royal family!) They served up some pretty atrocious chicken on sticks, and so we made it a priority to get out of there ASAP.

We ended up at Hola Achaho afterwards, and had some more dinner and a whole lot of wine by the glass. They were having a California wine by the glass promotion, and so we took advantage. They had Gnarly Head Zinfandel and Cline Viognier among others. Yum.

Saturday Kuniko had to work so I walked out and sat on the beach. It was a beautiful day, and walking around in the surf felt really good. The water was clear enough to see the shells just under the surface, and there were even surfers trying to catch the meager waves available. After an hour on the beach and in the sun I finished up my walk by heading to Akashi for a little bit of shopping. That night I fired up the BBQ and we had chicken, grilled onions and corn with black pepper and Cholula sauce.

Sunday was a day off for both of us, so we hiked this time to Nafco up on the top of the hill. It’s about an hour’s hike one way, and after buying some coriander seeds we came back and I went to work planting the seeds in planters in our front yard. We can’t get enough cilantro around here, and I’m hoping that in a couple of weeks we’ll be able to see some green coming out of the ground.

Last night Kuniko made ratatouille once again. We were trying to get rid of some carrots, and ended up with an all veggie dish that was really tasty. We finished the night off with some Hawaiian cookies that we received as souvenirs from Fukumi-san, who just got back from a few days in Honolulu.

All in all a great, relaxing weekend. This is Kuniko’s last week before she leaves for Canada for a school trip – it’ll be packing time soon.

It looks like the rain has finally let up, and we should have a whole lot of sunshine, starting today. Outside the sun is shining, and everything is starting to dry out. I’m trying to figure out what to do this weekend, but whatever it is it will involve the great outdoors.

Tonight after work I’m going to meet up with a group of ex-students – Mr. Minamimoto, and two Mr. Yoshidas (Shu and Nao). The idea is to recap the dating party from last month, but I think that’s really only an excuse to go out drinking. I don’t mind – it’ll be good to hit Sannomiya again. It has been a while.

Kuniko is stuck at work tomorrow, but we should have most of Sunday to relax together and unwind. Maybe a hike on Sunday?

Once again we’re faced with a day full of rainy weather. Yesterday really delivered, with a big rush in the evening just after I got home. There is even a typhoon coming today, but it looks like it’ll pass well to the south of us. Just a wet, wet day.

With all this rain I’m starting to wonder if our rice seedlings we planted last week will be OK. A week ago today we went over to help Kuniko’s parents plant rice seedlings in trays to prepare for the rice planting in June. This part of the job isn’t so tough, but at the end we built miniature greenhouses over the seedlings so that they’d be nice and warm as they grow. Now I’m wondering if the greenhouses can withstand all this rain.

Last week was a good opportunity to wish Kuniko’s mom a happy mother’s day, and give her some flowers and a little bit of cake for dessert. We also got to see Kuniko’s sister Tomoko and her husband Atsushi, who dropped by to help out. It turned out to be a somewhat rare extended family get-together.

This week is wrapping up quickly. Tonight Kuniko has a party so I’ll be on my own to clean up the leftovers from the fridge, and tomorrow I’ll have a party after work with some ex-students. It’ll be nice to end the week and get back to my days of leisure…

Apparently the rainy season is still about a month away, but you wouldn’t know it looking out the window. It is pouring rain today, just like it was pouring rain yesterday. The forecast is rain the rest of the week, as well. Ugh. I must wear a tie to work until the “Cool Biz” program kicks on June 1st. It’s an interesting insight into Japanese culture that no matter what the temperature might be in May, the ties must stay on until June 1st.

But now the humidity is really high because of the rain, and the temperature is also fairly warm. That means hot, wet and sticky. I’ll just have to get through the rest of this month wearing ties, and then it will be sweet relief.

We hosted a couple of parties at our place during the Golden Week. On Tuesday night Yoshi and Akira came over for grilled carne asada tacos, and we spent most of the evening playing Wii and drinking way too much. Mamiko couldn’t make it because she had a bit of a stomachache, but I think she’s feeling better now.

Also Mr. Tojo and his wife came over. We introduced them to Mexican food, and I think they liked it, but I’m not entirely sure. They were really friendly and I think they’ll make good neighbors. They live just a minute or two walk from our place, and are really friendly. They also enjoy drinking – we killed four bottles of red between the four of us, on top of the beer and cocktails that we started with. I guess that it’s good that they live just down the street – it was an easy walk back home for them.

OK, time to face the rain (and the sweat).

I’m back to posting, after a very satisfying Golden Week. Each day was relaxing, reading, drinking, eating, and taking things slowly. So nice. The next long holiday isn’t until July, so I’ll have to make do with some shorter holidays between now and then.

Yesterday was my first day back at work in about 10 days, so it was a slow start. My students were also adjusting to speaking English again – it wasn’t just me. Hopefully by the end of today we’ll have our momentum back and be able to start making progress soon.

One of the things that I did during the long holiday was make a trip to Osaka to run some errands, and check out the newly opened (and much bigger) Osaka station. The station has been open for train business all along, but the buildings and shopping centers in the same building have been completely remodeled, and there were plenty of people there when I went. Luckily I went on a day that wasn’t an official holiday, and didn’t have to fight quite as many crowds. The place looks great, and it is much easier to navigate – I don’t go to Osaka often but I was able to quickly move through the station to my destination. Much better than the underground and overpasses that characterized the old station.

I’m off to work, but I’ll try to keep up the recaps of Golden Week this week.

We had a pretty nice weekend to kick off Golden Week. Friday night was a quiet night at home eating Thai food – but Saturday I met Kuniko in Kobe after she got off work and we attended a mandolin guitar concert put on by her students.

After the concert we headed over to a small bar that specializes in homemade sausages, called Bratwurst. I really liked some of their sausages, some of them were a little boring, however. And I don’t really understand why Japanese sausages have to be so damn small. I’m sure there is a very good reason for it, but I have yet to find the answer. And furthermore, despite being a sausage restaurant/bar, they only had two beers on tap – boring old Suntory. What a great opportunity to sell a variety of beers and keep people drinking.

Despite all the criticisms, we enjoyed eating there – the atmosphere was very nice and most of the sausages were great. I guess I reserve my deepest criticism for the restaurant that gets so close, and then punts on the details.

After snacking on sausages and beer we went to a restaurant that Kuniko recommended, a vegetable-centric place called 農家 (Nouka). They have a partnership with an agriculture co-op and sold fresh vegetables out in front of the restaurant. We had a couple of small plates of vegetarian dishes – steamed vegetables served with walnut oil and Okinawan salt, a deep-fried assortment of veggies to go with our beer, and a vegetarian pizza stacked high with gobo and lotus root. It really hit the spot, and we went home satisfied.

Yesterday we got up early and drove to Costco. Talk about crowded – I couldn’t believe how many people were waiting in line to get in. This is a big holiday week, so I guess it makes sense. We got in and got out in record time, however. Some products we were able to get – a huge bag of organic tortilla chips, a cheese plate of various flavors of Sonoma Jack cheese, pita bread for Yoshi and family. Some products were unavailable this time – flank steak for carne asada, Malbec from Argentina, and cheese bagels were nowhere to be found. You win some, you lose some, and we certainly didn’t go home empty-handed.

After a relaxing evening last night Kuniko went off to work this morning, and she’ll be stuck at work until late tonight. I’ll be doing some odd jobs at home but mainly relaxing and catching up on my reading. It’s time to enjoy the holidays.

Today is a national holiday for most people in Japan, but at the factory where I work they are keeping it open. They don’t like single holidays much because it involves shutting everything down, putting everything away, and then coming back the day after the holiday and starting it all back up. What they’ve done is move all the single holidays into strings of holidays during the hot summer months. What that means for me is that I’m one of the few people going to work today in Japan, but later in summer I’ll get a day off to relax while everyone else heads to work in the heat. And I’m just fine with that.

This is also a special day because next week is Golden Week, and most people have the whole week off. I’ve got a relatively easy day at work today, and then, let the relaxation begin. I’ve got about four books lined up that I want to read, as well as a couple of movies I want to watch.

Last night I had a plan to meet Renato, an OTC coworker, after work in Nishi Akashi. Usually my office hours end at 5:30, and I have plenty of time to get to Nishi Akashi at 6, but yesterday I had three students show up out of the blue to ask questions, and I ended up being 20 minutes late. Renato was a good sport and killed time with coffee and donuts in Mister Donuts.

We caught a quick meal and some beers at a small place that Yoshi took me once before, with lots of international beers available in the bottle. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I had a rare chance to drink a Samuel Adams, and I was a bit disappointed. It was a lot lighter than what I remembered. Oh well.

The dinner was good, the beer was cold, and it was fun talking with Renato about his work, life and travel plans. He’s a really nice guy.

OK, I’m out of here soon. It is a holiday train schedule so I’ll likely have a chance to sit down on the morning commute, which is a very rare luxury for me. More updates later…

Last night after work I joined a couple of ex-students, and we went out for Chinese food in Sannomiya. The restaurant turned out to be pretty good, with a lot of spicy food. My favorite was a stir fried strips of tofu with very spicy green peppers – yum. My eating and drinking companions spoke only Japanese that evening, so it was a good workout for my Japanese skills. We got a great deal on the dinner, too. Lots of food (probably too much) and all you can drink for 3000 yen a person. Nice deal, considering we went right for the pai-chu. At 55% alcohol that stuff packs a punch.

I also got an update on the new Costco in Tarumi. Although before the earthquake they had been planning to open in September, it now sounds like it will be pushed to the beginning of 2012. So I guess we’ve got a little more waiting before we can casually drive out to Costco any time we want. On that note, we’re planning on visiting the Amagasaki Costco this weekend to purchase supplies for the long weekend and recharge our wine cellar. I guess we’ll get to visit Amagasaki a few more times before giving it up for Tarumi.

Tonight after work I’m going out drinking with a different group of ex-students than the usual bunch. It should be fun to see their chemistry – every group has a different one. Add in a predominantly English-speaking teacher and we’ll see what happens. Usually everybody wants to speak Japanese at first, and then slowly the English comes out. I’m looking forward to the party, though.

Tomorrow I’ll catch a beer on the way home with another OTC teacher that I haven’t seen in a while, and then Friday I’ll have a day off from parties before the big holiday starts. My holiday calendar is also starting to fill out a little bit – Friday I’ll spend the day in Osaka and Thursday Kuniko and I will go over to Kakogawa to help out around the rice paddy with Kuniko’s folks.

So, lots of the horizon – looking forward to the Golden Week holidays!