Hey everyone,
Sorry I've been totally slack about updating here. Things have been busy with Kate visiting - we took her out to Karashiki (no, I don't know how to spell it!) in the weekend and we will go to Hiroshima this weekend. This means I've only been popping home once a week, which also means only getting on the internet once a week. By which time I have such a backlog of emails and bits and bobs to organise (eg. booking hotels - anything to avoid trying to speak on the phone to the Japanese!), that I haven't had time for this. I guess I should follow that by warning you that when Kate leaves, we have a few days of downtime, then we leave for ten days in Taiwan. Should be total awesomeness, but it means I will continue to be slack about updating my blog.
Ok, so what have I been up to? We have been trying to show Kate around as much as possible. In the morning before work we have been doing things like catching the ferry to Onomichi and looking around (including getting free omiyagi because the lady was flattered Kate wanted to take pics of her store! Totally the best thing about living in an area that doesn't get Western tourists - the Japanese are so damn happy to interact with you! Hence the 'gaijin discount'. Mean :D ), going for wanders to check out the houses, having dinner with my factory students (super lovely bunch, even if they couldn't understand a word Kate was saying! In her defence, she was sitting next to the one with the best English, so was tailoring her conversation to that. However, the others were listening and shooting me confused looks!) and on Friday, going to an onsen! I'm really excited about that one because I haven't been yet and can't go on my own when I don't know the protocol. So Kate and I are going to hang out with my workmate, Rie, naked in a hot pool. Sounds so gooooood....
Hmm... if you're sitting there in your tshirt in your warm office/bedroom thinking it just sounds weird, please understand that it's snowing outside and the cold is affecting my fingers enough that I'm avoiding texting cos it's too damn slow without proper circulation! I should get out my gloves, but I'm about to make lunch and, in my experience, cooking and fluffy gloves are not a good combination. So anything hot sounds awesome right now. In fact, walking on hot coals or being burnt at the stake sound increasingly attractive.
Having talked about onsen, I'm very tempted to run a super hot bath and soak, but I still need to pay for my car, fill the kerosene canister and go to the supermarket before Jeff gets back. Guess a hot shower will have to do. I love my Wednesdays - they are my Get Stuff Done day, but they are also always very busy, especially when I haven't been home in the weekend and therefore my entire wardrobe needs washing. This time, I have all my clothes and all Kate's clothes to wash. She was debating what to send home with me and said she would keep a certain merino singlet, as she could just wear it three days in a row. I insisted that no, I had a perfectly good washing machine and was NOT ok with her just wearing the same clothes for three days, just for the hell of it! I think her week of South Island hiking must have affected her more than she realises - it's all good and well to be a smelly tramper, but noone likes a smelly teacher!
This weekend we will be going to Hiroshima to show Kate around and hit up the bomb museums. Jeff and I have only briefly walked through the peace park, so I'm looking forward to having some time to show Hiroshima the respect it deserves.
The following week, on Tuesday, we have dinner with the English Conversation group Jeff helps out with. They try so hard to practice their English without any native speaker to aid them, so I'm so happy Jeff goes when he can make it. This time Kate and I will go along too, so they declared they would have a party. I'm looking forward to introducing Kate to the really cute old bloke with massive glasses and sticky-out teeth. He always brings us the most amazing fruit, usually from his farm, and I just want to take him home and keep him as a pet.
The next day, Wednesday, we will have a pretend Christmas, with Kate as the family representative. We will have potato and chicken, although we still haven't figured out how to cook chicken without an oven... Anyway, we will have wine (including some NZ wine Kate brought us... yum yum!!), sake, little Christmas cakes and chestnuts. Also, I daresay we will have mame-mochi - mochi (pounded rice) with red bean paste inside. Since Kate tried it she has become hooked, eating it every day, so it is a safe bet that we will also eat some at Christmas!
Yes, Japanese food has been a hit with Kate. I've got her into cold soba noodles (so more-ish!), she eats mochi like it's her lifeblood, okinomiyaki went down a treat, she thoroughly approves of the tempura and ate the prawn tail like a good Japanese, enjoyed the eel at Sushimaru (conveyor belt sushi) and managed to spend 4000 yen ($60) on bento boxes in one go (Japanese lunch boxes, an average cost of 300 yen each). So to all Kate's loved ones, if Kate doesn't come home, I'm sorry you have lost her to the Japanese food! Due to NZ not allowing her to bring red beans into the country, she may yet choose to stay here eating mochi and drinking green tea lattes...
Hope you are all loving the sunshine. Keep your fingers crossed we get some decent snow so we get a white Christmas :D
Charly
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