Kuniko and I will both attend separate “bonenkai” parties tonight. This is the start of the season, and from here on we’ll be busy attending various parties and functions through December (and even January). Bonenkai means forgetting the previous year, and getting psyched up for the upcoming new year. It’s a good idea, actually. I like the idea of always moving forward, and dwelling too long on the past. The only problem is that there is a separate party for each one of your “groups” that you are a member of, and that means a lot of partying. The rest of the week should be pretty uneventful, which is a very good thing.

Yesterday at work I had a funny experience while working at a big company. I noticed that in my office, the carpet was getting a little dirty, since my students often come in to the classroom from the factory, trailing in little pieces of steel, plastic, and dirt. So I sent an email to the guy in charge of my class to casually ask if he could arrange to have the room cleaned maybe once every couple of weeks.

And then the gears started turning.

First, the guy called the cleaning crew and told them to put my room on the schedule for cleaning daily. They asked when it would be best to clean, and he told them to consult with me. At lunchtime I bumped into the person in charge of cleaning my room, and she asked about my class schedule. I explained it to her, and we soon found out that there really isn’t a great time that works for her schedule. She said she’d think about it. Then the security crew had to change the security level of the room, since the cleaning staff don’t have security passes for the rooms on my floor. So they have to change the procedure for my students to enter the room, and the staff created a printout explaining the new procedures to students entering my room. Since the room will be “open” from 8-6pm each day, they want to put my office under lock and key, so they are looking into finding a physical key to lock my office door. They’ll try to get me the key before the week is out.

All because I’ve got a dirty carpet.

Today will be interesting – a lot of stuff is happening, and I wonder when exactly the carpet will be vacuumed.

Every now and then one of my students comes to class looking exhausted, and my frequent comment is, “you look tired”.

The reaction is usually pretty extreme. “What? Really?” They are shocked that they look tired. Everyone at this company works hard, everyone (except me) works long hours of overtime. I’m sure just about everyone is tired. But the trick is to hide it. To look like despite the long hours, you are ready to put in more. So when I observe that they look exhausted, they are pretty disappointed that it is showing through their facade.

Last night I put together some leftovers for dinner – rice, miso soup, salad and soy sauce soaked beans. It turned out OK enough, but certainly could have been better. Despite a pretty heavy eating weekend, my weight seems to have dropped a little bit. These days I’m running at around 86 kg (190 pounds), which is about ten pounds over what I’d like to be. Recently I’ve had very little opportunity for hiking and outdoor activities, so I need to find a way to go hit the trail. Especially with drinking party season coming up…

…I’m gonna eat it up because that was delicious. We’ve had turkey for the last three days straight, and it was excellent. Halfway into Thanksgiving dinner we started considering going out to Costco the next day on the chance that it is only a seasonal item. It was a simple Thanksgiving dinner, but I guess sometimes those are best.

Saturday we did some Christmas shopping (almost done!) and then chilled out the rest of the day. Sunday Kuniko had to work and I got my Skyrim on at home. That game is dangerously good.

This week should be a pretty busy one for me at work. I’ve got a dinner with some ex-students on Wednesday which I’m looking forward to. We’re heading to my favorite Thai restaurant in Kobe, Baan Thai. I can also reconnect with some students I haven’t spoken to in almost a year. The season for year-end parties has officially begun.

It is Friday, and we’re both pretty happy about that. Kuniko and I both have a day off tomorrow, and a Saturday off for Kuniko is like finding a turkey in Japan – a very rare thing. Luckily, we’ll have both. Tonight we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving after work. I’m going to cook (heat up) a turkey breast from Costco, open a can of cranberry sauce, and bust out the mashed potatoes and gravy. We’ll get home around 6-7 pm, so it’ll be a late start, but it should be nice just the same.

This weekend we’ll be working on some Christmas shopping, and also taking it easy around the house. And probably eating a lot of turkey sandwiches. Hopefully we won’t be completely sick of turkey by the end of next week.

To everybody else celebrating Thanksgiving – happy turkey day, and let the holiday season begin!

Last night after we were safely at home the sky opened up and dumped a huge amount of water on us. It sounded like they used a giant bucket of water – it hit suddenly and hard, and lasted about an hour. Afterwards it has been extremely windy. We woke up a couple of times in the night from the noise of the wind. It’s still blowing this morning, so it should make the commute interesting.

Although yesterday was a completely normal day for me, Kuniko spent most of the time at home working on schoolwork. I guess she got a lot done, and she could rest a while at home which should recharge her batteries a little. This Saturday it looks like she’ll have a day off too – good news.

Last night on the way home I upgraded my old iPhone 3GS to a 4S, and so today I’ll probably spend a lot of time trying to get it just the way I like it. Hopefully it’ll work OK eventually.

Today is another one of those days where my factory is working, and the rest of Japan is on holiday. Because they don’t like to shut down the factory mid-week and then fire it all up again the next day. They are banking the holiday and we’ll get to enjoy it later on down the line connected to some other holidays that have been shifted. That means today I’ll go to work and ride the train on the holiday schedule, and I’m sure to get a seat. It is a weird feeling going to work on a holiday – it is like a ghost town – but as you get closer to the factory things get more and more normal.

Kuniko has the day off today, and she’ll likely be working on paperwork at home and doing some relaxation. She’s certainly earned it. I’m not sure why, but she is up and about at 6 am this morning drinking coffee and enjoying morning TV. Lucky girl.

I’m having my first year students at work put together an extended dialog of all the skills they’ve learned so far in my class. I imagined when planning the first lesson that they would remember everything and just string things together and be ready to go next class, but after my first class I was a little disappointed. The students spent their practice time writing a giant new script that they could memorize and then follow. I’m hoping that my other classes today don’t do the same thing, and I’m thinking about expressly forbidding it. We’ll see how it goes in class today. Unfortunately the skills that they pick up in my class don’t last long because they have no opportunity to use English at work outside of my class.

Last night we had some stew that I made up using the new food processor. There is a lot of power in that thing – I annihilated an onion in seconds and used the slicer to take care of three carrots in about the same time. It saved me some time – good news. The stew turned out OK, but still a bit watery. Next time I’ve got to thicken it up a little bit more. We used some baguette to soak up the sauce and it was delicious – especially on these cold evenings.

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.