Yesterday afternoon we met up with some friends and attended the Sheraton Wine Tasting held at the Sheraton Hotel in Rokko Island. We’ve attended several times before, but because of the popularity there was a whole lot more people and quite a few more wines than usual. We walked into the ballroom, and the place was filled with people milling around tasting wines. About a quarter of the ballroom was dedicated to food, and the rest to local distributors showing their wines, which luckily came from all over the world.

This was the first time for our neighbors (Fukumi) to taste wine formally, so I gave them a few tips and sent them on their way. Everyone enjoyed the event, I think, and some of us went home with some bottles afterwards. The most unusual highlight was when some strange guy came by each table and ate the remaining foods off of the plates that were discarded, using his hands. Somewhat unexpected in the ballroom of the Sheraton hotel. They also had two ‘entertainment’ portions to the event. One was a duo playing live music, but the volume was so loud that nobody could talk to the people pouring and we couldn’t discuss the wines with each other. That lasted about 45 minutes, and after they finished their last song (We Are The World) we were able to get back to the business at hand.

Also they had a “wine tasting contest” which was apparently people guessing the vintage, variety, country and appellation of a mystery wine. They conducted the tasting on stage, but really there was nothing much to do for the audience. I felt bad for the emcee – whose idea was this? Had there been a bit more drama (maybe involving a live alligator or something) things might have been more entertaining.

Still, all in all we could taste a lot of wines for the first time, and I think everybody learned a lot about their taste in wines. Mission accomplished.

Yesterday I upgraded the operating of my iPhone 3GS to ios 5, smoothly and without any problems. My 3GS will probably be around for another month or so before I upgrade to the 4S, but in the meantime I’m enjoying playing with the new features of the new OS. There are still lots of things to explore, so I’ll play around with it and see what I can find today.

Interestingly enough, Kuniko’s old cellphone croaked at pretty much exactly the same time I finished my installation, meaning that she is without communication today. In Japan, that’s a big deal, so we’re going to drop into the cellphone shop today after work and see if we can get it repaired/replaced. Then back home for a relaxing weekend.

Sunday we’re going to a wine tasting at the Sheraton hotel with our neighbors and one of Kuniko’s good friends from college. I’m looking forward to getting to taste some interesting wines – the tastings there are always overwhelming but I seem to always find a new bottle that I like.

I came home after work last night pretty tired out. I had some extra lessons throughout the day, and also I had a conference with one of my ex-students who asked me to help organize his upcoming wedding second party. I think he had an image of me being some kind of goofy half-English half-Japanese speaking gaijin emcee that would bring down the house. I’m not sure I could pull that off. Maybe I better check out some old Academy Award broadcasts to pick up some tips. Anyway, this won’t be until the beginning of November, so I’ve got some time to think about it.

Last night we had leftovers for dinner – salmon and scallops as sashimi, and some leftover steak and beans for the BBQ the other night. Strangest surf and turf ever.

Today and tomorrow I’m trying out some new lessons with my students, so I’m hoping that they go over well. This morning I’m heading off to work a little early to do some last minute prep. Looking forward to that weekend already!

Yesterday was a pretty normal day at work – two group lessons and five one-on-one lessons. I’m really enjoying my students this term – plenty of energy and fun to talk to. They are still pretty nervous, so it’ll take a couple more weeks before they let their hair down. After work Kuniko and I worked on the leftovers from our Tex Mex BBQ on Monday. There was still plenty of steak, beans and rice, so we went ahead and made burritos and killed off the leftover guacamole. Yum.

After all the excitement of last weekend, I think this week and weekend should be much calmer. The highlight will be a winetasting with friends at the Sheraton hotel on Rokko Island this Sunday. They always do a nice wine tasting, and I usually come home with one or two rare bottles of vino.

Nice to have two days off during the middle of the week! It looks like Friday is here, and we’ve got a busy three day weekend planned. Tomorrow night we’ll go out to eat to celebrate my 40th birthday a little early, since my birthday falls on a school night this year. Sunday during the day we’ll go to a concert sponsored by my wife’s school, and then afterwards go visit Yoshi and family in Tarumi for dinner. Monday I’ll be doing some tex mex BBQ for Inoguchi sensei and his wife. Good times!

My classes are going really well with the new students, and so far I’m liking my new schedule. After this long weekend the schedule returns to normal for several weeks before we hit another couple of holidays. This fall schedule is looking pretty good!

I’m wrapping up a couple of mid-week days off thanks to some quirks in my schedule. The last two days I’ve been chilling out locally. Today was a rainy day, so I mainly stayed inside working on paperwork, reading books, listening to music, and cooking. Yesterday the weather was much better, and I spent almost an hour sitting at the beach in the sun enjoying the cool fall weather. Watching the ocean and hearing the waves hitting the shore (even small waves) is a pretty good way to recharge my batteries for the next course.

I’m pretty happy with my new classroom. They converted a big work area that was sitting empty, and even after they cut the area in half I still have a huge office and another big area to work with group students. I’m a little leery of having so much space. It is essentially a giant private office, and I am guessing that it is probably bigger than the company president’s office. While I am very happy with all the extra space – the last two years I’ve been teaching in a small windowless room on the second floor – I’m hoping that what they are getting out of the class justifies the setup. I’ve got to find a way to use the space up, otherwise it may disappear in the future…

As for my students, I met only a few of them on Monday but it looked like a good group so far. I can tell I’m going to enjoy the group lessons, but the preparation is going to be much more for them. I may go in to work early the next few weeks in order to spend time on some backup lesson plans and activities for them.

Hey, there – long time no talk. I’ve spent the past four days on holiday, so the last thing I thought about doing was sitting in front of the computer and blogging. A holiday is a holiday…

During my holiday I didn’t do much – saving money by staying at home, actually. I did some hiking, reading, and watching movies. A pretty good start to October.

From today, I’m starting a new course. Everything is different this time around – I have a new schedule, new classroom, and new students. Each day will start with a group class of five students, and then I’ll have two private lessons. After lunch another group class of five, and then three private lessons. Today I’ll set up in the new classroom that they have prepared for me at work, and all my stuff is in boxes right now, so it’ll be a bit of a rush to get ready.

The good news is that I have Tuesday and Wednesday off this week. So I’ll have time to reflect on what went right and what didn’t during the next two days.

Yesterday after I finished up my classes at lunchtime, I headed out to the train station, met up with my mystery guest, and headed out to Osaka. From Osaka it was an easy transfer from JR to Hankyu, and then we took the train towards Minoh city. Just before reaching Minoh we got off at Makiochi station (牧落駅) and then walked across town about 10-15 minutes to find Minoh brewery. It was located across from a small park, in what appeared to be a regular neighborhood.

Luckily I had written an email beforehand, and one of the three daughters that runs the place gave us a quick tour of the place. It was small and very suited to craft beers. We were able to taste some partially fermented double IPA, as well as some just finished peach infused wheat beer (not sweet, but a slight peach taste made it interesting). At the bar in front of the place you could buy beers buy the bottle, or from the tap, and so me and my guest sat around for an hour or so talking beer and enjoying the various kinds that they had.

We bought some beers to take back with us, and said farewell to the staff. They were exceptionally friendly and knowledgeable, making it a very pleasant visit. I know how I felt when working at the winery and visitors suddenly came walking through the workplace, so I appreciated that they took the time to show us the brewery.

Luckily I have a source for Minoh beers in Akashi city, so I can stop in there anytime on the way home from work. The price point is a little higher than Yona Yona ale, but the quality is certainly there, and it is one of the very few local beers from Japan. Hopefully this trend of more craft beers will continue in the future.

Yesterday morning I went off to get my Japanese driver’s license renewed. Here is the process.

1. Go to the DMV renewal center. It is actually in a separate building from the DMV. I screwed this one up right off the bat.

2. At the front desk hand over your current license. They download your info from the IC chip and then print out a form to fill out.

3. Fill in the form with your updated information. In my case it was already up to date, so not much to do here. P.S. No English forms available.

4. Go wait in line number 2 to pay your fee. 4600 yen.

5. Go wait in line number 3 to double check your forms are correct. I missed one check box, but then I noticed that everyone else did, too.

6. Go wait in line number 4 to take a vision test. Piece of cake.

7. Go wait in line number 5 to triple check your forms are correct. No problem this time.

8. Go wait in line A, B, or C depending on what time they want your lecture to start. At the front of the line they take your picture. No smiling!

9. Go to a classroom and listen to a two hour lecture. Two hours because this is the first time to renew my license. If I don’t have any accidents in the next three years lecture time drops to 30 minutes. The lecture was common sense stuff, but the movie was great!

So that was it. I finished about 12:45, and then I went off to the office to help out with a couple of orientations for the next group of students. I did my best to scare them straight – we’ll see if it worked starting next week.

Today I’m doing a regular set of classes in the morning, and then sneaking off to a brewery in Osaka from 12 pm. Don’t tell anybody. I’m also bringing somebody who is playing hooky from his/her job, so I can’t give away their identity here. A full report on the brewery next time!

I had a good weekend catching up with old friends and relaxing around the house. Yesterday I went hiking with Yoshi, starting at Suma station, walking west to Suma Ura Koen station, and then heading east over the mountains all the way to Takatori station. It was a long hike with lots of ups and downs, and my legs are feeling it today. This is the first time I’ve been hiking in about four months. The heat of summer pretty much keeps me off the trails. Yoshi was a good hiking partner though, and kept us at a good pace for a little longer than I would have gone alone.

Friday I went to “Kawasaki World”, which is a museum run by Kawasaki inside of the Kobe Maritime Museum in Meriken Park in Kobe. See some pictures here. Two of my students were exhibiting model trains and pictures of train that they had taken, so I wanted to see firsthand what they’ve been working on. The model train exhibition was very impressive, and my student ran some trains that he had made at top speed around the huge track. They also had a special room where they ran trains in the dark, and it turns out that lighting trains has come a long way since when I was a little kid.

Afterwards I wandered around Meriken Park, watched a photographer taking pictures of a model, and then walked harborside all the way around the port and back to the train station. Since I had the afternoon off I grilled up some super-thick pork chops (thanks Meatguy!) along with some baked apples and onion garlic cous cous. Yum.

Saturday was a morning trip to Kuniko’s school to attend her culture festival. We walked around together to see the various exhibits done by her students and others, listened to music, enjoyed tea made by the tea ceremony club, and endured the giggles of hundreds of her students as they saw us together. This event is always good for my ego – it’s like Beatlemania except on a slightly smaller scale.

Saturday night I met up with Komori sensei for drinks at Donkey, and then dropped into the underground sushi restaurant for a quick bite. The sushi master and his wife were happy to see us, and kept us in sushi while we caught up. Mr. Komori even picked up the tab, which was probably pretty expensive. I’m trying to break him of the habit, but he won’t budge. Back in Okubo I waited at Red Spanky for Kuniko to get back, and talked with the regulars there for a while. By the time Kuniko was back and we had a drink at Red Spanky I was in pretty rough shape. We headed back home and went right to bed, but that was setting up a tough hike the next day with Yoshi. Luckily I survived.

Today I have a weird schedule – soon I’ll go to Akashi to renew my driver’s license, which is sure to be an interesting experience. Then in the afternoon I’ll go in to work and do a couple of orientation sessions with my new students. I should be back by 5 pm or so. Hopefully an easy day, but anytime you are dealing with the Japanese bureaucracy things can take time.

Yesterday’s typhoon came through right in the middle of the workday. That meant that although it was very windy outside, I was safely locked up in my office and felt almost no effect. During my lunch break I looked outside, and it was blowing very, very, hard. By the time I left work things had calmed down quite a bit, and I got home without a problem.

Kuniko’s students had a day off due to the typhoon warning, so Kuniko was able to come home around 3 pm – very nice. She cooked some cream stew with vegetables for dinner, and even made some yummy hamburger buns for us.

Today is Thursday, but since tomorrow is a holiday it feels like Friday. I have a drinking party after work with some soon-to-be-ex-students, so it’ll be interesting to see how that turns out. This weekend should be fun, too – I’m going to meet Komuri sensei again, visit Kuniko’s school’s culture festival, and visit “Kawasaki World” in Kobe to see one of my student’s exhibitions. Should be fun!

Yesterday I walked off to work in the middle of a rain storm. Today is a typhoon, but yesterday was just the front getting pushed along, and it was a huge amount of water that fell. I sat at home waiting for rain to slow down, but it just got harder and harder. Luckily my umbrella and shoes held up until I got to the local train station.

Unfortunately my luck didn’t last once I arrived at Hyogo station. There was even more rain here, so I went over to the taxi line to catch a ride – but there were about 60 people waiting for a taxi. So I figured I had to forge through the weather. Bad idea.

About halfway to work the rain penetrated my shoes and I could start to feel moisture between my toes. Just before arriving at the office it started raining inside my umbrella. When I arrived inside my office I had to walk past the concerned receptionist, as my shoes slurped on my feet with every step. How classy!

Up in my office I dumped out the water from my shoes into the garbage can – about 100 mL each. Then I squeezed out my socks and went around barefoot for an hour until my classes started. Most of my students showed up without socks – I guess I wasn’t the only one – but by the time the day ended my socks and shoes were dry enough to wear, although they were still a bit moist.

Today there was a typhoon warning, so I’ll try this all again with a different pair of shoes and an extra pair of socks. Kuniko is giving me a ride to Hyogo, so maybe that will help a bit. Wet and wild around here!

Last night a whole bunch of heavy rain came in just as I arrived at home, and all night it has been raining hard. The bad weather is due to two typhoons nearby. One small typhoon passed to the south of Japan and just brought bad weather, but the second stronger one is predicted to hit Japan directly, and we should see it late tonight or early tomorrow. The combo of two typhoons so close together has resulted in a bunch of rain. Ugh. I hope my umbrella is up to it…

We’ve been using every weekend lately for mainly shopping and eating. For me, hiking has fallen out of the equation due to the hot weather that won’t seem to go away. October will be here in a couple of weeks, though, so I’m trying to organize a weekly hike on Sunday when the weather is cooler.

Friday night we had dinner at Baan Sukhotai in Sannomiya. It is the sister restaurant of Baan Thai, which is our favorite Thai restaurant in our area. Baan Sukhotai was good, but not quite as good as the original. We accidentally over-ordered (the portion sizes were much larger than we expected) so we had to take some home with us, but other than that it was a very nice meal. They made the curry spicy for us, and that really got the sweat going. Yum.

Saturday we went over to visit Risa and Anthony and their new baby son, Kohki. He is four months old now, and was really cute. It had been a long time since we’d been over to see them, and they also had a new dog – a tiny Yorkshire Terrier. So much cute in one house… Risa made a shepherd’s pie for our lunch, and we spent time in the afternoon watching funny videos that Anthony had collected. They even sent us home with some hot peppers and hot sauce from Brunei.

Sunday morning we drove off to Costco, and got in and out of there in record time. The thing with Costco in Amagasaki is that they open earlier than the posted time, and if you arrive early you can shop without other customers clogging up the aisles. So whenever we arrive it is like a race against time, as gradually it gets busier and busier. Usually by the time we leave there are very long lines at the registers, but this time it wasn’t so bad at all.

Back home we watched a couple of movies (Pale Rider, In Her Shoes) and had enchiladas purchased from Costco for dinner. Now today I’m off to work, but the rest of Japan has the day off. Luckily I’ll get this day back next week…