During my next to last class, several of my students rather shyly asked if my family and I would like to go on a sightseeing trip with the group before returning to the US. I delightedly said yes and we started trying to figure out a plan that would work for as many people as possible. The following week one of them suggested a well-known restaurant in Sannomiya named Ninnikuya that features garlic in almost every dish. Both my wife Rachel and stepson Nate are garlic fans, so that was a winner.
We met up with one student at Gakuentoshi, more joined us at Sannomiya,then we walked up the hill to the lower part of the Kitano neighborhood. The restaurant is on the 7th floor and has a nice view of downtown Kobe. We had 11 people altogether and soon the ordering and eating commenced, sharing all the dishes--fried garlic cloves, garlic pizza, crab pasta with garlic, fried chicken with garlic, seafood salad with garlic, a delicious raw beef dish--gyuniku tataki, and more, all fabulous. We chatted with the students, most of whom will work over the summer break, with some planning to do a bit of travelling. One intrepid young woman is planning to go to New Zealand--what fun!
Nate went into the bathroom and returned with a toothbrush and toothpaste--the first step to returning one's breath to social acceptability. At the end of the meal the server arrived with small packets of mouthwash, too.
During dinner Rachel mentioned to some of the group that we hadn't yet visited a karaoke room, and wondered if there was any interest. They eagerly said yes, so afterward we walked back to Sannomiya and up the stairs to a karaoke club. You rent the rooms by the hour and they serve high priced drinks and food. The technology is amazing these days. They give you a tablet computer and a high tech remote, both of which have lists of thousands of songs catalogued by artist and title; pick your song and press a button, and boom, the music starts. So we started in--I belted out U2's Desire; later a student asked me to do September by Earth, Wind and Fire, her favorite song. I said yes and started singing, completely forgetting that it has a falsetto chorus. Luckily I didn't embarrass myself. Nate took on a few Hilary Duff and Britney Spears numbers, the two Chinese students did songs from the mainland and Taiwan, and the Japanese students did duets of several Japanese pop hits. The best songs in the other languages were immediately apparent--strong melodies and crisp choruses. Someone dialed in the Jackson 5's ABC and it was so high pitched that we gave up.
After a couple of hours we realized how late it was and wound up our session.
I was fortunate to have a delightful group of students and I greatly enjoyed working with them. I hope they keep in touch.
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