Three Days

Monday
Eri returned home around 7pm. I had dinner waiting, in celebration of us. We have only been together for a little over a month, but so much has happened to us. Tonight, it is a night of honoring our love. As I cooked, I listened to Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite and his MTV Unplugged to infuse my cooking and the apartment with even more of a celebratory vibration. I made a kabocha and porcini miso, salmon, rice, and combined two of my favorite veggie dishes together: carrots and ginger with broccoli, garlic and chestnuts. They turned out to perfectly compliment one another, and both Eri and I were delighted with the tastes. She had bought flowers on her way home, and then dug into her boxes to bring out a couple beautiful candleholders. A lovely finishing touch for the eye. As we sat down to eat, I put on Maxwell’s Embrya. All of our senses were honored! We had a simple green tea to accompany our meal. For dessert, Eri had bought us each a sesame dumpling filled with red bean paste.


The chef.


A touch of shri.


Side one of our apartment...


...and side two. Chiisai apaato, ne. (It sure is a small apartment.)

Eri surprised me after the meal with an early Christmas gift from her parents Jun and Kumi; a lovely alpaca scarf from Peru, of multiple shades of brown with a river of white running through it. I have learned from Eri that Japanese names are not always written in kanji (the pictographs adopted from the Chinese language). Sometimes they are purposefully written in hiragana, which are the phonetic symbols. A perfect example is her parents names. Her father’s name is written as 淳 (kanji), while her mother’s name is written as くみ (hiragana). Though I haven’t met her parents yet, from what I have learned of then so far, they seem to have inspired the thoughtfulness and caring that is so prevalent in their daughter. I am looking forward to meeting them this New Years.

Tuesday
The 25th. Payday! We slept late, and had a relaxing brunch. Eri had a meeting with her new boss at 4pm to discuss hours and salary. I had a rendezvous with Falafel Garden for more emailing. First, a stop at the local convenience store to get some much-needed cash. I was down to my last 40 yen (40¢!). Eri went with me to help me negotiate the ATM. I inserted my snappy new bank card into the machine, punched in a request for my balance, and waited excitedly for the result. Zero yen. Not exactly what I was expecting.
It was already 3pm, so the money should have been in there. *Sigh*. I am starting to place my expectations of Yoggy lower and lower. Luckily, Eri could lend me a little bit of yen to hold me over until (hopefully) I receive my money tomorrow.
I went to Falafel Garden, and contacted Sawako in NY to let her know of this latest snafu, and to send Eri’s parents a thank you email. I had a delightful surprise in the form of a conversation with my friend Noelle. She had moved from SF to Seattle a while ago, and we keep emailing sporadically, but haven’t had a proper conversation in a long time. She hit me up on my gmail chat, and we had a lovely e-conversation. I’m looking forward to her and her guy visiting sometime early next year.
After FG, I met Eri at Meidi-Ya, which is a market specializing in foreign pre-packaged foods, as well as local seafood and vegetables. We picked up a few things, then stopped by one of the stands in Nishiki, the open market that fills one long corridor of downtown Kyoto. Eri picked out pre-packaged dinners of a mix of sweet potatoes, carrots, porcini, tofu, chikuwa (whitefish compressed in a tube-like shape), negi, and a large packet of a sweet sauce, all packed in an aluminum foil dish to heat it up in. Then, we headed to what is now my favorite boulangerie, Au Grenier D’or. By then it was around 6pm, so most of what they had put out was gone. However, there were still some lovely treats left. Eri bought two slices of a pastachio infused cake, with a whipped filling of the tasty nuts, called sicille.
At the Kyoto studio, there was a folder from Tim awaiting me. In it were a couple pieces of mail and another letter from him. Eri had her bike with her, so after class we met up at the Fresco to get a few things. I arrived first, and decided to read Tim’s letter as I waited for her to arrive. What a wonderful gift! Tim expressed his gratitude for my letter to him, and not only was I forgiven for my mistakes, but he had some nice compliments to offer me as well. To quote his letter, we are now moving back into “the sunny uplands of friendship once again.” Hotto shita! (I am so relieved!) I am looking forward to seeing him again soon, and taking him and Maya out to dinner when they are available. I shared the news with Eri, and she was also greatly relieved. We had a wonderful meal together at home, and I enjoyed it even more because of the feeling of expansion and joy in my heart.

Wednesday
I checked the ATM before traveling to Shinsaibashi, but still no money in my account. There was, however, an email from Sawako. Apparently Yoggy has a different spelling for my last name in katakana (the other phonetic symbols used specifically for words adopted from other languages) than the bank. Egads. I then checked what the bank had, and they had a different spelling than I had given them. I have yet to experience first hand the efficient Japanese business model that supposedly is the backbone of this culture. In fact, it has been quite the opposite experience so far.
Once I arrived home from my Osaka class, Eri kindly contacted the LOHAS home office, and found out the check had been re-re-deposited, and this time it had gone through. Even though the accountant reassured Eri the money was in my account, I called the bank to check before I went to the ATM. Finally, my own money! What a delight it was to go to the ATM, and be able to withdraw what I needed. I paid Eri back, and made a transfer of funds to Tim too. Then I went to buy food for Eri and I for the first time in weeks with my own money. Food shopping never felt so empowering!