This morning it was extra tough getting out of bed. The cold has really set in around here, and the last few mornings have been icy.

We got a visit from our car dealer last night telling us that our car will be delayed a couple of weeks, so it looks like we’ll be waiting until the beginning of March before we can pick it up. I guess the GPS model that we requested is pretty popular. No big deal for us, but Kuniko was hoping to use the car to visit some local schools on behalf of her school. Oh well – we are patient people.

Now I’ve got to gather up the trash from around the house and lug it out to the curb. Trash day has come to Okubo…

Friday night we visited Kuniko’s favorite restaurant Anonym in Motomachi for a birthday dinner. I arrived a few minutes early and made arrangements with the staff for some birthday arrangements, and when Kuniko walked in a few minutes later we celebrated her birthday with a couple of glasses of champagne. Once again the chef made a great meal, with lots of interesting dishes garnished with grilled radishes, roots and greens. My favorite dish turned out to be dessert – an apple shortcake laced with a slightly bitter green salad and iced milk. So good!

Saturday we went into Osaka to attend Chu-chu’s wedding. The ceremony and reception was held in an historic building in Namba, which apparently used to be a bank. It still had the L-shaped entrance, and a giant safe on the ground floor. The ceremony was informal and interesting, and everyone had a great time watching them tie the knot. The reception was held on the fourth floor, and again they did a great job with food and entertainment. Kuniko’s friend Ai-chan played the piano for everyone at the end of the ceremony – she looked nervous through the whole reception but relieved once it was all finished at the end of the day.

We moved on to the second party after the main one, and an hour later the bride and groom showed up to celebrate. I made a lot of new friends at the party – everyone seems to get more courageous after a couple bottles of sake – and they were even serving some local beer in bottles. The price was about double what I’d pay in the stores, but it was pretty good. Many people followed my lead and ordered local beer, but I don’t think it was very popular with the other guests.

Sunday was Kuniko’s official birthday, but we took it easy most of the day, sleeping in late and doing chores around the house. In the evening we visited Kuniko’s parents for a birthday dinner of oden and rice, and some homemade birthday cake. Kuniko’s dad had to leave in the middle of the evening to do a night shift at his part time job, so mainly we sat watching TV and talking with Keiko.

We also drove Kuniko’s car for probably the last time last night. We’ll trade it in for the new car this week, but I’ll still miss the little blue Demio. It was a good car for us…

Recently the big news in Kobe was that one of our favorite restaurants (and the first one I ever visited in Kobe), Graciani, burned down. The place had a lot of history before I ever showed up there, but I’ll always remember it as where I had my first dinner with Kuniko. It is also sad because it was in such a historic building, in the Kitano district where there are so many houses built by foreign merchants who came to Kobe when the port opened. They are not sure the cause of the fire, but apparently there was a smaller fire in the restaurant recently, and there may be a connection. Scary!

I’m looking forward to finishing off the week today and heading to another French restaurant with Kuniko for dinner. She picked her favorite place, so I stopped at the ATM last night to fill my coffers. They recommended a very nice wine last time and I hope they have some others worth trying.

Tuesday was Valentine’s Day and during my work day not one piece of chocolate was given to me. Since I’m on a new floor with no co-workers and no female students there was really no reason to expect it, but Kuniko must have felt sorry for me. Last night she brought back a big bag filled with the handmade chocolates, cookies, and candies made by her students. So last night after dinner we set into them, wolfing them down with some Merlot as backup. Kuniko told me about each student as we ate their chocolates, and after four or five pieces I was pretty much over any chocolate cravings I’m likely to have for the next few days. But still, chocolate remains.

We’re getting close to what is turning out to be Kuniko’s birthday weekend. We’ll be going out on our own tomorrow night, we’ll attend Kuniko’s friend’s wedding on Saturday, and then we’ll go over to Kuniko’s parents on her birthday to celebrate. Should be fun!

After work last night I dropped in at the supermarket to buy a last minute bouquet of roses for Kuniko, and then went home to spend Valentine’s together. Kuniko’s dinner turned out great – wine simmered beef, an avocado and tomato salad, a prosciutto, pumpkin and onion salad, and french bread with a mushroom and walnut pate. We coupled that with a glass of sparkling wine, and it hit the spot. Afterwards she gave me some chocolates that she had bought in Kobe, and she even threw in a necktie for good measure.

There’s going to be some serious pressure on White Day.

The payback will start sooner than that, however. Friday night we’ll go out to celebrate her upcoming birthday, and I’ll be picking up the tab. More wine, more food! Japan has kind of turned into our culinary playground.

Today is going to be a regular day at work, except for the fact that it is Valentine’s Day. Kuniko will be able to leave a little early today, and she is going to put together a dinner that involves a crock pot, some beef roast, and a bottle of Malbec. Looking forward to it!

On the music front I’ve been playing with smart playlists (called “Auto playlists” in Mediamonkey) to liven up my listening experiences during the evenings. With 33,000 tracks, it becomes a little hard to get to the tracks that I have liked in the past, and easy to miss gems that haven’t been listened to yet. I think I have a good combination of lists now that mixes old favorites with newer tracks along with stuff I haven’t listened to yet. Last night was the first time to listen, but it sounded pretty good.

This morning I got to see the new Google doodle – and there was a little surprise at the end. I don’t know if everyone will catch it once Valentine’s Day hits in the USA, but I’m guessing there will be a bit of controversy. We’ll see…

Friday night after work I joined a couple of former students for Asian food in Tarumi. We had dishes from Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Korea, all in one restaurant. It was good to talk to the students and find out what they are up to these days. We didn’t stay too long, just a few hours, but it was a nice party. Afterwards I headed to Red Spanky on my own to make an appearance – it has been months since I was there. The regular gang was there, so it was like no time had passed since my last visit.

Saturday we slept in and in the afternoon went off to the Honda dealer to seal the deal on a new car. We sat at a table sipping coffee waiting for our sales guy to come over, and through the window we were able to observe an interesting ceremony. The entire staff of the shop had gathered outside around a family that had just received a new car, and there were some speeches, some photos, and finally they let the excited family pile into their new car and drive off. Kuniko and I immediately decided that we’re going to have to skip that one.

Anyway, the car is all settled and we’ll take delivery sometime in the middle of next week. Our sales guy seemed surprised that we weren’t going to pay cash for it, and we were surprised that they would expect us to. In the end we worked everything out and then headed out for some shopping and then home. We worked together on dinner Saturday, making four different mini-pizzas in several different ways. We baked the first two in our oven with a pizza stone at the highest temperature which made for a firm crust on the outside and a little chewy inside. I grilled one pizza out on the BBQ using the pizza stone and the crust turned out perfectly, although the top didn’t quite get golden. Finally we baked in the oven without the stone, and that turned out pretty well, too. We had lots of different toppings – chorizo, basil, mushrooms, prosciutto, watercress, and of course plenty of mozzarella. Maybe our most delicious pizzas to date – we might be ready to cook them for guests in the future.

Yesterday we did a couple of hours of hiking on the beach, but otherwise stayed home and relaxed. Kuniko did some work on the computer, and I played Skyrim for hours. A typical Sunday for us – relaxing but fun.

This week there are no special events except for Friday night, when I take Kuniko out to her favorite French restaurant for dinner. Saturday we’re attending the wedding of some friends, and then Sunday we’ll celebrate Kuniko’s birthday at her parents’ house. It should be a high-calorie weekend.

This weekend we decided to use both days to unwind at home, since Kuniko has a rare two days off. Saturday we’ll go to the Honda dealer to check out some of the options available on a new car, and try to make some decisions. It should be pretty straight-forward, but it seems like these kinds of things end up taking a long time. Every time the price goes down the guy goes off to a desk to consult with his staff and then print out a new summary sheet – we’ve already got a collection of six or seven sheets. Luckily I think they’ll keep us in free coffee while we’re there.

Tonight after work I’ll go out drinking with two former students. They are both on the younger side and fun to talk to. I think we’re getting “asian food” in Tarumi. The restaurant looks like a combination of Vietnamese, Thai, and other southeast Asian dishes. Should be fun to check it out!

Last night I had a little time and a lot of rice, so I cooked up an Indian dinner with a bunch of the packets and spices that we brought back from India last summer. I made chicken byriani rice, a yellow lentil soup, and some salad, and it turned out pretty good. The spices that we came back with are pretty easy to use, and the tastes are completely different from any Indian food you can find in Japan, with the possible exception of Swaad.

We are inching towards the end of the six month teaching term at KHI. There’s only about a month left, and I am working behind the scenes urging my students on their final projects as well as starting to make final reports. Usually by this stage I have some idea about the next term, or at least whether or not there is a next term. This time around I haven’t heard anything. Kind of weird – but hopefully I’ll get some news in the next couple of weeks. Strange!

Actually, it’s Mr. Taco Hat. It’s the name of a new shop in the local food court, and they do indeed serve tacos. Last night since Kuniko was out for dinner I stopped in and bought a couple of tacos. And they aren’t bad! The tortillas are deep fried, but otherwise a simple, expensive taco that was pretty tasty. I know better than to complain about a taco shop opening in my own town. Still, I think we do better here at home.

For the second time this week I overslept a bit, so again another short post. More at the end of this week – hopefully…

Yesterday was a pretty normal day back at work. Other than a ton of rain things went smoothly and I got to work and back without a problem. Since Kuniko had a party last night I was on my own for dinner, so while shopping over at Vivre I bumped into Ms. Yamaji and Yuki. They were doing some shopping for a party that Yuki is hosting tonight, and offered me a ride home in their car. It was nice of them, especially considering the pouring rain outside.

They are pretty excited about my folks coming to Japan in March, and are already thinking about some kind of party at their house to celebrate. The party schedule is heating up around here, so hopefully I’ll get some info from my company about my schedule during those two weeks!

This weekend was a pleasant surprise. Although I really didn’t have any events officially planned other than a dinner on Friday, we got a lot done and had plenty of time to relax.

First up was dinner on Friday night with three of my former students. Since returning from Vietnam Kuniko and I have long lamented the lack of delicious Vietnamese food in Kobe, and the best of the bunch – Com Vietnam – is quite good, but far from authentic. So when my student suggested this place, I didn’t hold out much hope. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant called Com Coka, and it was great. The cook has lived in Hanoi, and you could tell from the flavor that he learned well while he was there. Everything was delicious, but I especially liked the steamed spring rolls, and the pho bo. Good pho is hard to find, but this was perfect. So I’m happy to report that there is a place that serves excellent Vietnamese in Sannomiya. Finally.

On the way home I dropped in at Wine Bar D, and he had a bottle of Heitz Zinfandel open – perfect timing. I was hoping that Kuniko might be partying in the area and we could meet up, but as it turned out she had headed home already, so I enjoyed the wine and some prosciutto and then headed on down the road myself.

Kuniko went to see a student off in Osaka, so I spent Saturday morning relaxing around the house – doing laundry and watching a pretty documentary called “The Interrupters”, about a Chicago area organization called Cease Fire that has former gang members on the streets trying to prevent street violence before it happens. I highly recommend the movie if you have a chance to see it, and the scenes of life in Chicago were a stark contrast to what I am used to here in Kobe. Eye opening.

Kuniko got home in the late morning, and so we went to do a little car shopping. We’re thinking about getting a new car, and Kuniko had been torn between a Mazda Axela and a Honda Fit Shuttle. Since she already has a Mazda Demio that is getting on in years, we went to look at the Mazda first. The sales guy was completely low pressure, and you could tell that there was a lot of room to negotiate. Mazda is not the most popular car here in Japan so he was doing his best to make a deal. Kuniko really likes the design on the Axela, and we talked about price and options and it was very reasonable. Just like in the USA the guy wanted us to make a decision that day, but we still had another car to look at. When we said that we were going to look at a Fit Shuttle he looked visibly crestfallen and started cutting the price even lower. We got out of there quickly, after giving a false promise of returning once we finished at Honda.

Over at Honda sales are going strong. The Honda Fit is a very popular car here because of the compact size. Japan is one place where the roads are extremely narrow, the parking spaces are tight, and small is good. We wanted to look at the Fit Shuttle because it is a little bit bigger than the regular Fit, and we both liked the looks of it. As it happened, there was a new Fit Shuttle sitting out front of the dealership that was a display model. It hasn’t been driven on the street – not even for test drives – but is trucked around to various Honda dealerships to show off. The end of the fiscal year is coming up next month in Japan, and that means that they wanted to sell that car and get another one out in front.

Talking with the sales guy at Honda, you could see there was a different vibe. They had the cars that everyone wants, so they had no big motivation to negotiate on prices. If you don’t buy it, somebody else will soon enough. All the same, we climbed in the Fit Shuttle, tried out the seats and poked around inside the car. It is not a hybrid model – only gasoline – but we were leaning that way anyway since we drive only about 2-3 times a month. The sales guy quickly saw that we seemed serious and he got serious too – and after talking about how we were torn between the Fit and the Axela at Mazda he started making deals as well. We left with a promise to think about it, and then skipped the Mazda dealer and did some grocery shopping before heading home.

The rest of the day we spent around the house – sipping champagne, looking through the car brochures, and doing research online. Kuniko made a really good crock pot recipe – simmered pork shoulder and onion in a tomato balsamic sauce. It was cooking for several hours and you could smell when the chemistry shifted and all the acids turned. The dish was awesome. I’m thinking we’ll have more crock pot dinners on the weekends.

Sunday Kuniko was off at a seminar all day, so I stayed home and did some reading, listening to music and relaxing around the house. Once Kuniko got home we talked more about the cars and we decided in principle to go with the Honda Fit Shuttle. We haven’t settled on a final price, and there is some more negotiation that will happen on options and such, but we are decided. The salesman was happy to hear from us on the telephone, and he came over to our house to give us some paperwork to hold the car temporarily until we settle on price. So I think next weekend we’ll finalize all that stuff, and then two weeks after that the car should be ready for us to pick up. Good news! Here’s some information on the Honda Fit Shuttle (in English).

Well, back to work! It’s raining today and tomorrow, so at least it’ll be warmer…

Yesterday during the last few hours of the workday a couple of clouds drifted over Hyogo and dropped a bunch of snow onto the workplace. As I left work I found that it was still snowing, and the snow was pretty much everywhere between me and the train station. The good news was that there was no need for an umbrella, but the bad news was the bone-chilling cold. I caught a train that was running five minutes late, and discovered that Kuniko was on not only the same train, but just a few people between me. Because the train so jammed with people I didn’t notice her until everybody disembarked at Akashi.

Since she had to do some shopping for some hiking gear we decided to have dinner at Swaad. Something about hot, spicy curry and chicken tikka sounds good when it is freezing. After a delicious dinner we headed out to do the shopping, and by the time we finished that the trains were completely screwed up. A crowd of people were waiting inside the station for trains to come through, but it looked like it was going to be a long wait for them. I guess the snow caused disruptions up and down the JR train line. Luckily it didn’t affect us.

Today is Setsubun, and that means eating a giant roll of sushi while facing the lucky direction without speaking. Weird, I know, but when in Rome… Since we both have a party after work today we ate sushi for breakfast, and then ate some lucky beans. It should be an extremely lucky day today, based on our breakfast.

Yesterday and today there are some pretty strong winds blowing around here, and after the brief respite of cloudy weather yesterday we are back to freezing temperatures. The wind and freezing combo is not so great for the walk into work, but I usually bundle up with several layers and I’m fine. The problem is that when I arrive in my completely insulated office on the fourth floor it is plenty warm, and sometimes I’m sweating by the afternoon.

Last night my culinary experiments continued with my first time making spaetzle. I followed a recipe that sounded easy enough, and I topped it with lots of cheese and combined it with caramelized red and yellow onions. Yum! It was pretty easy to make, actually, and I think I’ll try some variations in the future. Mission accomplished!

Last night after work I met with the Denya master and a couple of other friends – Toita-san and Yamashita-san also joined the fun. We went to a seafood restaurant in Okubo that I’ve never visited and spent the evening talking, eating and catching up. The master had a new smartphone that he was playing with, and he joked that he was a “digital” kind of guy, rather than the other “analog” guys. He was also glad to hear that my folks are coming to visit in March – we’ll definitely have to have a party at Denya while they are here. The bad news was that I came home reeking of cigarette smoke from the other customers in the place. Thankfully Fabreeze is easily available.