We’re recovering from an eventful weekend hosting two friends from my workplace. Both times we served tacos, and as it was the first time for them to eat Mexican food we served the simplest version. They got good reviews, though, and the smuggled cotija cheese was also well-received.

As it happens we have quite a few leftovers, so we’ll be eating Mexican a few more times this week. We also want to cook some Thai food recipes in preparation for a Thai dinner that we’ll have with the Fukumi family next month.

Also on Friday night we went out for Vietnamese food, and we were somewhat satisfied with the meal. The pho was pretty boring (Kuniko said she liked our homemade version better) and they had a lack of meat on the menu, which makes me think that perhaps the style of Vietnamese food is from a different area than where we visited (the north and central part). So the search continues for good Vietnamese food.

Despite hosting a couple of parties we still had some time to relax last night, take a long bath, and decompress. This week will be a pretty standard week for us – no parties or events – so the downtime will be very welcome.

There has been a lot of press recently in Japan about a video that was taken by the Japanese coast guard of a collision between the coast guard and a Chinese fishing boat in disputed waters. At first the Japanese government said that they wouldn’t release the footage and that only certain people in the Diet would be able to see it. That all changed recently when a coast guard employee decided to upload it himself to YouTube.

So the past couple of weeks every television channel has been showing the video over and over again, and talking about how Youtube has made it possible to publish private information for all to see. It is as if they have discovered for the first time that it is possible to abuse the power of the internet.

Anyway, good press for Youtube, and I think we’ll see usage go way up in Japan in the future.

Last night Kuniko came back from her cooking class after work and it sounded like it was a good class. I guess it is a little on the beginner side (at least at first), but she sounded interested in the contents. Hopefully it will continue to be interesting for her.

This weekend we’ll go to a Vietnamese restaurant on Friday, have a friend from KHI over for dinner on Saturday, and Mr. Nakamura and family from KHI over for lunch on Sunday. Pretty busy – but the menu is easy and everyone is really laid back so it should be a lot of fun. Nothing extraordinary on the taco menu this time. I’m keeping the carne asada and homemade beans in reserve, I guess.

At work a lot of students are in various states of colds, flus, and fevers. It is beginning to seem like a sick ward, and so I’m washing my hands and gargling any chance I get. One of my students even took a sick day, which is pretty hardcore in Japan. Also, in a strange coincidence, some of the students’ homework texts are covering sickness right now, so I guess it works out.

Luckily both Kuniko and myself are doing pretty well and have shown no signs of illness. We’ve got a lot of entertaining this weekend, so we’ve got to stay healthy…

Tonight Kuniko is taking a cooking class after work, and I’m going to go get some new contacts and do some errands before coming home tonight and eating leftovers. Should be a pretty easy day…

Yesterday was pretty much a normal day, except I started a process that may or may not end well. The results of my actions won’t be known for at least a week, and maybe more. But I was pleased with yesterday, as it could have gone quite poorly. To make a baseball analogy, yesterday I swung the bat and made contact with the ball, but I’ll have to wait a week to see whether I got a hit or fouled out. More news (and details) when I know more.

Friday night I went out with some students for all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu and all-you-can-drink alcohol. As you might expect, we over-indulged in just about everything… beef, pork, and even all-you-can-eat crab. The crab was the first time for me – usually you have to pay by the amount you eat, so this time it was damn the torpedoes and go for it.

After dinner we went over to the New York for some cocktails. There was a little problem when I asked the waitress which Laphroaig they had behind the bar, and I ended up just getting a glass which turned out to be a pretty nice one. Before I realized my students had split up the big bill, and unfortunately everyone had to share the price on the bill. So, next time I’m buying.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty mellow. Saturday I stayed home and cleaned house, cooked Thai food for dinner and Sunday I took a short hike from Okubo to Akashi, and then came back and barbecued pork and onions to go with a salad for dinner. Both days Kuniko was working, so she is a very tired worker this morning. Today she’s got another big day at work, but Tuesday she has the afternoon off.

I’ve got a big day – more on that later – but this week should be a pretty normal week. Next weekend is also a big one – two parties at our house, both of them will be Mexican food so that is something to look forward to. We haven’t had Mexican in almost a month…

Last night after work I met Kuniko in Sannomiya to check out a burger shop that we walked by the other day. That day we had already made reservations somewhere else, so there was nothing we could do but note the name of the burger joint and move on. Last night we had a chance so we went inside and grabbed dinner.

I’m picky about burger places. If I’m going to go out to a burger restaurant instead of making custom burgers at home, it has to be a good place. The gold standard for burger joints was “Starchild”, a great little place that was in the Kitano area of Sannomiya but went out of business years ago. Starchild featured large, grilled beef patties, with plenty of veggies and big giant buns to mop up all the juice.

The place last night, SB Diner, had very good buns, but the patties were a little on the small side, they were fried, rather than grilled, and the toppings were good but not great. My topping – blue cheese – was very good, but Kuniko’s avocado and cheese was a little off. The avocado was great, but the cheese was not so delicious, maybe because it wasn’t the sharp cheddar that we’re used to.

So, a little disappointing, but not bad. We’re holding these places to a pretty high standard, so it’s not going to be easy. We’ll still make them at home and aim for perfection there. The challenge for us at home is finding buns that are the right size. Normal burger buns are sometimes available at the supermarket, but sizes big enough to accommodate our giant patties are almost impossible to find. Maybe we’ll have to take another shot at making our own…

In Japan, going to Costco is a little different than shopping at other places. In order for it to go smoothly, you have to shake off any sense of acting Japanese, and act like an American. First, get in your car and drive there. Forget about using public transportation – how could you get anything home?

Even though Costco opens at 10:00 am, we had noticed previously that it had been open before then – so this time we arrived at 9:00 am. After a few minutes they opened the store at 9:15 am. Strange, but it worked out for us. We filled up on the usual assortment of goodies – this time a little more wine, and maybe a little less meat.

The Costco here is not exactly the same as the ones in the USA – lots of local Japanese stuff, and occasionally they have imported stuff that we like. This time we were hoping to get a big bag of tortilla chips – last time they had some Kirkland organic tortilla chips that were really good. Unfortunately, no luck this time. The wine selection was great, however, so we scored there. The power of the strong yen seems to be having an effect – I bought a Malbec from Argentina for 560 yen a bottle. That’s almost the price of one beer in a restaurant.

So yesterday’s holiday was all about filling our stores and relaxing. We’ve got some guests the weekend after next, so the timing was good as well. Now it’s time to get back out there and finish off this strange week.

Yesterday at work one of my students was making small talk and asked me about the breakdowns of religion in America. Together we did a little research on the web, which led me to explaining each religion in a tiny little nugget of simple English. Which ain’t easy.

So when atheism came up and I explained it as “They don’t believe in a God” it came as a shock to this guy. He seemed to think it fit his own situation nicely. In Japan often people’s religions are not mutually exclusive – kind of a buffet style to fit the situation. Apparently he attends church every Sunday, but lately has felt like it isn’t for him, and so he had me go down the laundry list of religions until he found one he liked, and so he is now on the road to atheism. Not sure how that will go over at his church next Sunday.

Tomorrow is a holiday, so we’ll go off to Costco early in the morning to spend a fortune on tortillas and wine. More updates on Thursday, though…

On Saturday night Kuniko and I met for yakiniku (grilled meat) in Sannomiya, at a restaurant recommended by one of her coworkers. I hadn’t had yakiniku in months, so I was very much looking forward to it. The restaurant was a very small place, and we sat at the counter on the bottom floor of the three story restaurant. There were four “cooks” lined up behind the counter facing us, and as customers ordered the meat they cut the slices of raw meat and put them on a serving dish, and then the dish was delivered to us by one of the other restaurant workers.

The meat was good, but some of the cuts were pretty fatty. In Japan fat = quality, and some were so fatty I had to look hard to find the red meat. But in the end the flavor was very nice, and we also had some bibinba, a couple of giant shrimp, and plenty of kimchee and beer to go with it.

We did a little shopping at the Sogo department store and found a couple of good wines for sale – a Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel and a Bogle Old Vines Zinfandel. We were able to taste them, and we ended up buying a bottle each. The price was higher than what I would pay in California, but I guess that is the penalty of living on the other side of the ocean. And Kuniko is a big Zin fan.

Not wanting to call it a night after that we dropped by Hola Achaho and had a couple of glasses of wine before catching the train home. The crew there looked the same as ever – working hard and making great food.

Sunday we slept in as much as we could and then I headed to Higashi Kakogawa to help out Nozaki sensei with her annual Halloween Party. This year the party was a little bigger, and she had some help from two other foreigners, Craig and Kerry. Craig is living in Japan and has been married to his Japanese wife Yukiko for one year. Kerry has been living in Japan with her Japanese husband for about twenty years. After we finished the party Nozaki sensei invited us over to her house for dinner. Kuniko met us there, and we sat around and ate some delicious foods and recapped the night. It was interesting to hear Craig and Kerry talking about their life in Japan, although Yukiko was a little quiet. Nozaki sensei once again put on a good show and we had a great time.

Now it is back to work for us. The heavy rain this weekend finally let up this morning, and we should be able to stay dry going to and from work this week. There is a rare mid-week holiday on Wednesday for both of us, so we’ll take the chance to make an early morning run to Costco. It will be an expensive trip – tortillas, cheese, wine, you name it.

The weekend is nearly upon us, but we have no special plans for Friday night. Saturday and Sunday are booked up with events – Kuniko will work on Saturday during the day, and we’ll meet up for yakiniku in the evening. Sunday we’ll head over to help out Nozaki sensei with her annual Halloween party, and then stick around for dinner at her place afterwards.

Lots to look forward to. Apparently a typhoon will swing through our area of Japan sometime this weekend, but it looks like it’ll miss us to the south. Still, paths change, so we’ll have to keep an eye out.

Live, from Kobe Japan – Whitesnake!

Actually, it was some crazy guy with headphones singing, headbanging, and even doing the “metal!” sign with his hands. It was like Beavis and Butthead on the train. I couldn’t understand his version of the lyrics, but even through the headphones I could hear early Whitesnake. Truth be told it sounded pretty good. So I didn’t mind the crazy guy this time. However everyone else in my area of the train looked a little worried – and most people moved to other sections as soon as they saw this guy. I, for one, had a very nice ride home last night.

Then, after shopping at Vivre I was walking past the bus stop at the train station and an old lady had a plastic megaphone shouting out that everyone should say “gochisosama” after eating, and that kids these days don’t say it like they should. Her audience was only me – everyone else had cleared out when they saw the crazy lady. She wasn’t selling anything – just a crazy lady on a mission. I watched her curiously, but she carefully avoided my gaze and waited for me to walk past before shouting through the megaphone again.

I should point out that in Japan most people seem to act the same – be quiet in public, be polite, and don’t make waves. So when a crazy guy walks by, he really stands out. I don’t think there are any less or more crazy people in Japan, but to bump into two in the same day is pretty unusual. Variety is the spice of life and all that, I guess.

Last night and this morning have become the first beacons of an oncoming winter – it seems like fall just got here but it has been blustery and cold. Last night in honor of the cold weather Kuniko made “soup curry” – a popular dish in Hokkaido. She nailed the recipe and it really hit the spot. As for today I’ll wear a suit jacket for the first time this season. Getting cold…

Work is going along smoothly, with plenty of activity to keep both me and my students busy. In a rare event yesterday two students had to cancel their classes suddenly on the same day, which left me doing paperwork instead of teaching for about 90 minutes. It was good to get the paperwork done, though. Sometimes I wish I had a bit more time between classes to get organized during the day.

Kuniko made enough soup curry for two meals, so we’ll be back at the leftovers tonight. Maybe I’ll make a little stir fry to go with it – who knows?

Kuniko and I were talking about this news story this morning before work. Apparently in Japan an “ear cleaning salon” is a place where you can easily arrange for more sensual activities. I can understand a massage salon – the transition seems pretty logical to me – but ear cleaning? Talk about flying under the radar…

Last weekend was pretty good – a couple of fun events combined with plenty of downtime to relax and recharge for the week. Friday night Yoshi and I went to Sannomiya, and had some pretty good pizza at R. Valentino. The place had a good atmosphere, and the pizza was delicious (although they were a little stingy with the basil). After pizza we grabbed a beer at Brugge, hiked all the way up the hill to try the Shimogawa wine bar (but we were turned away because they were packed), and then back down the hill to try a wine bar run by the guy who used to work at Reset.

The wine bar was called DarWine, and as usual the master had a lot of nice stuff in there. The wine cellar was transparent and in the room, so it was easy to look through and find something you liked. It also had a full menu, so you could have more than just a snack in there. Yoshi and I had a couple of glasses of Au Bon Climat Oregon Pinot Noir, and also a French Bordeaux that wasn’t quite as good but certainly better than anything I had laying around at home. Finally we had one last cocktail at New York, and then headed back. It was a good night to blow off some steam.

Saturday night we went over to Fukumi-san’s place for dinner, and had kind of a bon voyage party for Yuuki, who will go to Italy for several months to attend a cooking school. He was pretty excited about it, but he seemed a little uncomfortable about being the center of attention. He’s a shy guy, after all.

Dinner there was excellent – starting with some killer mushroom and walnut pate, garlic bread, clam pasta, stewed beef and vegetables, and a chicken saute that really hit the spot. They can really cook over there – yum. We brought three bottles of wine, and we hit those pretty hard. Fukumi-san all served two bottles of Eiswine between the bottles of red, so my sugar levels were up and down during the night. Sweet wine is really popular here in Japan.

We cut out early because Kuniko had to work the next day (Sunday!), but the Yamaji-san’s were still going strong when we left. Sunday I spent the day playing video games, shopping for essentials, reading and staying out of the rain. In keeping with the relaxed theme of the day, we had just some salad and avocado on toast for dinner and retired early.

Although last week was full of parties and meet-ups, this week is nearly the exact opposite. I have no events all week, and so I’ll be home on time and ready to cook some interesting meals. Tonight we’ll have a couple of avocados (and I want to grill one of them) along with some leftover salad – but after that the menu is open.