Because Kuniko is sick today. She’s going to call in sick to work, which will be the first time in her entire life to do so. There are a lot of sick people around, and the other day I narrowly avoided a nasty bug that I thought might bring me down. Kuniko will have some time to rest today, and think that is just what she needs to get over it.

As for me, I’m off to work as usual. Friday feels good, though. I have a little bit of a lighter schedule today, but most of the gaps will be filled with paperwork and reports. As we come to the end of the teaching term, my workload goes up quite a bit as I write about student progress, and take care of lots of minor tasks. There’s actually an interesting story about this but it will have to wait until next week.

I don’t have any plans this weekend, but with Kuniko sick it is looking like a stay at home and recharge weekend. Maybe that’s a good thing.

One of the options at the car dealer while we were buying our new car was listed as “Premium Floormats”, and the price in yen was 22,100 yen ($272). We said that we would rather buy them from another source, and a few minutes on Google and I found some floormats for the new car and ordered then for 50% of the price. They arrived last night and they look good (although it must be said that the range of excitement generated from floormats can be quite limited). We are supposed to get the new car tomorrow, so if it isn’t too freezing outside I’ll install them before our first voyage.

Today I have another full schedule at work. Recently I have been pretty busy with classes and also negotiation about the future at the company. Hopefully today after work we can get some things settled, contracts can be signed in blood, and other arcane ceremonies performed. I’ll be happy to concentrate again on teaching my students.

At work I have been having meetings and meetings about the next term, and things are finally starting to clear up. There is at least one major change, and a couple of minor ones that I’ll be able to write about soon. Until then, things are starting to look good.

One of the things I have learned over the last week or two is that I should really start to work on improving my Japanese speaking skills. While my listening remains pretty strong, some of my vocabulary (especially business-related) has started to fade away. Time to get back into the routine of studying Japanese. The only problem: when?

Yesterday after my regular classes I sat down in a meeting to try to figure out the next step for the courses I’m teaching. The meeting was brief, and mainly I listened carefully, and I took home some documents with more questions than answers. I had pictured in my mind that this meeting would resolve a lot of stuff, but instead it made for more questions. Mysterious!

I’ll do some thinking on it this week, and hopefully things will be clearer.

Meanwhile we are going through a cold snap around here. This past weekend I was starting to think spring was coming, with warm temperatures thanks to the clouds and rain. Unfortunately it didn’t last, and we are back to frost on the ground in the mornings. Ick!

This was a big weekend for the new Costco, which had its grand opening on Saturday. Few people are more excited about it than we are, but I think we are smart enough to stay away until things calm down. Actually, we had planned on visiting the other Costco over in Amagasaki instead, hoping to take advantage of smaller crowds, but something came up and we postponed the trip for later.

Saturday we had Yoshi and family over for dinner, and we feasted on monster spare ribs and drank plenty of red wine. Actually, too much red wine. We kept on talking and drinking and listening to music until well past the last train back, and so we put them up in our guest room for the night, and we all slept off the wine (except for Akira – he was sleeping off grape soda). We had a really good time with them, and I’m hoping we can do it again soon.

Today we’re back to work. I had the last three days off, so it will be a little hard to get back into the routine. I’ve got a weird schedule to look forward to in March, with the first two weeks looking like a normal schedule, but the last two weeks filled with question marks. Hopefully today I can get some more information about those questions.

Wrapping up a short week today, but I don’t really have any exciting plans for tomorrow. One possible event is to go to the doctor for an annual checkup, or perhaps going into Osaka to explore a little bit. Maybe I’ll stay home and read some books that I’ve wanted to catch up on. I’ll stop in at the grocery store and pick up two racks of pork ribs for a BBQ with Yoshi on Saturday. Maybe have breakfast out.

Not exactly burning down the house with excitement, I know.

This is one of those holidays I had to reserve about a year ago, and I had no idea what the situation would be like at that point. Turns out I could use the holiday, so I am looking forward to it. So I’ll take a little blog break and try to do something mildly interesting to write about next week.

Because of all the calories we consumed last weekend thanks to a wedding and Kuniko’s birthday party we decided to eat a little healthier this week. Anytime we want to eat healthy in the winter time, we make nabe. It is a simple, delicious soup cooked in a clay pot, and there are a lot of varieties. Kuniko made a chicken soup version on Monday, and a tomato and oregano based one last night. We were able to kill a lot of vegetables in the last couple of days, too.

Since I get home a little earlier today, the menu swings back to the unhealthy – I’m planning on making panini sandwiches tonight. I managed to get my hands on some Italian ciabatta bread, and I’m going to try to press together some yummy sandwiches tonight. Should be interesting.

The weather has turned suddenly warm today, pushing up into 7-8 degrees this morning. I think there is rain in the forecast, and I can only hope that things clear up before this Saturday when we have Yoshi and family over for dinner.

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!