Sunday June 6, 10:56 a.m.

On the 60th anniversary of D-Day, it seems rather timely that one of America's more colourful presidents passed away. I caught news of Ronald Reagan's death on NHK this morning at 7, just a couple of hours after he'd left this mortal coil. Once again, CNN has brought out the sweeping orchestral music, the sepia-toned graphics of Reagan in various scenes and the somber mellifluous tones from Larry, Aaron and Paula.

It's interesting to note that for the next month (since President Bush has announced a 30-day period of mourning), there will be tons of accolades from the regular Joe and Jane on the street to the upper echelons of government. Not an ill word be said about him...at least not on camera. It's important to note that he wasn't a perfect President (noone is) and that it's important for his naysayers to keep their side of the bargain up. I get very jaded when all I hear is what a wonderful man or a powerful leader a head of state was. For example, I was slightly surprised about all the attention and lavish praise heaped on the late Richard Nixon, a man whom we've longed associated with paranoia and the highest government corruption. It was almost a relief when the media actually did allow a few of his critics to throw their barbs and remind everyone how flawed Nixon was.

For some reason, whenever things of this import occur, something unusual has usually happened to me at around the same time...certainly the same day. On 9/11, my flight back to Narita had been a nightmare thanks to a typhoon which had us try two aborted landings before we were finally successful. As I mentioned, I'm not a good flyer so I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the wheels finally touched down on the tarmac. Ironically, a few hours later, three planes Stateside couldn't share the same happy ending.Even more chilling was that my flight originated from the same New Jersey airport where one of the flying bombs was launched 24 hours later.

I woke up at an ungodly hour this morning to head to the washroom, something that I hardly ever do. President Reagan died at about the same time. Now, I'm not saying that I'm psychic or anything, but I just find it rather odd.

In other news, Shard gave me a rare call from Toronto. I hadn't heard from him in several weeks, even through e-mail, so the call was even more of a surprise. (In another parallel to the previous paragraph, Shard was the one who first called me hours after my nightmare flight to tell me to turn on the TV about an attack in New York). He needed help in tracking a business associate down; he lives somewhere in Kobe so I took 30 minutes to check out my sources on the Net, to no avail. Luckily in my second call with him, he told me that the guy had managed to contact him.

I was able to get some more housekeeping stuff done. I made my bimonthly appointment for my haircut this week since it looks like the upcoming days will be fairly quiet..the coordinator sent me a message stating that the school's students will be doing tests all week. Then, that huge package of omiyage got in. Plus, I tried to make my monthly call for home but it sounds like the parentals are not there.

Well, the weather isn't exactly great for BBQ but PH's party is still on apparently. I'll be heading out in little over a couple of hours from now.

Saturday June 5, 4:54 p.m.

Now that the Sapporo trip is now a fond memory, I can get back to the usual business at hand. Yesterday, I was back in action as a teacher once more. However, I was also a bit of the Santa as I was handing out the boxes of raisin butter cookies to all the good girls. I gave a box to the Teacher and then I met up with Ms. 77 and Arwen and gave them their packages.

Once our class was done, we went down to Shinagawa where 77 and I introduced Arwen to the wonders of the Outback. It was Arwen's first experience at the chain and she wasn't disappointed. We ordered the Bloomin' Onion as usual, and as usual, the three of us couldn't finish the entire dish. I think the fact that it is so heavily deep-fried and it comes with this goopy sauce fills us up quickly. We then got our steaks; I, for one, took it easy on myself and just ordered a 225-gram Outback Special. For that reason, we all had some room left to get dessert although we couldn't totally finish that either.

During dinner, the three of us once again spoke of the rumour mill at the school and then we got into more discussion about DTE's farewell party. I would be contributing my Sweet and Sour Chicken for the meal on the 20th.

I got home and checked my e-mail to find out that the Persian's buddy's sister replied to my invitation for that BBQ tomorrow at Party Hearty's place. So I'll probably be picking her up at Ebisu Station. I hope she can be comfortable at the party.

Today was another hot one as I taught my kids. I made my final deliveries of the butter cookies to them. The elder sister at the first house was even more dour than usual but I've gotten used to her attitude. Even my best kid in the afternoon was feeling pretty lazy in the heat so I took it easy with her.

The heat was affecting more than the kids as I surveyed the riders on the subway sleeping away. I really wasn't in the mood for cooking so I just bought a salad and shrimp tempura on rice.

Saturday June 5, 7:18 a.m.

Day 3

My final day in Sapporo started with another brazen misrepresentation of conjunctions when it came to the breakfast buffet. Then, I still bought a couple of more souvenirs before I brought down the whole kit and kaboodle for shipping by Yamato Delivery. I'm having it delivered here on Sunday morning. It didn't cost too much considering how much stuff I had and Yamato is as dependable as taxes in April. Great service.

I spent most of the morning watching the latest adventures of Big Matsui and company on NHK-BS and packing things up before I checked out at 11.

So with my black bag and the one bag of raisin butter cookies in tow, I decided to walk up the main street for Sapporo Station instead of taking the subway. Within 20 minutes, I reached the 8th floor of Daimaru and tried out that buffet restaurant. It was a pretty massive place inside; it resembled the Movenpick Marche in Toronto except that I only had to pay one price for everything. To be honest, I wasn't exactly ravenous when I entered the place since I did have that breakfast a few hours previously but I guess I was still mourning the loss of the Farm Grill and I wanted to relive past glories. As it were, the food there wasn't too bad. The fried chicken was worth a second visit. I was also quite impressed with the wait staff all hooked up with earpieces like a presidential guard. The gabby couple sitting across from me dropped a bowl of chow mein on the floor. Immediately, two women with fresh cloths dove in and cleaned up the mess within 10 seconds. Al Unser's pit crew would have been hard pressed to do better.

My final stop in Sapporo was the Sapporo Beer Factory northeast of the station. I first stored the butter cookies in a locker since I didn't want to risk the whole thing going rancid in the warm air and then I headed out. As I waited at the bus stop just outside of the north exit, two buses with the Nippon Ham Fighters baseball team logo emblazoned on the sides arrived. Sure enough, it was the team itself. A lot of the junior high school kids waiting along with me started getting excited. I took a couple of shots but I didn't catch former New York Met, Tsuyoshi Shinjo.

The bus ride out to the Beer Factory took just 7 minutes. When I got off, I just crossed the street where an old guard just quietly waved me in and then I saw this old brick brewery building with a tall smokestack made of the same red brick thrust up into the atmosphere. When I got inside the building, there were two uniformed women in beer-gold. One of them had me registered, taking down my name and prefecture of origin. I also informed her that I was actually a stealth gaijin from Canada so she calmly asked if I'd wanted an English tour. I accepted, noting with some surprise that the young lady didn't appear to be able to speak English. And sure enough, what I got was a well-used Walkman with earpiece and a tape inside. She then stored my bag and escorted me upstairs to the second floor where a small group had congregated. There were a few junior high school boys there with notebooks at the ready. Nice to get them started early on the wonders of alcohol.

Our guide, the same one who led me up, had that somewhat glazed look of a Stepford Wife but she was very efficient. She did a roll call of everyone who signed in. I upped for the 30-minute tour along with a couple of others. The rest went for the full tour which included a 20-minute beer tasting session. Since beer was never one of my favourite examples of booze, I went for the shorter tour.

The tour itself was quite informative. While I kept clicking the tape on and off as I tried to match the English recording with the guide's explanation in Japanese, I learned not only about the history of Sapporo Beer but also of the production process of beer in general. I even got to take a whiff of some hops which explained that pungent smell emananting from those drunken Friday drinkers on the train. When the tour wrapped up, the guide once again read out the names for the folks on the shorter tour and gave us bags of iced green tea and beer crackers which tasted remarkably like Ritz. I took a look at the souvenir shop before succumbing and buying a small barrel of white chocolate-covered freeze-dried strawberries, another one of those Hokkaido delicacies. When I got back into the main foyer, I was waiting to get my bag when the guide ran up toward me carrying my bag as if it weighed a ton. Geezus, get some weight training, girl! However, she was kind enough to take a picture of me in front of a map of Hokkaido made entirely of beer cans. It would be the only picture from the trip with my mug in there; too bad, I had been aiming to get a record.

Now that I got to see everything that I had wanted to see, I took the Factory Line Bus back to Sapporo Station. The ride was a bit more longer since the driver took us through a more circuitous route which included a ride along Odori Park. I then spent the last few hours of my time in the city looking through some more bookstores and CD shops before I spent an hour in a coffee shop in Daimaru. Then I picked up my express ticket for the JR train taking me over to Shin-Chitose Airport after getting my cookies from the locker.

The ride back to the airport was uneventful and comfortable since I got a reserved seat. The sun was appropriately setting at that time and the landscape reverted to that flat green with the odd grouping of houses popping up.

I got my boarding pass at the tour counter. I would be taking JAL back home. I had one last meal at a restaurant up on the 3rd-level restaurant row. I went for the minced tuna on rice, the savory egg custard and zaru soba set. Pretty good for the price.

I noticed that the security was a bit more stringent. Along with the usual scan for metal, I also had to take off my shoes for examination. All I can say is that the guards who were pulling shoe duty must have had the short stick. Also, I noticed that I was the youngest fellow waiting in line. Everyone else was old and gabby. However, I did see a few whippersnappers on board.

Like the ANA flight which had taken me to Hokkaido, the JAL flight was smooth and efficient. Mind you, it seemed as if they backloaded most of the old folk. My area was pretty sparsely populated and in fact my entire row was empty. Having said that, I will never be a fan of air travel. Just the takeoff and the landing would get me on edge. Some bright bulb also decided to attach cameras on the outside fuselage so that we could actually get a view of us taking off and landing. That would be enough for the white-knuckle flyers to head screaming for the exits.

I finally got to Tokyo at about 10:30 p.m. Our flight was one of the last ones in so Haneda was fairly empty. However,the so-called express train back to Shinagawa was full. The trip back home, I looked outside the windows and saw the tall skyscrapers and the masses of people ebbing and flowing on the streets, quite a different scene from what I had witnessed back in Sapporo. In a way, I was happy to get back to a place where at least the veneer of economic success was apparent.

I finally entered my door at 15 minutes past midnight. Needing a shower desperately, I spared a half-hour starting this report. It would be nice to have some sort of record along with the usual photos for posterity.

Friday June 4, 11:22 p.m.

Sapporo Day 2

I woke up fairly early on Wednesday to take advantage of my breakfast coupon at the hotel. However, there was already a fair number of people there. The majority consisted of middle-aged folk but there were some kids led by a loud-mouthed Osakan kid, judging by her accent, who were occupying one table. The breakfast buffet was divided into Western (sausages, eggs, coffee, etc) and Japanese (miso soup, rice, salmon, etc.) dishes. I first went for the Western combo of sausages, very wet scrambled eggs with a roll. Then I went for the Japanese combo. When I tried to return to my table, not only were my dishes gone but there was already one geezer seated there. It looks like I was a victim of prepositional misrepresentation. I think the general rule was that people went for EITHER the Japanese OR Western breakfasts, not AND. Oh, dopey me. As a result, I ended up sitting next to the Riot Grrrls from Osaka.

After returning to my room, I just watched a bit of Major League Baseball with the Yankees (led by...at least in Japanese eyes...Hideki Matsui) for about an hour before I made my first steps out. The day was a glorious one...not a cloud in the sky and the temps were ideal. My first stop, or walk-through to be more accurate, was Nijo Ichiba, the fish market near the hotel. It only spanned a short block but within that area, there were plenty of crabs and fish to make a seafood lover's mouth water.

Then, I went back into downtown once more and my next stop was the Clock Tower which was a 19th-century Western style house which basically showed the history behind the construction of the house and the clock contained inside it. No, it doesn't exactly make for scintillating reading for me, either, but that's what happened.

Next, I walked north and west into the Hokkaido Prefectural Government grounds which had some more examples of the architecture prevalent in the Meiji Era. In other words, British-style buildings of brick which reminded me of the Parliament Buildings back in T.O. I then walked east a couple of blocks and then up north again to reach JR Sapporo Station. Although Odori Park, a few blocks south, was the geographic centre of Sapporo, Sapporo Station had everyone's attention in terms of sheer size. The block contained the actual station in the centre which went up about 10 floors filled with stores and restaurants. It was then bracketed by JR Tower which had its own hotel and observation deck on one side, and then by a huge Daimaru department store on the other. I went up the elevator to the 8th floor of Daimaru to see a number of restaurants, including a huge buffet which was simply called BUFFET in big letters. Oh, yes...you'll be mine, I thought to myself. But not today.

Instead, I walked up further north and further west until I reached Hokkaido University. This place, of all the places that I visited in Sapporo, impressed me the most by its grand area. Most Tokyo universities, with the exception of institutions such as Aoyama Gakuin, were all contained within one drab building. Not Hokkaido University. As soon as I entered the gates, I was treated to a large roving park which allowed buildings such as a library and the various faculties to be built there. There was a poplar-lined avenue which just stretched forever. In fact, I think it took me a good 20 minutes to span the entire stretch. That might be even longer than walking from the south end of U of T to the north. In any case, during my walk through the campus, there were just so many young kids walking, running and bicycling around. I got kinda wistful for my salad days back in the 80s. Apparently, there is a statue of W.S. Clark, the professor who coined the immortal (at least in Japan) phrase, "Boys, be ambitious" somewhere in the grounds but I never saw it. However, there was a sign in Japanese warning that the land heading towards the statue was a bit treacherous so that was good enough for me to give up the chase for the great Professor Clark. My final touch of the campus was seeing the farms built at the north end. Then I headed east again and out of the campus area.

By that time, I was at 18 North. I was walking back down toward the station when I realized that the avenue was largely devoid of people. And this was during broad daylight at noon. It felt like Toronto in the 'burbs on a Sunday. Reaching Sapporo Station again, I decided to start my omiyage (souvenir) shopping in the Daimaru basement. I had a lot of boxes to buy for my students. I went for the most famous ones of Shiroi Koibito (White Lovers) chocolate-filled biscuits of which I got 14 of the little boxes and then 8 boxes of these raisin butter cookies. I found out a bit too late that the latter product had a much shorter shelf life of about 5 days and they had to be stored at less than 25 degrees C. It wasn't that much of a problem for me but still I could've done without the restrictions.

Well, after walking for 3 hours, I was pretty done in the hot sun so I ended up taking the subway back down for a couple of stations back to my hotel. The trains were older-looking than the Tokyo variety, less crowded and more expensive by 40 yen. I also noticed that a lot of the ticket vending machines were boarded up at my station and it was a rather long walk through a dank wide corridor to reach street level. Rather creeped me out a bit.

I hit the bed and took a nap for a few hours before heading out downstairs to the hotel souvenir shop to pick a couple of more boxes and then it would be another few hours before I decided to head out again, ostensibly to get some night shots of Susukino in all its neon-bathed glory.

But I decided to get a bit more omiyage shopping done so I walked to Mitsukoshi to the downstairs area to pick up a few more packages of Shiroi Koibito. By the time I got out, the sky was darkening quite nicely. But there wasn't too much activity out in the streets. In fact, when I took a look at a Virgin CD Megastore in the B1 of a nearby building, I was rather surprised at how sparsely populated it was. The B2 of Jazz/Classical was absolutely empty. Then, I took a look at the local chapter of the Maruzen Bookstore. Again, not too much going on there as well.

I walked back down to the Susukino side of things and actually braved a few minutes of walking south along the main drag. There were touts actively, even aggressively, scouring the male pedestrians for pigeons prepared to part with their money for a bit of "comfort". There were girls dressed up in high school uniforms doing much the same thing. One girl even thrust her...signboard at me but I just neatly spun myself away and then headed back out to the more seemly side of the neighbourhood.

I quickly made my way back to the Tanuki Koji arcade again where I ended up having my dinner at a McDonalds of all places. I come all the way up here for a Big Mac. But the corker was when the staff told me that they had run out of Big Macs for the day. Out of Big Macs?! No way! This is definitely not Tokyo! While I was eating my Cheeseburger Set, I filtered through my observations for the past couple of days. Except for Susukino and probably Sapporo Station, the rest of downtown seemed underutilized. On my way back through the arcade back to my hotel, I noticed a completely empty ramen restaurant and the end of the arcade just had two hip-hop folk lounging around in lawn chairs outside a hip-hop clothing store. That was it. I'd heard that Hokkaido was going through some tough economic times. I guess that has been reflected in Sapporo as well when I think about the empty stores and streets. It was pretty sad, actually.

I just hit the bed again. One more day to go.

Friday June 4, 8:16 a.m.

HOKKAIDO

Day 1 (June 1): I was internally cursing all the way to Haneda Airport thanks to the rain bringing traffic to a crawl. It took me almost 2 (expletive) hours to get from my place to the city airport. However, I still got there in plenty of time and hopped on my ANA flight to New Chitose Airport.

I was quite lucky...I had a window seat and the two adjoining seats were empty. I was a bit worried with the low cloud ceiling and steady rain, but once we were above the clouds, it was smooth sailing up north.

90 minutes later, I was off the plane and heading toward the Chuo Bus for another 70-minute ride into Sapporo. The first impression I got of Japan's northernmost prefecture was when I looked out the window coming in and saw a whole lot of flatland cookie-cut into farm areas interspersed with roving lines of tall deciduous trees (sounds like the Discovery Channel?...I digress). I thought I was landing in Aurora, Ontario.

The bus ride took 820 yen. It didn't take long for us to pass through the Sapporo city limits. But boy, I was wondering when we would be getting from the suburbs into the main city when I found out that I WAS in the city. The wider streets, the shorter buildings and the slower pace outside reminded me of being in Scarborough. In fact, I got off in an area which looked somewhat derelict. I only had to cross the street to reach my hotel, The Tobu. It wasn't a real fancy-schmancy place but the staff were friendly and there was the right amount of decorum to make me feel comfortable. I didn't think I was going to be given that much attention or respect since I came in on the cheapo plan. However, my room was a twin instead of a single so there was quite a lot of room, a small settee and a table. Plus, the toilet had one of those washlet attachments...you literally can't go wrong there.

I settled in for a couple of hours before heading out in the late afternoon. I only needed to walk a few minutes on South 4 to reach the dividing line between the gaudy, slightly seedy Susukino area and the regular downtown area. The sun was still out (it tends to set an hour later than in Tokyo) so none of the neon was on. However, looking at the signs, it was obvious that this was the area which sucked up most of the electricity.

I almost missed catching the kanji saying "Ramen Yokocho" or Ramen Row. But my double take was enough to catch the eye of the owner of the first ramen shop underneath the sign. Never saying NO to ramen, I entered an empty shop...which, for a longtime Tokyo resident like me, was a surprise at 5 o'clock...so I started getting suspicious. And in fact, I would get further observations of this surprisingly laconic downtown the next night. However, I saw the placards with various signatures so I thought the place was fine enough. Also, I was intrigued by the 1000-yen bowl of Chashu (BBQ Pork) Ramen. Intrigued because there were five huge slabs of the pork covering the bowl like a lid. Well, I ordered it and sure enough, I got the bowl with this "flower" of humoungous pork on top of the bowl. Well, I just had to take a pic which automatically got the owner's laugh and my cover as a local was blown. I had a short talk with the guy about the various reactions to this ramen and I managed to finish everything off within about 10 minutes.

After my first successful tackle with the native fare, I walked up West 2. Sapporo is definitely different from the capital in that the downtown is arranged in a very stable grid. Unlike the chaos of Tokyo streets, it would be difficult to get lost in downtown Sapporo. Unless your sense of direction is absolutely hopeless, you can orient yourself within a few seconds. Anyways, the clouds were starting to gum up the sky as I arrived at Odori (Boulevard) Park, a huge wide strip of greenland, benches and fountains which cut through the downtown through the East-West axis. It's the scene of Sapporo that the NHK guys show when the news signs off. It is also the area where the Sapporo Ice Festival is held. To my right was the TV Tower, a mere 100 metres compared to Tokyo Tower's 333 metres. It was still plenty big enough for me, though.

I went up to the third floor of TV Tower and searched for the ticket counter to head up to the observation deck at the 90-m. level only to find out there wasn't one. One of the young uniformed staffers had to show me the ticket vending machine..just out of my left eye's peripheral vision. Duh! I got up another elevator. I have to admit that the smaller car, the glass walls and the more languid speed brought a bit of vertigo but I was OK once I hit the deck. I took some pics of bird's-eye Sapporo before I got back down to the ground.

It started spitting rain which automatically brought out the umbrellas. I guess some customs are nationwide. Being a Canadian, it would take more than a few drops to bring out the umbrella. Plus, I had left my foldable back in my room. I crossed the street to check out the Kinokuniya. Nah, not quite like the huge one we've got in Tokyo.

Well, despite my better endurance to rain, I decided not to tempt fate and headed back toward my hotel. This time, I went back south and then cut across a block north of South 4 to a multi-block arcade mall called Tanuki Dori. It wasn't any different from the other arcade street malls I've been to in Tokyo such as Shin-Nakamise in Asakusa or the mall in Nakano. I just dropped by the Lawsons and picked up a small packet of milk and a cake. So much for the big spender. I got back to my room and spent the rest of my night there. So much for the big adventurer. Thus that was Day One.

Tuesday June 1, 6:41 a.m.

We're back to cool and drizzly again. We won't be getting over 20 C today. In fact, even Sapporo will be warmer than us. And this is considering that we were setting heat records yesterday. I think this year will be entering the books as one of the wackier times for weather.

Automan sent his thanks...and his regrets about what happened in Akihabara last Friday. He gave some sort of excuse that he'd had other committments beforehand. Well, he did say to meet him at 5:30, not me. So that doesn't totally wash. And I still think that 77's rather convenient excuse for not showing up on Sunday had something to do with Friday's goof. But as a friend, I will obviously not mention any of my misgivings to either of them.

I received e-mail from my good friend, The Entrepreneur, just now. He had dinner with Chip Guy and family over the weekend. They went to one of our old hangouts for some after-dinner noshing, JUST DESSERTS. Their crumble-top apple pie is simply the best there is. Several years ago, though, the main branch that we went to was held up by a few sociopaths who proceeded to shoot a few hostages dead in a robbery. It rather seared the opinion in my head that one can leave this mortal coil anywhere, anytime and in any fashion.

And I finally got word from Jazz Buddy concerning lessons. The prelims are coming along as they should. I just need to find out when and where she'd like to meet.

With all of the work and other stuff, I have failed to mention that it's been one year and two weeks since I'd started this bohemian workstyle of mine. A couple of dips but it's really been all gravy for me this past year. I've been able to teach the people that I have wanted to teach, along with meeting some good new faces, and I can still teach some of my favourite classes at the school. Can't ask for anything more.

Monday May 31, 9:29 p.m.

Another scorcher today but tempered with some rain just now. Still, my apartment felt like a blast furnace so it was on with the air conditioner. I'll definitely have to put on the fan for tonight.

Not a great class with the ladies this morning. My articles were just too tough for them. However, I recompensed by getting "Heidi". When I came back to the house to teach the sister-in-law, I gave the book to the student so that she could make some photocopies for next week. Ironically, the sister-in-law called in to cancel just a couple of minutes after I had left on lunch break so I received a very vociferous apology from the maid...true Japanese culture; it wasn't anywhere near her fault and yet as a representative of the family, she was very sorry. I sure wasn't. I was able to spend an extra hour in the room in air-conditioned comfort, received some nice snacks and coffee and even received my fee from my absentee student since she canceled too close to the start time. The owner of the house told me that I could stay until I had to go to my next class in Shinjuku, but I felt that would just take advantage of their kindness so I left about an hour earlier with a message thanking her.

The class at the company wasn't too bad. There were a lot of hooks in the material for me to use. I had the low guy back but he wasn't too bad. Plus, he is pretty gung-ho about the lessons unlike the more capable but more easily bored fellow who actually was out sick today.

That hostage-taking incident in Khobar luckily had no Japanese casualties despite what the Al Qaeda leader had been boasting on the Web. The Chief Cabinet Secretary officially denied any deaths, and the media was very quiet.

Monday May 31, 7:32 a.m.

Good heavens. It was 32 degrees yesterday in Tokyo. No wonder I was doing a slow broil. In fact, the weather forecasters (who should be hanging their heads in shame for screwing up) said that all May records were broken for temps. We'll be getting more of the same today. It's already 25 degrees right now. We'll be sunny most of the day but then some rain is slated to fall in the evening, despite the fact that the POP shows 0%. Some guy's head at the Weather Office is gonna roll.

It's almost kinda too bad that I have to work today, especially the company class tonight considering the weather. That final class has been such a slog in the past couple of weeks. Well, there's a chance that my middle student may cancel. She's had that habit since her parents need quite a bit of care.

I got a response from Jazz Buddy about her potential lessons. I'm already seeing some problems with scheduling. My June Sundays are already starting to fill up. I've got a BBQ with Party Hearty on the 6th and then Arwen has asked me to keep the 20th open for DTE's farewell party. Speaking of Arwen, it looks like we'll be set for the Outback Steakhouse after her lesson on Friday.

I've noticed that I seem to be obsessing over time. Despite the fact that I have nearly 2 hours before taking off for my first class, I'm already getting pretty stressed about getting everything ready. But life in the largest city on Earth will have that effect. I am ready for my vacation.

Sunday May 30, 4:46 p.m.

I'm back from the culinary odyssey in Omotesando. Boy, is it hot today! The weathercasters pulled off another wrong prediction. They had said that it would be cloudy and a bit cooler. Reality was far more contrary...it feels like over 30 C and sunny. Just like a dog day in August, and in Tokyo, that dog is a Great Dane.

True to Murphy's Law, although I don't consider what happened a major (or even minor) incident, 77 was a scratch so we were back to 7 people so my adjustment last night on the phone wasn't necessary after all. I kinda figured that something like that would happen. I'm still not totally convinced of the veracity of her reason for her absence since the Japanese treat the white lie as an art form unto itself. Plus, I'm kinda wondering if 77 is ticked off at me for that Automan boner the other night.

In any case, it was myself, the Scarecrow, Skippy, Jazz Buddy, Arwen and later on, OA and her good buddy. The latter two were fairly late since the good buddy had to wait in the hot sun for 30 minutes while OA got lost and had forgotten her cellphone at home. I'm not sure how OA's friend felt but I know that I wouldn't be too thrilled in a similar situation. Poor OA was almost on the verge of tears in her contrition which is an interesting observation since she has shown herself to be a steel dragon when haggling with karaoke box operators.

Jazz Buddy, Arwen and OA bravely ordered "The Plate" with me, but only JB managed to finish everything off, even the biscuits with that gravy. To be honest, I think I'm starting to get used to that white sauce. We even got a special guest cameo from the Ballerina by Skippy's cellphone. Now that she finally got her security clearance from the UK government, she called us from Narita after her first shift on the London-Tokyo run. She finally got that wish to be a flight attendant.

By the time we got out of Fujimamas over 2 hours later, there was a pretty sizable lineup outside. I remembered seeing that caveat on the restaurant's website that dinner reservations had to be made at least a week in advance. I'm sure the staff was quite happy to see us go to accomodate those sweaty folk. I'll definitely have to try Fujimamas for dinner sometime, perhaps if there is a farewell party outside for DTE or OA's buddy when they take off for places abroad.

During the brunch, I received another potential client in the form of JB. She said that her only possible days are Sunday and Monday. Well, Monday is definitely out, and Sunday is (or was) my sole day off. I normally wouldn't take any customers on a Sunday but since it is Jazz Buddy, I will make an exception for her.

Skippy, Arwen and OA had to take off which left the rest of us walking to the Aoyama end of Omotesando in the search for a cafe. We ended up going to the Comme Ca Cafe. The last time we went there was when a bunch of us went on that Halloween run 8 months ago. The cakes were still very impressive artistic works of humongous hunks of fruit precariously balanced on a flan base filled with custard. The topics of discussion ranged from the works of Mel Brooks to nudist beaches in Florida. I was surprised to hear that Jazz Buddy enjoyed Spaceballs, Brooks' weakest movie parody although the opening shot of the longest starship in history was hilarious. The Scarecrow and I set her straight by recommending some of Brooks' best stuff like Young Frankenstein.

Well, after another hour, we all broke up and I headed out of Aoyama. However, my day trip wasn't finished. I checked out the soon-to-be out-of-action Maruzen bookstore in Nihombashi (it's undergoing renovations for the next 3 years) before checking out the newest ultramodern shopping and dining complex in Tokyo. It's called COREDO and in a nutshell, it's just four floors and a basement of eclectic shops such as Sony Plaza and restaurants. The long drop between the second floor and the basement reminded me of the engine room from the movie version of the starship Enterprise if a 21st-century Frank Lloyd Wright got his hands on the specs. I checked out the 4th floor of restaurants for any future places to have dinners with today's gang. Typically trendy looking.

I finally got home and I've got both my fan and air conditioner on right now. Feeling much better and cooler. I only bought a salad plus a bottle of blueberry juice. I figure that the salad and the veggie soup I concocted last night will be good enough for me after the smorgsabord of today. I'm not sure if the next event will be catching "The Day After Tomorrow". I would volunteer to go see that on the 6th but then it would the 3rd straight Sunday to meet up with the old school gang, and although it would be fine by me, I'm uncertain if the other folks would want to get together all that often. I'll probably just leave it up to Skippy since she's the one other ringleader of these social events. I would probably opt for the 13th instead.

It's clouded up considerably since I started writing this entry. Perhaps I spoke too soon. I can't believe that in less than 48 hours, I'll be in Japan's northernmost metropolis.

Sunday May 30, 8:32 a.m.

It was indeed a quiet night last night. I cleaned up my place, and sure enough, it just took a few hours for the living room to get lived in again.

I made the final adjustments for the reservations at Fujimamas. It's only an increase of one, and I'm pretty sure that if I didn't say anything, they would just get another place setting arranged easily enough but I'm not one to leave things to chance when I'm planning something. Which is why some of the students have called me a "mame" or a bean. Over here, the lowly bean gets a promotion in that its slang meaning is "diligent one". I checked my e-mail; no messages from any of the participants which I'll take as a good sign. The last thing I need is a wholesale cancellation or more people all of a sudden.

I also did a dry run packing a single bag with my clothes and other stuff for Hokkaido. Keeping it light with just an extra pair of trousers, no pajamas among other things, I think I can pull it off. Also saw my hotel on the Internet; I took down the address and number; I'm happy about the check-in time but I would've liked a later check-out time, but I'm just grousing.

Not quite sure what I'll do after the brunch. Those two students from my juku never called up for the cheesecake thing in Ikebukuro so my stomach has been saved from a "Seven"-like fate. Most likely some of us will just head out for some form of coffee. In fact, I think I may even end up doing the course I did with Betty and The Office Lady a couple of weeks earlier. However, back then, it was pretty cold and rainy. From my vantage point, it looks far better today. Perhaps a walk around Harajuku and Omotesando would be in order.

Saturday May 29, 11:40 a.m.

Yup, really glad to have the day off. I've hung out the mattresses out to air out in what is a glorious day. It looks like my kids' schools aren't the only ones to have their festivals. The two elementary schools in my neighbourhood are currently having their own little sports festivals out in the schoolyards. The glacee stands are out there and families are bringing their picnic baskets and blankets. The usual John Phillip Sousa marches are playing while the kids are racing around the track.

Of course, I see this as an outsider since I have no connection with family which suits me just fine. I took my now-rare opportunity of getting my rubdown. I've always respected my massage clinic. I don't think I go there all that often and with all of the other customers that come in, I'm impressed that the receptionist and the director of the clinic not only know my name but what I usually want: work on my shoulders, neck and scalp. The place has become the equivalent of the neighbourhood tavern or even the old Japanese sento. Lots of banter among the techs and customers.

Well, I got my shopping done and now after lunch, I'll be cleaning up the apartment before dinner. Nice to do something not related to teaching once in a while. SR sent me a note stating that she won't be able to make our Friday lesson. I let her know that that was alright since I probably would appreciate the extra time off after coming back from Sapporo Thursday night.

I heard that a couple of Japanese journalists got shot and killed in Iraq. But I haven't heard anything in the wide shows which is rather strange, although I did see some headlines of the fact last night.

In a way, I hope I can get that cleaning done fairly quickly. On a day like today, I could sure use a nap.

Saturday May 29, 12:33 a.m.

Man, it was one of those boner days again yesterday with Arwen, 77 and Automan.The day before it was my fault for forgetting to call Automan, Today, however, was multi-pronged. First, 77 accidentally tipped over my teapot...well, that didn't really cramp my style since the owner of the tea room was more than happy to fill up the pot once again. But I found out that I hadn't given them some handouts which would've supplied some homework for them, so I looked pretty foolish there. And then Movie Buddy dropped in, so I wasn't sure if 77 were too happy about having another chatfest instead of some substantial work being done. MB is a great guy but sometimes he doesn't know when not to stay out of stuff.

Then, it was trying to contact Automan several times and just getting his message machine. I finally had to leave the Tea Room's number on it so that Automan could reach me. It turned out that his cellphone batteries had died. So the trio of us and MB ended up spending an extra 2 hours there before we could get some sort of idea of what was happening. I felt doubly bad since I had asked Arwen and 77 if they wanted to tag along. I wasn't sure if they were thinking of coming along initially since I hadn't heard any sort of response but obviously when they hung on for the extra 2 hours, I knew that something was up. Well, it wasn't over yet. Automan and I decided that we would meet him at Akihabara Station at 5:30. He didn't show up until 6:00 p.m. which didn't exactly please me but I didn't say anything since I had company. But the fact that the two women were left hanging (at one point, they even wrote placards with Automan's name on it to flag him down) left me feeling even more guilty.

As it turned out, we ended up going to a nearby Denny's where some of us just had some juice. During the usual interrogation by the ladies of our guest, Automan decided to correct the ladies on their grammar which embarrassed and irked me. There is a time to correct students and there is a time NOT to do so. Overall, I felt very uncomfortable; I realize that I had informed Arwen about the fact that we would meet him for some coffee and then dinner but with his tardiness and just the long lag time, I felt like I was responsible for wasting their time. He can be feckless.

Luckily, he left a bit early so that he could meet up with some more old friends in Ikebukuro. The three of us, alone again, could talk up a bit before I went to catch up with Automan at the restaurant in Ikebukuro. There, I met up with one old friend, The Veteran, whom I hadn't seen in years since our time in the old club together. He'd gotten married with a Japanese woman and was now living in Matsudo. There were quite a few people there, all who had lived in Toronto at some period in the last decade. One of them had a rather massive decolletage. However, most of the time was spent talking with The Veteran. He'd only been in the Big Sushi a few months but he's already grumbling about the chaos of life here, and he has yet to experience a Japanese summer. Some people get used to it; others beg to get on the first plane out of the country.

We were restricted to 2 hours at the place. It was another one of those classier izakaya with the burnt wood interiors, dim lighting and jazz music and somewhat imaginatively produced food. Afterwards, we had the prerequisite spate of reunion photos and surprisingly enough, I believe that most of us called it a night. I certainly wanted to; not that I didn't enjoy the company but it was a Friday night and that means a lot of drunken idiots on the train. Sure enough, my train back home had some besotted fool attempting to stay standing beside me while I had my seat. His bag kept hitting me on the knee; I coddled fanstasies of taking ripping into the leather until I remembered from the conversation with Arwen and 77. Arwen mentioned that a week previously, when she, the coordinator and a couple of other former students went off to a concert, the coordinator, rather drunk and smoking heavily, gleefully admitted to vandalizing a neighbour's dog which was barking too much. Knowing the coordinator was just one book short of a shelf, I rather held back on my foul thoughts. In any case, the drunk got off a couple of stations before I did.

I got home, took a shower and then sent off an e-mail apologizing to Arwen about the past day. I know that she'll probably fend off any apology for both her and 77 but I think things just didn't work out. I'll have to be pretty careful about inviting them next time.

I'm so happy that I don't have to teach the kids today. I'll be getting that long-needed rubdown at my massage clinic before I tackle cleaning the place up. And then I'm gonna try and see if I can pack just one bag for Hokkaido.

Saw Macauley Culkin on Larry King tonight. Man, he's annoyingly chirpy. I can't really say that he's turned out all that physically handsome either.

Friday May 28, 8:47 a.m.

Pretty warm start to the day. I've got the fan on at full blast right now.

My juku boss let me know not to worry about next Tuesday classes. She'll probably just cancel them. I think it's much better that way and I'd feel more at ease.

Now, for one of my observations on the paradoxes of this society. For a country that has a pacifistic constitution (albeit one written by the United States), the Japanese seem to have a very high gore threshold. In the past few weeks, I've gone through some of their tabloids...glossier than their American or British equivalents but tabloids nonetheless. They have shown the pics of those American engineers who were shot and immolated by the Iraqis, and they actually showed the beheading of Nick Berg, including the picture of the terrorist holding Berg's head. Now, one can point out that the grisly video is on the Internet for anyone to access, but I think that people here have much easier access to a magazine at a kiosk than to a computer website. Also, in the video stores I've come across stuff like "Faces of Death". In another mini-paradox of the horror genre, the traditional Japanese horror has very little gore, relying on mood and centuries-old horror characters to scare the pants off of the audience. However, there are also the Japanese take on Western-style "splatter" horror movies which seem to outgore "Friday the 13th" or "Elm Street" by a good country mile. I'll save the...gory..details, but one traipse through a video store here will bear my observation out.

Thursday May 27, 9:19 p.m.

Today's class went well. Unfortunately, I pulled a bit of a boner by forgetting to call Automan after the class to let him know my availability. He contacted me so I'll definitely be meeting him tomorrow afternoon.

The Curry Master informed me that there is a possibility that it might be rather difficult from now on to have Thursday classes because of some job training. I'm not sure if she's telling the truth or if she's doing the usual Japanese white lie to save face, but I let her know that if she won't be available, perhaps I can teach that other woman she had mentioned weeks ago.

Well, I've got those reservations in for Sunday. Sure enough, the first e-mail I get is from OA asking if her buddy can join in the fun. I'll hold on and see if someone decides to cancel out before I make any changes.

Wednesday May 26, 10:10 p.m.

Another appearance of the Dancing Bear for another class at the school. The kids had a great time as usual but I'm kinda wondering if I just acted a little too much like fellow Canadian Jim Carrey instead of the professional teacher. In retrospect, I think I should've pulled myself in a bit. However, tomorrow's lesson is with the lowest class which I didn't exactly set on fire the first time around, so I may have to pull out the stops for them.

Once I got home I had a few housekeeping things to set up. It looks like I got a party of 7 for the brunch so I'll have to get that reservation at Fujimamas tomorrow morning. But I figure even if I can't snag it, we'll just show up 30 minutes earlier and just grab some seats.

I actually got my coupons for Hokkaido tonight from a rather forlorn delivery man. Looks like everything is in order. And I don't have to show up hours earlier for my morning flight. 40 minutes will do just nicely.

I called up The Curry Master since I didn't get any response from her by e-mail. It looks like she's had a bout with tonsillitis. Over here, it's not the custom to have the tonsils out during childhood. In fact, the philsophy about the tissue is exactly opposite from that of North America. Over here, apparently, the tonsils are kept to protect oneself from bacteria. Well, CM managed to survive the past two days without having to rid herself of them. So, it looks like the lessons are on tomorrow. However, she has told me that most likely she won't be subbing for me on Tuesday since she's gonna be too busy and with her energy levels rather sapped from the tonsillitis, she won't be in too good of a condition for teaching. I'm not exactly disappointed with her decision. Call it a bit of Mother Hen Syndrome but after a year of teaching my Tuesday nighters, I feel a bit defensive of anyone taking over. Plus, the logistics involved would be a bit difficult to pull off since I'm gonna have to write reports and make a lot of copies. However, I'm not sure how the boss is gonna take it, though. There is one more veteran teacher that she could ask, but that teacher is a bit on the strict side.

It looks like the party for Automan last night went off well. It turned out to be a regular reunion for the U of T guys. I haven't heard anything from him yet about tomorrow afternoon, the only window of opportunity that we have to meet.

I called up the mother of my Saturday afternoon kid. Yup, the morning students' mother called it right. The afternoon kid will be out at that school festival. I've got the entire day off. I can do some prelim planning for the trip next week.

Wednesday May 26, 8:39 a.m.

It hasn't gotten mentioned on CNN, so I'll do the honours. It looks like the Japanese authorities have started moving in on some places for the Al Qaeda connection. Apparently, there is one fellow that they really want to meet.

Looks like another potential blockbuster threat to the United States has surfaced again. Must be summer...

I checked the e-mail. I haven't received any acknowledgement from the Curry Master about the assignment that I'd sent earlier this morning. She usually checks her e-mail around midnight so I'm wondering if her mother is keeping her away from the computer.

Well, I'm facing far less work today. I'm only a third as busy as I was yesterday. Just three hours worth of classes.

That Japanese kid who won the Best Actor prize at Cannes hasn't made too much of a splash here in the media since grabbing it. It looks like the abductees are still taking the front page. In a way, I think it's quite right.

Wednesday May 26, 12:21 a.m.

I ran through the gauntlet of classes yesterday more or less intact. I didn't even have to rely on the vitamin drinks. My juku boss' 3 cups of coffee got me through the night. However, I was happy to get that shower when I got home. That spruced me up a bit to get through the e-mail and blogging business before I hit the hay.

The two classes at the school went well. I kept my streak of reducing students to giggling mounds of jelly alive with my Dancing Bear act. Basically, I was brought in to teach the top class yesterday since the coordinator got an earful from the kids the day before for some lousy teaching from the others. Basically put, I was the English teaching equivalent of the stopper. The students quickly picked up on that as soon as I came in, and sure enough, I got the job done. But boy, it's not a good situation if I have to be brought in for that sort of thing too often.

I raced to the juku after my classes with a quick stop at a convenience store for a very small dinner of two rice balls, a tangy salad and some strawberry chocolates. My first pair of students got pretty interested in my flyer of that Cheesecake Exhibition in Namjatown at the Sunshine 60 Building in Ikebukuro. The older sullen sister on Saturday gave it to me after her visit there. One of them suggested a potential visit there on the 30th since the exhibition will be wrapping up on June 6th. The 30th is also the day for that brunch with Arwen and 77. In a way, I'm kinda hoping that the plans for this visit to munch on cheesecake falls through since I'm not sure what my condition will be after another brunch at Fujimamas. Plus, the exhibition will probably be packed with people on Sunday anyways.

Speaking of Fujimamas, I so far have 5 people including myself ready to go for brunch. I need one more person to get those reservations in. However, if noone else shows up, I can save myself the phone call and just tell everyone to show up in Harajuku at 10:30 a.m.

By the end of my juku classes, I was fit to be tied. And yet, I still had to make some copies for the sub teacher for my Thursday night student and then talk with the boss about next Tuesday's classes. There's a possibility that the Curry Master will be taking over for me then so I've gotta get some info out to her. I still have to get an assignment made up for her lesson on Thursday night. But the boss told me last night that CM's mother is in town staying at her place so I'm not sure what her situation will be.

Another old friend of mine from years past, Seiko, sent me a message about an upcoming alumni reunion party in July. She quickly pointed out the fact that she's back to her maiden name. Uh-oh. I remember some years ago when she boasted that she and her hubby had never had a spat since tying the knot. I guess they both caught up on that part to their detriment.

The Persian's friend sent me a message stating that she won't be able to make it out for Saturday since she'll probably be packing for her trip back to Taiwan on Sunday. A pity but totally understandable. I also wonder how that party for Automan went last night. With the 9 hours of classes, I forgot about this wingding.

I wrapped up the Charlie Brown retrospective with that 1987 interview with Schulz. He may have been a somewhat neurotic fellow with chronic self-doubt but he certainly didn't hold back on his opinions about other artists. He sure had a chip on his shoulder about Garry Trudeau and Doonesbury. I certainly could relate with Schulz though with a number of his personal issues. A number of parallels can be drawn between the two of us. Either we could have been good friends or the worst of enemies.

Well, gotta get that assignment done and it's already almost 1.

Monday May 24, 9:48 p.m.

Feeling pretty tired right now after 5 hours of classes. Not a good omen for tomorrow's marathon of classes. Well, I guess I'll have to load up on the vitamin drinks and coffee.

My first class with the ladies ended up as another gabfest. One of them, the owner of the house that I teach at, asked if we could actually tackle some written material in the form of a short story or an article. Knowing them, I think an article would be better since they sidetrack so easily. It's almost like throwing a bowling ball down an alley which has been bent upwards in the middle.

My final class with the company folks wasn't as bad as last week's slogfest but it certainly wasn't any thriller. I was saved by the fact that the weakest link in the class was out on a business trip and the fact that for some reason, the guys got pretty obsessed with trying to distinguish [r] and [l] in pronunciation. Go fig!

It was another bipolar day meterologically. After the freeze and rain of yesterday, the morning and afternoon were pretty much in the slow broil zone. However, the rain has come back tonight. Apparently, this checkerboard approach to weather will continue tomorrow with another sunny day.

I'm rather lucky that I was able to start planning for tomorrow's classes during the brief break that I had before the company class. I'm not much up for doing anything academic right now. I'll probably just wash the dishes, throw out the garbage and take a shower. I would hit the hay right at 11 as well if it weren't for the fact that I ate dinner at 9. If I'm gonna save my stomach from morning turmoil, I don't dare go to bed until at least midnight.

I made it through the first volume of strips from THE COMPLETE PEANUTS and now I'm starting the rather deep analysis of Schulz's masterpiece by some sort of expert. Going through the first two years of PEANUTS (1950-1952) was a revelation for me. I was born some 15 years after its debut so the characters had already evolved into their "mature" state, so to speak, starting with my first exposure to the annual Xmas special. The less shaky, even more simplistic drawings aside, it was interesting to note that Charlie Brown had often been as vindictive as his friends in the early days...far from the lovable loser that we know today. Snoopy was much more conventional as a mostly mute beagle which walked on all four feet, Linus and Schroeder were barely toddlers, Patty, Violet and Shermy were Chuck's main buddies, and Lucy was not just a little companion who looked up to Charlie but she was actually sweet. It'll probably cost me a fair bit of coin but I'm definitely looking forward to Volume 2.

In more contemporary and localized pop culture, it looks like Morning Musume will be ousting another couple of members come January. One, the current leader, won't be any major loss since she seems to just exist as a living totem pole, but the other is a fairly popular figure. With the defections of three other popular members this year, some of the young'uns on the MM maillist have been crying out for the hide of Tsunku, the Svengali of the group. It's hard to say what the guy's motives are with this huge Spring Cleaning. Perhaps he's trying to induce a quick demise to a group that has peaked a few years ago or perhaps he's trying to pull off a rather drastic Hail Mary.

What else is new? Well, according to CNN, PM Koizumi's approval ratings have gone up a bit since the weekend's summit which got those kids out of North Korea. I'm pretty confident that those families whose missing members are still such weren't responsible for the rise in the polls.

I got word from my contact at Japan Tours about my travel coupons for Hokkaido next week. It'd been a week since I had heard anything from her so I was getting a bit antsy. I'm wondering if she's just a rookie, though, she seems to ask a lot of questions like a greenhorn. Well, I gotta get a bag to carry some of my clothes. I don't particularly want to carry a suitcase for a trip like this.

And that giggly friend of the Persian's contacted me again by e-mail. I suggested that we could meet up on Saturday night for dinner before she finally heads out back to the home country.

Sunday May 23, 9:25 p.m.

Got together with some of the gang to catch TROY. But first I picked up that first volume of the Peanuts gang. I saved a good 1000 yen by picking it up at Towers instead of another bookstore. I guess I've got that case of Snoopy fever now.

I had a half-hour before the group met up at the Picadilly in Shinjuku so I took a walk down to check out the Virgin Megastore only to find that it has been replaced by a furniture shop. I guess unless it has moved its digs elsewhere, Richard Branson is making even less of a mark now than ever. His Virgin cola didn't last too long here and I guess the same is true about his CD store. It really couldn't compete with HMV and Towers.

Skippy and the Maid were the first to show up. They told me that three of the others including The Madame were going to be scratches. However, Movie Buddy saved the day by bringing Frodo and another friend of his. TROY was an OK movie as blockbusters go...plenty of action and the two stars comported themselves quite well. I think Eric Bana is starting to make inroads toward the A-list, for example. I can't even imagine him as a sketch comedian as he was back in Oz, but then again, who would have thought that Tom Hanks would become the Jimmy Stewart of the early 21st century back in his Bosom Buddies days?
Anyways, storywise, Homer would have been spinning in his grave somewhat. The movie itself probably gets a 6 or 7 in my estimation; it just didn't have all that epic a feel despite all that CG of marching armies and sailing ships. But I've got a feeling that Achilles' line of "Take it!...It's yours!" could become the catchphrase of the summer.

Afterwards, all of us went to this nearby cafe with very stylish sensibilities and jazz music. MB and Frodo picked up their better halves and one other lad to join our group. There was some transitional time necessary to get everyone comfy with each other but it did get accomplished. Mind you, it isn't everyday that the extraction of wisdom teeth becomes one of the main topics for discussion. OA called up on Skippy's phone. She couldn't make it because of her TOEIC test; it'd been a few weeks since I'd heard from her. I think the last time was during the Ballerina's dinner when she got obnoxiously drunk.

All of us split up but Skippy, The Maid and I decided to head to the wilds of Kabukicho into the Theatre Plaza facing the Koma Theater to see the actual Trojan Horse used in TROY. Somehow, the powers-that-be managed to deconstruct, ship and then reconstruct it in the plaza. The two ladies took some pics standing in front of it with their cellphone cameras.

More info got talked about concerning the brunch next Sunday and then even the next movie. Most likely, it'll be THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

In other news, those family members of the abductees finally got home from North Korea in what was another live event across all of the channels. Cameras were following every kilometre from Haneda Airport to the Akasaka Prince Hotel as the bus and police escort made its way across downtown Tokyo. Meanwhile, the guy who got them out of there, PM Koizumi, is in pretty hot water with the families of 10 still-missing abductees. They were uncharacteristically blunt and furious at the Prime Minister for not doing nearly enough to get info on what has happened to their long-lost loved ones. I can understand the families' frustrations but I also gotta feel for the PM as well. It was pretty much a no-win situation; there was no way that enough info would have satisfied the families and one has to be very careful negotiating with a self-made delusional god like Kim Jong Il.

I forgot to mention that Automan called me up this morning. Apparently, he was already on the tarmac running when he got in last night. He'd already gotten invited to some sort of do out in Yokohama which would be a good 2 hours from Narita on a good day. Surprisingly, he accepted and trudged all the way out there. He said he was still in pretty good condition. But I'm not sure if we will be able to get together considering the tightness of both our schedules this week.

Well, off to take a shower, get a cup of chai into me, and then read some more Peanuts to Vince Guaraldi before hitting the hay. The lesson planning can wait til the morning.

Saturday May 22, 7:51 a.m.

Looks like my classes have been cut in half. The mother of my youngest called up last night to say that today's lesson is a scrub. So, I'm off at 1.

The Scarecrow also sent a message stating that he's also a scrub for Sunday's TROY outing. He'd thought that the outing was for today. Ach, but he is interested for the 30th for brunch. So, we're looking at 4 right now.

The Weather Office noted that yesterday was the first day in a week that the sun actually deigned to show itself. It's decided to go into hiding again for at least the weekend.

It also looks like I'm still negotiating between the Iconclast and the Prez. Now, it's just trying to arrange how the two are gonna meet in Hong Kong.

The big news here is that the PM has headed for North Korea for another rescue mission: this time to scoop up the remaining family members of those 5 former kidnapees from over 25 years ago. If he is successful, the weekend news should be focusing on that fact almost exclusively.

On a totally different note, I see that "Enterprise" has been saved from the axe and given a 1-year reprieve. It'll probably be the final year for the show, the shortest duration for any of the Treks. It's kinda too bad since I've liked Scott Bakula as good Captain Archer, but I think the show was just one show too many for the exhausted Trekkies.

And on a related note, it looks like the next and presumably final Star Wars movie is getting the first good title since "RETURN OF THE JEDI". It's apparently going to be called "BIRTH OF THE EMPIRE" although admittedly I don't think that will improve Hayden Christensen's acting any.

Friday May 21, 8:19 p.m.

Well, barely half an hour after my last entry in which I described the Sturm und Drang of Typhoon 2, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was almost like a Tex Avery version of a sunrise..that dramatic. So my lesson with the Teacher was on.

From our lesson today, I gained a bit more insight into her character. She's definitely got more high-falutin' tastes than me. She's into Italian antiques and somewhat more esoteric movies. She even mentioned M. Butterfly, a flick that had been filmed more than a decade ago at my workplace at the U of T. She was relatively flabbergasted at that admission, so I said I would bring over some photos from the location next week. On a totally different note, she has a way of speaking past me...not quite answering my comments accurately...it didn't quite annoy me like the Stylist did on Wednesday.

Then I sped off to the Tea Room to teach Arwen and 77. It was an earlier-than-usual slot for them since Arwen had an engagment to see jazz singer Chie Ayado with the school coordinator and Jazz Expert. At one point in our lesson, we were all rather surprised to see Jazz Buddy and the rest of her old classmates in the top class of the school come traipsing into the Tea Room. I'm not sure if this were going to become a regular thing with them. I also started the ball rolling on a potential brunch with them and some other former students for brunch at Fujimamas on the 30th.

SR then entered and we started talking on singledom vs. marriage thanks to some of the material I provided her. We also wondered how the rest of the alumni from her year were doing. It was quite the school reunion today at the Tea Room since lo and behold Movie Buddy dropped in for a few minutes. He also gave his promise to show up for TROY on Sunday.

I used that postcard I got from my kaiten sushi place the other day for dinner there tonight. Not too bad. I was able to get a free plate of BBQ eel sushi.

Gotta get started on my kids' lessons for tomorrow. Right now, the regular edition of MUSIC STATION is on TV Asahi. I hardly ever catch it since I'm out most Fridays with Arwen and occasionally 77 but since I've got an early night off, I have it on for old times' sake. The usual hitmakers like Glay and Morning Musume are on. I can't say that I give it the same devotion that I used to since my interest in J-Pop has waned over the years.

It looks like I got swamped with school classes next week. Tuesday should be especially exhausting since I'll be teaching 8.5 hours worth. Ack...at least I'll be getting money for my troubles and I've got that trip to Hokkaido the week after. Plus, I've pretty much equaled the average monthly expenditure for miscellaneous items thanks to the payment for the trip so the extra money will be welcome.

Friday May 21, 7:23 a.m.

T2 has arrived. I'm hearing spates of heavy rain and howling winds out there. I already received a midnight message from The Teacher after she got my e-mail; it looks like she'll be a scratch today. Can't say that I blame her. However, the other two students should be OK since the afternoon bodes well for the sun.

Thursday May 20, 11:00 p.m.

Well, Typhoon No. 2 is coming on into the Kanto with the closest approach slated for 9 a.m. tomorrow. However, once it passes, the afternoon should be nice and sunny. My only concern is for the first lesson with the Teacher, so I sent off a message to her. I'll probably be taking down the clothes poles lest they get blown away overnight.

It looks like another storm of sorts has been slowly simmering over the months at my old school. I had a chat with the DJ this afternoon while I was just knocking back time in the lounge. With the decrease in classes and some danger of retaining some of the company clients, the DJ has told me that there has been some rumbling between the top two idiots. Neither of us are surprised at the current events; this has been coming for years now. The DJ is the longest-serving SANE teacher at the school. Our most veteran teacher seems to be slowly stretching apart at the seams. We both wonder why he continues to remain as the staff's whipping boy. I kinda liken it to a wife who continues to remain with an abusive husband.

My class with the oft-absent student tonight went pretty well. However, his next class will be with the other only foreign teacher in about 10 days since he has to make up a lot of missed classes and I'm not available on Saturdays. I hope everything is OK; I've only met her once and she's very nice but she's also very no-nonsense. My student comes off a bit Gomer Pyle-ish at times.

My juku boss also informed me that that rather argumentative student who's part of that trio I teach in my middle class on Tuesdays is coming back in June. She has apologized for missing out on the last few classes, but my juku boss, in one of her very few instances of frustration, could only shake her head. She told me that in the past three years that the student's been with the juku, none of the other teachers had really liked her because of her somewhat dour demeanor. She does have that side to her but she also has shown a lighter side as well. I can also understand some of her frustration at having to wait for her two lower classmates to catch up but she could use a bit more patience.

The Prez actually CC'ed a message to me which was targeted for the Anime Master. He wanted to find out how to get to the Iconoclast's wedding party on Monday. Hey, that was my assignment. I don't think the Prez would be that smarmy to actually give me a shot across the bow to get me to hurry up on that answer, so I'm assuming that he was just trying to milk all the udders, so to speak. In any case, the timing couldn't have been better since the Iconoclast did reply. He said he would pick the Prez up whenever and wherever he arrived in Hong Kong. I just hope my reply reaches the Prez in time.

In any case, I've got to fill out that report on my student. Then, I have to take a quick look at tomorrow's lessons before hopping into a shower and then bedtime.

Thursday May 20, 8:34 a.m.

Looks like that steady rain is a mere prelude to the second typhoon of the season which will sideswipe the islands in the next couple of days. The last couple of years, we've been getting our dose of heavy rain and winds a lot earlier, and Tokyo seems to have inherited Typhoon Alley from Okinawa. Well, Typhoon No. 2 (they number their storms here instead of giving names) is expected to hit us sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'm just kinda wondering how this will affect my classes for Friday since Fridays are usually among my busiest days. I'll be smack dab in the middle of work when this storm hits. I may face some cancellations.

Well, at this point, I've got The Madame, Skippy and her buddies, and the Scarecrow coming for TROY on Sunday. Strangely, I haven't heard anything from Movie Buddy for a couple of weeks. Not even one of his terse e-mail messages. Curry Master spoke of a possible falling-out between him and her last week, but I'm not sure how that would influence this situation.

I was going through my Japan travel book last night. It is pretty comprehensive. It even included who the hot singers and TV personalities are. Good heavens...even Morning Musume was mentioned, but admittedly, they've become a permanent fixture in local pop culture. Yet another spinoff group has been spawned from the main tribe of pre-pubescent and post-pubescent girls. Two of the most popular members, the twins-who-are-not-twins, Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji, have flown from the nest to become W. The entire MM phenomenon is the J-Pop equivalent of the X-Men comic book franchise, although I think W is most akin to the Wonder Twins.

The last couple of days, there had been a case of a Yakuza gangster holed up in an apartment with a hostage keeping police at bay. Apparently, the mobster had done the same sort of thing before several years ago. Well, this time was his swan song. The hostage apparently committed suicide and the Yakuza is dead after police finally stormed the apartment. Not a happy ending but at least a piece of scum is out of the way.

Wednesday May 19, 9:22 p.m.

The Stylist was in a bit of a strange mood today. I'm not sure if she had been ticked off at me or not, but a couple of times during the lesson we were discussing about the fact that she didn't like me waiting for her at the salon. I said that I didn't mind doing so since I could always rely on my crosswords or magazines to keep me company. I also asked if I were cramping her style by having her clean up quickly while I waited inside. She stated that that wasn't the case; it's just that she felt a bit pressured as if I were one of HER customers waiting for her. Whatever...then she acted with some surprise and a bit of dismay when she found out that I would be paying 35800 yen for my trip to Hokkaido. On both topics, she seemed to dwell a lot. I'm not sure if she had been trying to get back at me with the second topic for the first topic. On top of that,I was playing a bit of Counselor Troi with her Spring Lethargy. Maybe menopause is coming a bit early for her. In any case, I got a bit stricter with her about her English which got her structure back up.

Rather happy to get out of the salon, I went off for lunch at the nearby Chinese place before getting over to Towers. I was able to get that new book on Japan for my Hokkaido trip. I did make a few more purchases which will probably mean that I'll be breaking the bank this week for miscellaneous stuff.

The rain is coming down pretty steadily tonight. A bit of a pain while carrying two bags plus a bag of groceries and an umbrella. However, I am reminded that there is a summer coming and we need to save up as much water for that.

I got a postcard from that kaiten sushi restaurant under my station. It looks like they're having some sort of "thank-you" campaign. When I show up with the postcard, I'll get a complementary plate of sushi. Time to get that eel!

I finally got those times for TROY by calling up the theater. I don't know why they were being so secretive about it. Anyways, I got the word out to the rest of the bunch. So far, it'll be a party of five.

Tuesday May 18, 10:15 p.m.

Another long day comes to a close. I taught the fourth and final class of the school today; good crew..a mix of quiet and chatty students. Then I had my juku folks. The boss actually did remember the fact that I'm heading out to Hokkaido. The mock phone interview with the first student was OK; I could only ask general questions since I have no idea about auditing. It looks like that trio of students that I usually have in the middle is now permanently down to a duo. That one student who had always complained about when we would finally get to her level of text finally gave up the ghost apparently. The boss and I agreed that it was good that she had left since she could now go somewhere she would be properly taken care of and I wouldn't have to worry about trying to balance an unbalanced class.

I've just got my two students tomorrow, The Stylist and the Office Lady. It'll be kinda nice to have that type of Wednesday again before I got my posting back at the school. Not that the scheduler hasn't tried to get me back for more classes. Looks like they've been kinda tight on teachers recently.

Monday May 17, 10:08 p.m.

A pretty full day with three classes, two of which I haven't had in about a month. Unsurprisingly, my Monday morning ladies ended up just gabbing with me for the entire 90-minute session which is something that they tend to do after a long absence. One of the ladies kindly lent me a cookbook by that American fave Japanese chef and toast of New York, Nobu. Taking a quick look at it, I found that the recipes are quite easy to read and of course, the pictures look suitably appetizing, but I'm still not sure if I can get some of the more exotic ingredients.

During my break between classes, I went out to Towers only to find that it was taking a rare day off. I tried HMV to see if they had a book on Hokkaido but it's not nearly as comprehensive as Towers, so I just made a quick beeline back to the McDonalds closest to the lady's house for lunch.

My second class went pretty well. The student was still full of beans in spite of or because of the absence. I found out that I will indeed be having the ladies next week instead of having Monday morning off which means that my expected lunch with Automan next week is now off, so I've sent off a missive to him to see if we can reschedule. His time is rather limited so things are pretty iffy right now. It would be a pity if cannot meet him.

My final class today at the Iconoclast's company was back to slogsville in contrast to the pepped-up one last week. I'm not sure what they put into the water today. The Prez showed me an invitation to the Iconoclast's wedding reception in Hong Kong next Monday. He would like to go except that the Iconoclast failed to give directions. Also, the data that he gave me to give to the staff to access his old computer didn't work. If he's trying to drive his old mates up a wall, he's doing a pretty good job.

It was definitely an early summer day today. Pretty warm and muggy in my shirt. It didn't feel like an August day though thankfully since the night has cooled down. We don't even get that luxury in the dog days.

I got a couple of calls in terms of work. The juku boss called me up to see if I can start teaching my regular final student at 6 p.m instead of his usual 9 slot so that he can practice his telephone interview. Hey, anything to get home a bit earlier. Then, the scheduler at the school called me to see if I can teach on Wednesday. I gave her a straight NO via e-mail since I've got the Stylist on Wednesday morning. There's no way I would even want to attempt to get back there in time.

I got some more mail from The Persian. He wanted to know how his old flame was doing. She actually lives not too far from me but we've had a parting of the ways several years ago, partially due to temporal drift and partially (possibly) due to her husband who may not be too fond of me. I wasn't too impressed with him when I met him initially and somehow a message hinting at my feelings got over to the flame's mail server. It was supposed to have just gone to someone else completely but the CC must have been feeling pretty ornery that day. In any case, she responded back with a seemingly innocent response asking for clarification. I did some hemming and hawing but the damage was done. For some reason, until recently, she still kept inviting me to her annual glee club concert for a number of years but that was it. No other communication. Well, I'm not much for keeping that sort of relationship, so I just stopped replying. It's a pity...she was one of the core members of the gang back in the early 90s in Toronto.

I've been trying to find out what time our favorite theater will be playing TROY this Sunday but those guys refuse to put anything up on the screen. Speaking of the movie, Brad Pitt dropped by Tokyo this past weekend to a throng of 1000 squealing fans and clicking cellphone cameras.

This stupid pension scandal is claiming more politicians. Of course, it would be happening during the annual announcements of celeb taxpayers. In the singer category, one half of the rock duo, B'z, got the top spot while in the TV personality category, (annoying) announcer and host of the Japanese version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Mino Monta, was number one. He's even more annoying than Regis.

Sunday May 16, 10:43 p.m.

Well, I got the place all fixed up this morning for the arrival of the Persian's friend all the way out from Tokorozawa, Saitama. She even brought her sister with her. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of her on the phone since she seemed to always be giggling. However, after an afternoon with them at the apartment, the sisters turned out to be really nice folk. We looked over some old photos of the Persian when he used to be the master here. The friend remarked that the Persian has gotten somewhat bigger in the decade hence.

We stopped by at the neighbourhood ramen shop with the Mao pictures and the Anne Murray music for dinner before they had to take off for Tsudanuma for another bunch of friends. Hopefully, we can see each other one more time before she has to take off for Taiwan again. Her sister apparently will be staying in Japan for another several months, so perhaps we can keep in touch periodically. I'm considering whether to introduce her to Party Hearty's BBQ.

Well, back to work again as of tomorrow. I've gotta pick up a guide book for Hokkaido during my break between classes.

Saturday May 15, 9:14 p.m.

Pretty much a run-of-the-mill day. My three kids were their normal selves although the mother of the first two was on a rampage today, but not with either kid but the family dog.

Quiet evening for me. No calls from anyone and since Chip Guy is no longer around and Movie Buddy seems to have made himself scarce, I don't think I'll be getting many social calls. However, I do have Automan's arrival next week and then the semi-regular movie outing for TROY on the 23rd.

Speaking of Automan, I'm pretty glad that I let Party Hearty in on the act. She's already gotten some sort of wingding for him on the 25th. However, I'll be at work that night.

I just gotta get some ironing done and then I have to get the place cleaned up for that visit tomorrow from the Persian's friend. I'm still wondering about her coming here.

Friday May 14, 11:41 p.m.

Back to my privates today. It was pretty much the same ol' same ol' which suited me just fine after the newness of the new classes at the school. On the way to the Tea Room, I stopped in at Towers and picked up a retrospective on PEANUTS, Charles "Sparky" Schulz's opus. I guess that trip down memory lane with Vince Guaraldi got me looking at some of my old strips with Charlie Brown and the gang.

After our lesson, Arwen, 77 and I headed just up the street instead of heading over to Shinjuku. We had dinner at an Indian place called Ajanta. For a Friday, it wasn't all that busy but then again the area isn't exactly an entertainment hub. Believe me, on a night when one would be lucky to even get a table within an hour, I wasn't complaining. I ended up getting a Thali Platter for a somewhat heftily priced 4200 yen. Once again, I ordered something that was too much for me...an extra piece of garlic naan that I ended up not finishing, even with two helpful ladies at my side.

It looks like the school still wants me to help out, so I've got another couple of classes next week. No problems there.

Well, I've got hit the hay pretty soon since I have to still plan for my kids tomorrow. I really don't have the gumption to do so right now. Plus, I need to take a shower to get that garlic out again.

Thursday May 13, 10:08 p.m.

My class with the so-called lowest class at the school was pretty uneven. I had to dodge a bullet when my exercises were just a little too easy for the kids. However, I managed to bat .500 Of course, though, I was kicking myself all the way to the Curry Master's place.

Well, at least, I've got my regular Friday folks tomorrow. I believe that Arwen, 77 and I will be heading out for dinner after the lesson.

Since I'm a bit low on news today, I guess I'll take this time to talk more about my music. My interest in jazz is getting further cultivated. I've always centered my interest around the pianists. Bill Evans is still my favorite but I also have a soft spot for Vince Gurualdi. Who he, you ask? Well, he's probably most famous for his contributions to the early Charlie Brown specials, notably the classic Christmas special. In fact, I'd say that it wouldn't be a Charlie Brown special without his delicate touch.This probably explains why I've never really gotten into the later, more banal outings by the Peanuts gang. With all due respect to Charles Schulz, the televised history of Charlie Brown will probably be restricted to the ten years in the 60s and 70s for me. I can equate this with the Japanese tendency only to view Audrey Hepburn in her 50s period up to "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Thursday May 13, 7:34 a.m.

My second class this week at the school was more of a triple than the homer of the first class. There was a hint of slog by the end of the class. I've got one more there today; it's the lowest level one so I'm gonna have to plan it in more detail. Some of my old compadres, such as DJ and DTE, were surprised to see me come in from the cold.

Afterwards, I went to my regular Wednesday night venue at the Starbucks to get a coffee and crossword before The Office Lady came in. I was just falling asleep despite the influx of caffeine. So I had to step out and guzzle down a Coke as an added boost. The lesson came off quite well, but I did hit the hay relatively early.

Automan has given me more detail on his upcoming itinerary and asked me to get in touch with some of the old gang here. I'm not sure if I can see him as much but perhaps some of the others can.

My contact at Japan Tours has gotten everything booked and confirmed for my trip to Hokkaido. Once the written info gets in, I'll let the necessary people know.

Wednesday May 12, 12:29 a.m.

My first real busy day lived up to expectations. It tuckered me out by the end but I think I had a pretty good time with everyone. My first class with my school's in-house program for the first time in almost 3 months went quite well. The new students were spearheading the talking which was quite unusual. I was a bit surprised by the arrival of the Jazz Buddy since she was to have graduated back in February. But she had some makeup classes to finish. She was also quite surprised to see me there.

My night classes were OK although my first class was a bit of a slog. Also, my juku owner has a memory like a torn sieve. After I've told her more than twice that I could only teach the Thursday guy on the 20th, she was still asking what my schedule was like for him on the other days in May. But my annoyance is tempered by the fact that she has a very kind heart and she rescued me from catching pneumonia on that horrible day 2 weeks ago.

It's past midnight and I still have to write up the reports for the students and prep for the lesson with The Office Lady later tonight. Plus, I've got to take a shower. When I wake up, I have to dub a tape for The Systems Engineer in time for his lesson on Thursday. It doesn't rain but it pours...

It didn't help that my computer once again had trouble connecting me with my e-mail and the blog. I checked it for viruses to no avail. But then I tried out the Ad-Aware program and found that one of the cookies was responsible for screwing me over. Once I deleted that, I was back in business.

Monday May 10, 11:03 p.m.

Woof! New BLOGGER...nice place you got here.

I went off to see Old Sam and his wife at the Day Nice Hotel in Kiba (the hotel so nice they named it "Nice"?). For some reason, there was some sort of delay on the line so my train was packed to rush-hour capacity. And it was just my luck that I got off on the wrong end of the platform. By the time I reached the escalator, the other train came by and it was pretty empty. I was ready to kick the thing in its aluminum.

It was 250 m of walking in rainy, humid weather before I reached Day Nice. It was a small but quaint hotel. There was only one woman sitting in the lobby when I decided to call up Sam's cell phone to let him know that I had arrived. I got his wife, who told me that she was already in the lobby. It turned out to be that woman sitting on the couch. After making our introductions, we conducted a conversation totally in Japanese for about half an hour while we waited for Old Sam. Apparently, he got lost in the mess known as Shinjuku.

I've known Old Sam for years since we were kids in Japanese Language School. He was a bit of a rabblerouser in those days although he has since mellowed considerably, but I was rather interested in what his wife was like. She's very calm and patient...perfect for him. In a way, she reminded me of Chip Guy's wife.

Old Sam finally showed up. It was just as well that he got to the hotel at 1:30 since we were also to wait for one other fellow. Fuji's a bit of my antithesis in terms of geography. Whilst I've been here for a decade, he had been living in Montreal and Toronto for 10 years. Very outgoing sort. When he got there, we took a walk up to the neighbourhood family restaurant, Jonathans, for a bit of lunch. Old Sam updated us on what was what in Toronto. It looks like Motormouth Mel is finally out; T.O. has got some sort of beefcake as the new Mayor.

Fuji had to take off a half-hour before we did because of an impending job interview but we did the exchange of phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Then we headed back to the hotel so that Sam and the missus could pick up their voluminous luggage. It was a bit of a climb down to the Kiba platform. I was worried that we would have to face the idiocy of my trip to the hotel, but the train was somewhat more spacious. Old Sam marveled at how I could stand living here for so many years; I guess I should pat myself on the back for my stamina. Anyways, the pair got off the train at Otemachi to head for Tokyo Station and then I just went straight ahead to my job at the company.

The class tonight went quite well. Even my lowest student was on all thrusters today although his fluency is still not all that high. And we even got into some sidetracking in Japanese about the wonders of Kiefer's opus, 24. The Iconoclast left a big box of stuff for me to take home. I decided to go on the instalment plan and take things home piecemeal. Once again after class, the Prez invited me out for dinner. This time the theme was yakiniku, otherwise known as Korean BBQ.

We took another taxi up to the Shin-Okubo area. This is the second time this year that I've been up there...the second of only two times that I've been up there in my decade in Tokyo. I've come to the conclusion that I was a bit too harsh in my assessment of the area as a den of iniquity. The main street at least comes off more as Dundas St. in downtown Chinatown. The place that the Prez took me to was called KOSHUEN, a very pricy and good BBQ place run by Koreans. According to the menu, the place has had some good exposure through the media. I could understand why...the food and service were excellent. The waitress brought the beer lickety-split and she even helped out cut up and cook the kalbi ribs. The Prez ordered a plate full of different cuts of beef which we proceeded to cook up and then wrap in individual leaves of lettuce with Korean miso and marinated onions. It couldn't be beat. However, I may have overindulged a bit by having him order a bibimbap, that concoction of rice, raw egg and many other ingredients all mixed up. With everything else, I was close to bursting. And since I had a bit of a headache, I was worried that I was going to end up laying some street pizza outside so I quickly reached for the Tylenol. But there wasn't anything to worry about.

The end result of going to Korean BBQ is that everyone on the train knows where one has been. My entire body was permeated with the smell of garlic, sauce and cooking beef. But I didn't care and neither should they. I got on the train and ended up sleeping off my headache for the 35-minute trip home. When my internal alarm clock alerted me one station before mine, I was feeling pretty refreshed inside with no more headache although I still smelled like dinner. Today was a truly rare day in that I didn't have to put anything down on my Excel expenditures under the Food category. Old Sam treated me at Jonathans and the Prez, of course, paid for my dinner. I did my token attempt at resisting his treat just to be polite, but I knew what the result would be. The bill was fairly hefty, too. 12,000 yen for two. Koshuen was a great place for dinner but if I were to take any of the students there, I would need a fairly sizable group.

I got home and immediately took a hot shower to sweat out that garlic oil. While I was doing my e-mail, I received a call from the Persian's friend. I had thought that she lost interest in contacting me after a few weeks went by. But she called up so she'll be coming over to my neck of the woods to see where the Persian used to live. Another incentive for me to clean up.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, the first truly busy day in several weeks. I've got my regular Tueday morning class, then I've got my class back at the school. It's been 2 months since I've taught a class there. And finally, I've got my juku classes in the evening.

Sunday May 9, 8:49 p.m.

I was doing some of that prep work for the Curry Master. It involved me taking an article from The Daily Yomiuri and then clipping out key words for her as vocabulary to re-insert in the blank spots. The article I chose was on the gentrification of ramen, as it were, which reminded me of something that the Engineer and I saw at Shiodome last Monday.

There was a humoungus lineup at the NTV Plaza. That lineup led to a ramen store apparently manned by Japan's best ramen cook. I say apparently since when it comes to cuisine, I don't believe that the term "best" can be conceptualized in such a highly subjective field. One man's pate is another one's rotten liver. But I digress. Anyways, there was that huge lineup for this shop. Chip Guy once saw a similar situation at a very cheap kaiten sushi place in Shibuya. He just thought it and the people there ludicrous. He felt that noone should have to be that eager for food.

I would agree but the Japanese have that in-built sense of "gaman" or endurance. Also, the cooks of the various types of Japanese cuisine take their craft very seriously. For one thing, a lot of the restaurants serving Japanese cuisine only focus on one particular dish, whether it be tempura, sushi or sashimi. Why be a jack of all trades and a master of none when one could be a master of one? Perhaps back in the West, that joke of the fly in the soup is one of those recognizable foibles of restaurants but a restauranteur here would probably end up cutting his own belly at any hint of that in his place. So when a certain cook is given his due at being the best at something, that perks up a lot of ears and eyes which probably explains the lineups. However, since I don't have nearly that much patience just to wait for food and since I'm not a fussy eater, you'll never catch me doing that.

Now on a totally different topic, with all of my CDs stuffed into my shelving. it's pretty rare now for me to give a lot of repeat listenings to stuff. However, one of the few discs that I would be very willing to hear over and over again is THE NIGHTFLY by Donald Fagen. The DJ lent me his copy of it a few years back and I'd heard the first track, I.G.Y., often enough on radio in my youth. Not having heard it in several years, my ears were reminded of it when I.G.Y. was used as the commercial jingle for the Japanese ad for the IBM Thinkpad. Listening to the entire album was also quite a revelation. I realized that I'd always been more of a mellow sort when it came to music, so AOR was more my style. Well, The Nightfly is definitely an archetype of that genre. Not so gooey like some other AOR entries to make it unpalatable, the album still has that bit of variety swinging from the light reggae and optimism of that first track to jazz to latin to funk. And the album is not too long at 38 minutes, so I can listen to it in my futon before turning off the lights.

Sunday May 9, 5:03 p.m.

Came back after another huge brunch at Fujimamas with The Office Lady and Boop. As I suspected, the biscuits and gravy weren't the hit of the Plate. However, I think the ladies enjoyed the meal and the ambiance enough to warrant a future visit. All of us were pretty stuffed but we stopped by La Maison Du Chocolat on the main Omotesando strip. My Monday morning student introduced me to some delicious macaroons which came from there one lesson, so I decided to splurge the 2000 yen for 8 of them. The ladies liked them, but they only had room in their bellies for one each.

After a bit of walking around the Omotesando area for a few minutes and showing them some other potential future venues for food such as the Ku'Aina hamburger joint and the Comma Ca Cafe, we decided to take a respite at the Canadian version of Starbucks, BLENZ, just down from Kinokuniya Supermarket. Well, what was once the supermarket is now a huge hole in the ground since it's undergoing some major renovations. We gabbed there for well over 90 minutes about, among other things, the dishonesty of the school staff (what else is new?). Finally, we just walked down Omotesando again where we made our farewells at the crowded Harajuku Station. Sundays are usually packed there with all of the costumed teens milling about on Takeshita Avenue.

After getting back to my station, I decided I needed more walking to fully digest the meal so I went to the local Yamada electronics shop where I picked up a tape head cleaner. Yes, I gather that I'm probably the only one left in the country who would need such a thing in these days of DVDs, MDs and even the increasingly prehistoric CDs. But I'm still very much dealing with audio tapes. I was kinda thinking of investing in a cheap tape recorder but I figured that since I'll be heading for the school this week, I'll probably borrow one of the master tapes for the text over there and dub it onto another tape.

I got back home to find out that the Movie Buddy seems to have recovered fully from his cold to invite me out for something somewhere but since I am indeed home, I don't think I'll be taking him up on his offer. I've still not emptied out my stomach since the events of over 6 hours ago but I did buy a bit of dinner for later tonight. I'll probably be prepping for tomorrow's class and think about doing some work for the Curry Master's lesson on Thursday.