Monday August 30, 9:40 p.m.

It got steamy again today although the signs were there that there was a typhoon not too, too far away. A spit of rain here, a gush of wind there. But there was nothing here to compare with the sturm und drang in the south. With the Olympics all done, the typhoon now has centre stage. It's gonna get downright torrid tomorrow with temps reaching 34. Shades of this summer.

Had the Class Act this morning as usual. The one student and I were heavily praising the other student on some bagels that we'd gotten from her as a souvenir last week. Boy, were they good! Her son-in-law had brought them over frozen from New York City from a highly praised bakery that has gotten high grades from the Jewish community. If bagels can be this good even after a deep freeze and several thousand kilometres of travel, I can only imagine how freshly-made must be like. I'm sorely tempted to check out their website.

After class, I checked out Tower Records and HMV in Shibuya for the first time there in a few weeks. That former SPEED girl, HIRO, has got her jazz CD out. I listened to a few tracks...not too bad. I may get it at the very least for curiosity's sake. However, the homegrown talent that I've become intrigued with is a unit called FRIED PRIDE.

I also ended up at McD's for lunch for the first time in well over a week. For me, that's a big achievement. However, I was a bit humbled by the Class Act when they told me that neither of them had been at the Golden Arches in several months. I'll chalk that up to generational gap. I would have chosen another Doner Kebab since I saw the truck outside of Towers today but unfortunately the guy was just setting up shop and I couldn't wait.

Went up to Shinjuku and I made a pit stop at the convenience store on the way to the Andersens Plaza to get another batch of Gatsby's Mentholated Wipes for my sweaty face and neck. Thought I wouldn't need anymore this year but I guess the summer is not done with us yet.

My lesson at the company was another solo. Luckily, it was the guy who actually can benefit from the lessons since he may be transferred to Toronto in the not-so-distant future. Still, I was pretty wiped by the end.

Got home to see that the typhoon was still taking up air time. Tokyo will be probably get its closest swipe overnight but it won't be too bad. The historical founders for the capital chose their site wisely. It's usually a freak occurence if a typhoon actually hits Tokyo dead-on.

From one circus to another. Now that the Athens Games have gone into history, the next big thing is the Republican National Convention in the States. Interesting term...circus. One featured the strongmen, the other will feature a lot more clowns.

Monday August 30, 7:34 a.m.

Not surprisingly, the Olympics and Typhoon 16 are sharing top spot in the news today. NHK is currently doing a musical interlude of all the medal winners ad nauseum...a pattern which I'm sure will be repeated throughout all the channels today and tomorrow.

Murofushi had that press conference about his new gold medal several hours ago. Again to use the expression, "not surprisingly", he expressed some regret about not getting it through the regular channels, namely on a podium in front of a cheering crowd. Still, he was grateful to get it.

Looks like that Men's Marathon had a bit of unwanted excitement. Some psycho defrocked Irish priest decided to tackle the Brazilian runner who had been in the lead. Apparently, the idiot is on some deluded mission to warn everyone about the end of the world by attacking athletes at world events. The runner sadly couldn't get the Gold but he did get the Bronze and he came in smiling, just thankful that he wasn't killed out there. Right attitude to have. But aside from that sordidness, the Athens Games finished safely.

Shard just told me that 80s pop singer Laura Branigan had passed away last week. Way too early for her to leave at 47. I know about "Gloria" but my favorite song by her is the ballad "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?" I'm sure a lot of her diehard fans are crying that right now.

Now, as for the typhoon...it looks like it's doing a real number on Shikoku and Kyushu. However, the forecast for the Kanto area for the next 24 hours will just be rain and some increased wind power. The closest it'll get timewise will be overnight tonight...very considerate of the typhoon. But I'll be bringing in my poles off the balcony before I take off for work today. Still, it'll literally skirt us here so there is every possibility that it may hiccup and end up dumping a world of meterological hurt on us.

Sunday August 29, 10:43 p.m.

The rain had pretty much gone down to a trickle by the time I got out for shopping. Was out and back within a half-hour. With the kimchi chicken sandwich, the remaining Japanese-style onion soup and rice with seasonings, I managed to stuff myself almost to bursting in a way that I didn't attain even at the Outback last week.

Even now on the final day of the Olympics, the Japanese medal rush continues. One of the male wrestlers managed to get himself a hard-fought bronze medal. I also have a bone to pick with NHK. In this country, there's a rather annoying rule amongst the TV networks here that the schedule is always king. So in Japanese baseball coverage, the networks give 2 hours at night...2.5 hours if there are extra innings...but that is it. Anything more is verboten...it could be a nailbiter of an extra-inning game but it doesn't matter...once 9:30 comes around, goodbye baseball. To be fair, though. I think the rules go out the window during the playoffs.

The reason I bring this up is that today, there was a real nailbiter of a Gold Medal handball match between Korea and Denmark which went into double overtime and eventually into a shootout. But then a few seconds into the second overtime, NHK decided to switch over for the weather. Yes, I know...Japan wasn't involved and yes, there was a typhoon to be scared of...but jeez, NHK...

This just in...looks like that Hungarian hammer thrower, Annus, just lost his gold due to doping. Murofushi gets it instead...YEAAAAH! This means that not only has Murofushi become the first Japanese to get a gold medal in the hammer throw but it means that Japan has gotten the highest number of gold medals in its Olympic history. The only down side is that the news comes in a much more subdued manner than if Murofushi had won it fair and square during the actual competition. Well, I'm sure that Mr. M doesn't mind at all. I guess his news will be competing with Typhoon 16 for time on the wide shows tomorrow morning. As for Annus, I'm sure he must feel like his name right now.

Got a call from my juku boss an hour ago. Looks like I've got a trial lesson with some high-falutin' intellectual type on Tuesday after my two regular classes. My boss says that she has the same sort of personality as that erstwhile student with the heart of darkness. Oh, that's just great...she apparently works at Tokyo University, just the most highly regarded (true or not) institution of higher learning in the country. Her TOEIC score is up around 900 which could signify advanced speaking ability. I just hope she's not a snob...

More on James "Scotty" Doohan. I remember 13 years ago when I had just returned from my tour of duty on the JET Programme back to Toronto to attend the big 25th-anniversary celebration in front of City Hall for Star Trek. It was basically a huge love-in for all things Trek with the star event being the appearance of the four supporting characters from the original series: Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols. The four were several hours late due to some plane delays, but I'm sure that all worked in favour of the vendors; everyone had been waiting to see the four. Finally as sunset was entering its final phase, they finally showed up.

George Takei seemed to act like he was the Ambassador of Star Trek with all the affectations of pomp and circumstance, Nichelle Nichols acted every inch the Holiday Inn lounge princess (she even sang a verse from one of her new tunes...the less said, the better), and Koenig was fairly sardonic (everyone enjoyed his sarcastic imitation of Shatner...no love lost there). However, it was Jimmy Doohan who got the biggest response of the night; we all loved the Miracle Worker. However, the stunner was when he revealed that he had once lived in the Toronto neighbourhood of Don Mills (he was born in Vancouver but raised in Sarnia, Ontario) and he even told the exact address. Oh my golly, I thought, the poor residents at that address will be inundated with extreme Trekkies on their front lawn for weeks.

Sunday August 29, 12:55 p.m.

Typhoon 16 is making its presence felt here although to a far lesser degree than in the south and west. It's been raining steadily all day but we've been saved the gales. A lot of people were saying that this typhoon will mark the coming of Fall. Not according to the weather forecast. We still have a few more days of torrid heat coming up.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. Just went to see M + M at the Tea Room. Had a very nice chat about what everyone was up to. One of them said that she'd started driving lessons since she was approaching the big 4-0. Signs of a mid-life crisis? She needn't worry all that much...she still looks young for someone in their late 30s. For me, the only place I wanna be in a car is in the back.

The Olympics are winding down and most of the Japanese contingent are back home. I kinda wonder how that's gonna look to the rest of the Athens crowd during the closing ceremonies but then again as I recall, all the athletes just enter the stadium pell-mell regardless of nation anyways. Still, Japan has nothing to be ashamed about...the best ever results for the country in Olympic history and 5th overall in the medal standings. Lots of fodder for the wide shows for the next week.

With this rainy Sunday, I'll be getting some housework out of the way. I'll pack a couple of more boxes for the Anime King to be shipped out on Tuesday. Then, I'll start planning for lessons for tomorrow before getting the fixins for dinner.

Friday August 27, 10:39 p.m.

My chat with The Teacher produced some info that I could use for future travels to smaller Japanese-style ryokan. Perhaps, I may try for one more overnighter in the Fall in Sendai but seeing how my income is so far this month, maybe it'll have to wait until next year.

I met up with The Beauty Pair and their eccentric friend for karaoke tonight at the Urayasu Shidax. It was only my second time there, the first time being several years ago. It hasn't changed...still has that Disneyland look. When we got there, all of the customers were just teens probably enjoying their final days of freedom before returning to school next week. We got our little cubicle and spent 3 hours of singing and noshing...the food at the Shidax is a bit higher class than that of the other chains. I certainly got my money's worth of singing; I basically followed the pattern of alternating between English and Japanese. I was even able to tackle some songs that I hadn't done in years, and I realized that "Beyond the Sea" is gonna be one of my touchstones from now on. We also got some entertainment from our eccentric friend when he tried to blast through some Zeppelin with his fractured English.

After all that debauchery, I'm glad that I don't have anything until 4 p.m. tomorrow since the kids are still enjoying their vacation in Hawaii. And I'm now assuming that the mother of the Little Owl has dumped me since I haven't heard anything from her for over a month now. Hey, fine with me...I was never much for teaching kids anyways. I am a bit concerned about the weather since Typhoon 16 is just around the corner. Apparently, the storm may even make a sharp turn north towards us on Monday.

Being the Trekkie, it's with sadness that I heard about James "Scotty" Doohan's swan song appearance at the next Star Trek convention. I'd kept hearing about his final appearance for a number of months so I figured that the "Miracle Worker" was ailing. Indeed, he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's so he'll be walking down that inexorable road toward oblivion. That last appearance there may not even leave a Borg or a Vulcan dry-eyed.

Friday August 27, 9:32 a.m.

Just watching the Paula Zahn exclusive with the soldiers who were right there when all the Abu Ghraib abuses were going on. What was striking was how Peter Parker the accused looked and sounded. Just makes me wonder how many regular people could be in that situation and act any differently. I'm afraid I can't be that optimistic.

Another typhoon is on our doorstep...or a little off on the lawn, so to speak. Okinawa and southern Japan will get the brunt of it, but Tokyo may also get a bit sideswiped this weekend.

Thursday August 26, 10:20 p.m.

Looks like the Athens organizers can be happy that the arena was filled to overflowing for at least one night after a fellow countrywoman got the gold in the 400m hurdles.

Quiet day today. Just cleaned up the place just in case the Chipmunk visited which she didn't. I picked her up at the station and took her to the Japanese-style family restaurant a minute away from the apartment. I helped her out on a couple of English presentation she'll have to make next week overseas...the topic was on wince-inducing stuff such as urine bags and catheters. I managed not to scrunch my face too much. She treated me to dinner in thanks but I also gave her some of those New York bagels that I got from one of my students. I had one of them this morning...yup, it tastes like a bagel.

The Japanese equivalent of the FTC actually raided some of the big music companies like Sony and Avex Japan. It looks like there was some sort of unholy cartel among the big five to bar the other smaller outfits from reaping profits from the usage of original songs as in lieu of ring tones on cellphones. Amazing what happens here...

Well, I have my last class of a very slow week tomorrow. I've got The Teacher for her lesson. Then I meet the Beauty Pair for all-night karaoke.

Thursday August 26, 2:28 a.m.

Up somewhat late tonight so I might as well contribute something before I finally retire.

For the first time since the Athens Games began, Japan didn't earn a single medal on Tuesday. But it did get its bronze in baseball yesterday. So, now, Japan has passed its old record of 32 medals set back in LA 1984 to have its most successful Olympics. And the synchro swimming pair may actually get something today.

I met up with the ladies today. As usual, a lot of gab but they were happy. Also, I got some souvenirs from one of them in the form of bagels straight from the Big Apple. Looks like I won't be worrying about breakfast rolls for the next little while. And I also got a number of chocolates. Afterwards, I went up to Akihabara to see if the Anime King's latest request in the form of a soundtrack were there. No such luck. But I did see my favorite Doner Kebab truck nestled in one of the many side streets of the electronics district. Resistance was indeed futile so I grabbed myself some lunch.

Although it was too bad that the OL cancelled out last night, I was able to get home early and crash a bit before dinner. Dinner was a recipe from my trusty ol' Chinese cookbook that I'd bought all the way back in the late 80s. The recipe called for Hoisin Sauce. When my old buddy, the Iconoclast, dumped a lot of stuff on me, he left me several jars of various Chinese condiments. The Hoisin Sauce officially expired in 2002 so I was somewhat concerned. But aside from some gray scum to the side, the sauce worked out well. The wonders of refrigeration for you...

With a free Thursday, I'll be cleaning up the place again so that I can possibly entertain Chipmunk's arrival later tonight.

The last part of this is on a wistful note, but seeing that it is the middle of the night, I thought it would be appropos. For over a month, I've gotten no word from either Arwen or 99. I'd actually sent a message off to Arwen whose e-mail address I do have, but never got a reply back. I know that she has that new demanding job but I'd thought that she'd have some time to let me know how she's doing. The last time I saw the pair was at El Torito where they had a great time. I'm still 100% positive but I have the sad feeling that that Sunday night was perhaps the big kissoff to me. My lessons with them weren't exactly the most successful since they didn't seem to chime in with the text too well. I would have thought that Arwen would have at least given me some sort of lame excuse to forego our professional relationship but she hasn't sent word one. And I would've thought that at least our personal friendship was still intact but I'm now thinking that even that's non-existent as well. I don't think I offended them in any way or was that bad a teacher. It just hurts, that's all, especially because in the one year prior to their "disappearance", I'd thought that our little friendship had been one of my stronger ones. Just don't know...but I do know that in the very iffy case that I hear from either or both of them again, I don't think I'll be nearly as cordial.

I think what makes it even more galling for me is that Arwen isn't the first one. The Madam pulled a similar stunt earlier this year starting with that sudden cancellation from my Xmas dinner. I haven't totally forgiven her for that since I felt pretty rotten eating alone at the restaurant. Now I'm just afraid that I may have to be standoffish where students are concerned. I haven't bothered calling Skippy since I don't want to give the impression that I'm pushing. And I haven't sent any word over to my ex for the same and additional reasons. Frankly, I'm wondering if I'll have to live the life of a monk from now on with only Movie Buddy being the only person that I really trust here.

Tuesday August 24, 10:33 p.m.

Another sweaty day. Met Movie Buddy for Fahrenheit 911 at la Theatre Ginza. We noticed that the majority of the viewers were quite a bit older than us. The staff also had an interesting approach for getting the people in...kinda like boarding procedures for a plane. It was actually a full house...the first time since The Phantom Menace back in 1999 that I'd actually experienced that, although the theatre only held 150 people. The trailers also seemed to drag on for a long time before the main event.

Now as for Michael Moore's magnum opus: after all the hoopla and the Palme D'Or, I got to see what all the fuss was about. I'm just gonna state the obvious here, but it was a very heavily partisan attack on Bush and his administration...not just professionally but on a personal level as well. Despite that repeatedly played scene of Bush on vacation with the Go-Gos background music, 911 was definitely a lot more somber than Bowling for Columbine. I marveled at how Moore got access to some of that footage from Iraq; I'm sure that Bush's press team must have been slapping themselves upside the head at how some of those scenes got to Moore. Moore also wove an intricate web of conspiracy connecting Bush, Cheney and the Bin Ladens on a scale that matched The Lone Gunman and anything from the X-Files but I have to wonder how strong that web really is. Some of the footage was fairly humourous, especially on how Moore chose his BGM for his scenes (the theme from that ol' 80s show, "The Greatest American Hero" to back up Bush's now-criticized appearance on the aircraft carrier, for example), and harrowing when it came to the grisliness of the bombing victims and Mrs Pedersen's coming to terms with her son's death.

Will 911 actually sway the election? Maybe/maybe not. Anti-Bushers and pro-Bushers will remain in their respective camps, and the undecided bloc will only use the movie as a small touchstone to make their decisions. There are many more variables out there for those folks to think about. And in any case, it isn't a direct election. I couldn't say that I enjoyed the film...things were just too grim for that but I can say that Moore gave his viewpoint very clearly. Plus, it is the first documentary that I've seen in a theater for decades. My butt was starting to get awfully sore and therefore I was getting pretty restless by the time 911 finished 2 hours and 10 minutes later. There wasn't the usual buildup, climax and denouement of a regular escapist flick for me to time my comfort zone.

Afterwards, MB and I made a slow walk through Ginza which didn't exactly keep me cool. The theater also wasn't all that cool either so I was feeling distinctly moist. We were searching for a pizza buffet place that MB's girlfriend knows but to no avail, so we ended up having a late lunch at the Fujiya in Yurakucho. Surprisingly, we didn't really go into all that much analysis of 911. I guess Moore did that for us. We just did our usual chat on other movies before breaking up an hour later. I'm not sure when we'll be meeting next time. Perhaps it'll be when the Ballerina makes her next return to Tokyo in a couple of weeks.

I made my way back to Urayasu for my juku. My two classes were fairly spritely affairs. The Beauty Pair and I spent a few minutes talking about our next social meeting on Friday with their eccentric friend from a few weeks ago. Hopefully, he won't drop his pants at Urayasu Station like he did when he first entered the izakaya. It'll be a karaoke affair at the local SHIDAX. Good choice, since the chain has the best rep amongst the karaoke boxes. Also, the juku boss herself will be filling the slot vacated by that student who's now getting used to life in Kentucky. She'll need the work since her structure is all over the place. I'll be glad to keep that extra slot occupied for the income.

The Office Lady sent in a cancellation notice today. So I've just got the Class Act for the first time in a few weeks. It'll be nice seeing them again. I'll have to tell them about 911 since it was one of them who had given me the ticket. Plus, I'll be seeing the Chipmunk Thursday night to check her PowerPoint presentation. It'll be a working dinner near my place. Also, it looks like The Anime King has made another order with Sega. I got another note from Yamato. I don't mind helping out my friend but I just don't want to end up being a clearinghouse all the time.

The Olympics are starting to wind down as far as the Japanese contingent is concerned. The main engines for the national gold rush have come back home and had their press conferences. The women's volleyball team have finally been eliminated (a lot of soul-searching will be taking place for that group, I'm sure), the gymnastics are done, and the coach for the women's softball team has resigned. Plus, Japan is not much of a force in the remaining track n' field events. I think the last couple of hopes for gold are in the baseball and synchro. We may actually match, if not exceed, the best gold result by the time the Games wrap up.

Tuesday August 24, 8:04 a.m.

Another bittersweet night at the Olympics. There were no less than 4 women in wrestling up for gold. Half got their wish. However, the expected champion, Kyoko Hamaguchi, had to settle for bronze in a rather large upset. Her rather colourful father, "Animal" Hamaguchi - a former pro wrestler, raised the 9 Levels of Hell from the stands at the officiating. Before one makes the inevitable comparisons between Animal and the father of the Williams sisters, though, he really is a tough but tender father. However, I don't think any judge should approach the Animal anytime soon.

Yesterday, on my way to the company, I dropped off at a point between Ginza and Kyobashi to check out Le Ginza Theatre a day before Fahrenheit 911. It looks like I may have to head out a bit early this morning to get another ticket since the lady told me that yesterday's afternoon show got a full house. The theatre is next door to the Seiyo Hotel, that place that one of my Monday morning students told me about. It's a small, subtle but expensive-looking hotel; the two Benzs out in front made that point abundantly clear. Luckily, I was in more formal gear, otherwise I would've felt distinctly underdressed even just passing the Seiyo.

I read the latest issue of METROPOLIS. It certainly has bulked up on the human interest stories. First, the Fischer controversy and now an article on the mean streets of Tokyo and how the governor is cracking down on the sin via a page out of Rudy Giuliani's playbook. Hey, I'm all for that; however, I'm not sure if I can really believe seeing a Warner Bros. goods store in formerly gang-ridden Kabukicho.

Monday August 23, 9:02 a.m.

It's become a morning ritual. Go to sleep and then wake up to find out that Japan has gotten a few more medals. For the 2nd consecutive Olympics, a Japanese won the Women's Marathon. It certainly helped that her main rival, a British woman, crumpled in the heat and humidity. I'd say it was a testament as well as a miracle that the training and stamina could keep most of the competitors in the race, let alone actually finish, considering the aforementioned weather and the arduousness of the course. Along with the gold in the marathon, Murofushi got his silver in the hammer throw and there were another two bronzes. I think the winner in the marathon can look forward to having a lucrative career in TV ads if she follows her predecessor's lead. It was a good race for everyone...all 3 entrants from Japan placed in the top 10.

The weather does feel good outside. We'll also get some rain later on. Hopefully, a sign of things to come?

Sunday August 22, 7:57 p.m.

An interesting time with the Jazz Buddy today. I fulfilled her request for steak by setting the lesson in Shinagawa so that we could go to the Outback afterwards. She may be soft-spoken but she doesn't hesitate to reject something if she doesn't like it. We initially went to Anna Millers, that bastion of short-skirted waitresses and the target for millions of otaku everywhere on the Net, as a venue for the lesson. We had just sat down and looked at our menus when JB asked if we could move elsewhere. It wasn't because of the potentially sexually harassing atmosphere, though; she just felt the place was too stuffy and a bit too expensive for just coffee.

So we ended up at one of those trendy open cafes within a store in the WING shopping mall some metres down the way. The lesson went fairly well and then we went to the Outback. It was her first time there so she was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about when Gabby had told her about the group outing there a few weeks ago.

We both ordered pretty much the same thing: the Outback Special with relevant side items, complementary sourdough bread and a shared plate of chicken wings. She didn't seem to care much for the sourdough bread so I was quite happy to take it off her hands. During the order-taking, JB gave our amiable bilingual waitress a good grilling on the recommendations. I'm not very sure if she would've gotten as polite and friendly a response if she'd done the same sort of thing at an equivalent American eatery, though.

I gotta admit...for such a slim and somewhat pallid lady, JB has an appetite to rival mine. The lady was as relentless as the Borg in tackling her meal. In my past outings with various students over the years at the Outback, the ladies either shared one plate in pairs or crumbled under the weight of 225 grams individually. Not Jazz Buddy. She didn't devour her steak and sides with gusto or speed but she did devour it some 10 minutes with grim determination after I sped through my meal. Our conversation unsurprisingly centered on the theme of comparing Japanese vs. American cuisine. She would later thank me for introducing her to what American cuisine was like. I would also recall that she was the only one in our group outing at Fujimamas a couple of months ago that could polish off the entire humongous breakfast platter there.

She even decided to go for dessert so I immediately ordered the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under, a massive tower with a brownie foundation, a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, a towering penthouse of whipped cream and an intimidating amount of chocolate sauce pooling and covering the bottome of the plate. Both the waitress and I assumed it would be a shared eating opportunity so she brought 2 spoons. However, the symbolism of extra silverware was lost on JB who then proceeded to pull the entire dish towards her and again used her Borg powers to single-handedly shave down the sides of all the layers and mash it up before eating. Relentless and efficient...past challengers just attacked the Thunder anywhere which brought down the whole mess like a fallen redwood within the first 30 seconds of attack. The kicker was that all the time she was eating it solo, she just kept stating how overly sweet and undelicious it was. The lady's a machine. I didn't particularly mind not being included in the participation in dessert though I think I could've lessened her suffering if she'd asked me to help her out; I find that the Thunder has a pretty cloying Play-Doh aftertaste. I prefer the cheesecake but I didn't bothering ordering it since I knew I couldn't handle that all by myself...at least not anymore.

Well, back home now. Japan has further garnered some more medals. No golds in today's harvest but the folks in swimming, yachting and bicycling managed to fill up the silver and bronze ranks quite nicely.

My Monday will be fairly blank until my lone class at the company tomorrow night. I'll just clean up around the place and then do some recon for that theater in Ginza before Movie Buddy and I catch Fahrenheit 911 on Tuesday.

Saturday August 21, 8:31 p.m.

Spoke with Mom for the first time in a month. She and Dad plus their friends had a good time on their Alaskan cruise. Another one of those floating all-you-can-eat buffet ships. They got to see the tail ends of whales and one brown bear up in the tundra. They also got to meet the relatives in Vancouver.

Got over to the Grapevine a full half-hour before it started. Being the first one there, the old but kindly proprietor gave me a glass of beer. I had to sip slowly so that I didn't end up entertaining the masses a bit too much. The party was a smaller affair as is usually the case with the September grads but it was good. We had eight out of nine grads show up with six teachers: me, Movie Buddy, The Jester, The Rapper, The Shamrock and a new teacher, the High Roller. In previous years, we've had our grad parties at the Grapevine. My impression was not all that great of the place due to a subpar menu one time and the fact that it's a pretty old and dank place more suited for the streets of old Asakusa. However, the fried chicken, the beef stew (for which I got a doggie bag) and the other dishes worked out very well today. Plus, the owners were very nice people. And we got some special off-menu cakes for dessert. I may just take them up on their offer to dine there for dinner one night..that is, if I ever get a chance to teach at the school again.

I may have committed one faux pas when I mentioned that there would be a singing segment and I made a snarky crack about it. The Coordinator is big on singing at these parties, but I am most definitely not. I realize that she likes it so I should've just held my tongue. It doesn't look like there was any damage, though. One good thing about the smaller September graduation parties is that the speeches by the students are resultingly smaller in number.

Also the following parties for this group were also somewhat more subdued. This group of alumni consisted of a quieter lot so we just had some coffee before the karaoke box opened up next door. We spent the next couple of hours there with The Rapper taking the lead in the singing. We started out filling a couple of rooms but by the second hour, one of the rooms emptied out. I took care of the financial matters which were surprisingly inexpensive. And I also contributed my vocal cords; my impression of Satchmo on "What A Wonderful World" seemed to have wowed the masses. Everything broke up by 6:30 which was fine with me since I really needed to get a shower.

Before he took off, the Jester and I had a short talk on stuff. True to his moniker, he's been the life of every party that we've had over the past year. However, today, despite his usual jokes and antics, he told me that he was exhausted after a pretty sleepless week. It's darn admirable of him to keep the party going but he really doesn't need to stress himself out. He did mention that he'd like to try out the food museums at the Sunshine 60 Building someday in the near future. Unfortunately, his weekeday night schedule is booked up and the museums are crowded to the rafters during the weekend, so we may have to wait a while until he gets a better schedule.

The Ballerina left a message in response to mine. She's doing OK although she did mention that she had a small problem with her eye. She'll be coming back to Tokyo in a couple of weeks so we'll probably get together again in early September.

Well, got the lesson with Jazz Buddy tomorrow in Shinagawa followed by another steak dinner at the Outback.

Looks like the weather is starting to slow down in the heat pumps. Just going to 29 tomorrow. Maybe we'll start facing that inexorable slide into Fall.

Saturday August 21, 9:27 a.m.

Had the AC turned on as soon as I got up as has been the ritual since the summer began, only to be slightly embarrassed when I opened the window to get the laundry going. It actually felt drier and cooler. Looks like the typhoon is making up for yesterday's blast by giving us more reasonable weather.

Well, it's official now. Japan medal count just surpassed its Sydney count. It was a bumper crop yestereday with two more judo golds, a swimming gold and a swimming bronze. Definitely a good way to finish up the judo competition with that double gold. Of course, the media are sinking their teeth into this story.

A little bit more household stuff to do before heading out for the grad party. Gotta pick up a camera as well.

Friday August 20, 8:11 p.m.

The lesson with The Teacher turned out to be a gabfest. Kinda too bad since the material she brought with her was on David Cronenberg. Always good to read up on a fellow Canadian.

Afterwards, I headed out to Ginza in the blazing heat. The area is a solar conductor with all of the pavement and concrete holding and reflecting the heat and the tall buildings barring any winds from the bay. I just basically browsed through the CD stores, just buying a Premiere magazine.

Then, I headed up to the school. Looks like there have been improvements during my absence. There was a rather large library along the wall with basic reader versions of famous movies ranging from "My Fair Lady" to "Mrs. Doubtfire". I got there a couple of hours before the pizza party so I spent that time re-acquainting myself with the students. They were quite happy to see me after so long so we basically had a good chatfest before the pizzas arrived. When they asked me what I was back here for, I told them that I was there for the pizza and them....although I didn't give them the ratio. Saw The Jester and met the new addition to the crew.

The pizza party took care of my dietary needs for the day. With The Teacher paying for my coffee and sandwiches this morning, my food budget was at a rare minimum. Movie Buddy was the only other teacher to show up for the culinary feast. Of course, I'll see him and another such feast tomorrow at the grad party.

I just got home to see Japan crush Canada 9-1 in baseball, and now the track n' field events are starting up with the hammer throw. We got our local favourite, Murofushi, propping up the side here.

MB asked me about catching Fahrenheit 911 on Tuesday which is fine with me since I've got nothing until the juku. I found a theatre in Ginza which is showing the Michael Moore opus. Hopefully, the free tickets will be accepted there.

I got another delivery notice at the door. Looks like Anime King made another purchase from the boys at SEGA.

Not sure what it's gonna be like tomorrow weatherwise. With the typhoon north of us, we may get a drop in temps and some rain.

Friday July 20, 8:13 a.m.

Another Gold and Silver. A once-hard luck judoist on the Olympic mats finally got her medal in a big way, and a guy who last got a bronze way back at the Montreal Olympics got a silver in archery.

Paddy's contacted me. We'll be meeting up on the 4th for some brewskis at the Maple Leaf. I've also invited PH but she's iffy. May need to get the ol' Hotel ready once again.

Watching the Michael Jackson trial, I just reminisce when he was once admired and beloved for his music and the Moonwalk back in my high school days, He's now seen as a has-been freak by most of the States except for a group of extremely loyal fans. I'm frankly not sure if he's indeed a pedophile, but I think he is a sadly disturbed fellow who has Peter Pan Syndrome.

Thursday August 19, 9:49 p.m.

Don't mind me...I'm just broiling again. Another skin-searing day today in the Big Sushi. 35 degrees once more although there were probably areas such as concrete-and-glass bound Shinbashi which registered higher temps. And we're gonna face another hot one tomorrow as well. However, we are getting a bit of variety...we've got Typhoon 15 skirting us to the north which will dump a ton of rain on the northern frontier; ironically for that reason, we'll be getting hit with the heat wave for one more day. Then, about an hour ago, we got slightly rocked by a Shindo 3 tremor. The weatherman said that after Friday, the temperature will drop below 30 as the typhoon has a more sympathetic influence on us.

Had my haircut at the salon this morning. My regular stylist is just the most "up-with-people" type. Anything I say is given the utmost attention and enthusiasm. To be honest, I'm not sure if she's truly interested in what I have to say (preferably, I'd rather have my haircut in total silence but I also like to be considerate) but my ex told me that her personality really is switched to 11 and I can't believe anyone could maintain a veneer of enthusiasm for almost 2 years without going nuts. In any case, I'm less scraggly now.

Just had a bit of lunch and stuff at home for a few hours before heading out once more in the summer sun to see SR at the Tea Room. Recently, I found out that one of the waitresses there actually lived in my neighbourhood so today we had a bit of a chat and compared notes. She goes to all of my shopping places so it'll be inevitable that we'll catch each other now that she's put me on notice. I'll have to be on my best behaviour from now on.

Cooked up a mess of protein, carbohydrates and veg in one dish so that I'll be able to hold up just nicely until breakfast. The Olympic team had a bit of heartbreak today. Kosei Inoue, the heavyweight judoist and captain of the entire Japanese delegation, was upset by a Dutchman in the quarterfinals. And the Japanese didn't fare too well in the individual gymnastics category after getting that gold for the group. Still, we're doing pretty well.

It'll just be The Teacher so no planning needed there. And then, I'll probably head out to the school for the term-end pizza party. This will actually be the first time there in a month. And it'll be the first time that I didn't get a chance to teach the graduating class in their final week. I'm not too bothered by it, though, since my time with this current group wasn't too long. However, I'll be glad to see them tomorrow and then on graduation day on Saturday.

Wednesday August 18, 8:53 p.m.

5 hours of teaching today. It's been a while since I did that; as a result, I'm feeling pretty tapped out. I'm not even that hungry. I just had some chicken nuggets with some milk. Part of the problem was the remainder of the spaghetti I had for breakfast. That was pretty gnarly stuff. Next time, I won't throw in a ton of shredded cheese into my Spaghetti Pepperoncino...not a good mix. Cheese and Spaghetti Bolognese, that's the ticket.

I had my final class with the Biologist. Very pleasant. She pulled off her best presentations to date today. I wish her well.

Looks like we have another two finals to look forward to in judo. But the Men's baseball team just had their asses handed back to them by Australia of all countries.

Checked up on how ol' Canada was doing. Just one bronze medal. A bit early but I wonder if anyone in Sports Canada will be looking for a job afterwards.

Tuesday August 17, 11:50 p.m.

Looks like Japan is going through a gold rush of sorts. Almost 24 hours after the gymnastics team got its gold, another judoka, Tanimoto, got hers in dramatic fashion. I'm starting to remember how much I enjoyed watching judo in the first half of the Sydney Olympics. And Greece got its own gold in judo right now much to the joy of the local crowd. For Japan, though, it's 6 gold medals and counting.

Another blazing hot day. The humidity was really bad thanks to the rain tonight. It just sealed in the sweat that wanted to evaporate, so I felt like I was wearing a thin coat of moisture. Not pleasant. What's worse is that we'll be back up to 35 tomorrow and I've got a full slate on my plate. I've got the kids for a rare weekday class, the Biologist for her last lesson, and then the OL. Speaking of last lessons, I had the final class with my 9-10 student tonight before he takes off for his new life in the States. Best of luck to him.

Those Yokohama pics came in. They look pretty good. I'll be quite happy to post those in my album. Well, it's off to bed.

Tuesday August 17, 9:32 a.m.

It's Asahi Beer Time! Looks like this Japanese team has been providing a lot of thrills and heartbreak...what the Olympic experience is. We picked up another couple of medals. A bronze in swimming, but the big one was a gold in group gymnastics, the first one since Montreal. Of course, the media has been swarming all over the triumphant team like bees on an invading wasp.

It's one of the intriguing things about the Japanese coverage. Back Stateside, one network bids out of the four majors to become the sole broadcaster while the other three feed on relative scraps. Over here, NHK and all of the commercial networks share coverage so that at least two stations during prime broadcasts have their eye on different venues. Great idea. I only feel sorry for the winning athletes,though. If they especially win gold, they're pretty much required to attend every network's HQ in Athens for interviews. After all their work and tension, the media spotlight must be like going from the frying pan into the fire.

Monday August 16, 9:15 p.m.

Well, since my last entry, Japan grabbed another gold from swimming. Kosuke Kitajima is another Olympian hero. However, since then, the men's soccer team played themselves out of medal contention and the women's volleyball team lost another one, this time to Italy. Right now, I just saw a former member of that women's team and a former pro tennis player giving a bit of a scolding on air about how an Olympic team should play. I can only imagine that the coach must be vocally stripping the wallpaper off in the dressing room.

Back in the real world, we got back to the heat and humidity. My back and neck were all sticky and wet as I staggered up the stairs to the apartment and my AC is up and running once more after a day off. However, we may get another round of cooler (under 30) weather and rain tomorrow.

I made it over to City Hall and updated my gaijin card. Only took 5 minutes and then I was off to Shinjuku. I ended up having my coffee again at Andersens before teaching my company class. Man, that low student was really low today....completely on tree trunk mode. I've almost finished the text so I have to think about getting the next text for them. It'll have to be the Side by Side 2; there's no way any of them can handle anything harder. I don't even know if I'm gonna get renewed.

It'll be another day of nothing tomorrow until the juku classes. I'll go grab that rubdown and then make up a mess of pasta to use up all the remaining cheese. I just bought a big hamburger patty on rice and salad for dinner. I'm rather impressed at how much the Japanese love their Salisbury Steak. Back home, when one thinks of hamburgers, one thinks of the patty between two halves of a bun and an assortment of condiments. Over here, we of course have that but hamburger steaks are even more ubiquitious than probably in Salisbury, England. Every supermarket has them in the showcase. My supermarket has them either smothered in some sort of sauce, whether it be soy or Italian tomato, on a bed of rice. It's just too easy to pick one up for a quick dinner or lunch.

Sunday August 15, 11:09 p.m.

After 40 days and 40 nights of record-breaking heat wave, the Mt. Ararat of temperatures delivered us from oblivion, albeit temporarily. Thanks to a barrage of low pressure systems up north, Tokyo finally broke its hex and got a good dousing and a mere 22-degree high. It felt almost like Fall. However, we'll be back to mundane reality again from tomorrow.

After my kids yesterday, I went off to meet Movie Buddy in front of the Picadilly in Shinjuku to catch RIDDICK. It was just two of us as I'd expected. Well, what can I say about RIDDICK? I never caught PITCH BLACK but the sequel was pretty much stand alone despite some of the back references. It struck me as an entertaining B-movie. For that reason, I was surprised that Dame Judi Dench appeared in it. I guess the old age pension just isn't making ends meet for her. As for Vin Diesel, I'm wondering if he's gonna end up being an answer to a trivia question about early 21st-century Hollywood.

We did our usual kaffeeklastch after the flick before we headed back home and did our semi-annual DVD-a-thon. We grabbed some salad and drinks at the supermarket, and then ordered some pizzas from home. It's actually been several months since my last taste of pizza. Basically, the last time I had it was during the last time MB came over for DVDs.

The DVD-a-thon followed the mediocre path started by RIDDICK earlier in the day. The best of the weak lot was BAD BOYS 2. I actually enjoyed it a bit better than MB did; he just found it headthumpingly homophobic. I thought the same, but the action scenes were typically Michael Bay entertainment. Certainly, the extended car chase rivaled that of MATRIX RELOADED. However, I found Will Smith's character throughly unlikeable and even wished that Martin Lawrence actually went through his decision to break up the partnership. Some scenes also seemed to have been tacked on as an afterthought.

It was pretty much downhill from there. I SPY was another Eddie Murphy step into the sunset of his career. Something just didn't gel between him and Owen Wilson although individually both had some good zingers. MB liked it better than I did.

And last AND least, there was BULLETPROOF MONK. The title may have been fine for an obscure comic but all it did was just elicit a smirk as a title for a feature movie. Mind you, it was nice to see that all those English lessons Chow Yun Fat had taken didn't go to waste. And it was nice seeing all those Toronto scenes. Pity about the movie.

It's been a great weekend for the local sports fan here. There are the National High School Baseball Championships and the Olympics. Great start for Japan in Athens. During our DVD-a-thon, Ryoko Tani and one other fellow managed to grab two golds in judo. Mind you, those two may represent half of the medals Japan is gonna get but it's nice to see them explode right from the start. And it's looking pretty up for the gymnastics team. Continuing on the sports beat, the huge news comes from the Giants where the dictator owner of the team suddenly resigned to take responsibility for some sort of illegal scouting scandal. I think there's more to the story than has been shown so far. A guy like Tsuneo Watanabe wouldn't just give up the goat over some low underling's error...an error that probably occurs regularly in just about every other team.

Both MB and I had a good amount of sleep despite the fact that we hit the hay around 3 a.m. this morning. I kept the AC on for MB and then of course, the arriving coolness helped things out immensely. By the time, we got out of the apartment, it was already past noon so we ended up going to the nearby Skylark for a bit of lunch. We had a good ol' time talking up the movies.

We hit the subway and headed out to the city. MB was going back home all the way on the other side while I made a pit stop at Maruzen to pick a book for the kids. Then, it was off to Shinjuku to meet Jazz Buddy. I had an hour before she showed up so I just sat in the old plaza. It was a different feeling not sweating up fountains outside. When I went in, I saw JB sitting all the way in the back of the Starbucks. We could only do the first hour there since the place closed at 7 so we continued things at Bologne, a cafe in the Century Hyatt. We both had a very nice Steak on Rice set there and we chatted up on hitting the Outback after the lesson, so we've set up the lesson in Shinagawa next week.

Since I've got nothing until the company tomorrow night, I can wake up pretty leisurely although that will depend whether it will remain cool during the morning.

With all of the sports going on right now, the news that it's the 59th anniversary of the end of WWII for Japan has been largely smothered despite the NHK-televised ceremony at the Budokan today. Perhaps in a way, it's a good thing.

Hey, another two medals in judo.

Saturday August 14, 7:57 a.m.

Woke up at 6 and turned on the telly to see the highlights from the Opening Ceremonies. Yup, didn't miss all that much...just the usual idealistic images and the lighting of the torch. The Japanese team looked less goofy than they did at Sydney although I think the female athletes resembled a pyjama party contingent. A lot of people crab about how over-the-top the Americans are about their media coverage of their athletes. However, Japan is not really any different. Fuji-TV devoted 2 hours to just one athlete, a 15-year-old ping pong prodigy who used to cry up a storm whenever she lost a game. I hope her maturity has grown along with her talent. Every other station here has also devoted itself to some sort of Olympic cheerleading, complete with its own inspirational pop song.

I heard that these Olympics could be the dirtiest ever due to the drug infractions. Maybe the new motto could be: Higher, Stronger, Faster, Dopier?

Friday August 13, 8:39 p.m.

A supposedly unlucky day but so far, so good. I hope the Olympics fare just as well. Since we're 7 hours ahead of Athens, I'll be fast asleep while the Opening Ceremonies are playing themselves out. I'm not too disappointed since the OC is merely a lot of pomp and circumstance but unlike Sydney, we'll be missing out on a good chunk of the Games daily due to the time difference.

It was another hot one today but relief may finally be around the corner. We may actually dip down past 30 on Sunday with rain. We can only hope.

Work was just in and out. I only needed to meet SR at the Tea Room for her lesson. We spent a good chunk of it chatting on ramen since she's a big fan of the stuff as well. Surprisingly, she's never been to the Ramen Museum. I told her to run, not walk to the place.

Well, the place is ready as it'll ever be for Movie Buddy to come and crash tomorrow night.

Thursday August 12, 11:39 p.m.

Well, I woke up early and headed out to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. I noticed that my timing was quite good as the subways and trains were a lot emptier than usual due to the O-Bon holidays. I could actually get a seat which is rare on a regular day even at the early time of before 7 a.m.

When I reached JR Shinagawa, I headed out to the East Exit and found a lot of English signs pointing the way to the bus for the TRIB. I'm sure with the numbers of gaijin from all over the Kanto, the signs were necessary. A ten-minute ride later, the bus stopped right in front of the entrance itself at 8 a.m. I never got a whole look at the building but from the literature and the floor guide, the place is supposed to be rather humongous.

There were already about a dozen people scattered about the entrance with a small fraction creating a small line in front of the automatic doors (the doors wouldn't open until 8:30). The first group seemed to be a group of Chinese and their representative lawyerly type.My first impression was that they made up the majority of the initial group. A Falun Gong member was trying to hand out literature which I politely declined. I spent the half-hour going through the Olympic issue of TIME.

Another much smaller line started to form in front of the second set of doors. At first I wondered if I were in the right line, but since the doors opened up into the same lobby, it didn't really matter. That point was further emphasized when the security guards finally opened the doors and there was a mad dash into the elevators and up the escalator; the lines were just a mere formality. As such, I just let the masses fly in while I checked out where I was supposed to go. The floor guide wasn't specific enough, so I went up to the second floor to the information counter where an older version of me gruffly handed me the appropriate form and told me to go to Counter A.

I was lucky in that I only needed to transfer my visa and re-entry permit into my new passport. There was none of that need to buy the purchase stamps so I could just head straight into the line. Things certainly looked pretty grand and modern inside this new Immigration Bureau. It had an airport terminal air about it...all pastel colours and sterility.

It was another 25 minutes of waiting. I started to reminisce about my times waiting in line at the TD Bank. However, at about 8:55, five minutes ahead of schedule, the shutters opened at the counter, and there was a small phalanx of uniformed women ready to take care of our needs. Japanese efficiency at its peak. Since I was 5th in line, I was fortunate that the phalanx consisted of 6 women. I just handed in my passports, the signed form and my gaijin card, and the woman gave me a slip with the number 2. I would wait until that number was called at Section 2 just a few metres away.

Wow, I thought. I would be the second person to get out of there. Not that easy, though. The counter started with 1 logically enough. However, then it spurted to 4 and then 17 and then...well,you get the message. I thought it was giving out a football play. One woman had a slight panic attack and asked what was going on. The woman who handled me told the surprised lady that the numbers didn't indicate order of service but instead the case number. I have to admit that the staff were very good. They were polite but firm and brooked no dissent. I harboured a brief fear that Case No. 2 would be the 50th or 100th person served. However, that fear was nullified when my number was called and I got my passports back. She asked me to confirm that the visa and re-entry stamps had been accurately written up and then she told me to report to my local city hall to register the change on my gaijin card.

So, a half-hour wait outside, another half-hour inside and 25 minutes of processing...I only had to endure Immigration for less than the length of an average movie and half of my TIME. Still, I'm glad that I showed up as early as I did. I don't think I would have been nearly as lucky if I had come later on.

Basically, that was it in terms of my business in Tokyo. I have no lessons to teach, so I just made my way back home. It was a bit funny coming back home to see that most of the shops and restaurants still hadn't opened yet. It almost felt like I were coming back from the graveyard shift. The heat was definitely back although the morning had actually been rather pleasant. We will break the record of consecutive days over 30 degrees today and probably extend it by several weeks. I could have gone over to City Hall today and got that updating of the card but I figure that one visit to bureaucracy was all that I could stand so I'm just gonna enjoy life and just clean up a bit at home. I've got Movie Buddy making a reservation at Hotel Allan this Saturday with DVDs which probably means that his girlfriend is busy with her buddies this weekend. I'm a bit reluctant to let him come over since it is the summer and my place simply isn't too comfy during the dog days but he is a good friend. I know that he'll probably sleep with the air conditioner on overnight since he's not too acclimated to the heat. I just hope that the AC doesn't rumble too loudly. Actually, we're also catching RIDDICK earlier in the day after my lessons with the kids. I've asked Skippy if she'd like to join us but I haven't received any reply. I kinda doubt that she'll tag along this time, though. MB said that he would also ask The Hawaiian.

Looks like the Olympics are on already 2 full days before the Opening Ceremonies. And Japan has gotten off to a good start with its women's soccer team. The ladies took good care of the Swedish team 1-0. However, after hearing that a lot of the infrastructure is still not in full operational mode, I am wondering how well the security and logistics will hold. Memories of Munich and Montreal (which is still paying off its debt from 1976) come to mind. But with no less than the US Sixth Fleet being a part of the security detail, I think it would take a pretty herculean effort by Al Qaeda to make any sort of dent in Athens.

Wednesday August 11, 9:14 p.m.

Got prepped for the long wait at Immigration by getting a couple of magazines. Looks like I'll have to wake up somewhat earlier tomorrow if I'm to get serviced early enough when the place opens.

The Biologist didn't seem too impressed with me today although I could be reading too deeply into things. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it were indeed the case. In any case, I just have one more lesson with her so if she can endure the last two hours, we won't ever have to worry ever again.

Some of my ol' buddies from the oil company contacted me tonight to see if I'm up for another get-together. Looks like the next meeting will be in mid-September.

I was reading through the new and improved METROPOLIS magazine to read an in-depth analysis of the current Bobby Fischer kerfuffle here in Japan. As a kid, I remember him as being the wunderkind of international chess. Too bad he ended up being a Hitler nutjob wannabe. To give some background, Fischer had been on the run from the US, which he has slagged to extremely far ends, at one point, publicly applauding the 9/11 attacks. He apparently had a match with his arch-rival Boris Spassky in war-torn Yugoslavia, contrary to US government orders. Since then, he's never bothered to return to answer charges for his "crime". However, one day, he entered Japan, a country that he had once treasured as a sanctuary, only to be indefinitely detained and have his passport revoked in what is looking to be an American ploy to drag the former chessmaster back home. The story is just begging to be told as a movie or an HBO special.

Monday August 9, 11:15 p.m.

My trip to the Embassy was short and sweet. Picked up my new passport. Now, the second phase is to head over to Immigration on Thursday.

I played it safe at Aoyama Twin for lunch. I just went to the local Subway sandwich branch. Then, I headed up to Shinjuku where i basically spent the next few hours just drinking stuff, reading TIME and prepping for the company class. As I predicted, I was nodding off pretty easily in the heat and humidity.

I actually saw the Prez for the first time in over a month. He was his usual garrulous self as he groused about The Iconoclast again. The class itself wasn't too bad; we had a good talk about the Ramen Museum.

Had a bit of an incident north of Tokyo in the Mihama Nuclear Power Station. 4 workers were killed by the steam leak but no radiation which probably explained the lack of extensive coverage on the media outlets.

Got e-mail from Skippy. Looks like she's back on her feet after her stomach problem from last night.

Well, tomorrow will be virtually a day off except for that one house call with the juku student. I won't need to leave the apartment until 8:30 in the evening. I figure that I'll probably use the time to scrub the tatami mats and air out the mattresses.

Monday August 9, 7:39 a.m.

Had my 6 hours of sleep...none the worse for wear although I'll probably feel it later on in the day. Woke up to 26 degrees and it'll head to 33, the 35th day in a row that we've been over the big 3-0. Serenity now! However, I think I'm getting used to life on the sun. I still need to buy some heavy-duty sunblock.

Just getting some a rather load of laundry done right now. One good thing about this weather is that I won't have to worry about rain. These clothes ought to be bone-dry within an hour.

The big news is seeing the Japanese Olympic team hitting Athens a few days ahead of the Opening Ceremonies. Yes, believe it or not. Athens is getting an Olympics underway this week.

I just have the Iconoclast's old company tonight for a class. Not sure what I'm gonna do after I get my passport. It'd probably be way too late to head for Immigration so I'll have 6 hours to kill all told. I'll definitely head for someplace frostily air-conditioned.

Monday August 9, 1:19 a.m.

Another long day out. I met The Jazz Buddy for her lesson. Before she came, I was sitting in front of an obvious tourist couple from the States. They were considering about where to go in Tokyo. I would have helped them but they were taking some bites out of each other, so I decided that they should suffer by themselves.

JB entered just as the Bickersons left. She was actually rather on top of things yesterday and we had a nice talk on various kinds of music to wrap the lesson up. For lunch, I took her out to Foo Foo. She appreciated the fact that there was a Ladies' Set, the "Ladies'" part being the inclusion of a tiny mango pudding to go with her noodles and gyoza.

The next couple of hours was spent looking around the various stores in Shinjuku for a present for Gabby. I was finally able to get the lass an apron in the basement of Isetan but JB couldn't make up her mind by the time everyone congregated.

Seeing that both The Scarecrow and Movie Buddy declined the invitation I thought I would be the only teacher there. However, I was rather surprised to see The Songbird chatting with Skippy outside of Mizuho. Then, Jazz Veteran, OA and the Golfer showed up. OA said that the guest of honour and her boyfriend would be showing up late so we went ahead across the street to an aptly named place called The Piggy's Kitchen, a restaurant which specialized in pork dishes. I have to admit that the belated lunch didn't really spark my appetite and to be honest, I wasn't all that amazed by the fare. The pork didn't really grab me and the cocktails were rather on the light side. However, I did enjoy chatting it up with The Songbird for the first time in several months since her departure from the school. I was surprised when Gabby and the Kid came since they also dragged in The Rapper, another old former teacher. His appearance was a rather strange cameo though. During the time I was in the Boys' Room, he took a rather abrupt and, judging from the slight tension around the table, not the most quietest leave. He even left his pack of Luckys and lighter on the table.

Gabby, The Kid and OA were having one of their usual mock-bickering sessions. I can only imagine that there will be a lot of tears when Gabby finally takes off in a couple of weeks for Stateside. Another interesting development was that Skippy, our grand Poobah for this party, was apparently heaving chunks in the washroom according to the Songbird. She'd said that she was suffering from a hangover; I guess that the hangover still had a few kicks for her. In any case, she was out for the rest of the evening. However, JV, JB, The Kid, The Songbird, and I followed through on the second party at karaoke. The Maid later joined us there.

Well, this week will surely be quiet. Virtually everyday will only have one class except for Wednesday's lessons with The Biologist and The Office Lady. I gotta go pick up my new passport in the morning and then I have my regular company class in the afternoon.

Sunday August 8, 8:16 a.m.

Well, the Japanese soccer team got that 2nd championship in Beijing. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of hard feelings from a number of the Chinese over the victory. It was very much a case of letting the contingent of Japanese fans who had come over to support the team that they have neither forgotten nor forgiven the last century.

Speaking of partisan nastiness, what's up with this sudden attack on John Kerry's war record? Kinda smacks of disingenuousness. While I was on the Internet over at the Pan Pacific yesterday morning, I checked out JibJab's now-famous take on "This Land Is Our Land" with the paper cutout animation of the players in this election. Hilarious!

The Cartoon Network in their eminent wisdom decided to show all of the mere snippets of Star Wars: The Clone Wars as one little movie last night. Acting was still as hackneyed as in the live-action version but at least the fact that it was animated softened the blow. However, that same fact gave free rein and full creativity to how each of the Jedi Masters fight. All I can say is that Mace Windu is The Man! Also, in a bit of Boba Fett Origin homage, I got a sneak preview of the next big villain for Episode 3 in the very last snippet.

Another big exodus is on as the metropolises empty for O-Bon. I'm hoping that it will translate into a lot more room on the subways for the next week. It will be another sparse week for me. Mind you, I will have time to do things such as pick up my passport tomorrow. Then, I can use all of Thursday to head over to the dreaded Immigration Building in Shinagawa to transfer my visa and re-entry permit. It's a shame, really....there used to be the main office in Otemachi and a number of small branches all over the Kanto to assist foreigners. However with the depressed economy, everything had to be amalgamated into one mother of a complex a bus ride away from JR Shinagawa. Now, every foreigner in the entire Kanto has to converge there. It'll be back to early morning arrivals. I'm planning to bring a lot of magazines and crosswords. Lucky, I don't have any classes that day.

Saturday August 7, 5:56 p.m.

Back from Yokohama. I'm glad that I could get my mind off of work for over 24 hours but I'm still exhausted from the heat and humidity although it looks rather threatening out there. Glad I got home when I did.

After my last entry, I spent a few hours back up in my room watching the Yankees on NHK Satellite 1 (it seems to have become a tradition with me and the Yankees and a hotel room...don't snicker). They managed to shellack the Blue Jays 13-4. However, I've been away long enough from the ol' hometown that I didn't really feel all that much pain seeing ol' Delgado and team get killed.

When I checked out, there was a rather long line of people ahead of me but it managed to move along quickly. Meanwhile, in the hotel's continuing campaign to bring a little Honolulu, there was a ukelele band playing Don Ho stuff.

My first stop was to head up the Landmark Tower up to their 69th-floor observation deck. It boasted the world's fastest elevator and it certainly felt that way as my ears approached explosive pressures. I took some quick snaps of the surrounding Yokohama scenery and then headed back down. Then, I took a bus to the uphill Foreigners' Quarter. The area certainly looked quaint with a lot of old wooden Western-style houses. There was the famous Foreigners' Cemetery whose headstones I could take pictures of without having to enter the place because the stone fence was so low. I walked down the main street for about half a kilometre before figuring that it was just going to be just residential stuff. Then I made the U-turn and took a quick left downhill to the trendy Motomachi district. Unlike the neon and chaos of Chinatown just a block away, Motomachi was all trendy and white. They had some high school girls directing traffic, too.

My final stop was up to the Ramen Museum. It was a bit of a disappointment in that the place was packed with people. I couldn't really appreciate the mock-up of old 50s Tokyo since there were so many people crammed in line for the individual restaurants. However, I did manage to find one place, Kurume Ramen, which only required a 5-minute wait. The way-more popular ones had people waiting for an hour! The ramen I had was of the thick pork bone broth variety. The place had that downtown stink but the soup was good. After that, I made a hasty way out and back to Tokyo which took a good 2 hours with all of the trains and transfers.

Now, it's kinda back to work. I've got to prep for the Jazz Buddy's class tomorrow.

Saturday August 7, 7:55 a.m.

Currently doing this entry from the Pan-Pacific in Yokohama. Pretty nice hotel but I gotta admit, though, that my room doesn't seem all that different from the place I had up in Sapporo a couple of months back and it was quite a bit cheaper. Goes to show how prices are in the Kanto...
Mind you, the amenities are rather nice; my room has a good view of the Minato Mirai area, including the huge Ferris wheel. Plus, the bathroom is quite generous: big bathtub, separate shower booth and toilet area. The staff are also very friendly although with this current Hawaiian campaign that they're on, I almost felt like I checked into Maui. It is definitely a higher-grade hotel in that a young lady took my little bag up to the room and explained everything to me...seemed a bit Stepfordian, though.

Last night, I just traipsed through Chinatown....I'm glad that they made that Minato Mirai Line; it certainly makes the trip down there a whole lot easier and shorter. Chinatown isn't all that different from my last visit there. However, it was rather difficult to find a place to eat since all of their specials start from 2 people, and since I was a solo, I ended up going to a buffet place near the station. Not bad...it kinda reminds me of The Mandarin buffet back in Toronto, although I'm sure some of the purists will probably blanch in horror. For me, though, the words "Chinese" and "buffet" will always go together like "Adam" and "Eve".

After taking that well-needed bath and shower, I retired a bit earlier than usual but got up pretty early. Had my breakfast buffet (yes, another buffet...but then again, I am here to enjoy myself) in the hotel cafe. Good food and service.

I'll be checking out in about 3 hours. I'll see if I can head up the Landmark Tower to the observation deck before checking out the Foreigners' Quarter via the Blue Line Bus. Then, after that, I'll check out Motomachi before making my last stop at the Ramen Museum.

Since we're entering the O-Bon festival from this weekend, the 40-km traffic jams have already started. Luckily, I'm headed in the opposite direction.

Friday August 6, 8:16 a.m.

59 years today, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. NHK is doing its annual ritual of showing the Peace Park festivities. Something to never forget. Ironically, off in China, the natives are also letting the Japanese soccer team know that they will never forget (or forgive) events of that time. I'm not too disturbed by the booing and heckling though...probably just a regular day at Yankee Stadium for most opposing teams.

I met up with the Jazz Buddy yesterday in Shinjuku. She was pretty somnabulent as usual...just not too good in the mornings, I guess. Looks like she'll be coming to Gabby's farewell party after all, though. I got a bit of insight about the dynamics between Skippy and the rest of her fellows at the school. JB remarked that she didn't know really know her all that well but her impression was that Skippy tends to be a bit overbearing in her opinions and that she doesn't realize it. Sounds like a lot of other "leader" students from previous years. In any case, I'll be meeting JB on Sunday for another lesson and then spending much of the day with her before meeting up with the rest for the farewell party.

My first lesson with the QB's friend, The Programmer, turned out as much as I had expected. I met him in Ikebukuro and we went to the cafe in Libro Books...which is even quieter than the Tea Room. My assessment is that he doesn't really need regular lessons and I hinted that to him. He just needs some proofreading for his documents and some vocabulary if he asks for it...nothing really for me to see him that often so I'm quite happy to keep any meetings to a biweekly schedule.

Between my two clients, I had my occasional lunch at Foo Foo; the waitress screwed up my order and just got me that sole bowl of spicy ramen instead of the whole lunch but as it turned out, I was pretty satisfied with that sole bowl. Then, I did a half-hour on broadband at Kinkos since my computer was going through one of its uncooperative moods (my ScanDisk put it in its place last night). Amazing this broadband...kinda like going from a schleppy Edsel to a sleek Lamborghini.

Since I still had several hours before meeting The Programmer, I ended up catching Shrek 2 in Ikebukuro. Yes, lots of in-jokes for the blockbuster movie fan and certainly Puss n' Boots made quite an impression on the audience...though I can't really agree that Antonio was that much of the scene-stealer. All in all, it was an entertaining 90 minutes but I'm a bit leery about the plans to make Shrek 3 and 4 knowing The Law of Diminishing Returns of Sequels. It'd be a shame to see the franchise head the way of Rocky or Superman by overrreaching.

Well, I do my little mini-trip out to Yokohama today. Just have The Teacher a half-hour earlier than usual and then I head on out to the west. I still haven't packed but it's pretty easy. Lookin' forward to spending a luxurious night. Cotton pyjamas, a bathtub AND shower cabin, all rooms with broadband access...yes, I'm there. My big decision is to whether head out to Chinatown tonight for dinner (which may be crowded and expensive) or wait to do dim sum tomorrow afternoon.
Decisions, decisions....

Wednesday August 4, 9:51 p.m.

Had another good lesson (well, at least to me anyways) with the Biologist. And the lesson with the OL was fine as usual. Felt pretty drained, though, due to another scorching day. I'm counting the days before the Fall gets here, or more accurately, when Fall-like temps come to town. It probably won't be for another 6 weeks.

Looks like I've got my two students set for tomorrow: Jazz Buddy at 11 and then the QB's buddy at 7:30 in Ikebukuro which leaves me with 6 hours of nothing in between. Maybe I'll catch Shrek 2 somewhere after having lunch. JB has also consented to come for Gabby's farewell as well. Well, there may be hope.

Tuesday August 3, 10:58 p.m.

Another quiet day today. My two classes went smoothly; it was nice to see that I still have the chops to teach. As expected, the final student didn't come but it looks like I'll be paying a house call next week to his apartment to do his class.

I've got another late day tomorrow starting with the Biologist. Then, the Office Lady said that she'll be showing up at the regular time. I'm not quite sure when the Biologist will be heading back to school. Most likely I have at least one more week with her before she takes off.

As I left to head off to the juku, I could hear that the cicadas were screaming very loudly. It's been quite the hot summer this year. In fact, I saw a couple of them just lying down on the ground soaking up some rays...really.

My "diet" of sorts seems to have worked too well. I was rather famished when I got back, so I dropped off at the supermarket and bought a small pack of fried chicken as a late-night snack. Well, I figure a little treat shouldn't be too bad.

Monday August 2, 10:01 p.m.

It was a quiet weekend...quiet enough so that I didn't really need to add any entry. Typhoon 10 managed to leave quite an imprint on western Japan...one place got 1000 mm in an hour. The other big news items were Crown Princess Masako's diagnosis of her depression as "adjustment stress" (going from a high-flying career as a member of the Foreign Ministry to the highly stultifiying role as future Empress can do that to one), and former PM Hashimoto's resignation as the leader of his LDP faction due to some sort of bribery scandal. However, I've also just heard that some raging sociopath stabbed 7 folks to death in Hyogo Prefecture. Nice to hear that the psychotic fringe is alive and well.

As for me, I was back in action after nearly 3 days of layoff. I wasn't too rusty; I just had my usual Monday regulars. Between lessons, I had some time to use my full HMV card to get a bossa nova CD and magazine for a discount and then visit The Maple Leaf for lunch. Not too bad in price; in fact, I think I may have been undercharged for my burger and Coke. And the place was almost deserted except for a group of nattering women. Then, I headed up to Shinjuku where I made my roost in that concrete plaza for about an hour. The heat wasn't nearly as bad as two weeks ago but I was still nodding off due to my lunch slowly digesting in my stomach. I'm happy to hear,though, that my relative culinary abstinence has had some dividends; my morning student remarked that my face looked a bit less Jabba-like.

Looks like the Quarterback's buddy is still up for Thursday. I'm not too thrilled about the time of 8 p.m. so I'm gonna keep the fib going that I can only meet him on alternate Thursday nights although the Curry Master and the SE are pretty much history. Ugh! I'm not too happy about teaching him all the way out in Ikebukuro, either. Memories of last year's weekly trek to Jiyugaoka still remain in my mind.

Had a slight snag with the travel agent concerning my reservations in Yokohama. She sent me a voucher via e-mail in the mistaken assumption that I could print it out. However, being the semi-Luddite, I don't have a printer. I just hope she can send it in over this week. But I think I should be able to just go up to the front desk and check-in easily without any piece of paper.

Well, tomorrow should be really light now that the Beehive is off for summer. I only have my juku classes and that's been cut down to 2 hours. As I figured, the final student has canned his class. The juku boss asked me if I could teach him on Thursday or Friday but that's pretty much out. All I need to do is send out some packages to the Anime King.

I still have yet to hear from Skippy about that farewell dinner for Gabby. From my end, the Jazz Veteran is the only one who said that she'll come. Movie Buddy has declined and Jazz Buddy & Arwen have yet to reply. I've always wondered if JB had something against Skippy. I've been told that JB has got a pretty dark personality compared to Skippy's "up-with-people" sunniness. As for Arwen, I just have no idea. Has she really gotten so busy that she can't even send one single letter or has she and 77 decided to cut off all ties with me and DTE? In any case, I think it's pretty inconsiderate of both of them.

Saturday July 31, 9:36 a.m.

Well, it's another end of the month. A couple of major fireworks festivals on tap tonight:the Sumida River Festival which is one of the largest in Japan up in Asakusa, and there is a neighbourhood one in Urayasu. The juku boss invited me to the latter; I politely declined as usual for the same reasons that I didn't go to the Yokohama Festival. It's one thing to have to head out to work on a crowded subway but to actually volunteer and scrum with thousands of other people in high heat and humidity is another.

Still not certain about the weather today although the typhoon is heading to the west. So, I'll forego doing the laundry and hanging out the mattresses for yet another day. Still have to scrub down the living room and the bedroom. It feels kind of weird having a full weekend without a single class. I don't have the kids for the next couple of weeks so my Saturday is completely free.

I watched the Animatrix a full year after the hoopla of its release. Chip Guy said the first half was worth the money, but I thought all of the nine featurettes added something to the franchise, fault-ridden as it is. The history of the formation of the Matrix was of course the best part, though it didn't skimp on the gore. Now I know what happened in that Blade Runner scene when replicant Rutger Hauer killed his "father".

That lesson with The Teacher took an interesting turn yesterday when I was slightly surprised to see her son at the table. Well, a boy and he's 8...which adds up to major DISTRACTION. And he fulfilled his end of the bargain very well. His mother didn't end up strangling him but he kept us on our toes. Plus, The Teacher decided to once again bring in literature with a lot of unpronounceable words.

My attempts to watch Shrek 2 were thwarted since the local theatre is showing the subtitled version only in the evenings and I wasn't particularly inclined to head back to the area so I'll have to give it a shot some other time.

Not quite sure how my week will shape up. It will be slow though. I've got my full slate on Monday but the rest of the week looks sparse. I'm especially wondering about Thursday. I've got Jazz Buddy in the morning but after that little snafu back on Monday, I'll have to see what happens there. Plus, there's the Quarterback's buddy for his first lesson in the evening. I'm not too sure about that one...his schedule seems perenially busy and I have yet to hear about time and place of lesson.

Friday July 30, 9:21 a.m.

Had another major squall this morning around sunrise. True to the unpredictable nature of a typhoon, the sun was beaming when the skies opened up. There must have been a great rainbow somewhere in the Kanto.

I saw that friend of SR's who's over here for a few weeks in Shibuya last night. It looks like she's been enjoying her life in LA for the past year. She's even gotten one over me in that not only has she developed a taste for jazz but she's even gone to school and trained to become a jazz vocalist among other musical styles. Good for her. So just like talking with the Biologist about science on Wednesday, it was good talking jazz with her. She also kept me updated on a couple of other alumni who have also set up housekeeping in America. When we left the Cheesecake Cafe, the clouds opened up again.

Speaking of making moves to jazz, a former member of one of the late 90s J-idol bands has decided to challenge the challenging world of jazz vocalizing. She's still only all of 20 but HIRO decided to make the leap from synthesizers to bass/piano/drums. From what little I've heard so far, I don't think Diana Krall needs to worry just yet.

I got home and didn't feel much like eating. Looks like lunch did the trick yesterday. So I fired up the DVD player and put in the first SHREK. Since I bought the DVD just yesterday, I opened the case up to find a 300 yen coupon which I can use to catch Shrek 2. If it's playing in the cineplex near where I teach The Teacher today, I will probably catch it. I'm not sure though if the version there will be subtitled or dubbed. I read a review of the movie in one of the free English-language magazines. The reviewer was proudly curmudgeonly as critics usually are when they seem to be the only ones who actually hate a mostly well-received movie. He didn't like the first one, either, which pretty much made the review moot for since I still chuckled at a number of the scenes despite it being my 4th time to watch it.

I got an article via The Doctor about how America is finally waking up to the wonders of sake (at least the urban centers anyways...I really can't see any rednecks parting with their Budweiser or moonshine). The article mentioned the expression, "sake epiphany" a few times. I could just imagine "Sex in the City" making it the "it" expression of the year, if only it had lingered on a bit longer.

Thursday July 29, 1:43 p.m.

Well, we've gotten some brief but intense reminders that Typhoon 10 is nearby. There was a squall between 5 and 6 this morning, and during my rubdown and trip to the supermarket, the heavens opened up again in a big way but just as suddenly closed up as I walked back to the apartment.

I got a rubdown from a middle-aged gabby lady who I saw for the first time. Pretty good at her craft although there were a few wincing moments. At least I know the pressure points to influence the eyes (two points on the back of the neck). We had a running talk on some of the difficulty in handling foreign customers to the massage clinic in terms of the language barrier so I offered to help her, and by association the clinic, with any questions they may have with vocabulary. Hmmm...could point to some possibilities.

I also got the OK from the travel agent to transfer the cash for the hotel room which I'll do posthaste. Then I'll head out to Shibuya to meet my friend for coffee. Before that, perhaps I'll drop by Towers to see if there's any literature on Yokohama. The Japan guide book that I'd bought for Hokkaido surprisingly has zero info on Yokohama. I wonder if there's some sort of grudge match there.

Feeling pretty stuffed after cooking up some cabbage and ginger pork. Hopefully, that'll tide me over way into the evening since I only plan on ingesting salad for dinner as penance for my three-day binge over the weekend.

Wednesday July 28, 7:39 p.m.

Home earlier than usual? Yup, sure am. The reason being that the OL cancelled her class. I'm getting the feeling that the summer holiday is upon us a lot sooner than expected. Tomorrow, I've got no classes and I only have The Teacher on Friday.

My trip to the Embassy today went well. I had all of the material needed in that large Purolator envelope that brought my birth certificate. I had been wondering if I would have to deal with some sort of government dweeb or icicle. I was lucky last time almost 6 years ago when I had an efficient-looking but amiable enough lady taking care of me. This time, it was a chatty youngish woman with a sympathetic ear for my longer-than-deserved plight to get that birth certificate. She seemed genuinely interested about this kerfuffle concerning birth certificates. In any case, Part 1 of the process took about 10 minutes; just making the official declarations, handing over the forms and fee (not cheap...12000 yen), and showing various examples to prove my identity. I had to pass the documents through a sliding tray which went under the thick glass barrier separating us. I rather felt like Hannibal Lecter. It sure was a far cry from the person-to-person experience of 6 years ago. I remember that that lady took me straight into the offices for the declaration. The only tiny snag was when I put down the same two references for both forms. Uh-uh...I had to put another set of names for the one other form, so I had to quickly jot down the information for The Anime King and my other friend back home. I sent the Anime King a heads-up and a meek apology in advance just in case the government decides to give him a call. I ought to be able to pick my passport in 2 weeks, after which I have to travel to the humongous new Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa to transfer all of the visas and re-entry permits into the new passport. That will not be fun.

After the Embassy, I still had a few hours to kill before seeing The Biologist so I had an early lunch in the Aoyama Twin mall. I came across a Chinese restaurant which served a pretty hardy lunch set for 830 yen. I went in...the somewhat fetid smell inside and the "faded glory" decor reminded me of my days back in Asakusa. But what got me was the boiled dumpling (sui gyoza) soup. Everything else was fine but that soup smelled and tasted like the fetid air inside the place. The gyoza itself was fine but the soup was absolutely vile. For that reason alone, I don't think I'll make a second visit.

I had some more time and since I had bought myself a one-day subway pass, I went up to Ginza to check out Yamano Music. Bad move. I went a bit crazy again on the money to buy CDs especially since my point card was close to the 50-point total to get that 3000 yen discount. However, I finally got to see that Michael Buble cover of "Spiderman" there which pretty much doomed me. The CD looks like it was a hastily made affair since it had Buble looking rather more like a NKOTB reject instead of the jazz cat that he is. Plus, after "Spiderman", there are several covers of "Sway"...talk about trying to fill up a CD. I gather that they couldn't get any more versions of the title song out in time. Well, thanks to a few more CD purchases, I hit the 50 mark and I ended up getting "Shrek" and "The Animatrix" for a mere pittance due to the discount.

I met the Biologist. Her first presentation was all over the place stylistically. I was a bit worried that she may have thought I was getting a bit harsh with her but I really wasn't. I tried to tighten her up a bit in her delivery and she was better for it the second time around. I also observed we seem to have a good rapport (not in that way) when it comes to scientific discussions. She's the only one in my long tenure here that I've been able to go into various scientific talks with.

Well, I didn't get that cancellation call from The OL until I got to the Starbucks, but I didn't care that much. At least, I put the one-day pass to good worth. So instead of munching on a cinnamon roll and chai tea latte as I would have usually done, I just headed home. When I got to the station, I pondered about having my dinner at the nearby Subways but the clouds looked pretty ominous and considering that there is a typhoon on the way, I decided to pick up a little something at the supermarket and hightail it back home. Tonight's dinner was eel on rice in continued homage to Eel Day along with another salad. According to the weather report, it looks like we'll be brushed by the storm starting overnight tonight and just keep on going throughout the day.

I do have the day off tomorrow but I'm also supposed to be meeting an old student of mine who's back from California. Hmmm..a typhoon is on its way and I'm meeting this student for just 50 minutes for coffee in Shibuya since she's headed out to her gig in a hostess club in Ginza. Something doesn't quite ring right here... If the weather is forgiving enough, I will go for that biweekly rubdown.

Well, my travel agent contacted me to say that I've got the room at the Pan-Pacific. More money down the drain but I'm glad that I pulled the trigger to go for that mini-vacation in Yokohama. The money is going to a good cause: me and my sanity.

Tuesday July 27, 11:30 p.m.

Yup, it's official. I'm having one of those weeks. Well, my morning class was OK. The ladies will be going off on their usual summer hiatus starting from next week although this one will be longer than usual. I'll be facing nearly 2 months without their company or income; in fact, I won't be seeing them until the first day of Autumn. Hopefully, the temps actually conform to the seasonal change.

Nah, the off classes started with my juku. I'm forming an impression that one of the Beauty Pair is starting to get a bit jaded with the lessons. She started class looking glum and not too chatty. If it hadn't been for her still-engaged classmate, it could have gotten quite ugly. My second class was OK though the wife responded that the lesson was so-so; I think I know what she meant...she was referring to her own ability instead of mine. Still, I always get a little nervous when I hear comments like those. Then, my final class with my top student didn't seem to impress him all that much, but then again, he looked rather tired. It won't matter all that much anyways since he will be taking off for the States within a month. In fact, he may no longer show up for classes if his schedule gets any busier.I will get to go home an hour earlier but I will be getting 12000 yen less a month. On the other hand, the juku boss had asked me earlier in the day if I would start teaching her from September since it looks like the Curry Master will no longer be available for her lessons. Her English is badly fractured...she does need the work.

Another hint that I'm having a bad week is when I got my reply from my travel agent. I apparently misread the information about the hotels. I checked the last message and sure enough, I screwed up. Well, I made sure this time so hopefully by tomorrow night, that room will be duly booked.

Skippy got that date in lickety-split for Gabby's farewell party. She's slated the 8th. Lucky I've decided to just stay in Yokohama for one night only. Plus, I'm sure I will have some stories for the gang from Yokohama.

Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my bad luck will not permeate my trip to the Embassy tomorrow, but who knows? I may just get a hardcase there who will not accept the photos. I'm also hoping that the lesson with the Biologist will go as well as it did last week. No problems from her as of yet but I think she is a quietly demanding student.

I'm feeling pretty hungry right now but I'm gonna let my stomach suffer for another 6 or 7 hours. After the weekend of binge, I have to be a bit hard on myself this week and/or next week. Aside from a generous supermarket bento for lunch, I've been pretty good so far. Only had a salad and zero-calorie oolong tea for dinner. Mind you, the juku boss always gives me two sweet iced coffees during my lessons.

Monday July 26, 10:00 p.m.

SERENITY NOW! Looks like it could be one of those weeks. I went up to the Shinjuku Andersen for Jazz Buddy's lesson. I figured something was up after she didn't show up for half an hour. It shouldn't have bothered me since I did have the company class just around the corner, but I was still doing a slow broil at being stood up. After 90 minutes, I considered her a loss and was thinking of some nasty message to send her by e-mail when I got home. I ended up sitting outside in the main plaza doing some puzzles when she finally showed up. Surprisingly, I held my tongue and luckily I did, since after profusely apologizing, she told me that she'd mistaken the time of our meeting for a few hours earlier and ended up waiting for me for half an hour while going through a summer cold. Well, I'm not about to kick anyone when she's down so we kept it civil. However, I just wish she could be a bit more with it.

Basically that was the only wrinkle for today. I met up with my Monday morning regulars after a 2-week absence. We spent a good portion of the lesson on the fact that I plumped up some after that 3-day food binge. The more prominent of the two went into mother mode and good-naturedly told me to ease off on the food. I will acquiesce to her order since I agree with her. I also got a bit of a treat in the form of a free ticket to watch "Fahrenheit 911" and a souvenir Galilean Thermometer. It's a pretty intriguing gadget. Based on Galileo's principles of rising temperature lowering the density of liquid, the thermometer is a half-meter tall tube filled with water and small carefully weighted glass balls of differently-coloured liquids with tags denoting different temps. When the temps rise, a ball rises to the top as well. The only problem is that the balls only register temps between 18 to 26 degrees which pretty much limits it as a particularly useful device. Ah, well...at least it'll make for a conversation piece if anyone ever decides to visit the homestead again.
Certainly it fulfilled that role at the company class.

Well, that rain that was threatening this morning never started...in Chiba, at least. But according to my morning students, Shibuya got majorly rained upon for a few minutes while in the other student's neighbourhood, it merely sprinkled. There's supposed to be that typhoon coming along but as yet, I don't see anything happening in the weather department.

I got a predictably quick response from my travel agent about that hotel in Yokohama. Her quote for the Intercontinental was quite reasonable considering its five-star status so I just pulled the trigger and asked her to book it. I'm committed now although considering that I probably won't be making all that money next month, I ought to BE committed. Well, I figure if my parents can go off for a nice cruise to Alaska at the end of this month, I ought to indulge myself. I certainly won't be putting out as much money as they have for their little excursion.

Sunday July 25, 11:52 p.m.

I met Skippy and Movie Buddy in front of the Picadilly as scheduled this afternoon. We first had a snack at the Wendy's next door where a rather colourful-looking freak of nature came in. He was a middle-aged man dressed up like a rather smelly clown (sans the makeup) and nonchalantly ordered some sort of burger set. Eck...life in the big city...

We caught "Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban". As the critics have already said several times, the third movie is a much-improved product over its two predecessors. I'd say that it was a Harry Potter done up like a film noir. Almost everyone had a bit more grit in them and the final confrontation amongst Snape, Lupin and Sirius Black could have been an homage to the final showdown amongst Bogey, Lorre and Greenstreet. If the future movies are along these lines, then you may consider me a faithful viewer.

Afterwards, the three of us met MB's girlfriend and the Curry Master nearby and then we all went up to SAMRAT where I had my third feast in as many days. I engorged myself on some tandoori chicken and the Thali Platter. Poor Skippy may have overindulged though; when she went to the washroom, the Curry Master and the Sylph wondered if she needed checking on. However, Skippy returned better but still feeling pretty stuffed.

The Curry Master told me that she won't be able to have our semi-regular lessons due to her new classes. Again, I am left wondering if she was trying to let me down easy or if she's really is that busy. Then again, I was never all that comfortable teaching her in the first place since she's already highly proficient in the language. As for the SE, I'm not sure about his status since we always used the CM's apartment for our teaching venue. His priority seems to lie in his need to get a high TOEIC score but he can get that education from CM. Therefore, I'm assuming that that tandem will be soon going over the wayside. And since I'm still not sure how stable this gig with the Quarterback's friend will be, I may be searching for students for my Thursdays come Fall.

I've started some prelim searching at some of the discount travel sites which shows that I'm pretty serious about enjoying myself in Yokohama. I even contacted that lady who helped me out with my Hokkaido trip. I hope to hear some good things but according to one site, a night at the Pan-Pacific will still put be back 35,000 yen. Getting R and R is pretty pricey.