Today was a pretty slow day for classes – I only had two. They went well enough – I told Matsubara’s class that they will be working on a project for the next few weeks. They’ll be doing an English skit in front of the class. This will be the first time that I’ve done a long term project with the class and I hope it goes OK.

I took a practice test for the December Japanese Proficiency Test. It didn’t go great – it was really difficult. I squeezed out a 60% score on one part of the listening test. I’ll need to do better than that, though.

For dinner I cooked up spaghetti with a garlic, olive oil and black pepper sauce and it turned out merely OK. Something was missing, but Kuniko and I couldn’t figure it out. That’s the fun of cooking, if you fail at least you can try again the next night.

We went to Ito Yokado after dinner to get some lunch supplies and we found some roast beef for 50% off – I got two packages full. It’s roast beef sandwiches for lunch tomorrow!

Finally we put the finishing touches on some wedding invitations that need to go out soon. The wedding is getting closer and closer!

For a typhoon that still hasn’t shown up, typhoon 14 has been all anybody has been talking about today. It is supposed to be the same strength as the hurricane that went through New Orleans recently, but I think that Japan is a little more used to weathering big storms. Everybody at school was expecting to get a typhoon warning – once that happens everyone can head home.

All the students wanted to go home. All the teachers wanted to go home. Yet, we stayed. The warning never came, although the typhoon was still bearing down on us. It was moving slowly, and just before I left school they said that it was turning north towards the Asian continent and away from central and northern Japan. That means that we’ll just catch the edge of it sometime in the middle of the night, and we should be OK to go to school tomorrow. Staff and students were highly disappointed in the news.

I had two classes today – one with Miyake sensei and one with Tsutsumi sensei. This was the first day back for Miyake sensei and it was good to catch up with her. I heard stories about her vacation and it sounded like she took an English study break, which she deserves. Our class went really well together, and I could tell she was happy to be back in front of the students like I was.

After school we all left early just in case the typhoon was speeding up, and so I got home around 5 p.m. Kuniko sent me a message saying that she would handle dinner, so I did a few chores and secured some things on the back porch just in case.

Kuniko cooked up buri teriyaki and tofu for dinner. The buri (yellowtail tuna) was in filets and she sauteed them in a pan with some teriyaki sauce, and then combined with the tofu we had a very healthy dinner. I was impressed with the buri – it had really good flavor and was very tender. It was also really inexpensive – that’s the nice thing about buying fish in Japan. It’s always reasonably priced and always fresh.

For dessert we had some Haagen Dazs ice cream (classic chocolate and mango/vanilla). Outside the wind is starting to blow a little harder, but it’s still dry out there. We’ll see how things go tomorrow!

Today I gingerly got out of bed to make a lunch for Kuniko and myself. Kuniko left before me and I bustled out the door with my arms full of garbage for garbage day, my lunch, my new textbooks, an umbrella, and my manpurse. Luckily I was able to manage everything to the train station.

Smoking is a really big problem here in Japan, and thankfully almost every train is non-smoking. In addition, most stations have a smoking corner, but everywhere else it is posted as non-smoking. Unfortunately, the station postings are more of a suggestion, and it’s not so rare to see people smoking right under a no-smoking sign. For a long time that has been bothering me, so I decided to ask the next person I see doing that to go to the smoking corner (in polite Japanese, of course).

Today a guy sat next to me on the bench and started puffing away. But today was not the day to have a little international conversation. This guy looked normal enough except for the juge bruise spreading from his eye across the whole left side of his face. He looked like he got it last night, and there was still some swelling on other parts of his face. The last thing I want to do is be the straw that breaks this camel’s back – my stupid comment might be enough to push him over the edge.

I settled for looking conspicuously at the no smoking sign, and then turning my body on the bench and just staring at him. I could tell it bothered him, but he was determined to have his cigarette. I just watched him for about a minute before my train came, and then left. Maybe next time.

I distributed my omiyage from the trip to Kyoto, and spent most of the day lesson planning and studying. I’m down to about 2-3 hours of study a day, and so I feel like I’m lazy or something. I know that it’s a limitation of my job, and I’m lucky to be able to study for 2-3 hours. Still, with the big test looming in December I’d really like to study more. However, maybe it’s time to just admit that I won’t make the cut this time and try to study a little more long term and a little less short-term-cram.

Kuniko asked me to run into Akashi and pick up some paperwork at a hospital there right after work since she couldn’t get there before it closed. I headed there, found the place easily enough, and got the paperwork without a problem. From there I came straight back home and made up a pot of tortilla soup and let it cook while I did chores and stuff. Kuniko came in around 8 o’clock, and we had some hot soup. Lately it’s been cooling off due to rain and an incoming typhoon, so the soup hit the spot.

We’re settling into the grind of the week, but before you know it it’ll be the weekend again. Time seems to be flying for me – it’s probably because it’s the last year of my cushy job and I’ll have to face the real world soon enough.

Saturday Kuniko took the day off from her club activity leader role, and we caught a train to Kyoto. I’m always amazed how quick and easy it is to get to Kyoto. We sat and chatted, looked out the window, checked out other passengers, and before you could say “space out” we were there.

The reason for the visit was for Kuniko to exchange a charm that she had purchased at one of her favorite temples. She made a wish on the old charm, and once that came true, she needs to bring it back and exchange it for a new one. I bought one, too, and together we performed the necessary rituals to get it charged up with a new wish. We’ll see if it works.

When we first arrived there was a really long line of people waiting to get a tour/sermon/lecture by a priest, and since we were definitely not interested in that, we walked by all the people and completed our business there.

On our way back to the station we stopped in and visited another temple, this one preparing for a matsuri event that evening. I took a few pictures there, and we watched a group of people surrounding a portable shrine resting in the shade to avoid the heat.

From there, we went to Arashiyama. The day was really hot, so we caught the train instead of walking three kilometers in the sun. It was totally worth it. We got to the side of the river and then crossed into town to have lunch and look at some of the touristy things. We had a simple traditional hot-weather soba lunch, and for dessert we had green tea ice cream.

On the way back we stopped by a pond with some pretty remarkable lily pads. They were growing a big stem that looked like a fake plastic attachment.

Next we caught the train into downtown Kyoto, and I was able to do some shopping at a huge bookstore there. I got two Japanese grammar reference books that I’ve been dreaming of for a while. As it happens, one of Kuniko’s friends, Tomo-chan, was in the area, so we met up outside the station and said hello. She’s getting married this month, and she looked very excited.

We paid a visit to one of Kuniko’s favorite dessert shops. She knows Kyoto inside and out – she went to college there and she went out a lot, so she knows all the good spots. The tiny restaurant was dedicated to French cakes, pies, and pastries. I took a few pictures inside – everything looked good, and there was a huge line for tables. We picked up some dessert to go, and the wait wasn’t too bad.

The last stop for us was to buy omiyage from the trip so we have something to give everyone on Monday. From there we took the train all the way back home, and had a fairly unhealthy mix of leftovers and gyoza for dinner. The cakes for dessert were spectacular.

The next day I was up early to go to a volleyball tournament. The master of the yakitori had cleverly talked me into helping out the Denya team. I met up with one of the regulars outside my apartment, and he drove me to the Akashi city gymnasium.

It was quite a place. Everything was in beautiful condition, it was clean and well-staffed, and it sat on a hill overlooking the city. We sat outside and waited for the rest of the team to wake up and come over.

Finally they started trickling in. I got a lot of attention from the other players, as I was the only team member that was foreign. Lots of people looking away quickly when I moved my head around.

We had the opening ceremony, and I noticed that our team was one of only two that didn’t have their own uniforms. The master had assured me that we were playing in the easiest league – the C league, but the other C league teams were hardcore. They set up spiking drills, they all had kneepads and it looked they had been practicing every day to get ready for the big event.

Some of the regular Denya guys have wives and girlfriends on a girls team called “BEST”. They were there playing and they did a really good job. They won last year, and the last I saw them they were facing off against a girl team called “CLOVER” who wore pink shorts and neopolitan tops.

We played two games and were elimated from both easily. The judges were strict and not many people were smiling. The Denya team really stood out from everyone else because I think our members were the first ones out of the door to take a smoke break after the games, some of our members were trash-talking the other team, and everybody on our team just laughed and had a good time. The other teams looked at us like we a bug that they found necessary to step on.

The good news about early elimination was that we could leave early, so we all bugged out and left the girls team to fend for themselves. We found the nearest watering hole and had the Japanese equivalent of a Denny’s lunch – soba, tempura, sashimi, rice, and little bits of pickles. We each had a couple of beers and lamented our losses. I guess last year they had won a game, and then lost the rest, so this was a step backwards. I even heard some people saying they might practice next year.

I came home and crashed. I’m coming down with a sore throat – so Kuniko let me sleep the rest of the afternoon away before we headed out to visit her folks.

The last stage of the weekend was a feast and a bath. Kuniko’s mom cooked up lots of food for us to eat for dinner, and then while Kuniko fiddled with the family computer to try to get it to print on envelopes I tried out their new bath.

It’s a little strange to be invited over to someone’s house for a bath. Of course it was Japanese style, so I used the water, and then the next person used the same water, and the next, etc. You don’t actually use soap in the bath – you do all that with a shower setup just outside the bath. Then you get in clean and you get out relaxed. They have this cool setup that keeps the temperature constant while you are in there, and it lets you know in another room when the temperature is where you want it. I was raving about that bath the rest of the night.

Finally we wrapped things up, and so we headed back with armloads of fresh vegetables from the farm, and a sizable bag of Kageyama rice. I’m bushed, and tomorrow is Monday – ugh.

I’ll make a note of it here – I think Matsubara sensei is pregnant. She already has a one year old daughter and she’s always talking about her. After the summer vacation I’ve noticed the slightest bulge under her dress and her wardrobe has slightly changed. However, as a comedian once said, you never ask a woman if she is pregnant, not unless you can actually see the baby coming out. So I’ll keep it quiet and silently observe her midsection. That sounded creepy.

Due to a quirky schedule I got to teach one of my first year classes today. My class was their first class after four periods of exams, so it was the first chance they could have a normal class after a month and a half of vacation. I had various strategies to take care of some of the energies that might be running loose, but as it turned out I was teaching with Yamamoto sensei, who is really strict with them.

My new lesson is about directions, and it went really well. Most of the students have had a lesson on directions in junior high school. They did pretty good, and everyone had a good time, I think. I really enjoyed being in front of students again. I was feeling nervous after almost two months without teaching, and I was worried how things would go. Of course they went fine, it’s just I’m a little rusty getting back into the saddle.

Mr. Yamamoto spent two minutes telling the students in Japanese that I was in the staff room every day during summer studying Japanese. He told them that if they spent the effort that I have been putting in they would know English completely by now. It was a little embarrassing, and my cover was completely blown. I’m still going to stick to English in the classroom, though.

I came back to the staffroom and enjoyed a great bento that Kuniko made up for me this morning. As usual people stopped by to admire my lunch, and ask me lots of questions about my diet.

I studied the rest of the day and now I’m back home rocking out and waiting for Kuniko to get back. I’m thinking of cooking up some kimchee fried rice tonight – not healthy, but cheap! Today while buying the groceries for dinner the clerk asked me all about it. She really likes asking me tons of questions when I’m checking out, and I’m sure the other patrons behind me hate me for taking up lots of time.

Last night Kuniko and I made up some Hawaiian Poke. Susan and Dave in Hawaii sent the seasoning packet to me a while back, and so I bought some raw tuna and some fried tofu and Kuniko and I mixed it up. It was really good – salty and spicy!

Oh, and one last thing – I’m blogging at school now. It’s just once every couple of weeks, and here’s the link. One of the English teachers, Yamamoto sensei, really is getting started with designing web pages and you can see what I mean. My eyes! My eyes! Still, I thought it was best to let him go for it and have fun.

Today was an interesting day on a lot of different levels. I woke up still a bit drunk from the night before, and no amount of toothbrushing would get that taste out of my mouth. I also put on an entire kilogram of weight according to my scale, so all this partying has got to stop! Or, at least slow down.

We had our school opening ceremony today, and that was really the only reason the students even showed up. We did a cleaning session in the morning, so I hung out with the students assigned to clean my area, and we talked mostly in Japanese with a little bit of English. We didn’t clean much but we did have some fun.

The school gymnasium is the only place big enough to have an assembly, and today it was super-humid inside. It gets even hotter after you pack it with a thousand students. The staff told the students to hang in there, and they did their best. There wasn’t much else to do but sit through the speeches and remember to breathe. Four students had collapsed because of the heat before the principal’s speech even started, and then about six more collapsed during the speech. One kid fell and hit his head, and so they had to keep him laying there for a while. Maybe it’s just me, but when so many people are collapsing because of heat exhaustion, you are doing something wrong. Other teachers aren’t alarmed by this, probably just because that’s the way it has been done for so many years. Change comes slowly in Japan.

After the assembly I walked over to the post office and sent off my application to take the Japanese Proficiency Test in December. You have a one week window to apply in September for an exam in December. If you miss the deadline, you can pay just 3000 yen more, and then there is no problem. Last year that happened to me, and I’m convinced this is just a way for the test company to make some more money. What’s the deal with a one week window for a test that comes only once a year? Oh well… I’m going to fail the exam, I’m just curious to see the margin of failure.

Around 11 o’clock I went over to Tsuji-san’s place to chat. She had one of her students there who wanted to meet me. Her name is Haruka. She is about 22 years old, and has a hearing problem so she wears hearing aids in both ears and she reads lips. If you’ve never had your lips read it’s quite strange to talk to somebody while they are staring intently at your mouth. It makes you wonder if you brushed your teeth thoroughly that morning. Haruka’s English was surprisingly good. Because of her hearing problem her pronunciation of all words (English and Japanese) is difficult to understand. Still, I could follow what she was saying and for the most part that side of the conversation went well. She had trouble understanding what I was saying, though – partly because she is a beginner and partly because reading the lips of a foreign language speaker is much more difficult. We talked for about an hour, and it was pretty inspiring to see her working hard and against adversity to learn English. She wants to be a teacher someday, so she’s been studying hard to get there.

After the lesson Tsuji-san and I went over to a tofu restaurant and had a nice lunch. Tsuji-san insisted on paying – she felt like she was getting more out of our lessons than I was. During lunch we talked about the upcoming meeting between her parents and her fiancée. It sounds like there is a lot of pressure about to be applied on her fiancée, Mikitoshi. I sense that Tsuji-san is not really happy with how things have been going lately, and she’s really thinking about the fact that she’ll be living with this guy for the rest of her life. I guess they haven’t had many deep conversations, and Tsuji-san may be wondering if they ever will. She was curious about how Kuniko and I handle the deep stuff, and so I gave her as much information as I could think of. Anyway, she’ll be watching Mikitoshi very carefully during the first meeting, and his behavior will be a big part of what happens in the future. He’s really fighting an uphill battle, because Tsuji-san’s dad already doesn’t like him, and they haven’t even met. What will happen? I’ll have to wait until next week to find out all the gory details.

For Wednesday we had no classes, just a long involved staff meeting in the morning. Everyone was there, and there were a variety of topics. The most interesting involved the new tobacco policy that they are considering. I guess there is some serious teacher resistance to the idea of a no-smoking campus, and it sounds like they have been exerting pressure in various areas. The principal appealed to the teachers to do their best to quit smoking by the next spring, and asked them to consult with him if there were any problems. Some of these teachers are heavy, heavy smokers – this will be tough for them to deal with.

I hung out the rest of the day studying at my desk, and talking to students here and there. My new resolution is to talk to students more, even if it’s in Japanese. I’ll still be using only English in the classroom, but I want the students to have more chances to interact with a foreigner.

Around 5 p.m. Maeda sensei gathered up a group of about 15 teachers, and we walked across town to an okonomiyaki place. We all sat down, and the menu had been pre-arranged. The beer situation was really unusual: whenever you needed a beer you just went to the fridge and grabbed it. People were constantly getting gigantic cold bottles of Asahi Super Dry and pouring them to their neighbors in the Japanese style. The owner of the restaurant kept our okonomiyaki plates full of food all night, and everyone drank and chatted and chatted and drank.

The owner came by our table and I said “thank you” in Japanese when she gave us our plates, and she commented that “I’m very good at Japanese!” This is pretty common in Japan – you say one word in Japanese and you are talented. It just shows you how low the expectations are for foreigners. That in turn is a great motivator for me to learn.

I sat at the middle table with Maeda sensei, Arauchi sensei, and Yamamoto sensei for the first part of the evening, but later found myself sitting with the school nurse (also named Yamamoto sensei) and Arai sensei, a P.E. teacher. I spoke only Japanese with Yamamoto sensei and half and half with Arai sensei. Everyone kept my glass full, and so it was really hard to tell how much I drank – which is one good way to know if you are drunk or not.

The school nurse and I rarely talk at school, but we have some things in common. We saw each other in Carrefour a long time ago and we were both with our secret “significant other”, so we kept each other’s secret for a long time. We also both get chased around by the history teacher, for quite different reasons.

We talked a little bit about her mystery boyfriend, and it sounds like that relationship is on the rocks. She’s the same age as me, so the clock must be ticking, but she’s pretty relaxed about it and isn’t bowing to any pressure. She was the only woman at the party, and was nice enough to translate drunken old man Japanese into normal Japanese for me.

Drinks were poured, I made new friends, one of the math teachers admitted that his English nickname is “Crazy Monkey”, teachers began calling for crazy orders of more and more food, and we all just kept drinking. The refrigerator was always full of cold beer – and it didn’t seem to matter how many we took – nobody was keeping track.

Around 10 o’clock I made my move out of there and headed to the station, briefly accompanied by the school nurse who probably wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost in Takasago. I assured her I knew the way back, and headed off to the station. I got home just after Kuniko arrived from her dinner date with a friend. I guess the atmosphere of their place was good, but the food wasn’t. Too bad. Kuniko got a new haircut and had gotten lots of bread and cakes for us for the next day. We talked for a while about each other’s day, but I made a poor conversation partner due to inebriation and so I fell asleep sure of the fact that I would have a pretty good hangover tomorrow.

After I got to school today the rain came down like crazy. It looked nice enough when I left, but I was stuck at school with just my reserve umbrella.

There were a few more teachers at school today, but it was still pretty quiet. They’ll all be there tomorrow, and we’ve got a thrilling staff meeting in the morning. One of the part time teachers came in and said hello – she offered her congratulations on the paperwork wedding.

I went home around two o’clock, likely my last short day for a long time. I was dodging raindrops with my tiny umbrella, and I was able to get back to the station reasonably dry.

Tonight Kuniko was home a little late, so I tried to make California sushi rolls. I don’t think they turned out so hot. They were good, but they didn’t quite taste like California rolls to me. Maybe they needed more crab. Maybe less avocado. I don’t know. We’ll have to order them sometime in a restaurant for Research & Development purposes.

Tomorrow night I’m going out to okonomiyaki and beer with some of the teachers, and Kuniko is going out with one of her friends after work, so it’ll be quiet around here. I’m looking forward to the dinner – it’ll be good to hear the stories from the teachers about what they’ve been doing over the summer.

So I was minding my own business in the staffroom today. Wednesday is our first all-hands meeting, and so I figured there’d be more teachers back working. Actually, there was hardly anyone there. I guess these last two days are the last chance for a vacation for quite a while, so people are taking advantage.

I’ve mentioned the guy two desks down that has a hobby of picking his nose. He’s a strange dude all around. He’s got a big dandruff problem, he speaks so quietly you can hardly hear him, and his desk is covered with books. He has only enough space to write on a piece of paper, and then the other areas are towering with books. Lots of privacy, I guess.

Anyway, I overheard him tell some teachers that he is getting married next month. I wasn’t the only surprised person there. I think the teachers were asking him to see a picture – out of curiosity or as proof – I’m not sure. Anyway, I couldn’t catch the whole conversation, but I’m sure we’ll hear more at the big meeting Wednesday. Can’t wait to see the pictures.

The vice principal came by my desk pretty early and told me I could split. I had finished up my lesson plan for the first years in the morning and I was busy reviewing vocabulary, so I didn’t take him up on it until around 2 o’clock.

When I got back home I found that Kuniko had done all the dirty dishes from last night and also a big load of laundry was hanging out on the patio. I think we need to eat some stuff out of the refrigerator just to make room – it is packed with food. Tomorrow is another exciting teacher-free day, and then things will settle into a normal schedule and hopefully by next week I’ll be able to teach some classes!

Sunday night Risa-chan and Anthony came over to see our place, tell us all about their wedding in Brunei and also, to eat tacos for the first time.

It was a good night. We had to pull some crazy tricks to get everything to fit in the refrigerator – ours is just too small for more than two people (or even one Japanese and one big American guy). We drank tequila, beer, and a sweet Muscat from Italy. The tacos turned out pretty nicely. I’m never sure how much heat the guests can take, so I err on the side of caution and offer plenty of hot sauces to add on top. We had Risa and Anthony spinning their own tortillas and making their own tacos, and I think it was a unique dining experience for them.

We exchanged presents, too. Anthony and Risa had brought back omiyage and other souvenirs from Brunei, and we gave them a couple of wedding presents, and a can of refried beans (Risa liked the beans). They went back to Akashi with a couple of armloads of loot.

By the end of the night Kuniko and I were both feeling pretty awake, so we put aside the dishes to wash tomorrow and watched National Treasure on DVD. It’s a great movie – clever, Disney family fun.

1. central heating
2. a taco shop
3. automatic sprinklers
4. guns
5. local beers
6. kissing in public
7. insulation
8. rude waiters
9. clothes dryers
10. SUV’s

Friday I went into Sannomiya to meet up with Antoine. We met up under the movie theater signs near the Hankyu station, and then from there went to the Belgian beer place. Antoine was covered with sunburn from being outside all day – he had to work at an English camp and ended up spending almost two hours outside in the hot sun.

A cold beer in an air conditioned room did a lot to improve his condition, and we sat and chatted while watching a middle-aged Japanese woman hitting on guys down the bar bfrom us.

It was good to catch up with Antoine – last time we met up as a group and so we didn’t get to talk too much. He’s worried a little bit about his future – the next year will be his last on the JET program, and then he’ll need to find something else. He really enjoys teaching small groups – maybe doing private teaching will be something he’s interested in.

He was craving sushi, so we went to the same sushi bar that Kuniko and I went to the last night. The sushi chefs recognized me and smiled, and we were served giant pieces of sushi again – awesome. Antoine asked for some lemon for his drink, and he ended up getting a menu in English. I asked for a lemon, and he got the lemon, cut into slices on a plate. The lemon request really shook them up – they were talking about it behind the sushi bar for a while.

From there we walked around and tried to get some exercise, and finally wrapped up the night at a yakitori type place that seemed to have a big emphasis on fried foods. We ordered some healthy stuff, though: a tomato, sliced and served with some mayonnaise on the side, and some mushrooms cooked with a pretty good sauce.

I picked up some donuts for our breakfast the next day on the way home and then came home and crashed next to Kuniko – I’ve been on a sleep deficit lately.

No problem, no hangover.  Just a little sleepy. Kuniko made me a fantastic lunch and breakfast, and after that I marched off to work. Kuniko called in sick yesterday to take the teacher’s test, so now she has to go into work today and play the barely healthy teacher role.

More and more teachers are trickling into work, and it’s nice to see some familiar faces. I worked straight through the morning – focusing on kanji and new vocabulary. I learned the word 赤字 (pronounced akaji), which means deficit or ‘in the red’. The kanji symbols make the word easy to remember. The first one means ‘red’, and the second means ‘letter’. Too cool.

As I write this there is a news crew in the next room interviewing some of our students and teachers that went on the trip to Australia.  The principal told me that I should stick around through the interview just in case they wanted to talk to me.  Hopefully I’ll be out of here by 2:30 – I need to meet up with Kuniko in Sannomiya.  We are going to the wedding place again to make some more decisions.

Things are going to be fairly busy this weekend.  Friday night I am going out with Antoine for a boy’s night out, Saturday Kuniko has a business trip but I have a free day.  Sunday Risa-chan and her husband Anthony are coming over for dinner.  They recently got married in Brunei, so I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of photographs.  I’m going to cook up tacos – it has kind of turned into my signature dish these days.

Just got back from our trip to the hotel in Sannomiya.  Kuniko talked with the hair and make-up person, and they discussed the plan of attack.  It’s a very Japanese way to do things – they just talk about different things and let you look at a lot of pictures.  Very few decisions to be made at this point.  The way they dance around decisions and discuss things is very foreign to me – but that’s what makes it interesting.

After the wedding place we went into Sannomiya searching for a wedding present for Risa-chan and her husband.  We struck out at several stores, and when we started buying stuff for ourselves instead of them we knew it was time to leave.  We went to a sushi restaurant near Sannomiya station that was recommended by the ALT association in my area.

Usually a recommendation from a foreigner publication would be the kiss of death for me, but instead it turned out to be quite good.  It’s a chain restaurant, but there are very few locations, and it has a really cool “So this is Japan” feel to it.  We sat down and ordered and got huge pieces of fish on tiny lumps of rice.  The fish was fresh and delicious, and the pieces were way too big to fit into your mouth.  Some where nearly impossible to eat, and it’s the kind of place only advanced chopstick users should go.  The menu was all in Japanese, and you order directly from a sushi chef.  The chef offered to cut ours into smaller pieces if we liked, but we both got the feeling that it would be like cheating somehow – like having your mom cut your steak.

After dinner we tried a few more stores looking for the perfect gift, but ended up surrendering and heading home.  Now I’m back, I’m tired, and I’m ready for bed.  Tomorrow I’m going to go back to Sannomiya to meet up with Antoine, so it’ll be déjà vu all over again.

On Wednesday I spent the morning working hard on my studies at school, and starting to put some work into our first lesson for the first years. The other first year teachers have agreed on where to start for this term, so I’m cleared to make up some new lessons. I’ll work on it gradually over the next few days, but we are still two weeks away from classes.

This was the first day back for the vice principal – he’s been out sick this week. The last time I saw him he had talked to me about checking in with him before he left, so I was determined to put in a long day today so that he would see that I’m not some slacker. When two o’clock came and I still hadn’t come to his desk to ask if I could go, he came by my desk and said I could leave anytime. I think he was feeling a little guilty or something, or maybe he thought that I was. I put in another half hour or so and then took off.

I went home and soon Kuniko came back from her teacher’s exam. She said right off the bat that she failed. She seemed pretty sure of it – I guess the native English speaker interview was tough and she was matched with some great speakers. Also during her Japanese language interview one old teacher was actually kind of yelling/arguing/repeating and throwing her off. Maybe that’s part of the interview, but Kuniko was confident that she didn’t make the cut. The official results aren’t until the end of September, but we’re not holding our breath.

We met up in Akashi with Yuri, Tamura sensei and her boyfriend in the evening. Tamura sensei also took the teacher’s exam, and so there was some steam to blow off. We went to a restaurant that Yuri and Tamura sensei had been to before, and ordered various things from the menu including garlic and lettuce pizza, “Mexican” tacos, spaghetti carbonara, garlic bread, camembert cheese, and a tomato salad that was excellent. We drank lots of beers – Kuniko, Tamura sensei’s boyfriend and I kept the pace. It was good to relax and joke around, and it was great practice for listening in Japanese. I’m still too slow to speak at parties, but I guess that will come eventually.

On the way back home we were drunkenly walking through Ito Yokado and they had their “50% off frozen food” sale. They have it fairly often, actually, so we never pay full price to keep the freezer stocked. We picked out a whole load of stuff for our lunches and emergency dinners, and then came on back home. With a glass of pineapple juice, two aspirin and a vitamin, we assured ourselves of a hangover-free morning tomorrow.

Today the history teacher was trying to convince me that most homes in Japan cost $20 million.  Each.  Including the land.  Yeah right.

I figure he got some decimal places screwed up in the conversion, but there is no way.  I ran it by Kuniko and she agreed – things are expensive here but not that expensive.  The history teacher managed to rope in another teacher into the conversation, but as soon as the history teacher left Tanaka sensei gave me a look, like “Sorry he bugs you so much…”

Things are still pretty quiet at school – the vice-principal has been out sick the last two days and so teachers come in, assess the situation, and take off soon after.  I’m sticking to my same old schedule, though.  

Kuniko cancelled her party tonight, and so we had om-rice for dinner.  Afterwards we did some last minute preparation for the big interview tomorrow.  It’ll be interesting to see how it goes – I know that Kuniko will do well whatever happens, but we’re not sure what the format is, so that makes it tough to study for.

Well, I’m tired out from studying and I’m ready to hit the sack.  I’ll just take a quick peek at a kanji book that Kuniko got me and then go to bed.