Since last Friday on the way to work you can’t help but notice lots of young people in suits. In a custom that is still completely strange to me, young Japanese people hired more than a year ago while they were still studying in college are now heading to their chosen companies to get trained in how to work.

April 1st is the start of the fiscal year for every company in Japan, and it makes sense to bring in the new hires now. Men wear the standard “salaryman suit”, women wear black business suits (no other color, please). It is in sharp contrast to the self-promotion and year-round hiring/firing/job changes that I’m used to in the USA.

Yesterday morning there was a new receptionist at the reception desk, and one of the regular receptionists introduced me and explained that I can go in without credentials. The new receptionist gave me a big smile and said greeted me in Japanese, and you could immediately see the energy and excitement that comes with the first day of your career.

As for my students, every day I am meeting more and more new students. By Wednesday of this week I should have met just about everyone, and this week I’m thinking about teaching plans and curriculum for the course. Lots of stuff to think about.

The last two days Kuniko and I had plenty of time off to relax and take care of things around the house. Kuniko had a rare two days off in a row, too. We called off our trip to Costco because our party was called off on Saturday, but looking around the house it seems like we’ll need to go again soon. Last night we defrosted and grilled two huge steaks from Costco, and they turned out great. It’s amazing how good a big thick steak can taste. These had been in our freezer for almost a year, and they were awesome. I give full credit to my parents for sending the BBQ over from America.

While I was busy grilling, Kuniko was busy baking. She made homemade bagels which serve as the base for our lunch today – prosciutto, sprouts and cream cheese bagel sandwiches – and also some anko stuffed bread that we had for dessert last night and breakfast today.

This week looks like a pretty normal one. Cherry blossoms are still at least a week from full bloom – maybe next weekend we’ll get out and enjoy them. I guess the biggest event of this week is my payday on Friday. I get a bonus this time based on completing last year’s contract without a hitch, so the big question is how to use it. My long-standing policy on bonuses is that you should use it for something fun, but I’m a little torn on what to use it on this time. Any suggestions?

Today is Friday, and I’m headed to work for the third time this week. I’ll have a chance to meet my new students face to face today, and although I always enjoy the first lesson it is safe to say that my students rarely do. They have a stressful meeting with a person they’ve never met in a language that they rarely use, and on top of that there is an interview test that we record for reference. We’ll see how people do today.

The last three days have been great. I whittled down my to-do list to just one or two items left, cleaned the house, relaxed a lot, got a replacement netbook for the increasingly loud and tempermental one that we’ve been using for the last few years. I went into work just once on Wednesday to help with an orientation for the new students, and after that I was on my own again. Easy days.

Tonight we will receive some Jerry’s Pies via delivery from Kyoto. I originally had ordered them as an accent for Saturday’s party with Mr. Tojo, but last night Mr. Tojo was sent to New York for a while so the party is off. Hopefully Jerry’s Pies will freeze OK.

I’m off to work – today feels like a Monday for me, but actually it is the end of the work week for everyone. I guess I like the feeling.

Yesterday was officially my last class with the last of my students, and it was (as always) a little sad to say goodbye and send them out there to (hopefully) continue their studies on their own. Actually I am available for them as a resource, and each day I have a little time at the end of the day – call them ‘office hours’ – for them to drop by and ask questions or just practice speaking. So it isn’t a permanent goodbye, anyway.

So thus begins a couple of days of rest for me. Today and Thursday I have off completely, and Wednesday I have most of the afternoon off. I plan on spending most of the time working through a huge to-do list that has built up. I’ll just take it line by line and see how much I can get done today.

We’re planning on hosting Mr. Tojo and his wife this Saturday. The original plan was to go and make a Costco run in the morning, and since we’re there we’ll pick up something yummy to grill for dinner if the weather is good. We wanted to welcome them to the neighborhood – they just moved in and maybe they are a little unsure of everything right now.

OK, off to work on the to-do list. It starts with lugging three garbage bags out to the curb this morning. Ugh.

Friday night after work I went out with the salesman and the account supervisor for the job I’m working on now. We started out in Sannomiya, but realized that without a reservation it was going to be impossible to get a table. Luckily the salesman took us towards Motomachi to a place that he knew, and we were able to get in and get fed. We talked for a while about this and that, but the purpose of the dinner was to celebrate the start of another contract.

After dinner (paid for by the company, thanks!) we decided to take off and go our separate ways. I wanted to do just a little bit more drinking before heading home, so I went to “D” – the wine bar in Sannomiya that we like. I shared the elevator going up with a young woman, and she got off on the floor right below “D”. That floor is kind of a “girl’s bar” – a hostess club that has mostly younger women as hosts. As the door opened the lady walked inside to go to work, and inside I could see the receptionist dressed up in a playboy bunny costume smiling and hoping that I would get off as well. It looked like quite a place, but I maintained my resolve and continued up the elevator to “D”.

The master smiled and said “welcome back” as if he was waiting for you to walk in – he’s good at greetings. Right away he went for a bottle of wine that he must have been saving for me – a 2001 St. Francis Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. He was curious about the winery and the label, so we talked about it while sipping the wine. The wine was pretty good, although maybe just about peaked. The place was pretty busy, but I stayed for a couple of glasses of wine and a little bit of cheese, and then called it a night. I guess I’ll save the bunnies for another time.

Saturday was a relaxed day at home, but I did bump into one of my former students shopping at the local shopping center. He introduced his wife and daughter, and they seemed like very nice people. I was dressed like a homeless guy so I probably didn’t leave a great impression.

Sunday at noon we went over to the Yamaji’s house for lunch. It turned out to be quite a party – they had invited their friend who is a sushi chef, a friend that runs a liquor shop, and another friend that is a sommelier. So the conversations turned out to be quite interesting. Yuuki cooked some homemade dishes for us – braised beef and spaghetti with meat sauce (that was great), and Ana was there with her boyfriend, who happened to have the same last name as Kuniko. What started as lunch turned into an eating and drinking marathon – we finally left after 6 pm because we had to drop off something with Mr. Tojo down the street. I think we did some major damage to our livers this weekend.

Today is Monday for me, and also Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are off, and Wednesday is only a half day at work, so things should be pretty easy this week. Friday I’ll kick off classes with my new students. Today Kuniko has an extra day off, so I’m sure she’ll spend the day relaxing and recharging her batteries for the upcoming work week.

It is the end of the week and I’m feeling pretty good about that. Last night Kuniko had a party after work, so after a dinner of 皿うどん (saraudon) I settled in to watch Survivor, listen to music and read the news. It was a pretty relaxing evening. Tonight after work I’m meeting with my OTC contacts to kick off the next year contract at KHI. I’m not predicting a wild night.

This weekend should also be pretty mild. We are going over to the Yamaji’s for lunch on Sunday to say welcome back to Yuuki and farewell to Ana, who is going to leave home to live on her own. It should be a good time.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print – maybe another post this weekend…

Last night Kuniko got home early and cooked up a really good dinner Рnikumaki onigiri. We had one at a festival a long time ago and she pretty much nailed the taste. Take a small rice ball, wrap it in raw beef and some flower stems and the saut̩ it in sauce until it contracts and forms what looks like a giant steak meatball. The sauce is intense and soaks into the rice inside. Yummy.

At work I’ve been saying goodbye to some students. With just three more days of classes, there are a lot of farewells on the horizon. Luckily I’ll be sticking around, so there is a good chance of bumping into them again in the future. My students seem pretty optimistic about studying in the future – that’s good to see. I think it means that I did my job.

In disaster news on the TV and in the newspapers everywhere you see people pitching in and helping to move supplies, organize cleanup crews, and donating things to help people in the affected areas. There is a lot of work going on, and every day more and more trains are running in Tokyo. My students are attending meetings again in Tokyo (and bringing toilet paper and batteries for their families and friends) so it seems like things are getting a little bit closer to normal.

In another sign of normalcy, the high school baseball tournament is starting on schedule at Koshien. Kuniko’s students were participating yesterday, singing songs at the stadium. The coverage of the baseball tournament will be a big boost for people’s spirits, I think. The image of crying teenage boys seems to be a popular one this time of year.

I just wrapped up a very relaxing four day weekend, and it is once more back into the trenches. I have just three more workdays with my current students, and then I’ll kick off my new course with students next week. The next few days will be spent discussing study plans for the future, taking interview tests, and the like.

As for the weekend, it was very nice. I spent time hiking, shopping, reading, studying, playing video games – you name it. Last night Kuniko and I met after work and tried to go to a Vietnamese restaurant that we have been hoping to visit, but because of the holiday weekend they were closed on Tuesday. That meant a backup dinner at home of grilled pork quesadillas – which is not a bad backup at all.

OK – off to work and to see what the rest of the working world has been doing while I’ve been gone.

We are in the midst of a very long weekend. Kuniko has to go to work tomorrow, but I have another day to spend relaxing before going back to work. With just a three day week ahead of me, and a party on Friday night, things are looking pretty good.

Last night one of my ex-students recently finished moving into our neighborhood. He and his wife built a house a few minutes walk from our place, and they came by last evening to bring an introduction gift and also to introduce themselves (and their dog). Mr. Tojo (TJ for short) and his wife are a really nice couple and I’m hoping that we can spend more time together once they settle in and finish unpacking.

The Friday before a four day weekend feels different. More significant, somehow. Kuniko and I have normal schedules today and should be back home tonight at a reasonable hour to crank up the music, start the disco ball spinning and pop some bottles. Friday is always a celebration at our house. Unfortunately it isn’t a full-blown celebration – as usual Kuniko is working on Saturday. We’ll have to skip the trapeze, beer bong and breakdancing tonight.

I heard an inspiring story from one of my students yesterday, but as I was the only one he had told it to, and some other students do read this blog, I am unable to share it. I’ll just say here that some people are going to some extraordinary lengths to help people in the disaster areas. Sometimes it isn’t enough to just donate money or collect aid.

The last three days have been cold, cold, cold. I was all prepared for spring and getting excited and now there is ice everywhere. Yesterday at lunchtime there was some pretty steady snow as well, so I guess winter is hanging on just a little longer.

I was talking with a student yesterday who has family in Tokyo, and he was a little frustrated with the lack of information coming from the government, the media, and his lack of access to what information is available. Although there is plenty of information out there in English, it is after the official Japanese release, it is based often on poor translations or filtered through cultural views making it suspect and usually way behind the news curve.

I have been following news from a couple of sources that I have been following since I came to Japan – japanprobe and more recently gakuranman. They are doing a good job of covering the news in a little more level-headed way.

The local news is also pretty good at updating what is going on for earthquake and tsunami news, but as for nuclear power plant news the web seems to be better. Like a lot of other people in Japan I don’t believe what the government is saying about the radiation levels – their top priority is to prevent a panic. As one of my students said yesterday, who knows what is really happening?

Yesterday I spent the day saying goodbye to about 1/3 of my students. They finished their course a little earlier than the rest, so it was our final class. Some of them I can tell will continue to study and continue to improve their English. Others will fall right back into non-usage of English and wonder why my class didn’t help them. My last class I always turn into the nagging teacher – explaining how to keep improving, what they need to focus on for the future, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. It is always a little sad to say goodbye to them, but I usually bump into them again somewhere around the office.

The disaster news kept coming throughout the day as it usually does, but we were happy to see a couple of channels of regular programming on TV last night. I measure the return to normalcy around here by how many food shows are on.

Once again, everyone here is healthy and life is completely normal. Work continues, and people (especially in Japan) love to get to work to forget their troubles. This will pay off in the near future – there is a lot of work to do reconstructing the part of the country destroyed by the triple whammy of disasters.

Yesterday was my first day back at work after the earthquake, and as you might expect, things were completely normal. My students wanted to discuss the earthquake, and although many had relatives in the Tokyo area, nobody had any friends/relatives in the harder-hit Tohoku area. That was certainly good news, but the bad news was that I had to teach words like ‘aftershock’, ‘nuclear power station’ and ‘radiation’ over and over again.

As for the factory, although there was no damage from the disaster, they do purchase a lot of parts and equipment from vendors in the Tokyo area, and it is unclear when (or whether) those parts can be delivered in the near future. Transportation is in an on-again off-again status right now in the Tokyo area. Because of intermittent power outages, poor communication, and what appears to be indecisive power company executives, nobody is quite sure when they can travel to Tokyo and whether they can go to work.

In true Japanese fashion, the news was filled yesterday with everyone trying to go to work in Tokyo, waiting in huge lines for trains that may or may not run, and long, long delays. I would be calling in sick and waiting for things to settle down, but it seems like everyone knows that the best way to get the Japanese economy running again is to get back to work and start producing ASAP. Or maybe they just wanted to get out of the house after a weekend of non-stop disaster coverage on TV.

Over the weekend the television has been running nothing but disaster coverage non-stop on every channel. A close eye is being kept on the nuclear reactors, and a series of rolling blackouts will start in eastern Japan today and continue for what could be as long as several weeks. My friend in Chiba reported that their water has been stopped, and that they only get a few hours of electricity a day. Luckily his family is OK.

Having heard nothing to the contrary I’m preparing to go to work this morning. Although I’ve heard that some factories in the Tokyo area will be closed, I’m sure that mine will be open and everyone will be twice as busy as they were before. When you already work 15 hour days there aren’t a lot more free hours left, however. It should be interesting to see the reaction to the disaster through the eyes of my students this week.

Although power and water conservation is on the menu for eastern Japan, here in the west we’ve heard nothing about any kind of change in utility service. We’re doing small things around the house to save power just in case, but according to the news the energy grids are completely separate between eastern and western Japan.

One bright spot was this morning’s TV news – there were actually commercials every few minutes. I haven’t seen a commercial on Japanese TV since the disaster, and maybe this is a sign (albeit a weak one) that things are shifting towards normalcy.

OK, I’m off to work to see what happens… should be an interesting day.

Yesterday afternoon at work I was sitting with one of my students discussing his recent work issue when suddenly I felt the floor move slightly. I stopped talking and looked around and everything appeared completely normal. I asked him if he felt an earthquake and he looked at me strangely and said I needed to take a rest. But we fired up the homepage for Japan’s seismic events and there it was – a big one northeast of Tokyo.

Just about then everybody in the 12 story office building simultaneously did the same thing, and my office computer’s internet connection croaked. So we finished up the lesson, and he went back to work, and between classes the rest of the day I checked for news via my cellphone. Slowly I could see the nature of the disaster, and students that came afterwards described what they knew (in English!) and finally I wrapped things up and went home.

That’s about all I’ve got to tell from Japan. We are in a very safe spot. Our location is on the inland sea protected by Shikoku, Awaji island, and the southern part of Osaka. According to the reports the water level to the south of us went up only 10 cm momentarily. Our house is quite a ways inland, and sits on a slight hill above other houses. In addition it is a newly-built earthquake-safe compliant building, and Kobe house builders know a lot about earthquake safety.

As one of my students said yesterday, people around this area are used to earthquakes, having survived one of the most devastating earthquakes in Japanese history. People in the Tokyo area are not as experienced, and so it will be tough on them in the coming days.

This morning Kuniko went off to work. I’m doing chores around the house this Saturday morning. It’s business as usual for us.