I’ll bet you are tired about hearing how my day went at school all the time. Let’s talk about some other stuff.

I download three television shows a week to watch on my computer. Obviously I cannot watch American TV without a satellite dish, so that leaves me to pulling them off the internet, which is no doubt illegal. It’s a bit of a gray area, though, since the shows are free to begin with – as opposed to movies which cost money to see.

Anyway, it’s interesting to watch the shows without any other outside stimuli relating to them. For example, I am never hanging around the tea machine at work when somebody says “Holy cow, did you see Survivor last night?” I never see commercials for my shows, so I have no idea what is happening during the next one, and I never see any interviews either. In short, I’m watching TV in a vacuum. It’s nice to focus just on the show, without any distractions.

Last night I tutored three students for one hour. I guess it was a hit – on the way back they told Miyake sensei that they really enjoyed it, and they are looking forward to meeting again next month. They said that I made them comfortable by being so friendly and by making jokes. I’ve found that the more comfortable the students are, the more likely they will try hard to use English.

An interesting note about last night’s tutoring. Each student paid 3000 yen for the one hour session. That means that I made 9000 yen in an hour – about $80. That means that I made in one hour sitting around in my living room chatting with Japanese girls in English what I used to make in a week of part time work lifting and sorting boxes of books in the back room of Barnes & Noble. Wow.

Persimmons are in season here, and they are everywhere. There are trees full of them, and the shelves of the stores are also loaded with persimmons. I hadn’t really tried persimmons in America, but here in Japan they are quite good. There is a really sweet seedless kind that is probably some kind of genetically modified version, and then there is a harder, less sweet version with big seeds inside. Both are good, for different reasons. We’ve got lots of persimmons in the house nowadays, so I’m eating them all the time. Soon oranges will be in season, and I tend to go nut with those. They sell these tiny little oranges that peel really easily – and they are cheap, too. I think in America we would call them tangerines.

I was dreaming today about some good American beers at work. I read an article about some premium Japanese beers that you could order by mail. They’ve got a good reputation, and so I looked into them at their website. By the time I figured out the cost, they would work out to about 400 yen a bottle. It dawned on me soon afterwards that I can buy three kinds of Anchor Steam beers from San Francisco right next door at Ito Yokado for about 350 yen a bottle. The answer was right under my nose….

Just in case you are dying for an update on how my classes went, I put in the busiest day of my easy week. I had three classes in a row in the afternoon. The last class was a combined first year class of 40 students. Those combo classes are always interesting. I have built a rapport with both halves of the class separately, so when everybody gets together then the chemistry is all different, and it’s like starting over. The students are used to learning together, but not with me around. The noisy kids that usually are a disturbance might be sitting next to a big guy that doesn’t like it when I get interrupted – girls that are quiet might be next to their best friend and they will chatter away. It makes it a lot more interesting.

Tonight Kuniko is coming home late because she has an English teacher’s meeting after work. She said she’d be home around nine… wow! She’ll be nice and exhausted by the time Sunday rolls around.

Today we had the presentations from my second year students. They’ve been (hopefully) working on an original skit that they would perform in front of the class. We’ve been gradually working up to this over the last 5-6 weeks, so I was looking forward to seeing how they turned out.

Some were really good. They put a lot of effort into the props that they used, but when it came down to memorizing, there were not a lot of successes. There was a unanimous winner, though. Two boys did a skit about an earthman meeting an alien in space. They casually discuss the destruction of the earth, and then they play rock, scissors, paper for the fate of mankind. The human won, and the alien’s last line was “Oh, I lost. Shit!”

One pair of students brought their script up to the stage and didn’t want to surrender it. They said that they hadn’t prepared at all. Way to bomb your midterm grade, girls.

After work we had a teachers meeting, which was interrupted by some loud shouting outside in front of the school. All the teachers ran to the window except a few, including me. Turns out there was some sort of scuffle out there, and the police came by. I don’t know if it involved one of our students or not. I guess I’ll hear all about it tomorrow.

Today after I got home Mikake sensei came over with the three students who want to learn English conversation. I met each one of them, and we all introduced ourselves. It was great that Miyake sensei was there, it was a nice transition for them. I speak some Japanese, but if there was a miscommunication Ms. Miyake could easily jump in and help out. I made a few mistakes with my Japanese, a couple of them intentionally, so hopefully they won’t be afraid of making mistakes in the class. We’ll be meeting once a month, so it should be interesting to see how it goes. Kuniko came home just before they left, so I was able to introduce her and make everyone even more comfortable.

Everything is on the up and up, but the fact remains that there will be three high school girls coming to our place once a month, and there might be times when Kuniko won’t be there. I’m not sure what their parents feel about that, so I wanted to make sure that everything was kosher.

Dinner tonight was shrimp tacos – they turned out great. I went for the baja style, with shredded cabbage and a lime/mayonnaise style sauce. There was just a small amount of mayo, so they turned out pretty healthy, too.

We’re both pooped – I have got to hit the hay. Tomorrow is already Thursday… it’s time to start thinking about the weekend!

We had so many leftovers from the big dinner last night that Kuniko and I didn’t have to make lunches today. That meant that I could sleep in a little bit longer on my birthday. Nice!

At school I was sitting at my desk early, before most of the teachers or students had arrived. One of the students called me over to the door, and wished me a happy birthday in English. I was really surprised – I don’t really advertise my birthday and the student who said it was someone that I don’t speak with that much – we just exchange hello’s in the hallways.

We had a schedule change today, so I had only one class the whole day. That gave me plenty of time to study, and also to think about this weeks lessons. As it happens this will be a really easy week – the teachers are doing last minute preparations for the students before the midterm exams, so they don’t want me hanging around riling up the kids.

I walked by another student, a third year, who had remembered all the way back when I had first started at the school two years ago mentioning that my birthday was today. His birthday is close to mine, so he remembered it well. He gave me a big congratulations, we talked about what it felt like to be 34, and he slapped my ass as he said goodbye and went upstairs.

As for birthday wishes, that’s about it. Nobody else knew and it was nice just to relax and stay under the radar. Tonight Kuniko is going to cook me a birthday dinner – after so many huge meals I’d be happy with just rice and miso soup.

Tomorrow night I’m going to start a once a month private class with three of Miyake sensei’s private students. Tomorrow Mikake sensei will join them for the first session, and then from then on they will come over to learn English conversation once a month. The pay is pretty good, it’s an easy job, and it’ll be fun to teach private students again. This time I don’t have to hike a long ways to get to them – they’ll come to me.

I have a feeling this week is going to fly by quickly…

Monday morning we both slept in, had a nice breakfast, and putted around the house all day. I put in only an hour of studying. Instead of hitting the books I was lounging around reading while Kuniko was in listening to English tapes. We also made reservations for a birthday dinner on Tuesday night at one of our favorite restaurants in Kobe.

In the evening we went over to Kuniko’s parent’s place to have a birthday dinner for me. Kuniko’s mom put on quite a feast – we had this meat and mushroom dish that is really good… Kuniko has made it for me before. We also had sandwiches, and chirashizushi rice balls with sashimi rolled up on top. We ate lots, I had a couple of beers and some sake afterwards with her dad, and then they pulled out a homemade cheesecake with candles on it and we ate that, too.

Kuniko spent a lot of time upstairs going through her leftover stuff looking for warmer clothes and photographs for a wedding project. That left me downstairs alone with her parents putting my Japanese to the test. I got by, but barely, and I’m a long way from being able to hold a conversation without sounding like a caveman. Um, food good. Bryan ENJOY!

As usual we were sent home with loads of home-grown vegetables, and plenty of leftover sandwiches. We got home, stretched out of the futon, and decided to cancel our dinner reservation for Tuesday. Over the past three days we have eaten way too much. Instead of something elaborate, we’ll aim for a nice simple dinner at home.

Against my better judgement I thought I’d post a little bit about my dinner at Denya (the yakitori I often go to). Since Kuniko was away doing a reunion party I ran down to Denya and got a good seat near the end of the bar. I hadn’t been there in a while, so the master and I caught up on current events. I was surprised to see one of the Denya regular customers working as an assistant for the master. The master said that he helps out on Sundays. I think the look of shock on my face showed – they were giggling about it for a little while.

The place was not busy but not dead. There were a few other customers, so the master was pretty busy. We still had time to catch up. We talked about the upcoming Futami matsuri, and he invited me to carry the portable shrine again this year. I’m really looking forward to it. It might be the last time that I get a chance to do it – I could be moving out of the area at the end of my contract next year.

I ordered lots of food and lots of beer. The master told me that my “pace was very fast” in Japanese, and I told him that I don’t have a “slow” setting. It’s just fast and faster. We talked about the “2nd party” after the wedding party – he wanted to know if it OK to invite his wife. He’s going to close down the yakitori that day, so I feel like we should definitely do something fun. The second party is something that I’ve got to get more involved in planning – the wedding is coming up pretty soon. The purpose of the second party is to include the people that you couldn’t invite to your wedding. In my case, that’s all the Denya guys’ girlfriends/wives, among others.

I ordered up tamagoyaki – a rolled up egg dish that Kuniko and I make for our lunches every day. The master was making it and he asked me if I would like to try it with a kimchee base added – he knows I like spicy foods. I took him up on the offer, and he served up a spicy, hot egg roll that was really, really good. I broke off a piece and sent it over to the regular customer that was serving as an assistant (Kimura-san), and he tried it out. I don’t think he liked it as much as I did.

Well, I’m back home, and thinking about running out again to buy a few things for tomorrow. It’s only 9 o’clock here – Kuniko shouldn’t be back for a long time yet.

That’s it for the drunken post – I hope I didn’t make too many errors in typing this. Can’t wait to read this tomorrow when I’m sober…

Any relationship can be a challenging thing. How about a relationship where the two people speak different languages, where their cultures are dramatically different, where every move they make is under the magnifying glass of thousands of curious people?

Kuniko takes all of these challenges in stride. She doesn’t mind the looks we get when we walk hand in hand past people. She doesn’t mind that I can’t fill out the most basic of paperwork or that I stare dumbly at people when they ask the simplest questions in Japanese. One of the real joys of my life is to giggle together about some miscommunication that happens between us. Some people might get frustrated at something like that – but we find it a source for amusement.

She uses English as a foreign language almost all day long, from the time we make lunches together at five a.m. each morning, to teaching English to her students all day, and then she comes home and listens to English radio programs while chatting with me in English. She loves English, and that has been a big factor in our happiness. It is so nice for me to be able to say whatever comes off the top of my head and have her understand it. As my Japanese improves we may see a shift from English to Japanese, or to some middle ground in between. For now – the onus is on her, and she’s holding up just fine.

Kuniko’s sense of humor is what really makes it a joy to be around her. Coming from different cultures, sometimes humor is hard to pull off. We have very few shared experiences from childhood and popular culture in Japan is almost completely unknown to me. Kuniko is razor sharp, though, and her choice of words, and even the subtle pauses she’ll put into her responses will make her point and get us both laughing.

There are a lot of challenges for us ahead, but I can’t imagine making that journey with anyone else.

I’m writing this in the middle of a three day weekend provided by the Japanese government in the form of Monday’s Health and Sports Day.

Yesterday Kuniko was stuck at school most of the time, but I was able to use the time to clean up around the house and take care of lots of little things that I’ve been meaning to do.

When she got home we drove over to the movie rental place and picked up some movies to watch over the long weekend. Kuniko cooked a great dinner of chirashizushi and then we watched “Whale Rider”. Great movie.

Today we slept in, did some laundry, watched “Super Size Me”, and then Kuniko was out the door to meet up with some of her old college friends to have dinner in Osaka. I’m going to head over to the yakitori for dinner tonight – it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.

Tomorrow we’re headed over to Kuniko’s folks to have dinner and celebrate my birthday. That should be an interesting experience! I’ll write all about it when we get back!

As I’m usually doing something fun on Friday night or just tired out from the weekend, I usually wait until a lazy Saturday morning to update the site. As a result, I probably tend to forget all the juicy details from the previous day. I’m sitting here right now and I can’t remember much of Friday at all.

I had three classes, and one new lesson. The new lesson is on shopping, and it’s almost a mirror image of the previous lesson, except with a new activity (students take dictation). The new lesson went pretty smoothly, despite a few unexpected things happening. Mr. Yamamoto insisted on pairing up a boy with a girl for one activity, and that was a big surprise. The class looked around at each other and the boy and the girl were acting like somebody had just made them get married.

They were quiet and did everything but work together. They intently stared at opposite corners of the room, and carefully avoided eye contact with each other of the other students.

I left work an hour early just to try to slowly burn some of my time off. It turns out that I’ll probably wrap up my contract at the end of next year with way too many paid holidays. I’d like to use it up, if possible.

Since I was going home a bit earlier than usual I shared a train car with a bunch of my students, who were quiet and well behaved since I was there. I chatted in English with one of my first year students who got to go to Australia this year. She was happy for the opportunity to speak some English with a native speaker. Other passengers watched us carefully (and perhaps, suspiciously).

I cooked up Mexican style lime marinated chicken breasts, some mexican rice, and served them with a flour tortilla and some chips and guacamole dip that Yuri had found a while back in Carrefour. The dip was so-so, but everything else turned out OK. Kuniko was tired from her long day at work, but we managed to stay up past midnight talking about the wedding, our days, watching a goofy TV show, and just relaxing. She has to go into work tomorrow, so it’s like a Thursday night for her, and it an authentic Friday night for me.

Today I had just two classes, and an ESS meeting at the end of the day. The classes went smoothly enough, and the students were full of energy (surprisingly). The ESS meeting was supposed to be about planning a Halloween event, and eventually we got to that, but I had to sit through a lot of schoolgirl gossip before we could make any decisions.

It is interesting to hear about various teachers through my student’s eyes. Some teachers who I think are great come across as nerds to the students, and I’m surprised who they think is attractive. They are unerring in their accusations of which teachers are perverts – I guess it just shows through.

We did play an English game, involving listening skills and grabbing a pencil case before other members could grab it. The game went well, but for the most part the rest of the time was spent in Japanese. Crazy, giggly, teen-girl-Japanese. I was completely lost. I suspect that I’d be lost if it was high school girls in America. Is this what it’s like to get old?

After school I had a conversation with Tsuji-san across the street. We sat down and talked for about an hour, and at the end she gave me an early birthday present. Her sister in a fairly successful musician in Hiroshima, and she gave me her first CD to enjoy. I’m looking forward to checking it out.

I’m back home now – eating edamame beans and drink Chu-Hi. This Chu-Hi has been in the refrigerator for way too long, and we need all the space we can get in there. Kuniko sometimes drinks Chu-Hi, but she doesn’t like these particular flavors. I’m making the sacrifice. It’s an alcoholic beverage, but it’s nearly impossible to taste the alcohol. It’s just like drinking 7-Up.

Kuniko has a meeting after work, so it’ll be a late dinner tonight. We’re having a healthy dinner after last night’s Indian feast. I bought some bean sprouts (moyashi) and some tofu. I sizzle the sprouts up just before Kuniko walks in the door tonight and we’ll eat lots of veggies for dinner.

Tomorrow is Friday, and then it’s a three day weekend. I’m looking forward to relaxing and enjoying some time off.

I slept in a little later than I should have, and that threw off our morning routine today. Kuniko made it out the door a little later than usual, and hopefully she got to work on time. She was working hard making us lunches while I slept away blissfully.

When I arrived at the train station today, there were two guys holding political posters. One guy was just a stooge holding a poster, and I was surprised to notice that the other guy holding the poster was actually the guy on the poster. He was saying thank you personally to everyone that left the train station that morning. How often do you see that in America? I was very surprised. I’m not sure if he won or lost, but I can’t imagine that if he lost he would spend time thanking everyone. If he won, you’d think he’d be busy at his new job. I nodded as he said thank you to me, and there was something in his eyes – he was watching me carefully. Weird.

As I walked to school there was a tiny drizzle, not enough to open my umbrella. The people I walked by looked at me, and then looked at my short sleeves, and then finally at my umbrella. They must think I’m crazy. I got lots of comments at school – aren’t you cold? People are surprised that I am wearing short sleeves. A week ago we were running the air conditioner – how soon people forget. I’m very much enjoying the cool weather.

In the morning some first year students were lined up waiting to talk to Yamamoto sensei, and looking at their faces reminded me of being a freshman at high school. They are going into the staff room – not a safe place for them. They look scared, even some of the regular visitors. Yamamoto sensei starts into them and they have that “caught in the headlights” look. It totally reminded me of my high school days.

I had a full plate of classes today, and the ones with the second year students were fun. My lesson was a kind of combination lesson on predictions, statistics, and the culture behind flipping coins. Over here, decisions are sometimes made by a game of janken, or Rock, Paper, Scissors. The students are always amused that I don’t know how to play it correctly. There is a song to go with it, and it’s serious business. I broke out a bunch of pennies and had kids flipping coins and counting heads and tails. One pair of kids managed to flip their penny right out the window and onto the school grounds two stories below. In the end, it was remarkably even. 80 students flipping coins 20 times each – we ended up with about 51.3% heads. Next we’ll try typing Shakespeare.

As I was eating lunch I noticed the office lady walking by wearing a printed blouse covered with horse memorabilia. I resisted the urge to mention my most recent experience with horses – that is, eating raw horsemeat in a sushi shop. She probably wouldn’t have been amused.

During the last period we had a presentation to show how the trip to Australia went. They had video from a television news piece that ran here on NHK, and also some home video from Hayashi sensei and Tsutsumi sensei. It was a really great presentation. You really felt like you were there. The students involved did a great job, and it was cool to see the projects and the practice we worked on so hard being put to use out in the field.

I met up with Kuniko for some more wedding planning in Kobe, and we made lots of decisions. Colors, flowers, place settings, all kinds of stuff like that. It took a long time, and we were starving to death by the end of it. From the wedding place we walked to an Indian restaurant that we had last visited two years ago with Hayashi sensei and Komori sensei after a trip to Kyoto. The food was still good. The dessert was still weird – this strange cheese-flavored ice cream with Indian milk tea. Despite that, everything else was delicious. I even took a doggy bag home.

Now we’re back and exhausted. What a busy day. From here on out, things will get mellower for me, although Kuniko still has three solid days of work to go before she can relax on Sunday.

The weather continues to cool off, and we even had rain in the forecast. I was spared a wet walk to work, but once I got there, it started raining pretty hard.

I had one class in the morning, and I also did some lesson planning and some tutoring for Miyake sensei. She gave me a bottle of apple jam to go with the yam jam she gave us a week or so ago. We’re going to have to eat more bread in the near future.

In the afternoon I had just one more class, and it went smoothly. I memorized around 35 new words, and around 5 o’clock I was out the door and headed to the station. I sat with a bunch of my students, who were under the impression that I couldn’t understand Japanese. I usually have trouble, but I was able to track their conversation pretty easily.

Our school bans cell phones at school, but every student carries one in their bag, hidden away. The students were talking among themselves trying to figure out if it was safe to whip it out with me there. If I was a regular teacher, they would wait, but I’m occupying some sort of gray area, and they didn’t know for sure what to do.

I bought some raw fish for dinner tonight, tuna and a white fish. I’d tell you what the white fish was called, but I couldn’t read the label. Kuniko says it is called “kanpachi”. Helpful? I guess it’s a kind of yellowtail, which is what I was going for buying just on sight.

We had a bit of rice on the side, and Kuniko ate lots of natto as an appetizer. I still can’t eat the stuff, even the smell is too much for me.

After dinner we looked in Ito Yokado for a birthday gift for one of Kuniko’s exchange students. We struck out, though, so we came back here to watch a little TV and relax before bed. Last night Kuniko got in so late that we had time to eat, clean up, and then go right to bed. It’s nice to have a little time to relax tonight.

I’ve had some pretty good jobs over the years. Some were easy, some were hard. Some were challenging and some were no-brainers. I’m totally convinced that my job right now is my favorite job ever.

Today I had only one class during sixth period, so I had loads of time to do whatever I liked. Of course I studied like crazy. I love cramming new words into my head and hoping they’ll pop out correctly at the appropriate time.

The other teachers buzz around my desk as they go to and from classes. Students drop by and chat with me now and then between their classes. The principal stops and chats, the history teacher makes his customary visit, the vendors walk by me quickly so they don’t have to talk to me.

The door to the staffroom was wide open, and since I’m right next to it I could enjoy the cool breeze blowing through. I could just relax, kick my feet back, and study at my leisure (which, by the way, is the best way to study).

There will come a time when I’ll be huddled up next to the kerosene burning heaters in the staffroom, but for now I’ll enjoy the time.

I’m back home and prepping dinner for me and Kuniko. We’ll be eating spicy Korean style beef and vegetables over rice. I tried making the plain broth soup that they serve in restaurants over there, and we’ll have some kimchee on the side, so it should be really good. I hope I’ll be able to wait until she gets here.

Despite what I previously wrote – we weren’t on the hook for a concert today. It turns out that the concert is in a couple of weeks. That left the whole day open for Kuniko and I to relax. We did even more laundry, slept a lot, and ate leftovers for lunch.

After lunch I went into Akashi using Kuniko’s commuter pass and did some shopping that I needed to do. I came back with a Robert B. Parker paperback that I’ve had my eye on for a long time. I spent most of the rest of the day lounging on the couch reading it.

We’ve been craving sushi, so we went out for sushi in the evening at Riki Maru. There was a fairly long wait – Sunday nights are big “eat out” nights around here. We ate all the sushi we could and left for under 2000 yen – that’s a great deal!

Now we’re back home and trying to get back into that work frame of mind. It was a huge thing to both have a day off on the same day – and I can tell it was a big help for Kuniko.

Today Kuniko was out the door early, and so I threw the first of many loads of laundry in the machine, and set about cleaning the house a little bit. I didn’t do too much because it was so early and I didn’t want to wake up the neighbors. I wonder just how loud my footsteps are down there.

Around lunchtime I went over to Ito Yokado and did a little bit of shopping, nothing major really. The store is still full of Hanshin Tigers mania – the clerks have to wear these embarrassing cardboard hats. I feel sorry for them. It’s really a ridiculous looking hat. I’d take pictures but I feel too sorry for the people wearing the hats.

I watched Survivor, mopped the floor, took a nap, talked with with mom on the phone, and that’s about it. It feels good to relax a little bit, but Kuniko is the one who needs it more than I do. I’m going to try to have everything ready for her when she gets home later tonight, and then she can just relax.

Tomorrow, depending on our energy level, we’ll be heading to Osaka to do some shopping and take in a concert at the Blue Note. It’s the acappella group that is comprised of a few of Kuniko’s friends. There is a chance that we will have them perform at our wedding reception, but they are changing lead singers and we’re not sure if it will be a good change or not. Between the ocarina solos, acappella groups, and speeches by Japanese and foreigners it should make for a very interesting reception. Karaoke has been strictly prohibited.

Kuniko and I got a chance to meet up with Komori sensei in Akashi Friday night. It has been a long time since we’ve seen him. He looked great, was full of energy, and we powered down the okonomiyaki and drank lots of beer.

He seems a little happier with his new school now, which is good news. Last time we talked he wasn’t so enthusiastic. His English is still great, but this time I used a little more Japanese than I normally do. He offered to play a song at our wedding reception on his ocarina. My only experience with an ocarina is playing Legend of Zelda, so it should be interesting. The wedding reception itself is shaping up to be quite a mix of different styles and activities. I’m not sure what to expect.

We didn’t stay out too late – we had dinner and then split off on our separate ways. Kuniko and I bought some donuts for tomorrow morning’s breakfast, since she will have to leave early to get to her school’s Sports Day.

Kuniko did check the website for the teacher’s exam today, and it turned out that she didn’t make the cut. They only hired 12 English teachers out of 200+ applicants, so it was pretty competitive. She doesn’t seem that disappointed, though, and I think that might be because she is pretty satisfied with her private school experiences lately.

I’ve got a day full of laundry planned tomorrow – hopefully it will be sunny enough to dry things out.