Friday July 9, 8:40 a.m.

Another ridiculously torrid day coming up, but at least the forecasters say that this should be the last day of the really hot temps. From tomorrow, we should just merely be hot. A lot of the concrete in the Kanto was buckling because of the heat; considering that Tokyo is the largest concrete jungle in the world, that should raise some cause for concern.

My lesson with the Jazz Buddy wasn't too satisfying for me...and perhaps not for her although she did say that she enjoyed it. She's a bit of the more emotionally unreactive type so I couldn't be sure how she felt about the lesson. I tried going for the "simple is best" approach concerning her telephone practice but she wasn't biting. "Simple is best" is only best when the student is pretty avid; she doesn't fit that description. Well, I'll have to find some concrete material for next time.

At least, I've got my two solid students today. In between classes, I'll be checking out Odaiba Mediage to see if I can pick up a couple of tickets for Spidey 2 on Sunday. The Ballerina sent in her regrets about not coming out on Sunday; no surprise there. But Arwen has virtually disappeared from the ether. I guess her job is really getting her.

Sounds like there's some sort of Cameron Diaz S&M video out on the Net. Non-news to me...

Well, happily my Internet "diet" has reaped a small dividend. My phone bill was 1000 yen less than that of last month. However, I think my time in Hokkaido helped a bit there.

Thursday July 8, 7:38 a.m.

Well, I put on my electric fan all night in my bedroom. It made a world of difference for my sleeping comfort. Still, I've woken up to a 26-degree C morning. I sent off word to the Jazz Buddy that I'll meet her INSIDE the cafe. No use melting outside. In another development, I've shut all the energy to my audio-visual systems since my satellite tuner is acting like an oven. I'll have to be careful about how I use that if I don't want to have any unnecessary fireworks in my apartment.

I sent off a courtesy call to Chip Guy back in Toronto just to see how he's doing. I also got mail from The Entrepreneur; he gave a rave review to Spidey 2. Definitely looking forward to that...if I can score the tickets.

Wednesday July 7, 11:05 p.m.

35 stinkin' degrees today! And much the same for tomorrow. I'm gonna need the deodorant in mass quantities. NHK's telling people to get the hats and loose clothing on. I get to go casual. The latest issue of METROPOLIS also talked of the mechanics of sweating in a humid atmosphere. Now, at least I know how I'm dying.

Well, I got to meet the newest student, the Biologist. I took her to the Tea Room. She's pretty quiet and reserved but amiable enough. She told me right off the bat what she wanted to do which is to assess her weekly presentations in terms of grammar, vocabulary and overall structure. Can do. The rest of the time was just spent getting to know each other. Some awkwardness but her English is pretty good. She's definitely not one to pussyfoot around, though. I'm not quite sure how she felt about our meeting but the fact that she faxed a whole sheaf of pages over to me probably means that I've passed muster for now.

Afterwards, I checked the school. Sure enough, the kids put up their wishes for Tanabata as did I. I also checked with the coordinator about this thing concerning Halloween. She assured me that the rumours were just rumours and the show will go on come late October.

Then, I did a pit stop at Maruzen to check out for some possible material for the Jazz Buddy and SR. Nothing there but I picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. Next, I made it to Starbucks where I hauled my ragged carcass and imbibed two drinks and a cinnamon roll to recuperate from the heat. The Office Lady did her class and I was off for home.

Looks like things shaped up for Sunday. I finally got replies from Movie Buddy and Skippy. We may have about 7 people for steak, excluding Arwen and the Ballerina who are still straddling the fence. MB's also asking about Spidey 2. I suggested the Mediage Cineplex in Odaiba.

Well, blast from the past. The top news on NHK tonight was the arrest of three Aum Shinrikyo followers for the attempted murder of a Tokyo police commissioner nine years ago just a few days after the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subways. I remember that story very well. I'd just barely been in the country for 6 months.

I really am holding off heading for bed since I'm enjoying air-conditioned comfort only in my living room. I will most definitely be activating my electric fan for the bedroom. I'm not quite sure how the lesson for Jazz Buddy will turn out tomorrow. I won't be doing it outside, that's for sure.

Wednesday July 7, 8:52 a.m.

Barely 9 a.m., and it's already hot as all Hades. I think I lost a litre of sweat just putting up the laundry. The laundry should be dry as a bone within an hour.

The Wild Guy contacted me. Looks like he had one of those alcoholic binges this past weekend. Ended up channeling the climax from The Exorcist. Reminded me of some of my ill-advised benders. One was due to foolishly ingesting 4 Screwdrivers in 2 hours in four different bars one December night in the mid-80s. By our fifth stop, an all-night Chinese diner, I think I was seeing things in 13 different dimensions. By the time Automan was driving me home, I was feeling the Dimension of Pain. It was just by the skin of my teeth (which I probably did develop through the hangover) that I didn't manage to erupt my own version of lava all over the interior of his car. I staggered home and slithered into bed, and didn't bother to wake up until mid-afternoon. Mom wasn't too pleased.

Well, I've yet to hear anything from the folks about Sunday. If I don't hear anything by tonight, I'm gonna assume that it'll be basically a teachers' outing.

I see that John Kerry finally announced his running mate in what had to have been the most overrated secret this election year. One joke that will never see the light of day at the Democratic Convention: imagine if Kerry and Edwards get into the White House and imagine if a Clinton-like scandal erupts there. The intern/tart can just tell her buddies that she saw a couple of Johns. (rimshot!)

Tuesday July 6, 11:32 p.m.

Gahhh...I hate Tokyo summers. I feel like I've been dunked in a thin film of Vaseline...or at least I felt like it before my shower of desperation. That, and the fact that I've got my air conditioner on right now is making me feel much drier. It was another scorcher out there. Still, I've gotta face my bedroom which feels like a sauna and smells like a gym changeroom. I'm gonna have to replenish my stock of Lysol. Plus, I'm suffering from some prickly heat. I'm getting rashes on my lower legs where my socks would be. I don't recall griping so much about the heat this time last year. At least, I can be sure that the rice crop this year will be excellent.

My 8.5-hour day of teaching went off without a hitch. On the way from Tsudanuma to the school, though, there was a crazy old lady screaming epithets about how stupid Tokyo is. Hmmm...and I thought that sort was pretty much just a New York phenomenon. Anyways, she just lasted a few stations before she either got off or was dragged off by station personnel; I'm not sure which but I'm glad that she got off.

My four hours at the school went by smoothly thanks to the Dancing Bear act. Especially in my latter two hours with a reading class, there was one cute little student who was just collapsing into a pile of tears and giggles. Nice to be appreciated. However, I may have heard something disturbing about one of my prize events. I'd heard rumours that the annual Halloween party may be shelved. I have a feeling it may be because that there isn't enough of a budget available this year for it to be held. Well, that I can resolve...I'd be willing to foot the bill completely for that, but the show will go on. However, I'm first waiting for confirmation from the coordinator before I offer anything.

Between classes, the Ballerina made a surprise visit. Well, I shouldn't say surprise anymore since I think she'll be making a regular habit of dropping by the school during her brief furloughs in Tokyo. She was giving some advice to a current student about the wonderful world of stewardessing. When she does finish her term of duty in about 3 years, she'll probably make an excellent counselor for the in-house programme.

My juku classes had no problems per se. The air conditioner in my room, though, was working far more powerfully than the one in my apartment. All of my students initially welcomed the blast of the Arctic but by the end of their lessons, they were quite grateful for the heat wave that awaited them when they left the room. Being the Canadian, I was quite happy to stay in my little enclave of frigidity. But I did have to get home and here I am.

This week, there's been a dearth of useful e-mail for me that's frankly galling me. I haven't heard much about the upcoming Outback outing although I realize people like Arwen and Skippy have been busy of late. Well, in any case, I did get a confirmation from DTE at the school that she'll be coming out on Sunday. In any case, I took a more proactive role by sending out assignments to SR and then giving some info to that new student I'll be meeting tomorrow for her first lesson.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's supposed to be Tanabata Day or the Star Festival. Every July 7th, the festival of star-crossed lovers is celebrated. However, the only place that really takes it seriously is the northern city of Sendai. But over here in Tokyo, we recognize it by writing our wishes on pieces of paper and then tying them to the branches of a bamboo tree. The classes at the school will be doing that as well but I'll have to miss a good part of it because of that meeting with that new person. It may be a blessing in disguise, though, since I've heard that the coordinator may be forcing the kids to sing "When You Wish Upon A Star". I'll gladly avoid that. Besides, I need to make another stop at Maruzen to look for some possible materials to help SR with her Eiken Test.

I've yet to hear from either one of those prospective students concerning lessons. Perhaps my time limitations have scared them off. I'm not complaining too much here.

Tuesday July 6, 11:32 p.m.

Gahhh...I hate Tokyo summers. I feel like I've been dunked in a thin film of Vaseline...or at least I felt like it before my shower of desperation. That, and the fact that I've got my air conditioner on right now is making me feel much drier. It was another scorcher out there. Still, I've gotta face my bedroom which feels like a sauna and smells like a gym changeroom. I'm gonna have to replenish my stock of Lysol. Plus, I'm suffering from some prickly heat. I'm getting rashes on my lower legs where my socks would be. I don't recall griping so much about the heat this time last year. At least, I can be sure that the rice crop this year will be excellent.

My 8.5-hour day of teaching went off without a hitch. On the way from Tsudanuma to the school, though, there was a crazy old lady screaming epithets about how stupid Tokyo is. Hmmm...and I thought that sort was pretty much just a New York phenomenon. Anyways, she just lasted a few stations before she either got off or was dragged off by station personnel; I'm not sure which but I'm glad that she got off.

My four hours at the school went by smoothly thanks to the Dancing Bear act. Especially in my latter two hours with a reading class, there was one cute little student who was just collapsing into a pile of tears and giggles. Nice to be appreciated. However, I may have heard something disturbing about one of my prize events. I'd heard rumours that the annual Halloween party may be shelved. I have a feeling it may be because that there isn't enough of a budget available this year for it to be held. Well, that I can resolve...I'd be willing to foot the bill completely for that, but the show will go on. However, I'm first waiting for confirmation from the coordinator before I offer anything.

Between classes, the Ballerina made a surprise visit. Well, I shouldn't say surprise anymore since I think she'll be making a regular habit of dropping by the school during her brief furloughs in Tokyo. She was giving some advice to a current student about the wonderful world of stewardessing. When she does finish her term of duty in about 3 years, she'll probably make an excellent counselor for the in-house programme.

My juku classes had no problems per se. The air conditioner in my room, though, was working far more powerfully than the one in my apartment. All of my students initially welcomed the blast of the Arctic but by the end of their lessons, they were quite grateful for the heat wave that awaited them when they left the room. Being the Canadian, I was quite happy to stay in my little enclave of frigidity. But I did have to get home and here I am.

This week, there's been a dearth of useful e-mail for me that's frankly galling me. I haven't heard much about the upcoming Outback outing although I realize people like Arwen and Skippy have been busy of late. Well, in any case, I did get a confirmation from DTE at the school that she'll be coming out on Sunday. In any case, I took a more proactive role by sending out assignments to SR and then giving some info to that new student I'll be meeting tomorrow for her first lesson.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's supposed to be Tanabata Day or the Star Festival. Every July 7th, the festival of star-crossed lovers is celebrated. However, the only place that really takes it seriously is the northern city of Sendai. But over here in Tokyo, we recognize it by writing our wishes on pieces of paper and then tying them to the branches of a bamboo tree. The classes at the school will be doing that as well but I'll have to miss a good part of it because of that meeting with that new person. It may be a blessing in disguise, though, since I've heard that the coordinator may be forcing the kids to sing "When You Wish Upon A Star". I'll gladly avoid that. Besides, I need to make another stop at Maruzen to look for some possible materials to help SR with her Eiken Test.

I've yet to hear from either one of those prospective students concerning lessons. Perhaps my time limitations have scared them off. I'm not complaining too much here.

Tuesday July 6, 7:33 a.m.

Got squalled earlier this morning...as in 4:15 this morning. I had to do a quick but groggy pull-in of some of the clothing on the line. I managed to save most of them. I think I'll be doing a lot of sleeping on the Sobu Line today.

Over in the States, the presidential campaign has been front and centre in the media with production values approaching that of a pretty big movie. Over here, with the Upper House elections on the 11th, it's just been the usual suspects with their white gloves in their megaphone vans. That, and the daily NHK offerings of air time to candidates.

Monday July 5, 9:34 p.m.

Well, I hope that this entry gets through. It doesn't really matter that much anyways. I don't write this blog especially to have people read it; it's just something for me to exercise my writing muscles and get my ya-yas out.

Just when I thought I was facing another quiet summer, I've got people asking me about my availability. I've already had to turn someone who was recommended to me by the mother of those two Saturday kids because I'm simply not available on Wednesday nights. I gave one fellow whom I met briefly at the Maple Leaf a few weeks back a bit of hope with that lone space evacuated by The Salaryman. He does work out all the way in Ikebukuro; I don't want to have to end up doing that retrospectively ridiculous late-night gig again like I did last year so I put in the limitation that I work until 9 p.m.

This Wednesday afternoon, I meet up with Party Hearty's friend's daughter for her first meeting with me. I know that it'll be a temp gig since she'll be heading back to university outside the country.

Looks like the Ballerina is back in town. She left a message on the machine. She sounds a whole lot more mature. I guess that high-flying life has made an impact on her. Otherwise, the rest of my day was a lesson-less day...quite a rare phenomenon these days, although I know that the 11th will be class-free. I just used the time to make up another one of my compilation tapes. Yes, I know...I still use primitive audio tapes. And they are getting more difficult to find. I may be forced into CD burning by the end of the year.

It was a scorcher today. And tomorrow should be just as torrid. Some of the more inland areas will be heading into dangerous territory, into the very high 30s. Well, I figure that the rainy season will be ending officially this week. And I've got a lot of hours of teaching on Tuesday.

Monday July 5, 10:11 a.m.

Hey, Blog Lords! Some service please. What happened to my last two entries?

Monday July 5, 9:57 a.m.

Had some pretty decent sleep for the first time in a while although my eyes still have that annoying habit of opening up before 5 a.m. The rest of my body was able to beat them into submission, thankfully. I actually feel a bit hungry even after that Chinese/Mexican culinary KO yesterday.

It looks like I'll be having the company class after all since noone has called me to cancel. I did tell them to contact me by 9:30; I just hope that the remaining student just didn't forget. In any case, I had to send my regrets to Jazz Buddy and offered a slot on Thursday morning.

So, now with the morning students off the list for this week, I don't have to leave home until late in the afternoon so I can get a bit of housekeeping stuff done. I know that my matttresses would appreciate some airing out.

I checked out the TokyoWalker website for Spidey 2. The theatres seem to be a bit more forthcoming about their times and places than they were for TROY at about the same time. The advance ratings for the movie here look as wild as the ones back Stateside. About a good 97% from the advance screenings this past weekend place it at excellent or good. Since we're having that dinner at the Outback in Shinagawa on Sunday, I was looking to see if the Shinagawa Prince Hotel Cineplex would have any of the Spidey showings. Sure enough, there are. I'll have to see if Movie Buddy or some of the others would be interested in catching it before steak.

Well, off to brekkie. My stomach is actually growling now.

Sunday July 4, 11:35 p.m.

Well, it's the Fourth of July in the States, and knock on wood, the only promise of explosions is still from officially sanctioned fireworks.

I finished my gourmand weekend today. After having a relatively light breakfast after that huge dinner last night, I went all the way to Jiyugaoka to meet The OL and Betty Boop for a Chinese lunch. We decided to take a taxi over there since it would have been a 20-minute walk to the place and at near noon, I had no desire to drench myself in sweat before lunch. The taxi ride itself took about 10 minutes, enough to keep the cabbie in good humour. In fact, he and the ladies bantered pretty happily during the ride there.

The place we arrived at was located on the first floor of a building in a suburban neighbourhood, pretty non-descript for a high-class Chinese eatery. But when we entered, there was a well-suited maitre d' and several waitresses in China dresses. We went for the 3500-yen lunch which included such savory fare as leek dumplings (they taste far better than they sound in English), shark's-fin and pumpkin soup, juicy prawn in a light sweet-n'-sour sauce, tenderloin beef in black pepper sauce, cold noodles and a light mango pudding to finish it all off. Definitely worth another visit.

The OL and BB then walked me down the street for a couple of hundred metres to the college where they studied. We went downstairs to the cafeteria where we gabbed for about 90 minutes. They had a rather long gripe session about cigarettes and the salarymen who smoke them. I told them that they would love Canada.

We finally walked the kilometre through a pretty tony neighbourhood back to Jiyugaoka Station. BB could really talk up a storm which left me feeling rather limp. She even acted like my mother telling me about how to get up to Shinjuku. I left the ladies to their shopping. Most likely, we may have another outing in a few weeks..this time for yakiniku.

I made it up to Shinjuku within a half-hour. Not surprisingly, the trains were pretty crowded though not to the rush-hour extent. There I went over to the Microsoft Building where I ended up waiting for almost an hour wondering what happened to Arwen and 77. As I knew it, I was supposed to have met the two at 5. I checked my phone twice to see if any messages had been left on it, but nada. Finally at 5:45, I was just starting to wonder if I'd made a mistake with the day when I finally called up Arwen on her cell. The two were waiting at Shinjuku Station for a 5:30 meet. I told them where I was but not when I'd thought I would meet them despite my annoyance. No need to sour the atmosphere needlessly.

We had our lesson at a nearby cafe in the building before we went downstairs to line up for dinner at El Torito. 77 had never gone Mexican before which surprised me a bit, and Arwen had been to one just once. We waited for about half an hour during which 77 discussed her upcoming three-month homestay in Toronto. She actually did break up with her boyfriend. Seems like things never really got off the ground for them.

When we finally did get in, the two of them really got into the swing of things. I don't think I've ever seen past dinner companions at El Torito enjoy themselves and the food so thoroughly. We had the Fiesta Platter of quesadillas, chicken wings, nachos and Mexican spring rolls along with a huge chimichanga. Of course, we made full use of the free nacho chips and salsa. And then we finished things off with deep-fried ice cream and a banana chimichanga. I was quite reminded of ol' Chip Guy's love of saying that word "chimichanga" when he used to live here.

As I did with The OL and BB earlier in the day, I left Arwen and 77 to their own devices. Arwen said that she and 77 needed to discuss on something important. The paranoid side of me thinks that it's probably on the future of our classes. 77 has her soccer games, her upcoming trip and perhaps even enrolment in another English school; Arwen is currently heavily besieged by her new job. Looks like I may lose another couple of students. Speaking of 77 and her new job, it looks like 77 is making noises about quitting this gig as well. The one thing that the interviewers neglected to tell her was that noone leaves work before the boss does, a frankly outdated regulation for Japanese companies. As a result, in her first two days at work, Arwen just barely caught the last train home. She's planning to hold on for about a month before taking off. 77 and I encouraged her to give the place a fair shake for at least a week. I remember myself being pretty negative in my first week at each of my schools before things settled down. But my feeling is that Arwen will be a free woman again come August.

Well, I'm in a holding pattern for Monday. My morning students have cancelled their class and the company class may be getting canned, too. If so, I can teach Jazz Buddy later in the afternoon. But I'm just wondering if I should just cancel the gig with her even if the company class cans out. I'm just thinking about just chilling out after the weekend of food and female pairs. And besides, I really haven't gotten anything planned for her.

Saturday July 3, 10:09 p.m.

Ironically, my class with the kids had atypical results. My older kid actually was on the ball but the younger sister told me the lesson was a waste of time. I didn't take it too personally but it did give me a kick in the pants. Strangely enough, the mother asked me if I would be interested in picking up a few more kids (not really). In any case, I'm pretty tight schedule-wise, so the answer will be no but I will wait a few days before I send over the answer.

I got back home for just a little over an hour to have lunch and then I headed back and took the bus down to the Shin-Urayasu station area. For about a couple of hours, I noticed that the area is a lot more modern looking than plain ol' Urayasu station. There are a couple of new hotels, modern condos and two shopping malls surrounding the station. I managed to while away some of that time by trying out one of those massager chairs in the department stores. Those things are getting more and more sophisticated all the time. My demo model had a touch panel which could determine massage course based on what part of your body you want it to work on. You could also decide how hard the kneading can get and there was even a recliner option. It would be a nice thing to get for Dad but at 228,000 yen not including the freight costs, I don't think it'll ever happen.

I met up with my students at about 6:30 in front of the police box and we walked down a few hundred metres to a restaurant called Yume (Dream). It stood out with its dark exterior. It was one of those trendy bar/restaurants run by a friend of one of the students. The culinary theme was chicken, and there were quite a few sumptious chicken dishes. In fact, I think we overindulged with our choices, and I certainly overdid it a bit with the alcohol. I've got a bit of a hangover right now but I'm handling it OK.

We had been thinking of heading out for karaoke afterwards but since we got out of the place a bit late and with my dim sum outing tomorrow, we decided to call it a day instead. We spent a few minutes figuring out which bus I would take to get back to my neighbourhood when the one who had recommended the restaurant in the first place shucked out some money to my surprise and got a taxi for me. I really tried to refuse her very maganimous offer but it was a done deal. I took a taxi home as her treat. I'll have to get my "revenge" on her somehow by next lesson.

As I said, I've got dim sum tomorrow with The Office Lady and Betty Boop in the morning and then I may have Mexican with Arwen and 77 later in the evening. I think this will be one of those gourmand weekends. I'll try and avoid the booze.

Saturday July 3, 7:36 a.m.

I see that another actor...this time, a great one...has passed away. Marlon Brando at 80. Not a great thing to admit but the first ever Brando sighting I ever caught was his 10-minute cameo as Jor-El in Superman. My record hasn't gotten much better since then; I've only caught the Godfather after that. Kinda too bad to see this acting genius go from great to just gross, though.

Nothing much to say about yesterday. The Teacher and I went over a review of Troy and I had my regular session with SR. Strangely enough, I think this is the longest stretch I've had with her without a cancellation.

It's been pretty cool at night over the past couple of evenings. I can save a bit on the air conditioning, although I'm sure that that will change.

Well, after getting Party Hearty's request to take on another student, I got a message out of the blue from one of the guys from the Maple Leaf outing a few weeks ago to see if I could teach him. My answer is still the same...alternate Thursday nights. Speaking of which, it looks like I may have a free one of those this week.

Thursday July 1, 11:00 p.m.

Well, I see Saddam Hussein is playing his role as a sociopathic dictator right to the last drop. He's already started to stonewall and deny in a way that would make Milosevic proud. It ought to make for some riveting viewing although "Trial of the Century" is a bit much. No matter what happens, though, the record for former brutal dictators isn't too good. Let's see...Hitler killed himself in the bunker, Stalin may have been poisoned, the Ceaucescus were shot to death, Il Duce was strung up.

Had a bit of a surprise at the school on seeing a former staffer come back to the fold, as it were. DILBERT returned to the place that he was basically ousted from a few years back. There are only a few of us left who remember him. There's me, the DJ and the Head. Dilbert actually even sat in on my class for the entire two hours in what raised alarms with the Head. The Head is worried that Dilbert, who was pretty incompetent during his first time there, may be pushing the coordinator out of her position as the head of the all-year program. It certainly looks that way. The Head then started talking petitions about making sure that doesn't happen. To be honest, though I can share my colleague's concerns about having the little eraserhead back in charge of the program, I can't say that I would be all that dismayed or surprised with the coordinator's ouster. She has tried to maintain some sort of stability but that's really all she has accomplished. We haven't gotten any new materials in the past several years and some of the materials we do have are embarrasingly dated. Plus, she has had a reputation among some of the old students as being quite mercurial. But then again, we are faced with Dilbert.

The Head even asked me to subtly inquire our manager about what is to happen. Frankly speaking, I'm not quite sure what a guy like me, who has never had very warm relations with the staff,can do to change this situation if it is indeed THAT situation. I think the manager has his mind made up. There hasn't been any love lost between him and the coordinator, and the fact that we're significantly lower in numbers this year has given him just the ammo he needed to start the pustch. And from what I've heard from the Head, it doesn't seem that the coordinator is all that worried. She probably wouldn't mind getting out of it.

Anyways, enough politics. I was able to pull off my annual Canada Day quiz with the class quite successfully. Then I headed out to see the Curry Master for her regular session. Instead of doing the usual fill-out-the-blanks exercise, she had me proofread a lot of her correspondence exercises from her classes. It seems that her teacher isn't exactly earning his keep, so to speak. Well, at least, I found some weak points that I could help her on. Then, the SE came in. It was the first time to see him in over a month. He wasn't too bad and he told me that the next few months would provide him with lots of English training in the form of special seminars. Great for him. I didn't mention to either of them that my alternate Thursdays are free due to the fact that The Salaryman is no longer my student just in case something came up.

Well, perhaps something has. Party Hearty sent in a message asking if I could squeeze in one more student or ever more. Squeeze is right...I only have that Thursday night open. I sent back the usual dog-and-pony show about what I do.

There's also a possibility that I may have a very rare Monday off. Not only has my company voiced a potential cancellation, but my morning students called up to say that they had to cancel their next session. Mind you, I've sent off a missive to Jazz Buddy offering her the empty morning slot. I hope she takes it since that would mean I have my two classes at the school on Tuesday and Thursday. Now, I know what an exec and his rolodex must go through.

Wednesday June 30, 10:35 p.m.

That overcast morning produced some rather intense rainfall, especially in Shizuoka where a record-setting 81 mm poured down. Over here we got a squall and some thunder, but that was about it.

I got to see The DJ for the first time in a while. But any talk with him was pretty much pre-empted by one of our "up-with-people" teachers who just engaged the DJ in tech talk for pretty much most of the lunch hour. Since I'm not too much into that, I found myself gradually getting moved away and into lesson planning. I had the top class for the first time in a long while. They're a good group of ladies but they don't seem to be nearly as effusive as one big class as they are in pairs.

Speaking of the school, it looks like the Spring Term will be extended well into August. Rather unprecedented since it was a custom for the students to get quite a long summer vacation. However, the coordinator mentioned that a lot of students tend to drop out after the first term so she wanted to nip that bud quickly, especially since we have a smaller crew this year. I don't particularly mind since that will mean more opportunity to pick up some dough.

Shortly after, I headed off to the Starbucks in Toranomon where I would meet The OL. I struggled to keep awake in the 2 hours before the OL came...digestion and age helped out with that. The OL herself was a good half-hour late due to work, but I didn't mind too much. She's earned my respect. She also updated me on our dim sum meet with Boop on Sunday. Instead of the Hong Kong Garden, we'll be meeting out in Jiyugaoka way out west to a Chinese place that the OL knows well. I haven't been out that way since I had those two real estate agents in that late-night Monday class. Gad, I'm happy that I don't have to do that anymore. I'll be reliving the commute although it is a Sunday. The reason for the last-minute change is that the OL had heard that the dim sum over at the HK Garden wasn't too good. To be honest, I heard the same a few years ago but I didn't really think it serious enough to merit telling her about it.

I also made a confirmation with that other student about meeting up on Saturday night. It is indeed the police box at Shin-Urayasu Station. I'll probably head out there a bit earlier since it's been a while since I was last there. I think Clinton was still President then. I can just browse through the MONA shopping mall.

Well, tomorrow is Canada Day. Happy 137th!

Wednesday June 30, 8:52 a.m.

Looks like my juku boss had been going through some personal hell since her husband's return from the hospital due to a minor stroke. Apparently, he's been pretty erratic but it looks like things have calmed down, and she's back to her happy self.

I've got another outing planned with those first two students this weekend for dinner. The stingy student in the second class did the smart thing and eschewed coming to what would have been her final class last night. Made things a lot easier for all of us. My final student has started going through the red tape for that US visa once he finally starts his new stint Stateside. I told him about my ridiculous woes with my birth certificate.

Pretty overcast right now but it's still gonna be hot. I've got my first class at the school in a couple of weeks. I've also got another one tomorrow there. Seeing that it'll be Canada Day, I'm planning to do a bit of a pop quiz on The Great White North with the students there. And of course, I've got the Office Lady tonight.

It's amazing how Michael Moore's latest movie is just burning up the theaters back home. I'm wondering when it'll get here.

Tuesday June 29, 3:29 p.m.

It's another scorcher out there. I had that morning class followed by the lunch at Takimoto. One of the ladies, a tea ceremony teacher who's always been a bit tentative, tentatively asked me to hold my rice bowl in the correct way. That teaches me how to handle myself in front of the ladies. I've noticed that the ladies make it a habit to harp on their worse halves. When they asked me if they were the only class that did it, I answered quickly in the affirmative. I guess it's a generational thing. Arwen hasn't really griped about Aragorn, but it's interesting to note that my Monday morning folks have never complained about their husbands. It could also be a class thing.

On the telly, I noticed current hot gaijin tarento, Thane Camus (no, it's not a Star Wars name) actually getting into the singing business. It's a gimmick song, mind you, but he is singing. Thane is one of those non-Japanese TV personalities who can speak native Japanese and feel more at home in Japan. The first one of these gaijin tarento was one of the two Kents: Kent Gilbert, a transplanted lawyer whose claim to fame was that he could speak perfectly fluent Kansai-accented Japanese in a squeaky voice. The natives here found him so amazing that he was getting regular requests to come onto the talk shows and chat.

Since then, we've had the other Kent, Kent Delacarte, a Mormon with coke-bottle glasses coming in. In the past decade, we've also had Kaya, an obnoxious woman from Chicago who may or may not be divorced from her former pop idol hubby; another fellow who's even become part of the first bicultural manzai comedy team, and then there's Thane.

I think one of these folks put it best when he said that if a foreigner wanted to strike it big on TV here, he would have to be willing to act like an idiot or an "idealized" version of a foreigner. The worst case of this consists of three black guys who often star with Thane on a Sunday evening variety show. If their act ever got shown in the States, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would have a coronary.

Monday June 28, 9:30 p.m.

Well, we just had our "What the hell?" moment of the week. It looks like the U.S. handed Iraq back a couple of days ahead of schedule. I don't think it'll mean all that much for the volatile situation but it was a pretty shrewd security move.

Over here, the cops caught the bastard who pulled off that armed robbery in Shibuya Station last week. He's a 64-year-old chrome dome with dark glasses and a feisty attitude. In fact, he's playing his new celeb status up so much that the cops are now wondering if he's just a cover guy for the real culprit. The artist sketch had quite a different drawing for the suspect as well.

It was another hot and sultry one today. My collar was already stained with sweat by my first class. My last class actually went pretty well since I had just the low guy for the first hour so I didn't have to do any major juggling of levels. There's a possibility that the company class may be put off next Monday because two-thirds of the class will be off in S. Korea on business. It would be the first time since I started this class last October, outside of national holidays, that this class would be canned. However, it's still tentative.

Tomorrow should be even hotter. I've got my regular Tsudanuma folks and then we're heading for another scrumptious yet classy lunch at Takimoto. Then I've got my juku folks later that night.

Sunday June 27, 8:11 p.m.

Not too hot today. The temps were actually quite bearable. It was downright autumnlike last night on the way back from the Curry Master's.

Four straight hours of talking with students today have left me exhausted. I'm gonna need more stamina food; I may actually get back on the vitamin drink kick again. It will be a pretty busy one this week. I'll have at least two classes everyday until Saturday.

I'll just get some reports written up and lessons made for tomorrow.

Saturday June 26, 11:27 p.m.

Got The Little Owl an ideal text for her. It was one of those I SPY puzzle books which has a bit of reading practice for her and those find-it games that she loves so much. Too bad I won't be seeing her for at least a month since the family will be rather busy with other pursuits. Well, it wouldn't be too bad having some free Saturday afternoons.

After her class, I went off to Shinjuku to catch Movie Buddy. We went off to Dubliners as scheduled. I tucked myself into a fish n' chips while MB had a sandwich. Strangely enough, neither of us bothered to have anything alcoholic since MB was nursing a cold and I really wasn't all that much into the stuff in any event. We had a loudmouth equivalent of Japanese white trash sitting beside us just cursing all over the place and arguing as much as they were chatting.

After about an hour there, the two of us headed off to the Curry Master's for her B-day party. True to my age, I nodded off on the 45-minute trip there. We still arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare so we just crashed at a cafe to get some coffee to wake up on. Of course, we talked on our current situations, agreed that we were in a good enough place for now and then we touched a bit on perhaps catching Harry Potter 3 because of the good reviews and perhaps mixing Spidey 2 with the Outback thing on the 11th.

While we were picking up supplies at the supermarket including the birthday cake, the rest of the partygoers showed up including CM herself. MB's girl came by and then another friend popped by. When we all got to CM's pad, the three ladies started cooking up the night's supper which included some avocado salad, wrap sandwiches and Shepherd's Pie. All delicious and surprisingly filling. Then for some reason, the ladies started talking about the latest commercial for the Yuri Takano esthetic salon chain in which a model/actress is swimming au naturel with Gackt, that androgynous rock singer, looking on in approval. I even went on the Net and Yahoo'ed her name. She also happened to be that innocent young girl several years ago hawking plum wine. Woof! What success can do to some people.

While we were tucking ourselves into some cake, CM threw in the DVD of the movie GATTACA with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. I'd heard all of the arguments for and against this flick. The first hour was interesting enough with all of the sci-fi and stuff, and the film noir elements were appealing but the film slowly lost its ability to compel. And Ethan Hawke is not one of those actors with charisma to spare. So it wasn't too difficult for me when I had to leave for home without catching the conclusion.

Well, I gotta catch some sleep and then get ready for Jazz Buddy and possibly Arwen. She still hasn't responded to my query whether she will really be coming tomorrow afternoon.

Saturday June 26, 12:05 a.m.

Well, 6 more months before Boxing Day. Can hardly wait.

The latest Harry Potter movie hits these shores today, a full three weeks after its premiere Stateside. One of the Japanese TV stations celebrated this fact by showing the very first Harry Potter movie on the tube tonight. It was the first time that I got to watch HP. I never got into the books and when I'd heard of the lacklustre reviews for the first film, I decided to wait for a night like tonight to finally catch it.

Now that I have, I can say that I'm happy I saved my money. Not that it was as bad as I had feared, but then again my expectations were quite low. The characters and the sets were great. My problem was with the director, Chris Columbus. Unlike his more celebrated namesake, he didn't really explore. I'd heard that Columbus was just a very mediocre director; now I had the proof. As I mentioned, I had never read the books but after watching the movie, I can believe that Columbus just followed the written tale verbatim. No interesting twists or marks of distinctiveness. It just seemed rather flat. So I guess it will be a breath of fresh air to see another guy at the helm. I'm undecided whether I'll still catch the third entry.

My lesson with The Teacher was quite good today although she seemed to have more memory lapses than usual. Also there was a lot more reading aloud today on her part. The topic was celebrated Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. Actually, her biography was quite interesting to read and we had a good discussion about her. The Teacher also threw in a few of her anecdotes so the result was a nice combination of strict reading and guided conversation.

Then, I had my lessons with Arwen/77 and SR. Both were also pretty cut-and-dry. No real problems. Arwen has requested seeing me on Sunday as well so I've slotted her in after Jazz Buddy.

Got home and ended up making another one of those gooey and greasy fried pork sandwiches for dinner tonight. Another excuse to use up some more of that shredded cheese.

The weather was uniformly wet throughout the day unlike what the forecasters had predicted. I shouldn't be too tough on them, though. Meterologists are only correct 70% of the time and we are in a rather volatile period right now.

Luckily I don't have the morning kids today so I can sleep in a bit. I just The Little Owl and then I meet up with Movie Buddy in Shinjuku for a bit of a pint at Dubliners before heading over to the Curry Master's for her b-day party.

Friday June 25, 7:53 a.m.

As expected, yesterday was a nice slow one. No classes to teach, no lessons to plan. I just got some reprints done up, got a rubdown and made another Taco Rice for dinner. Well, things are back to normal today. I have my regular three classes, but I do finish at a decent hour.

The reputation of the foreign population possibly got another black eye. After that robbery in Shibuya Station on Wednesday, apparently there was another attack by a Korean pickpocketing ring on the Toyoko Line. Thanks to a knife and mace, they made their getaway through the tony neighbourhood of Den'en-Chofu. Well, everyone except one fellow. He got spotted and shot by the cops. In a country where guns are extremely rare, the media will put the number of shots fired front and centre. Also, a 16-year-old girl was strangled to death by her former Sri Lankan boyfriend of 36. Gahhh..

The election campaign for the Upper House is in full swing. The usual pols wearing their ironic white gloves spouting their usual rhetoric and lies.

Currently watching a Michael Buble DVD. He's the next coming of Sinatra and Darin...and he's Canadian! One more proud thing for the Maple Leaf.

Thursday June 24, 8:01 a.m.

Last year, it was the random stabbings there. Now, it's armed robbery. Shibuya once again showed why it's scaring a lot of people when a middle-aged man shot a subway station employee carrying the revenue from commuter pass purchases yesterday. The robber then took the bag and ran causing a bit of a panic. The man is still at large. Hopefully, the cops will get their man. The employee is alive but seriously hurt.

I met Jazz Buddy again for her first official lesson, but once again, it didn't exactly turn out as expected. For one thing, she had forgotten that we were to meet at 11 instead of the 11:30 that she turned up at. Also, she walked me for about 10 minutes to one of the tall Shinjuku skyscrapers...all the way up to the 50th floor where we entered this rather elegant restaurant serving elegant bentos. This place, Uonoya, is following the example of a lot of usually expensive dinner venues and serving reasonably-priced lunches. JB may be soft-spoken but she can wrest what she wants; when the waitress offered to seat us at the counter, JB quietly but firmly asked for the alcove by the window. It didn't really matter, though, where we were seated. There was no way we could do a lesson there with the hustle and bustle of the lunch time office folks.

Then, when we got out of the place, we tried to find some spot to park ourselves for the lesson only to find that all the seats and tables were occupied, so we ended up just sitting on a stone ledge in front of a hedge in the hot sun. Not exactly a conducive environment for learning. Well, I wasn't about to charge her for 2 hours when the first hour was spent walking and eating.

I may have been guilty of misdirection myself, though. After JB's lesson, I was to meet Arwen at the south gate of Shinjuku Station. However, I was left waiting at the station for an extra 10 minutes before she came. Not that I was steaming...at least, not emotionally. She apologized for being late. However, when I checked my messages last night, I received an e-mail from her which came in too late for me to read before taking off stating that according to my reply to her she wasn't too sure about where to meet. I realized that she may have gone to the other venue before rushing to return to the station. And when I checked my reply, I also realized that it was rather ambigious. Well, not that it would really much at this point, I sent a letter of apology. Considering my little run-in with the Scheduler earlier this week, I think I was hoist on my own petard.

I tried making that Taco Rice that Curry Master had served me last night. I wouldn't say that it was incredibly cheap to get the ingredients but I do have leftover stuff to make another batch tonight. It's another notch on my repertoire. Speaking of CM, it looks like her party will be at 7 on Saturday in her neck of the woods.

Well, because I was finally to drop the deadweight student from my Thursday schedule and the school hasn't scheduled me in for any classes today, I find myself with a rare day off. It's another hot one out there. I've gotten the mattresses out on the balcony railing to air out and hopefully, I'll be able to do a bit of light cleaning. Meanwhile, I'll get some reprints and then get that rubdown.

Wednesday June 23, 7:01 a.m.

Although I couldn't tell from the sky last night, it was just one of those full moon type of days. My Tuesday started well enough with my first class. However, things started when I checked my messages and the only one that I had was the one from the Scheduler telling me that I had a class from 1. Well she was definitely wrong there so when I called her up in some dismay, we had a short tense round. She'd only sent me an e-mail on Saturday asking when I would be available to teach this week. I gave her an answer that I'd be able to teach on such-and-such a day, and that was it. She took it as gospel apparently but never got back to me so I thought that those days weren't available. In all fairness, I have to share a bit of the blame since I didn't check with her on Monday to make sure whether I did have a class or not. However, I'm glad that I called in an hour before class began so that the Scheduler at least had a chance to find someone else. I'd already had plans made and plus, I was not in regulation dress. Fortunately, last night, I got a somewhat surprising e-mail of reconciliation from her since she had a bitter reputation in her first tour of duty with the school. In fact, one of the first things that the head teacher told me when I started there was not to cross the Scheduler. Perhaps, she's finally mellowing out.

Unfortunately, when any of these types of situations happen, my mind goes into automatic "dwell" mode and starts to analyze everything in detail. Where did I go wrong? Did I screw up somewhere? I don't let it distract me from my work and by the next day, the self-flagellation largely disappears but, boy, for much of yesterday, I had to contend with that. So I was especially relieved that the Scheduler had sent that letter of apology. I responded with equal grace and then advised her about when to confirm with me.

That was just the beginning of the full-moon events. The other didn't affect me directly but it did affect several thousand commuters. It looks like my line was the victim of a couple of errant flying tarps which conveniently landed across the tracks, thereby stopping traffic for a few hours. The students at the juku all called in to say that they would be coming in late. And sure enough, each class came in 20 minutes late.

I actually had the fort all to myself for most of my time at the juku last night. The boss had to head to a funeral so I could actually enjoy a solitary existence for a couple of hours before my first class. The boss also had to make a couple of calls and find out what the subway situation was like as well. The other main route was also clogged because of some sort of accident.

Well, this morning, I got started on that latest attempt at homemade yogurt. I sterilized that setup that one of my Monday students had given me and the I scooped in four spoonfuls of that Caspian Sea yogurt starter along with 1 L of milk. The whole thing is now sitting in my bedroom in the hopes that it'll evolve into a solid batch of yogurt by tonight. This has got to be a hobby...it's far easier just to buy the thing from the supermarket.

Not only do I have Jazz Buddy for her first official class in Shinjuku today but I've got Arwen as well. She quit her job after a brief and somewhat contentious time there. I'd forgotten that she said that she'd like to have my lessons as much as possible. As it is, I find myself with a rare Thursday off; however, I'll probably keep that as such and see if I can schedule her in for Sunday afternoon or Saturday morning.

Monday June 21, 9:45 p.m.

Let's see...when I got home tonight, my room smelled and felt like a sauna, I smelled and I felt like a sauna. I guess it's officially summer.

Well, Typhoon No. 6 made all the news this morning. NHK set aside a half-hour on the hour for the latest superstorm. GD's town, arguably the rainiest zone in all of Japan, certainly looked the part when it showed up on TV getting waterblasted. As for here, we got hipchecked this afternoon by No. 6. A lot of Sturm und Drang in the form of high winds and downpours. No real damage to anyone here although my umbrella suffered a dislocated rib. Even now the winds are blowing all over. However, the summer heat will be hitting us just as bad tomorrow. It's gonna hit 32 big degrees in the Big Sushi. It's gonna be hell.

I kinda figured that the loss of that stingy student last week would spark something. Well, not only did I lose her and the angst-ridden Stylist, but I also got rid of two students. My Monday student told me that her sister-in-law would be away for a while since her father hasn't been doing too well and the sister-in-law is his primary caregiver. And now, my juku boss told me that the oft-absent Salaryman would be giving up his lessons due to his work. To be honest, with the exception of the Sister-in-Law, I think they are all deadweight and as such, deserve to be jettisoned. Plus, I won't take too much of a hit in terms of salary. I am starting to think, though, about being a bit more aware of who I take on as students.

Speaking of my Monday morning students, one of them, someone who's really into yogurt making, got the other student and I some 100-yen plastic yogurt jars with markings showing how much yogurt starter and milk to put. All I have to do is just stir and leave outside in a warm place. My place should make a lot of amazing yogurt this summer.

I went a bit nuts on the money again. I picked up a DVD of Bjork videos. I'm not a huge fan of her music but her videos have always been intriguing. The final straw was seeing her Austin Powers-like show tune number last night at Arwen's.

I never got any word from the school about any classes this week. So it's entirely possible that I may have a completely free Thursday. Not too, too bad.

The NHK news is on right now. Looks like JR has been tied up in knots as usual which means the subways are as well. My line was getting bunched up so when I just missed the first one, the second one came in within 2 minutes. It almost looked empty since everyone frontloaded onto the first one.

I was definitely not in any mood to cook tonight. So I tried out the new ramen place below my station. They specialize in a very garlicky soup. I had the one with the roasted pork. Pretty good. It's already gotten the salarymen coming in.

Well, let's see Bjork!

Sunday June 20, 9:47 p.m.

Took off early this morning to Arwen's place in Asagaya for DTE's farewell. It was a crosstown ride in every sense of the word; it took me one-and-a-third hours to arrive at the station. When I did, I waited about 20 minutes since I got there well ahead of the scheduled meeting time. Arwen biked up and then we went off to have some lunch at the Village Vanguard. Not quite the true namesake of the legendary jazz joint in NYC, it still had that 1950s sensibility though the music was reggae-tinged. Arwen and I shared an interesting twist on a Caesar Salad: same sauce, same bacon but there were chunks of toast and boiled Japanese pumpkin. I also indulged in a rather large hamburger and fries.

77 arrived an hour later. We went to the arcade mall to get our shopping done since we all planned to cook up something for the potluck. I was going to contribute my Sweet N' Sour Chicken, while 77 cooked mabo dofu and Arwen created her tuna gazpacho.

Arwen and her hubby live in a nice apartment next to a sumo stable. There was a rather rotund trainee sweeping outside the stable when we passed by. Arwen's apartment is a 1LDK; certainly her kitchen space dwarfed mine by a factor of 3:1. All of us got started on our respective projects before the ladies took off to pick up DTE from the station. When they got back, it wasn't too long before everything was completed and we all dug in for a feast. By the time we were finished, we felt a lot like our neighbours. Plus, when we entered the un-air-conditioned tatami room, we all felt like hibernating. 77 actually did so for several minutes. All this time, Arwen's husband, Aragorn, was busy working at his project so he could only tackle the leftovers.

After a while, Aragorn and I thankfully returned to the cool comfort of the kitchen area and spoke on movies and DVD players before we took a look at his disc of Spike Jonze videos. Some very interesting ones including the much-heralded ode to middle age hoofin' by Chris Walken in Weapon of Choice. However, I also did see a pre-director Sofia Coppola in her turn as a rhythmic gymnast and Weezer's hilarious Zelig appearance on Happy Days. But the "What the--?" monent had to be the final video with Bjork doing her own kicksteps and showtune. Still, it didn't quite match her au naturel appearance in a later video.

The sun was heading south so DTE and I decided to make our way home. The others accompanied us to the station to meet up with a latecomer to head over for some drinking. Arwen asked if I would be available for something on Wednesday afternoon. Her timing is pretty good since The Office Lady has cancelled her regular lesson for this week and I'll just be finishing off with Jazz Buddy in Shinjuku on that day.

The winds have started to pick up and the clouds are flying by at mach speed as that typhoon is approaching.

Sunday June 19, 1:01 a.m.

Another long day's journey into night. I managed to survive the kids on Saturday although I wasn't too satisfied with my performance with the smaller sister. I just felt too pooped out. Luckily, I won't have them next week due to some family matter with them. My class with the the Little Owl went well enough; I even gave her a diary to start writing down some guided English sentences.

My 2 hours with M + M helped a lot. We got onto some juicy topics such as the phenomenon of GO-KON, or organized dating en masse. We even went 10 minutes overtime.

As it turned out, The Ballerina could only be with us until 8 p.m. since she's stationed all the way out in a hotel in Narita due to the demands of her job as a flight attendant. I wish she could've told us earlier; I would've hurried out of the Tea Room to meet up with them. As it were, I managed to catch up with her, Movie Buddy and Skippy at this underground grill in Shinjuku. We were nestled right by the door but at least we did have an electric fan right over us so we had access to some good airflow. The Ballerina looked like she picked up a couple of kilos probably due to her diet in London and also because she doesn't have to stress out anymore over getting her dream job. Skippy looked to be in even more of an uptempo mood than usual...which is saying a lot. MB thought she was her usual self but I thought that the caffeine levels in her were more elevated. How can anyone be that genki in Tokyo?

Anyways, as per schedule, The Ballerina took off at shortly after 8. Skip, MB and I just went next door to the Excelsior Cafe and had some relatively cheap coffee and dessert. We got into some rather risque topics of discussion such as some of the more interesting shops in the red-light district. Skippy was all for that talk. I think she was acting just like Monty Python's Eric Idle in that "Nudge, nudge, wink, wink" sketch. We even got into planning for the next outing which is the Outback Steakhouse in Shinagawa. It seems like some of the alumni are interested in sinking their teeth into a good porterhouse. I'm not sure how that will chime in with the viewing of Spiderman 2 next month.Skippy also asked about inviting Arwen and 77. But I'm still not quite sure how Arwen feels about Skip.

Skippy had to take off so it was just MB and me. MB didn't feel like going home just yet so he asked me if I could stay with him a spell longer for another round. I hadn't seen the lad for a while, so despite the fact that I felt and smelled rather rank, I decided to go with him one more hour longer. Also, I had thought that he wanted to inform me of something.

As it turned out, he really just wanted to hang out a bit longer so we just gabbed at a Starbucks near Times Square. Among the topics was the fact that MB's girl (a notorious non-planner according to him and the Curry Master) is trying to set up something for CM's birthday. CM had already hinted at such a thing on Thursday. It looks like it's gonna be for the 26th which suits me just fine. It'll probably be in CM's neck of the woods which is also just fine since I'm only two stations away. CM isn't too big on going out to the big city.

On the way home on the subway, I got clubbed by accident by a dimwit who must've dozed off and then initially realized she was at her station with only a few seconds to spare before the doors closed. However, it wasn't her station so she just stumbled her way back to her seat. She must've been rather drunk since she looked somewhat zombified. Surprisingly, I didn't have any particular incentive to kick her but I did take my frustrations out on the laundry drying on the line. I just whipped them back in.

Well, I've got that farewell party for DTE later today so I've got that recipe for Sweet N' Sour Chicken all ready to go when I meet up with Arwen and 77.

Friday June 18, 7:28 p.m.

Hot and humid today. But we've got Typhoon 6 barreling toward us. It'll slam into Okinawa tomorrow and it may cause some havoc on the mainland in the latter half of the weekend and early next week. The one worry is when the meterologist stated that this hurricance is so powerful that even making landfall won't slow it down. That's one mother of a storm.

My chat with The Teacher was supposed to be on Nostradamus but we ended up talking about the movie "The Lover", one of her favorites. It's the somewhat controversial (at least in prudish North America) one from the early 90s with Jane (where is she now?) March and a Chinese actor.

For lunch, I tried McDonalds' newest taste treat, The Grande, which is really a Big Mac without the middle slice of bread and with some zesty pepper mayo. Not too bad but I have one logistical qualm with it which is that everytime I took a bite, the contents threatened to slip out. Too much mayo, I say. And the price is 200 yen more than the Big Mac Set. I probably won't make a habit of buying the Grande.

In between The Teacher and SR, I went down to the Ginza to see if I could pick up a couple of more magazines for perusal. I managed to do so although I had to scour a lot of the bookstores there. Plus, I picked up the text for Jazz Buddy.

By the time I reached the Tea Room, I was feeling distinctly like a wet rag. SR and I had a pretty good talk as well about one of the people she had met during her quick trip through LA a couple of weeks back. She's a teen who has a thing for manga and anime. I offered to introduce her to my buddy, GD, who's the expert on such things.

Well, I gotta have dinner and then plan for the kids tomorrow.

Thursday June 17, 9:53 p.m.

Taught a class at the school today for the first time in a few weeks. No problems there, and then I met up with Arwen and 77 for their regular lesson.

My lesson with the Curry Master had an extra benefit tonight. I not only got paid for the lesson but I also got dinner in the form of taco rice. Taco rice is just all the fixins for a taco except for the shell and dump it on hot rice. We also did our usual gossip updates on people like my juku boss and Movie Buddy.

It looks like it'll be a busy Saturday for me. Not only do I have my regular kids but I have that monthly chitchit with M + M and then I meet The Ballerina and Movie Buddy for dinner. I sent out the call to Skippy but I doubt that she will commit at such short notice.

Wednesday June 16, 10:20 p.m.

Well, I lost another student in as many days today. First, it was that stingy, moody one from the juku. Today, I ran over to the Stylist's place of work, trying not to be late and failing by a few minutes. Within a minute of my "gomenasai", the Stylist sheepishly gave me my walking papers.

To be honest, I wasn't either that shocked or all that dismayed by it although it's never great to lose a student. In the past four months that we have known each other, we only managed to cover just four pages of her textbook. Another hint was that surreal class last month. I asked her if she didn't enjoy my lesson. She didn't really answer the question but she just said "Yaruki ga nai." (I've lost the desire).The past couple of times with her, she didn't seem to be too eager which supported her reason to say that. She also pointed out that she wasn't too comfortable with a one-on-one lesson since she had to provide half of the conversation; she simply didn't want to work THAT hard during her day off, and she admitted that half her mind was in day-off mode. Plus, she also stated that she had a lot on her mind about her future, and it seems that not all of it was very happy.

In any case, as soon as she said that she had lost the interest, that was all I needed to pack my bag. Once a student says that, it's game over. There was a natually a bit of awkwardess about those ten minutes I was there, but the two of us were cordial enough although I was initially pissed off inside that she didn't bother to pinkslip me by e-mail or phone earlier; it would've saved me the commute time. However, she said that she felt telling me in person was the right thing to do. I can respect that. And she still paid me for a full lesson which was very maganimous of her. I told her that I could understand her decision; I would rather have her cut me loose now, instead of having to slog through some miserable classes with a student who didn't want to be there. And then, I could use that empty time for someone who really wanted to learn. Finally, I think she's the first student who actually had the guts to tell me the truth about letting me go, instead of feeding me the usual white lie like The Hawaiian and those two real-estate agents did last year.

Still, some of my natural self-doubt returned as I made my premature way back to Oimachi Station. But I didn't let it overwhelm me as it would have in previous years. I know that I'm a good teacher...I just wasn't her teacher or she just wasn't my student.

I took the train out to Odaiba. It had been several weeks since I'd been there and with the sunny weather, I thought it would be nice to have a treat especially after the above event. I attended my usual buffet restaurant there, The Sunset Beach Factory. Of course, the Law of Buffets states that the quality and quantity of food share an inverse relationship. However, it was palatable enough for me to spend more than 90 minutes there with the view of the Rainbow Bridge in the background.

After that, I waddled my way over to the next mall, Aqua City, where I first checked out the movie listings at the Mediage cineplex. As I figured, there wasn't anything there that I really wanted to catch. As I have mentioned before, I wasn't too eager to see "The Day After Tomorrow" and "The Ladykillers" is a Tom Hanks flick but the reviews were rather so-so. So I just went over to HMV and treated myself to a DVD and a Misia CD. The DVD I purchased was that "Bayside Shakedown" movie that I had caught a year ago in Shibuya. It was a good flick, Japanese or Western. The Misia CD is a compilation of her past ballads so I decided to splurge the yen for that although I didn't buy her last original album since I wasn't too impressed. My HMV point card has passed the 50-point mark so when it expires in a month and a half, I'm eligible for a 2000 yen discount. There is no way that I'm gonna reach 100 points for that 4500 yen discount.

When I left the mall, it was still sunny and warm but not humid. I was tempted to take a ride on the free shuttle but it would've just taken me on a loop so I decided to take the bus back to Tokyo Station. At 200 yen, it's cheaper than taking the Yurikamome monorail. I slept a bit in the bus as it wound its way across the bay. I passed through the modernized area of Tsukishima; there was a pretty nice condo setup there. It's always nice to see some new segment of Tokyo.

35 minutes later, I got off at the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station and walked over to the Yaesu Book Centre. It's a somewhat off-kilter bookstore in that the decor was quite old and yet there was a lot of art thrown up on the walls. The first floor had a high ceiling just like the first floors of department stores and there was an open mezzanine/coffee shop to fill some of that altitude up. In another interesting twist, the escalators only went as far up as the 4th floor; then the elevators picked up the relay torch to go up to the 7th floor. I decided to schlep my way up the stairs to 7 where the foreign books were located. There was a section with a sign screaming in blue and white "NUDES". They certainly weren't subtle. However, I didn't see anything English-written which struck my fancy.

After leaving the bookstore, I walked down to the Ginza and over to Yamano Music to fill up my point card there as well. I decided to buy down Memory Lane as I picked up a J-Idol CD from the 80s and even an old Gilbert O'Sullivan single, "Alone Again, Naturally". It's been getting some major airplay as a commercial jingle over here. I tried to find another Level 42 disc to no avail. But I did pick up another Michael Buble CD. The Canadian answer to Harry Connick Jr. has made some inroads into the jazz enclave of Japan and I can't get tired of his cover of "Fever". Jazz Veteran still has the first one I lent her several weeks ago.

I was feeling just too tired to walk over to the Starbucks in Toranomon, so I paid my 160 yen for the 2-station subway ride. I spent the extra hour there drinking down my chai tea latte with sugar donut until The OL came for her regular lesson. She got me out of my slight funk over losing The Stylist. Her enthusiasm in English and the fact that as my very first student in my freelance career she still stuck by me got me back online. Also the fact that she would rather see me instead of having to go to that farewell party for the exec director of her company next Wednesday was a nice touch too. It's ironic, though. The OL was the one who introduced The Stylist to me; I didn't mention what happened this morning to her but I'm sure she'll find out soon enough.

Well, back home after that long day. Just gotta do a little prep work for Arwen and 77 and then I'm off for bed.

Tuesday June 15, 11:37 p.m.

Feeling pretty exhausted and grumbly after classes tonight. That moody student in my middle class just kept that hangdog look for almost the entire class...a new record. She really kept me on my toes trying to keep things balanced between her and her classmates. Well, the other shoe finally fell. The boss told me after all the classes got wrapped up that she has finally made the decision to quit the school. It isn't as if she tried to help herself out; she wouldn't commit to private classes since that would cost her more money, and she just couldn't be convinced that she still had a lot to learn in this class. Well, she'll be leaving once June is up. The boss and I will not be too sad to see her go. But boy, did she sap my energy tonight.

Curry Master left a message on the machine confirming that she'll have my class although the SE will have to cancel out due to work. That'll be fine with me since I do have to give her the omiyage from Sapporo.

Well, tomorrow, I've got the Stylist for the first time in 3 weeks. I hope her attitude is somewhat better than last time. I had been thinking about catching "The Day After Tomorrow" at the theaters in Odaiba but since I'm not too keen on catching half a movie at full price, I'll probably hit the all-you-can-eat buffet there instead. I'm feeling pretty hungry right now but the days of late-night snacks are over.

Skippy actually approved the idea of heading up to Sapporo next February although she's worried about the numbers. Yes, I am too. This could be a rather major undertaking logistically.

Tuesday June 15, 1:32 p.m.

It's another hot one out there. There's something about the high temps that makes the walk home all that much longer. Still, it's nice to have the sun out again after a week of dreariness.

I was checking the books. After all that spending on Hokkaido, I only ended up being a few coins short on balance. Didn't quite miss the bullet but just a nick.

All I really want to do is just to lay back and enjoy my air conditioning, but I still have to plan for tonight's classes and get back onto that translation that the Prez wants me to do for the Iconoclast's project. For a while, I thought that the Prez was just going to write it off as a loss but I'm back on the job. I don't know if I'm going to get paid for it either.

Apparently, today is Chiba Citizens' Day so all of the schools are off. Other than kids and perhaps the civil servants, the holiday doesn't really mean all that much to us since most of the Chiba population end up working in Tokyo. No holiday there.

Tuesday June 15, 12:17 a.m.

About 15 minutes ago, Larry King came on and when I saw the sepia-tinted montage of Reagan, I started groaning, "C'mon...give it a break! Let the guy (and the rest of us) finally rest in peace." However, I changed my mind when the show actually showed the interview with Reagan himself. Why couldn't he have shown those first thing last week?

What was amazing to watch was when the show cut to its first commercial break, and it showed the media footage when the attempted assassination of the President had taken place back in 1981. I remember watching ABC's Frank Reynolds breaking down and the multiple viewings of the actual shooting taking place. However, it bordered on the hilarious when I saw Sam Donaldson nestled against Reynolds reading through the report. Reynolds at first had read that Reagan hadn't been shot...only to be corrected by his Siamese twin. And then Reynolds pulled a Shatneresque gesture. It was absolutely surreal. I would just love to catch that footage again.

In any case, it is nice to actually see the man himself speaking his mind on the attempted assassination and Gorbachev. However, I also agree with the CNN media guy who had earlier pointed out that there was way too much coverage and way too much love for Reagan. At the same time, though, listening and watching him on TV, he is a darn difficult man to dislike.

In other news, my Monday was the same as it has been for the past few weeks. I had my first class and then my student told me that her sister-in-law couldn't make it for the second class. So I once again had a few hours to kill in Shibuya.

One of the things that I've liked about my bohemian status has been the fact that I can often walk and eat anywhere I please during breaks. So I saw myself having a Doner Kebab while sitting on a stool in front of Tower Records. I had been wondering what I would be eating for lunch since I had already eaten at Volks last week and I really wasn't in the mood for the Golden Arches. The last time the Kebab truck had actually stopped in front of Towers was back in the Fall so I gather I was really lucky today. The Kebab was great..it's just too bad that the truck doesn't provide any drinks,but I couldn't complain about the 500 yen price.

I ended up going to HMV and I bought myself one of those issues of EMPIRE, the UK movie magazine, along with a CD of Gypsy Jazz Guitarists; basically, it's a near-homage to Django. Yup, it is just a day before the 15th, my former full-time payday. I realize that for a freelancer who gets paid at almost every class, the 15th doesn't mean all that much but it's a symbolic date for me just to help me with my discipline. Well, some discipline here.

After my class at the Iconoclast's old company, I saw the old Prez for the first time in a few weeks. So heading out for dinner was pretty much in the cards. At first, he, myself and one other fellow staffer sat at a table in the main office gabbing about my trip to Hokkaido a couple of weeks ago. It just so happened that the other staffer had come from Nemuro, a city in the northernmost prefecture, so he was a fount of information about future trips up there although I very much doubt that I'll ever drive around the province the next time I go. But our talk buoyed my proposal to Skippy a few days about a possible group trip there in February for the Winter Festival. In the intervening days between now and when I had sent out the initial e-mail to her, I'd had some pretty skeptical thoughts about the folly of my proposal. Still, I have yet to hear from her.

I think I ended up waiting there at the office for an hour. The rest of the group was busy figuring some sort of test for one of their projects. I got an up-close-and-personal about how harsh the Prez can be on the "feeb" of the company. He didn't exactly splatter the poor guy all over the wall as the Iconoclast once described. But he was pretty sharp. When the only compliment the feeb can get is that the problems with the project were not his fault after all, then things must be pretty dire for him.

Finally, they wrapped things up as best as they could, and four of us went out to an interesting izakaya in West Shinjuku. Unlike some of the more elegant places that the Prez has taken me to, this place was bargain-basement. In fact, it actually was located in the basement. It was this huge space with tables and counters with mostly Chinese waitresses bringing small plates of various kinds of izakaya food such as fried noodles, fried chicken and sashimi. The izakaya was just a good cheap place to unwind for a few drinks which we all did. In fact, I ended up ordering a good bit more than the others could handle. I made the mistake of being slightly sexist and assuming that with four men, we could handle the culinary load. We left quite a bit on the table but the Prez just paid for everything with aplomb. The trip home was another smelly affair with my clothes filled with every odor in the book.

Luckily, I got the message from the school scheduler that I wouldn't be needed for a class this afternoon although I will be scheduled for a class there on Thursday. At least, I can get another break between classes.

I received a strange message from Movie Buddy. I had answered his request for an outing on this coming Sunday in the negative since I have that goodbye party for DTE then. However, his message hinted that I had answered in the positive so I had to send over another message reiterating my point. I already sent a similar message to the Ballerina.

Well, I should be heading for bed now.

Monday June 14, 7:33 a.m.

After 9 days of straight rain, we finally got a week of sunny weather coming up. At least I don't have to time my laundry days.

I have been on an Internet diet of sorts. After seeing my latest NTT bill, I think the digital fasting was in order although I'm still nothing compared to some of these cellphone-packing teens; my bill has been creeping up a bit in the past few months. However, it's not all that easy.

The big news here is that two of the major Japanese ball teams are thinking merger. The Kintetsu Water Buffaloes and the Orix Blue Wave, both Kansai-based teams, are in negotiations to get hitched to each other for financial survival. I know that the Blue Wave has never recovered from the loss of Ichiro to the Bigs. Plus, thanks to the Tokyo Giants, virtually all of the other teams in the Central and Pacific Leagues have been starved of a lot of the TV advertising revenue. It isn't uncommon not to see anything of these other teams outside of them being merely mentioned on the sports scoreboard. Of course, the fans aren't too thrilled but I think it'll have to be done. There's even been talk of just going to a 1-league format.

Breakfast for me was just a bowl of granola and the remaining half of that Hershey bar with coffee. Not exactly the healthiest morning meal, but it suits me fine enough.

Well, I have those three classes today. I'm just wondering if the second student will be pulling another absence. I would rather not lug around the extra texts if I don't have to.

Sunday June 13, 3:23 p.m.

Well, the rain did go away. We're back to warm and sunny. I had that first lesson with Jazz Buddy...or more accurately, a planning session for her future lessons, so I gallantly didn't accept her money. I'm sure the Tea Room staff must be considering charging me rent for the number of times I darken their territory. The session with her took about 3 hours as we gabbed over what we wanted to do and also about that relative snorefest at the DUG jazz bar a couple of months back.

When we finally left the Tea Room, we saw the beginnings of the Ichigaya "chonai matsuri" forming up. "Chonai Matsuri" translates roughly into "block festival". I gather it's a somewhat more decorous version of a block party, but with folks in traditional grab and portable shrines instead of T-shirts, jeans, beer and BBQ.

I got that first batch of photos from Sapporo done up. They didn't come out too badly, although that picture of the jumbo ramen from my first night there turned out a bit blurry. However, it did manage to fill up most of the frame.

Well, since the weather seems to have improved, I guess I'll hang out the mattresses to dry out and get some vacuuming done. I still gotta prep for my Monday classes.

Sunday June 13, 8:15 a.m.

Rain, rain, go away...yup, another major downpour this morning. Actually got up at 7 to have breakfast...on a Sunday, no less. Thank heavens next week, Jazz Buddy is going surfing.

Curry Master has contacted me stating that The Sysop can't make it for his usual lesson this Thursday because of work. So she has coyly asked me if still want to come over for her single lesson. I've left it up to her to make the call. I'm cool either way.

I'll be heading out in a little more than an hour to get some sample copies of potential texts for JB and then leave one of my disposable cameras from Hokkaido to be developed.

Looks like PM Blair has lost big in local elections. Well, when you deal with the Great Satan...

Saturday June 12, 8:46 p.m.

The official week of mourning for Reagan is over. But the funeral was about as Hollywood as one could get for a former movie star-turned-President. You had former colleagues, reformed leaders and one former archenemy in the seats, music on the John Williams/James Horner scale, an ex-President on the verge of tears, and finally a grieving widow who kept a brave front only to finally break down on her husband's coffin at his final resting site in the California sunset.

I had a lesson with SR for the first time in a few weeks. Looks like she had a sudden trip to LA about the same time I was traveling through Sapporo and she met an old friend of ours there. So we both exchanged souvenirs, and I think I got the better end of the deal. I not only got a giant Hershey's bar but I got gravy mix! You just don't know how difficult it is to get even an instant gravy mix in this city. I put it to good use tonight, though. I poured the hot silky mixture on some roast chicken that I'd bought at the supermarket. I even rustled up some mashed potatoes to give my gravy an extra workout. My cholesterol count will probably skyrocket but I am a happy man.

Well, tomorrow I've got that first lesson with Jazz Buddy. Since it's a first one, it'll just be a sounding board to find out what she really wants to do.

Friday June 11, 8:51 a.m.

Well, it looks like another legend has also passed on. Ray Charles, the King Of Soul, died yesterday. I wasn't a huge follower of his music but I, along with everyone else, knew his rendition of "Georgia On My Mind". And though, it has become more known as a treacly bit of 80s pop culture now, Ray Charles' contribution to "We Are The World" is still the highlight of the song. I think Anderson Cooper hit the right spot by ending the show with him playing "America The Beautiful" at Reagan's second inaugural.

Went to the salon for that haircut. Looks like the ladies there weren't as successful with their little trip to Guam as I was with my own to Sapporo. It rained on their parade, literally, for their three days.

Pretty quiet day yesterday. I just had that one class with Arwen and 77. It looks like I'll be having their lessons now on Thursdays instead of Fridays which suits me fine in a way. I can take off for home earlier on Friday. I had dinner at that Mao Chinese restaurant near my apartment. The folks have started merchandising themselves. There is now a Mao painting on the side of the outside wall, and the two waitresses were sporting T-shirts with the restaurant name. I don't think they've quite hit the Hello Kitty heights yet. No Anne Murray this time, though...they settled for just the radio. As usual, the place was deserted.

Looks like I may have yet another student. This one is a referral rather than an old student from the school.PH got me this one. I'll be starting with her on the 7th for the summer.

As for today, I've got The Teacher and SR. I don't have to lug that text of articles. She said that she'd bring a special article on Reagan. I haven't seen SR for a few weeks due to her work schedule. I've got her omiyage from Sapporo. I'll be finished at 5:30. Perhaps pasta for dinner will be in order.

Thursday June 10, 8:25 a.m.

Currently watching the Reagan funeral on CNN. Appropriately subdued; very little commentary accompanying the visuals which is rather surprising.

A bit of a bittersweet day yesterday on two fronts. I met up with my ex for lunch. She was pretty tired so she wasn't her usually chipper self. In fact, during lunch at one point, we got a bit snippy toward each other although I think I may be exaggerating a bit. It may have been more of a joint chiding more than anything else. She said that her life has come to a certain happy balance which of course I'm happy about. I rather wish I could say the same for my own life.

Later that night, I went down to The Maple Leaf for the second time to meet up with some of the folks from the Sunday BBQ to catch the Japan-India soccer match. The match was more target practice for the Japanese team than an actual game. Japan demolished the Indians 7-0. At one point, we had betting pools on the 2nd and 3rd goals; true to form, I lost both times. Nothing major in the money...just 1,000 yen each.

The bittersweet part at that event, though, was the stark reminder that I'm just not comfortable at social outings with a whole bunch of people I don't know. The Big Guy tried to engage me in conversation with some of his buddies...he even tried to recommend me as an English teacher for them. It was very kind of him, and I did have short bursts of talk with each of them. But simply speaking, I'll never be as comfortable in that situation as I am with students...in other words, a setting in which I have some sort of control or need to help people. Even with my outings with the alumni of my school, we may be friends now but the relationship is still of teacher-student. I guess I'll always be better in that sort of relationship.

Well, at least, the hamburger plate at The Maple Leaf was good.

Tuesday June 8, 12:53 p.m.

Just back for a respite for a few hours between classes. It's the first time in about a month since I've had one of these since getting back to the school classes, so it's rather nice to hang out in air-conditioned comfort. Pretty hot and humid right now and those clouds are threatening to burst.

This morning, one of my students related to me about her daughter who counsels kids in an orphanage. Before I go on, though, I have to give a bit of background infor here. Last week, while I was up in Sapporo, the big news nationwide was about this elementary school kid in Nagasaki who had stabbed a classmate to death with a cardboard cutter in an empty room at school during lunch hour. Apparently, the kid lost it when she found out on the Net that the classmate had made some disparaging remarks in a chat room, and she got her revenge.

Getting back to my student's daughter: the counselor was rather chilled when she asked her young charges about their thoughts on the incident. They all answered that they fully supported the murder as the right thing to do. My student was also very dismayed.

Yes, the murder and the kids' cold reactions to it are sad, to say the least. But I can't say that I'm very surprised by them. For the former, there have been these heinous acts committed by kids for the last several years, the worst of which was the Jun Hase decapitation in 1995 in the Kansai area. Also, several boys kidanpped, murdered, immolated and then dumped a girl into an oil drum a number of years ago. I can't really explain why these acts occurred except bleat out the usual increase in temptations for youth and the decrease in good guidance. As for the latter, well, they are kids. Kids by nature are immature (let's not got into the stereotypical precocious sitcom kids, shall we?) and they will say and do stupid things because of lack of knowledge and wisdom. Not to say that adults are incapable of those things...believe me, there are plenty of those everywhere, and even the smart ones screw up from time to time. In addition, those kids were at an orphanage, and I can't really say for sure if some or any of them have been raised to understand that murder is simply wrong for any reason. Again, my last sentence will have its caveats as well. However, I can only hope that most of them will come to the right realization.

A couple of other students chimed in then with that notorious film, "BATTLE ROYALE" as a possible influence for kids to do such things. I cannot say with perfect confidence that the Kinji Fukusaku production wouldn't cue a kid to go on a murder rampage in a school but I think the film and the original novel are more of a reflection or interpretation of today's youth more than anything else.

In any case, the investigation goes on.

Monday June 7, 9:12 p.m.

Well, Santa made another delivery today of packages of Shiroi Koibito on the good boy and girl students. Luckily, I was able to stuff all the boxes in one bag since I got burdened with a very inexpensive yogurt maker thanks to one of my students. I thought I was going to get some of that yogurt culture from the other student but it looks she forgot so the maker will have to wait a bit. So I had that yogurt maker, my bag and an umbrella since the rainy season has descended upon us in earnest.

My middle student canned out again so I could have a leisurely lunch at the Shibuya branch of VOLKS, the most famous Tokyo steakhouse chain until the OUTBACK invaded the Big Sushi.I just had the hamburg steak and steak cubes lunch with the multiple visits to the soup and salad bar.

I did my usual Monday visit to Tower Records, ostensibly to head up to the 7th floor to check out if TIME had sent a special commemorative issue on Reagan. But it was too soon so I just picked up the D-Day issue of the magazine. I haven't really picked up any CDs in the last month or so but I may pick up a few once we pass the middle of the month. Then, I headed up to Shinjuku and just had some coffee at bakery cafe near the company. My class there went pretty smoothly. I thought the Prez would be there since I hadn't seen him in about a couple of weeks. In a way, it was good that he was off at the factory again since I really wasn't much in the mood for having dinner out. I just wanted to get home and try to recover from the humidity.

I got some more packages to deliver tomorrow: to the morning Tsudanuma ladies and then the juku classes. Luckily, I won't be having a school class so I can have some down time during the afternoon.

The Big Guy sent out the invitation to catch Japan vs. India soccer on Wednesday night at the Maple Leaf Bar in Shibuya. I'll probably head out after my class with the Office Lady since I've only got my haircut on Thursday morning. Plus, since I'll be in the neighbourhood anyways.

Also, I'll be having my usual occasional lunch with the ex earlier in the day.

Monday June 7, 7:36 a.m.

The Reagan love-in continues. My memories of the man are the first ones that I ever had of a sitting president. I had been alive for four previous presidents but my memories of them when they were in office were all through their impressions by Rich Little or Dan Ackroyd or Chevy Chase. My first memory of Reagan came when he first took office and then proudly announced and welcomed the return of the American hostages from Iran. Then, there was the attempted assassination in 1981. I just remember seeing, in an age where 24-hour news was non-existent, wall-to-wall coverage of that moment when Reagan was waving at the folks before the camera suddenly shifted to a quickly developing scrum a few metres away. Then, I caught ABC's obviously agitated Frank Reynolds barely holding it together as he tried to keep the news going. Of course, after that famous scene, I remember him delivering the eulogy for the doomed Challenger crew and then of course, his famous "Tear Down This Wall" speech.

A former colleague of mine once told me that the only things needed to become a decent English conversation teacher in Japan were a sense of humour and charm. As a professional teacher, I wasn't particularly offended by that statement at all since I do believe it to some degree. Students won't remember me for my razor-sharp structure in presenting a grammar tense but they will remember the joke that was attached to that tense. I think Reagan used the same tactics to, whether the label is well-deserved or not, become one of the most popular presidents in the 20th century. Here was a guy who had to deal with Iran-Contra, tripled the national debt and wasn't loathe to kill a union. And yet, with his death, he's become this historical icon not only because of his fight against Communism but because he struck the average American as the ideal American: down-home, folksy, and humourous. Anyone who can crack two jokes immediately after an attempted assassination will probably merit everyone's admiration.

I received a response from Jazz Buddy about her first lesson. Looks like it'll be a go for this Sunday. She also mentioned that she didn't care about the rest of the other guys such as Skippy. Ouch! I'm not sure if it were a misphrasing of sorts but then again, I know that Skippy wasn't universally loved and that JB herself has been cited as having a pretty dark side. In any case, I now see myself working at least once every day. Now, usually I would be pretty depressed about that fact but it seems like JB has things she wants to do along with me on her Sundays, so I figure that we won't be getting together constantly every Sunday. I'll think I'll make that point clear to her when we meet on the 13th.

Well, it's rainy and in fact, a half-hour earlier, I heard some thunder rolling off in the distance. But I'll have to be carrying two bags today. One with my usual books and the other with my omiyage.

Sunday June 6, 11:30 p.m.

Currently watching the D-Day commemmorations in Arromanches, France. It's nice to see those oldtimers finally get their due from the President of France.

Well, the rains did come as I picked up my friend at Ebisu Station. But the BBQ was still on. The two of us arrived there as the Big Guy and his fiancee got the fire started on the grill. Luckily, the balcony of the upstairs apartment was large enough so that the grill was spared from the rain although the grillmaster and I got a bit wet.

My new friend managed to get quite comfortable with her acquaintances much to my satisfaction. Party Hearty once again put out quite a spread of BBQ meat, jerk pork, salad, marinated shishkebabed veggies among other things and then finally dessert. My new friend had to leave a bit early since she lives all the way up in Tokorozawa, Saitama. but she and the others exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses. There is a possibility that there may be another outing on Wednesday night at the Maple Leaf Pub in Shibuya. I may partake in it if I don't feel too tired. Mind you, the way it's looking right now, I'll just have one class that night...with the OL, and that's at 6:45.