That time of the year

Greg and I went to Yokohama for our anniversary. I would love to post pictures, but Greg didn't bother with any. We stayed at the Royal Park Hotel in the Landmark tower. It was a nice hotel, and getting upgraded to executive level even though we reserved for a discounted price on Expedia was certainly icing on the cake. We ate duck at a pretty good Chinese buffet, drank coffee from Hawaii, and relaxed in our room and watched Clear and Present Danger.

Sunday we stopped in Makuhari to have cakie-hodai with Eddie and Mami. It turns out that the hotel we like to eat cake at is closing at the end of the month. Bummer.

Field Trip!

A nice side effect of my spending entire days with a given class is that when they get to leave the school, so do I. As a kid, I never realized that field trips are every bit as nice a break for the teachers as they are for the students. Now I really wonder why we didn't go on more.

I went along with the 1st and 2nd grades to Narita Yume Bokujo (best translated as Narita Dream Farm). It was basically a petting zoo on steroids. The 3rd and 4th graders went to a nearby milk processing plant in the morning, but then joined us for lunch and playtime in the afternoon. It was fun.


Front to back: Atsuki, Taketo, Shunki, Asami, and Marina (all 2nd graders) run in some sort of weird relay race with ducks. 


First-grade student Naoki - certainly inspired by our Presidents silver-tongued oratory - pets a goat.  


That poor cow. 


Grades one through four, in their entirety.

Mao's Pork

We enjoyed this dish very much in Shanghai, but I've had trouble finding a recipe.

I have found the actual Chinese name of the dish, 毛氏红烧肉 (mao shi hong shao rou), but since the English translation is lengthy (roughly "braised pork with brown sauce favoured by Mao Zedong"), a recipe I can read has been elusive. Anyone know a Chinese speaker who can help out?

5 Days 'til Boston

I was happily entertaining the notion of my impending flight to the East Coast last week when I realized I'd neglected to procure a re-entry permit from the immigration authorities here in Japan. So after a worried conversation with our local "helper" (the nice bilingual local woman who helps us communicate with our schools) and a sheepish apology to my principal, I got tomorrow morning off. Sam's not jealous though, because I get to spend it standing in line at the Chiba office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. Picture the worst DMV office you've ever been in (I mean it - even for you PA people), multiply it by a factor of ten, then throw in monolingual staff and Filipino, Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, Korean, Indian, and European visa-seekers. I have to visit this place every time I leave the country. It's horrible.

But worth it, for the brief trip to the side of America I haven't seen in over two years. Which reminds me, people I'll see next weekend: add your replies to this post to sign up for sake.

Oh, and lest I forget, happy 母の日　『ははのひ - haha-no-hi』 - also known as Mother's Day.

Wow, my employer is evil.

Finally finishing up that degree thing means I qualify for a different working visa in Japan, and a salaried contract (I'm paid per working day at the moment). Today I got this email:

It has been the decision of the company not to change the status of your contract and to continue on as part-time with Interac.

"Part-time" is something of a euphamism here, as I work 45-50 hours a week, and have over a years worth of time sheets to prove it. I wrote a reply already, but it was somewhat intemperate, so I decided to hold off on sending it for now. I think I need to talk to the union's lawyer. I'm tired of not having sick days.

Flights

I was going to stab my stupid travel agent for failing to put my ticket on hold when she WENT ON VACATION FOR A WEEK, but I got a better travel agent. His name is Este, and apparently he doesn't have anything better to do at work (while making twice what Greg and I do together) than search for cheap tickets.

Unless Orbitz emails me tomorrow with very bad news, here's the official plan:
Sam:
Sunday July 30th 2006
US Airways 6842
Tokyo Narita Depart 6pm
SFO Arrive 11:22am

UAL 6394 (hopefully I can get on an earlier flight when I get to SFO)
SFO Depart 3:40 pm
PDX Arrive 5:20 pm

Friday August 18th 2006
UAL378
PDX Depart 8:09 am
SFO Arrive 9:55am

USAirways 6841
SFO Depart 11:38 am
Tokyo Narita Arrive 2:15 pm

Greg:
Monday July 24th 2006
US Airways 6842
Tokyo Narita Depart 6pm
SFO Arrive 11:22am

US Airways 7062
SFO Depart 1:03 pm
PDX Arrive 2:42 pm

Monday August 14th 2006
UAL 199
PDX Depart 10:17 am
SFO Arrive 12:09 pm

USAirways 6843
SFO Depart 1:43 pm
Tokyo Narita Arrive 4:30 pm

Thanks to Maureen's credit card. I'll send home a wire as soon as... probably tomorrow as I have other errands to run after work anyway.

My flights

Possibly. I promise nothing. Nothing at all.

DL6646 30 JUL 06 TOKYO/NARITA PORTLAND ORE 1525 0835
DL6551 18 AUG 06 PORTLAND ORE TOKYO/NARITA 1435 1700