Week 16

Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, drama with the girlfriend. Things had mostly blown over by Tuesday and we had a rare mid-week date. We went to one of the (many) local "British pubs" followed by a long chat in one of the (also, many) Starbucks in the area.

Wednesday I, spur-of-the-moment, decided to take a long bike ride from my place up to the Yodo River (about 3 miles North.) I took a meandering course and found a lot of cool new places along the way. At the same time, I missed my old Wednesday traveling companions from last year (most of whom went back to their respective countries at the end of March.)

Thursday was the first work day with kids classes this contract and went fairly well considering. First kids days are always awkward but everyone tends to get settled by week two or three.

Saturday night I went to a friends birthday party in a tiny little Indian restaurant down town. It was nice to see everyone who turned out (about 30 people) but in a place built for ten, it was a bit crowded.

Last night (Sunday) I went out to a nice buffet-style restaurant with some other friends for their "going away" party. This party was a little more my speed as we could sit down and not have to shout to hear each other.

After posting this update I'm going to call into headquarters and see if I can snag some overtime that's been posted for tomorrow. Then, on Wednesday I think I'll hop over to Kobe to start working on a scavenger hunt I'm putting together over Golden Week.

Week 15

Well, I think this is the latest a post has come since I started blogging weekly. I now see why I really shouldn't skip out on writing every Monday: in addition to my being a procrastinator, the weeks kinda blend together and it's easy to forget what I did when. Let's see if I can jog my memory all the way back to... the seven days from April 4th to April 11th...

On the 5th (a Tuesday) the weather was warm and sunny (one of the first real "spring" days we've had in Osaka this year) so I took my bike and camera and headed out into the city. After touring around a bit I came upon a river-side park (near my company's HQ) which was lined on both sides by blooming cherry trees. The trees were nearing peak, but weren't quite there yet, so I made arrangements to meet my girlfriend after work on the following Saturday so we could go see them together.

Wednesday (the 6th) I went to the local home-center to buy some indoor-outdoor carpet for my balcony (to spruce the place up a bit.) At the home-center I ran into one on my friends and we ended up hanging out the rest of the day.

Thursday (the 7th) I managed to get up, wash two years of gime off my balcony, cut my carpet down to size, and get said carped laid down, all before I had to go to work at 2:00. It was quite the productive day.

Friday and Saturday (the 8th and 9th) were mostly spent waiting for Saturday night's date. The girlfriend and I met at the station closest to the river and walked around for a bit. After a while we found a good spot and put doen the tarp I brought and had a drink under the cherry trees. Once the sun set it got chilly and we headed downtown for some dinner at a great Japanese restaurant in the entertainment district. We capped off the evening with a few hours of karaoke at the karaoke box where we went on our first (group) date.

Sunday (the 10th) was work, as was Monday (the 11th, when I should have written all this down). Monday saw some drama with the girlfriend, but what's a relationship with out a little drama? Things were smoothed over by Tuesday but I'll leave that for next Monday so I have something to write about.

Week 14

Tuesday last week I went with two of my friends who just got engaged to do some engagement photography for them. We started at Osaka Castle before moving to Gion (the 'geisha district' of Kyoto) and Fushimi-Inari Shrine (home to thousands of orange Torii gates.) We had good weather, a relaxed pace, and the photos came out pretty good for the most part, so I'd say it was a successful day.

Wednesday I was supposed to go to the Hanshin Tiger's season opener versus the Chunichi Dragons but the game was canceled out of respect for those suffering from the after effects of last month's quake. This is the second big event that I've been looking forward to that's been canceled out of 'respect'. I know it lacks empathy at some level but I fail to truly see why I have to 'suffer' just because others are suffering. It didn't quite make up for the missed game but a big group of [foreigners/friends/co-workers] got together on Wednesday night for a big send-off party for some of the people who are moving back home in the near future. We went to out favorite neighborhood Izakaya (Japanese 'pub') and enjoyed ourselves until closing time.

Thursday was the last day of the 2010-2011 contract year and went out with a busy night of teaching "Web" lessons. Friday brought the new contract and a lazy day of teaching a few lessons (as a substitute teacher, my regular Friday gig starts in late April.) Saturday I went to my first "real" shift of the new contract (which went well.)

Yesterday (Sunday) I had my first new "Web" shift of the contract (another busy day too) and it went fairly smoothly. Last night my girlfriend came over, made dinner (Mmmm Taco-Rice), and helped me study Japanese for a while.

I've got a late shift today (4:30-11:00pm) so I've got all afternoon to study and clean the apartment before I've got to go into work. The forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday is warm and Sunny, so perhaps I'll go out and about and take some pictures of the cherry trees (which are in full bloom right now.)

Week 13

A bit of a short "blog week" this week due to my last update being written later than usual. I now think the "sinus infection" I had last week was actually "cedar fever" (think hey fever, but with cedar pollen.) Allergies, while being a pain in the... nose... didn't keep me from the farewell party I went to on Friday. It turned out to be a fairly run-of-the-mill event at one of the area's British pubs. A lot of the other (Japanese) high school teachers were there and we all ate, drank, and had a good time.

Where my sinuses draining down my throat did effect me this week was when I ended up missing the big fare-well karaoke event last Saturday, instead staying in and having dinner with my girlfriend. (There's nothing more tortuous than singing karaoke with a sore throat.)

Today is the last day of kid's classes for me (for this contract year, aka until mid-April.) In part to celebrate, after work tonight the plan is to meet up with some of the guys and play some poker.

Looking foreword (and baring another major allergic attack) I'm scheduled to do some wedding photography for some friends tomorrow, which should be fun. Also, on Wednesday, I've got tickets to the Hanshin Tigers' home opener at the Kyocera-Dome here in Osaka (down the street, promises to be a good time.) And then, Friday starts the new school year here with new classes, new students, new staff, new teachers, and new schools. It's looking to be a pretty exciting week.

Week 12

Sorry for the delay this week but it's been a busy few days. Monday (my usual update day), I was busy shopping for and going to a friends's daughter's first birthday party. I'm pretty sure the kid had no idea what was going on (and, in fact, slept through most of it) but everyone who went had a good time. (Oh, and Monday was a national holiday to celebrate the spring equinox!)

Yesterday I went hiking in Takedao (on an old-abandoned-railway-turned-hiking-trail I've been to before) with another friend. The weather was about perfect and we had a good hike.

I was slated to join some more friends, rent a car, and drive to Shikoku today but I bowed out to nurse a sinus cold that's been lingering for the past few days. (And I just now remembered that I've been putting off this update, oh no!)

There actually wasn't too much to write home about last week. Except, I suppose, LAST Wednesday I did go on a different hike (with a different friend in a different prefecture.) We hiked from a town called Tenri to a town called Sakurai in Nara. The weather was more-or-less nice with periods of warm sun woven with snow flurries. (We were hiking in some foot-hills.) There were some nice temples, a few rice fields, and a lot of orchards along the trail.

Looking ahead to this weekend: I've got a farewell party for one of the high-school teachers from last year and an all-night send-off karaoke-party for some of the other teachers who are leaving at the end of this contract (which ends March 31st.)

Week 11

To start this week's post let me state that I'm fine and Osaka was largely un-effected by last Friday's 9.0 quake in Northern Japan. (THank you all for your concern!) We only really felt the main quake and the first aftershock a half an hour later (each registering about a 3 on the richter scale by the time they got to Osaka.) My heart goes out to those actually in the North of Japan who had to deal with the largest quake in Japanese history followed by tsunami waves up to 30 feet high, and now the threat of a nuclear meltdown.

But before we get all dark here, let's back up and look at last week. As I said last Monday I had a bit of a "situation", with my girlfriend being pissed at me. Fortunately it turns out it was all a big misunderstanding and things were rectified by Monday night.

Tuesday I took my first long distance bike ride down to the Yamatogawa (a large river in South Osaka.) The weather wasn't all that bad but there was a wicked wind blowing along the river banks.

Wednesday I got up early and got all dressed up for my high-school class's graduation ceremony. I went to last year's ceremony as well and this year wasn't much different. It started in one banquet hall were the principal some of the senior staff made speeches, handed out diplomas, and awards, and had a few students make speeches. After that we all went to another banquet hall one floor up for a buffet-style lunch, pictures, and some more speeches (as well as an impromptu "rock concert" put on by some of the staff, which was a bit funny.) After the festivities were over the other "native" teacher and I waited around and wend out for a celebratory dinner with the other staff members.

Thursday a was pretty standard work day. Though, as usual, it was a late shift. I ended up sleeping in a bit Friday morning as, instead of my usual high-school shift I had a "substitute-day" where I went and taught someone else's classes while they're on vacation. My shift started at 2:50 and, as I like to do, I showed up 15 minutes early. I was just preparing to teach my first class when the building began to shake. The "Hankyu Office Tower" was completed last year and in the modern design style is designed to sway with an earthquake instead of being rigid. The nasty side effect being that the building ends up swaying like a boat for several minutes after the actual quake subsides. After things settled down I began to teach and was interrupted partway through class by the first, big, aftershock. The rest of the day went on without much concern as we had no TV access at the office. When I got home at 9:00 I turned on the TV and was glues to the screen long past my usual bed-time.

Saturday's kid's classes went normally and quickly and soon I was out for Chinese food with my girlfriend (who is also perfectly fine.)

Yesterday's (Sunday's) "Web" classes were a bit odd in that I only ended up teaching five out of twelve classes (and my schedule's been full lately.) I'm not sure if people were watching the news instead of what (most of my Sunday student's like in Kanagawa, south of Tokyo.) Whatever the case, I do home they're all okay.

It seem's that this-morning the 24-hour news cycle is giving way to more standard morning-talk-show programing, but the topics are still very much last Friday's disasters.

Week 10

I left off last week about to go shopping Tuesday morning. Turns out that shopping expedition was a huge failure due to a broken credit card machine, a sold out item, and an item not yet in stock. The redeeming feature of the day being that when I went out for dinner I stumbled across a hat shop which had the hat I've been searching fo for the last month (a bowler hat in a size 58) at a great price ($30 on sale!) I also randomly met one of my co-workers on the way back from the hat shop which gave me an excuse to go out for Korean BBQ.

Had an early-ish start on Wednesday as the crew was headed off to South Kyoto to tour the Suntory Beer Brewery. This will probably be the last brewery tour for a while as I think we've been to all the major one's in Kansai (the area of Japan where I live) already. The tour was pretty much the same deal as with the Asahi plant but if you're only going to do one, do the Asahi plant. The Asahi tour was more in-depth and the guide was a more knowledgeable (partly because out Suntory guide had only been on the job a month.)

After the tour I broke off from the group (everyone else was headed to a soccer game) and went into downtown Kyoto. I was searching for a stuffed animal my girlfriend pointed out last time we were there but the place we saw it had changed hands, so I'll have to search elsewhere.) I snapped some pictures of Kyoto Station in the daylight (I'm usually there at sunset) and headed back to Osaka.

The work week progressed at it's usual quick pace with nothing of particular interest happening. (Though later in the week I managed to buy some of the things I was looking for on Tuesday which included a camera lens-adapter and Nintendo's newest portable gaming device.)

There was some drama with my girlfriend and a forgotten umbrella last night so I'm off to buy flowers this afternoon.

This week's "weekend" activities are shaping up to include the first big bike ride of the year and my high school class's graduation ceremony (a swank event last year.)