Highlights of my week, in convenient, numbered form:

1. Sunday we had a “mina kuukingu” (Cooking Together) event at the church, where we broke into groups and enjoyed a time of making Indian flat bread, and then eating it with a super good Indian curry. For dessert — crapes. Yum. There was a great turn-out, a few of whom were not regular attenders or members.

2. Monday I studied for what I think was my all-time high for one day: 6 hours. That’s about one hour before class, three hours in class and 2 hours after. It was tiring but much needed and beneficial.

3. Wednesday after class I met up with my friend Kenji for lunch, a visit to a music store (he wanted to stock up on guitar strings), a Starbucks session and various other wanderings. Not a big deal, really, but it’s nice to have friends here, even better to have Japanese friends in my own age bracket. In Osaka I hung around expats mostly, and my Japanese connections were mostly students who were older adults or kids.

4. Speaking of my year in Osaka, my former bosses Hideki and Kayoko are scheduled to be here in Nagoya tomorrow, so I’m getting together with them in the afternoon.

5. Last but not least, I got to do some good, old-fashioned idol smashing (see previous post for the full story).