On Sunday we had a relaxing time with friends.  But before that, I was pretty busy.

Saturday morning I got up at a reasonable hour and spent the first half of the day cleaning the house, from top to bottom.  Things don’t get so messy around here, but we were having guests on Sunday afternoon, and I wanted things to look spotless.  I spent a lot of time on everything, and it turned out nicely.  I sure used a lot of cleaning supplies, though.

After housecleaning I donned some cleaner clothes and trekked out into the heat to Kobe.  Kuniko was working on Saturday, so the plan was for me to meet her there, and then head over to Costco together to buy party supplies.  I decided to go early to Rokko Beer Diner for a couple of pints to reward myself for all the sweat and labor I put into the cleanup effort.

Rokko Beer Diner (R.B.D. for short) has become my favorite place to drink in Kobe.  They have a nice bar that I can belly up to, lots of local beers on tap and even some craft beers from other countries tapped, too.  I enjoyed a pint of Coronado Islander IPA, and then a lager that I’ve never had before.  Great stuff!

Kuniko and I met up and then we went over to Costco to spend too much money on things that will eventually kill us.  Like beef and alcohol.

We were hoping to get some takeout from Costco for dinner, but they didn’t have any of our favorites.  Instead we went over to the local yakitori and ate the usual course over there.  As always – delicious.  There were a lot of female customers in the place.  The master gets his share of attention from the local ladies, I guess.

Sunday we were grilling in great weather starting in the afternoon.  Anthony, Risa, and their son Koki came over and we celebrated nothing in particular.  It was good to see them – they are really friendly.  Anthony is always full of questions, and Koki was running all over the place making himself at home.  He is 2 years old now, but he was talkative enough.

The grilled foods turned out great, and the conversation was also a lot of fun.  They are going to travel to Bali this summer, so we shared tips and talked about some of the other travel adventures.  Koki is only 2 years old but he has already traveled with them to Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  The kid is shaping up to be an international jet-setter.

They ended up leaving around 3 p.m., and we cleaned up the kitchen and the grill and then covered things up.  As I was covering the grill I could see huge black clouds on the horizon.  I got inside, we sat down to watch a movie, and the rain came pouring down like crazy.  Thunder, lightning, high winds, the works.  Talk about good timing, though.  Luckily the BBQ was all finished before we got hit.  Just in time.

Today was a holiday for the rest of Japan, but I was off to work as usual.  Kuniko could enjoy a well-deserved day off, though.  The day went well today, with nothing special to report.  My students are continuing to work hard as the lessons get more challenging, which is all I can ask of them.

This week should be interesting – I’m looking forward to a couple of highlights.  Anniversary dinner, curry with a coworker, and Game of Thrones in Japanese.  Should be fun!

Last Saturday we had some sudden squalls come in and it rained like crazy.  Starting the following day it has been hot and humid with blue skies.  I think that means that the rainy season is over.

This week has been going very quickly.  It is already hot and sweaty when we leave the house at 5;30 a.m., and then we can cool down once we get on the train.  After twenty or so minutes it is time for me to get off at Hyogo station, and then it is another 10 minute walk in the heat.  Rinse, repeat.

I don’t mind actually.  Once I get to work I have control of my own air conditioner in the classroom, so I can be sure that I’m comfortable.  Most of the people that work in my office building share a big office with others, and are not allowed to adjust or modify the company-dictated temperature.  I never really thought about it, but there are a lot of benefits to having your own office/classroom.

We’ll keep this schedule for the next three months or so.  Luckily we can duck the most intense heat in the middle of August and go seek a different sort of heat traveling in Europe!

Friday night I went out to dinner with an ex-coworker in Kobe.  He had recommended an Indian restaurant near the station, and I was looking forward to trying something new.  Ever since we got back from India ourselves we find ourselves at Swaad in Okubo anytime we crave Indian food.  They do it very well there, but I was hoping to find some new places to go.

Unfortunately, this place wasn’t good.  Lifeless, weak curry.  Overly greasy biryani.  Pale orange tandoori.  It was pretty depressing.

Luckily the company was quite good and we had a good conversation.  We finished up with full stomachs and wrapped up the evening early, as he had to get back to his family.

So Friday wasn’t all that great, but Saturday was much better.  I had the entire day to myself to read books, copy DVDs, and dream up a dinner.  I prepared a 1 kg pork roast for the grill, but just as I was getting ready to put it out there a sudden squall came through and dumped buckets of rain everywhere.  I did some quick thinking and roasted the pork instead with some beer and onions, and it turned out very nicely.  We drank a bottle of Rafanelli Zin that I had laying around that knocked our socks off, so the evening was a complete success.

Sunday we had considered going out to see a movie in Kobe, but Kuniko was dead tired, so we spent the day inside with the air conditioner running all day.  Summer is here in a big way, and the rainy season appears to be over.  So hot and humid today…

This week is sure to be a tough one at work – I’ve got some extra lessons coming up, so I’ll have plenty to do!

The weekend is getting closer, and I’m starting to look forward to the inevitable relaxation. It has been a pretty productive week for me and my students. We are wrapping up the mid term interview tests, and I think this group of students is one of the most confident I have taught.

Tonight Kuniko had a party in Kobe, so I enjoyed watching “Julie & Julia” which is partly based on Julia Child’s biography. Half the movie was good, but I could clearly tell I wasn’t the target audience of the other half. Entertaining, but I enjoyed the book much more. Now it is off to bed!

Things have been going pretty well for us lately, and I don’t mind saying this knowing that things could change in a second.  We’ve been counting ourselves lucky since we got married.  Other than Kuniko’s brief hospital visit earlier this year we’ve been in really good shape in just about any way that you can measure it.

And yes, I realize this is a gigantic whammy.

I’ve been around long enough to realize that life is a cycle, and you go through good patches and bad.  Even though you’re stuck in some hard times, you can guarantee that things will get better sooner or later.  Then you can start prepping for the inevitable return of the bad.

Every year that we’ve been together we’ve been remarking to ourselves that things are going surprisingly well, and we’re trying to enjoy the here and now and not worry too much about the future.  But if I really believe in this kind of cosmic karma balance, I have to remember that we’re in for some serious trouble sooner or later.

I’m sure you’ll read all about it here when it happens…

We had a busy but very enjoyable weekend.  Friday night Kuniko was out at a party, so I took the opportunity to go out to Kanegasaki park to watch the fireflies.  It was a little late in the season, but there were few fireflies floating around the creek.  I walked there from our house, and stood alone for almost an hour watching them float around.  Finally I headed back and had dinner on the way home at Junpu.  The owner of the place was happy to see me and was my dinner companion while her sons worked the grill and picked up some English words from me.

On Saturday night we met up with the Fukumi’s for dinner at our favorite Spanish restaurant, Oliva in Sannomiya.  The food was delicious as usual, but the conversation was great.  The Fukumi’s recently found out that Sayaka is pregnant, so that made for a good topic to discuss.  We also happened to run into our friend Mr. Ota from Okubo eating there with some friends.  Exciting times!

After dinner we dropped in at wine bar “D” for a bottle of red and some cheese.  It was good to introduce the place to Sayaka and Koki.  We had an interesting journey home, with a drunken old man collapsing (by chance?) into Kuniko’s arms, and all the fallout from that.

Sunday we spent the day in recovery mode, sleeping late, doing odds and ends around the house, and then having a superb grilled steak with a caesar salad for dinner.  We are pretty lucky with all we have, and we could really feel it this weekend.

I just realized the other day that I need to head out to the nearby park in the evening to see if I can see some fireflies.  Last year about this time I was able to see quite a few in the park, but that was a little bit past the peak season.  I decided today to head out tomorrow night after work and try to see some.  I love being within walking distance them – I just have to make sure not to miss the season.

Tomorrow Kuniko has a party after work, so I can take my time checking them out, and then maybe hit a restaurant on the way home for dinner.  Where to go….

For some reason things this week are moving fast.  It’s hard to believe that I already knocked out Wednesday, and there’s just two workdays left.  Part of what made the day go fast was the ride to and from work from Kuniko.  We left at 5:15 am and got back at about 5:45 pm.  In those 12 hours I had nine classes in total, 45 minutes each.  That’s a pretty concentrated day!

We’ve got some things to look forward to this weekend.  The big event is meeting the Fukumi’s for dinner in Sannomiya.  We’re headed to our favorite Spanish restaurant Oliva, and then perhaps to a wine bar for the next stage.  We often have dinner at each other’s houses, so it’ll be nice to go out and let someone else worry about the cooking and dishes.

We are truly in the rainy season.  Every day is cloudy and threatening rain, and now and then the rain just shows up.  Right now it is pouring rain outside, and I think we are going to drive to work.

I don’t mind – that saves me about 20 minutes of walking outside in the rain, but I’m sure Al Gore wouldn’t be too happy.  Especially since the train is a viable alternative.  But it is hard to argue with a dry car, air conditioning, and a comfortable ride to work.

This week I get rich.

Well, not really rice, but today is my pay day – the 25th of each month.  On top of that, at the end of the week I get my summer bonus, which is not insignificant.  It’s like getting several paychecks at once.

Bonuses work differently in Japan.  In many Japanese companies they are more expected than surprising, and people include their appearance in their yearly budgets.  My case is a little different as I am a contract employee rather than someone with a lifetime contract, but the basic thrust is the same.  Bonuses can be quite substantial, too.  When Kuniko worked for her school in Osaka years ago, the bonus made up nearly 50% of her annual salary.

I think companies like the bonus system because unlike base pay they can easily adjust it down citing business conditions, whereas any decrease in base pay means a confrontation with either the union or the employees themselves.  And confrontations aren’t really popular here in Japan.

So it’ll be good to see my bank account topped up, especially after the damage I’ve done to it paying for tickets to Europe and the USA.

Even though the last two weeks we’ve been officially in the rainy season here in Kansai, there has been just a tiny bit of rain.  A couple of hours here, a sprinkle there.  Not even close to serious rain.

Until today.  It’s almost like mother nature is trying to make up for lost time.  I walked home in it tonight, and got a thorough soaking of the lower half of my body.  I guess I need a bigger umbrella.

Yesterday Kuniko and I bought plane tickets for America in December, and we’re officially all booked for trips in 2013.  It feels good to get it done, pay them off, and see the rest of our income for the year as profit.  At least that’s the way I’m looking at it.

One slight bummer was that United Airlines changed some of the rules they had for international flights.  No more free drinks (bastards!), and now they charge for the second bag checked in ($91!).  We’ll have to think long and hard about bringing back the customary case or two of wine at the end of the trip…

Friday and Monday I had two work-related parties. The one on Friday was with some current and former students, and last night’s party was a welcome/farewell event. We said goodbye to a guy in the HR department who was technically my boss, and hello to a new employee who has just started with the company.

I didn’t stay out too late last night (I skipped the karaoke second party) because it was a school night, but still I’m pretty tired out this morning. Based on our busy schedule, Kuniko and I decided to dial back a few events in our schedule. Kuniko is dead on her feet and it’s only Tuesday.

We’re just about ready to pull the trigger on plane tickets for a Christmas trip to Glen Ellen. This time we’re bringing along Kuniko’s family to make things more interesting. Time seems to be flying – it’ll be the end of the year before we know it.

For the last couple days hot winds have blown through Kobe, offering a preview of weather that normally would appear in July or August.  High humidity, burning sunlight – it’s just like the middle of summer.

For us that means cranking up the air conditioners in both the living room and the bedroom.  Since we both work all day our poor house traps the heat inside as a present for the first person who gets home.  Once we get into summer officially I’ll set up the timers to automatically cool the place down before we get home and when we wake up, but for now they are on manual.

Tonight after work I’m joining some students for a dinner party at an Okinawan restaurant.  The students are all from last term’s group lessons of new employees.  They invited me out since we don’t really have a chance to meet that often.  Last term I had them twice a week in class.  I’m hoping they are able to relax and not be stressed about speaking English the whole time.   My unofficial policy is to only speak English with my current students, but switch to Japanese if necessary with people that aren’t current students.  It should be an interesting evening.

As usual we are starting to think way ahead and getting our plane tickets to America organized for this Christmas.  The details are still being negotiated, but I think we found a flight that we’d like to take.  We’re excited about the trip, since it will be our first chance to meet Charlie, and also the first time for Kuniko’s folks and Kuniko’s sister to visit California.

We’re also watching closely the situation in Istanbul.  Apparently things are still pretty lively there, but short of a revolution I think we’re still on for our trip.  Like Kuniko said, “Wouldn’t that be a great way to die?”  Better than dying in bed wearing adult bladder control diapers, I guess.

For the last few days we’ve been worried about an incoming typhoon, called “Yagi” that was due to hit the main part of Japan on Friday.  Luckily today it kind of fizzled out over the ocean, and that means that our plans for the weekend can proceed without interruption or cancellation.  Woo-hoo!

A long time ago when I first worked at Kawasaki, I was dispatched from another company.  Since I was a “dispatch worker” I wasn’t issued any kind of security clearance.  In fact I just had a goofy name badge that I was supposed to wear all day.  I think I wore it for the first year I worked there, and then I became familiar to everyone there and it was no longer necessary.

At that time I always walked in the front entrance because I lacked the security clearance to go through the employee entrance.  Actually, this was kind of nice.  The front entrance is reserved for customers and that’s it – even vendors have to go around the back.  I would stride in there every morning at 8 a.m. and wave to the security guys, who got to know me well.  Then I flashed my goofy name badge to the receptionists working the desk each day (which was a little strange because they could certainly recognize me by sight).

This lasted for about a year or so, and then one of the receptionists told me that I didn’t need to produce the badge anymore.  And eventually I started to go in the employee entrance with an actual security card.

But the point of all this is that during this time I made a lot of good relationships with the receptionists and the security guards.  Now everywhere I go in the factory I’ve got a security guard calling out a greeting and being very friendly.  I think this is pretty handy – just about any problem that I might have would involve a security guard showing up.  It’s good to be a familiar face around there, especially considering there are about two thousand workers running around.  Sometimes it is good not to blend in.