Poor Kuniko was laid up all weekend, spending most of the day sleeping or being consumed by persistent coughs, hacks and sputters. She went to the doctor and got some medicine and some advice, but unfortunately it seems like she’ll just have to wait it out.

She’s heading in to work today, but luckily she has no classes, only morning meetings. Hopefully she’ll be better before her classes start up.

As for me, so far I have not shown any signs of catching whatever Kuniko has, but I’ve been washing my hands, gargling, and staying well rested just to be safe. We had a sudden drop in temperature over the weekend, and today I came to work in very cold conditions. Unfortunately the building heating system has already been switched to air conditioning, so it is a very cold office I’m using today. Maybe it is time to have some hot tea again…

Given that Kuniko is about the healthiest person I know, it is a rare event when she comes down with a cold. But beginning this week around Tuesday, she did indeed start coughing and struggling with her voice, and now she is well and truly sick.

The original plan was to host a party this Saturday with some neighbors, but we decided this morning to postpone it a couple of weeks until everyone is 100%. I’ve been hanging out with a sick wife for the last few days, so I’m sure I’m at risk for catching the cold myself. Hopefully I can avoid it, but we’ll wait and see.

So that means this weekend should be a relatively quiet one. We’ll stay home and stay warm, and maybe watch movies. Kuniko is still going to work through all of this… she is Japanese, after all. The plan is for her to come home and crash Saturday afternoon. I don’t expect to see her conscious the rest of the weekend.

You can see pictures from our trip here.

The second day in Taipei we slept in a bit, and then met Yoshi and family in the lobby to head out to their favorite breakfast diner.  We emerged from the train station and found a line of several hundred people already waiting for breakfast.  Wow.

We got in line, and ended up waiting about 40 minutes until we got a seat.  Thankfully, the breakfast was worth the wait.  It was hard to describe the dishes, but we several bowls of soup – one was a sweetened soy milk and the other was a salty version with fried bread and spices mixed in.  There was also an egg crepe, a clump of rice that turned out to be surrounding a mixture of dried pork and spices, and then there were some buns that contained meat substitutes, like dried radish and peppers.  It was very, very good.  I was thankful that Mamiko knew how to order all of the foods – I’m sure I couldn’t have gotten them correctly.

After breakfast it was on to the other side of town to try her favorite shorompo restaurant.  This was also a home run.  The restaurant looked like a hole in the wall, and it reminded me a lot of the style of restaurants that you see so often in Asian countries.  The staff recognized Mamiko and set us up at two tables.  There we ate a big plate of shorompo and also an egg spiced sandwich that had some pretty unusual flavors.  It was fun to watch the locals gather in front of the restaurant, and I could tell that this place wasn’t in any guidebook.

Next stop for us was the inside of Taipei 101, a huge skyscraper in the downtown area that houses lots of shopping as well as offices.  We went inside and – what else – decided to eat at the food court.  We ended up choosing some Chinese dishes from a fast food place, but I wasn’t very impressed.  It is definitely better to eat at the shops on the street.  We also did some shopping in the afternoon in the building and at a local bookstore.

The next stop on our gourmet tour was another shaved ice place.  This one was somewhat famous, called “Ice Monster”, and it had a line formed up in front of it.  We were able to get a table after ten minutes or so, and it was interesting to note that they had a minimum order for seating inside the restaurant.  We ended up getting three flavors of shaved ice to share between five people, which was pushing our envelope but we managed to do it.  The three flavors were Milk tea with tapioca, jasmine tea with lime sorbet, and peanuts with milk.  All three were really good, but my favorite was the peanut one.  The nice thing about the shaved ice was that it didn’t seem to fill us up that much, so after eating we were ready to go get dinner somewhere.

We were aiming for a brewpub nearby, and when we arrived we knew we had the right location because of all the beer kegs decorating the street.  We went inside, but there were just a few people sitting around on picnic tables drinking beer, and didn’t look anything like the picture we had from the internet.  We walked around the building thinking we had made a wrong turn, but after taking 15 minutes to walk completely around the block we decided that it must be the right place.  We went inside, and only then did we hear from the staff that they lost the contract for the restaurant, and now all they had was a beer tap and some alcohol for sale on the floor.  We took it in stride, however, and ordered some beer to drink on the patio while we planned our next move.

Since we had such great luck with the night market the previous night, we decided to try another one near our hotel.  After a quick break at our hotel room we went back out on the road, and after walking for about 20 minutes we found a big city street completely closed off and filled with food stands.  We walked through the packed stands, and were quickly overwhelmed by all the options.  We ended up starting with a sit down food stand that had some tables off to the side, where we ordered a variety of local dishes from a menu that even had Japanese on it.  We had bought our own beers at the local 7-11, so it worked out quite well.  Mamiko was even carrying some coupons that she had received from the Taipei Tourist Commision.  They were worth 50 Taiwan dollars each, but if you used them you couldn’t get any change back.  We soon realized that the shop owners were coveting those coupons (maybe they got paid even more when they turned them in?) and so we ate for free thanks to Mamiko that night. Even without eating free the prices everywhere were so low.  The hotel and food was about 1/3 what I would expect to pay in Japan, so life was pretty good.

We ate and ate and ate, and spent probably two hours walking around the market stalking our next meal.  It was fun to buy whatever you wanted without worrying about the price, and Mamiko always had something else that we had to try.  Yoshi and Akira were very patient, and helped us eat everything that Mamiko suggested.  It was a great time.  Finally we decided that it was time to head on back, so we said our goodnights and goodbyes in the lobby of our hotel, and then went to bed with very full stomachs.

The next morning we got up around 7 am, and then caught a cab on our own to the airport.  The Ono family was staying until later that afternoon, so we got a head start back to Japan.  We arrived at the airport a little early, so we had breakfast there, and it turned out to be a very delicious breakfast of rice gruel with fried bread and peppers, and also  a steamed bum with egg and teriyaki sauce.  Even at the restaurant we were able to eat delicious (and cheap) food.  From there it was a pretty simple trip back to Japan, and we were back home by about 5 pm.

It was a great trip, and I think that we will probably be back in the future.  Taiwan is a tropical country, so we have to be very aware of the timing when we go, because it may be too hot or too wet, but we may add it to our list of winter destinations based on how fun, cheap and warm it was.  All in all, thanks to the Ono family, it was one of our best trips ever.

You can see pictures from our trip here.

We’re back from our long weekend in Taipei, Taiwan. It turned out to be a really good trip, thanks to Mamiko’s expertise and experience in choosing where to go and what to eat. It was our first time in Taipei, but she has been there many, many times, and took us down alleys in search of the best foods to try. I think we wouldn’t have even come close to finding anything like this if we were on our own.

This was also our first time using Peach airlines, a budget airline that operates out of Japan. It was very cheap to fly to Taiwan – even cheaper than flying inside of Japan. The only trick was getting to the airport for our early flight. We ended up oversleeping a bit and we nearly missed the ferry to take us from Kobe airport to Kansai airport. Once we got to Kansai it was an easy bus ride to the second terminal dedicated to Peach airlines, and then we were good to go. We met up with Yoshi, Mamiko and Akira there, and caught the flight without any trouble.

Taiwan was warm, comfortable, clean and cheap. Our hotel was in the city center near the main train station of Taipei, about forty minutes from the airport by bus. Our room was tiny, but we didn’t spend much time in there. Mainly we were out walking the streets, taking the trains, and eating so many different kinds of foods.

The first day we spent walking around in town getting our bearings. We ate lots of steamed dumplings from food stands on the street. They were served very hot, and you had to be careful not to be scalded by juice from the meat inside while you ate them. The shopkeepers were friendly, and most spoke English or Japanese so communication was not a problem.

Mamiko led us down a narrow alley lined with food stands and restaurants. It was completely off the tourist radar, but Mamiko had discovered it while scanning Taiwanese Twitter. We pulled up some stools and shared a table with a older local couple, and then ate huge bowls of garlic noodles with soup. The amount of garlic we were dealing with was staggering, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the trip.

We weren’t eating only savory foods – we also supplemented our meals with shaved ice topped with beans and tapioca, and now and then we had other Taiwanese sweets that were predominantly fried.

On the first day we also took a long train trip to the end of the metro line. There was kind of a beach resort town there, lined with restaurants and shops. It reminded my of Coney Island, with games and amusements combined with food and lots of young people. We tried a tea concoction that was topped with a light cheese cream – it looked like a beer but tasted completely unlike anything I’ve had before.

As we sat outside on a breezy overlook of the ocean we could see a storm coming in, and before long there was lightning, thunder, and sporadic bursts of torrential rain. The temperature was still warm and comfortable, but
we had to whip out the umbrellas and make our way slowly back to the train station while dodging heavy rain.

Once we made it back into town it was still raining hard, and it was tricky to try find our way to the local night market. We moved from shelter to shelter to avoid most of the rainfall, but in the end everyone was getting a little wet, which made it an even better adventure.

For dinner we went to an underground food court that was just a collection of temporary stands and tables serving many different kinds of local cuisine. After one lap around the establishment we ended up choosing a couple of different restaurants ordering semi-randomly from the menus. It was exciting to crowd around a tiny table sharing hot food and drinking beers with hundreds of people crammed into the tables around us. This kind of experience is one that you only seem to get when traveling in Asia, and it is a great vibe. Yoshi, Mamiko and Akira are a good group to crowd around a tiny table – they are constantly making jokes they really know how to enjoy the moment.

We ate at several stands that night, including another round of shaved ice, and then finally headed back to our hotel for some sleep. It was an action packed first day.

It is a very happy Thursday here, as I have the next four days off. We’re celebrating the end of the Japanese fiscal year with a weekend in Taiwan. I can’t wait to eat my way through Taipei. We will depart on Saturday morning early, and come back to Japan on Monday afternoon.

But before the eating starts, we’ve got to wrap things up here in Japan. I am finishing up my paperwork on my students, and have just one more document to take care of before I can call the term officially “over”.

The next term is shaping up nicely, and I heard that they dug up six new students to join my classes, which will mean that I’ll have a full schedule once again. The nice part about the new schedule is that on every day but Wednesday I’ll have one hour for “office hours” after lunch. That means if no students come in for questions I can focus on planning for the week’s classes and stay ahead on paperwork. I think the schedule I had this time last year was just a solid wall of classes with no planning time. Progress!

Tomorrow I have the whole day off, and Kuniko has a party that night, so I’ll spend the time packing and cleaning house, and taking care of some odd jobs. As usual, if the weather is good I’ll try to go out and get some exercise. I’m also planning on letting my stomach get especially hungry… it is going to have a busy weekend.

It is midweek, and I’m going through classes wrapping up the six month term with students. I had just a few classes yesterday, but I did have an orientation meeting with the new students for the next term. The meeting was organized and led by my new supervisor, Ms. Kikuchi, who is taking over for my previous supervisor Mr. Tsukiji.

Ms. Kikuchi hasn’t had any experience at this, and it kind of showed during the orientation. There were scheduling problems and other issues stemming from a lack of attention to detail. It was a little embarrassing to be standing up there during this, but it is how people learn, and I’m sure she’ll be more prepared next time.

Coming up in April and May we are starting to line up some people to come over and enjoy dinner with us. I heard from Mr and Mrs Kato, who had dinner with us last month at Oliva, the Spanish restaurant that we like in Sannomiya. They said that they would love to come, and by the way she just found out she is pregnant. It instantly reminded me of where we were when we found out that Mrs Fukumi was pregnant (Oliva). Weird coincidence?

After work today Kuniko has a party to attend, so I’ll be on my own for dinner. Last night we finally killed the leftovers in the fridge – I think I had eaten daikon mochi five meals in a row. I’m looking forward to delving into the world of curry tonight to liven things up. Tomorrow is my Friday, so it is something to look forward to.

The days of resting my legs are over now, and I’ve been spending more time trying to burn calories. Mainly we’re just eating veggies every night, but since there are so many of them (thanks, Niro) we have had full bellies every night, and I am taking lots of food to work with me for lunches.

Today I have the orientation for the new students that will start in my course next term. I still haven’t figured out what they are going to do about my schedule if there aren’t enough students. I’ve seen the list of students, and finally there are only 13, so I’m not sure what I’ll be doing besides teaching them. Washing somebody’s car, perhaps?

Anyway, this afternoon I should have all the answers. Hopefully they remember my holidays that I requested when they hand out the class schedule to the students!

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.