It should be an interesting weekend.  As usual Kuniko is working both days – on Saturday she’ll have to stay overnight with students, so I’ll be on my own tomorrow.  Then, I’ll head to Kuniko’s school to help her out with a special lesson for prospective students.  I’ll join a couple other foreign teachers to show off the school’s English program.  I think it’ll take most of the day, so I had better get in all my relaxation on Saturday.

I don’t have any big plans this weekend.  I heard the weather will be crappy on Saturday, so I think I’ll probably stay indoors, and maybe go out and get a haircut.  I’m reading a new series of books that is really good, so maybe this is a good chance to make some progress…

A month ago the Vivre in town was remodeled and opened to the public.  At the time I was so happy to see so many gourmet foods on the shelves.  There was (and still is) a shop selling imported foods, and other shops carried some pretty rare items.  At the time Kuniko and I both wondered aloud if Okubo was ready for this kind of thing.

As it turns out, the answer seems to be “not quite yet”. Gradually over the past couple of weeks the shelves have quietly shifted away from imported items, and bit by bit are moving back to “normal” Japanese items.  The change is gradual, but enough that I really noticed yesterday.

One of the big differences is in the bakery.  The first week of opening they had lots of rolls and breads that were made for sandwiches and things – but now most of the breads are sweet and more popular with kids.  I asked if they would make some of the breads from the opening for me if I special ordered, but they flat out said “no”.

Luckily the import food store seems to be holding up, and the booze corner is still stocking lots of imported and craft beers, so we should be OK for the time being.  Still, it is a little sad to see things starting to return to the products that every other supermarket in Japan sells.

Yesterday one of my students wanted to practice giving a tour of the factory in English.  We spent the previous lesson getting ready for the tour, and she memorized lots of English for each station of the tour as well as some useful phrases like “Please follow me” and “Watch your head”.

So during my last class of the day yesterday, we toured the factory.  There were a few sprinkles in a cloudy sky as we started off, but not enough to merit bringing an umbrella.  But as we progressed through the tour, the rain started up in earnest.  By the time we finished touring the warehouse where they did final assembly and painting the rain was coming down in torrents.  Huge buckets of rain accompanied by thunder and lightning.  Serious rain.

We waited a bit inside the factory until things calmed down a bit, and then we ran for it back to the offices.  By the time I started walking home 15 minutes later, it was almost sunny outside, and the rain had moved on.  Bad timing for a tour, I guess.

Anyway, my student did a pretty good job with the tour, but there is plenty of room for improvement.  We’ll go back to work in the classroom for a bit until she’s ready to try it again.  And we’ll pick a sunny day to do the tour, too.

We continue to work through what has turned out to be a ton of leftovers from the party last weekend.  Taco salad, guacamole, homemade salsa, beans and carne asada – it has been Mexican on the menu for the last few days.

I think we’re going to change things up tonight and do wine and cheese – there’s a lot of cheese in the fridge, too.  The Fukumis brought a huge bag of stuff to the party – beer, wine, cheese, sweets and snacks, even chu-hi.  We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it is the kind of work we like.

The temperature has been climbing steadily upwards recently.  Last night was the first time to open the windows to cool the house when we got home.  The air conditioner probably isn’t too far off on the horizon.

I had a pretty nice weekend.  Friday night I cleaned house (!) and then went over to Red Spanky for the first time in a long time to have some pizza (shrimp, mayo and tomato) and cocktails until Kuniko got home.  It was good to see the place, but I was still on the early side of their schedule, and there were just a couple of other customers.

Saturday the Fukumis came over for dinner.  I made up carne asada street tacos with little 4 inch tortillas that my folks had brought when they came to Japan.  Over dinner we looked at the pictures from their recent trips (Singapore and New Zealand) and talked about Mr. Fukumi’s upcoming change of scene.  He’ll be working (and living) in Tokyo during the week, and then coming back here on the weekends to be with his wife.  It sounds like a hard schedule, but actually, it probably doesn’t change their situation that much.  Already he works so hard that they don’t have much time to spend together during the week.

Finally, yesterday Kuniko had to work during the late morning and afternoon, but I spent the day reading on the sofa with the windows open and a nice breeze running through the house.  I can’t remember the last time that I spent just relaxing and reading.  Thanks to Sunday’s day of relaxation, I think this week should be a pretty good one.

Every day our morning routine proceeds while the TV morning show is on.  One of the segments they always do is famous people passing away recently, and as you might expect, in a country as old as Japan this happens quite a bit.  You can always tell because they change the background music into a slow, sad, piano number while they show film of the recently departed in slow motion.  This happens just about every morning, and it is starting to get a little depressing.

So the weekend is nearly here.  We’re going to host the Fukumis for dinner tomorrow night, and so the task falls to me to clean the house and cook dinner for them tomorrow.  I think I may get a start on cleaning tonight when I get home.  Kuniko will probably be out late tonight due to a school event, so I’m on my own.  Maybe some cleaning, some loud music, it should be fun.

The other day Kuniko dropped by Costco on her way home to pick up some beer for the upcoming party.  As kind of an afterthought she bought a little rotisserie chicken for a couple hundred yen, and we had some for dinner that night.  And the next night, and maybe the next.  This is the chicken that keeps on giving.  I carved it up like a mini-turkey, and last night we had sandwiches.  Chicken, avocado and horseradish, and also chicken with olive mayonnaise.  Yum!

Tonight we’ll finally be off chicken… but what to cook next?

This week seems to be passing really quickly.  For Kuniko it is no big deal, like each day is Monday for the next two weeks.  For me, I’ve got my eye on the weekend and I’m looking forward to lots of time to read. Recently I started a new fantasy series, and I’m really enjoying it.  I spend some time each morning, lunchbreak, and evening reading a tiny portion at a time, but this weekend I should have plenty of time to dig in.

I’ve been following the HBO TV show “Game of Thrones” recently.  I really enjoyed the books, and I’m sort of enjoying the series.  The budget of the show is surprisingly well spent, and I’m pretty happy with what they’ve done with the show.  We’re getting to the exciting stuff at the end of this season – I think there are only a few episodes left.

Once the show ends in a couple of weeks, I’ll be a man without a TV show.  I’m looking forward to using the time to catch up on some reading.  I’ve got six novels stacked up in the waiting queue that I need to get to.

Tonight after work Kuniko is going to swing by Costco to pick up some beer and other stuff for a party this Saturday.  We’ll be hosting the Fukumis for a Mexican dinner, and that means that we’re gonna need beer.  We burned right through that case of Kirkland craft beer so we’ve no choice but an emergency mid-week beer run.  It’s nice that the Costco is so close now. She’ll also pick up something for dinner and bring it home.  My job is to get home and wait for everything to show up.  Sounds good to me!

One of the nice things about working at KHI is that there are fewer rules for me to follow.  I’m kind of left to do my own thing, and one of those things is choosing what to wear and when to wear it.  In my previous company there were very strict rules about business wear.  We had to wear a suit and tie, for example.  Since joining Kawasaki I haven’t really changed anything, except for last week when I decided it was time for “Cool Biz” wear.

The Cool Biz program was designed to make things more comfortable in the summer months, and even though summer is a ways off it has been a little warm.  So last week I switched to shirt and slacks, no jacket, no tie.  It has been very comfortable, and I even have an extra minute or two every morning.  I’ll stay in this routine through summer, until September or so.  No ties for three months?  I don’t mind.

I’m halfway through my media blackout period – tonight I finished watching Survivor, and maybe tomorrow or the next day I’ll squeeze in Amazing Race.  Close to the end!  I was pretty satisfied with how Survivor finished up, actually.  It wasn’t a very good season, but I think the right person won.

Today when I got home the kids from the neighborhood followed me home, desperately trying to strike up a conversation in English.  One little kid rides up on his bike all the time and shouts, “I’m fine thank you, and you?”.  I’ve got to figure out a proper response for that one.   The neighborhood moms and dads think it is cute, though.

More later once I finished up Amazing Race!

Once again I’m on a media blackout, since a couple of my favorite shows on TV wrapped up, and I want to wait and watch them later on this week.  I should be back on the internet in a couple of days.

Yesterday after work I stopped in at the local eye doctor to restock my contact lenses.  I wear two-week disposable contact lenses, but unfortunately I tend to wear them much longer than two weeks.  This time the doctor said that it had been nine months since my last visit – even though they gave me a three month supply last time.  Oops.  I apologized (like I always do) and promised to do better (like I always do).  I think they are used to my ways, though.  They didn’t look too upset.

This weekend we didn’t do much except make a run to Costco Sunday morning.  The shopping list was pretty small, actually.  One of the more interesting things we got is a case of Kirkland craft beer.  I think it is the same stuff you’d be able to get in Costco stores in America, but here in Japan craft beer is pretty rare, and pretty expensive.  Beer is really expensive in Japan, whatever the type.  Here’s a quick breakdown in price…

First, just plain regular beer.  Asahi Super Dry, for example.  One standard 350ml can is about 166 yen ($2 US).

Next, premium beer. Suntory Premium Malts, for example.  One standard 350ml can is about 208 yen ($2.60).

Low end craft beer.  Yona Yona Ale is a good example, although there are only two or three  in this category.  One standard 350ml can is about 250 yen ($3.13).

Japanese craft beer.  There are more and more examples of these.  Minoh Brewery is one of my favorites.  One 350ml bottle is about 400 yen ($5.00)

Next, imported cheap beer.  Budweiser, for example.  One standard 350ml can is about 260 yen ($3.25).

Finally, imported craft beer.  I can get a 350ml bottle of Kona Brewing company Pale Ale for about 350 yen ($4.38).

But yesterday we paid 153 yen ($1.91) a bottle for the Kirkland craft beer.

That is a really big difference.  Also interesting to note is that Costco sells Japanese beers as well, but the price is the same as buying it anywhere else.

So the good news is that I’ll be able to drink affordable craft beer again in Japan.  I tried the four different types that came in the case this weekend, Pale Ale, Amber Ale, IPA and Belgian White, and I was pleasantly surprised – they were better than I expected.  It was hard to believe that I was drinking the cheapest beer in Japan.

Friday is finally here, and we’re pretty excited about it.  Nothing special planned for the weekend – maybe some work in the yard, and possibly a trip to Costco, but that is pretty much it.

Last night I went out to yakitori with Bill and Gary, two of the customer inspectors at Kawasaki.  By chance they were coming back from another factory and so we met in Okubo.  They had arrived much earlier than I, so they had already set up shop at Ichiban yakitori.  I like Ichiban, actually – the master of the place is very friendly, and it has an old feel to it.  Old in a traditional kind of way.

After drinking with them for a while they were interested in seeing the other yakitori that I visit in town, Komedorishokudo.  I lead them over to see it, and by chance we caught the master’s wife and child along with one of the part time workers with his wife and child just leaving.  It had been a very long time since I’d seen them – maybe a year or two.

Gary and Bill seemed to enjoy the place.  They drank and drank and argued politics and drank.  I know better than to bring politics into a conversation over drinks, but these guys just love to tease each other over this and that, and it was interesting to watch their dynamic.  They were both genuinely happy to hear that I had joined Kawasaki and left the staffing company.  They had been prodding me to do it for the last couple of years.

So all in all it was a good night, but I’m pretty tired out this morning, and the weekend is looking really good.

Today after work I’m going to meet up with one of the inspectors from the KHI factory.  These days he’s working a couple days a week at another factory, so it worked out that we’ll be able to meet in Okubo instead of the usual meetup in Hyogo.  It’ll be fun to host him on my turf – I’m thinking about taking him over to the local yakitori for a bite to eat.

Yesterday’s storm lasted pretty much all day.  I ended up using an umbrella on the way to work and the way back.  Luckily the rest of the week seems like it’ll be much better weather.  I’ve already got my eye on the weekend… it is pretty tough coming back from such a long vacation.

My first two class periods yesterday I spent teaching new employees at the factory.  Actually, I was just kind of a guest teacher – normally they learn English from an HR guy, and he usually uses Japanese to teach.  It was interesting to see the style of learning there.  They learn in a system that is pretty much the same as a high school.   The teacher speaks, the students write, and then the class ends.  Because this is the style of class that they are used to, it was a little tough to get them to speak out.  I’ll only teach this group around once a month, so it might take a while to get them to loosen up and start speaking English.

I’m getting ready to head off to work this morning.  Outside there is a smattering of rain and near-constant thunder.  It looks like it’ll be a strange weather day.

Today Kuniko has a special day off.  It is the foundation anniversary of her school, and like all schools all over Japan, the entire staff has a holiday from work.  Unfortunately this year it falls on a Wednesday.  Still, good on her, and she can stay in today while I trudge off to work in the storm.

Last night on the way home from work there was apparently an accident on the tracks in Okubo (that usually means a suicide) and so all trains heading that direction were stopped at the station just before mine.  That meant that a huge amount of people were disembarking where I was, and trying to find a way to go west like me.  I settled on a taxi to get me to Okubo, and then ended up eating at the Thai restaurant since Kuniko was going to be attending a seminar.  The Thai food was good, too.  Very spicy – I had a good layer of sweat on me as I walked home.

OK, I’m off to work.  Hopefully this weather will blow off by the time I head home…