SO Tired

Dad made it safe and sound to Kobe. He is sleeping on our floor as I write this. He seems perfectly cozy to me, for those who are wondering.

Unfortunately, I have barely gotten to see him yet. The last two days have been virtually solid textbook work. I was at work by 7am on Friday in hopes of finishing early, but by 7pm I was pretty dead and there was still a lot to do. We all decided to call it a night and come back fresh the next morning.

I met dad and Russell at the neighborhood izakaya (family bar) and had dinner there. Then we came home and I pretty much went straight to bed. Today (Saturday) I worked from 8am to 5:30pm but can now officially say I am done writing textbooks! Its such a relief. I love materials writing, but after a month and the stress of a deadline, I am really ready for a vacation.

So glad dad is here to share it! We will be off on mad-cap adventures tomorrow, far, far away from my office.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

It turns out I do have one more post for tonight. Its Saint Patrick's Day! This is one holiday that does not seem to have been adopted by the Japanese. I guess I'm not surprised. Chances are good that foreigners all over Japan are hitting the local pubs to celebrate, but we weren't able to go out tonight. Instead, Russell brought home some bottles of Guiness and a bottle of Bushmills Irish Whisky to help us get int the spirit of the day.

In the picture you can see my evening textbook-writing set up. A Guiness on the left (served in a small plastic tumbler) and a glass of whiskey on the right. Russell felt it was important that I start both the beer and whiskey before we passed midnight and were no longer technically connected to the holiday we were celebrating. Since I am still writing textbooks, I will probably be nursing these two beverages for quite some time. I am not, as it turns out, quite the lush I paint myself to be on my blog. Thank goodness.

Apartment Love

One thing I love about our apartment is that I can panic about how dirty it is at 7pm and have it deep cleaned by 10pm. Russell was out with a conversation partner, too, so I did most of it by myself. Russell did two wicked tiring parts thought... the shower and hand washing most of the floors.

We are all sparkly clean, now, and ready for my dad to visit!

No guarantees on how much I will post in the next week, but I should have lots to post in the not too distant future.

White Day

And yet another holiday!

I mentioned that this one was coming in the Valentine's Day post. Today is White Day, the day when men get a chance to reciprocate the gifts they were given by women a month earlier. This one is just as fabricated as Valentine's Day, but I suspect it is one of the main reasons women suffer though Valentine's Day. At least its not completely one sided - and the men are suppose to one up the ladies - in price if not in personal attention.

The stores have all had White Day displays up. Chocolate is one option to give to the ladies, but from what I hear, marshmallow treats are also considered highly appropriate. I gave Russell very specific instructions that anything with marshmallow would not be accepted as a replacement for chocolate.

I should back up, though. Such comments make it seem that Russell was being guided through White Day, and that actually wasn't the case. I had long forgotten that I had potential chocolate on the horizon, but Russell was on keeping track. I only caught wind of the holiday again when Russell mentioned it to a conversation partner. Of course, then I started weighing in.

In the end, in spite of having worked at least 18 hours a day for the last week and only having slept about five hours the night before, Russell dragged himself out of the cave and went in search of some sinfully delightful chocolates. I was at work (on a Sunday, grr) but when I got home, Russell had a bag with a highly packaged box of Belgian chocolates inside. A double-decker even!

Very well done, Mr. Mull.

Hopefully his work crunch is over now and his work schedule will return to normal. I've got until Friday before I can relax, but my dad comes Thursday evening, so I will get a nice vacation with family to help me unwind from all the crazy. I am VERY much looking forward to that.

Crazy Weather!

We had a lovely and short false Spring a few weeks ago. It had been very cold before that and then all of the sudden it was all sunshine and flowers. After about a week of that, though, it started raining. This isn't normally a rainy time in Japan. It hasn't been down-pouring, but it has been pretty consistently showering over the last two weeks and lately it has been getting COLD again. Not freezing, but awfully chilly. Today it hailed off and on all day.

I keep thinking about the muggy summer, though, and can't bring myself to wish the current weather away. I'll take grey and miserable over oppressive sun and moisture any day.

The Beef is Back!

I can't remember if I shared the sad news a few months ago, but the beef-bowl place across from the station that I raved about not too long after Gwen and Nicole visited - that place was torn down a few weeks ago. Russell went to enjoy a bowl of beefy goodness and when he got there, the sign on the door said it was closed. This was right before New Years, so we thought maybe the owner was taking a vacation. Alas, no. In spite of periodic checking, the shop never reopened and a few weeks ago a demolition crew came in and razed the building. It was very sad. Russell and I spent the last few months glanced optimistically at the empty building while waiting at the tracks, hoping for some sign that the restaurant would come back, that maybe it was just being remodeled. No such luck. It wasn't every going to come back.

Today however, we got a surprise. Two blocks down the road from the first restaurant, a new beef bowl restaurant opened. The sign was new, but looked very similar to the old restaurant. We peeked inside this morning and saw that the restaurant was situated the same and the chef, though we couldn't see him clearly, could definitely be the same guy. We were in a rush, so we didn't have time to stop and test out our theory.

On the way home tonight, the draw was too great. We had already eaten dinner, but Russell was pretty sure he could fit in some beef. I continued home and he went over to try the new place out. Before I even got home, I found a very satisfied text message on my phone. It was the same place. Well, apparently not quite the same. It is the same chef and the same basic style, but it is under new management and so there have been a few changes to the menu. The basics are all still there, though.

Russell is very happy, as am I.

Now that the beef bowl place is back, tasty as ever and all bright and shiny new, we are pretty sure it means Gwen and Nicole have to come back and try it.

It will definitely be on the tour for anyone who comes to visit.

Web Comic

Oh, there's one other thing I've been up to this last week. Russell reminded me about a web comic I had intended to read but never quite got to. For those of you who aren't familiar with web comics, imagine pages/ strips of comics posted online a certain number of days a week. Some post every day, others post every other day, or whatever they choose.

I follow a number of comics online, Sluggy Freelance, Questionable Content, Starslip Crisis and Penny Arcade, among others, but the latest one I've been reading is Girl Genius. It isn't new to the Internet. Phil Foglio and his team have been posting this comic three days a week for 4-5 years. I'm a bit late. Its really good though. It took me three days to get caught up (keep in mind I have to go to work, too). Now I'm caught up and only three comics a week is killing me.

I'm going to have to re-read the story a few times before I come to accept the three comic a week routine. I'm half way through reading it a second time now. Its just as good this time. The entire 4-5 years of comic have been establishing and moving along one enormous storyline, which is impressive. Most web comics seem to go through story arches as the writers develop bigger and grander story lines for their characters. This just feels like one enormous story that will someday come to natural end. Well done Mr. Foglio and Friends.

The comic blends steam-punk, romance, adventure comedy and awesome characters. It kind of scratches the same itch for me as Princess Bride, though the premises are totally different. Another difference is that the characters are evenly balanced between men and women if not weighted in favor of the women - before this comic I hadn't really realized how male dominated online comics are.

So if online comics are your thing, or you are willing to try one, I recommend Girl Genius.

Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts. My life this last week has been 100% taken up by writing textbooks and sleeping off a pretty bad cold. The last week has been sad as coworkers from this last year have started to leave. Only one of the native English speakers is staying on - the one that has been here two years already. On the up-side, though, new co-workers are starting to trickle in, and they seem to be a good crowd with good experience. We are also making progress on the textbooks, so hopefully it will be a more pleasant place to work for the new hires.

Looks like the final count will be two from Canada, two from America, one from Guam and one from Russia.

Starting to Accumulate...

We finally got one particular item that we both know we don't NEED but which I kind of wanted anyway - a microwave. Russell and I have been doing just fine without a microwave - or oven for that matter. I missed it when we first arrived, but I'm totally used to doing without one now.

Even so, one of my colleagues was leaving Japan and had a microwave that he was willing to give away. We decided to go for it. Microwaves in Japan generally have a microwave and an oven setting, so if you want to do any baking (that isn't in a rice cooker) this is the way you go.

Russell wasn't too happy with the plan at first. He was pretty sure it was at odds with my plans to lose the winter weight I have put on. He was pretty sure I only wanted the microwave so I could make cookies. I will admit, at Christmas time I did really want to make cookies, but that's in the past. Now I just want to be able to re-heat left overs once in a while. So far we've only used the microwave twice - once to make croutons (Russell's idea) and once to reheat a couple bentos.

I suspect it won't actually get that much use, but its still nice to have around.

I have to say, after a year, smaller living is really appealing to us. Our house back home seems pretty cavernous now. Its hard to imagine moving back to it. Maybe it should stay a rental and we can find something smaller. Just a thought. We will be putting that decision off for at least another year. Kobe is pretty awesome.