Monday Feb. 23, 7:54 a.m.

It's sunny and warm outside compared to last night's wind and rain. Hope it stays that way.

Looks like there has been a bit of Yakuza warfare. Last week, a gang leader was assassinated which touched off 11 shootings of payback all around the Kanto yesterday. Three bit the bullet. I wonder if I should just be avoiding Shimbashi or Shinjuku for the next little while.

Looks like that plan to see "Master and Commander" is starting to take shape. I got a reply from Arwen just now giving her OK for next Sunday. She'll see if her karaoke buddy will be joining the fray. Skippy and the Swimmer are already game for later that night. Maybe I'll even give the Jazz Buddy, and certainly the Movie Buddy will be getting the call.

Speaking of Movie Buddy, his party venue has been switched to his place. For purely selfish reasons, I would've preferred the Curry Master's place since it's just two stations down from my apartment. However, the Curry Master was trumped by MB's girlfriend who lives all the way out in the west. I'm gonna have to get him a present.

Sunday Feb. 22, 9:52 p.m.

Very windy today. In fact, I'm hearing a lot of whistling past my window as I type. I wonder if this is the HARU ICHIBAN (The First One of the Spring), the Japanese equivalent of Canada's Chinook winds. I couldn't complain about the temps, though. It was in the high teens which made the winds a lot more bearable.

I definitely hit the jackpot in the food sweepstakes. The Iconoclast came over with three big bags of stuff. Along with the bathrobe, the pan, the cutting board and other utensils, I also inherited the fixins for real chai tea, tons of sugar, dried scallops (good for Chinese soups), Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, olive oil, a jar of winter honey, candies, a barrel of iced tea mix, a jug of maple syrup and even ingredients to make Fettucine Alfredo. In a very small act of compensation, I paid for his lunch at the neighbourhood eatery.

The Iconoclast gave me a lesson in making chai with the very assorted spices. The stuff certainly put hair on my chest and put the Starbucks' variety to shame. It would probably kill the ordinary Japanese person. Luckily, the winter honey took the edge off nicely.

At the same time, he set off to work on my computer. He marveled at how I could stand using my mouse, a very moody part of my computer. He was able to not only get my Windows Media Player up and running, but we were able to watch Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine" on it. It was definitely a very interesting movie. I think that exchange between Moore and former NRA president Charlton Heston was priceless.

Afterwards, we went off to a ramen shop for dinner. Once again, my bad luck with restaurants this year continues. Another favorite restaurant has apparently bit the dust. For many years, I used to frequent this place called Tsukasa for decent ramen. Well, sometime in the last couple of months, it got replaced by a new joint under Chinese management. Since the Iconoclast could speak some Chinese, we were quite lucky although the waitress was perfectly capable in speaking Japanese. The decor was very different and the ramen was OK. It may be worth another shot. Unfortunately, there was one of those loudmouth Japanese rednecks shooting off what little intelligence at another table but we managed to ignore it.

As we passed by the domino effect fallen bicycles and the flying traffic cones, The Iconoclast said that he would be dropping by my place on Wednesday to give me some further stuff for safekeeping and eventual transport back to Canada. Speaking of Wednesday, the Curry Master asked if I were doing anything on that night, presumably for Movie Buddy's birthday party. It was a strange night to be having it but since I don't have anything for most of Thursday, I said that I could make it out there.

Skippy got back to me about catching a movie on the 29th. It looks like she'll be busy at a seminar until the evening so the movie is out but she and her fellow grad, The Swimmer, would be game for dinner. I'll take that as a yes. Now, it's just a matter of finding a good place for dinner.

Well, I gotta clean up the kitchen and find out where to store the extra foodstuffs before tackling the plans for tomorrow's lessons. It will be a very light week.

Sunday Feb. 22, 1:36 a.m.

Well, as you may have guessed from the lateness of the hour, I've just come back from another late night. As I have mentioned, I had my school's grad party today. Unlike the previous five or six I've been to, this one was a bit more lacrymally charged with one student weeping up a storm during her speech on the stage. Our coordinator was even misting up a fair bit during her speech which caused a mini-chain reaction with some of our senior students. However, I did have my usual spate of photo-taking. One of our teachers had a nice idea of trying to gather everyone's e-mail addresses together so that noone will lose complete touch with each other. In my words as host, I mentioned that during their 10 months with us, the students were able to create a community, albeit temporary, that will hopefully retain some of its structure after graduation. There are already some signs of this happening with future plans for movie outings and dinners. Whether this will become permanent remains to be seen once everyone either finds full-time jobs or heads over to foreign lands. In another 6 weeks, there will be another batch of raw recruits to teach. In the meantime, we'll once again have Empty Nest Syndrome.

After the main party, we headed for Shinjuku for one of three neighbourhood branches of the HUB, a chain of British pubs. On the way there, the Button-Downed One atypically struck up a conversation with a couple of Mexicans who were sitting on the train seats just in front of us. They worked at a Mexican restaurant which BD knew of. Unfortunately, their knowledge of English was far more limited than that of either of us, so there was a lot of gesturing and Japanese to exchange. However, I internally lauded BD's assertiveness.

We made it to the HUB, a full 30 minutes before it was due to open, so we spent a few minutes just cooling our heels on the stairs until we got the all-clear from the staff to invade its buttery-soft leather seats. The place reminded me of the Old Mad, the Madison Ave. Pub, a regular haunt near the University of Toronto. The portions of the fish n' chips were nowhere near as large as its Toronto counterpart but I wasn't about to turn down a plate of the stuff. Our large party of teachers and alumni took up a good quarter of the place. The jukebox, for some reason, mostly had 80s videos which I didn't complain about. So we got to old chestnuts like Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and Whitney's "So Emotional". The gang had a great time; the Rapper bought a couple of gigantic test tubes of draft beer which kinda spilled often . It's not easy handling two gigantic towers of beer. However, by the end, the place was starting to heat up and smoke up something awful.

We then hit the venue for the third party which was of course a karoake box. Even with the gradual attrition rate, we were still a prett y hefty party of 15 although people like Movie Buddy didn't bother to join us. He's more on the drinkers' side anyways. The women folk took on one of the staff to negotiate a good price; I felt sorry for the flunky, actually. However, we managed to get a good deal and so for the next few hours, we were singing up a storm. I threw in my two cents' worth via The Carpenters' "Top of the World" which was the party theme song earlier that afternoon, and Queen's "Crazy Thing Called Love". Of course, the rapper contributed Eminem again which gave a good deal of profanity. It was another lively affair before we finally brought things to a close. Outside in the chill air, the Rapper tried to pull of a wrestling move, the Piledriver, on an unsuspecting BD. She didn't mind...she was also a bit drunk herself.

As I said, although this 2003-2004 group has now officially flown the coop, there will probably be get-togethers at least in the near future, although I think the usual pattern is that the alumni will slowly get going with their own lives and fade into the woodwork. Such is life. However, at least for two of them, they will still have an attachment to the school in the form of me as I start their private lessons in earnest from the upcoming Friday.

The Iconoclast will be heading over here with some sayonara stuff like a frying pan and a bathrobe before he finally leaves his employment of 3 somewhat turbulent years at his company later next week. Chip Guy said that he would checking out this Canadian bar that I had given the heads-up about last night. I'm interested as to what he will say. If he gives it thumbs-up, I may check it out on Monday afternoon.

Plus, it looks like The Curry Master will be starting her plans to hold a surprise b-day party for Movie Buddy in the middle of the week. I didn't mind her decision so much since she lives so close to me and I don't have any classes until the next evening. I may be asked to spring the trap to lure Movie Buddy to Curry Master's neck of the woods.

In any case, I've gotta develop those two rolls of film from the party. There should be some interesting shots in there.

Saturday Feb. 21, 12:27 a.m.

My Friday started nicely enough. The weather was sunny and not too cold. I paid off my bills and sent off my lease renewal form in triplicate to my uncle for his stamp, and then I had my haircut. It was especially nice talking with the ladies at the salon today, and I always love the scalp massage following the shampoo, and the shoulder and neck massage before the haircut itself. It costs me a fair penny compared to what I used to pay back in Toronto, but the service is worth every yen, especially since they throw in a complementary cup of coffee.

I had some lunch before heading off to my lone class with my Friday afternoon student at the Tea Room. She's been having some political problems at her company; nothing too serious at the moment but she's starting to wonder if it's time to find new pastures. All I said was that if she's simply not having a good time there, then just quit. I helped her out with her upcoming EIKEN test on Sunday...that is, the English Proficiency Exam which is held three times a year. She's going for the second-highest level. Also, I had ordered a cup of rosehip tea for the first time since I felt pretty stuffed after lunch and thinking that anything heavier than rosehip would literally cramp my style, I ordered it. Bad move. The clear amber liquid tasted like very faint consomme. And it sure gave me enough incentives to head for the washroom...a very good lazative. My student also didn't have a good reaction to the stuff either. Apparently, though, rosehip seems to be the diet rage here.

On my way to the subway station, I dropped in at the school to find the cooordinator typing up the names for the special diplomas. She wanted my advice on how to come up with appropriate names for them such as "Highest TOEIC Score". I took a scan through the comment sheets for the top class' final class today. The teacher mentioned that the speeches were very well done and there was an emotional charge to it. I could imagine one of the students getting rather misty which would start off a chain reaction. I wonder how it will be later today at the grad party.

Then it was off to Shimbashi to meet up with my former oil class students. It ended up being two of this year's group along with another two of last year's class whom I've been meeting for the past several months. We went to HANAMASA, the Korean BBQ restaurant just downstairs from the late lamented Farm Grill. I had gone there with another friend several years ago with not much of a good impression. The beef was not all that high quality. Sure enough, things haven't changed all that much despite a freshening-up of the decor. The managment needn't have put out sushi either since it was obviously made by machine. The edges of the rice were hardened and the fish tasted like cardboard. The draft beer machine was quite interesting. I just put my mug into it and the mini-crane automatically lifted and tilted it at a 60-degree angle and poured it up. Unfortunately, noone had told me that I also had to press the stop button to cease the pouring. Instead, the foam kept pouring until I started getting some on the floor. I didn't feel too bad since other customers were falling for the trap. I wonder if there had been a candid camera installed somewhere picking up the action.

Some interesting insight into the corporate world. Today was apparently the unofficial day at the oil company for announcements of any transfers of employees to different sections of the company. Everybody usually puts on their good suit and then just waits nervously for 5 minutes between 3 and 3:05. If the boss doesn't call for you, then you're guaranteed for at least another year at your current post. One of our group did get the call to his boss' office; he's been transferred from HQ to another post uptown.

The interaction among the two "generations" of oil company employees was working out well so we went out to a second venue in Shimbashi. Being Friday night, we found a few dead ends due to the crowds, but we finally found a chain izakaya where we partook in some cocktails and boiled green beans. About 90 minutes later, we were all done. On the way home, I saw examples of what one should expect to see every Friday night in Shimbashi. I saw a furious yakuza gangster (as redundant as that may sound) yelling either at a cab driver or into his cell phone. Then there were the usual drunken , staggering salarymen around the station, and then at Nihombashi Station, there were a couple of guys getting ready to wrassle at the top of the escalator with two uniformed station officials as referees.

Coming home, I once again smell of smoke and other stuff. Plus, I'm still feeling pretty bloated after the culinary excesses of tonight. But I do have to take a shower before I hit bed. The Iconclast gave me a call tonight stating that he's willing to dump a lot of stuff on me including a futon, a pan and even some food before he finally leaves Japan next week. Plus, I forgot to mention that the Curry Master also offered me her EPSON printer. Hmm...sounds very tempting indeed.

Well, got that all-day grad party. Man, I'm gonna be so toasted this tomorrow night.

Thursday Feb. 19, 9:23 p.m.

Well, I managed to get in touch with my uncle and he has agreed to be my guarantor. He gave me the usual invitation to Osaka...I gave my usual response that I would like to. Whether or not the invitation is true or not, I'm wondering if I should take a visit there sometime this year. In any case, I ought to send some stuff in thanks.

Today was basically a holiday for me outside of my first class with the Curry Master. I proofread her resume and then had a short discussion on an article I had brought with me. We further discussed on some other approaches for future classes but I'm not particularly sure whether this will become a long-term deal.

I finally got a chance to listen to the LOTR CDs. And I ended up an emotional wreck after listening to the final tracks of "The Return of the King". The soundtrack and the movie have shown their quality.

Tomorrow, I will be getting my bimonthly haircut and then meeting up with my Friday afternoon student at the Tea Room. I may also drop in at the school since for a good majority of them, tomorrow will be their final class there for good. Afterwards, I meet some more alumni from the oil class for dinner in Ginza. Now that the Farm Grill is history, we'll be heading for yakiniku at the shop beside where the Grill used to be.

Wednesday Feb. 18, 9:36 p.m.

Well, I had my trio of students today. All were pretty good. The Stylist did pretty well in her first class, the Hawaiian was a real plugger as usual, and the Office Lady was beaming proudly over her TOEIC score. As for me, I managed to rake in a bit of cash, but next week should be sparse since I only have the Stylist on alternating weeks and The Hawaiian is off to Hawaii for the next few weeks. Along with the usual monetary rewards, I also got some good culinary rewards. I found a pretty decent Chinese restaurant on the top floor of a department complex next to the Stylist's station, and the Office Lady let me know of a good Chinese restaurant near Omotesando Station.

I tried calling myuncle tonight but all I got was a busy signal. Perhaps he has a visual display of incoming phone numbers and has cut me off. I'll try again tomorrow. Just in case, I sent a heads-up to Mom to smooth things over.

I found out about a new Canadian bar in the heart of Shibuya. The Maple Leaf Sports Bar boasts that it's the only Canadian bar in Tokyo. That may be so although I know that Canadian-owned restaurants do exist. In any case, I intend to check it out...perhaps I'll let Chip Guy know as well.

Wednesday Feb. 18, 8:11 a.m.

Last night's trio of classes went rather smoothly. Even my third student who comes in perpetually exhausted...not surprising considering his line of work...was quite good last night. My first class, consisting of that giddy pair, exchanged phone numbers with me. And I've found out that one of them is quite taken with Orlando Bloom's Legolas character. I'll have to give her one of the promo cards that came with my LOTR CDs.

I've got a fairly busy day coming up. I've got three private lessons with the Stylist, the Hawaiian and the Office Lady. I will be looking forward to a late wake-up tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will probably be facing a couple of package arrivals then as well. Well, at least, one of them will be arriving after noon.

Also, I have to swallow my pride and go hat in hand over the phone and talk with my uncle about the guarantor situation with my apartment. I'm not looking forward to that.

As I said back on Monday, I did go a bit nuts on my CD splurging. One of the discs I picked up was a self-titled album by Michael Buble. He seems to come across as a Canadian Harry Connick, Jr. In reviews, he has been referred to as the second coming of Frank Sinatra. I'm sure that Harry Connick, Jr. may not be too happy with that comment. In any case, Buble has got similar looks and chops. He does quite a good job with "Fever" and "Moondance" . It'd be rather nice if he and Diana Krall ever decide to collaborate.

I also picked up a CD single by that local songbird, MISIA. I took a listen to her newest full album but I wasn't too impressed...the first time I've ever thought that for one of her albums which is why I just went for that single.

My most conversational e-mail buddy, and the only friend who overtly knows of this blog, told me about a personal website of one of the cast members of CSI: MIAMI which reminded me of ol' Sir Ian McKellen's site. So I dropped in over there and read his last entry concerning his work on The Return of the King. It's interesting to read what basically comes across as some actor's blog. I can only hope for such an interesting life.

Tuesday Feb. 17, 3:08 p.m.

It's been a bit of an off-kilter day today. I was pressed for time this morning, and the fact that I had a large load of laundry to hang up before heading out didn't help matters. Plus, this morning's class just seemed ponderous. The lone text exercise we did didn't grab the ladies. It was interesting that the one woman whom I had asked about the guarantorship and got rejected was a no-show due to a cold. I don't doubt her reasons for not showing up but I just wonder if fate had an intervening hand in this. I was thinking that things could have been slightly awkward if she had been the first one (which she usually is) to show up. Also, my initial response to her rejection was bounced back by the Hotmail server. Rather eerie.

I'm still grateful for the lull between the Tsudanuma class and tonight's load in Urayasu although I will no longer be having the current group of students at the school. It gives me time to rest up. Well, I'll be getting the rice cooker all fired up for dinner and then I'll just make something on the cheap before heading out for the night shift. Tomorrow ought to be a heavy day with three classes.

Tuesday Feb. 17, 12:44 a.m.

Well, I got that response from my student concerning the guarantourship for my apartment lease. Not surprisingly, she declined it. It is a heavy responsibility but in another way, I can't help but be a little disappointed. You would think that a trusted teacher of over five years acquaintance who has had a spotless record for a decade would mean something. I guess that means I'll have to face my uncle, and perhaps some resentment from him.

I got at least some good news today from my morning student. It looks like I may have another new mouth to feed, so to speak...her sister-in-law. If everything works out, I will be teaching her immediately after my class.

My pay for this month didn't exactly jingle too badly. Still, it's kinda hard to realize that I'm not making the big bucks anymore. Having said that, I went rather nuts on the purchases at Tower Records afterwards. I bought a whole mess of CDs including the triple pack of the soundtracks of each othe LOTR movies. I figure that this opportunity doesn't come often, and I know enough of lost ones that I shouldn't give this one up.

After my regular class tonight, the Iconoclast and I met up with his HK girlfriend at HALC, and then went off to join a fourth member of our dinner group, the roving manager of the tea bar that we sometimes drop in at. For a woman who has never done a homestay overseas, her English was pretty good. We had a brief tea there before we went off to the seedy neighbourhood of Okubo, just north of Shinjuku. I was initially a bit nervous walking up the street , especially when we passed a couple of cops talking with a suspicious type but I was later to discover that Okubo isn't too bad on the main street. It was quite bright, actually and had a lot of Chinese food stores which reminded me of Toronto's Chinatown.

In any case, we ate at a Malaysian restaurant. The food there wasn't too bad but I wouldn't recommend it to any of my students. I think the taste isn't quite up to their palates. Plus, the service wasn't all that competent. The manager of the tea shop was also quite unimpressed by the sight of a cat on the floor not too far from our table. Being the proprietress of a culinary establishment herself would probably make her quite sensitive to the cleanliness issue. However, it was nice for the chat. The manager also surprised all of us when she popped out a couple of photos of her and former President Bill Clinton when he made a trip to Japan last year for some reason, and she gave him a box of tea as a present. He was quite weathered-looking but surprisingly enough, his hair looked rather blonde, albeit in a sickly way.

Sunday Feb. 15, 7:31 p.m.

It's been a gap of a couple of days since my last entry, partly because I had Movie Buddy crashing over here last night, and I would rather have not had him discovering my blog habit.

My Saturday started out easily enough. My two kids in the morning were not spectacular but they fit the bill. Then I headed out to meet my newest student who was a buddy of the younger sister. It looks like I have another fairly well-to-do family to deal with. Again, it was another grand automatic gate opening for me, and a front yard to engulf my apartment. The kid herself was pretty quiet but good. In a way, this family is a bit of a mirror image of the Saturday morning group. My morning kids aren't all that enthused about English but their mother is quite keen. In this new group, the mother didn't speak a word of English and seemed rather button-down. My new student was also fairly reserved but her older sister could talk up a fair bit. She's a student at my old unit, NOVA, where she's classed as an intermediate level customer. I may also be teaching her from time to time if her schedule allows it. However, for my main student, she'll need work on conversation, phonics and reading.

I met up with Movie Buddy at Shinjuku where we made our first attempts to catch The Return of the King. Not surprisingly, all of the theater tickets for Saturday night were sold out. Virtually the only seats available were not seats but space for standing. I did want to see LOTR but not enough to be willing to stand for over 3 hours. Taking the defeat in stride, the two of us just went over to the Aussie bar for some good ol' fish n' chips and a couple of Crown Lagers...a good beer.

To change our viewing strategy, we ended up heading all the way to the modern theaters in my neck of the woods where we could reserve seats for the noon showing today. Mission accomplished, we went back to my place where we spent the evening looking at a couple of DVDs. We had been invited by one of our other colleagues over MB's cell phone if we would like to go to a student's place to catch her copy of "Lost In Translation", a movie that won't be making theatrical release until early May. We decided to politely decline the offer since the student's apartment was all the way on the other side of town, and besides, MB went to the trouble of renting the DVDs we were to watch.

Our first entry was "The Time Machine" with Guy Pearce of "Memento" fame. Not a bad flick. Certainly, the effects were good but the overall execution of the story didn't work too well. The story just flew by as fast as the time machine itself. Kinda too bad as it would have been a nice feather in the cap of Simon Wells, the descendant of the author who penned the original story.

After that, we risked our good taste and caught "Queen of the Damned", that faux sequel to "Interview With A Vampire". Again, I was interested in the backstory behind the vampire civilation but something about the movie didn't quite ring true. It was notable just to see Aaliyah's only Hollywood performance before leaving this mortal coil.

The next morning, the two of us headed over to the family restaurant, Skylark, near the apartment. Our breakfast was more of an early lunch by the content of our orders. I had a hamburg steak and two breaded prawns with corn soup and garlic toast. Several years ago, I used to go there for a buffet breakfast almost weekly until I decided to take better care of my girth.

Then, we returned to the theater. MB was getting downright giddy for LOTR. I was somewhat more sanguine although I was also interested in seeing how the epic trilogy wrapped up. In retrospect, I think we were lucky going to the neighbourhood theater instead of the older places in Shinjuku last night. We had great, comfy seats with plenty of leg room (the guys at Toyota would be so jealous). We caught trailers for "Master and Commander" and "Once Upon A Time In Mexico" . The latter film certainly took its sweet time in getting here. And then we caught the trailer for Brad Pitt's "Troy". It looks like it's trying to go for the post-LOTR title of epic picture.

Finally, The Return of the King. May I say that this film is a triumphant final third for a classic trilogy. Those 3 hours just flew by. Of course, there were tons of jaw-dropping battle scenes and loads of the epic plot. But I think one element that took this final movie over the top was the heart and charcterization. Usually, I don't really invest all that much sympathy into the characters even if the story is good. However, the last several minutes of the movie had my throat lumping up something awful, and what nearly sent me over the edge into lachrymal territory was the scene where King Aragorn and everyone else bowed low in front of the 4 Hobbits with the familiar Shire music playing in the background. Having said that, I thought that the tiny subplot involving the mad Denethor and poor Faramir should've been excised. And I think Peter Jackson rather extended the anticlimax almost to breaking point after the exhausting battles although the penultimate scene once again threatened to get the waterworks going. I think the final scene was totally unnecessary, but I'm quibbling over little stuff. During the end credits, I think it was a nice touch to see the drawn images of the cast shown beside their names, even Sean Bean's. If Bean could be thrown in there, despite the fact that he died two pictures ago, I kinda wonder why Christopher Lee's name and image weren't included. Not that I think Lee is the most angelic actor (my impression of him during cast interviews was somewhat akin to watching a prima donna) but I certainly thought he would have been thrown in. MB thought that contractual and union factors were behind it, but I don't quite buy that. Lee is probably still stewing in his octogenarian juices. In any case, I think if LOTR doesn't pick up Best Picture honors in a couple of weeks, it will be a major cultural crime.

Now that my Movie Buddy weekend is nearly over, I have just to prepare for Monday's classes. I'm not sure but I may have to pick up a bottle of Extra Light No. 1 maple syrup for the Monday morning folks tomorrow at Kinokuniya before heading to the house. It should be a fairly normal week. Certainly, the weather has cooperated so far...it's been downright balmy this weekend.

Friday Feb. 13, 10:59 p.m.

Another long day and another event comes to an end. The Pancake party came off without too much of a hitch although I had to do some quick shopping and quick running to a supermarket that wasn't too close because the coordinator conveniently forgot to get some of the ingredients. Reminder to self: don't rely on her again. Movie Buddy was there but he seemed a bit out of sorts during the party...just kinda staring through people although he was willing enough to gab with the rest of us. The Songbird came in briefly but had to miss out on the pancakes because of a class. Senior student Skippy was doing her usual happy-go-lucky stint cooking up the fondue and the pancakes. She's also gone on the plan for the second party after the official grad party on the 21st. By the end, I was giving away the remaining bottles of syrup to whoever was left. I also got some Valentine's Day chocolates from one of the students as well.

I ended up staying in the lounge for a full hour after everyone had left just doing my crosswords. I needed to warm down...after the events of today, I felt a bit of lingering post-event letdown. Strangely enough, our resident weirdo student for this year dropped by briefly. I can only imagine what he will say for his grad speech...ina way, I'm kinda dreading it.

Finally, I got myself home. Once again, I didn't bother to cook anything since I wasn't in the mood. I ended up going low-end by just grabbing a burger set at the neighbourhood Lotteria. I couldn't even bothered to cross the street for the superior McDonalds.

Well, I did catch a repeat of Men In Black tonight on Nippon TV. It is by far the more superior of the two MIB flicks that have come on. Man, that sequel pretty much drowned out any hopes of a third movie. The so-called franchise joins the ranks of Star Wars, the Matrix and Rocky in terms of the Law of Sharply Diminishing Returns.

I gotta do a relatively fast clean tonight and tomorrow morning since Movie Buddy will be crashing at my place after The Return of the King. For some reason, I'm not nearly as enthused about catching it as he is. I guess it could be because of the long wait ahead. Also, I've got that new kid to see before I meet up with MB.

Thursday Feb. 12, 11:37 p.m.

Well, happy birthday to my Dad. He's 67 today. Speaking of old age, I was rather surprised to hear on the news today that some 73-year-old was given a second warrant on top of his first one for armed robbery in which he seriously wounded a guard at a UFJ Bank in Nagoya about a year ago. This time, the oldtimer got it for owning a whole ton of guns and ammo illegally.

I was initially a bit depressed when I did my books just now to find out that I made a loss this month. However, I do have to realize that it was a lean month in terms of work at my school, and this is the first loss I've ever incurred in the 13 months that I've kept books. And considering how much I lost, my other friends would probably laugh at me in envious derision. Frankly speaking, if I had curbed my spending a bit here and there, I probably would've even broke out even.

Well, on this workless day, I found myself taking a bit more equipment over to the school in preparation for tomorrow's Pancake Day. It was the periodic level check day for the students, so as the afternoon hours passed, several of them came in to chat before and after their inteview tests and the follow-up counseling chats with one of the staff. I noticed that the manager didn't give me the time ofday when he came by. He can go to Hell! Otherwise, I had a pleasant time talking it up with the kids and the teachers while I constructed a few props. The Songbird was there for the first hour of checks and then Music Guy came by. I hadn't seen him since the Xmas party so it was good to talk with him again, since we like to talk about, as his code name would indicate, music. He shares parallels with Chip Guy though they have never met in that they both have the same first name, they are both good friends of mine and they both have recently arrived baby daughters.

I once again decided to eschew making dinner and instead went out to another subway mall restaurant...this time, it was TONKI, the tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet) place where I had the B Set. It consists of three juicy slices of the pork, two slices of chicken cutlet and a single breaded prawn with a little tartar sauce on the side and mounds of shredded cabbage, the de rigueur side veggie of choice for tonkatsu. With a bowl of rice and tonjiru (pork soup), it's a huge bargain at a mere 880 yen.

I came home and vegged a few hours before I finally got on the e-mail and sent that little message to one of my longest and best students to see if she would be my apartment's guarantor. Odds are that she will reject me since it is a pretty heavy responsibility. But I just have to try.

Also, I packed up my hotplate into the suitcase to transport over to the school. I was even thinking of bringing a pan and the portable gas stove but with the suitcase and my regular bag, I figured that I would punishing myself more than I would be benefitting the party plans. I don't really know how this party will turn out and if there may be an outing tomorrow night. Basically, in previous years, we had the pancakes and that was it. Plus, I do have my kids the next day and then my first meeting with my latest new student. All that happens before I meet up with Movie Buddy in Shinjuku for the premiere of The Return of the King.

I kinda learned a new aspect of student culture today at the school. I had bought a bag of mini Kit Kats for myself and anyone else who was in the student lounge. A number of them got pretty happy on seeing the famed chocolate brand. Apparently, students have a tradition of munching on two bars before a major test since KIT KATS sound roughly similar in Japanese as "I will win!" Also, another food that the kids usually nosh on the eve of an exam day is the aforementioned tonkatsu because th e last two syllables of the word mean "to win". Go fig.

I recently started a regular dialogue with a student about jazz. She was the one from whom I borrowed The Great Expectations video a couple of weeks ago. Although she's not been the most proficient of students, we've had a chance to link up in our mutual interest in Diana Krall and Bill Evans. We exchanged e-mail addresses, so hopefully even when she graduates next Saturday, we may still continue our dialogue and perhaps even hit a couple of jazz bars someday...something that never came to fruition with the now estranged Madame.

Classmates.com contacted me once again in my e-mail to inform me that I had a few more entries from my high school days. I originally signed up back in 2002 just as a lark but quickly forgot about it. In fact, when I went to take a look at the site out of curiosity, I realized I had forgotten my password. Well, one e-mail solved that oversight and I logged in. I could only ooh and aah as I saw a number of old names listed there. I could have contacted them immediately but I was never a popular student at my high school, and frankly, the happier side of my life really didn't start until I entered university. And even then, I've burned a lot of bridges.

Wednesday Feb. 11, 10:36 p.m.

It is the national holiday that noone knows or remembers here in Japan: Constitution Day or, more banally, Japan's birthday. I think the one reason for the apathy is that Japan is so old, well over 2000 years, that the meaning of anniversary has basically become meaningless. Canada is a mere babe in comparison, although I wonder how many Canadians realize that our country will be celebrating its 137th b-day this year.

Aside from that one class, it was of course a day off for me. I was a bit annoyed at my Wednesday afternoon student, although I didn't let her know, since she didn't realize the significance of today (see what I mean?) until she woke up this morning. I had asked her last week about the possibility of this lesson today because of the holiday. She apparently didn't hear me. Well, I guess she must have been a bit apologetic since she gave me some DAIFUKU, or bean-filled rice cakes (they actually do taste pretty good despite the description). And besides, I made a bit of money. However, she also said that she and her family would be off in Hawaii from the 24th for possibly an entire month. Her father had just gone through a pretty bad bout of cancer so he needs a lot of rest and relaxation, so I think I can understand the month-long stay there, but still the paranoid part of me is wondering if she's just telling me softly that my services will no longer be needed. Yes, it does sound paranoid, but in this country, face-saving is paramount and giving the most transparent of lies is not at all uncommon to get out of something. Heck, the staff at my old school routinely tells company students that a teacher has either gone mad or destroyed his or her health when that teacher quits or refuses to teach the class.

It looks like though that my gripe about having to go all the way out to the west of Shinjuku may just be sour grapes since my juku boss left a message stating that my Thursday night student has once again cancelled out. I realize that he is a company cog and that this time of year is especially tough on cogs, but he should have considered that before taking the plunge for English classes. He isn't a high student by any means so the extended absence will not help his retention any.

So I find myself with 2 days without classes starting from tomorrow. I'll just be taking some more ingredients and equipment out to the school for the Pancake Day before taking the heavy stuff on Friday.

Tuesday Feb. 10, 11:57 p.m.

Well, it looks like I have another legal headache to consider. I knew it was coming but it's still not great looking at the real thing. My real estate company sent out the lease renewal form for me to fill out since I'm approaching the end of my 2-year lease. I don't mind paying the extra money to pay for the renewed lease, but there is the pain of the guarantor. In my first few years here, I relied on my uncle whom I don't have any contact with anymore. The last few years here I didn't worry about guarantors since my then-real estate agency took into consideration my long tenure at the same apartment and waived the need for my uncle's stamp. However, last year, another agency took over control and so I now find myself in the unenviable situation of having either to contact my uncle (who probably has a healthy dose of resentment against me), hat in hand, for his stamp or to talk with one of my senior students for her help.

On the good side, I did get my package of books and CD from Amazon. The books are on maple syrup gathering which will help me a lot on Friday. I have to do a bit of prep work on that during the holiday tomorrow. By the way, it is a rare national holiday Wednesday. It's Japan's birthday.

I also got my first Valentine's Day chocolate from my first batch of students at the juku tonight. Always nice to get. And I got another free lunch from my Tuesday morning ladies. We went off to the same little local restaurant...great food.

I have one class on the holiday. In a way, it's a bit of a waste since I have to travel all the way out past Shinjuku for just a one-hour lesson, but the student is very good. Plus, it'll get me out of the apartment.

Monday Feb. 9, 10:36 p.m.

Had my first class with the ladies thi s morning. It's starting to look my maple syrup crusade is picking up as much speed as John Kerry's campaign. I think I may be making pancakes for the ladies next Monday. One of them was left flabbergasted by the fact that maple syrup is actually healthy.

I did another pit stop at my school after class to drop off some more supplies for Pancake Day. The kids were in the middle of their practice TOEIC tests so I just quietly munched away on my lunch and worked on the lesson plan for the class at the Iconoclast's company. Later, I had a nice chat with the Songbird about her life and times at the school. She told me about some sort of tax receipt she had received from her ward office for some money that she was supposed to have received from one of her public schools. When she asked the mealy-mouthed assistant manager, she got some doubletalk about keeping things quiet. I think she's being shafted out of some money.

My class at the Iconoclast's company was good if tiring. Certainly, one of the two students who did show up was looking pretty spent. The Iconoclast and I did our usual dinner at Fufu. Yes, I admit that it's my second time there in as many days, but when the food is good and spicy there on such a cold day, I think I can be forgiven for risking a little monotony. And especially since two of my favourite restaurants have gone down the wayside, I need to appreciate those class acts.

Sunday Feb. 8, 11:26 p.m.

Another chilly day today. I made another run for Pancake Day. I returned to th e Canada Centre in the Sunshine 60 Building. I couldn't believe that there was a jug of Dark Grade maple syrup for 2500 yen. I could've just been happy with a small bottle of the stuff but a jug was all they had. Plus, I picked up some maple popcorn and maple butter. Perhaps I'll buy some bread for the kids to spread the stuff on. I'm still waiting for those books I ordered from Amazon concerning sugaring off. I also picked up a package of DARE blueberry cream cheese cookies. Resistance is futile.

I met up with Chip Guy and family at Tsutaya in Shibuya. Apparently, there is some major construction going on around the Hachiko statue. It hasn't stopped the young ones from collecting around the dog but it's even more crowded there now, and I know that the Chipster hates personal congestion. The four of us (or should that be 3.5 of us) went to a pretty trendy Korean BBQ place called Toraji in the PARCO Department Store. I'd been there a few times before with Chip Guy and even with some of the students. Good stuff but it didn't come cheap. Afterwards, we dropped in at TGI Fridays down the street for some dessert. We each ordered a half-sized version of the Brownie Sundae. It was still plenty heavy for me.

Got home and did some ironing. After that, I checked my e-mail. One o f the messages was a response from the husband of one of my students at the school. He's a huge movie fan, and is especially a fan of Star Trek, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings. So I gave him a congenial Star Trek quiz composed of 10 questions. He didn't do too badly...he scored on six of them. There's potential for him.

Saturday Feb. 7, 10:45 p.m.

Tiring day...after my kids' classes and then lunch at Fufu, I started the shopping for Pancake Day. The big load was at Kinokuniya Supermarket where I bought 9 bottles of 3 different grades of syrup. Luckily, I had the bright idea to lug it back to my school where the coordinator was holding model lessons. There, I met up with an old student of mine whom I hadn't seen in a couple of years. She was in the same year as my ex. She hasn't changed much since her graduation and is now a part-time freelance announcer. The coordinator often calls on her help to sell Berkeley to prospective students. Unfortunately, she had a bit of a weirdo on her hands. We always have one such person in the year-course. Our current resident weirdo has been coming to class in very high geta, supposedly to strengthen his leg muscles for his martial arts. I'm not sure if he is getting strong leg muscles but he is getting attention.

The Cop, one of our teachers, was also there to teach one of the model lessons. He was sporting just a sweater and slacks which apparently sounded a fashion alarm in the coordinator's eyes and a call to the deputy manager. He confided to me that he greatly resented that. I told him that the coordinator is occasionally mercenary and unpredictable in her ways and it was best to keep a certain distance from her. I certainly learned that lesson a few years back.

I got home after my arduous journey through Tokyo and made myself some gratin for dinner. I'm also watching the TV premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring; much to Fuji-TV's credit, they're showing it uncut.

Chip Guy sent me a message concerning tomorrow's activities. I'll give a call in the morning since he's crashing early tonight.

Skippy, one of our soon-to-be grads, sent me a message stating that she got a job as a kids' English teacher at another school. She'll also be taking care of holiday events which pretty much matches what I do at my school. With my old student, the Ballerina and now her, I realize that after their one year with us, they go on their way with their English ability to carve themselves new opportunities. I sometimes feel like a cop at a way station. I get to know them well over the course of a year and then they fly off.

Friday Feb. 6, 10:56 p.m.

Well, it looks like I may have to cut down on my Internet and e-mail scanning. I got my latest NTT bill, and it's still pretty high although it still doesn't even compare to what some of these kids must ring up on their cells. I'll probably keep it to just once a day and see how that goes although that will probably I'll have to filter about close to a hundred messages for spam.

An atypically busy Friday. I met up with the Curry Master at First Kitchen for lunch to talk about her potential lessons. I can squeeze her in on alternating Thursday nights; she also told me about a TOEIC student of hers from IBM whom she would like me to teach on the same night at her apartment. I automatically put out a yellow flag when someone pops me some further information that didn't pop out easlier. She told me that she had been teaching him for 3 years and yet she couldn't recall his family name. Go figure! I also noticed that she kept a laser-like stare on my hands whenever I used them for gestures. Hm.

Then, it was off to my regular Friday afternoon gig at the Tea Room. It was pretty good except that she forgot to pay me. I realized it before we left the place but I didn't say anything since I thought it would be a bit gauche to mention the fact. She did send me an e-mail message apologizing for the oversight.

Finally, it was off to see my regular Wednesday nighter at the Toranomon Starbucks. The class went well and she paid me. However, next week will be a scratch. In fact, I won't have any classes at the school next week because it'll be the final testing week for the students before graduation. Plus, there's the fact that Constitution Day is coming up next Wednesday.

Tomorrow ought to be a busy one with me doing some major shopping for the big Pancake Day festivities on Friday. Happily, I've got a budget and funding to pay for all the syrup. I should be properly exhausted by the time I get home, though. I've gotta entertain 24 students.

Friday Jan. 5, 1:15 a.m.

It's gotten chilly again. No classes yesterday but I went in to discuss the Pancake Party plans with the coordinator. It looks the last party of the year before the graduation has gotten a lot of interest...a good three-quarters of the student body have signed up.

Afterward, me and a couple of the students went off to the local Tully's for a couple of hours to chat. During that time, one of them tentatively asked me about the possibility of teachng them after they graduate. It is possible but I'm gonna have to scour the schedule.

Then the three of us went downtown to COCA where we met our 4th member for dinner at Yurakucho Station. The talk was flowing very easily as we spent a good 3.5 hours there while we munched and drank away on good food and drink. We got into some rather bizarre, certainly unsuitable topics over the dinner table for some reason. We got into that German cannibal case which sparked speculation on what humans taste like. I also discovered that the husband of one of the students is a fellow Trekkie so I sent him a simple Trek test over the e-mail. I also advised another student about her interest in joining NOVA once she graduates from the school.

Well, I should hit the hay since I've got a fairly busy day later today. I'm meeting up with that high-level lady in Urayasu. Then, I'm meeting my regular Friday afternoon student and then I have to rush off to Toranomon to see my regular Wednesday nighter. Plus, I gotta get ready for my kids on Saturday morning. Perhaps if I've got time, I may drop in on the school and give my fellow jazz buddy the Diana Krall DVD and my own Bill Evans CD.

Wednesday Feb. 4, 11:45 p.m.

Another long day comes to an end.

I met my newest student at Oimachi Station, just next to the hotel district of Shinagawa on the Keihin-Tohoku Line. It's one of those typical sleepy centers that got roused by the building of the station so that there is this hub of commercial activity surrounded by little shops and restaurants. My student is the owner of a tiny beauty salon recommended to me by my current Starbucks student who also happens to be the owner's regular client. I did my usual level check/interview with her. Her knowledge of grammar is quite good but her structure is shot to hell. She'll need lots of drills, that's for sure. What also struck me is that she looks quite young but she told me that went into hairstyling straight from high school and that she's been doing it for 20 years. This would peg her around my age which floored me.

After her inaugural lesson, I started looking around for some lunch. I went up to the restaurant floor up on the top floor of the Marui department store by the station but since it was 12:30, not surprisingly, all of the places still had lineups, so I ended up patronizing the Golden Arches again, and then taking a pit stop at the local Starbucks for an hour before heading out to my regular Wednesday afternoon kid out around Shinjuku.

After I was done with the Shinjuku assignment, I had to drop by my Monday company to pick up a package that I had inadvertently left in the Iconoclast's fridge. That's all I meant to do, but I ended up doing some impromptu translations when the President and one other staff member wanted to bend my ear along with my friend. So although I just had two classes, I still ended up snoozing on the subway home. I seem to be doing a lot of my napping on the subway recently.

It was good to get home early, though. My Starbucks student moved her lesson to Friday because of overtime tonight so I was able to hit the apartment around 6 p.m. so that I could get some home cooking into me. I started getting some of that Pancake Day planning under way; I'll be heading into school tomorrow to talk with the coordinator about it before I meet up with some of the students for dinner at COCA.

I also got a call from Movie Buddy tonight to talk about next week's plans to catch The Return of the King. It'll be opening day when we see it so we figure that we'll be waiting for a few hoursat the theater in Shinjuku, but it'll just remind me of the days when my brother and I waited 2 hours at the old University Theater in T.O. for The Empire Strikes Back. Also, in our conversation, I found out that the teachers may be lacking classes this week. We sure will be lacking classes next week because of the final testing of the kids and the Constitution Day national holiday next Wednesdays. I joked that some of us will be panhandling outside of the train station with signboards saying, "Will Teach for Food". Never a dull day.

Looks like the government computers have been having a bad day. One guy in the tax office got nailed for hacking into government sites. Apparently, he got a bit carried away while he was trying to prove to his bosses that there are holes in the computer security systems. Also, there was the laughable situation of a malfunction in the Internet-based income tax return system which caused personal information to be sent to other people. Your tax yen at work, I see.

Speaking of government craziness, I'm rather intrigued to see that Super Channel has started showing reruns of The Prisoner. Welcome, Number Six. If Twin Peaks ever had a father, this show would be it.

Tuesday Feb. 3, 1:37 p.m.

It's Setsubun Day today here in Japan. February 3 is the day when the locals drive out the devil from their homes by throwing small hard beans at him. You might consider a more hands-on approach to the Jack O'Lantern tradition. In any case, you couldn't ask for a "better" day to hold such a festival since it is truly gloomy out there. Not nearly as miserable as it was yesterday with the cold rain/sleet, but I could imagine a lot of SAD sufferers hiding under their futons.

So far, the work day has gone pretty well. I just had my regular Tsudanuma folks where I had my usual little snack thanks to the ladies. This time, it was better-tasting gumdrops. I've just come home for a small respite before heading out for my Urayasu classes. It will be an hour shorter tonight since the last student cancelled his class. No complaints here.

Looks like there was more hoopla at the Super Bowl other than the fact that the game was exciting. Janet Jackson decided to pull off a diversionary tactic for her embattled brother, Mike, and had her breast flap pulled off Considering that she's done a number of risque shots for magazines and CD covers, could one really be susrprised by her antic?

Monday Feb. 2, 11:22 p.m.

I'm not sure if Punxatawney Phil the Groundhog found any reason to extend Winter another 6 weeks back Stateside, but it looks like he may have sent the Japanese weather gods a good indication of what he thinks. It was just miserably cold with drizzle today. About the coldest I've felt this year so far.

To add onto this so-called luck, I came home tonight to see that the hose linking my washing machine to the tap out on the balcony popped, and as a result, water was streaming like a river down to the drain. No damage inside of course, but I do wonder how long ago it occurred. With my luck, the hose probably popped just a few minutes after I had left the house at 9 this morning. I am not looking forward to seeing the water bill.

On the plus side, my little research for Pancake Day came up with some interesting potential realia at Tokyu Hands, the all-purpose households goods shop in Shinjuku. The woodcrafts floor actually had cross-sectioned slices of trees for sale at a pittance. That will definitely help my presentation. They also had plastic tubing as well on big coils but I'll probably see if I can get the stuff at the local Daiei.

My classes were rather so-so in execution. My first class with the ladies this morning again got majorly sidetracked, and my night class was competently handled but with not too much enthursiasm. Luckily, the Iconoclast took me to another great Chinese restaurant deep in the bowels of West Shinjuku. I'll never find it again without his help but I'm sure we'll make at least one more visit before he finally takes off for home on the 26th.

I'm feeling pretty exhausted...I guess with all the walking today plus the extra shivering from the cold tapped my energy reserves even with the influx of food and drink. I got another relatively early wake-up call for my regular Tsudanuma class, but at least I have a huge gap of time between that and my Urayasu classes.

Sunday Feb. 1, 8:57 p.m.

Well, got most of what I wanted to do done. I got the present for my Monday student, a box of cookies from one of the more famous department stores. The trip to the Canada Centre wasn't a total waste of time. I couldn't find any paraphernalia for maple syrup...at least, nothing that I could purchase. There was a mock maple tree with a spile and bucket as a display. I would've taken a picture of it if I'd had a camera. I did purchase a Mr. Big chocolate bar, though.

It's Super Bowl Sunday back in the US. The Pats vs the Panthers. It ought to be a national holiday there considering all of the parties and the hoopla surrounding it. Now, it's also an official National Security Event, thanks to 9/11. The show also gets televised here either on satellite or on cable, but it's really just for the foreign population. The biggest audience for the game, boys and men, are off on their way to school or work when kickoff begins, thanks to a 14-hour time delay. I did read in the local foreigners' mag, METROPOLIS, that one enterprising pub in Shinjuku will be showing the game live with the offer of a hearty breakfast. If I were really into football, I would take them up on their offer. But I hear that it will probably be another one of those dull outings since both teams are very defensive-minded.

Sunday Feb. 1, 11:41 a.m.

It's been a pleasantly quiet weekend. Not too cold but my nose can sense the hay fever season coming in, although reports say that the pollen count will be lower this year because of the cool summer last year.

The kids were a bit more on the ball yesterday, and I received some more leftovers snacks and stuff from the mother who always seems to get loaded down with food gifts. Aside from that, it was just straight home and crash. I also had time to cook up some fried rice and warm up the minestrone. Then, I just whipped up another audio tape (I haven't gotten into the CD burning technology or even i-Pod) of jazz stuff.

I made my monthly call to Mom. It looks like the whole family is there watching Hockey Night In Canada. Just my luck...in the decade that I've been here, the Leafs just decided then to aspire for the Stanley Cup. They're doing a good job of it this year...they're one of the top teams in the league. I told her that I'm still waiting for that birth certificate processing to come through; apparently, 70,000 Canadians have made that section of the government a living hell by throwing them their applications. At this rate, I probably won't get my passport made up until late Spring. I also informed her that I got the mail from Toronto-Dominion. One was just asking me about my dormant account back home and the other was just a report on my mutual fund. My last request before I finished off was just for a box of Aunt Jemima.

Speaking of pancakes, I'll start in earnest for the planning for Pancake Day at my school. I still have a little under 2 weeks to get everything together. I gotta do the usual purchases of the different grades of maple syrup and see if there is any paraphernalia about the production of it I can use. That stuff from the Embassy is just so hoary. One is a video tape all the way from 1958 on sugaring off; the students a couple of years ago were having a laugh at all the brushcuts on those kids. Last year's literature consisted of a large crumply piece of construction paper with somewhat forlorn pictures and enlarged photocopies of the sugaring off process. I'll be heading out today to the Canada Centre in Ikebukuro to see what they've got in terms of literature. I'm not too hopeful since I went there last year without finding anything, but I know that I can pick up some syrup and other types of food there. Mind you, Amazon had a couple of books that looked interesting in terms of maple syrup.

Along with my trip out to Ikebukuro, I have to head out to Ginza and Nihombashi to pick up a birthday present for one of my Monday students and a birthday card for my dad respectively. I haven't received any calls from Chip Guy this week about doing anything so I'm just gonna assume that it'll just be one big shopping trip today and then back home for leftovers.

It looks like I'm not gonna have any classes at the school this week since I haven't received my usual fax of my schedule on Friday. It's not a big worry right now but if this lack of classes keeps up (and it probably will since the kids graduate in a few weeks) for another half-year, I'll have to think of finding some more privates during the empty patches.

It also looks like I've got another interpreting session at the Monday company tomorrow. But again, it won't be too bad...it just concerns the president's nephew's trip to Toronto. Perhaps that dinner after the class will be concerned with that.

Friday Jan. 30, 1:03 p.m.

Well, just another day and then January 2004 will be out of the way. One down, another 11 to go. The speed at which this month has gone by probably means if times flies by any faster, then I should be doing my Xmas shopping within a couple of days.

Looks like the big international news for me has been the BBC crisis and the US Democratic Primaries. It was interesting seeing the BBC talking heads calmly reporting that their company has just gone on one knee in front of Tony Blair's government. I've always seen the BBC as this monolith of journalistic integrity...and also the station which brought us, through PBS dollars, Monty Python and Doctor Who. It's going to be fascinating how the BBC will change because of this sordid affair. It needn't worry about its reputation worldwide, though. The news only merited a small report and space on the running red ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.

As for the primaries, it looks like John Kerry is in the driver's seat for now. But one of my students pointed out that he looked exhausted. The two of us think that G.W. Bush will probably keep his job for another four years.

I got that rubdown today at the neighbourhood clinic. I finally got my favorite masseur for the first time in several months. He's now the clinic director so he's pretty much in demand. Then, I did a splurge at the supermarket. I bought my first sack of rice in a while since the stuff is now pretty expensive, but I figure that if I'm going to spend the yen to make a good pot of minestrone, I might as well go whole hog.

Thursday Jan. 29, 9:41 p.m.

Another pretty normal day. Just had the conversation class and then a couple of those students who had wanted to go to the now defunct Chinese restaurant caught up with me. We have arranged to hit COCA this time next Thursday. It'll probably be the Thai hot pot again.

Then it was off for that guy at the juku. As it turned out, he was pretty much under the weather with a cold but he was game enough to come for one hour. I also got a nice cup of coffee and a dish of rice curry for my efforts; makes me regret having the Big Mac set at Urayasu Station. Speaking of which, the cost of one of those sets suddenly dropped to just 390 yen, about a 200 yen drop. I wonder if that BSE thing has anything to do with that.

Well, I'm off for the weekend. I'll probably get that rubdown and then actually make some minestrone. I've been lacking of veggies recently.

Thurs. Jan. 29, 10:14 a.m.

I had a rather interesting sight on train into work yesterday. For the firrt time in my decade in Chiba, I actually saw Mt. Fuji all the way from my little burg. And it was only just for a moment before the smog obscured it again. They say that over here if a person's first dream of the New Year is of Mt. Fuji, then he will have a prosperous year. Well, I'm several dreams late but I did think it was rather remarkable.

Having said that, I still had a rather exhausting day with three classes. Great students, mind you. Today will most likely be my last work day of the week since my Friday student has to clean up the accounting books tomorrow. I have a regular conversation class at the school and that new student at my juku tonight. He'll probably drain me since he's pretty low and I've got him man-to-man.

Tuesday Jan. 27, 11:34 p.m.

An interesting class this morning in Tsudanuma. One of my more emotional students got into a major crying jag on revealing that her bag had been stolen in broad daylight in front of her house....6 days ago, and even though she froze all of her accounts 20 minutes after the theft. Mind you, I can understand the violation that she felt from personal experience, especially when her phone book was one of the items taken. Most likely, though, the thieves just went for the cash. Why anyone would carry a thousand bucks in her bag, even in this country, in this day and age stuns me. As one of her fellow classmates rightfully pointed out, Japan is no longer a supremely safe country and really hasn't been for some years now. Robberies are a sad sign of the times, and bizarre violent crimes are doing volume business.

On the other hand, by the end of the class, everyone was smiling, and since I had no class in Tokyo this afternoon, the ladies took me to one of those places that only the locals know. I had a great lunch set of raw yellowtail, deep-fried flatfish and broccoli covered in ground beef sauce. It's always nice when I get these opportunities in a life where McD's and Subway are often the norm.

Got home tonight to get that call from the prospective student's mother. Looks like I'm set for Saturdays after my regular gig with the doctor's kids. I'll have to give Movie Buddy the heads-up that I won't be able to catch the afternoon viewing of The Return of the King on the 14th.

I also got e-mail from The Curry Master, the buddy of Movie Buddy's girlfriend. She was the one who got me my current gig on Tuesday nights. She wants to also set up English lessons with me which I'm surprised about since her level is very high. I don't think I can really do anything for her, but I agreed to meet her for coffee next Friday. However, according to MB, she also has a habit of cancelling out at the last minute so I'll be keeping an eye on this one. As my nickname for her would indicate, she did make a mean curry when I first met her.

Well, the nominees came out for the Oscars. No particularly big surprises although CNN is buzzing about the fact that Cold Mountain got snubbed except for Renee Zellweger. For me, I'm waiting for LOTR to get the brass ring.

Busy day tomorrow. I've got three classes to take care of but all of them should be pretty good.

Monday Jan. 26, 9:41 p.m.

Pretty cut-and-dry Monday. I just had that lone company class out in Shinjuku tonight. Earlier, I picked up the package from my friend back home. The class itself just had the lone student but it went well. I told the Iconoclast that I didn't have time for our seemingly regular post-class dinners tonight, but we still had some time for a bit of tea at a tea bar in the HALC Department Store. It looks like I've also got a dinner with the president and the Iconoclast next Monday. The conversation with the Iconoclast once again centered on the seeming ineptitude of that one employee. He even secretly taped the President chewing out the hapless man just an hour before my arrival. I could take a couple of seconds of the secondhand abuse.

Well, it looks like I'm on my way to consolidate a couple of new students. One, a hairdresser, will be meeting me for the first time next Wednesday morning. However, my greeting call to that mother of the propsective kid fell on deaf ears for some reason. I'll have to let the mother of my regular kids about the aborted attempt. After going through my schedule, it looks like these two will be last two students to fill the slots unless someone decides to permanently pull out.

I'm watching CNN and seeing the snow coming down hard on Washington DC, and I'm getting a sense of wistfulness. Wouldn't it be nice to get a whiteout just about now?

Good to see "Lord of the Rings" get the Golden Globe award, although I've always thought that prize to be the poor man's Oscars. One of the three pundits, a cheerfully irascible grump, slagged "Lost In Translation” for demeaning the Japanese. Oooh, boy...I wasn't thrilled with "Kill Bill" for the same reason. I wonder if I should also let Bill Murray's latest go by the wayside...if it ever gets here.

Sunday Jan. 25, 9:53 p.m.

Movie Buddy came by the house today to see The Two Towers for the umpteenth time, but with all of the extra scenes which he proceeded to point out to me. Not that I minded at all. It was good to banter out a commentary.

Then I went out to see another couple of former students for dinner in the Ginza. One actually was the person from Friday's get-together at El Torito. The other was a more recent graduate who got her current position thanks to the efforts of the first woman. We had a Thai hot pot at COCA; the older grad and I had been there a few times before for the regular Chinese fare but this time we decided to go for the hotter stuff to warm up our bones. It definitely did the trick since the two ladies were perspiring up a storm by midway through the meal. They even decided to get the coconut milk shake that I was drinking to cool their tongues off. At the same time, it seemed like fate wanted to have a bit of fun at my expense. I committed a faux pas with my chopsticks by almost tapping them to the older grad's ones in an attempt to help her with some of the ingredients. Over here, the tapping of chopsticks is reminiscent of the Japanese ritual of passing bones after a cremation. And then, I dropped my chopsticks which necessitated the waitress getting me a new pair. Plus, I forgot a few key facts which involved the older grad's meeting with other people. In any case, things calmed down after that.

It ought to be a quiet day tomorrow. I only have my regular Monday night class. On the housekeeping side, I've gotta go to the tax office to prep up for the annual procedure in March, and then pick up a package.

Saturday Jan. 24, 9:36 p.m.

I had the kids as usual this morning. The older girl was off on her noncomittal mode today. She was probably more interested in her afternoon get-together with her volleyball buddy. Luckily, her younger sister was more cooperative. I also got a bit of a surprise when the mother had recommended me to a friend of hers who's looking for a tutor for her daughter. Hmm...I'll have to see if I can accomodate her on my schedule; it may be impossible, though I don't want to disappoint either mother.

My monthly get-together with those former night students was a pretty lively and fun chitchat. I always appreciate those especially after the rigors of teaching kids. But, I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home, and yet I still had to clean up my living room in preparation for Movie Buddy's arrival tomorrow for The Two Towers. I'll probably hit the hay early tonight. I still gotta clean up the bathroom.

Saturday Jan. 24, 7:07 a.m.

Well, another one of my favorite restaurants fell by the wayside apparently. My suspicions were unfortunately proven correct when I went down to BEMI in Hiroo and discovered that they had gone under even earlier than the Farm Grill. Too bad, since I did want to take a couple of the students for dinner tomorrow; and there were a group of current students who also wanted to go there as well. Ah, I guess it'll just be COCA in Yurakucho from now on.

Since I was in the area, I decided to take a look at the much advertised National Azabu Supermarket. I must admit that it is pretty impressive; it has even more of a foreigner's feel than Kinokuniya, probably because it is totally enclosed within the diplomats' enclave. I even saw a car with the familiar diplomat's plates in the parking lot. Quite a number of the foreign population were there, and there were some pretty huge frozen turkeys which made me wonder how big those diplomats' ovens were. There were a lot of cans of real American Campbell Soup types such as Chicken Noodle. In my supermarkets, the Campbells varieties are just restricted to Minestrone, Corn and Onion. I was very tempted to buy a couple of cans.

I met up with my Friday afternoon student for the first time this year at the Tea Room. It wasa good lesson. She informed me that one of her old classmates at the school was heading over to London all of a sudden because of her husband's transfer there. We both agreed that this classmate's temperament was such that she may be a bit overwhelmed and homesick, so I decided to give The Ballerina a heads-up about the situation. Perhaps if she has time, she can give her a call sometime.

Afterwards, it was up to Shinjuku to meet up with the old Tea Room ladies for dinner. It had been a few months since I've seen them...one I haven't seen since September, but she's been busy jetsetting all over the world on business. We went off to El Torito where unlike the last time I was there, we did have to wait quite a while. I was a bit annoyed internally at the friendly maitre 'd when he asked me if we had reservations since I had been told that I couldn't make them on Fridays. However, he was the consummate professional at how he handled the customers. The food was indeed good, and the bottomless basket of salsa and chips was the overall theme. The size of the fajitas was a bit disappointing considering the one-pound version that I used to have back in T.O.

Woke up a bit earlier than usual since I have to teach my kids an hour earlier than usual. Then I have my monthly get-together with the former night students at the Tea Room. Hopefully, my stomach will be pretty empty by that time. I'm still digesting last night's fare.

Tomorrow, Movie Buddy will be coming by in the morning to see The Two Towers. He must have a destiny with that movie; he's seen the thing five times in the theater here and yet he wants to catch the extra scenes on the DVD I borrowed from Chip Guy. Then, I head down to Ginza to meet up with the two students for dinner. As an alternate to BEMI, I've decided to go for COCA. At least, it'll be closer to get to than BEMI was.

I watched a video that my fellow Diana Krall fan from the school had lent me. It was the modernized verison of GREAT EXPECTATIONS with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert De Niro. I was frankly not all that eager to watch it, but as a favor to my student, I did. And the verdict is that I don't particularly regret having seen it, but I just shrugged my shoulders after all was said and done. I don't think updated Shakesperean movie adaptations have ever really done all that well. My student even gave me the CD for the movie; I think I'll pass on that one.

Well, off to the salt mines.

Thursday Jan. 22, 7:42 p.m.

My student cancelled tonight so I find myself with an early night. So I just indulged myself at the rolling sushi place. Not a whole lot of variety but it was cheap. Pretty darn cold tonight; it's supposed to be hitting the big zero. I may just take my shower just before bed just so that I don't face any frozen water lines in the morning. I can always eat and do the toilette elsewhere but the shower can only be done in one place.

I've been kinda striking out on the restaurants seemingly. I'm supposed to be meeting with the former Tea Room ladies tomorrow for dinner at El Torito but they won't take reservations on Friday nights so there's a bit of a risk factor going there directly. And I tried calling up a Chinese restaurant in Hiroo to make reservations for Sunday night but noone is picking up; that's not a good sign. I'll have to come up with alternatives.

Wednesday Jan. 21, 9:32 p.m.

Met up with my ex for the first time in 6 months. She took me to a hidden tonkatsu place nearby which was really very good if tiny. It looks like she's moved on very comfortably with her life, and she even gave me some good advice about my taxes. I also got some insurance advice from my other student tonight. I may try to cover myself a bit more; however, the earthquake insurance will still have to be a separate issue.

Monday Jan. 19, 11:13 p.m.

Just about ready for bed here. That powwow between the Iconoclast and the boss turned out unexpectedly well although it lasted a good 2.5 hours. The main reason was that my interpreting skills were primarily needed just to take care of some simple requests that the boss had for my friend. All in all, it was probably my smoothest attempt at interpreting. The only tragedy is all of this smoothing over of ruffled feathers has taken place about a month before the Iconoclast's scheduled departure from the company. If this had taken place three years ago, things would probably have been much better in the office. Well, in any case, I'm just happy that I didn't suffer any major nervous breakdown.

I made my first purchase on Amazon for a Star Trek book thanks to GC's present of a gift certificate. The whole process to get the product was a real pain in the butt, though. I'm just happy that I only needed to do it once.

I guess with all of the exertions today with the meeting and the fact that I couldn't get much sleep last night, I'm feeling pretty exhausted right now. It serves me right for having Starbucks coffee last night. That stuff becomes so much sludge in the coffee urn; I can only imagine how much caffeine it must have.

Got confirmation from my newest student that Wednesday morning starting from February is a go. Some more income in the pot.

I may have averted a close call, relatively speaking. I was in Shibuya this afternoon having lunch. Just on the NHK news, I heard that police cordoned off a certain area there that same time due to a couple of unexploded firebombs in some buildings.

Sun. Jan. 18, 10:14 p.m.

A nice quiet Sunday in advance of my first really busy week this year. It'll be good to have one considering my low take from the school this month. Basically I spent it on watching some more episodes of 24, and helping out my friend with some translation work. Over dinner, I watched my Diana Krall concert DVD. Great music, but I have to admit that one has to be a real patient jazz aficionado to sit through a jazz concert. Since there are minimal pyrotechnics and no choreography, the eyes tend to wander or just glaze over at times; the music is so soothing at times, it can lull me to sleep. It didn't help that dinner was well on its way through digestion.

We may be getting a second chance at precipitation tomorrow, but the choice will be better. We may get snow, rain or just plain sleet.

Sunday Jan. 18, 1:12 a.m.

Well, the horrible storm that was supposed to hit us is so far a bit of a bust. We've been getting steady wisps of flakes coming down all day and night but nothing has accumulated. Methinks that this whole thing will quickly become a meterological memory by the morning. However, the pundits did forecast more white stuff for Monday. Now I'm really hoping that there will be a huge whiteout then so that I can avoid that interpreting session between the Iconoclast and his bosses. Quit, already!

The kids were OK today along with my lesson plans. I managed to keep things relatively fun but I made sure that they got a good grounding in past tense. At this point, I'm willing to sacrifice some fun for some solid work.

For the next 6 hours afterwards, I had free time so I made my semi-regular stop at that great ramen shop in Shinjuku Station that the Iconoclast had introduced me to months ago. It not only has a great ribsticking ramen with roast pork cutlet, but it's non-smoking and it even plays jazz in the background. Perfect! Then I went on a bit of a spree and picked up another movie mag along with the Diane Krall DVD of her concert in Paris and a CD of an old semi-successful 80s band, GO WEST. I popped on the subway and headed down to Omotesando to scope out the restaurant for that New Year's party later in the evening. It was just across from Aoyama Gakuin University. Intriguing name...SYDNEY BLUE. Sounds like a female detective.

I then spent a better part of an hour searching high and low through Omotesando, Harajuku and Shibuya for a cafe. But given that it was a Saturday and it was cold, there was no chance that I would get a seat. I ended up at Towers doing some browsing all over the floors before I made my way to the corner McDonalds. I ended up having a snack there. That particular branch had a bit of a fascinating schizo interior decor. The front half was decked out in an off-white Grecian decor while the back was decked out as a 60s pop art mondo lounge. I think some photographer ought to take a few shots.

Finally, I made my way up the road in the gently blowing snow back to Sydney Blue where I already found a few familiar faces...and some surprises. Within a few minutes, I found out that a couple of the folks sitting there had gotten engaged. One of the two, The Big Guy, was eliciting some shocked looks when he made his announcement. He had known his newly-minted fiancee for a few years but only dated her officially for a week before he decided to pop the question.

Over the next several minutes, more of the gang arrived. As I may have mentioned before, i was never a great fan of mingling in big parties, and things didn't really change to make me change my mind. However, the good thing was that they were willing to let me just listen in on the conversations with a few chances for me to insert some comments. It had been close to a year since I'd seen any of them. I met Spunky for the first time in ages. She was always the mother hen of the gang...making sure everybody was OK and holding annual Thanksgiving parties at her apartment. Although the name and some pamphlets on a table may have pointed to some vague reference to Australia, the food was most definitely Meditteranean. It was good and very plentiful; in fact, I rather gagged after munching on smoked salmon, pasta and stuffed shells to see platters of glazed fried pork come out as a last course.

The strange thing about the entire evening was that Chip Guy, the man who had told me about the party in the first place, was a no-show. Spunky alluded that it's possible that he and the missus may have had a spat. But I think that's unlikely since he was supposed to have brought two Canadian friends in tow. In any case, I sent him a query about his absence.

Well, I'm glad to be home after a long day, and if this snowy weather continues into Sunday, I'll be just as happy to stay here as well.

Friday Jan. 16, 11:05 p.m.

Enjoyed a highly unusual wakeup of 12 noon. Don't know how long it's been since I woke up that late. I think the last time I did that was back around Xmas 1987 after a major hangover. Nothing as painful as that today.

Since I had no classes today, I just focused on getting some ironing done and prepping for my kids' classes. I also started watching the second season of 24 on DVD. Still a visual pageturner. Unfortunately, my sinuses decided to clog up as well, which provided me with several hours of sneezing and other misery until I bought some medicine tonight along with the fixins for dinner.

Well, we may have some snow in the forecast tomorrow. I love snow but I hate the fact that it tends to screw up public transportation so badly in this city. And I have to head out fo r the kids' place tomorrow morning and then I've got a New Year's party in the evening. In a way, I hope that the alert is a false alarm.

Friday Jan. 16, 12:49 a.m.

Sure enough, when I checked my bankbook for my montly stipend from my school, I received just enough to pay for a fairly good dinner in Tokyo. Looks like I may suffer my first loss when I do the books next month. Well, I look at it in perspective. Back 6 years ago, I busted my ankle just a few months after having started my full-time gig, so I wasn't exactly filled with money at that time. In fact, because I was out of it for 3 weeks, I was in such dire need that I had to borrow money from a friend for a short while. Naturally I appreciated the help but still, it was an ego-bruiser. Right now, even with the risk of going minus next month, I will still have considerably more in my account than I did at that time. I guess optimism is still good for something.

However, on the good side, my regular Tuesday night gig got expanded to Thursday from tonight with theaddition of a student. And another old student of mine informed me of a friend of hers who wants to enlist for lessons. Well, this could be another potential boost to the income here.

My lone class at the school wasn't a great one, though a few of the students seemed OK and all of them laughed uproariously at times. I'm always rather tough on myself.

Looks like I've got another head start on the weekend. My lone Friday afternoon student cancelled out due to work. And I haven't heard from Chip Guy concerning a possible dinner date on Friday evening. So I assume that I'll just be catching up on some ironing and then working on the kids' classes for Saturday.

I met up with Movie Buddy this afternoon at the school for the first time since that rather foul row last Saturday. He didn't mention a thing about it but did mention about the fact that we had all disappeared in the huge crowd. I didn't bother telling him the real reason I escaped. I told him about the fact that I'm borrowing The Two Towers. An initial attempt to meet up has been dashed due to plans on both ends.

Then, the Iconoclast left a message on the machine, sniping about yet another little snit with a staff member he hates with a passion. So I'll have to interpret that on Monday afternoon. I'm not going to be looking forward to that, though I am mindful that the Iconoclast has given me some very nice food. All I can say is that I hope he will keep his promise to leave the company in 2 weeks.

Wednesday Jan. 14, 10:50 p.m.

I did my montly budget check. It looks like even with the lack of income and the heavy expenditures, I was able to still save a nice, if not great, amount. However, I am dreading my miniscule payday tomorrow.

My long day was curtailed a bit when my final student of the day called up to cancel due to extra work. I wasn't complaining too much since I am feeling rather rundown. Perhaps it is some lingering effect of last night's Hirohito's Revenge or the cold bug has finally hit me in earnest. It was pretty chilly out today and much of northern Japan got majorly walloped by a huge snowstorm.

Looks like my social calendar could be shaping up some more. Once again, I got the lion's share of good e-mail and a few former students have contacted me about getting together for New Year's parties in the next couple of weeks. And I thought that the Holidays were finally over.

I made a pickup at the Iconoclast's company today between classes to pick up that massive fruitcake he doesn't like. It ought to be good as a prize for tomorrow's class at the school. At the same time, I also got that Chinese fake meat made from tofu, ZAI, a hard block of maple sugar and even a bottle of Bit and Bites. The ZAI is definitely an acquired taste; I could take it though not exactly savor it. It was a matter of not quite approximating real meat in terms of taste and texture, but I was game enough to devour it with some hot rice for dinner.

Wednesday Jan. 14, 8:02 a.m.

Rather busy yesterday with classes spread throughout the day. My first Tsudanuma class of the year went quite well along with my first class at the old school. Some of the students had wondered if I had finally cut all ties. During my 4-hour break between that class and my regular night gig, I got into a nice conversation with a student I hadn't taught since Halloween. We share a common interest in jazz, especially Diana Krall, so we ended up deciding to swap some CDs on Thursda y since I'll be teaching then as well.

The night classes went pretty smoothly although my last class was one of those somnabulant affairs, and the past perfect tense is definitely not one of the more exciting lessons to teach. I also learned that there is a reason not to drink orange soda past its expiry date. To wit, I was very thirsty even after the first cup of coffee so I raided the fridge in my teaching room. My boss is not exactly the most conscientious person when it comes to maintaining what's in the fridge. There was a carton of Tropicana which had expired back on December 27th; there was no way that I would touch that, but I did go for the orange soda. Even the expiry date of Jan. 7th, I thought that with soda being soda, there would be no problem. However, I did get a tinge of Montezuma's Revenge later when I got home...or perhaps I should say Hirohito's Revenge.

After several days of very low real e-mail traffic, I rather hit the motherloda last night with a good 20% of my inbox consisting of true messages. One was even from my former girl; apparently, she's moved just a little east of me for some reason. I'm not sure if that means she's gotten her own little place or if she's moved in with her new beau. However, she has invited me for a bit of lunch next week.

I've been going over The Two Towers DVD little by little during my relatively brief periods of free time. It will take some time to get through the extras since there are so many of them. This morning was devoted to the making of Gollum. I think, in a way, it's good to go through the extras very gradually since the self-congratulatory tone can be awfully grating beyond a certain period of time.

Today should be another busy one with three different classes spread out over the day. Plus, I've got another pickup of food from The Iconoclast in between classes. Looks like it'll be another chilly one today.

Monday Jan. 12, 10:35 p.m.

Nice quiet day at home. I managed to get through nearly 4 hours of the special extended DVD of The Two Towers. Much better than the theatrical version. Just kinda wished that Jackson got off that "Longest Closing Credits Sequence in History" kick, though. Now, I've gotta get through the special features which should take just as long.

Well, tomorrow is back to work. Tuesday and Wednesday ought to be my busiest days since I'll have to be out of the apartment most of the time.

Monday Jan. 12, 12:31 p.m.

Well, sure enough, the news this mornng showed a few of those malcontents crashing Adulthood Day ceremonies in Okinawa and Miyagi Prefectures. Although those punks did steam me, I also realized that there are a whole lot more ceremonies going on around the country which were probably a lot more peaceful if boring, and perhaps in a few rare cases, even truly inspirational (oops...I caught a whiff of optimism there...gotta check that).

Forgot to mention that the Ballerina called all the way from London last night and left a greeting. She stated that she tried to reach Movie Buddy on his cell but he wasn't picking up. I recollected that he once said the Ballerina was just a bit too dependent on him (she's had a major crush on him) and that he would refrain from talking to her for a while. And especially with Saturday night's events, I don't think it would help matters having any mention of the Ballerina into their relationship.

I borrowed The Two Towers Special Edition DVDs and the second season of 24 from Chip Guy. Looks like I'll be busy today but I've got some housework to do. Plus, I've got to devour the Iconoclast's BBQ pork that he so kindly brought back from HK for me.

Monday Jan. 12, 12:55 a.m.

Well, another Adulthood Day is here..the time when the new 20-year-olds dress up in their kimonos and suits, drink LEGALLY for once and heckle the mayor during the usually boring speech that he makes to the so-called mature adults. As you might imagine, I take a dim view of any day that celebrates a set border between adolescence and adulthood. Plenty of immature adults well into their 20s and 30s out there.

Luckily, the past evening was a much more serene and pleasant experience than that logistical and emotional fiasco of Saturday night. I made my first pilgrimage to Chip Guy's house this year, and enjoyed his company along with that of his wife and kid. The only source of caterwauling just came from Chip Guy's daughter and THAT I could understand.

Over dessert, I watched one of those "Only In Japan" variety shows. I think this program belonged solidly more in the National Geographic channel than the Food Network. It was about a few celebs who dared to enter unknown lands and find out what some of the natives were eating. Among the "delicacies" were: mosquito patties stewed in cow urine, sauteed termite queens and deep-fried spiders. Chip's wife was marveling at how I could keep on munching chocolates while watching this program. Hmph...I can distinguish between the two things!

Sunday Jan. 11, 1:33 a.m.

Well, it was one for the entertainment books tonight. It certainly made me wonder whether I should have even bothered lingering around Shinjuku for 6 hours before meeting up with Movie Buddy and the bunch. First of all, our trip to Shidax, our first choice for karaoke, was short-circuited by one of those young hucksters hawking half-price karaoke around the corner in Kabukicho. I was pretty suspicious to begin with, but MB got hooked by the promise of all-you-can-drink.

As it turned out, the place we went to was no better than the really cheap karaoke box with the dingy walls and the torn-up seats. The karaoke system was slow in responding and had this weird gimmick of being in random selection mode so that we could never find out when we would be singing. Plus, the drinks and food (miniscule and mediocre) were late in coming and some of the orders were never processed. But the worst part of it was that it looked like MB and his girlfriend had been in the middle of a lovers' spat even before tonight's event, and it boiled over in the middle of the session. While some of us were singing, MB and his girl decided to continue their argument in the room itself until MB suddenly stormed out with his girl following. He came back all pouty for a little bit but it looked like the two had patched things up...initially. Finally, when we were on our way back to the station, I was walking beside them when the girlfriend decided that she would give him the cold shoulder with him trying to catch up and make up. I'd had enough and just left them alone...easy enough to do in the usual tumultuous crowd which always clogged the area around the ticket machines and gates. One thing I hate is getting into the middle of a crossfire, especially between two lovers. Mind you, the whole thing reminded me of some of the dicier moments between me and my ex, albeit it was in more private situations. However, I have blown up in the past in public places, so I can sympathize to a certain extent with MB.

As it is, though, I could've avoided all this and just stayed home with a good meal. Ah well, these things do happen from time to time. I just hope that my meeting with Chip Guy goes a lot better.

And as a further conclusion, witnessing all of this ugliness illustrated to me that I'm happier being single again.

Friday Jan. 9, 11:07 p.m.

Always nice to take a shower after a day of eating very spicy food. I went down to Roppongi as scheduled and went to First Kitchen, one of the local fast food restaurants, to meet that acquaintance of mine. I had a chili dog set which added the first aromas to my clothing. We shifted the venue over to the family restaurant, Janathans, across the street. It seems like there was a reason that he wanted to change places. He's a macrobiotic type of fellow so nothing on the First Kitchen menu would ever be chosen by him. He just uses the place as a study hall, much to the staff's chagrin.

Afterwards, I went up to the Iconoclast's company and met up with his boss' nephew. Unlike in my first report, his nephew turned out to be a pretty decent fellow. He asked me a lot of questions about living in Canada which I was happy to answer, and we continued our conversation over to dinner at a tiny yakitori place in East Shinjuku. Of course, the smells of the dishes there managed to permeate my clothing. I was broiling in my own juices with the extra layers on, but as it turned out, my decision was a good one. It was cold walking back home but the layers kept most of it out.

Well, gotta make the plans for the kids.