Yesterday I had a completely free schedule all day, so I ended up walking to the beach to enjoy the weather.  First I made sure to cover myself head to toe with sunscreen, and then left the house around 11 a.m.  Although it was hot out the weather was just beautiful.  A strong breeze was blowing to help keep the temperature bearable.  I walked along my regular route to the train station, and then decided on a different path to the nearest beach, and traveled through some neighborhoods that I hadn’t been through before.

Since I was approaching the beach from a different direction, I wandered along the hillside above the beach among the houses there, and sometimes I found myself skirting rice fields and people’s yards.  There wasn’t really any delineation between people’s property, which was kind of refreshing.

I spent about an hour at the beach, wading in the water, drying out on the sand, and even looking for shells.  The water temperature turned out to be warmer than I expected.  Next time I’ll bring my bathing suit.

Some pics from the day are here.

Previously the weather forecast for this week called for showers and clouds all week, but the last few days have been bright, clear and hot.  Brutally hot, actually.  I had imagined spending time hiking in the morning, but by 10 am it was clearly not going to happen.  Instead, I settled for a walk to the supermarket to buy stuff for dinner, and settled in at home to enjoy the AC and read some books.

Today looks like it’ll be much the same schedule.  I’ve got some parties coming up, so I need to save my money (and my calories) for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

The retirement home that they have been building behind our house looks to be near completion, at least from the outside.  The parking lot was finished yesterday, and they put up lights and painted lines yesterday afternoon.  I’m looking forward to seeing when they turn on the parking lot lights – hopefully the ambient light won’t be shining in our windows.  Unfortunately, it looks like our neighbors the Yamaji’s will bear the brunt of that.  The only good point of all this is that the number of bugs flying around in our backyard has decreased dramatically.  They used the come in waves off the farm back there, and it was always a trick to get in and out the backdoor to the BBQ without some squeezing into the house.   These days – not so much a problem.

Well, back to reading some books and relaxing.  Hard to believe I’m awake at 6 a.m. on my day off.

Long time no talk!  We ended a pretty hectic period of work last Friday.  It had been about two months since I had any sort of holiday beyond the weekend, and a month and a half since Kuniko had a day off at all.  So we were pretty bushed at the end of it.

The last days of last week I joined two work parties.  The first was with my new department, in an izakaya in Sannomiya after work on Wednesday.  The group of people I met were really nice, and it turned out that the party was more like a welcome party for me and two other employees that started last April.  It was good for me to meet the people that are technically my department coworkers.  By chance the attendees also included the receptionist and support staff, which meant that I knew a few more people than I expected to.

At first everyone sat in pre-arranged seats, and I was lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) to sit with the older men of the department.  They were fill of bad jokes, deep questions, and they used some pretty difficult Japanese.  Luckily during the party the organizer had us rotate a bit to mingle, and so I had a chance to talk to everyone.  I even met the company president’s staff driver, who plays roller hockey.  We talked ice hockey for a while.

I didn’t drink so much being that it was on a “school night”, and got home around 11pm – not so late for these kinds of things. The party the next night was with two of my former students, one of which is going to transfer to the Tokyo office.  She wasn’t thrilled with the idea of the commute, and so we talked about her future life there.  She’s hoping to finally settle down in one place – she grew up in Kyushu, has worked for a couple of years here in Kansai, and I think she’d like to end up somewhere, be it Tokyo or another place.  I think she’s the kind of person that will enjoy Tokyo life, though.  We ate of Mikaen, an authentic Chinese restaurant in Sannomiya.  The food was good, and my student even had a chance to practice her Chinese with the staff.  I think it was a good send-off party for her.

After all the partying, Friday night was a nice calm affair.  I walked home in a torrential downpour, laden with groceries for the weekend, but it was a relief to walk in the door and start nine days off.   I made up some Greek wraps for a healthy dinner, and Kuniko and I dined in while the rain poured down outside.

Saturday was my day to zone out.  I read books, watched some movies, ate leftovers, and killed time before Kuniko got home from a school event.  Once she got home we had cocktails and celebrated the end of her work week.

Yesterday we both had off, so I went to the doctor in the morning to complain about some back pain (lose some weight, he said) and then Kuniko and I went for a three hour walk around town.  It was pretty hot outside, but after we climbed the hill to the home improvement center, everything else was downhill or flat.  No problem.

At the home center I bought some of the tools I would need to work on my major project this week, and once we got home I got it kicked off.

The big project was to run LAN cable to behind the TV in our living room from the router upstairs.  Back when we were designing the house, I felt like just using wireless throughout the house would be enough bandwidth for day to day usage, but recently I have been streaming TV and movies to the TV in the living room, and WiFi wasn’t cutting it.  Half the work was already done for me – there is an ethernet jack across the room about 30 feet away.

So the trick was to remove that jack, run cable down inside that wall, drill a hole to the crawlspace high basement, run the cable across the basement to under the TV, drill up into the space between the inner wall and outer wall, push the cable up, and wire it to a jack behind the TV.  It was even more tricky than I thought.  Luckily, I caught a couple of big breaks and was able to split the project over two days.  The only major problem was my colorblindness causing difficulty in wiring the RJ45 jacks.  The brown and green wires looked pretty much the same to me, causing several do-overs.

Now things are all hooked and working perfectly.  I saved big bucks, and the wire is invisible beneath the floor.  No trade-offs, just some sore muscles from crawling around under the house on my belly.  Hooray!

…demand a 3-4 day break from blogging.  I’ll be bushed the next few mornings thanks to work parties in the evenings.  I’ll be back blogging by the weekend, though!

Yesterday we enjoyed a brief moment of cool weather.  Most of my day was spent inside in the office, but the morning was a pleasant stroll to work in a cool breeze.  By the time I headed home at the end of the day, the humidity was just starting to come back.  This morning summer is back – hot and humid already.

This week I have two parties – tomorrow night with the HR department, and the next night with a couple of former students.  It’ll be interesting to see how the HR department parties.  Are they wild and crazy?  Stiff and formal? We’ll find out tomorrow night.

Friday night after work I came home and made a huge roast beef sandwich for dinner, opened a bottle of rioja, and played video games all evening.  Kuniko arrived home after her party, and then we both headed to bed because we had to get up early the next day.  However we didn’t sleep long – a huge thunderstorm came through and dumped water for hours.  The thunder was loud, but the sound of sheets of water hitting the side of our house was the noise that kept us up.

Saturday I spent the day cleaning the house, and thanks to the bad weather Kuniko could come home and help out from the afternoon.  We were able to completely clean the house and still have enough time for a nap before our guest arrived.

The guest was an old friend of Kuniko’s, who is running a bakery and cooking school nearby.  Kuniko has gone to baking lessons a couple of times and always comes back with good bread.  Saturday she came with a couple of bags full of goodies for us, and we had burritos for dinner.  It was her first time to try it, and I think she enjoyed the dish.  She even used the extra-hot hot sauce… that’s a good sign!  We even did a traditional shot of tequila that kicked the party into another gear.  Luckily she drove to the party so she was able to stay in our guest room upstairs instead of trying to find a way home.

Sunday was completely free for me, although Kuniko had to mark exams half of the day.  Still, we could relax at home and do next to nothing, which helps recharge the batteries.  Just one more week before I get a week off!

Yesterday I had a good class with the production department employees.  They had lost a little energy due to the heat and humidity, but overall they did their best on the lesson.  I had been hoping for all the students to be speaking English during the lesson, but actually we ended up at around 50%.  When I walked near the practicing students they would use English, but I have the feeling that as soon as I left they probably switched back to Japanese.  Still, it was a fun class and everyone seemed to enjoy the lesson (break?)

We’re getting close to the weekend!  On Saturday one of Kuniko’s old friends will drop by for a taco party in the evening, and she’s already planning to spend the night.  Break out the tequila!  We’ll be spending tonight and tomorrow evenings cleaning house and getting ready for the party.  It has been a little while since we’ve had someone over.

Today I’ll teach the production department’s new employees in training.  It is always one of my favorite classes, because of the eagerness of the students and the unique environment where I teach.  These guys are getting trained every day, both in the factory and in the classroom.  I’m there to give them a chance to use the English that they’ve been learning during their other classes, and it is kind of a break for them from the technical training.

Another milestone – I’m wearing short sleeves for the first time this year.  The summer is long and hot, so I’ll need to buy some more short-sleeved shirts soon.  Maybe next week…

Yesterday I was a little surprised to receive our summer bonus.  Starting at a new company means a new bonus system, and I was a little unprepared for a sudden influx of money.  But it is always nice to get some extra funds.

This week is going to be full of rain.  The weather report is all clouds and blue umbrellas – with no end in sight.  The humidity is also back, and now that it is July we feel no guilt about turning on the air conditioning once in a while to cut the humidity inside the house.  And this is just the beginning…

At work two of my students are off to America for a training program, and so I’ll be getting some substitute students over the next couple of weeks. I’ve met one of the students that will be joining my class, and he’s got an interesting job at the company – managing overseas currencies to minimize company risk due to fluctuations in the market.  The other student I haven’t met yet – but I’m looking forward to it.

Friday night turned out to be a great time to visit Costco.  I met Kuniko in Motomachi after work, and she picked me up on the way home.  Costco was only about 20 minutes by car on the way home.  We stocked up on the usual stuff, and then headed home afterwards to chill out and relax.  Saturday we had plans to visit Kuniko’s parents after Kuniko got off of work – but by the time Kuniko got home she was pretty much dead on her feet, so we postponed until Sunday.  Finally, yesterday we drove over and visited for a little while after lunch.  Niro and Keiko both looked well.

Both days during the weekend were full of rain, and this week should be rainy pretty much every day.  The rainy season is officially here, and we’ll have to deal with this for the next 2-3 weeks.  After that it should just be hot and muggy for the rest of summer.

Tonight after work we are going to run to Costco to stock up on some supplies for entertaining and summer BBQs.  Tonight we’ll pick up some supplies – meat, beer and some cheese.  We’re also going to pick up some goodies for Kuniko’s folks, because we’re planning on visiting with them (and Kuniko’s sister) on Saturday.  Kuniko will pick me up from Motomachi station and take me over there, but it’ll be our first time to try the new Costco after work on a weekday.  I’m hoping it won’t be packed with customers.

Yesterday at work I was trying to explain sarcasm and understating to one of my students.  We were studying using a TV program where one of the announcers said to an interviewee, “You seemed to enjoy that a little” after the interviewee had clearly enjoyed something quite a bit.  It is pretty hard to explain the concept of understating for humor, but once I thought about it – it is something that English speakers do a lot.  Another one of those challenges of teaching, I guess.

Last night I had some extra time before Kuniko got home so I made peanut butter s’mores.  The recipe is here:

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/06/no-bake-peanut-butter-smores-squares/

They were easy to make, but after tasting some afterwards – wow – too sweet.  I had cut the recipe in half, but it will still take a long time to get through these in our household.  I may try to distribute them around the neighborhood to balance the calorie load.  But they do remind me of campfire s’mores – it has been years since I’ve had them.

Last night I got home after Kuniko, which meant that I would be treated to dinner – ready to go as I walked in the door.  She made a green salad topped with boiled strips of pork, tomatoes, okra, and a roasted sesame dressing.  Also she made some mabodofu on the side, so we had a hot and cold combo that was a great match for the warmer temperatures.   Yum!

Today should be a pretty normal day.  Some of my students are coming back from business trips overseas, and I’m spending time with them recapping their experiences and identifying what activities and expressions were difficult for them while they were there.  In the next few months we’ll focus on those activities and try to bump up their skills a bit more.

I’ll get home before Kuniko today, so maybe I’ll roast some potatoes with garlic and herbs tonight.

I decided to take on the most recent season of Mad Men, since I don’t really have any TV shows on these days.  I was able to get the whole season, so I should be able to watch an episode or two every week.  I don’t know why I didn’t catch the first time it ran, but I’m looking forward to enjoying it at my leisure.

Recently work has been busy but good, and my students are about halfway through their six month course.  This week I’ll be doing evaluations of their progress, and discussing with them the last part of the course.  For some students this will be a wake up call, I think.

Tonight Kuniko should get home at a reasonable time, so I’m glad she’ll be able to get some more rest than usual.  Her schedule continues to be brutal, but we’ve just got a couple more weeks until things get back to normal.  We’re almost there!

A couple of weeks ago one of my students mentioned that he hiked out to a park in the north of Uozumi and was able to see fireflies floating around.  After some research it turns out that the park has a special program to attract and protect fireflies, and that the park was only about a 40 minute walk from my house.

I had a few false starts between then and now, but finally on Saturday night I hiked out there to see them.  Thanks to my phone and the GPS function it was easy enough to find the place.  It was really out away from the town, and it was fun hiking through fields and past the neighborhoods to an unknown destination.  Once I found the park I was surprised how big it was, and I just had to follow the sound of kids to find families gathered in the dark alongside a stream.  At first we saw only one or two fireflies, but after a time more and more came out, until we could see around 50 floating around.

I guess this time is a little past the peak of the season, but I was happy to see any at all.  I decided to make this a yearly ritual while walking back.

Unfortunately while I was watching the fireflies, their cousins the mosquitoes were taking the chance to bite every bit of exposed skin.  It was an itchy walk back.  Next time I’ll remember to use anti-bug spray before I arrive.