Today we’re going to wrap up the week, go to our new favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner, and then come home and pack.

Tomorrow it’s off to the airport, and then on to Hong Kong and India for a week or so.

Yesterday we decided to go ahead and book travel for the end of this year. We’ll be taking a short trip to Cambodia and Thailand after Christmas.

I’ll enjoy the blogging vacation for a week, but I’ll try to wrap up as much as possible when we get back on the 21st. See you then!

Today is the day where we try to kill pretty much anything in our fridge that’ll go bad within the week that we’re gone. That makes for some truly strange meal options. There’s not much left in there, and Friday night we’ll go out so that we don’t leave any trash behind. This will truly be a creative night for dinner.

The last few days have been the hottest this year, topping out at around 36 degrees and nearly 90% humidity. I’m watering my plants outside every day and they drink that up quickly. This holiday we asked the Yamaji’s to water our plants while we’re gone, and they were nice enough to say yes. Last night we dropped off a bottle of wine to say thank you. We also have a BBQ plan with them when we get back. I’m afraid they’ll be subjected to lots of vacation pictures, however.

OK, time to go out and face the heat…

Last night I broke a long-standing rule – don’t eat gyoza on a school night. See how wild and crazy I can get.

The obvious choice for take out pot stickers around here is 京都王将の餃子 (Osho) but the amount of garlic they pack into each little dumpling is pretty impressive. Usually we only get them on a Friday or Saturday night, so as not to subject our students to garlic breath the next day.

But they sure sounded good last night. I stopped by the local store on the way home and got just a small pack with some shrimp and crab fried rice and 焼きビーフン (yakibifun – fried chinese? noodles). Everything was great, but the gyoza were spectacular. So I took some internal breath mints to see if I could prevent the garlicopalypse this morning, and I’m happy to report there is no apparent sign of contamination. My students will be glad of that.

Kuniko got some good work-related news, so we’re reacting to that this month. We should know more by the end of the month or beginning of next if it is merely good news or great news. Mysterious, I know, but who knows who is reading this…

At work my students seem to be relatively energetic, but a lot of them have some business trips up to and including next week’s obon holidays. Bad luck for them – some are traveling to America where there are no obon holidays, so there’s not much they can do about it. Hopefully they can catch up on those holidays some other time.

I am not one to miss a holiday, however, and we continue to prepare for our trip bit by bit at home. We picked up a few goodies for Vishnu and his family (including coffee flavored chewing gum) – hopefully they’ll get a kick out of them. The trick will be to make sure they survive the trip until we get to Bangalore.

Tonight after her seminar Kuniko is meeting with some of the other people involved with their next international student to have a quick meeting and a party. That means I’m on my own for dinner tonight. I’m not sure what I’m doing, but leftover salad doesn’t look so good to me right now…

It was another entertaining weekend – party on Saturday and recovery on Sunday. The party on Saturday turned out to be one of the more wild ones in our history, thanks to tequila. All of the members had been here before except for one new person, so I think most people knew what to expect. I grilled up some shish kebabs which turned out OK, except the beef was a little tough. It was a little hard to time it with three different kinds of meat and lots of veggies on there, too. Overall, dinner was good, though. And everybody again brought dessert – I don’t know what we’re going to do with all the sweets and ice cream in our fridge. We’ve got to kill it somehow this week, though.

Sunday we slept in to recover, and finally got ourselves out of bed and out to Sannomiya to pick up some supplies for our trip. There won’t be much time to prepare as our flight leaves next Saturday morning, so we got most of it done Sunday.

For now, it is back to work. The last week of work before a vacation can be brutally slow. Hopefully my students have some motivation to study this week.

Last night after work I met up with the two inspectors at the tachinomi (“the Tach”) north of Hyogo station. It was fun to chat with these guys, curse the Tigers for losing on the TV, and drink beer and wine. There were some new members there as well, so I met some new people who seemed pretty friendly. Next to the inspectors, my intermediate level Japanese sounds like translator level – so I was showered with compliments the whole time I was there. I guess they are not used to foreigners in there that can speak Japanese.

After that I headed on to the station to go home. When I caught the train there was an attractive young woman laying on the floor in front of the opposite side door reading her cell phone. Laying on the floor of the train is definitely unusual behavior for Japan, so I was interested to watch other reactions as people got on the train. Eventually she stood up when the door on her side slid open, but once people got on board she laid back down again. Weird behavior, indeed.

It is Friday, and we’ve got a couple of events planned this weekend. Kuniko has invited a bunch of coworkers over for BBQ, and so I’ll make shish-kebabs and grill sausages for dinner for them. Also on Sunday we’ll go out to Sannomiya to buy some rupees for our trip. Should be fun to get our hands on some more foreign currency!

One of the interesting tips I found while researching our trip this month was that you should start cultivating helpful bacteria in your intestinal tract in order to have a better dining experience on the streets of Delhi. That sounded great to me, so today I’ll be looking for some happy bacteria to introduce to my neighborhood. I’ll let them get comfortable, enjoy some nice easy food like veggies and rice, and then in two weeks they’ll hopefully fight for my cause in an epic battle against things like this.

After work today I’ll probably stop in at the tachinomi to chat with the inspectors from the factory. It sounds like they may be wrapping up their current project, and I’m not sure what is next for them. I guess it is possible that they could stick around, but probably they will move on to something else. These guys have worked and lived all over the world – just going back to the USA now and then between jobs. Interesting – it might be a fun lifestyle for a while, but it would get tough for me after ten or twenty years I think.

OK, I’m out to hunt down some bacteria…

The other day at the party one of the members mentioned that they bumped into another “Bryan” around Okubo. What? This town isn’t big enough for two of us. Turns out the other Bryan is black, and apparently also from California. So in order to differentiate between Bryans in conversation, he is called “Black Bryan”. What they didn’t say, but seemed logical to me, is that by default I’m “White Bryan”.

So I’ve got a new nickname.

I’ve picked up a lot of nicknames since coming to Japan – for example, among another group of drinking buddies I’m called Bura-chan. But “White Bryan” is probably my favorite. Now I have to try to bump into “Black Bryan” and find out what my evil twin is up to in Okubo.

With the hot weather and the energy saving steps that are common these days, they changed the procedure for getting off some of the trains heading home. Usually the train arrives, the doors open, and the passengers get off. The train has to wait there for three minutes for another train to pass, and then it continues on. So recently, to keep the people inside comfortable while they wait, they set the doors to manual operation in order to keep the air conditioning inside the train cars.

So yesterday I was on this train coming home, and we were approaching the station, and I was standing right in front of the buttons to open the doors once we arrived. Behind me, people start lining up to get ready to get off the train. It’s a popular stop, so there are a lot of people, and they are all in a rush to get up the escalator and get to the gates before they become crowded. So there is a little urgency involved for some of the people behind me.

I casually glance back over my shoulder, and every single person was watching me carefully. It was a weird scene – like out of a movie. They are probably wondering if I’m aware of the new protocol, or if I know which button to press (they’re helpfully marked in English as well as Japanese, though), and if I’ll be too slow and cause them to be late.

I could make them all feel better by raising my right hand and hovering it over the button, but I decided to play out the drama a little bit. I keep my hand to my sides, and the train is getting closer and closer. There was some shifting over my right shoulder as somebody gets ready to reach over my shoulder if I’m not aware of the button. I look through the reflection of the glass and see everybody watching intently. And then the train stops, and I reach up and push the button, the door opens, and everybody rushes out of the train. And my small part in the everybody’s commute is quickly forgotten.

Another weekend has come and gone. This time, we gave the BBQ a workout and had a really good time with some friends and neighbors in Okubo. Saturday while Kuniko was working I spent the whole day cooking and preparing for dinner. There was a lot of stuff to do, actually.

I made carne asada marinades for the beef, a lime-based marinade for the chicken thighs, peeled fifty tiger prawns, made Mexican beans from scratch, cooked “Spanish” rice, made guacamole, salad, and homemade salsa. In between cooking I cleaned the house and got it ready for guests, and then about an hour before people were due, I started grilling.

The food turned out great, and I think everybody liked the food. I did the whole meal (except for the carne asada marinade) without cilantro, which turned out to be a good decision as one of the members of the party said they couldn’t eat it at all.

All of the members of the party had spent time with us before, but it was the first time for them to meet each other. I was wondering whether or not people would get along, but thanks to nine bottles of wine and plenty of beer everything went fine. People were talking and laughing with each other, telling stories, and the conversations went well on their own without much support from us. You never know what will happen when that many people get together for the first time. In this case, it went splendidly.

Next weekend we have another barbecue with Kuniko’s coworkers, and I’m planning on kebabs for that one. I’m loving grilling season.

After work yesterday I went over to the Hankyu department store in Kobe to see a model railroad exhibition that one of my students had set up. His display was on the third floor, so I went up there and found a rather large layout in N gauge. It has been a long, long time since I’ve seen model railroads running, but the basics are the same. They had built small towns, mountains and rivers, and the trains dutifully ran around and around while people watched. The trains were based on actual Japanese trains, and as the Hankyu train line also owns the department store, it was featured prominently.

One thing that was new to me was that they had several trains that had a tiny camera in the front, so while you operated you could enjoy watching a very high quality video image on a TV set in front of you. It was amazing how realistic the view was from the camera, and it really changed the experience of running trains. Great leaps and bounds of technology, I guess.

There weren’t a lot of people there while I was looking at the model railroad layout, probably because most people were still at work. When I was there, a couple of hardcore nerdy guys (I mean, besides me) were watching and talking with the operator, and strangely a girl in a high school student school uniform. When I looked up she was watching me, and then a few minutes later I caught her watching me again. I wasn’t sure what the deal was, but when I left I walked past her and smiled and nodded at her, and she gave me a big smile and a nod back. Somebody I knew before? A total stranger? I guess I’ll never know.

Back home in Okubo I knew Kuniko would be at a concert until late, so I went over to Swaad for the first time in a couple of months. The hot weather doesn’t exactly make me think of Indian food, but as usual they served up a great meal. I was chatting with the waitress and cook, and they were excited to hear that we’re going to India soon. The cook used to work in Delhi – so I hope that is an indication of the kind of food we’ll be eating when we get there….

Kuniko got back home around midnight, exhausted from standing for three and a half hours at the concert. She seemed to enjoy it, though. I’ll have to download the artist’s “Best Of” album for her…

Finally, tomorrow we’re having a party with three other couples at our place. It’ll be fun to see everybody hanging out together, and I hope that they enjoy themselves. I’m looking forward to cooking and cleaning all day tomorrow!

Tonight after work Kuniko is going to a concert to see this guy, so I’m on my own after work today. I’m thinking about dropping by the Hankyu department store in Kobe to see an exhibition of model trains that one of my students is helping with, but other than that it should be a pretty normal night.

Last night while eating dinner Kuniko asked if it was OK to invite her coworkers here for some BBQ next weekend, so it looks like we’re starting to get social again. I’m looking forward to it – any excuse to grill is fine with me. I think we’re going to make kabobs. Anybody know any good sauces or marinades?

Yesterday one of my students returned from his holiday in Australia. I had helped a little bit with planning some events for him while he was there, and so he brought back some chocolates for me to thank me. He’s big into wine, so I steered him to a wine tasting event that was being held in Sydney while he was there, and he said that although it was his first wine tasting, it went well. He bought a bottle of Tomfoolery Artful Dodger 2008 Shiraz as a souvenir. He was surprised at the difference of quality between Australian wines that you can get here in Japan and the ones available locally in Sydney. それはそうだ。

Off to work in the heat!

The boost of energy I got from a week off of work seems to be fading faster than I expected. Despite going to bed at a reasonable hour (recently around 9-10 pm) we’re having trouble getting out of bed and going off to work. Luckily, my students seem to be facing the same problem. There’s even a word for it in Japanese – 休みボケ (yasumiboke).

One of the good points of coming back from a long holiday is that many of my students are returning from distant places, and I have been scoring some good souvenirs. I got chocolates from Hawaii, Japanese snacks from Kyushu, and some nuts from Thailand. It’s pretty nice to have so many international snacks around this week. Most of them I bring back to share with Kuniko.

This weekend we’ve got a party with three other couples, none of whom have met each other before. We’ve had parties with each of them in the past, but we thought we’d bring them all together in the same place since they all live in Okubo and they all are cool people. We’ll sprinkle in some tequila, frozen margaritas, and beer, and see what happens. I’m going to put together a Mexican dinner – rice, homemade beans (thanks, Mom!) and grill up some carne asada. Can’t wait…

During the holiday I had a chance to try another Indian restaurant that opened up in town. I was at Red Spanky the night before when one of the customers there told me about a new restaurant in northern Okubo. He drew me a map, and so the next day I hiked up there for lunch.

The first problem with this place is the location. It is off the main road (which is itself not quite a “main” road), and then hidden behind a strip of scary-looking snacks. If I didn’t have the map there would be no way of knowing that this place existed unless I walked past the snacks, and even at night few people will do that.

Once past the front door the place is nice enough. They spent a lot of money on the interior, and it shows. I ordered a lunch set, as that was the only choice available, and asked for spicy curry along with some other goodies. Unfortunately it wasn’t very spicy, but it was quite tasty. I had vegetable curry and that was really good. The curry turned out to be the best of the lot, as the rest of the food wasn’t very exciting. The naan bread was huge, but a little too chewy and not enough butter for my taste.

After lunch one of the cooks came over to introduce himself and talk about the restaurant. He was a really friendly guy and nice to talk to. The place is owned by a Japanese guy (who I think was sitting in the back of the restaurant while I was there) and the two cooks are from Nepal. They were trying to drum up business for the future, but I think I’ll wait a while for them to straighten out their menu before I go back. Until then, I’ll stick with Swaad.

Wow, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do! Wrapping up nine days off is no easy task, but luckily I didn’t do very much during the week, so I’ll give the bullet points first:

– Reading every day
– Catching up on my favorite TV shows
– Surviving a wussy typhoon
– Going to the dentist (finally)
– An aborted attempt at a deserted island trip
– A mind-blowing anniversary dinner at Chiro
– Good times at 穴婆 and Red Spanky
– Plenty of time to research lesson plans and class activities for work
– Trying another Indian restaurant in town

The deserted island trip turned out to be pretty disappointing. I mean, really disappointing. According to my research, once I arrived at the port in Himeji, there were plenty of choices for private companies and fishermen to take me out there. Upon my arrival, however, it turned out that there weren’t so many choices at all. I negotiated with a couple of different people, and they were all quoting prices way higher than anything I had even imagined. At first I figured I’d have to pay around 4000 yen round trip on the top end, which works out to about $50. I was surprised that the lowest price I could find was 25000 yen – around $300. For that price I could fly round trip to Korea – not just get a boat ride to a couple of islands visible in the distance.

So rather than waste the money I figured I should head back and re-evaluate, and that’s what I did. Unfortunately that day was not a good day for public transportation, and the trip back was plagued with delays and waiting. By the time I got home I was tired out, and I didn’t even make it out to the island. I’m already starting research into going somewhere else, though.

One of the highlights of the holiday was our 6th anniversary dinner at Chiro. We were able to get reservations and were welcomed by the staff as if we go there a lot more often than once a year. We ate big, with a big plate of antipasti, their delicious pizza, some chicken and some cheesy pasta that probably shaved a year off our lifespans, and of course a nice bottle of wine. They had saved us the best table in the house, sitting in front of the open restaurant, enjoying a beautiful view of the Akashi bridge changing colors through the evening. The sea breeze blew in keeping the restaurant cool despite a relatively hot day… it was perfect. I gave a small present to Kuniko for our anniversary, and she seemed happy with it, so that worked out pretty well, too.

I’ll try to recap some of the other events later this week. There is a lot to talk about with my students as well – the train crash in China may have some repercussions for my work and Kawasaki.