One big event at the end of trip to California was a house full of sick people.  Charlie and Maya both were in bad shape – Maya had scarlet fever and Charlie had strep throat – and both my parents were fighting bad colds.  Somehow we managed to avoid getting sick while we were there, but I started to notice a little tickle in the back of my throat on the flight back.  Once we settled in it seemed like I managed to avoid the brunt of the cold but Kuniko got hit in full force.  For the last few days she lost her voice, and she’s coughing, hacking, and taking antibiotics to try to get over it.  A lovely souvenir from our trip.

Despite the yucky feeling we had made plans to go see one of Kuniko’s students in concert on Sunday.  She is in an idol group that performs weekly in Shinseikai, the very old and traditional “center” of Osaka.  The neighborhoods are far past their prime but have entered a state of sort of retro coolness (at least in my opinion).  Japan is a country full of old people with long memories, and it appears that this area holds a special place in local culture.

As it happens we were there during the Ebisu festival, the annual festival to celebrate the god of commerce and business, and the Osaka area people take it seriously.  We walked through the food stalls and did a lot of people watching as we waited for the concert to start.  In the deep southern part of Shinseikai we found a Korean restaurant and sat down for beer and chijimi to kill time.  The other customers were curious and struck up a conversation with me (since Kuniko couldn’t talk) and we left right when things were starting to go to the next level.  It was hard to believe it was only 2 pm and they were drinking and eating in a big way.

We debated walking through the prostitution area nearby – I had heard about it in a blog post and it sounded extremely weird, which is always a good sign.  Kuniko offered to guide us there as it was nearby, but she said that as a woman she might be yelled at or chased off by the old ladies that serve as pimps in that area.  So, we decided to skip it and instead head to the theater nearby and get some seats.

The theater was weird.  Old and weird.  The neighborhood around it dealt in strange goods – costume shops, maid cafes, “subculture” books, but then equally there were many restaurants that had long lines of people waiting to get in – mainly the Osaka specialty kushikatsu.  It seemed like the main attraction was food, but also lots of weird stuff, too.

We entered the theater, bought our discount tickets that Kuniko’s student had set aside for us, and sat down.

The show started and it was like a trip back in time.  They had about four performers before the idol group came on, and they were all older females wearing kimono and singing enka (traditional Japanese) tunes.  Each lady was introduced as being a recording artist with some major Japanese label, which apparently was a badge of authenticity.  The type of music is really popular with older people, and often you can hear people crooning enka songs from old karaoke bars in nightlife districts.

The crowd was mainly older people and they were eating it up.  They clapped and cheered their favorite performers, they walked up between songs or sometimes in the middle of the song and handed envelopes of cash to the singers.  One really old lady actually stuffed money right in the kimono of a surprised performer in kind of a sanitized stripper move.  The really telling point was that the older folks all used old flip phones to take pictures. Flip phones have stop being manufactured in Japan and now everyone seems to have a smartphone, but the older folks are still using them.  Many of the audience seemed to know each other and greet others as they left to use the toilet (and as we sat near the door to the restrooms there were a lot of toilet runs while we were there).  It became clear that these people had established a sort of social event out of visiting, and it was an important part of their social lives.

Finally, after sitting through some pretty traditional performers, the four-member idol group came up.  Kuniko’s student seemed to be the best of the bunch, and they twirled and danced to a pop music tune and sang like crazy.  It was a completely different style from the previous acts, and I noticed that nobody took any envelopes of money up to give them.  It was an interesting act, and I could see they really enjoyed themselves.  Kuniko’s student’s parents were there cheering her on, and I’m sure they have high hopes for her future in the entertainment business.

After their performance we headed for the doors, and the various performers were out there waiting to say goodbye.  I think they were hoping to get one more envelope out of their fans, but we had only thank-you’s as we left.

For dinner Kuniko wanted to take us out to Tsuruhasi – the Korean Town in Osaka.  We’ve been there before, but I wanted to see something a little different.  Using the internet we went off the beaten track a little and found a restaurant built inside a tent next to a house, and it had the feel of a temporary structure that ended up being permanent.  It was busy and we were lucky to get a table.  It seemed like only one member of the staff was fluent in Japanese, and she was hurried and busy.  The other staff spoke a little Japanese but they were clearly more comfortable with Korean.

We ordered a variety of different things and drank beer while we watched the controlled chaos of the busy restaurant.  We had deji kalbi – pork rib meat fried up on a hot plate in spicy sauce, and then wrapped with miso and kimchi in a green lettuce leaf.  We also had a stir fried chicken in spicy sauce, bibimba, and sides of various kinds of kimchi.  We ate and drank and ate some more and really enjoyed the meal.  For some reason I was a person of interest there, and one slightly drunk customer shook my hand as he was leaving, and the Korean guy delivering our dishes asked me where I was from in English.  When I told him I was from California he shouted across to the cooks across the room some information in Korean and everyone seemed happy.  As we finished up the meal and left the Korean staff said “I love California!” and did kind of an air guitar move, but backed right into his boss and almost caused a big accident.  It was an interesting night.  The whole meal was only 4000 yen including all the beer we drank, so it was an affordable dinner, too!

Our final stop was the stands of Korean food for sale near the station.  There were still a few open and we did some picking of choosing of foods to bring back home with us.  We got some Korean norimaki, three kinds of kimchi (crab, cucumber and nori), and also some chapuche.   At one stand they had some pork ribs braising in soup and it looked so good we went inside and ate that with some beers – kind of a second dinner.  I knew the Korean for “It is delicious” but every time I used it the staff would respond in Korean and then I had nothing left to say!

People were really friendly at all the places we visited that night, and I really had a great time.  It is not a place we will visit often, but sometimes the weird and the old and the delicious combine and make for a unique experience.  Yesterday, that experience was Shinseikai.

Apologies for the long delay in posting!  We had an unusually busy December wrapping up our Christmas shopping and social obligations before we flew to California for the holidays.  It was nice to get back out to Kansai airport in Osaka for an easy trip.  They still have daily non-stop flights to San Francisco.  We were able to stop at the restaurant after we passed through security to have a celebratory cocktail.  One thing we noticed after traveling through several airports this trip is that Kansai airport doesn’t really have a good airport bar.  They have restaurants that serve drinks, but no place to belly up and enjoy a cocktail.  In other airports (especially international ones) there is at least one bar open 24 hours, but for some reason Kansai airport didn’t get the memo.  Get on it KIX!

The flight was smooth and we rode on a new 787, so there were some pretty modern amenities and technology.  We sat in the middle and aisle seat, blocking in a mother who was traveling with her three teenagers.  They sat ahead of us, and she kept them informed of travel info that she felt was important.  During the 8 1/2 hour flight she never once got up to use the rest room, even after two waters and two beers.  Whoah.

As for our stay in California, it was everything that we’d hoped it would be.  We spent a lot of time with family, and I was especially happy to finally meet my niece Maya, and also spend lots of time with Charlie.  They are good kids, and they were pretty active most of the time.  They had lots of down time with their digital devices, so I think that gave everyone a break from entertaining them now and then.

My folks had a rough year last year, but they were in great form and did a nice job hosting everyone.  We tried to keep our visit (and our visitors) as light as possible to minimize the stress on everyone, and I think it worked out.  My Dad even cooked a lemon meringue pie for us – one of my requests.  It was just as delicious as I remembered, and I ended up having three pieces in two days.  Yum!

Christmas morning was little kids tearing apart presents, and it had been a long time since I had experienced that – the last time I was the little kid tearing them open.

A couple of days after Christmas we drove up to Sacramento airport and took a flight down to San Diego to spend a couple of days with Nancy, Lynn and Kinsey.  As it turned out, they had some guests already – Roger, Mark and their friend Thomas were staying for a few days.  Thomas works at Mark’s company, and he is a German guy living in Switzerland and he’s in the process of taking a six month holiday to travel around the world – literally.  His stop in San Diego was just before the next leg to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia.  We might have a chance to host him when he gets to Japan near the end of February.  He was a great guy, with a unique sense of humor.

In San Diego we packed in a lot of activities – a dinner party with some friends from long ago, trips to two breweries (Bolt and the Belching Beaver), a day in Tecate Mexico eating delicious food and shopping in Mexican supermarkets, and even a dinner at Hodad’s which really brought back memories for me and for Kuniko.  It was tough to say goodbye to Nancy, Lynn and Kinsey at the end of the short stay, but great to see them happy and healthy in San Diego.

On the flight back to Sacramento I was really struck by the security level in the United States airports.  It was much tighter than Russian airport security, and for the first time in years we had to take off our shoes going through the gates.  And this was on a domestic flight… wow!  I’m sure they have prevented lots of attacks but it seemed a little on the extreme side for me.

We enjoyed a quiet New Year’s party, solved a diabolical jigsaw puzzle, enjoyed great food prepared by both Mark and Susan as well as my parents, and even had a chance to take my folks out to dinner at the Swiss Hotel.  Mission accomplished!

It sounds like my folks will be traveling to Japan at the end of April/beginning of May this year, so it won’t be long before we see them again.  It was a great holiday visit, and now it is back to our routine in Japan!

Last weekend we took an extra day off of work and went into Tokyo to catch Clean Bandit in concert.  They were only playing in Tokyo – no Osaka show, so we had no choice but to go! It was also a great chance to get out to Tokyo together and enjoy some of what the city has to offer.

Sunday morning we got a slow start, sleeping in as much as possible and doing a light pack for just one night.  Then we were off to the local bullet train station in Nishi Akashi.  We bought some beer and snacks for the three hour trip, and then settled in for the ride.  Along the way we kept out eyes open for Mt. Fuji, but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and hidden away.

Once we arrived in Tokyo station we decided to check out the route from the concert venue back to the bullet train station.  We were a little worried because the time window was a bit narrow between the end of the concert and the last bullet train to get back home.  Walking the route before hand gave us a chance to get our bearings, and it paid off later.

The concert venue was in Akasaka, so it was a pretty quick trip to get there.  They had set up a skating rink right in front, so it was hard to miss.  After looking around a little we walked out to where our hotel was, and checked in.  It was a small business hotel and there was a creepy guy checking in next to us who was taking every opportunity to chat up the poor receptionist lady, who had nowhere to hide.  Luckily he wasn’t on our floor.

For dinner we went to a French restaurant that was a little more casual than the restaurants that we usually visit in Kobe and Osaka.  They had a good menu – we ate an avocado and crab tart, ratatouille with a soft boiled egg on top, a chicken terrine chock full of liver, and a roasted deer steak for the main course.  Everything was very good, and we really liked the atmosphere of the place.  The only complaint we had was the music – 80’s American pop music seemed to drag down the vibe a little bit.  Still we enjoyed wine by the glass and I could try lots of different wines that I normally wouldn’t try because we usually buy a bottle for dinner.

After dinner we took a train to see Tokyo Tower.  It was a major Tokyo landmark (or it used to be) until the building of the Tokyo Sky Tree farther to the north.  Tokyo Tower was still quite nice, kind of like a mini-Eiffel Tower.   Kuniko had found a top floor bar in a nearby hotel and so we were able to get some really good seats to sip cocktails and watch the view of the tower and the surrounding city.  We just walked into the place, but they gave us VIP seats for some reason.  Thanks to the staff of the Tokyo Prince Hotel!  The cocktails were also remarkably good – I’ve had mixed results in other parts of Asia but the cocktails in upscale places in Japan are top notch (and priced like it).

While we watched the tower, they did a little mini-light show, and after watching the light show in Paris it really didn’t compare.  ‘A’ for effort, though.

Next we headed back towards the area near our hotel, looking out for somewhere to have just one more little bite to eat.  We stumbled on a big imported food supermarket full of rare things like bread imported from California, Fat Tire Ale in cans, and plenty of wines from all over the world.  This store would be the end of me, and luckily it is three hours away from where I live.  We did buy a can of Fat Tire for the walk, though.  How often do you see that in Japan?  I remember when you couldn’t get it in California.

Near our hotel we chose a restaurant almost at random and had some monja-yaki.  Supposedly it is Tokyo’s signature dish, but for a dish based in the capital city, it is surprisingly nasty to look at.  Honestly and without exaggeration it looks like somebody puked on the hot plate in front of you and then served it up.  The owner of the restaurant came over with each ingredient and then put everything together at our table and cooked it in front of us.  I think if we didn’t see each ingredient being combined we wouldn’t have had the courage to eat it.  But it tastes much better than it looks.  We had the “BIG BANG”-yaki which just meant that they put a lot of Korean ingredients like kimchee and nori.  Delicious, really. As an appetizer she served us some mackerel wrapped in tin foil and we roasted that up while we waited.  I usually don’t like mackerel but this was pretty good – maybe it was just heavy on the cooking oil.

Finally after all that we went back to our hotel.  We were pretty tired out – we walked all over and that was just one corner of Tokyo.

The next morning we slept in again, this time for more practicial reasons.  We were going to be up late catching a long bullet train ride back home after the concert, so we wanted to get every bit of energy we could while we had the chance.  Eventually we got our act together, checked out of the hotel, and grabbed a coffee at a nearby cafe called Oslo Coffee.  I don’t know what coffee tastes like in Oslo, but this was pretty good.  Then we walked across town to get an early lunch.

The place we were looking for was located in Kasumigaseki, where the ministry offices for the national government are located.  Huge ministry and office buildings loomed everywhere, and situated in the middle of those was a tiny French bistro.  I had heard about it online, and made a reservation to check it out.  The place looked authentic enough – the red awnings, a salon imported from France, and staff that spoke French, English and Japanese.  We grabbed a table outside despite the slightly cold temperatures, and perused the menu.  We ended up ordering a bacon and onion tart and a braised chicken fricassee with mushrooms.  They were both exactly what I’d expect at a bistro – affordable, delicious and they went well with two glasses of wine.  We ordered a glass of red and white from the Languedoc region.

The owner of the place was a French guy who took pity on the two souls sitting outside in the cold weather and turned on a heater for us.  We talked with him a bit and he was very nice to chat with us even during the lunchtime rush.  The place was as authentic French as you could get in Tokyo – delicious.  La Petit Tonneau Toronomon – highly recommended.

After our lunch we caught a train to head quite a ways from the center of Tokyo to see Tokyo Sky Tree.  This is the new landmark of Tokyo that is being promoted, and it is clear that they are ready to capitalize on the promotion.  Big parking lots are set up to receive the bus tours, and shops surround the tower to sell souvenirs to groups tours that come in.  I’m sure they will make a lot of money.  We stood underneath the tower and looked almost straight up.  It was an impressive sight to be sure, but maybe we just a little too close to appreciate the size of the thing.  We decided not to go to the top – there was cloudy weather and we figured it wasn’t worth the 2000 yen fee for the elevator ride.

Back on the train and back to the center of town, where we stopped in Shibuya.  The neighborhood is pretty busy – we crossed the famous Shibuya scramble intersection, we took pictures of the Hachiko statue, and hit all the touristy stuff.  Nearby we waited in line for some meat pies from a shop that Kuniko wanted to try.  It was started by an Australian, and the pies were quite good.  Their selling point was a cute face decorated on top (perfect for Japan) and we took a few to go for the next day’s lunch.  Yum!

After Shibuya we decided to walk all the way to Akasaka, near where the concert venue was.  It was a long walk there, but we figured it was a good way to burn calories and get ready for dinner.  We arrived around four pm and Yona Yona Beer Works for dinner.

Yona Yona is brewery that started up around the same time as I came to Japan, and they faced an uphill battle against the four big (entrenched) Japanese brewers (Suntory, Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo).  The big four had worked with their friends in the government to make it really hard to get into the brewing business and made lots of obstacles for small companies to get bigger and compete.  As a matter of fact, to this day it is illegal in Japan to brew your own alcohol.  Yona Yona and others were able to fight through these obstacles and get a foothold in the market, and they succeeded enough that Kirin bought a stake in them to prevent any further threat to their business.  I’ve always liked Yona Yona because the style in more American – ales and beers with intensity and hops – and very different from the Japanese lagers that make up most of the market here.

The brewhouse in Akasaka was impressive, and testament to what they could do with a big investment from a company like Kirin.  The decor and atmosphere were perfect for drinking beer, and they even featured private rooms for small groups with a dedicated tap in the room so they could keep themselves refreshed.  We ordered seafood skewers, gyoza with a forest of cilantro on top, and a couple of ham steaks to go with our beers.  They served the usual beers but also some I have never tried, so it was a unique experience.  Thanks to Kuniko who thought up the idea – what a great place to have dinner before the show.

After dinner we walked about 15 minutes through the nightlife of the area to get to Akasaka Blitz where Clean Bandit was playing.  There were already big crowds waiting to get in, but luckily our tickets had a low lottery number on them and we got in early.  We staked out a position in the middle of the floor, and drank our one drink minimums.  Around 7 pm Clean Bandit came on stage and started the show.  They whipped through their set like they had an appointment afterwards, with just a heartbeat between songs.  We loved it.

Although most of the regulars were there, one member didn’t join them on the tour, and Kuniko was a little disappointed.  On their album they have a different singer for almost every song, so it was interesting to see how they handled it on tour.  They did a good job by splitting up the singing duties, and every song they played sounded great.  We were cheering and dancing throughout the show, and by the time they finished the last song of the encore it was about 90 minutes after they started.  This was good news for us – as soon as they wrapped up the last song we made a beeline for the doors and we beat everyone to the train station and caught the first train out of there.  From there it was an easy trip to the Tokyo bullet train station, and we were even able to catch an earlier bullet train and gain about 30 minutes  of sleep later on.

It was a really great evening, and I was glad that we went ahead and took the day off to attend.  It is events like this that help you stay young, I think, and getting another taste of Tokyo was totally worth it.  I’m hoping that we have a chance to do something like this again, even if there isn’t a concert to use as an excuse.  Good times!

It is the end of another week!  Although Kuniko has to work tomorrow, we are still planning a trip to Tokyo to see Clean Bandit in a small club, and eat at some interesting looking restaurants.  We got tickets on the bullet train and we’re ready to go.  It is a little rare for us to be tourists in Japan – it’ll nice to be traveling without having to worry about the language, internet connectivity, or reading the signs.  

Last night after work I went to my final dentist appointment.  I now have three crowns – two metal ceramic ones in my lower mouth, and one silver one in the very back of the top of my mouth.  I checked the records and I’ve been going to the dentist almost weekly since May of this year.  I’m looking forward to a long break from visiting the dentist office.  The dentist asked me to come in next week just to see how things are going, but I told him that I was busy and said maybe next month.  But I doubt I’ll go in.  I’ll start regular dental cleaning and checkups with a new dentist, maybe starting in March.  He was recommended by the president of my company so hopefully he is better than the last guy.  I’ll keep the old dentist’s number, just in case any emergencies come up.  This was a long process and I had no idea it would last as long as it did.  It’s good to be free – maybe I’ll celebrate with some jawbreakers at Christmas.

Last weekend was an action-packed one.  Friday night we went to see the latest James Bond movie, Saturday night was another wild party with the neighbors, and then Sunday we walked all the way to Akashi and had a great experience in a tiny Japanese restaurant.

I shouldn’t be surprised that our party with the neighbors got a little out of hand. We always seem to let loose with the Yamaji’s and Fukumi’s.  We drank plenty of wine, Mr. Yamaji finished half a bottle of bourbon on his own, and there were some really interesting conversations.  We all exchanged Christmas presents, and that has become kind of a tradition among us.   It was great fun, and I wasn’t feeling too bad the next day.  The food seemed to be a hit, and now we have a lot of extra Tabasco sauce that we’ll need to use up.

Sunday we walked to Akashi for a couple of purposes – shopping for Christmas, mailing a package, and having lunch.  After mailing the package we walked around the station area to look for a place to eat.  Since there is a lot of construction going on in front of Akashi station, the restaurant that were displaced have a temporary building set up where they can continue business.  We walked into a place that was really traditional Japanese.  The counter was filled with older guys drinking sake and talking in loud voices, there was a lot of seafood on the menu as well as kushi-katsu and yakitori.  A real blue-collar type place.

We ordered a mix a different items and some beers, and just soaked in the atmosphere.  We noticed that the people next to us had ordered a big plate of fish, and it looked really good.  We found it on the menu and Kuniko ordered kamayaki.  ‘Kama’ means the neck of the fish, a bony area just below the mouth.  We chose yellowtail for our fish, and the cook picked up a big chunk of raw fish meat and took it over to the grill.  He salted it up and cooked it while we waited in anticipation.  There is a lot of oil in the skin and around the edges of the cut of fish, and it all turned nice and brown and crispy.  I was impressed when it arrived – it looked great!  We tore it apart with our chopsticks, and it was so delicious.  It felt like we’ve been missing out all this time, since we don’t usually order fish like this.  Lesson learned!

After lunch while still buzzing from the lunch beers we faced Toys R Us and the crowds of kids and families shopping there for the holidays.  It was pretty packed but we had an unusually fun time looking through the toys.  We picked out a few things that might be good for family when we head to my hometown for Christmas.  Hopefully the language barrier won’t be a problem.

In the evening after returning home we worked on planning for our trip at the end of March to Singapore – we’ll see if we can actually get to our intended destination this time!

Last night after work I took the train past my regular station and went on to Tsuchiyama, to attend a party with all of the friends from Denya yakitori.  It was the first time in a long time that I could meet up with these guys, and it was a lot of fun.  

The usual suspects were all there, and I really enjoyed catching up with everyone.  Some people looked exactly the same, others looked completely different.  The master of Denya brought his new wife (at least, she was new to me) and I met his son for the first time.  The little guy was crawling around the room playing with the other kids.  Some of the babies that I held ten years ago were elementary school students now, and it was an interesting feeling – like stepping into a time machine.   Some things never change, however – the gossip, the dirty jokes, and most of all the laughter. Everyone there has been friends for most of their lives, and I counted myself lucky to be part of their group.

The party was held at a yakiniku restaurant near Tsuchiyama station.  Actually, Kuniko and I drive past it every time we come home from visiting Kuniko’s parents, and I often look in the shop as we drive by.  Oddly, they have a cotton candy machine on the first floor, and we often see kids coming out of there after their meal with sticks of cotton candy.  It was fitting that after our dinner last night the owner of the place started spinning up some cotton candy for the kids, and he passed one to me as well.  The restaurant was quite large, actually – three stories of yakiniku tables, and I think they specialize in families and large parties.  Everyone was really nice to us, and I liked the quirky atmosphere.  I’m not sure when/if I’ll be back, but it was a fun location for our get-together.

Now that was a nice weekend!

Friday night we stayed home and I roasted some vegetables for a change of pace.  Usually on weeknights we have nabe (Japanese style soup) that is almost always vegetarian.  Mainly it has Chinese cabbage, tofu, mushrooms, leeks, and then some kind of basic soup – flavored with kimchee, soymilk or sesame. Since it was a cold Friday night I bought a bunch of root vegetables and roasted the vegetables in our dutch oven.  I had received a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau from the VP during our lesson that day, so we opened it up and it made for a nice dinner.

Saturday Kuniko was working, but I went out hiking with Yoshi for the first time in a long time.  I thought that since I’ve been riding the exercise bike so often that the hike would be a piece of cake, but writing this now on Monday morning my legs are still sore.  The weather was perfect, and we hiked up Suma mountain, and then along the ridge to the eastern part of Suma, and then back down to the beach and on to the station.  I told Yoshi the story about how we ended up in Hong Kong instead of Singapore, and he really got a kick out of it.  Yoshi’s work has been pretty stressful lately, and I think the mountain air and the change of pace were good for him, too.  

I met Kuniko for dinner at a place called “Obiobi”, in Sannomiya.  I immediately liked the atmosphere – dark and mysterious.  There were just a few tables and counter seating facing a big charcoal grill that was heating chunks of meat.  The idea was you picked some smaller dishes to support the main dish – a chunk of meat that they grill for you.  We selected lamb chops for our meat, and then we had some cheese gratin, grilled scallops and vegetables, some foie gras, and a mixed appetizer of antipasti. Everything was pretty good, but the lamb chop still had quite a bit of fat on it.  If I was grilling I would have cooked it a little differently – but I guess you have to let them do it their way… it is kind of the point of going out.  We had an Italian red with dinner, and it went well with the dishes that we selected.  We had fun there, but I’m not sure we’ll be going back.  On the way home we did some slightly drunken shopping at two of our favorite stores, and came home with a couple of bags of food each.  

Sunday we woke up early, did two loads of laundry, and then went out on the town for some shopping.  We did a little Christmas shopping, but most of what we brought home was supplies for our upcoming holiday parties.  We enjoyed lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant, Baan Thai in Sannomiya.   We were surprised to get a reservation there, and as usual during our lunch the staff turned away many, many people that didn’t have a reservation.  The food was excellent as always.  The staff asked us if we were aware that we had ordered quite a lot of food for two people, and confirmed with us that we really wanted that much.  This seems to happen to us a lot, actually.  We said yes of course, and had a very big, delicious lunch.  We had skipped breakfast and we ended up skipping dinner too, so it served as our food for the entire day.  Scrumptious!

This week will be a little busy for both of us.  I have a party on Wednesday, Kuniko on Thursday, Friday will be prepping for our holiday party on Saturday, and I’m sure Sunday will be a recovery day.  I guess that is what the holidays are all about!

Two days ago it was warm enough that I was sweating when walking to work in my coat, and my students and I wondered about climate change during our classes.  Last night a cold blustery wind came through, roaring outside all night, and when I walked to work this morning I was pretty cold.  Today was the first day to wear long underwear – so now we’re dealing with winter.

Three weeks ago I was sick and couldn’t go hiking with Yoshi, but we are on for tomorrow.  I’m not sure yet where we will hike, but we’ll spend the morning on a mountain somewhere.  It seems like I haven’t been hiking in ages – maybe all this exercise bike riding has cut my hunger for climbing mountains a bit.

Saturday after the hike I’ll go home, clean up, and then meet Kuniko in Kobe for dinner at a restaurant that she would like to try.  She had planned to go there with a friend and made reservations for two, but her friend had to cancel, and I am the pinch hitter.  

Sunday we may go out and do a little Christmas shopping, but nothing else special is planned.  It’ll be a cold weekend, but we’ve got to start getting used to this weather – it’ll be like this for the next four months!

Pictures from this trip can be found here.

Last weekend we took a day off of work on Friday, and headed off to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in Singapore.  
Except we never got there.

The trip started off normally enough – we drove to the Kobe airport, took the bay shuttle ferry across the water to the Osaka airport, and got in the check-in line for our flight.  We handed over our passports, and the check-in counter staff had some trouble with my passport.  I started to get worried when she left the booth to talk with her supervisor, and then we got the bad news.

My passport was due to expire in four months.  Singapore requires that you have six months left on your passport to enter the country.  So I couldn’t go.

I was shocked – for the life of me I thought that my passport didn’t expire until May or June, but for some reason I never checked it before leaving.  I knew about the six month rule – lots of countries have it – but mentally I must have been thinking about the expiration of my foreigner registration card.  Anyway, no excuses here – I screwed up and I couldn’t go to Singapore.

Kuniko was cleared to go, and for a while we considered whether it was worth it for her to go and make the best out of the weekend since it was already paid for.   In the end we decided that she’d stick around, and we went downstairs to sit on a bench in the airport and think about our options. I called the hotel, and they were nice enough to let us cancel our room without penalty, so there was a glimmer of good news.  We got on our smartphones and started looking around.

I did some research and found that unlike Taiwan and China, Hong Kong doesn’t have a six month requirement for passports, and Hong Kong was already on our list. In fact, we were planning to go there in March 2016 anyway.  I double-checked with an airline agent to make sure that they would let me enter Hong Kong, and they said no problem.  With my phone I bought two tickets on a plane leaving that afternoon, and we were on our way.  I also reserved a nice room at the Hyatt Regency, and all that remained was waiting a few hours for our flight.

Kuniko was obviously disappointed because the plan had changed dramatically, but I was just happy that we were going somewhere fun together, and that we didn’t have to sit at home all weekend thinking about how I screwed up our anniversary plans.  

We were able to get exit row seats on Jetstar Japan on a non-stop flight to Hong Kong, and after a boring four hour flight we arrived in Hong Kong around 8 pm.  We took the high speed rail link all the way to Hong Kong’s Central station, and then found a cab to take us to the top of Victoria Peak.  

The view from up there was really impressive.  They built a big observation structure up there, and designed the walkways and other buildings to block the view – a subtle way to encourage people to pay up to go out on the observation deck.  We did just that, but the fee was worth it.  The night was a little cloudy, but the view of the buildings and architecture along Hong Kong Harbor was spectacular.  We tried taking pictures with my camera and both of our phones, but because of the wind and the low lighting it was not easy.  In addition, before we left on our trip I was working for about 30 minutes on my camera – it has an automatic lens cover that sometimes sticks, resulting in pictures with a dark corner.  It has been driving me crazy for years, and I thought I had it fixed finally – unfortunately at the top of the mountain with the beautiful view it was sticking again.  What a pain!

After getting our fill of the scenery we looked for a cab to get back to the station.  There was a cab nearby waiting, but the driver didn’t speak much English.  After we got moving he tried to get us to pay up front in cash instead of using the meter, and was pretty rude about it.  We tried to figure out what he was saying, but we never got it.  It started feeling weird to me so we had him pull over and we got out.  We had to walk five minutes back to the taxi stand, but we found another driver there who spoke English.  He offered to drive us down the mountain to the station for 250 Hong Kong dollars, which was pretty steep. We were on a tight schedule, though, and we figured the money was worth the time that we would save – the only other way down was the bus or a tram, all of which had long, long lines. 

Back at the train station we took a train under the bay to the Tsian Sha Tsui section of Hong Kong, where I had reserved the hotel.  As we walked through the crowded streets I suddenly realized I didn’t have my camera.  I checked my pockets, my bag, and then I realized that it had probably been left behind in one of the taxicabs.  I don’t know which one, but I hoped it wasn’t the guy that tried to rip us off at first… By this time there was no way that the camera would be recovered.  Oh well, I hated that sticky camera lens anyway.  The good news was that I only took about 10 pictures before I lost it, so we didn’t lose all our holiday memories.  

So I’m sure at that point Kuniko is wondering if I had some kind of brain disease or sudden onset of alzheimer’s.  Where is my normally organized and competent husband?  The wheels were off the wagon, folks!

Luckily, from there things started to improve.  The hotel was in an interesting neighborhood, and our room was quite nice.  We scored a free upgrade and had a great view of the harbor with huge windows across the whole room.  The bed and bathroom were spacious as well.  It’s good to have a credit card when you need it!

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel we headed out to explore. We ate dinner at a tiny shop that specialized in beef broth noodles, and they treated us very nicely and gave us English menus to order.  They even ran across the street to buy us beers (because we didn’t notice they weren’t on their menu).  

After dinner we walked around the neighborhood taking in the sights.  We were in the nightlife part of Hong Kong, and there was a lot going on.  The architecture is pretty impressive, but also I like the modern buildings surrounded by bamboo scaffolding, or the little alleys that led to dinghy shopping arcades.  There were so many people out and about (it was still Friday night, after all) and navigating the crowds was getting to be a little tiring.  

We went back to our hotel and went to the Chin Chin Bar, which was described as a Chinese lounge bar.  There was a foreign lady singing old 80’s tunes in the main lounge but we were able to get a seat outside and avoided most of the kitsch.  Our cocktails were typical Asian cocktails – watered down versions of the real thing.  But it was nice to sit down for a while and enjoy the warm temperature and the fresh(?) air. 

The next day was spent mainly eating.  Eating dim sum, noodles, won ton soup, more dim sum, coconut milk, mango and tapioca, fruit juices.  My favorite dim sum was a cake made with egg – described as a thousand layer egg cake – steamed cake with layers of salted egg yolk and coconut lotus paste in between layers of steamed flour. A revelation of salty and sweet! We ate and we walked and we ate again.  At one place the waiter came to change our dirty tablecloth. He removed the old one, and then spread out a new one – which looked just as dirty. He seemed to notice, so he flipped it over to the other side. But that side was just as dirty as the other two. Finally he just shrugged and put it on the table. The real Chinese experience!

Between the eating we enjoyed the views of the city.  Our favorite place was the harborfront on the central island of Hong Kong.  It was a financial district with almost no shopping, and so we could get away from the crowds but also enjoy the ocean view, lots of green grass and plenty of space to walk.  

The public transportation system in Hong Kong was just as good as the ones where we live, so it was no trouble getting around.  We also went across the bay using the White Star ferry, which was much cheaper than the train and more fun, too.  We once again covered land, sea and air during our trip.

We slowly walked and ate our way across Hong Kong’s old town until we got to the train station towards the airport.  There was a giant Buddha that we both were hoping to see, so we took the train to get there as it would be our last stop before we went to the airport.  Unfortunately when we got there, they said that we’d have to wait 45 minutes to board the ropeway, 30 minutes on the ropeway, 30 minutes to look around, and then we’d be behind many people and we would probably have to wait two hours before could catch the ropeway back.  The staff said we’d likely miss our flight home.  We were disappointed we couldn’t see the Buddha – I had no idea it was such a big attraction – but we’ll probably come back in the future and check it out.  Hong Kong is only four hours away from us and it wouldn’t be hard to return someday.

From there we went back to the airport, did a little shopping, and had a drink at an airport bar (we had to explain to the staff the difference between Chardonnay and Shiraz) and then it was a little shopping and home.  

The return flight arrived late at night at Kansai airport, so we had to kill four hours waiting for the first boat out.  We managed to kill time at the empty airport walking around, drinking coffee at McDonald’s and Burger King, and sleeping a little bit.  We caught a ferry around 6 am, and we were at home and in bed sleeping by 8 am.  

It wasn’t what we planned, but I really enjoyed seeing Hong Kong – it was slightly different from Taiwan but just as interesting.  Most importantly, Kuniko and I could spend time together traveling.  We’ll be heading to the USA for Christmas this year, but as soon as I return to Japan in January I’ll be sending in my passport for renewal.  Hopefully we can take a little redemption trip to Singapore in March of 2016!

Tomorrow is our ten year wedding anniversary.  We actually have two wedding anniversaries – one for the legal paperwork (which we celebrate in July) and then one for our wedding ceremony which we celebrate on November 20th.  Ten years ago tomorrow our family and friends came together in Kobe, Japan to help us have a big party with lots of food, beverages and speeches.  It was a memorable day for both of us and we’ve spent the last few days remembering the fun time we had.

Rather than give each other anniversary gifts, we decided to do some traveling instead.  We’re taking a quick trip to Singapore for a few short days and then we’ll be back in Japan before anyone notices we left.  I think our traveling time will (nearly) be longer than our staying time, but traveling is what we like to do, and breezing through airports never fails to excite us. 

Tonight is packing and cleaning up, and then we’re off early tomorrow morning. I’ll update with pics and stories once we get back…  

As I have previously stated, Wednesday is a really busy day for me.  I start with a special email writing class, a regular one-on-one business conversation class, and then a new lesson with a small group of new employees.  That means that I am trying out two new lessons, and switching all the materials and whiteboards between each class.  Not much breathing room!

Most Wednesdays, however, I have a free class period right after lunch so I can do lesson planning and clean up after all my other classes in the morning.  This open period is sometimes swallowed up by special classes with students that have to adjust their schedule, or maybe there is a project that I have to get done during that time.  Today I have the free period all to myself, so I’m looking forward to getting all caught up.

Tonight after work we are facing an empty fridge situation.  I’ll stop at the supermarket on the way home and buy some stuff to fill up the fridge, but it is a remarkably rare situation to have almost nothing to get rid of.  Well, there is a quarter of a head of cabbage, but we’ll be able to have a salad and knock that out.  I’m wondering what to throw together tonight. 

Tomorrow is the last day of our week, and we’ll be plenty busy tomorrow getting ready for our short trip.  Can’t wait!

During the commute yesterday there were a couple of events that threw off the whole system for a while.  Many of the employees at my company had to come in late, and Kuniko didn’t make it to work until noon, which is pretty dramatically late.  

I guess the first problem was a suicide – someone jumped in front of a train rather than go off to work on Monday morning.  The second problem was some power substation that went down, meaning large parts of the train line had to stop completely.  Some people were stuck in trains for almost three hours, and I saw some people had to get out of their train and walk along the tracks to the nearest station. 

So next time I talk about the amazing efficiency and convenience of Japanese trains please remember that there are bad days, too.

Luckily for me, I leave very early in the morning so my train (the first train from me station) wasn’t affected.  By the time I left work in the evening the trains were (mostly) back to normal, so I got home right about the same time as usual.  Sometimes it pays off to get up at (well, actually before) the crack of dawn.

This weekend was another good chance to rest up, stay inside and out of the rain, and do some cooking and relaxing.  I’m a big fan of doing nothing on the weekend – I spend 95% of my workday talking with students, and sometimes having a quiet weekend with Kuniko is just what the doctor ordered.  

The big topic this weekend was the terror attacks in Paris, France.  It seems like this kind of thing is becoming more common unfortunately, but when I think about all the good people around the world, and the acts of kindness that happen every single day that don’t get a big media story, well, in my mind the good guys are coming out way ahead of the bad guys.  We’ll be back in Paris – it is one of our favorite cities – and we’ll continue to travel regardless of these kinds of attacks.  If we die traveling then so what?  We die doing what we love.  

Speaking of doing what we love, we’re gearing up for a quick trip to Singapore.  We’re going during the rainy season, but it’ll be warm and humid while we’re there.  We plan on eating everything in sight – I’m bringing plenty of antacid just in case. Before the trip, we’ve got a busy class schedule this week, so first thing’s first.  

On the way to and from work every day I pass by a small restaurant/bar called “Jin”.    I may have written about Jin here before, and if so you’re about to get the same story again.  I really must figure out an easy way to search my own archives to find this stuff.

Anyway, Jin is an unusual place, mainly because of the strange times that it is open and closed.  For example, it is never open before 9 pm, any day of the week.  It is often open when I pass by on my way to work in the morning, which is about 5:15 am.  
Jin’s niche is serving people that work evening shifts, and I think that they probably open around midnight or so.  By the time I walk by in the mornings on my way to the station, there is usually the sound of lively discussion from inside.  Sometimes I even see someone I know come stumbling out of there.  Partying like rock stars in Okubo!

I’ve been to Jin once and I remember it very clearly.  It was recommended by the master of Denya yakitori, since he knew the owner who is a very nice lady.  I stopped in one night after drinking somewhere else – maybe Kobe or Osaka – and for some reason the notion of one more drink at a new place near my house appealed to me. 

The place has a small bar and 2-3 low tables on tatami mats behind.  I remember that it was winter and there was a warm heater and lots of blankets for people to use.  It had the feel of someone’s house more than a bar, which to me was quite pleasant.  The menu was predominantly fish and snacks – things that go well with shochu and sake.  I sat at the bar between a young woman who was talking with her husband/boyfriend and an older guy pushing 90.  

The master of the place was very hospitable, and she served me some sake and some smoked fish to go with it.  We talked a bit, and then she went to the back room to make more food for another customer.  The old man next to me was having trouble remaining on his bar stool, and he seemed to be having a conversation with himself.  I looked over at him, and that’s when he suddenly blew a mouthful of his drink straight at the bottles sitting on the bar and pretty much a third of the way up my right arm.  

I clearly remember thinking, “What am I doing here?”, and soon after I paid my bill and left to put my shirt in the laundry hamper.  Why was I paying money to drink things I don’t usually drink, eat food that I don’t particulary like, and have old people spit on me? After that I never went back. 

But really, my schedule and Jin’s schedule are completely opposite, and even if I wanted to go I don’t really have many chances.  Maybe it is for the best – the old man spraying his drink across the bar might have been fate giving me a message…

Working in a company that is more than a hundred years old in Japan really gives you an idea about their importance of taking the long term view. 

I’ve seen business decisions made today because of the possibility of future business 50 years (!) from now.  Companies in Japan have to work well with the other companies that they deal with, and in a small country like Japan, word gets around.  If you treat another company poorly, other companies can’t help but notice.  

Another student told me about a golf tournament that is sponsored by one of our customers.  Since they are the customer, our company is obliged to send a president or vice president twice a year to participate.  I off-handedly asked how long that has been going on… it sounded like a pain to send executives so often to keep a customer happy.  My student thought about my question for a little while, and then he said that the tournament started about 40 years ago.  Wow!

Things in Japan change very slowly.  The inertia of things here make it far more common to just do things the same as last year, because it seemed to work fine then and why shake it up?  You see it with company management styles, holidays, and consumer products.  Even the fax machine is still a trusted business tool here.

Today I had to smile when I read that Sony decided to stop making Betamax video cassette tapes.  Betamax?  Tapes?  It’s hard to believe that they still have been producing these.  How many people do you know that use Betamax tapes? Or even VHS tapes?  The article went on to say that they would be phasing out the tapes slowly, with the tapes finally stopping production in March of next year.  Even stopping production is a slow, gradual process.

This kind of phenomenon is fascinating to see, especially after working at fast-moving nimble companies in Silicon Valley during the first dot-com bubble.  Now I feel like I’m working on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.