Friday after work Kuniko and I met in Sannomiya to try a new restaurant, an Italian place called Ciccia. The place opens at 5:30, and so we made our reservations for exactly that time, as it usually takes me about 30 minutes to get there if I leave my work at five.

Kuniko got a bad first impression when she arrived at 5:29. She opened the door to get out of the cold, and the staff told her to please wait outside for a minute. A few minutes later they let her in, but she was a little bit perturbed. I arrived a minute or two late and was able to walk right in, so it was no big deal.

The atmosphere was nice – upscale but still mainly counter seating with only one table in the back. They had a very nice wine list with lots of options from not only Italy but also some French wines. The food was great, although nothing imaginative. Each dish was quite good but the portion sizes were a little on the small side. We had a salad served with a tiny garlic/anchovy fondue (yum) and also an appetizer plate that was pretty similar to what we serve at home when we do Italian. The exception was a nice piece of fresh mozzarella that was very high quality.

Our pasta dish was a picci pasta with a beef sauce that had been slow cooking all day, and then our main course was a grilled piece of lamb that was a little too fatty for my taste. I was surprised how rare the lamb was – I love rare meat, but I’m sure other people would probably complain.

Anyway, the place was pretty good, the price was reasonable, and the wine list was expansive. I don’t think we’ll be going back because the portions were a little on the light side, and the atmosphere was a little feminine, if that makes any sense. Clearly the target customer was young women, and the dishes seemed to be oriented around that. Not bad, though!

Saturday we slept in, and then spent the morning slowly in our living room sipping coffee and skipping breakfast. It was then that I noticed that our BBQ cover was missing.

Friday had been an extremely windy day, and sometimes if the wind keeps up it can get under the BBQ cover, tear open the velcro fasteners, and pull the cover off the grill. Once before I found that the cover had come off, but it was sitting right next to the grill on the wood deck. Saturday it wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I put on my clothes and sleuthing hat, and went outside to look for it.

Long story short, it wasn’t anywhere to be found. I checked all over our yard, our neighbor’s yards, and the parking area of the retirement home behind us. I asked a staff member who was lounging on his break whether or not they had seen a big cover laying around yesterday, but he had no idea.

The bad part of this was the timing. Friday is trash day, so if it blew off during the day it would be easy for someone to pick it up and toss it in the nearest trash bin.

We held out hope on Saturday and Sunday that a neighbor might ring our bell and hand over the cover, but nobody came forward. I’ll bet it was Bugs Meany.

Saturday night we went out to see a movie (LIFE, with Ben Stiller) but it wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped. I was hoping for an inspiring movie about someone who was conservative and not a risk-taker completely change and go discover the richness of the world outside. It was kind of like that, but not nearly enough for me. It was a movie where you could sense the boundaries of the world they had created.

Since the grill was uncovered already we grilled veggies and a pork roast on Saturday, and then Kuniko took over cooking duties and served a vegetable-centric meal that finished off (finally) all the vegetables that her dad had given us the previous week. We’ve still got tons of food in the fridge, so we won’t need to be cooking for a couple of days.

This week is a bit shorter than usual. I took Friday and next Monday off to do a bit of traveling with Yoshi, Mamiko and Akira this weekend. During the week I have fewer classes as we wrap up the previous term with all the straggling classes that are make ups for absences during the previous six months. It should be an easy week!

Yesterday my students took the stage to make a presentation in English. I arrived early to set up the equipment and make sure everything was ready to go. Some students also arrived early, and they looked pretty nervous. They paced the room trying to remember their lines and get over their nerves.

Once things began, everyone seemed to shift into a different gear, and all the presenters did a great job. The audience was a little smaller than previous years, but it was still a high pressure situation for the students. I was very happy to see that everyone did well.

After the presentations finished and people started leaving I was able to congratulate some of the students for their efforts, but unfortunately I couldn’t catch everyone. I sent out a thank you email to everyone later, and I hope that the students will be able to look back on the experience as a positive one.

I also received an interesting piece of information from one of the HR staff. She told me that the recruiting for my next round of one-on-one business English classes didn’t bring in very many students. Out of a factory of 1000 people, only 10 students applied for free English lessons. That was pretty shocking to me – I can’t believe that more people wouldn’t want to take advantage of something like this. I see it as a sign of communication failure – everyone knows that the employees need to improve their English skills, but not so many people are committed to trying to improve them. Mysterious!

I’m not sure what HR is planning to do about it because I am out of the loop on this one. If it were up to me I’d make it mandatory that each section send someone to English training. Kind of like the Hunger Games for English learning. But what do I know? Many of the decisions made at a huge Japanese company like this one are completely opaque and have more to do with inertia and history rather than change and the future.

Tonight after work I am going to forget my troubles over dinner with Kuniko. We’re trying a new Italian restaurant that apparently is highly rated in the area. I’m always up for trying new things, and hopefully the food and the wine list can meet our expectations.

Today my first year employees from the English group lessons are reaching the culmination of their six month English course. Today they’ll make a 10 minute English presentation in front of their peers and also their supervisors, without any notes. I’m sure that some of the students are pretty nervous this morning.

They have had almost two months to prepare for this, so I’m not expecting any disasters. Unfortunately last year one student froze up and dug into his pocket to come up with a cheat sheet, scandalizing everyone in the room (especially me). Hopefully this time things will go more smoothly.

It is a rainy day here today, but I heard that the weather will improve this weekend. Kuniko and I are looking forward to doing some walking this weekend – we’re thinking about exploring the western part of town, which is somewhere we almost never go.

We are rapidly approaching the end of March and beginning of April, and that is a busy time of year in Japan. Unlike in the United States, every company and organization in Japan follows the same fiscal year calendar, with the new FY starting on April 1st.

That means that lots of things end in March and begin in April – new departments are formed and old ones abolished, new contracts and salaries go into effect, and workers are transferred between departments and companies. It is a time for change and renewal, and it almost always means a lot of work for everyone.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for me. I have a slight bump in paperwork at the end of the month as I summarize the progress of my students and give them feedback on their performance in my class. However this is balanced by fewer classes as things wind down and students become more busy with other obligations. I reserve the last week of the month for taking care of make-up classes for students that for one reason or another couldn’t make some classes during the regular term, so the last week gives me some freedom to rest up and get ready for the next term.

I like having the extra time. After keeping such a tight schedule of classes during the rest of the term, it seems like a luxury. Very nice.

We are looking at a prospect of a completely free weekend, with Kuniko having two days off. We decided a while back to keep the weekend free, and to not schedule any parties or events. We’re hoping to go see a movie during the weekend, and possibly have dinner out, but other than that it is open. The next weekend will be in Taiwan during a feeding frenzy, so it is kind of our last chance to relax. Maybe I’ll go outside and do some yardwork if the weather permits…

A long time ago I set a reminder on my computer to tell me now and then to love life.

The computer is gone now, replaced by newer computers, and the software has been replaced by other programs, but the goal is the same – to pause from the routine and remind myself to enjoy the moment.

In the past I have been guilty of concentrating so much on work, or so much on my problems, or so much on money that I missed out on what was going on around me. Even after all that I’ve been through I still need a reminder now and then to tell me to take a look around and relish it.

Today that reminder popped up on my phone, and so I’ll take a little time during the day to think back and think forward, but also take a look at today and where I am. It’s in a pretty good place.

Friday night after work I had a chance to go to an izakaya in Kobe with some of my former students. They invited me to come along, and I had a great time talking with everyone. They are shifting their focus from getting used to working at the company to starting to think about looking for a wife and starting a family. After the izakaya we stopped at a place I hadn’t been to in a long, long time – a small bar called Like Like. I have lots of good memories of drinking there with Antoine and Nell. The place hasn’t changed much, except for the staff, who probably have turned over many many times since I was there last.

Saturday I had the morning to myself, and then Kuniko made it back home relatively early so we could spend some time together at home before her party with Kori. Kori and her husband (who was acting as chauffeur) showed up around 5:30 and then Kori and Kuniko went out to eat at a local Korean restaurant. I haven’t been there, but it closes pretty early, even on a Saturday. The website says they are open until 8 pm, but Kuniko said the owner asked them if they wouldn’t mind leaving around 7:30, since they had finished their dinner and were just talking and drinking.

Meanwhile I was at home grilling some pork and eggplants, and playing video games.

Finally, we finished off the weekend with a trip over to Kakogawa to help Kuniko’s dad with the shiitake mushrooms. He introduced us to the process, and it was pretty simple.

First he had a pile of logs that were of various lengths. We used a special drill bit to drill small holes in a special pattern all around the log. Next we reached into a bag of moldy pieces of wood. The mold was shiitake mold, and it was formed all over the pieces of wood – it looked like a big hunk of Camembert cheese. Then we inserted the wood into the previously drilled holes, and gave it a shot with the hammer to push it all the way in. We did a lot of logs, and the next stage is to place the logs upright around the farm and wait for the shiitakes to show up. I had a great time doing the work, but I’m a little sore this morning from all the bending and lifting.

We had some bento lunches that Kuniko’s mom had made for us, and enjoyed a cold beer too. It was perfect weather to sit out and enjoy.

As usual, we were sent home with a ton of vegetables freshly picked from the farm – several daikon radishes, and giant Sakurajima radish (about the size of a basketball), lots of lettuce, broccoli, koimo potatoes, spinach, three heads of Chinese cabbage, carrots, and more. This week will be a vegetarian week for us.

Tonight Kuniko has a work party to attend, so I’ll get started processing and eating all those veggies. I’m thinking I’ll skip the exercise bike until my muscles recover from all the soreness. I think I’d make a pretty lousy farmer…

The weekend is pretty much here – just one more day at work. Kuniko is lucky enough to have the day off today, so she’s sleeping in and enjoying life this cold morning.

I have an extra class this morning, but two empty spaces in the middle of the day, so I should have some extra time to catch up on paperwork and get ahead on planning for next week.

After work I’m headed to Kobe to pick up a present for Kuniko to celebrate White Day, and then I’ll meet some of my ex-students to have drinks at an izakaya in Kobe. It’ll be fun to catch up with these guys and see how life is going for them.

It is raining pretty hard for the first time in a little while. That usually means a wet walk to work, but luckily today Kuniko was driving and I could catch a ride with her.

Thursdays are turning into my busiest days. I have an extra class early in the morning, and I have an extra class after regular work hours in the evening. That means I’ll be extra tired when I get home, but I’m still keeping up with the exercise. Hopefully all this pedaling will pay off. At least I am able to keep up with my TV shows.

I saw an interesting news story about a local domestic airline, Skymark. They fly out of Kobe and several other minor airports, and they have a new promotion to celebrate a new kind of aircraft that they recently purchased. For the next six months, flight attendants’ skirts will be shortened to 15 cm above the knee. Hard to believe that they are seriously promoting this as a way to celebrate, but some things in Japan really are that weird. Maybe there is a lot of indignation from the Japanese public, but I haven’t heard any yet. Wacky.

OK, now off to work – it’ll be a full day today.

Since Kuniko had yesterday off, I went through the whole day at work knowing that I would have a great dinner waiting for me when I got home. As usual, Kuniko exceeded my expectations.

She served a salad with wild greens feta cheese and avocado, and then two side dishes Рsaut̩ed potatoes and lotus root with cocktail weiners (I think this was for me) and then a roasted lotus root and carrot dish with mixed cheeses melted over it. We enjoyed the dinner with a bottle of French Rhone wine that we received from the Yamajis, and then had some homemade cake for dessert. Wow!Luckily Kuniko is still working, or I would weight twice what I weigh now.

We enjoyed listening to music and relaxing during the evening, and I took a break from my exercise routine to let some sore muscles rest. It was a good day.

Today we drove to work, and that means that I have an outside chance of getting a ride home from Kuniko if the timing is right. It also means that I didn’t walk very much today, so it’ll be time to get back on the exercise bike.

At the end of this week, on Friday, I have a party with some ex-students that I am looking forward to. Saturday Kuniko has to work and also has a party, so we’ve got to work on our timing a little bit so that we can spend more time partying together. The good news is that we both have Sunday off, and we’ll head over to visit Kuniko’s folks and help them get the shiitake mushrooms started off.

Last night Kuniko and I had the rare chance to ride the train home together. Recently her schedule is much more reasonable, and she has been taking the opportunity to go home early when she has the chance. It is a mark of how much we ate on Saturday that we skipped our tradition of going to the yakitori when we catch the same train home. Instead we went home and just had a salad. And it’ll take a couple more salads before we get our calorie account back in order.

Kuniko is taking today off of work. Normally she has a half day off on Tuesday, but today she had no classes or meetings, so she figured why the hell go in the first place? Good on her, and enjoy the day. I wish I could have joined her!

Today I have an extra class at the end of the day, but no group lessons, so it shouldn’t be quite so busy. Today is the anniversary of the big earthquake and tsunami in 2011, so there are a couple of events that will happen here at work. I’ll be teaching through the events, though – I received special permission from the building manager. Not even a disaster drill will keep my students from learning English…

We had a really good weekend – a big party on Saturday and a day of rest on Sunday to readjust.

Most of Saturday Kuniko was in the kitchen, putting together the dishes she wanted to serve. In the end we served about ten different tapas, and putting them all together is a big job. But a day in the kitchen cooking and sipping mimosas is a good day for us. We had a great time, listening to music, talking about our upcoming trips, and spending time together.

The Yamajis and Fukumis showed up right on time, and Ms. Yamaji was all over the Fukumi’s new son, Hiroka. He was very well behaved, and only cried now and then. Ms. Yamaji was a pro – she did a great job. I was playing some quiet tunes in the background, a mix of island music and reggae, and that seemed to keep the kid relaxed and sleeping. Meanwhile the adults were busy catching up on neighborhood gossip and discussing current events. We managed to kill about six bottles of wine, and Ms. Fukumi had a tiny sip of each one – the first alcohol she has had in almost a year. I opened up an old bottle of port that was made in 1989 – and we drank it 25 years after my high school graduation. Yum.

The dinner went over well, and we had a great time with everyone. We were pretty zonked the next day – that was a lot of wine… Kuniko went into Osaka to spend some time with her friends, and I cleaned up after the party, sat and watched a movie, and played video games.

We finally booked our hotel for Porto. After drinking the port the other night I am that much more excited to enjoy the city. Our planning is pretty much over now, we’re all planned until August 12th, when we meet my parents at the Toulouse airport. There is even talk that we may have a chance to meet Nancy and Lynn in Paris before we fly back to Japan. That would be fun to bring everyone together in Paris for a big night out. Maybe we should start looking for some good restaurants…

Yesterday we had some pretty cold weather. According to my students it even snowed at some point, although I never saw a flake of it. This morning was also very cold. Kuniko drove us to work today because of a strange situation involving homemade kimchee. Apparently she’ll be receiving some kimchee that she ordered from a Korean lady who makes it on demand, and the fermented cabbage will be arriving today. Rather than take it with her to her business trip after work, Kuniko will drive it home and then take the train to her business meeting.

The things we go through to enjoy kimchee.

We’re just about to the weekend, and I’m looking forward to the party tomorrow night. We’ve got all sorts of ideas for different tapas to serve, and I think we’ll get a jump on cooking this evening.

Kuniko has a rare two days off this weekend, so it should be a big opportunity to relax as well. We will probably do some shopping, clean the house, get some exercise, and then enjoy time with our friends and neighbors. Sunday will likely be a liver transplant. Two livers to go, please.

My wife has started looking for hotels for our trip, and she is unstoppable. Like some kind of tenacious travel agent she has been surfing the web finding hotels in the best neighborhoods, near the appropriate transit links, and researching prices, breakfasts, and other amenities. It is good to see her so engrossed in the process.

I think it’ll be my job to make sure that we get to each of these hotels safely and on time. It is also going to be a challenge to figure out how to pack for this trip – suitcases? backpacks? Too much fun.

This trip is still five months out, so we’ve got plenty of time to work out the details. We’ve also got another trip at the end of this month to Taiwan. Travel, travel, travel.

Today Kuniko has a day off, so she’ll have a chance to recharge her batteries and get some rest. Tomorrow is Friday, and after work we’ll start to put together some dishes for our dinner this Saturday. It should be a fun (if not high-calorie) weekend.

The planning stage is almost more fun than the actual trip. We’ve been reviewing our options about hotels these days, and it is fun to look around and try to find the best balance of location, price, and amenities. Kuniko has really thrown herself at the task, and since this month is a little bit lighter for her job, she should have some more free time to play with our options.

Tonight after work I’m going to head over to meet one of the inspectors at a tachinomi place in Shin-Nagata. It is kind of a sudden meet-up, but it should be fun. I haven’t been to many different tachinomi places in Japan, and each one is a completely different experience. The usual one that we had gone to before apparently is out of favor with the inspectors. They have a sign saying no cell phones, and if the noise level gets above a conversational tone, the master will growl at the customers. So we’ll see what the new place is like.

Tomorrow, my early morning class was cancelled, because the student had to go on a sudden business trip. So this week so far has been a pretty easy one for me, too. Let’s hope that students start showing up for their extra classes… we don’t have much time before they depart for America.

Yesterday I had a pretty light schedule at work. Like all Mondays I have two planning periods, and during the beginning and middle of the term I use the time to plan lessons for my group classes. However, now we are wrapping up the term, and I am using those times for making notes and doing paperwork. This week is our last week of classes for these students, and there are some things I’ve got to do to wrap up the term.

They aren’t completely finished, however. On March 20th they’ll have a presentation in English in front of their peers and supervisors. Hopefully they’ll use the rest of their time wisely and prepare for the presentation on their own time. Hopefully.

Last night after work we did a Costco run that went splendidly. We stocked up on some things we don’t usually buy – plenty of veggies and almost no meat. I’m really looking forward to the party this Saturday.

Also, the planning continues for our trip in summer. We are trying to align our trip so that we can spend a couple of days with my parents while we are there. There are still lots of things we haven’t seen in France, and we may do a little side adventure to another country while we are waiting for my folks to finish up with the wedding they are attending. It’ll be a fun trip – too bad we have to wait another five months for it to start!

Tonight after my regular classes I’m teaching an extra class, and I’ll have extra classes the rest of this week. Hopefully it won’t have too big of an impact on my exercise schedule at home.