The warm and sunny weather continues, but on some days, it can be a bit cold at night.
On Thursday, Ikuko wanted to go to the Korean BBQ Restaurant KinKaRo 金花郎 because they have an all you can eat plan on Thursday's only.
There are two KinKaRo Korean BBQ that I know of.
The closest one to our house is on 1 Jodori at about 5 Chome.
It is a short easy walk from our place, but we took a longer detour along the cycling road of the Chubetsu River in order to get some much needed exercise.
When we got there, we we happy to see that there would be no waiting for a table, which is rather unusual because this place is always packed full of hungry people.
We got a nice private booth and started looking at the menu. The all-you-can-eat plan 食べ放題 is 2,700 yen per person, plus drinks.
The all-you-can-drink plan 飲み放題 is 1,290 per person, plus food.
Hmmmm,.... What to do?
Easy choice, get the all-you-can-drink option and then order food as we see fit.
So, that's what we did. While we were there, I recognized one of the waitresses as a former student at my classroom.
She is now about 22 years old, and is going to a technical school in Eniwa, so she can become a Certified Nutritionist.
It was very pleasant to see her again, and she was doing a very good job as a waitress on this evening.
The service was prompt, the food was delicious and the beer was ice cold. Total cost for the evening meal, a little over 7,000 yen.
Not a low price but a fair price. Remember, both locations of this restaurant are almost always full, with people standing in line outside the shop waiting for it to open at 17:00 on weekdays and 16:00 on weekends.
Another excellent example, of a very well run small business that makes money hand over fist.
Ikuko and I, will certainly go there again and again.
My Friday morning class at the Dokan Nusring School was a lot of fun as usual.
Today we enacted a skit about buying some sunglasses and asking for a discount and then a bigger discount.
I was the shop owner and the students played the part of the customer.
I call each and every student by name, and they have to do the skit either once, twice or thrice until they have completely memorized, all of their lines.
I gave them the script about two weeks ago, so most of them got it right on their first try.
Sometimes, I will attempt to throw the students off of their mental balance by saying something that is not written in the script.
For example, the first line in the skit is the shop owner saying; "Welcome! How may I help you today?"
But sometimes I say it in Korean as; "O So O Se Yo!"
The idea here, is to get the student to stop and think and hopefully respond with; "Do you speak English?"
To which I say; "Yes, I do. May I help you?" and then the skit continues.
Of course, some of the students speak English better than other students, and they will Ad Lib during the skit, making it much more interesting and enjoyable for everyone.
On Saturday at about noon, I received a telephone call from an old friend, inviting Ikuko and myself to an outdoor BBQ party at his house.
Ikuko already had plans to go to Sapporo and attend some type of seminar about making money as an internet affiliate website, so I went to the BBQ party by myself.
The person who invited me and Ikuko to come over to his house today, is a long time restaurant owner in Asahikawa, and he always has the best ingredients for his BBQ parties.
Again, this location is within easy walking distance from my home, so I took a stroll in the very warm afternoon sun.
I even was able to stop at an old time Rice Wine Shop and pick up 2 bottles of 男山笹おり all malt rice wine at a premium price, and bring it with me to the party.
Mr. Baba has two grandchildren, both of whom I have not met in about 2 years. Kids grow up fast.
The granddaughter was especially looking bigger and more like a girl, than a baby.
She and I spent most of the party time feeding watermelon rinds to the many black ants walking around on the asphalt, and later hide and seek with her inside the house running from window to window on the first floor, and I trying to locate her with my eyes, as I sat next to her mother and the other guests outside, drinking the best nectar and eating the best foods, while they talked about things of which I know not, and while I played at a distance with a very cute and lively girl.
Human Relations. You don't need a PhD to figure it out.
After the party was winding down at whatever time it was, I walked back home across the bridge and went to bed, almost immediately.
Ikuko wasn't home yet, because she took the last train from Sapporo to Asahikawa.
I went to bed and slept quite well, thank you.
I didn't get out of bed on Sunday until about 10:30, and didn't get around to checking my email until about 13:00, because I was very dug in at my Private Hokkaido.
When I did check my email, I discovered that Charlie Hamel had sent me a message about a Festival in HigashiKawa Town.
I didn't know anything about this event, so I called Charlie and left a message on his answering machine.
It turns out that there is a festival with fireworks at the the HigashiKawa Forest Park 東神楽森林公園 during most of Sunday.
Ikuko and I both had risen early, and gone to bed late on Saturday, so we had to decline the Hamel Family's generous invitation, and stay at home tonight.
Summer has just only begun.
There will be many more opportunities to get out and enjoy the warm weather, during the next several months.
I Can't Wait to see what happens next.
On Thursday, Ikuko wanted to go to the Korean BBQ Restaurant KinKaRo 金花郎 because they have an all you can eat plan on Thursday's only.
There are two KinKaRo Korean BBQ that I know of.
The closest one to our house is on 1 Jodori at about 5 Chome.
It is a short easy walk from our place, but we took a longer detour along the cycling road of the Chubetsu River in order to get some much needed exercise.
When we got there, we we happy to see that there would be no waiting for a table, which is rather unusual because this place is always packed full of hungry people.
We got a nice private booth and started looking at the menu. The all-you-can-eat plan 食べ放題 is 2,700 yen per person, plus drinks.
The all-you-can-drink plan 飲み放題 is 1,290 per person, plus food.
Hmmmm,.... What to do?
Easy choice, get the all-you-can-drink option and then order food as we see fit.
So, that's what we did. While we were there, I recognized one of the waitresses as a former student at my classroom.
She is now about 22 years old, and is going to a technical school in Eniwa, so she can become a Certified Nutritionist.
It was very pleasant to see her again, and she was doing a very good job as a waitress on this evening.
The service was prompt, the food was delicious and the beer was ice cold. Total cost for the evening meal, a little over 7,000 yen.
Not a low price but a fair price. Remember, both locations of this restaurant are almost always full, with people standing in line outside the shop waiting for it to open at 17:00 on weekdays and 16:00 on weekends.
Another excellent example, of a very well run small business that makes money hand over fist.
Ikuko and I, will certainly go there again and again.
My Friday morning class at the Dokan Nusring School was a lot of fun as usual.
Today we enacted a skit about buying some sunglasses and asking for a discount and then a bigger discount.
I was the shop owner and the students played the part of the customer.
I call each and every student by name, and they have to do the skit either once, twice or thrice until they have completely memorized, all of their lines.
I gave them the script about two weeks ago, so most of them got it right on their first try.
Sometimes, I will attempt to throw the students off of their mental balance by saying something that is not written in the script.
For example, the first line in the skit is the shop owner saying; "Welcome! How may I help you today?"
But sometimes I say it in Korean as; "O So O Se Yo!"
The idea here, is to get the student to stop and think and hopefully respond with; "Do you speak English?"
To which I say; "Yes, I do. May I help you?" and then the skit continues.
Of course, some of the students speak English better than other students, and they will Ad Lib during the skit, making it much more interesting and enjoyable for everyone.
On Saturday at about noon, I received a telephone call from an old friend, inviting Ikuko and myself to an outdoor BBQ party at his house.
Ikuko already had plans to go to Sapporo and attend some type of seminar about making money as an internet affiliate website, so I went to the BBQ party by myself.
The person who invited me and Ikuko to come over to his house today, is a long time restaurant owner in Asahikawa, and he always has the best ingredients for his BBQ parties.
Again, this location is within easy walking distance from my home, so I took a stroll in the very warm afternoon sun.
I even was able to stop at an old time Rice Wine Shop and pick up 2 bottles of 男山笹おり all malt rice wine at a premium price, and bring it with me to the party.
Mr. Baba has two grandchildren, both of whom I have not met in about 2 years. Kids grow up fast.
The granddaughter was especially looking bigger and more like a girl, than a baby.
She and I spent most of the party time feeding watermelon rinds to the many black ants walking around on the asphalt, and later hide and seek with her inside the house running from window to window on the first floor, and I trying to locate her with my eyes, as I sat next to her mother and the other guests outside, drinking the best nectar and eating the best foods, while they talked about things of which I know not, and while I played at a distance with a very cute and lively girl.
Human Relations. You don't need a PhD to figure it out.
After the party was winding down at whatever time it was, I walked back home across the bridge and went to bed, almost immediately.
Ikuko wasn't home yet, because she took the last train from Sapporo to Asahikawa.
I went to bed and slept quite well, thank you.
I didn't get out of bed on Sunday until about 10:30, and didn't get around to checking my email until about 13:00, because I was very dug in at my Private Hokkaido.
When I did check my email, I discovered that Charlie Hamel had sent me a message about a Festival in HigashiKawa Town.
I didn't know anything about this event, so I called Charlie and left a message on his answering machine.
It turns out that there is a festival with fireworks at the the HigashiKawa Forest Park 東神楽森林公園 during most of Sunday.
Ikuko and I both had risen early, and gone to bed late on Saturday, so we had to decline the Hamel Family's generous invitation, and stay at home tonight.
Summer has just only begun.
There will be many more opportunities to get out and enjoy the warm weather, during the next several months.
I Can't Wait to see what happens next.
