Saturday night I went into Osaka to meet Antoine and some of his coworkers, and attend a beer tasting. The beers that were being tasted were craft beers from two small breweries – Baird Brewing and Minoh Brewery.

First, the good news. There was plenty of delicious beer on tap, and other than the first few minutes of the event there was no waiting. The food at the restaurant (Absinthe) was pretty good too. I’m feel like I got my money’s worth of food and beer from the event.

The bad news? The event was packed with people. Although the place was pretty small there were 80 people in two rooms, and it was far too many to move around comfortably. I imagine that the floor of the restaurant was sticky with beer by the end of the event. Because of all the people, it was nearly impossible to hear the two speakers, the head brewers from both breweries. I could see the expression on the face of the brewer from Minoh Brewery, and it seemed like she was a little overwhelmed. She spoke in Japanese, and the largely foreign crowd was talking and laughing during her talk. They seemed to quiet down a bit when her speech was being translated, but I thought it was a little rude.

I also would have liked to have seen more Japanese people at the event. I’m guessing that both breweries are looking to increase sales among Japanese (seeing as the market is largely untapped), but the event was mostly foreign guys like me.

Anyway, it was a decent event that had the potential to be more. Let’s hope they put together a better one next time.

Last night’s anniversary dinner in Sannomiya was pretty good. The restaurant (called Sans Filtre) turned out to be good. Not exactly what I was looking for when I booked it, but still good. We had a nice Rhone with a four course meal, and I finished up with an espresso that kept me awake on the train ride back. It was hard to believe that six years ago we got married here in Kobe. As Kuniko said, time really does pass quickly.

This week is a completely normal week for me. The temperature made a big drop after the rain on Saturday, and I’m guessing that it probably won’t go back up for a long while. Time to get the house ready for winter…

This weekend we’ve got a couple of fun activities planned. Tomorrow Antoine and I will go to Osaka to attend a beer tasting with a couple of Japanese microbreweries. The beer market in Japan is pretty limited, so a chance to try so many microbrews in one place is too good to pass up. From what I understand, the big beverage companies in Japan (Suntory, Kirin, Sapporo, Asahi) have used their deep political influence to make it very hard for small breweries to start up. There are all kinds of governmental barriers and taxes, which means very few microbreweries. Also, there isn’t a lot of demand for variety in beer in Japan. I guess people don’t like surprises in their beer around here.

Sunday Kuniko and I will celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary by going out to dinner after Kuniko gets off of work (that’s right – she’s working on Sunday again). We’ll try a French restaurant that looked good and see if it meets our expectations. I’ve been looking for a French restaurant that is not snobby Japan-French but a little more provençal. So far we haven’t found it, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed this weekend.

One of the things we enjoyed during our trip to Europe last year was currywurst. It sounds simple enough – combine some spicy British-style curry with a bratwurst sausage, serve with some bread to sop up the curry, instant hit. I first tried it after drinking too much wine at a nice restaurant in Zurich and then convincing Kuniko to run down to the corner from our hotel and buying some for us to try. Like the super-wife that she is, she scored some and we shared it in our hotel. We tried it again in a sober state, and it was just as good, so I’m always on the lookout.

Last night I was running some errands in Kobe and walked by the currywurst shop in Motomachi. I stopped in to get some for dinner, but the place was packed with people. Too bad it is too cold these days to eat outside. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to eat there soon, or else I’ll try to recreate the taste here at home.

It is officially cold outside. We’re holding off as long as we can with the heated floors and electric blankets at home, but it is definitely hands-in-your-pockets cold outside while we go to and come back from work. I’m guessing it won’t be long until we have to bust out the cold weather gear. Luckily at work I have a big office with three big heaters/air conditioners and full control over the thermostats. My students sometimes complain because they work in a big shared office and can’t control the temperature. Sorry guys, life is good over here.

Last night Kuniko got home earlier than I did, so she cooked up one of my favorite dishes, an Italian chicken and vegetable saute that goes great with a bottle of wine. She also brought some goodies back from Kyoto – yesterday she had to take care of some errands after work, and her errands including buying some unusual Kyoto snacks for us to enjoy. Yum.

After work today I’ll go out to tachinomi with some friends, and then wander on home afterwards. But I’ve also got some errands to run…

One of my students’ favorite discussion topics in class is sports. Currently the men’s soccer team and the women’s volleyball team are doing well, and everyone seems to be following along. I’m more of a hockey and baseball guy, but I’ve got to keep up for the sake of discussion. Luckily the results are all over the place the next day, so I can usually figure out who won by reading the front of the newspapers that other train passengers are reading.

My students seem to be getting into the routine of the class, so I’m going to shake them up next week. I’m planning to have them do a situational role play next time integrating all the skills they have learned so far. It should be a creative exercise, so I’m looking forward to it. The trick with the students that just entered the company is that they are not so proactive about learning. They are used to having someone just talk and talk, and they write down the notes. This creative exercise should be a good test of how they react.

I’ll post the results next week…

When you think about, throughout your life you are always balancing the amount of free time you have with the amount of money you have. Generally when you have a lot of free time you have more of a need for money, and vice versa. I’m not saying I’m rich or anything, but lately I have been wishing for a little more free time.

This weekend was nice – I could relax on both days. I grilled some baby-back ribs on Saturday night and we had them with black peppered corn and a green salad. It was delicious, and I really liked the wine we had with it, a 2008 Rombauer Zinfandel that matched well with the BBQ.

In a superb example of poor timing Sunday I had a dentist appointment for a cleaning, and despite all my tooth brushing and flossing they were still pulling pork out of my teeth the next day. Probably my teeth were still purple from the Zin, too. Sorry guys.

Pretty standard week this week – no special parties or anything, but I may drop in at the tachinomi for a beer one of these days.

It’s the end of the week, and we’re gearing up for the weekend. Tonight we’re planning on going out to Swaad for Indian food after work, and I think tomorrow we’ll go check out “Moneyball” in the movie theater. Other than those two events, it should be a pretty quiet weekend. No guests, nothing special.

Yesterday at work I introduced my students to candy corn, thanks to my parents who sent some along in a recent care package. After I had my fill I brought the rest to let my students try, and it was interesting to watch their reaction. The younger students liked them very much, while the older students took one, and then promptly went for coffee to balance out the sweetness. It was fun to introduce them to my students even though we are a just a bit past Halloween.

If all goes well I should get my copy of Skyrim in the next week or so. As a recent online review said, goodbye real world. It is supposed to be a pretty engrossing game, so hopefully I won’t get too lost in it…

Today is payday, and a reminder of why I put in all the hours in the office. The cash will come in handy – traditionally December is a pretty expensive month for us. We’ve already paid for the trip to Cambodia and Thailand, but we’ve got to put together some Christmas packages and send them off to friends and family, and also take care of New Year’s cards for our friends and family in Japan. Not only that, but December is traditionally a busy month for year-end parties. Last year I attended 2-3 parties, and that adds up too. Luckily from next week I’ll probably spend all my free time indoors playing Skyrim, and not outdoors spending money. At least, that’s the plan.

For the first time ever, we’re going to have Turkey for Thanksgiving this year in Japan. I secured a pre-roasted turkey breast from Costco, and I’ll heat it up and slice it, serve it with cranberry sauce and (maybe) some stuffing. I know it’s cheating, but I’m really looking forward to it. There should be plenty left over for a couple days of turkey sandwiches, too.

OK, off to work to continue earning those bucks.

Last night when I was walking home from the station, I passed a car in the neighborhood that was pulled over, emergency lights flashing, and no driver or passenger inside. It was a little odd – our neighborhood is pretty hard to find. As I unlocked the house and started to go inside, a guy came out of the darkness and introduced himself. I was ready to blow him off, because he had “sales” written all over him, but he instead explained that his company had bought the field behind our house.

Oh no! We always figured that sooner or later somebody would buy up the farmland, but finally it happened.

The company is building a two-story retirement home there, and he gave me the plans to the place, as well as information about construction and contact info. He tried to give me a gift, but I said no thanks, and went inside to check out the plans. The place will be built starting next year, and should be finished around June 2012. The good news is that it is kind of an assisted-living place, so it should be pretty quiet over there. Unfortunately the parking lot will be right below our backyard. According to the plan they’ll be planting some trees, though, so with the right blend of trees the building shouldn’t be too visible. Unfortunately for our other neighbors, they’ll be right up against the retirement home. I guess we are lucky in that respect.

We knew it would happen sooner or later, so I guess it isn’t a big surprise. Still, it could be a lot worse!

Yesterday was a day for everyone to pile the work on. Not only did I have the normal seven classes, but an extra one after work, and some help with editing an English document for the US immigration service. I was able to do that during my lunch hour, though. That meant that the day flew by, and it felt pretty good to get back to work after four days off.

Most of my students are starting to relax and get into the swing of speaking only English during the class, but there are a few exceptions, especially in the group classes. I’m really happy with most of the students, but there are two “problem children” that I’ve got to deal with in the near future. One is so nervous about speaking English that he avoids speaking altogether. The other is so exuberant that he talks over his classmates and doesn’t give them a chance to speak. If I could only blend these two guys together I’d have two regular students.

It looks like I’m on the hot seat for dinner this week. Much more of the students in Kuniko’s class passed a big English test than anyone expected, so she’s got to coach them after work for an English interview as the second stage of the test. She’s expecting to get home between 8-9 pm this week, but she really wants her kids to do well. So, what should I cook…

This weekend I joined the wedding party of Mr. and Mrs. Minamimoto. Mr. Minamimoto is one of my former students, and he invited me along with some other former students to attend both the reception and the second party in Osaka. The wedding ceremony itself was held Japanese style, which means that it was a private event with just a few family members. Afterwards, the much larger group of guests met for a reception inside the temple grounds.

The reception was very nice – there was a barrel of sake opened with a huge hammer, plenty of delicious foods, and we could get to know some new people, including meeting the bride and groom’s parents. They were very happy about marrying off their kids, and it showed in their faces.

After the reception we traveled by taxi over to the location of the second party – an Italian restaurant in the newly remodeled Osaka station. Apparently it was the first time they had hosted a second party, but they did a pretty good job. I made the “kanpai” speech, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I also had a chance to talk with a few new people who came up and introduced themselves. One was a guy who introduced himself in English, and we discussed language education at Kawasaki, another with a guy who introduced himself in Japanese and we talked about traveling overseas. Finally a beautiful young lady introduced herself in Japanese and asked me if I taught private English lessons.

After the second party wrapped up some of the group proceeded to a third party, however the bride and groom begged off to go home and rest up. I don’t blame them – it was a long day for them. We went down into the underground izakayas in western Osaka, which are always a pretty interesting experience. These places are designed for big groups of people and quick turnaround. I don’t often get a chance to go, but when I do things are always interesting. One of our group members was a drunken female lawyer who was pretty noisy. I could tell that if I was sitting at the next table I probably would have been annoyed, but since she was at our table there was nothing to do but roll with it. Luckily nobody got out of hand.

By the time I got back home it was nearly 11 pm, so it turned out to be a pretty long day. I was just glad to have helped out a little with the party and to be able to see the bride and groom happy on their wedding day.

Kuniko got home yesterday earlier than usual, and cooked up a delicious dinner – chikuzenni, rice, miso soup and sauteed pork and pumpkin in sesame oil. Some of my favorite dishes, and it was nice to come home to a hot meal. We drank some sake with dinner and talked about our plan for today. We’ve both got a very busy schedule at work, and when we get home tonight we’ll have to spring into action and clean up the house for guests for lunch on Thursday. Can we do it?

I’m filling up on coffee now to get ready for a massive lineup of 10 classes in one day – wow. Luckily it is a very rare case. The good news is that today is actually Friday for me…

I’ve reached the middle of my work week. Tomorrow I have no group classes as my students will be getting training elsewhere about communication skills, so that means I’ll add some one-on-one classes to fill out my day. Not a bad week, really.

Kuniko and I were both happy to see that Bangkok appears to have missed the worst of the flooding so far, but it was sad to see the areas around Bangkok getting hit so hard. Pictures like these are interesting to see after having visited some of these areas. One thing to notice are the smiles and looks of determination on the faces of the Thai people. We could really feel that part of their personality while we were there. And we’re looking forward to going back this December.

On Friday night I had a good cultural experience attending a meeting to plan the wedding second party for a friend. I was under the impression that it was already pretty much planned – I had a six page document outlining every minute of the festivities – and that this visit was just to look over the restaurant and get a lay of the land.

Ha, Ha. Wrong.

The first surprise was that we could actually meet the bride-to-be, and she was a very nice, friendly and organized. Very organized. We went line by line through the plan, discussed any potential problems, and after about an hour we called over the restaurant manager who had volunteered to answer any questions that we might have. We then went through the entire schedule with him (another hour) and talked about some questions that they had. The bride had some requests, and they did their best to try to take care of them, and then we went inside the restaurant and looked through it for another twenty minutes. Finally we declared that the party was planned, and we sat down for dinner and some wine at around 9 pm.

Whew – it was nice to eat and drink, and everyone lightened up after a couple bottles of wine. But I did learn a lot about how intensely this party was planned, and it made me remember my own wedding second party that was put together in about ten minutes. At the time our friend the Denya master had organized it, and it was a big help – as the bridge and groom we had plenty of other things to worry about. I would humbly suggest that the party will go much better if there are less planners (that means you, bridge and groom).

But the party was nice, and the food at the place was pretty good. The location is great, and I think that is the key selling point of this place. We’ll check it all out next Saturday.

It was a busy weekend for both of us, but one highlight was making homemade hamburger buns for the first time. They came out better than I expected, and besides the burgers I used some to make Bánh mì on Sunday night.

This week is a very short one – we’ve both got Thursday off, and I have Friday off as well. We’re hosting some friends on Thursday and then we’ll do some shopping together Friday night. Busy, busy…

After an especially full schedule of classes today I’ll head into Osaka to try to help plan a wedding “second party” for a friend. We’re meeting at Osaka station around 7 pm, and it’ll be a pretty tight run from Hyogo to get there in time. This will be my first time planning a wedding party, so I’m not sure exactly what it entails. Dancing? No. Singing? Possibly. Bad jokes? Of course.

Again we’ve got rain in the forecast for the weekend. This week has been clear and absolutely beautiful, just like the last three weeks. Unfortunately, the last three weekends have been rainy, like some sort of cosmic joke to keep me from hiking. There is a slight chance that at least Saturday will be OK, and if it is I’ll hit the trails near Takarazuka in the morning. Otherwise I’ve got plenty of other events to take care of – when exactly did I get so busy?