Today marks the end of the week. For me it is also payday, so we’re going out to one of our favorite restaurants, Chiro, for dinner tonight. If that wasn’t enough fun, we’ll be meeting Yoshi and Mamiko in Osaka on Saturday afternoon to attend a beer festival that they heard about. So it is definitely a lively weekend to look forward to.

I’m pretty much all set up and ready for the new employee lessons I have next week. My lesson plans always turn out a little different than what I intended, but I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing. We’ll see what happens on Monday.

Also I saw on the news that the situation in Thailand is deteriorating lately. That is always a bummer to see one of our favorite countries suffering through the mess that its in. I’m also glad that we didn’t end up deciding on the beaches of Thailand for our trip in December. I’m sure things will be sorted out by then, but in the meantime it would have made for a little bit of stress as we watched the situation with a close eye.

Day by day I am making headway on my lesson plans for next week’s classes. There are three classes next week that will be fairly intensive, and then after that it will be a regular schedule until September. Just a bit more work to get through before I’m ready for the students next week.

Last night I agreed to go out to a tachinomi place with Mr. Kiriki. He works in my department (Human Resources) but I’m not exactly clear what his role is. He’s always the life of the party, and that can sometimes lead to trouble.

I wasn’t exactly sure why he wanted to go out, but he tried to explain by giving me a copy of the passport of a young man from the United Arab Emirates.

As it turned out, Mr. Kiriki is hosting the young man for a few months, and he is a friend of Mr. Kiriki’s son. He spoke perfect English and just a little Japanese, so it was a good chance for him to talk with someone who could understand him. We went to a local place and had beers and talked for a while. Mr. Kiriki was happy to put the two of us together, and sat contentedly drinking shochu and making comments now and then.

I didn’t stay too long, but I promised to try to meet up with his guest in the future, and started to make my way out of there. Mr. Kiriki wouldn’t let me pay for my drinks, which was very nice of him, but he did ask me to do him a favor. After buying my drinks I could hardly refuse him, so we ended up walking a few hundred yards to another drinking place, and he led me inside and introduced me to the whole place.

It was kind of a snack style place, but all of the customers and staff were women. The customers seemed to want me to join them, but I was able to avoid that situation. The owner of the place produced her daughter, who was probably high school age, and they made her try to speak English with me. I tried to make it easy for her because it is no fun to be forced to speak another language under the pressure of an expectant audience.

After a little more chit-chat Mr. Kiriki and I left, and I was able to head on home. It was an interesting evening… not the usual pattern I follow, but definitely entertaining.

This week and next will be a little extra busy.  I’m teaching some special classes to the new employees, both white collar and blue collar, and the lesson planning has been taking up most of my “blog time” in the mornings.  I should have everything sorted out by the middle of next week, but in the meantime I’ll try to blog here and there in the evenings when I have time.

Last weekend we had a dinner party with one of my ex-students and his wife.  The last time we met them was in Sannomiya for Spanish food, and shortly thereafter they announced they were pregnant.  Now she is about halfway through her pregnancy, and that meant that there wasn’t quite as much eating and drinking as usual.  We still had a great time with the Kato family, and we’re looking forward to meeting their new baby when it makes an appearance later this year.

After that party, we are now officially holding a clean slate and we have no other house guests planned in the near future.  I’m hoping that we can get Antoine and his family over sometime, and also a couple of my coworkers.  For now, we’ve got nothing to keep us honest about housecleaning.

Recently Kuniko’s schedule has had her at work well into the evening. She has been working on some big issues with grades and students, and that is definitely top priority.

The good news in this for me is that I have plenty of time to exercise and stay caught up on reality TV shows. I also have a little more time than normal to prepare dinner and maybe try something that needs more time to complete. The other night I cooked up a bunch of veggies into a ratatouille that ended up being pretty good. It had enough time for the flavors to blend together and I was really happy with the result.

Tonight is another night when I’ll have a lot of time to dream something up. Kuniko requested avocados, so whatever it is will probably be green. Hmm…

For some reason I’ve been spending a lot more time reading lately. Reading on the train, reading on the sofa, reading at lunch – whenever I have a chance. Maybe that is because we have our trips mostly planned out for the year, and I’m ahead of schedule with my lesson planning at work.

Anyway, it is nice to have the time to read whatever I like. Once I finish my current book I think I’ll get back on the language study wagon, and start working on some basic expressions in French and Portuguese for the summer trip.

Today Kuniko has a short day at work, so she should be waiting for me when I get home. It is a nice chance for her to relax since she usually has to work on Saturdays. The schedule on Tuesday is meant as compensation.

Tomorrow we’re planning another Costco run – we have to do some shopping for our party on Saturday. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be too expensive…

Word came to me last Friday from Florida, where Mark and Susan had their second baby, a daughter named Maya Rose. Kuniko and I were happy to hear the news, and we’re looking forward to meeting Maya someday. Congratulations to Mark, Susan and Charlie.

Other than that big news, things around here have been pretty quiet. Kuniko had to work both days this weekend, so I had a lot of free time during the day to exercise, read books, and do some cooking. Saturday Kuniko requested shrimp and scallops for dinner, so I went out and bought a lot of both. We peeled and marinated the shrimp in olive oil, garlic, cilantro and sriracha sauce, and just dusted the scallops with lemon pepper and a bit of salt. They both turned out great – but I think I overbought on the shrimp.

This week is pretty standard for us, and this weekend we’ll be hosting some new visitors to our place for Mexican food. Hopefully there will be something interesting to blog about in the interim…

Last night we received mail from London – our train passes for the summer trip are here, charged up and ready to use. I just hope we don’t lose them between now and then.

I’m happy that it is Friday, and I’m looking forward to the weekend. Unfortunately it will be without my wife since she’s working both days. She’ll be showing up in the evenings, though, and I’m hoping to grill some seafood for her tomorrow night. I’ll be on the hunt for some shellfish tomorrow morning. Luckily it is relatively inexpensive and easy to find here.

OK – one more day at work and then I’m back in holiday mode…

So yesterday was our first day back to work, and for both of us it was just a regular work day. I have two more days and then I can enjoy the weekend, but Kuniko has Friday off, and then she has to work both days on the weekend. Our schedule is a little weird right now.

Once I wrap up this week, I’ll have ten weeks in a row without a special holiday. It is a long run without a national holiday to break things up, but I think it’ll be a great chance to get a routine going that involves hard work, exercise, and a bit of weekend relaxation.

There is a really nice thing to look forward to at the end of the ten weeks – an entire week off in July. It is called a “Power Saving Holiday” and it is for my company only. That means everyone else will be working and it is a great time to go to places that normally would be packed with visitors. Unfortunately, it will be in July when it is brutally hot.

Anyway, I’m eager to get the routine going starting next Monday!

We wrapped up a long holiday weekend yesterday with a slow day at home. We only went out to do a little shopping for the week, but mainly it was lounging around the house reading books and doing little chores ahead of going back to work today.

It was a busy holiday! Last Friday I spent the daytime making enchiladas for a dinner party we were hosting on Saturday, but before that on Friday evening Kuniko and I both had a party. I met up with Anthony in Kobe at Rokko Beer Diner. It had been a long time since I had been there, and the bartender commented that he hadn’t seen me in a while. Now that the weather is heating up I suppose I’ll be a better customer.

Anthony had some big news – his wife Risa had just given birth to his second son in Brunei. He was planning on flying out to see them at the end of the week. It was great to hear, and it was also interesting to hear the hoops you have to jump through to get citizenship for your kids. I guess that’s like in an international family.

We drank lots of beers at the diner and also later at a smoky yakitori that he recommended. We then managed to meet up with Kuniko and ride the train back the same direction while they caught up on all the big news.

After drinking on Friday night it was right back into party mode… we hosted Yoshi’s family for a Mexican dinner of enchiladas, taco salad, and Mexican rice. We had a good time recapping our trip to Taiwan, exchanging photos, and eating and drinking until the last train. Akira was a little more active this time – I think he is more and more comfortable around us. I’m trying to use English with him more, and hopefully he’ll start to communicate more in English back to me.

It was a late night partying with them, so we enjoyed a little sleep in the next morning. We did most of the dishes cleanup after the party, so the rest we left to the robot. Sunday we had our third party in a row – a late afternoon BBQ with the Yamajis and Fukumis in the Yamaji’s backyard. It was good to relax outside and (surprisingly) the weather cooperated. We enjoyed lots of little dishes off the grill, and caught up with everyone. We even had a chance to visit with Ana a bit. Everyone had a chance to hold Hiroka for a while, and he seemed to be in a pretty good mood with very little crying.

The Fukumis seemed like they were in a quandary about what to do about their living arrangements. I guess it is difficult to decide to move to Tokyo as a family, or to keep the homestead in Okubo. There are plusses and minuses to both situations, but it seemed clear at the party that there are some disagreements between them on what the best course of action is. I know what I would do if I were them, but it is their problem to solve, and hopefully they’ll come to an agreement that both of them will be comfortable with in the future.

We didn’t stay too late this time around, as Hiroka really shouldn’t party all night, so we got home at a reasonable time, and we were able to get plenty of sleep.

The next two days were all on our own, and we spent much of the time giving our livers a break, cleaning out closets and organizing our dishware. We threw out a lot of old plates, cups, glasses and mugs that we haven’t used for more than a year. It will be a heavy load going out on non-burnable trash day next week.

So today it is back to work, and I feel pretty refreshed. It’ll be nice to have just a three day week, and hopefully my students have been studying during the long holiday. I’ll find out soon enough…

Golden Week holidays this year are pretty strange. Last year we had a scheduling quirk that gave us a ten day holiday, but this year another quirk just gives us six days. Furthermore, the six days are split over two weeks, so we get two days off this week, the weekend, and then the first two days off of next week.

Kinda weird.

My students (and I) are getting excited about the holidays, and today will be the last work day for a while. Unfortunately my schedule is chock full of classes, and it will be a very busy day for me.

This morning I will teach my first class with the new production employees. These are workers that joined the company in April, and will be factory workers mainly here in Japan, but occasionally they’ll ship off to other countries to support production in overseas plants in China, Singapore, the USA, Honk Kong, and possibly India. So somewhere along the line, they may need to be able to at least be familiar with using English.

These classes are always fun to teach, and since I have them only once a month they are something I look forward to. It’ll also be the first time for me to teach with my new supervisor (?) Ayumi, who was my student last term. I hope she doesn’t take out her English frustrations on me today in class…

Lots of things to catch up on in today’s blog. At the end of the last week I finally got a chance to eat ribs at Tony Roma’s in Kobe, and I was very pleased with the quality of the ribs. Unfortunately, everything else really wasn’t that exciting. The restaurant had an odd ambience, also. It seemed like a temporary setup rather than a permanent restaurant. But overall it was a good taste of America for me, and we were able to introduce Kuniko to the baked potato.

Over the weekend we spent most of Saturday at home watching movies and cleaning house, and on Sunday we went out to Kobe to see Kuniko’s students performing in a concert for their mandolin guitar club. It was a long concert but they did a great job on the performance, and Kuniko tells me it is the last time we’ll ever see a mandolin guitar concert. We’ll see about that…

On Sunday night we took care of a few things that we’ve been working on lately. The first was that we booked a flight and hotel for our trip in the winter holidays. We’ll be going to a beach resort in the Philippines, and hopefully it will be a good experience. It should be quiet – the last part of the journey to get there is by boat.

Also I indulged in a little present for the home – a tiny cleaning robot that we received last night. It isn’t a vacuum cleaner, but a mop and sweeper. Since we’re all hardwood floors and we have almost no carpets it makes sense. We’ll be experimenting with it the next couple of weeks to see how it works, but so far it is a lot of fun to watch in action.

I have a short week this week, and I get Thursday through next Tuesday off for the Golden Week holidays. I’m looking forward to catching up on some sleep and doing some household projects. We’ve also got a busy social calendar, with a party on Friday in Kobe for Kuniko and myself (separately) and then Yoshi and family coming over on Saturday and finally a visit to the Yamajis for BBQ on Sunday. Can’t wait!

On my way to work today I looked up the website of Tony Roma’s to give Kuniko the restaurant location where we’ll meet up tonight after work. Alongside a link to the map was a link to the menu, so I couldn’t resist clicking on it and checking out what I wanted to eat that night.

Good news – they have baby back ribs. I love to eat baby back ribs, and probably they are the hardest to find here in Japan. I couldn’t wait to order a rack.

But the bad news was that baby back ribs are the only kind of ribs they sell. No beef ribs, no big pork spareribs… bummer. I guess as far as Tony Roma is concerned in Japan, a rib is a rib is a rib.

I was a little disappointed about it, but hey – life goes on. I guess life is going pretty well for me if the biggest disappointment of my week was having to eat only one kind of BBQ ribs on Friday night.

Anyway, looking forward to dinner tonight.

This weekend we both have two days off, so we’ll probably do a lot of stuff around the house. We have plenty of chores to take care of before Golden Week starts next Thursday.

Can’t wait to relax and spend some slow time with Kuniko. If the weather holds up we may even get to do some hiking to burn off some of the calories we are going to put on tonight…

This is the question that seems to be on my mind all the time while we search out a good getaway for the winter holiday. Lately the focus has been on the Philippines because of the short distance and relatively low cost. A lot of the islands in the Philippines are isolated, and there are some good chances that you won’t have power some times, and internet access and other first world fundamentals may not be anywhere near. But for some people that is the attractive point.

One of the areas we are considering for a trip is near where they film Survivor. Apparently not just the American version of Survivor, but there are Survivors for five or six other countries. Interesting. I don’t know if I’m ready to bump into Jeff Probst on my holiday, though.

Last night’s Costco run was a success, and tonight I’ll be staying up late waiting for my wife to come home. She has to be on study hall duty, which means getting home past nine. It’ll be a quiet night of exercise, salad, and maybe some reality TV. I think the slow pace of Thursday suits me well.

After finishing my recent fantasy book, I’ve turned to another kind of fantasy, a non-fiction book called Home Sweet Anywhere. It is written by a couple who, after retirement, sold (almost) all their worldly possessions, and used their retirement nest egg to travel very slowly to different countries around the world. They didn’t just visit, they actually lived in different cities for at least a month or so before moving on.

By using the internet and different connections that they made along the way, they were able to experience a completely new lifestyle. All this while both of them are over 70… very impressive. The author is a first time writer, and it shows, but as far as travel writing goes it is really entertaining. It makes me think about our eventual retirement and consider what we would like to do.

Tonight after work we have a plan to do a Costco run, and then head home and relax. Hopefully we’ll be able to pick up something yummy to eat as we’ve been eating burritos for the last three days. A nice quiet evening putting away the groceries sounds great.

Monday was a pretty smooth day, at work and at home. At work I had a regular schedule, and I spent my planning time working on basic mid-term plans for all my students. Before I knew it it was time to go home, and I hustled out the door and caught a train back. On the way home I finished reading a great book, called “The Lies of Locke Lamorra” by Scott Lynch. Great fantasy fiction… I can’t wait to try the next book in the series.

We were looking for a restaurant to hit this Friday, since we both have two days off this weekend, and it is going to be a pretty busy week. By chance I stumbled on a news article in the US saying that Tony Roma’s is opening a new restaurant in Japan, and it was without much hope that I clicked on the link to see where the restaurant was opening. I was shocked to find out that it opened in Kobe four days ago. I got right on the phone and booked a table for us on Friday.

I haven’t actually been to a Tony Roma’s in any country, but I know they do ribs, and it is pretty hard to get my hands on good ribs here in Japan. Friday will be an interesting experience.

We’ve also got plans to hit Costco tomorrow, since we partied pretty hard and ran out of supplies. Food in, money out!

The last project that we’re working on this week is getting a handle on where to go this Christmas. It’ll be somewhere warm, but so far that’s all we got. Right now the top 3 ideas are the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam – some stretch of white sand is waiting for us somewhere.