Sorry for taking so long to post. I’ve been surprisingly busy, considering I don’t really have a job to go to during the day.

This weekend was pretty relaxing. Sunday Kuniko had her first real day off since she arrived from New Zealand, so we cancelled the hike and instead hung out at home and relaxed all day. She cooked some food for her students in the morning, and I scored some leftovers in the evening. We decided to take a long walk to the shopping center that I had visited while Kuniko was gone, so we got some late night exercise hiking there and back at a fast pace.

Monday I had a chance to go to see Nozaki sensei’s school in action. This week is the last week for the teacher working there now, and Monday was a good time to see her teach a class and be able to talk to her and ask questions. She picked me up at the train station (just a ten minute train ride – big difference from my last job), and we went over to Nozaki sensei’s house.

The house has a separate room dedicated as a classroom. The students all arrive pretty much on time, and then file into the room and go through a routine to get started. Since I was there it shook up the routine a little bit, but the students were so busy doing their chores that they didn’t really have too much time to be distracted.

It was really interesting to watch the classes. This teacher, Miki sensei, has been teaching there for a year, and so she knows all the students by name, she knows whether they have late homework or not, or what their family situation is like. She has a very diverse lesson plan and she knocked it out quickly and efficiently. I learned a lot from watching her. One thing that I’m going to have to do it use more Japanese than I’m used to. Miki sensei used almost all English, but these students can be pretty young – mostly in elementary school – so they really only speak Japanese and they like to chat. Miki sensei said that I should just use English, but I think that will probably be close to impossible. I might need to use a lot of Japanese at first to make the students comfortable.

Nozaki sensei came home from work early, and I got a chance to meet her daughter and her mother – they happened to be around. Kuniko and I will be coming over for dinner on Wednesday, so we didn’t really talk that much other than the business at hand. The students kept me and Miki sensei busy most of the time. There were three classes, running from about 3:30 to about 6:30.

My success story for the day was one boy who had decided to quit once he heard that a foreigner would be teaching next year. He came today in what was his second to last class, and after sitting next to me during the lesson and talking with me a little bit, he decided that he’d like to keep coming. His mother called after their class and said that they’d like to continue through next year as well. I was glad that I hadn’t scared off any of Nozaki sensei’s business.

Nozaki sensei also gave me some train tickets to use going back and forth, and then I caught a ride with Miki sensei back to the station. It was really nice to meet her – she’s going to try to find a job with a company because apparently she can’t find any husband material at her current job. She’s a woman that is looking to get married ASAP.

At least my stay here is temporary. The last two days have been very quiet – not much to report really. Kuniko has gone into work both days and worked a regular schedule, and I’ve been staying home studying, doing chores, and not much else.

I got a couple of emails from my staffing company over the last two days. They were really happy with the job we did at the university, so that was nice to hear. They also have a couple of jobs for next term, but they are really far away – both are more than 30 minutes away from Osaka in the wrong direction. I’m glad I wasn’t depending on them to come through for my next job.

Speaking of the next job, Kuniko and I are going to go over to Nozaki sensei’s house next week to have dinner. We’ll probably work out a schedule, and I’m looking forward to getting set up with new students and a new neighborhood to explore.

Tomorrow Kuniko has to work during the day, but she should be free on Sunday. We’re thinking about going on a hike Sunday if the weather is nice. We both need the exercise and it would be fun to get outside for a while.

More updates as events warrant…

This morning was a real challenge getting up. Not only was it really cold, but I had to get up and leave Kuniko behind wrapped up in the electric blanket. We did have a little time in the morning before I left to look at all the souvenirs that she brought back, and she really got some good stuff.

She brought me back an original piece of artwork signed by the artist, a DVD of “River Queen” that was made in New Zealand, a bottle of wine, and lots of other goodies. She also brought lots of stuff for her family and co-workers – her suitcase was full of souvenirs.

I had to go to work, so I headed off to the station, and then met up with Robert and Corey at Rokkomichi station. We caught a bus there and headed to the college. The bus was really full, and I asked Robert if there was some kind of event going on. He said that he didn’t know, but once we arrived at the college we figured it out.

At the school they were receiving the new students for the new school year. The new students have a couple of weeks to file their paperwork with the college, and the college is full of new freshmen and their parents. But it wasn’t just them, the school was packed with older students who try hard to recruit the new students in clubs. Also there were lots of salespeople trying to sell things to the new students. Some students move out of their homes when they go to college, so it’s a great opportunity to try to sell them everything – beds, computers, phone lines, credit cards, refrigerators, you name it.

The way it was set up was that the new students came to the main entrance with their parents and their paperwork. There was only one exit, so the older students from each club lined the exit. Students leaving had to walk through a huge crowd of club papparazi trying to hand them fliers. It was really interesting to watch – I’ve never seen anything like it.

Today’s work was much like the last two days. We mixed up speeches with interviews and also with a panel discussion. We worked straight through until lunch, and then went to the cafeteria and had to fight for a seat. We were sitting next to a group of students, and Corey politely said hello to them in English. That sent them chattering in Japanese – saying how it was scary to talk to foreigners, and they didn’t know what they would do if a foreigner started to talk to them. Corey and I could understand them easily, so we relayed the information to Robert and thought a little more about why Japanese students have such a hard time with English.

Next we went to a hallway to check a bulletin board. Corey’s wife happens to be a graduate student at the college, so we were doing a little footwork for her. After that was finished we headed out the back door, and then realized that we would have to walk through the line of club members recruiting. They laughed and tried to get us to join the clubs anyway, but we just smiled and walked through.

On the way back we stopped in and talked with a professor from Australia that is teaching there. For me, he was interesting to talk to because someday I’d like a job like his. It’s my target right now – get an advanced degree and then start teaching on my own in a university setting. Whether I can do that someday or not – I’m not sure. He was encouraging, but he also said that with the ever-present threat of outsourcing he was starting to wonder how long things will be good for foreign professors at Japanese universities. Some food for thought.

The afternoon flew by, and we finished early so the professor told us that we could go home. He was a really nice guy – he wished us all well personally, and then sent us off. We were happy to leave an hour early – we hurried down to the bus stop and then we said our own goodbyes at the station.

Robert works for the same staffing company that I do, but they still haven’t come up with any new jobs for their employees for the new year. He’s starting to get a little nervous. He needs a job for about six months in Japan before he heads back to Scotland to live permanently. He has been traveling and living all over the world for the past five years, and I think he’s ready to settle down. He’s got a Japanese girlfriend that wants to go back with him, so I do hope that he is able to get back and succeed. He was a really nice guy to work with.

Corey was really happy to finish his career teaching in Japan today, and he’s looking forward to heading back to Victoria, Canada to go to graduate school. Corey really didn’t like teaching, and was really frustrated with the Japanese education system. He wasn’t really utilized very well as an assistant teacher, and that also really frustrated him.

His plan is to leave Japan with his wife in a few weeks, and travel back the long way. He’s going to try to travel from Japan to Canada without using a plane. They’ll be travelling across Siberia on the transcontinental railroad, with plenty of stops along the way. They’ve got some family in China to visit, and then eventually they’ll make their way across Europe, take a boat across the ocean to Canada, and then take trains across Canada back to Victoria. He’s going to blog his adventure – I’m hoping he’s able to keep it up to date while he’s traveling.

After saying goodbye to those guys I stopped in Sannomiya to get some more tortillas, and then I came on back home. Kuniko is meeting some friends for a dinner date that she made before her trip, so I’m not expecting her until late.

Tonight I’m just relaxing. I had some tacos for dinner (big surprise) and now I’m going to do a little bit of studying until Kuniko gets back. Tomorrow I’m back to being unemployed, but I’m so tired right now that it just feels like it’s Friday night.

I met up with the other two guys Tuesday morning at Rokkomichi, and we set off again to catch the bus and head up to the college.

Today we were working in a different room, but mainly we had the some type of work. We wrote and performed speech after speech for the cameras. Today the professor and his assistant weren’t so interested in the content of the speech, only that data was being collected.

After an hour or so he kind of sensed that we were burning out a little bit, so we changed the format and did a “Crossfire” style debate. One guy would be the moderator and introduce the topic, and the other two would take opposing sides and go for the throat. Robert, the balding Scot who works at the college, was a little unfamiliar with the format, but once I dragged his parents into the argument, blaming them for his poor debating skills, well – he started to take notice.

It was fun to do the debates, and take these fictional roles and arguments. Sometimes you would be arguing for something you personally against – you never knew how it would work out. That made you really stretch your brain for justifications for your arguments.

After lunch we went back at our own impromptu speeches, and recorded about 30 more. Then the professor, Kato-sensei, let us go home a little bit early. We were pretty tired afterwards. The mental exercises you go through are pretty intense, but we were also physically exhausted.

I left Corey and Robert at the station and made my way to Sannomiya, then took the Portliner from there to Kobe Airport. From Kobe Airport I took a bus to the ferry terminal, and then a ferry across Osaka bay to the Internation Airport. From that ferry terminal I took another bus to get to the airport itself, and then finally I was there. It was a lot of changes, but it was pretty cheap because Kuniko had gotten some free tickets for us.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do at the airport. I studied Japanese, used my handheld PC to surf the web and check my email, and just watched people walking by. I had some butaniku for dinner, and then went down to the arrival area to wait for the plane to show up.

It came in a few minutes early, and after everyone came out together as a group. I had to wait in the wings until everyone got organized. There were a couple of speeches and some pictures, and then finally Kuniko started looking around for me, so I walked over.

It was really good to see her. She looked tanned and tired, so I helped gather her gear and we eventually caught the bus to catch the ferry etc. etc. On the way home Kuniko told me all about the trip, and it sounds like they did have a good time. We didn’t get home until after midnight, but we were both too tired to get into the souvenirs, so we went straight to bed. It was a school night for me and Kuniko – she needs to go into work tomorrow to solve a few issues that came up while she was on her trip.

Today I got up early and headed into Kobe to actually go to work. My staffing company had a little three day job at Kobe University that they needed people for, so I took it along with another guy I know.

I met up with Corey and a guy named Robert in Rokkomichi, which is just past Kobe towards Osaka. It was my first time to meet Robert, a 32 year old balding Scot with a good sense of humor. He has been working at the college as some kind of assistant, so he guided us there.

Once there we met the professor and learned a little more about his project. He is collecting videos of native speakers of English making speeches. He takes the videos and converts them to a digital format, then is making a database so that students can review the tapes and learn how to make a good presentation. In an interesting twist, we actually watched some student tapes and then redid some of their speeches. Hopefully they’ll get to watch us doing their speeches someday.

We did lots of different kinds of speeches and also interviews and introductions, in a variety of situations. It was a real challenge to take a topic and stand up and make a good speech about it for a couple of minutes into a camera. It was great practice, though, and I was really happy that somebody was paying us to do it.

At the end of the day we had made rougly 12 speeches each, with different topics and angles. They even gave us some homework to write some more for tomorrow. I’m not a big fan of homework, but the money for this job is so good that I really can’t complain.

Something else to look forward to tomorrow is the return of Kuniko from New Zealand. She will fly into the airport late in the evening, so I’ll be there to meet her and take her home. I’ll head over there after work tomorrow – it worked out that I’ll be in Kobe anyway.

I’ve got a little more studying to do before bed tonight. I had another taco dinner and there’s still lots of taco fixin’s to eat. I might be burned out on Mexican food by Friday. I never thought I’d say that in Japan.

I have to write up the taco party from Sunday night, not because it was a great party, just the opposite – it was a bust. Maybe I was in a bad mood or something, but it didn’t go well. I guess that’s what I get for throwing a party without Kuniko around.

On Sunday I prepared for the party by buying some supplies, stocking the fridge with wine and beer, and then cooking a double size portion of taco meat and beans. The guys said there would be four people coming, so that made five taco eaters. One of the guys said that he might bring his kids, too – so I bought some kiddie drinks and made sure there wasn’t anything too spicy for them.

Around six o’clock the doorbell rang, and the guys were there. The bad news – the other two people couldn’t make it. More bad news, he didn’t bring his kids. More bad news, they didn’t bring anything to the party. Even I know better than to show up at a party empty-handed, but here they were.

We made the best of it, and they ate a couple of tacos each. I ate three myself, and then we played some Wii in the living room for a couple of hours before they headed home.

I’m not Mr. Manners or anything, but it seemed a little weird to me. I cleaned the kitchen last night late after they left, and I was pretty grouchy from then until I went to bed. The good news is that I’ve got lots of taco leftovers. It might be taco week this week.

Note: Friday has been intentionally left blank. I didn’t leave the house except to take out the trash at six in the morning. I just studied and watched movies all day.

Saturday was a different story. I slept in a little bit, then jumped in the shower and got my hiking gear together. I also got a chance to talk with my folks before heading out the door.

My destination today was to hike Mt. Takamikura in northern Takasago. It has been a long time since I actually hiked to the top. The last time was about three years ago I took the train directly to Sone – it’s easier access now that we live on the JR line.

From Sone it was a longer walk to the mountain than I remember, maybe 20 minutes from the station to the base of the mountain. I had a little trouble finding the official path up the hill, but an old guy showed me a shortcut, literally some trampled grass behind a tiny mysterious shrine hidden in some trees. When he told me about it I couldn’t help thinking that it sounded like something out of an old samurai movie, but sure enough, there was a path behind the little shrine. I took the path and started up the hill.

Just after I started climbing, I noticed this weird smell. It took me a while to figure out what it reminded me of – kitty litter. Used kitty litter. At first I thought maybe I stepped in some old cat shit or something, but my boots were clean. I smelled it all the way up and down the mountain, so it must have been from some kind of plant. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, though, especially when you are gulping air as fast as you can to catch your breath.

Maybe it has been too long, maybe I’m not in shape anymore, but this was a steep path. When you are climbing the face of the mountain is right in front of you. You use your hands a lot to pull yourself up, too. A little steeper and you might need ropes. The nice thing about a steep path like that is that you climb fast, and it wasn’t long before I was sitting on a rock catching my breath with a great view of Sone.

The old guy had said that the path would join the main path about a quarter of the way up the mountain. When I followed the path and came out of the bushes onto a small clearing I shocked an older couple sitting on the rocks eating lunch. I smiled and said hello, but they were still too surprised to speak. From that point on I had a little more company climbing, as there were a few people heading down, and I passed a few people heading up.

Every time I passed older people they would laugh and complain that their legs were too short. I just smiled at them, mainly because I was too out of breath to speak.

I finally reached the top and got to sit down and rest even longer. The view was really nice depite slightly overcast weather. I rested for about 10 minutes, and then headed back down. Down was not as strenuous, but it was tough to find footing, so it took a little longer than I expected. It was nice to get away from the cat litter smell.

From the base of the mountain I traveled back to Sone and headed to the southern part to catch the Sanyo train line. I had never really been there before, but I had downloaded a map onto my pocket pc, and I figured if I headed south eventually I would find the train tracks and then it should be easy enough to find a station.

I did make a few wrong turns once I found the train tracks, and ended up walking through kind of a weird neighborhood. Everyone was watching me carefully, and I felt really out of place. Since I was just passing through I smiled and nodded at old people that stared, but they didn’t really react. Maybe this part of town had a bad foreigner experience or something. Near the end of the street a squad of little girls on bicycles rode by and each one of them said hello in English, so that was kind of nice.

I found Sone station, and I took the train through Takasago to Nishi Futami, and I was back in my old neighborhood. I looked around Ito Yokado a little bit, and then decided to head over to Denya yakitori for dinner. As I arrived the weather started to get a little worse, and rain drops were starting to fall. Talk about good timing.

Inside Denya it was empty – just the master waiting for customers. I sat down and we talked for a while to catch up. He asked about Kuniko and I told him that she was in New Zealand. He asked my job and I gave him the update. I asked about his family and everyone was doing well. Right then, Kimura-san, another yakitori regular came in. He was surprised to see me there, and sat down next to me to drink and eat. He was exhausted from a day of playing pachinko. He sent a message to Kazu who came over soon after. By then some other customers had shown up and the master had to start turning away people because all the seats were full. It was pretty rare for me to see it this full – but good news for the master.

We ate and drank and talked for a couple of hours. It was a really good chance for me to use Japanese. There aren’t many opportunities for me to use Japanese for a long time – just the occasional greetings at the store or with strangers. This was really fun. My repetoire is slowly getting bigger, and I tried out a few new expressions that I learned to see how they worked. These guys are really forgiving, though – sometimes I think they don’t understand but nod anyway.

They were talking about how much they enjoyed coming over for tacos, so I figured what the hell and invited them over for a taco dinner Sunday night. They were surprised, but they accepted. So now I’ll have a little Mexican party Sunday night. Good thing I already cleaned the house.

On my way home it was pouring rain. I stopped in at Ito Yokado and bought tortillas and meat for the taco party, and then caught the Sanyo line into Akashi and doubled back on the JR line to get to Okubo. That saved me some exposure to the rain, because I didn’t bring an umbrella today. In Okubo the rain wasn’t so bad, but a block from my house it really started coming down. I ran the rest of the way and wasn’t too soaked upon arrival. Tomorrow it’ll be taco time!

Instead of getting up at my usual time (five a.m.) this morning, I instead decided to sleep in and see what time I woke up. I ended up getting out of bed around 9:30, which is pretty good for me. I got organized and then hit the road heading north away from our house towards unexplored territory.

It took about a 35 minute walk to get to my destination, a shopping center at the edge of the main toll road crossing east to west through northern Okubo. Getting there was fun – there were a lot of things to see on the way. There was a huge array for apartment/mansions that looked really cheap – kind of like the teacher’s apartments that I used to live in. While my complex just had two buildings, this complex straddled several major streets and had around 20 monster sized buildings. Nearby I found an elementary school that I didn’t know was there, and also a pretty large water resevoir that was topped all the way up.

Upon arriving at the shopping center, I started at the home center. It was the largest one that I’ve ever visited in Japan. It was a lot like a higher-class Home Depot. There weren’t very many customers, and it was a little weird walking through such a huge store with just me and the employees.

Strangely, they had a pet section. In other home centers I’ve seen pet sections as well – I don’t know what the connection is. There were dogs and cats, but the really impressive section was the aquariums. There were lots of fishtanks filled with many different kinds of fish, both tropical and saltwater. I used to keep fish, so I enjoyed walking through. The fish in Japan are a little bit different from the selection back in America. They had a lot more fancy guppies, compared to maybe one tank full at an American pet store. The guppies were divided by type and sex, and there were about 16 tanks full. Also there were varieties of fish that I had never seen before in American stores. It was fun exploring, and I took my time and enjoyed the experience.

There was also a big furniture showcase, and a supermarket/shopping center that was a lot like Ito Yokado. After looking around for a while, I headed back home, and by the time I arrived I was sweating pretty good. It was a nice way to get exercise and see something new.

Not much else to report today. I made crab fried rice for dinner (not so healthy tonight) and watched the latest episode of Lost. I’m going to work on some more Japanese study tonight, and then hit the sack. Tomorrow is Friday, but that isn’t such a big deal anymore.

Next week, from Monday to Wednesday, I’ll be working at Kobe University doing a three day work project for my staffing company. The pay is good, and the work looks interesting. I’ve got to come up with some speech topics and bring them along, so tomorrow I’ll put on my creativity cap and see what happens.

Kuniko is back next Tuesday, so at least it won’t be quite so quiet around here. I’m looking forward to going back to cooking for two!

Wednesday was a really unproductive day for me. It’s a little tough coming to grips with having so much free time. I guess it would be a lot more difficult if I didn’t have a job waiting for me in April.

It reminds me of the time (beware of sentences starting like this) I was living in Scripps Ranch, San Diego with Haven in a tiny one bedroom apartment. For one reason or another, working at an internet real estate company didn’t work out, so one day I quit and came home. I spent about half of every day looking for work and doing interviews, and the other half climbing mountains with Haven. My grandfather even gave us the nickname “The Dudes Of Leisure”. Climbing mountains ended up being my therapy to get my mind off the reality of unemployment (and it was free!). In the end I was offered a job just as Haven was ready to drive across the country to Pittsburgh. I picked the trip across country over the job, and that turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life. I should write about that trip someday…

Anyway, in the here and now I’ve got small errands to run every day, and I study Japanese and cook myself lunch and dinner. Other than that, things are really quiet. I guess I should just enjoy it for the next few weeks.

The highlight of Wednesday absolutely was the phone call from Kuniko. She called from her hotel around 4:30 in the afternoon my time, which is about 8:30 in the evening her time. Her voice strange over the landline, and she seemed just a little tired. We talked a little about what she has been doing (a lot) and what I’ve been doing (see above), and she told me in a little more detail about all the exploits of her students. It sounds like overall it is a fun trip.

Before dinner (stir fried tofu and sprouts with momijioroshi) I took a long hot bath, and even sipped a cocktail while I was in there. If you are going to do the life of leisure, do it right.

Not much planned for tomorrow. I want to do some Japanese reading online, and I also want to do a city hike across Okubo to explore an area I haven’t really seen much of yet. We’ll see how it pans out…

The last time I went to the Akashi license center to get a driver’s license I was shot down, but not before dragging Kuniko into it and holding up the entire office while they tried to figure out what the heck was going on with my situation. Today I went back, and ended up with pretty much the same result, except Kuniko was safely in New Zealand and able to avoid the whole thing.

To boil it all down, I need the be able to prove that I had my license and used it in America for 90 days after the issue date. Unfortunately I renewed my license 46 days before coming to Japan, and the DMV in California apparently destroys their old records and replaces the information with the new. So, I couldn’t show when my license was issued, and so I was unable to get a license.

The good news is that with all the trips back to America I’ve taken since 2003, I finally have 90 days in America under my belt. I went in today with all this information, and was first in line in the morning.

The guy called me in around 9:30, and I presented all my paperwork after some polite chit-chat. He was the only guy in the office at first, but after a few minutes another guy came in and took the second person in line.

As my guy was working on my paperwork, every person that came up to the desk had to be helped, and since my guy was nearest the front desk he stopped work on my application, went and helped everyone, and then came back and tried to figure out where he left off. That led to a lot of confusion on his part, and I had to bite back a comment about how nice it would have been if I was second in line instead of first.

They are a lot better about saving records at the Japanese DMV – they pulled up the paperwork from last summer when I didn’t have enough days on my license. They referred to the old paperwork and that saved a lot of time. The guy got sidetracked a couple of times, and for a while he thought that I didn’t need to worry about the days at all. Sometimes he took me at my word, other times he insisted on proof. The other guy peeked in now and then and we started the paperwork over twice. He checked the dates three times, and had the other guy check once. And finally, after two hours, he said that I was OK and I could attempt the test.

In my mind I imagined that I would go downstairs and take the test right away. If I failed I could come back every day this week until I passed. I’ve got the free time now. Unfortunately, the first driving test available was March 22nd, so I’ll have to wait until then. I was able to take the vision and the written test, and both of them were really easy.

After all of that I was mentally drained from speaking in Japanese (intensely) for two hours. I rode the bus back to Akashi and decided to not waste the opportunity to stroll through the park. I ended up sitting on the wall of Akashi castle and enjoying the view – today it was really clear. I could see all the way from the edge of Kobe and beyond to Osaka, the Akashi bridge and Awaji Island, even Shikoku extending to the southwest. It was beautiful.

Back home it was study and laundry, and I ran some errands around Okubo until the evening. I watched a little bit of TV and played a little Wii, then fried up some vegetables and used some Thai seasonings that were stored away in the cupboard.

Tomorrow should be really quiet – in fact, the rest of the week and the weekend will be pretty mellow. I’ve got a couple of small things to take care of and some paperwork to fill out, but after that I’m all clear. I expected to spend all this time at the driver’s license center. Maybe I’ll use some of the time to study up.

Late last night I checked the weather report for today, and brought in all the laundry just before bed. I’m glad I did – there was some serious gale force winds in the middle of the night that woke me up, and heavy rain when I got up in the morning.

I got an early start this morning, sticking to my regular morning routine despite the fact that I didn’t have to go to work. Instead I showered, had breakfast, put away the bedding, studied kanji, and I waited as long as I could before I left for Akashi.

Today my big adventure was to go to the city tax office and pay my taxes. Luckily, I can pay there and it has me covered all the way to the federal government. The taxes work pretty much the same here as they do in America – your employer withholds, and if there is any big discrepancy you pay it or receive it as a refund. The deadline here is on March 15th, and so I have just a week or so left to get it done.

I went to Akashi, taking advantage of a short break in the rain. When I got there I went to the city tax office, and they looked at me like I was from another planet and sent me 20 minutes down the road to the City Citizen’s Tax Payment Office, which I guess is the correct place to go. There were lots more people there, so I knew I was in the right place this time.

They had lots of people working, and they were really friendly and helpful (as long as you spoke Japanese). They shuttled me upstairs where they had about 35 laptop computers running a program that fills out the forms for you. They had people around the computers to guide you through the process, which turned out to be very good news for me. A lady started helping me, but about two steps in she left and a guy took over. I looked at the guy and did a double take – it was one of my ex-students from Takasago Minami. I was really surprised. He was one of my first students back in 2003. He helped me through the whole procedure and really saved me lots of time. See, it pays to be a teacher sometimes.

My taxes are really quite simple, despite the fact that I am a foreigner. I did have to fill out a special sheet to keep the office updated on my status. Nobody checked the information, however, so I think it’s just a paper trail to know where I am.

I wrapped everything up in under 30 minutes, and then walked back to the station and came back home. In the afternoon the rain and wind were really blowing, and I lost Troy, my trusty portable umbrella. The winds just gusted and bent one of the wires backwards. I’ve carried that one around a long time, but these winds were just too much for the little guy.

Today I wrapped up the cleaning of the bedroom, and now it’s just detail work that is left to do. I’ve got a couple piles of papers and a bag or two that I need to find a home for in there somewhere. Hmm…

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nicer (although still windy). My adventure tomorrow is to take a shot at getting a driver’s license. The first time I lost out to a paperwork technicality, but I think I’ve got that one covered now. I still need to pass the driving test, a written test, and an eye test. All of them will be tricky, and I’m told that I should expect to fail the driving test 3-4 times before I pass. So, I’m already feeling depressed about it in advance.

We’ll see how it goes…

I woke up just a little sore from hiking, but luckily without a hangover from Saturday’s exploits. I was actually not sore from the Wii, just the hiking. I don’t know if that is a good sign or not.

Sunday I dedicated to cleaning and rearranging our bedroom. I started off by moving lots of stuff out, and then cleaning and moving furniture, and then slowly moving stuff back in.

Midstream I realized that we could use another storage box for all the books that we have, so I made a lunchtime walk to Nitori. It’s a fairly long walk, so when I came back I was feeling pretty refreshed. For lunch I used Kuniko’s new mini-food processor to make a banana pineapple smoothie. Then it was back into the bedroom for more work.

I finally stopped work on the bedroom with just a little bit of work left. I like the new setup, but it remains to be seen whether Kuniko will like it or not. Hopefully it will get the stamp of approval.

For dinner it was tacos, because I had cheese and avocados that needed to be eaten. I sorted through some papers, and I think I’m ready to challenge the Japanese tax office on Monday morning in Akashi. I’ve got to do my taxes by hand, but I’m not sure about the process. I’ll go in tomorrow with my papers and be the dumb foreigner who doesn’t know any better. That should be fun.

With all the work that I did today I forgot to do my daily vocabulary, so I stayed up late knocking those out before heading to bed. I’ll have to be a little more careful tomorrow.

A Kuniko update – she made it safely to the town where they are staying after her long journey on the plane. They spent a busy day Saturday, and Sunday she had a day to relax while the students spent time with their host families. Monday the students will start school, so I imagine she’ll be a little more busy. I’m in touch with her only by e-mail, so it’s hard to get a read on her mental condition, but I think she’s hanging in there.

Well, being unemployed you’d think I’d have lots of time to update the site, but I was a little busy this weekend. I should be a little less busy this week, though. I’ll try to update a little more.

Friday night Yasu came over after a concert that he saw in Tarumi, and so we played Wii and talked and drank into the night. He finally left around two in the morning and headed home.

That left me a little tired out on Saturday morning, but I still got up reasonably early and headed into Suma to meet Antoine. He was looking for a chance to go hiking, so we climbed up Suma mountain together and then looped back around into town.

On the hike we chatted and wandered through the forest following the kanji on the signs so that we wouldn’t get lost. Antoine was apparently going through another rough spot in his relationship, so we talked through that and also talked about his new job coming up next term.

In Suma we caught a late lunch at a donburi place, and then decided that because of threatening weather it was better to head back to my place and relax instead of trying another mountain.

We came back to Okubo and spent the afternoon playing Wii and watching a movie (Best in Show), and in the evening went to the local yakitori that I like. The guy remembered me despite my not going there for almost six months. We ate big and drank lots of beer, and still got out of there cheaply. The highlight of the meal was fried corn on the cob pieces – they were in another yakitori league.

Charged up with beer and food we came back and played some more Wii. I let Antoine loose on boxing and he worked out a lot of aggressions. I think he really liked it – I know it’s my favorite game of the bunch.

Around eleven he headed home, so I straightened up a bit and went to bed.

Today we got up around five in the morning and gathered all Kuniko’s gear for her trip. She doesn’t have all that much, actually, and the suitcase was really light. We caught an early train from the station, and on the train ride over Kuniko was starting to get a little apprehensive. I did my best to keep her nerves calm.

We were running a bit late so we caught the bus from Sannomiya, instead of taking the ferry across the Osaka bay. The city donated some tickets for us to use, but since we were short one one-way ticket it worked out well enough to ride the bus. There were a couple of Kuniko’s students on the bus, but we sat in the back away from them and tried to relax.

The airport was packed – I’ve never seen it so busy. All the action was in the departures area, and the lines were the longest I’ve seen. Kuniko and I ended up with a little extra time, so we bought some New Zealand dollars, and had a Starbucks breakfast.

Then it was time to head to the meeting area. There was a big commotion when we arrived because I came along, and so I tried to keep as low a profile as I could. Kuniko was busy right away organizing things with the other teacher that is going on the trip, so I stepped out of the way and talked with a family that I had met at the airport before. Their daughter was in college studying English, so we had a long conversation in English that went really well – I was surprised how smoothly she spoke.

Finally it was time for them to head out, so Kuniko said goodbye and they marched off as a group to check in and get on the plane. Kuniko looked a little overwhelmed as she left, and I have my fingers crossed hoping that everything goes OK.

From there I caught a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal, and caught a surprisingly luxurious high speed boat that raced across the Osaka bay in 25 minutes. Inside the seats were comfortable, the cabin was heated, I had a hot coffee and enjoyed the scenery.

I got home and did some shopping, and also had some good phone conversations with Nancy and Lynn and my father (who is down in San Diego right now working on projects with Lynn), and I also talked with my mom in Glen Ellen.

It’s been a relaxing afternoon. I took care of some laundry and cleaned the house for Yasu, who is coming over late tonight to hang out and play some Wii. Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with Antoine in Suma for a hike, and hopefully the weather will hold up.

From here on out it’s about 12 days on my own with no wife and no job. It should be fun, but it’ll be a little lonely, too. Thinking back to when we first moved in together, there have been only one or two nights where we’ve been apart. This will be an interesting experience, I think…

Thursday was my first day of temporary unemployment, but I got up at the same time as Kuniko and had breakfast with her, and then said goodbye at the door. She had only a short meeting to attend today, and then she could come home and get packing for her trip.

For my part I did laundry and organized the house a little bit, feeling just a bit strange to not be working today. A couple of times I would look at the time and think about what my students and co-workers were doing right then. I had a snack for lunch, and soon after that Kuniko was back from work.

She did a little bit of packing, but she found that she needed quite a bit of travel supplies so we went over to Saty and Vivre for some shopping. To our surprise, we spent almost two hours shopping, and by the time we got home it was about time to head to Kuniko’s parents’ house for dinner.

Kuniko had some papers for them to sign, and we had a big dinner of sushi and a stir fried pork dish that was really good. We wrapped up dinner pretty quick and started to head home so Kuniko could finish off packing. Her parents are starting to think more about the Hawaii trip this summer, and we had a good talk about that. They also invited me to come over while Kuniko was gone and let Kuniko’s mom do some cooking for me. It was really nice of them to offer, so I may take them up on it.

Kuniko and I stayed up late getting everything ready for her trip, and we didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Tomorrow we’re getting up early to head to the airport!