So a while back I received a small bonus for wrapping up my previous year’s contract competently. I was wondering (on this blog) what to do with it so I guess I should report on what I did. I used a small part of it to buy some books and blu-rays that I was hankering for, but most of it ended up going towards a small wine cellar.

Summers here get brutal, with temperatures inside our house reaching as high as 40 degrees (104 F) and 80 percent humidity. Until now I’ve stored our wine under our house, but I was still a little worried about some of the nicer bottles in our collection. So I got a super-powered cold box that will keep the wines at a constant temperature all year round. It holds 26 bottles, so it is just the right size for us. The real test will be in a few months when temperatures start to sky-rocket. Hopefully it can handle the heat.

Kuniko’s got a half day off today, so with any luck I’ll have a dinner ready for me when I get home. I’m looking forward to seeing what it could be… Last night I whipped together some simple okonomiyakis for dinner, but I couldn’t resist adding a little garlic. Just a dash of garlic seems to really bring out the flavor.

Friday night was the big dating party that everyone (while, maybe not everyone) was looking forward to all week. The four men (including myself) gathered on the platform in Sannomiya, and we ventured to the restaurant where we met up with Kuniko and her three friends. I was unsure exactly how to proceed, but once the alcohol started flowing the conversation inevitably followed, and we could enjoy the evening. It was pretty hard to tell if it was a dating party or a regular party. Maybe that is a sign that it was a success. But the real sign of success will be if somebody signals somebody else that they’d like to meet again. So far, no sign of that. Today I’ll go to work and see if there are any nibbles from my side of the table.

After dinner we went back down to the street and said our goodbyes, but two of my members joined Kuniko and myself for a couple bottles of wine at our favorite wine bar. We had a couple nice wines, including a particularly tasty Louis Jadot, and spent a while recapping the evening and just talking. It was pretty fun, but everyone was a little on the drunk side as we caught a train and headed home. I was surprised to find that we got home after 1 a.m., which is pretty late for us lightweights.

As for the rest of the weekend, Kuniko should get some kind of award for cooking up a storm. Saturday night we were craving avocados, so she made pasta with a creamy avocado sauce which we ate with much gusto. Awesome taste. Not content with a great dinner, she went on to make bagels and then made fresh basil, cream cheese and prosciutto bagel sandwiches for our lunches. On top of that was some homemade anpan for dessert. Seriously, she should win some kind of award.

Also during the weekend we managed to finally buy some basil and cilantro to plant outside to keep us in herbs through spring. It was fun to work in the garden during the afternoon on Sunday, and hopefully the work will pay off in the near future. We’re hoping to cook a Mexican feast for Yoshi and family next week.

OK, back to work for me. One solid week of classes and then I have nine days off in a row. Golden Week, here we come.

Yesterday I was sitting in my office/classroom waiting for my next student when a knock came at the door, and a person I didn’t know at all started to walk in the door. He spotted me and stopped short, and I took the opportunity to say in very professional English, “Good afternoon, can I help you?”

The poor guy got a double shock for walking into the wrong room, and unfortunately wasn’t able to recover. He said something like, “Ah… ah… mmm… no… uh…” and then ran for it.

Actually this kind of thing happens about once a month. The office that I’m in is marked as “reception room 4”, but unfortunately on the same floor there is also a “meeting room 4” and “inspector’s office 4”. That leaves plenty of chance for confusion. I actually enjoy the experiences very much (probably too much). I guess it breaks up an otherwise routine day.

Tonight is the big night, and we’ll bring together six single people in a restaurant with all you can drink alcohol and see what happens. It’s my first experience to witness 合コン (go-kon) up close. It should make for some interesting stories next time!

Here in Japan GW means Golden Week. I’ve got a particularly long Golden Week set up – nine days off in a row. Kuniko’s is not quite so long – she has six days off broken up with classes in between. Although we don’t have any specific plans (other than a visit to Costco) some of my students have some pretty dramatic plans. If you watch the news it says that travel is down in Japan due to the disaster, but from the small sample of my students it seems like just about everyone is going somewhere – domestic and international trips.

We’re hoping to set something up with Yoshi and family during Golden Week, and perhaps do a little hiking, but other than that it’ll be chillout time. I have a couple of projects that I want to get done: organizing music, looking at the wiring of our TV in the attic, and maybe planting some cilantro in the front yard.

Thursday is here, and the big party is tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing how that turns out…

This week so far has been cold and windy. What happened to spring? I’m back to wearing my long coat – luckily I didn’t take it to the cleaners last weekend.

Not much to report these days – no news is good news, as they say. We’ve been eating well lately, with a lot of beef on the menu. Last night was carne asada tacos with Canasta tortillas (which last quite a long time in the fridge) and they really hit the spot. I was a little worried about how long the meat was in the freezer, but it turns out there is nothing to worry about. I’ll buy twice as much next time we hit Costco. Which I think is in a couple of weeks.

I had a dream last night that we were shopping at Costco, but I hadn’t brought a shopping list. I was going up and down the aisles trying to remember everything that we needed. I was really stressing out because I was sure we were forgetting something, and since we don’t go often it would be a big problem to miss something.

I guess I gotta get out more.

Anyway, off to work. Already Wednesday, and we’re starting to think about the weekend.

For the last six months or so I’ve been going back to re-watch the HBO series The Wire. The first time I saw it it blew me away, and with so many cast members and so many plot lines going on I figured I was bound to miss something. I get to an episode every couple of weekends, and last weekend I wrapped up season 3. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an amazing series, and one hell of a commentary on the way things are done in the U.S. of A.

At the end of this week Kuniko and I will be hosting a party in Sannomiya made up on single friends looking for a significant other. It should be interesting – my first experience in a “dating party” – and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out. I’m bringing three single guys, Kuniko is bringing three single girls, and hopefully somebody will hit it off with someone else. This will be on Friday night after work – which will be a fun way to get the weekend started.

Kuniko has a half day off today, so she should be able to catch up on some rest this afternoon. She had to work both days this past weekend, so I’m thinking she could use the rest. I think we’ll be starting in on the carne asada tonight. Yum.

It was a strange weekend – very strange. It started on a very good note with a meet-up with Inoguchi sensei after work on Friday. Together we went to a Thai restaurant near Motomachi station. It was good to see Inoguchi sensei – he’s always full of interesting conversation topics, and I’m always hoping some of his intelligence will rub off on me. We talked about his recent trip to Hong Kong, and talked about my future trip to India, and enjoyed some pretty good Thai food. When in Kobe eating Thai food one must measure the quality of the food by comparing with the top Thai restaurant – Baan Thai. I’m happy to report that this one did very well, and it wasn’t that hard to get a table. After dinner and coffee we called it a night, and I got home at a record-breaking 9 pm on a Friday.

Saturday I spent at home cleaning house, watching The Wire (season 3), doing laundry, and resting up. For dinner I went out to Red Spanky and had the master cook up some dinner. Since there was only one other customer I asked him to make up whatever he wanted for me, and ended up enjoying a baked chicken, cheese and meat sauce dish with a side of salmon salad and garlic toast. Yum. Soon after I finished eating things started getting busy, and unfortunately I was the only there were nobody really to talk to. My plan to practice speaking Japanese daunted, I checked out on the early side and headed towards home.

Since I felt like I had a little more party left in me I stopped in at “Jin” on the way home. Jin is a small drinking hole between our house and the station, so it is certainly in a convenient location. It is usually only open late, so it is pretty rare for me to drop in. This was the second time visiting, and despite that the master remembered my name (which is an impressive feat considering how strange my name is in Japan).

I wasn’t the only one – three women were drinking and laughing at the bar, and I squeezed in between them and a quiet old guy that appeared to be pretty drunk. The master served up some hot sake for me, along with a couple grilled sardines. I had a nice conversation with the ladies, one of whom was a train operator for JR. One lady ended up having to leave, so she had the master call a cab and then lurched towards the door once it arrived. That freed up a seat for a solitary, serious-looking gentleman that came in afterwards. He sat between me and the ladies, and didn’t really seem like the talkative type. That left me with the soused guy on my right, which also didn’t look like a good option for conversation. While the master was in the back cooking something, I sat and stared at the wall hoping she’d come back so I could check out and move on. I looked over at the drunk guy on my right and he suddenly sprayed all the beer that was in his mouth all over the counter and the bottles in front of him. Uh, yeah. Check, please!

Finally disentangled from Jin (and not likely going back), I was able to meet Kuniko at the train station coming back from her party, and we went home together and could go to sleep with the smell of smoke still in our hair.

Sunday we had a small get-together with Kuniko’s folks to celebrate her father’s birthday. Niro was turning 61, and so I cooked up some beef on the BBQ, Kuniko made some risotto and a salad, and we had a good time. I opened up a bottle of Benziger Merlot as well, and it really brought back memories of working here when it was called Martini & Prati winery.

Now we’ve got enough meat leftovers to feed an army of carnivores. While grilling a giant roast I also pulled out some carne asada that I had in the freezer and cooked it as well. Even after giving lots of food to Kuniko’s parents to take home we’ve still got way too much. I guess it will be an all-beef week.

I’m writing just a short entry today – I was busy making French bread this morning and had no leisure time to write up a proper entry. Tonight after work I’m meeting Inoguchi sensei for dinner in Kobe and because of that, I wouldn’t have had time to play with the dough this evening. So instead, a little early morning breadmaking. Hopefully I’ll have plenty of time to write tomorrow…

Recently we’ve been doing a lot of experimental cooking on the weekends. This weekend, we’ll be hosting Kuniko’s parents to celebrate Niro’s birthday, so I thought maybe I’d try to bake some French bread. The poolish has started, and I’ll spend the next three days tweaking it until it turns out OK. We’re also going to cook a roast on the grill (since he is a serious carnivore) and Kuniko is going to make some risotto. Can’t wait!

The days are continuing to warm up, and the trip in to work is becoming more and more pleasant. The cherry blossoms will start to wrap up in the next few days, and then it is time to enjoy spring. It really is one of the best times to be in Japan – spring and fall are the seasons that I enjoy most because they lie between the two extremes of summer and winter. Just the idea of opening up the house and letting the breeze come through is exciting. Unfortunately for my neighbors that means they can probably hear my daily musical selections.

The last few nights Kuniko has had to work late, so I’ve been cooking. Although we had leftovers last night, I’m going to have to be in charge again tonight. What to cook… I’ll probably spend half the day just thinking about that – how screwed up are my priorities?

Today is “unburnable trash day” here in Okubo. Twice a month we gather all the trash that we couldn’t otherwise recycle or put with the burnable trash, and take it out to the curb. A peek into our bag reveals a strange assortment of objects. Metal candle holders, an Anpanman portable electric fan, some CDs, and some batteries. I think the most popular items I see on unburnable trash day are umbrellas – broken and twisted from a gust of wind at the wrong time.

Classes with my new students seem to be going pretty well. They are starting to warm up to the style of the class, and after another week or so will start to wonder if their skills are increasing or not because the classes seem more like entertainment than work. Based on the student, this period of warm-up will continue for a few more sessions, a few more months, or the rest of the course.

Recently I downloaded a new app for the iPad called “Discovr”, which despite a missing vowel does a good job of finding new music related to what you already like. Although I already have more than enough music to listen to, I can’t resist searching out new stuff. After just 15 minutes with the application I found three new artists that I like. I guess that will my application recommendation of the week….

OK, off to work!

Last night after work some heavy winds came into town, bringing cold air and much lower temperatures. Walking home in the chill I decided to change my menu and made tortilla soup for dinner.

Tortilla soup is simple to make, yet Kuniko always gives it rave reviews. Luckily I had corn tortillas and cilantro stems in the freezer, cotija cheese in the fridge, and I used tofu as a meat substitute. It turned out great, and I made enough to keep us warm through Wednesday.

I’m not sure why Mexican food hasn’t caught on here in Japan, but someday I’m sure people will figure it out. Until that happens, it’s gotta be Casa de Fredricks for our south of the border cravings.

Last weekend had enough beautiful weather that the cherry blossoms decided to open up completely, and so we along with pretty much everyone in Japan went out and sat under the blossoms.

One slight variation this time around was that we walked to Akashi instead of taking the train. We figured we might as well get our weekend exercise along the way. As we figured, there were lots of people around Akashi station. We bought a bento lunch at the usual place inside the station, and then got a couple of beers and went into Akashi park. It was packed with people, but after searching near the northeast part of the park we found a bench under a cherry tree and set up shop. It was great to see so many people out and about enjoying the blossoms. Because of the strange weather this year we weren’t sure if we’d be able to catch them, but luckily the timing worked out for us.

After a little while we packed up our stuff and headed back to the station to do some shopping and head home. Most of the rest of the weekend was just lounging around the house. We went out for Indian food at Swaad on Saturday night – and I think every time we go there we leave ready to award some Michelin stars. Probably we’ll be visiting more often in the future – it is rapidly turning into our go-to place.

Another highlight from the weekend was seeing Mark, Susan and Charlie via Skype. They look like they are doing well, and Charlie was pretty much a blur of energy on the video screen. Hard to believe she is getting ready to start walking around!

I was chatting with a student yesterday in class, and he casually mentioned that his boss knows me. “Really?” I asked. “What’s his name?”

He told me, but I didn’t recognize it at all. Turns out, his boss also lives in Okubo and has seen me walking around. My student said that his boss often stands next to me on the train going and coming from work.

That’s kind of weird. Now I feel like everywhere I go, somebody could be watching. It’s a strange feeling – that’s for sure.

Today is Friday, and we’re looking forward to wine and cheese and some homemade French bread that Kuniko baked for dinner tonight. It should be a relatively easy day at work for both of us, but it’ll be nice to relax over a bottle of Malbec and get ready for the weekend.

Have you ever heard of Bear Grylls? Until last year, I hadn’t. Apparently he is the host of an extreme adventure show on the Discovery channel.

Because many of my students are working on an American project, they are required by the project contract to fly using American airlines (doesn’t matter which one, as long as it is a US company). Because of all this flying on US airlines, they apparently are getting a lot of exposure to American television shows (which I think is great for their English) and especially there is a lot of Bear Grylls in the in-flight entertainment.

Luckily I had a chance to fly United at the end of last year and see what all the hype was about. The guy does all kinds of nutty things with a straight face, and demonstrates survival techniques in the process.

So naturally, my students are wondering how much of these activities I regularly participate in… after all, we are both Americans. I tried to explain that this was simply entertainment, and that most Americans rarely are forced to drink their own urine (although Bud Light is pretty close I think).

It is interesting the impressions that people receive from television. But I guess I’m glad that they aren’t watching some other reality TV shows that I can think of.

Last evening, for the first time my presence was specifically requested at the tachinomi bar after work to help one of the regular customers plan his trip to New York city. He likes to travel, speaks pretty good English, and was looking for some inside information about where to go and what to do.

Between me and the two inspectors we were giving all sorts of good (and probably bad) advice about what to do. Eat a hot dog! Visit the Empire State Building! Go to ground zero! Try heroin! Probably a bad idea to ask a bunch of guys drinking after work for completely serious recommendations. I think there was enough genuine information in there for him to have a good trip.

After a few drinks I headed home and made it back in time to catch Kuniko and have a proper dinner, share a hot bath, and then go to bed early. Not much free time yesterday, but I should be able to catch up on that the rest of the week.