Sifting through years of daily archives looking for something in particular can be a pain, so here are a few highlights from my time in Japan. There are so many great experiences – it’s hard to narrow them down. I’ve picked out a few of my favorites and put them in here. If you have some please let me know and I’ll post them here as well. In no particular order:

Arriving in Futami, just off the plane. Bonus: meeting Kuniko for the first time.

Meeting Kuniko’s parents for the first time.

Our wedding day.

Honeymoon in Europe:
Day 1 in Paris, Day 2 in Paris, Day 3 in Dijon, Day 4 in Venice, Day 5 in Venice and Florence, Day 6 in Florence and Pisa, Day 7 in Florence and Rome, Day 8 in Rome, Day 9 and 10 in Rome and home.

It’s back to school time, but not really. I don’t have any classes until Thursday. The first few days of this week will be full of the ceremonies. Today we had the opening ceremony for the 2nd and 3rd year students, which was nothing too exciting. They told the students to work hard this year, to not pick on the new 1st year students, and to generally be nice.

One of the big problems today was that some girls had taken the two weeks off and very slightly dyed their hair brown. Some students can get away with it if they do it really, really subtly. Today there was a line of girls that had gone a little too far, and they were getting yelled at. When every student in your school has black hair, these kids really tend to stand out. Maybe there is a lesson in there somewhere about wanting to distinguish yourself. Maybe my school’s mission is to quash that desire.

After all the students went home the new first year students came to school with their parents for the entrance ceremony, which is essentially the same ceremony as the graduation except no applause at the end. There is so much standing and bowing and sitting – I couldn’t help but wonder who thought this all up. But a part of me knows that you can’t have an ending without a beginning in Japan, and everything that they do completes a circle – sometimes the circle is just hard to see at first.

In the afternoon I was free to study as I pleased. I prepared two lessons for later this week, and ate my free bento lunch that they gave us today. Outside it was raining continuously, so it was nice to stay in and stay dry.

There are lots of new faces around the staffroom nowadays, and none of them are really comfortable talking with the foreign guy. I know it is just a matter of time before I have them smiling and asking how my weekend was – right now they barely acknowledge my existence. They are the slab of marble that I will soon carve into an international-minded Japanese citizen. I’m really writing esoterically today.

Yamamoto sensei is now taking over all the duties that Hayashi sensei had before regarding managing me at work. He’s taking a very hands off approach and letting me do whatever I want, but it is nice to have a backup around since the vice principal has moved on to another school. We were joking around today about a huge subwoofer that he bought to watch movies. He was unaware how powerful it was until he hooked it up. Now he has to turn it to the lowest setting in order to avoid pissing off the neighbors.

I had a meeting to talk about my first year lesson coming up on Friday. All the teachers save one who are involved came to the meeting, and I had put together my lesson plan in advance so everyone could check it out. This was standard operating procedure the last two years, so I didn’t think anything of it. The plan was detailed, down to the last minute.

Everyone liked the plan and was ready to run with it, but one teacher, Mori sensei, wanted to do her own thing. This caused a big logjam and everyone was tiptoeing around each other’s pride for almost an hour. We ended up trying to merge the two plans. I’m not sure what concessions I made and what parts of my plan remain, but I made a power play at the end of the meeting and nominated Mori sensei to rewrite the plan as we had agreed.

Afterwards I was a little frustrated that the plan that I know will work got scrapped, but I can see where she wants to contribute something to the planning stages, whereas the previous teachers were happy to leave it all to me. In a way, it’s good practice for my next job, where I may face the same situation. I’m going to have to let Mori sensei see for herself what works and what doesn’t, but I’m a little bummed that it will be at the expense of my students’ learning time.

I’m really looking forward to teaching with Nozaki sensei – she seems so excited to be teaching with me and her English is top notch – I think probably the best at the school. She speaks smoother than Mr. Hayashi, who was the front runner since I arrived. The other teacher, Okamoto sensei, seems really shy and nervous to speak English. His strategy now is to be quiet and see what the lay of the land is.

He had only one contribution to the hour meeting. Mori sensei asked me to shake hands with the students when I meet them the first time. I said sure, and Okamoto sensei jokingly asked if it was OK to hug them. I’m all for humor and levity, but anytime anyone jokes about that kind of stuff I get uncomfortable. He’s a new guy, though, so we’ll see how he does in the classroom.

Now I’m home and getting dinner ready for Kuniko. It should be a pretty simple dinner tonight – lots of vegetables and a little bit of shrimp. Tomorrow I’ve got more ceremonies and meetings, so I hope I’ll have something interesting to write about tomorrow night…

I posted some more pictures from Mark’s trip in the picture gallery. Check them out when you have time!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the site – I’ve been busy wrapping up Mark’s visit, and lately we’ve been cleaning up and organizing the house. Next week is the start of school for Kuniko and me, and I’m looking forward to getting in front of some students and teaching some classes. More updates as they come!

Today Mark and I met up with Kuniko’s dad to drive around and see some of the local sites that are really best seen by car. He picked us up in Takasago, and from there we drove to Shoshazan Temple in northern Himeji. The temple is accessed via a ropeway from the base of a mountain, and once you arrive at the top you walk for about ten minutes to get to the main temple.

The walk there was beautiful – we were away from all the noise of the city and the cars, just walking through a peaceful forest. We turned a corner and descended to the base of a hill. On the side of the hill was Shoshazan Temple. It had a dramatic balcony and colored silk flags were suspended across the front. We took lots of pictures, and then walked up the steps on the side of the hill to enter the temple itself.

The temple is pretty famous already, but it was a location where The Last Samurai movie was filmed, so it became even more famous. As we walked in the main entrance, one of the monks asked us to walk in the back way – there was a special exhibit going on. There was a special statue of buddha that was so holy that they keep it hidden away from public view. However, they had it on exhibit to celebrate somebody’s 1000th birthday. They brought it out for the first time in 800 years for the public to see, and then in June they’ll put it back for another 100 years or so. It was pretty cool, but no cameras allowed so we can’t share it with you.

In the front of the temple we lit some incense and candles and did some prayers, and then walked around the rest of the grounds for another hour or so. The whole time Kuniko’s dad told us what he knew about the area and kept us in information. I translated the best I could, but I wasn’t able to pass on all the detail that he was giving us.

After Shoshazan we went to lunch at an izakaya-type place. We had a set meal – Kageyama-san and I had a sashimi and tempura set, and Mark had an eel, rice and tempura set. It was really good, and despite our best efforts to get the check, Kageyama-san picked up the bill.

The next stop was a sake brewery that the Kageyamas often visit. We got a great tour from one of the workers and learned about the process in detail. Even though it was a fairly large-scale operation, the process was pretty primitive, and coming from a winemaking background I was especially interested to see how it worked.

Afterwards we went shopping and tasting in the tasting room. They let us taste anything we wanted, and they poured pretty big portions. We found some bottles that we liked, and Kageyama-san wanted to pay for those, too. We ended up sneaking in and paying for them, and we felt pretty satisfied. Kageyama-san bought some bottles for himself, and then we left.

On the way home we stopped in at the Kageyama farm to check it out. There had been some major improvements in the trailer – now there was carpet, a refrigerator full of beer, and a very comfortable space to relax. A regular home away from home.

Our last stop was the Kageyama household. We tried to get him to take us back to the train station, since Kuniko would be coming home and we wanted to have dinner ready for her. He insisted we visit for just a cup of tea. When we arrived, however, Mrs. Kageyama was cooking away and by the time we got out of there we were carrying loads of takoyaki, a cake for dessert, and the bottle of sake that Kageyama-san had bought… he fooled us by saying it was for himself but then he gave it to us to drink.

He drove us home from there and we arrived right after Kuniko arrived. We ate up the takoyaki for dinner, and then played a couple of games of Sorry. Tomorrow Kuniko has to go to work, but Mark and I will do some shopping in a bid to fufill his souvenir needs. It was a great day today, and we both felt like we saw a side of Japan that most people don’t.

Kuniko and I struggled to get up this morning at a decent hour – it was a chore. We both had to go to work. Kuniko has to work this whole week – I just have to go in today and Friday. We were out the door around seven, leaving Mark in charge of the homestead for the day.

There were several big events at my school today. We had our new teachers showing up for the first time, and so there was a big meeting to introduce the new teachers and staff. Also, everyone had to move their desks to a new location for the new year. That is, except for me. I’m in the same seat that I’ve held for almost three years.

Since I wasn’t moving it was just a matter of staying out of people’s way. I worked on the 2000 flashcards that I haven’t had time to memorize while Mark has been here, but I wasn’t able to catch up completely.

In the afternoon we had the meeting, and they introduced all the teachers. They seemed to be a nervous bunch, which I guess is to be expected – I was nervous my first day, too. There are two English teachers in the group, and I was able to talk to one teacher – Nosaki sensei. She seems really nice, and the early rumor among the other teachers was that she was a superstar in English. I didn’t really think so after talking to her, but if it makes everyone else nervous maybe it’s a good thing.

The cute girl in the office was replaced by another cute girl, and she was introduced with everyone else. I can’t understand the system of always having one cute girl in the office. Do they have a job description for that? Why does the position turn over every year? There’s something odd with that system.

At the very end of the meeting a couple of teachers stood up and complained about the new rules on smoking at school. Today was the first day that it was enforced, and I occasionally saw teachers sitting at the park adjacent from our school smoking. The complaint was that the students that were practicing club activities in the park were teasing the teachers that were smoking, and if the rule was made to keep the sight of teachers smoking from the students, it was having the opposite effect. I’m not sure where they left it, but it must have been an eye-opening experience for the new teachers to see them duke it out over tobacco.

I had a meeting in the afternoon with the English teachers to react to the original meeting, and we decided that a different teacher will be in charge of me this year – Yamamoto sensei. He’s the laid back teacher that invited me to see a concert in Osaka, so I was really happy about that. He’s an easy teacher to get along with. Hayashi sensei will be doing a student trip to Australia when my replacement shows up, so he wasn’t able to perform the duties again.

Now I’m home with Mark. Mark went shopping at IY and got some supplies for a Mexican dinner that he’s making for us. It smells great – I can’t wait until Kuniko shows up so we can eat it…

Mark put together some pictures and posted them in the photo gallery.

We went over Sunday night to have dinner at the Kageyama’s place. This was Mark’s big chance to meet them, and try some home-cooked Japanese food. We ended up having sukiyaki, and it was really good. Mr. Kageyama filled us with beer and sho-chu and keep the stories coming about the area and I did my best to translate them for Mark. Kuniko took over now and then to give me a break – it was hard work.

As usual they sent us home with loads of gifts, and Mark presented them with some gifts, and some stuff from America from my parents. During the evening we arranged to have a tour of a sake brewery on Tuesday from Mr. Kageyama. There might be some other stuff, too – I’m not sure what will happen. Kind of like a mystery tour or something.

Kuniko looked exhausted, so we decided to head out a little early. We got home around ten, and Kuniko spent two hours sewing some bags up in the dining room/kitchen, so she was completely wiped out by the time we went to bed.

Today we’ve finally got some downtime to catch up on what’s been going on. Thursday we went to Nara with Atoine and his parents. Antoine is taking the hands off approach to his parents’ visit. They are staying in Kobe and he’s not really taking any time off to do anything with them. Thursday was an exception, and so we met up with them in Osaka.

We introduced ourselves to his parents because Antoine hadn’t arrived yet, and they seemed really happy to chat with English speakers. Antoine’s dad spoke with a thick French accent that was really hard for me to pick up. His mother spoke clearly and so it was much easier to follow what she said.

Once Antoine showed up we navigated our way to the JR trains and caught a series of trains towards Nara. I wasn’t exactly sure how to get there – the last time I went to Nara I cut through Kyoto, so it was a new route for me. It worked out, though, and we arrived OK. I got directions in Nara from a nice college student who went way above and beyond in describing how to get where we wanted to go.

We toured around Nara all day, and then headed back to Kobe to have dinner. We went to the Belgian beer place, and met Kuniko there, and then tried to go to Asian Days – an all-you-can-eat dim sum place. Unfortunately, the wait was too long, so we went instead to a yakiniku place that I knew about. We gathered around the hot grill and cooked up several plates full of meat.

Afterwards we said goodbye to Antoine’s folks. They are considering a trip to Hiroshima on their own, so I hope that works out for them.

Friday we went for a drive around the southern Kansai area, but first stopped in at a local restaurant for Akashi-yaki. Akashi-yaki is just like takoyaki – little balls of dough with a boiled octopus piece inside. The difference is that you eat Akashi-yaki by dipping the balls into a bowl of broth and ground up hot peppers.

After three plates of Akashi-yaki we walked back to the house, and then jumped in the car and headed to Tarumi. Tarumi has some good views of the Akashi bridge, and we thought we might do a little shopping there, too. Mark found an ATM that worked with his bank card, so we were rolling in dough after a visit there.

Once we had finished shopping in Tarumi, we hit the road for some random driving around. We somehow ended up near Kobe Winery, so we bought some snacks there even though the tasting room part of the facility was already closed.

At home we were definitely Miller time. We are working on drinking Asahi beer just because there is a chance to win a refrigerator robot that pours beer for you. Kuniko drank wine and we sat around drinking and resting until dinner time. We went to Ito Yokado for dinner and ate at the Korean restaurant on the third floor. It was new food for Mark, and I think he enjoyed it.

We got home and played some very competitive games of “Sorry” using the new board that Mark brought. Kuniko was taking it very seriously, and wouldn’t let us quit until she won a game.

Saturday we got up early and met up with a gang of friends in Sannomiya. We met up with Tamura sensei and her boyfriend, Yuri and her mom, and one of Kuniko’s ex-coworkers from Shoyo high school. Together we caught a train to Kyoto, and spent the day sightseeing around there. We went to a couple of new places for me, and managed to avoid huge crowds. We did get stuck in some long lines of people marching down the streets shopping, but for the most part we were able to move fairly easily around the city to see what we wanted to see.

At the end of the day we went to a tea house and had some authentic Kyoto green tea, and then we all caught trains home. On the way back I coordinated with Yasu and invited him over to dinner for pizza. Mark had wanted to try Japanese pizza, so this was his big chance. He agonized over the menu, and finally we got some pizzas to try out and we ordered. Yasu had brought loads of alcohol and by the end of the night we had supplemented that alcohol with some sho-chu that Kuniko’s father had given us.

It might have been tough on Mark since Kuniko and Yasu and I lapsed into Japanese quite a bit, but it was a highlight to see Mark trying to explain a air quotes and a penis pump to Yasu. Finally we sent Yasu pretty drunk with a bottle of sho-chu for his family to drink.

Guest Blogger on the Scene!

After a couple days we are finally taking the time to update the web site. It has been a lazy day today, Bryan and I went over to visit his school. Most of the students are away on spring break, but we met a few and a lot of his fellow teachers and office staff at the school. Everyone was very interested in me and what I thought of Japan. After that we had a tasty lunch in town at a coffee shop, then walked around the Sun Mall there. We decided to head over to Akashi after that, where we spent a long time in Toys R Us indulging me in my love of toys. I managed to get out of the store only spending 300 yen. We also spent some time in Tower Records where Bryan picked up a cd for Kuniko. After that it had started raining, so we headed to the train station post-haste to get back to Futami. Now we are relaxing for a while before heading to a hard night of enjoyment at the local yakitori.

Yesterday was Kobe, and a very busy day. We spent most of the day browsing through different shopping areas. A storm forced everyone indoors in the early afternoon making for a very hectic trip. Kuniko got a massage while we were in town, so Bryan and I did our part by hoisting a couple in a nice bar downtown. I’ve got my eye on a few items in some of the shops there, so the next time we get to Kobe I will probably be picking some more things up. We also had some awesome sushi for lunch, huge pieces of fish on top of a very small amount of rice. Very tasty!

That is the update for now! Tomorrow we are meeting Antoine and his parents who are visiting in Osaka, and we will be heading to Nara for the sights. We haven’t transfered any pictures yet, but that will be coming soon!

Tonight we went to the airport and picked up Mark. He was carrying tons of luggage, most of which was gifts and presents from America. We got him home and then went out for okonomiyaki at a restaurant nearby. He’s a little overwhelmed right now with Japan. Tomorrow we’ll sleep in a bit and then go do some exploring.

I had forgotten how much whispering, running around, sudden meetings in spare offices and the last minute emotions that go into another announcement of teacher transfers. Today I sat back and took it all in. With nothing invested it is easier to focus on how people behave and how they handle the situation. I love watching people – if I could make money doing it I would.

The upcoming spring term is my lame duck term – I’ll be teaching classes for the term but then I’ll be gone forever and the students will have to get used to a new teacher during the fall term. This made it a little less interesting to see who I would be teaching with next.

The teachers filed up to the meeting room at ten o’clock, and the principal read off a short list of teachers that will be leaving and teachers that will be coming to replace them.

Overall, there weren’t really any main players making changes. I mentioned the two yesterday, and there wasn’t anybody else that really gets written about in this journal. We lost three English teachers, but gained one. They added a school nurse, so now we have three, and the part time teacher lineup changed quite a bit. Other than that, not much exciting happened. The history teacher will still be around to torment me next term, but with the light at the end of the tunnel, I think I can persevere.

The purpose of the rest of the day is for the teachers to meet and discuss the changes. They met as different groups – first they met by school year, then by groups, and then finally by subject. I had to stick around for the English meeting in the late afternoon, which meant I sat around the empty staffroom most of the day.

To compensate for all the free time I walked over to the bank to get some money, and I stopped in at Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. It’s not my favorite place to eat, but I thought I’d just grab a chicken sandwich and run. It turned out that an ex-student of mine was working there, and she made my sandwich and then came out to say hello. Her coworkers were impressed that she knew me and we chatted for a little while.

Since the history teacher gave me a present the other day, he intends to cash in on the goodwill that he supposedly bought. In other words, he wants value for his money. I spent a lot of time dodging him today and yesterday, and I hope that this isn’t a trend that continues. Yikes.

As for the English meeting, it was a strange one. This meeting is where people traditionally take new roles and responsibilities for the new year, and since nobody wants to take on new work, the moderator would ask a question, followed by about 1-2 minutes of total silence as people stared at their paperwork hoping that the moderator would stop asking questions. This went on for 30 minutes. It would be painful to watch if you didn’t like watching people.

As I was coming out of the bathroom the principal took me aside and told me that one of the new English teachers is coming from New York – her husband had been working there at a bank. He said that her English is supposed to be top notch, and he spent almost a half hour with me talking about how he wants to improve the English level of his staff. It was fun to talk to him, but I’m a little frustrated that I can’t add more to the discussion. He doesn’t seem to mind though, and he expects me to sit and listen anyway since he is older than me and that is my role – nod and agree with everything.

Lastly, before I left for the day the vice principal pulled me aside and told me that he is being promoted to principal of a special public high school for the disabled and blind. When I get back from my vacation he will be gone. I was sad to hear that he will be gone, but I was glad to hear about his promotion. It was still top secret when I left – he said I was the third person to know about it. I’ll miss having him to chat with around the staffroom. I wonder if the next guy will be as relaxed.

Now I’m back home with some pork steaks marinating in the fridge. Kuniko should be home pretty soon, and then we can maybe kick back and relax for a little while. She’s got to work tomorrow, so I’ll be on the hook for laundry and cleanup duties. I anticipate that the biggest decision I’ll make tomorrow is what music to listen to while I’m working around the house.

We continue with weird schedules at school this week. The students came in today for a cleaning session, and the closing ceremony. We had the closing ceremony in the newly-refurbished gymnasium, which smelled like fresh paint and had a beautiful new floor. I hadn’t realized how crappy the old one was.

The ceremony was the same old thing, the opening words to the closing ceremony, the closing speech by the principal, the school song, the closing ceremony to the closing ceremony, and then we were out of there.

At one o’clock, the new students for next year came in and sat through an orientation session, and then walked around to buy their uniforms, textbooks, school bags, gym clothes, etc. I dropped by the orientation just to check it out, but I didn’t stay long. Not so exciting.

I spent some time talking with the principal in his office, and he confirmed that the job he mentioned to me before is located in Tokyo, and that’s a lot farther than I want to go for a job. He said that he’d keep his eyes open for anything else, so I’m hoping that it might pay off down the road. I’m not holding my breath, though.

Tomorrow there is a meeting to announce who is getting transferred, and who will be coming to join us at our school after spring break ends. This is a yearly ritual, and is always a hot topic for gossip with the teachers. Today I heard that Kimura sensei and Kawamura sensei will both transfer to Akashi Nishi high school, right near my apartment complex and across the street from Ito Yokado. I congratulated them – Akashi Nishi is what the Board of Education calls a “Super English High School”. They have three native English speakers there, instead of Takasago Minami which has just me. They have a big budget and really focus on improving English skills. It’s kind of a pilot program to see if adding more money and staff will make any difference in how well students learn English. Kimura sensei and Kawamura sensei aren’t our top English speakers, though, so I’m a little worried about them. I hope they do OK.

Kuniko had the day off today, and she had already made plans for dinner – salad udon. It was something new for me, and it turned out great. She cooked up udon noodles like normal, but then served them over lettuce, tuna, corn, and cucumbers with a somen sauce and a squirt of mayonnaise. Very, very good. With dinner we watched one of the movies we rented, “War of the Worlds”. Mah.

Tomorrow is my last day before a long spring vacation. My brother gets into town on Sunday night, so from there it will be lots of touring around and eating. Looking forward to it!

Tuesday was a holiday, celebrating the spring equinox. I was happy to take the day off, and because Kuniko was free too it was that much better. We didn’t do much all day but sit around the house reading in the kotatsu, eating up leftovers from the refrigerator, and relaxing.

I have been reading a lot of books in English lately, and it is a real pleasure to read at full speed in English after taking months and months to finish a Japanese novel. I spent most of Tuesday reading “Memoirs of a Geisha”. It’s my first time reading the book, and it is a lot of fun to read.

Monday the principal of my school came to me with a job posting – the prefecture is looking for a couple of people to work as “program coordinators” starting next year. The principal read the job posting to me, as it was all in Japanese. Of course, he read it in Japanese, so it was still a struggle to figure it out. As for the job duties, it sounds like a lot of communication between ALTs and the powers that be, and putting efforts into internationalizing various government branches. No teaching.

I meet all the requirements, except for one: exceptional Japanese language skills. I think I have passable Japanese skills – certainly not exceptional. So, on Tuesday I thought about whether to go for it or to hold out for a teaching position. When I went to bed on Tuesday I was thinking I should just give it a shot, but I’m thinking this morning that it probably would end up being a waste of time – mine and theirs. I can’t even understand Japanese TV and it is a struggle to read most documents and newspapers. And, I have really enjoyed teaching and I’d like to keep doing it.

Later in the day today I found out that the job may be based in Tokyo, so that pretty much wipes it out right there. We’ll find out more information tomorrow apparently.

Tonight Kuniko cooked up yudofu (tofu cooked in hot broth and then dipped into a orange ponzu sauce with grated radish and onions) and we ate that along with some leftovers from the other night on the side. It was a great dinner, and we were both very full afterwards. Now I’m going to do a little reading and hit the sack. Kuniko has tomorrow off, but I’ve got to go into work.

It was a very sleepy Monday morning, and so we got a late start to the train station. I arrived with plenty of time to spare, however, and settled in to work on the leftover vocabulary that I didn’t get to on Sunday.

The history teacher dropped by and gave me a present. This was a present of appreciation for helping him with the desktop publishing problem he had on Thursday. It also is a little bit of a guilt alleviation device for him; he knows that he takes up a lot of my time everyday, and this is a way for him to feel better about it. A year or so ago he took me out to dinner to show his appreciation, but I’ve avoided his invitations since then since he wants to use me as a wingman to help get one of the part time teachers at our school.

As for the present, it was a cocktail glass – handmade, Italian, probably way too expensive. Only one, but I guess I can have a scotch or a tequila in there sometime. Weird.

The teachers this morning were very busy with various exam announcements and getting the students through several different meetings and ceremonies. We didn’t have the big closing ceremony today, however – I guess that will happen later in the week.

The students were gone by 1 p.m., so the afternoon was a good chance for everyone to catch their breath. I sent a letter off to the California DMV to try to get a copy of my driving record. I’m not sure if they’ll send it to me all the way in Japan, but I need it to prove that I’ve had a valid license for more than three months before I came to Japan. Normally I could use my CA driver’s license as proof, but in a turn of bad luck I had it renewed just a month before I left, so the issue date is too recent to be valid.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty mellow – just studying at my desk and enjoying the peace and quiet.

Later on that night I headed over to Denya to have drinks and conversation with Atsushi-san. It has been a very long time since we’ve met up. We caught up on each other’s lives and ordered lots of delicious yakitori foods from the master. I got to spend some time talking with the master and it sounds like he is doing a fair amount of English study. He’s also busy taking a seminar about selling insurance. I think the master is always looking for ways to supplement his income from the restaurant – maybe he’ll end up selling insurance to people with their yakitori sticks.

At one point a group of three guys invited me over because they wanted to speak English with me. I indulged them for a while, enough for the guy to impress his coworkers. He invited me over by saying, “Will you enjoy me?” He said it twice before I realized he was trying to say “Will you join me?” I hung out with them for just a little while, until the conversation headed towards the length of schoolgirl’s skirts. Then I excused myself and headed back to hang with Atsushi-san.

When I got home Kuniko had just arrived, and it sounded like her dinner/drinking party was a success. I was glad to hear it. Tomorrow is a day off for a holiday, so we’ll get another chance to sleep late.