Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Thursday April 22, 10:56 a.m.

I guess in all of the other news, I did forget to mention that I had met that newest student...who happens to be the son-in-law of MB's colleague. He picked me up at Den'en-Chofu Station on Sunday morning. He has nothing to do with the educational community; he's a salaryman who works for the Japan Travel Bureau all the way near Tokyo Station. As he was driving me over to his place, we passed by one of the many big houses in the neighbourhood (Den'en-Chofu is a ritzy suburb) and there were a couple of cops standing near the entrance. It turned out that it was the private house of none other than Prime Minister Hatoyama himself. During Diet sessions, he stays at the Official Residence in downtown Tokyo so I could imagine what it must be like when the PM goes back home. My newest student just says that there are about 5 times the number that we saw and some of that group includes the Japanese version of the Secret Service.

Not sure what I'll call the student...he looks like a tarento though, so I may call him Yajima.
Thursday April 22, 10:46 a.m.

Back to the cold and wet again...Dog's Nose weather. Incredible.

Had my first official lesson with The Patent Attorney this morning. He's just like Swank....a good conversationalist. The hour went down as smoothly as a good sake...just the topic we based most of our hour on. It's a bit of a pity that I have to do an early shift to see him but as long as it's him, I guess things will be palatable.

Got word from the juku boss that yet another of The Restauranteur's relatives has passed away, so there will be no juku session tomorrow since basically The Restauranteur is the only student I have on that day. Kinda nice to have a rare Friday night off...but then again, I did meet up with The Anime Court last Friday. I guess I mean a Friday night off at home.

Also got word from The King himself that I am to meet him and The Anime Chamberlain tonight at 7:45 for dinner. I wonder what we'll be going for.

I guess that shoe finally hit the floor. Former Health and Welfare Minister Masuzoe, probably the only government official during the Taro Aso era to have any sort of respect from the people, has decided to part relations with his party, The Liberal Democratic Party, and perhaps start his own party within the next 24 hours. Of course, the current weak leader, Tanigaki, has been resolutely mum about the so-called surprise announcement. I just hope that Masuzoe comes up with a far better name than The Sunrise Party or Your Party. In a way, the LDP seems to be dying from a thousand paper cuts rather than a single sword thrust.

Well, I'll be taking off in the next few minutes to get some texts.
Wednesday April 21, 8:37 p.m.

Just had 001 today...which meant that I'd had a nice time walking around Ginza today. The walk included another stint at that Chinese dim sum/buffet restaurant in Yurakucho. For a little under 1500 yen...I am able to get the dim sum offerings from the carts, stuff from the buffet table and even a bit of hot pot. Not too bad. I was pretty good with the pacing; didn't stuff myself into a coma, just feeling pleasantly full. I was hoping to find that textbook for my newest student but it didn't seem to exist at Yaesu Book Centre or even Book 1st, so it looks like I'll be hitting Kinokuniya in Times Square before I meet up with The Sisters of State.

I took a dip into Yamano Music...saw some discs that I'd like to get but I'm holding off until Golden Week arrives. The Manhattan Transfer tribute to Chick Corea is there; I've definitely fallen back on any CD purchases over the past several months...either I've finally outgrown my music habit or the economy austerity program has finally internalized itself.

It was the first really decent day that I've seen in several of them. It almost seems as if the freak snow on Saturday was just an illusion, considering today's warmth and sun. I was sweating in my jacket, but then I was wearing my Autumn number.

001 and I had a pretty disgusting but hilarious talk about her job. Since she's a medtech, she often handles urine samples, that I often refer to as "apple juice" (to those who may be imbibing the stuff as they read this, I profusely apologize). But in the past few weeks, she's also had to handle...No. 2...shall we say? The really funny stuff came when she said that some of the nimrods who had to give a fecal sample got a bit carried away...and kinda packed that plastic container. I guess that food equivalent would be "brownies"....you may vomit quietly now.

Tomorrow will be another unusually quiet day for me. In fact, it starts unusually with me "teaching" The Patent Attorney...the bossman's student whom I always let in early in the morning. The bossman will be out at some fair with Ray. I've always been the warm-up act for The PA before Speedy gets in...just chatting with him like a good secretary before the boss gets in. Now, I put the word "teaching" in quotes, since Speedy informed me that a usual session with him consists of that very thing...chatting...and perhaps looking at some English correspondence. It should be a nice outing...but he often cancels at the last minute. So I won't be surprised if I get a call from the bossman just when I hit home near midnight tonight.

And that morning class will be all she wrote for anything at Speedy's. I'm then on my own teaching The Sisters of State...The New Yorker in the afternoon while I've got big sis The Carolinan a few hours later. Looks like I will be obligated to pay for that extra Caffe Latte to keep management happy, although since it is Starbucks, that won't be too hard to do. Then, I'm meeeting up with the remainder of that massive influx of Canadian otaku from last week. The Anime King and The Anime Chamberlain will meet up with me right after the lesson tomorrow night; not sure where we'll go. I know that The Chamberlain isn't too hot on Foo Foo, but then again he's rarely without some sort of disparaging comment on any place. Kinda incredible that he's just so big.

Monday, April 19, 2010




Monday April 19, 10:31 p.m.
Another fine time was had by all yesterday as the Burger Gang did another Burger Tour. Yes, it was Skippy, me, The Satyr, Miss Ivory, MB and The Sylph who got together in the craziness that is Harajuku Station so that we could walk down and try out yet another hamburger emporium in The Big Sushi.
At least, we weren't suffering in the winter of Saturday. Things were meterologically back to normal on Sunday. The walk over to The Great Burger was a bit circumlocutious from the main street....I can only guess that the owners wanted us to really earn our appetites. Still, we made it there by sunset. And the results are up above.
As usual, the decor inside The Great Burger was akin to some old American honky tonk dive, replete with condiment containers and boxes of Bisquick adorning the shelves. I had my usual go-to burger in the form of a Bacon Cheeseburger and the drink du jour was a Strawberry Milkshake. In other words, I made my own Cholesterol Set. Unfortunately, an Automatic External Defibrillator was nowhere to be found, so if my heart decided to silently explode, I was plain out of luck. I was in luck and managed to survive my "ordeal". In fact, I pushed fate even harder by ordering desserts.
The Bacon Cheeseburger was juicy and messy....everything that an American burger should be. The only concession was the Japanese envelope to put the burger in. Considering that young people often dress up for just taking the dog for a walk, I can't say that I was surprised. Still, my shirt was saved from any assault by spewing relish.
All in all, The Great Burger lives up to its high-flying name.