Thursday November 25, 7:38 a.m.

A bit of activity over the electronic ether since my last entry. First off, The Bohemian gave me a rare contact over the Messenger. Apparently, he's back in town to check a job placement centre in Suidobashi on Friday so he asked if I were free for dinner. Well, I had planned on for my sole outing to the gym for the week. Looks like it'll be a gymless week then. Friends or the gym? The decision was easy.

Plus, this morning, I got word from The Tomboy that she did get my message. Good, now I can find about numbers for this Namjatown trip tomorrow.

I'm currently listening to this Lambert, Hendricks & Ross CD that I got a few days ago at Tower. L, H & R were this jazz group that perfected the art of vocalese almost half a century ago. I've read about them and I have their charmingly warped take on "Deck The Halls". Some wags have taken down groups like The Manhattan Transfer down a few pegs by comparing them to the majesty of this group. L, H & R are certainly virtuosos in their craft, I'll have to admit, but a few of the tracks do sound as if the wordsmiths were pretty desperate in setting the lyrics to music and not that successful. But then again, that's not the real point of vocalese anyways. It's really to marvel how accurately the the trio can match, note by note, the dulcet tones of jazz instruments.

Wednesday November 24, 10:09 p.m.

As I had predicted in my last entry, I'm pretty exhausted. However, the day of four lessons went pretty well. And there were some nice culinary dividends.

Between the Class Act and SIL, the lady of the house was very generous to offer me lunch since I only had an hour between lessons. So she whipped up some yakisoba with a rice ball and some fresh fruits. I got this after the snacks we usually get during the lesson. Plus, the lady gave me a canister of Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Covered Potato Chips. Not as gross as I'd thought. Actually, the chocolate is so overwhelming that I can barely feel the crispiness of the potato chip buried inside. Should make for good show n' tell at the school on Friday.

Mind you, on the way to the Class Act's lesson, I thought I was headed for a rather lousy day. At one of the stations, a young woman collapsed on the platform which delayed things for the subway so I had to transfer to the Oedo Line which meant that I was 5 minutes late for the lesson. Of course, the ladies took it all in stride.

After SIL, I rushed up to see The Hawaiian. I asked her to guess about the canister. She pegged it right away as the chocolate-covered chips since she had been wondering whether to get that exact product or the chocolate-covered macadamia nuts in Hawaii. She chose the latter.

I rushed down to get to the Starbucks for my usual lesson with The OL. Since I was a few minutes late, The OL was actually already there; the first time that she has actually preceded me in our 18 months together. It certainly looks like the staffs at the various cafes where I teach have considered me a regular. They now greet me as an equal and ask me if I'll be having the usual. Ahhh...nice to be appreciated.

During OL's lesson, she told me that she'd spoken with Betty Boop and found out about my offer of taking them for Chinese dumplings at the place that The Class Act had recommended a few weeks ago. At first, I thought it was going to fall through since the weekends from now til my departure are all booked up for the OL. However, I offered to make our last lesson the visit to the Daimon restaurant. She looked much more hopeful then so now I'm hoping that it'll be OK with BB.

So, back home, I found a rare fax sent to me. It was from The Tomboy, the current student at the school who'll be helping me with this trip to Namjatown next Thursday as well as with the Xmas party on the 4th. It looks like there was a glitch in my response to her; it never got to her so she sent her questions again by fax paper this time. I sent another response to her other, hopefully more stable, address with a CC to the Coordinator. Let us hope that she gets it this time.

Also, it looks like I may be on a scavenger hunt for both my brother and Shard. My brother wants me to check out for this special bottle of Peach Wine that his wife had tasted at the Ginza Tobu Hotel some years ago. Plus, Shard was asking about these pens made by a company called Namiki. On a more disturbing note, it's possible that my package to Bro that I'd sent a few weeks earlier may be MIA. SIGH. My only hope is that the post office guy had stated that it would get there somewhat later than usual.3 weeks is starting to press things.

My brother also informed me that a friend of the family had passed away recently. I'd known him since I was a baby and the last time I'd seen him was at my brother's wedding a few years ago. He had kids which we knew back then. It does bring home the fact that our parents are entering that final stage.

Well, being the end of the year, NHK has just announced the lineup for the big Red & White Song Festival. They've got quite a few young acts up although I think the show is really only seen by the older generation or some very lonely, lonely folks. I'll have to check out the J-Pop website to see the reaction. All these guys from all over the world didn't seem too impressed by last year's show.

Tomorrow shouldn't be as hectic as today. I've got Jazz Buddy; I've gotta tell her about my recon to the Park Hyatt on Monday. And then I have the Carolinan. I think we may be gabbing a bit on her trip to Hawaii last week. In between lessons, I may give an advance trip to Namjatown just to make sure everything is OK on that end.

I got word from Skippy after her trip to Paris. She had a great time as expected. And she's also looking forward to the 5th.

Wednesday November 24, 7:45 a.m.

Well, one month to Xmas Eve. Hopefully by this time next month, I'll be back in Canada getting as stuffed as the turkey that will be popping out the next day. Unless there's some sudden notice from them, I don't think there'll be any special guests for Xmas day from among the students this year. Not that my Dad would feel disappointed...the last guy I had over didn't impress him at all. He was a bit of a doofus.

Yesterday being Labour Thanksgiving, I had the entire day off to luxuriate in late sleeping and then going through the whole 6 hours of ENTERPRISE that The Entrepreneur was so kind in taping for me. It's a testament to the improvement of the series that I riffed through the entire tape in a day. Not sure if it's too little, too late although I heard that the Brent Spiner appearances have already spiked the ratings for the show.

Heard from The Iconoclast for the first time in a while. Looks like I may have to send official word pretty soon about my return since he and The Anime King have both asked about it. I just hope that that Osakan travel agent that PH recommended did make the booking.

The police are still on the manhunt for a psycho who murdered a little girl in Nara last week. There didn't even seem to be any attempt at any sexual abuse; he apparently killed her as soon as he kidnapped her from her neighbourhood. What's worse is that he taunted the parents by sending over a picture of her dead body and the message "I've got your daughter!" over her own cellphone. KILL THE BASTARD, I say.

Well, in contrast to yesterday's rest-easy kind of day, I've got a pretty full slate of work today. I've got the Class Act, SIL, The Hawaiian and The OL. I'll be one exhausted teacher again by tonight.

Monday November 22, 10:36 p.m.

Well, I did it. I went off to that Creambath Ebisu place that SR recommended me. It's actually not too far from PH's apartment. I wonder if she knows about it.

I was planning on going there later in the afternoon but my gym trip was suddenly curtailed when I saw a rather large metal curtain where a gym was supposed to be. Then I realized that the gym is usually closed on the 3rd Monday. Bad timing. With tomorrow a national holiday and then Wed. and Thurs. being busy with classes, I now only have Friday as the week's physical workout day. Ah well. In any case, I decided to head down to Ebisu a bit ahead of schedule.

Perhaps a bit too early. Even though the pamphlet said that the Balinese spa was open at 11 and despite the fact that I arrived there at 11:30, I only saw a closed door and some bemused staff people walking in. The manager, with a veneer of politeness, asked me if I had an appointment. When I replied in the negative, she then asked me for my name and then told me to come back at 12. Well, I felt a bit snubbed so I trudged off to the local Wendys for an early lunch before returning.

And as I did so, I was accosted by a world of bamboo, exotic music, heavy incense and pretty Japanese women in Balinese outfits and sandals. And here I was standing in my usual "Will-Teach-For-Food" outfit. I'm pretty sure that a couple of the female staff must've thought that it was INDEED a Monday when they saw me. However, the one who ended up massaging me kindly showed me the course description although I knew what I wanted thanks to SR's description. It cost me 6,825 yen up front for the Quick Course and a 10-minute arm/hand/neck massage option. Boy, I hope this is good, I thought.

The young lady escorted me to a bamboo room and asked me to strip to my voluminous waist (no, the workouts haven't quite licked that yet) and put on a short terrycloth robe. Once I did so, I was once again escorted to the sink area and my treatment began. She started washing my hair like I was at my bimonthly haircut. However, when she engaged in a 10-minute scalp rubdown session, I turned into butter and her hands were the flame. Oooooh, yeah! For a lady who looked like she wasn't even of drinking age, she had hands which could coax blood from a stone.

Step Two was even better. I was taken back to my room where she seated me and then threw on a whole goop of white aloe vera lotion all over my head. I felt like I was a victim of a drive-by yogurting. The stuff was darn cold, too, at first, but once she got kneading, I was hers once again, and it lasted 20 whole minutes.

Step Three was relatively quiet as my wrapped head got a steam treatment for 10 minutes. Then, my masseuse returned to work on my arms, hands, shoulders and neck with some sort of coconut cream. I was feeling no pain, and I was starting to smell pretty good. That was an especially great sensation considering the olfactory pain I went through yesterday.

The penultimate step was the rinsing off of the aloe vera from my hair and then I was blown dry and moussed. Yes, a bit pricey but every yen was worth it. Still, I won't be able to make regular visits but I figure that a New Year's drop-in wouldn't hurt.

My first experience there made me forget the initial awkwardness with the manager whom I didn't see during the treatment. I headed up to Shinjuku to check out Kinokuniya which I haven't been to in a while. As I went along the street, I was fairly astounded to see all that construction for over a year resulted in just a parking lot being built.

Usually I don't buy much at Kinokuniya since their books are pretty expensive when compared to the stuff at Towers or HMV. However, it is the only place that I can buy a Dell's Crossword Puzzle Book, my book of choice. Also, I saw that second annal of Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips, something that I've been wanting to get for a long time. However, I held off since there is no point card system, and I know that Tower has one and it has also carried the Peanuts series. Unfortunately, my gamble didn't promise the desired results so there was still just the first volume. But I did buy another jazz CD in the form of a Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album. Apparently, critics have said the Manhattan Transfer have never held a candle to these guys in the art of vocalese. Well, since I'm still an MH fan, I can only look forward to even better results from L, H and R.

Instead of my usual break in the Shinjuku Plaza, I decided to walk over to the Park Hyatt. I was just getting a bit too cold just sitting there and I knew that I had to do a bit of recon if that plan for JB and I to have our final lesson of the year there is to come off. On the way, I saw some nitwit foreigner riding her bike yelling "Baka, Baka" at some crows. Maybe she got splatted on by them in her past.
When I did get to the Park Hyatt, I took a look inside on the 1st floor to find The Delicatessan. It appeared quite fancy from the outside, and quite small on the inside. I was informed from the website that it only had 16 seats. Hmmm...will have to do some thinking about that. Perhaps, JB will just nix the whole idea.

Today's sole lesson with the Company folks was a bit of a slog. I mean I was just teaching "will", and they reacted as if I had suddenly thrown them The Future Perfect. I also found out that that lady who has been quietly working at the table in the outside room for the past few weeks is the wife of one of the students.

Well, tomorrow is a national holiday, so I decided to have dinner at the Dennys near the Company. There was a Chinese family sitting next to me, and then towards the end of dinner, a French pair came by. I gather that with the hotels across the street, Dennys must be a safe haven for the tourists.

I got home and polished off the last of the chocolate macadamias that The Hawaiian had gotten me. I also checked my e-mail. Got into another long talk with Shard and replied to The Hawaiian and Arwen. At this time, I would be getting a little worried about hitting the hay and prepping for lessons but since I've got nothing tomorrow, I will just enjoy a late evening and then a late morning.

Sunday November 21, 10:02 p.m.

Well, back from that odyssey to Chichibu, a city of 60,000 people and a lot of trees. First off, although I'm a bit loathe to say it, when I met the juku boss at the station this morning, I noticed that she had on her Sunday best and makeup which is atypical of her; whenever I teach at the juku, she's usually very down-to-earth. However, I was almost knocked out when my olfactory sense registered a reek from her! Couldn't believe it...she smelled of OLD MAN...if that old man had just woken up in his clothes after a night of coffee, cigarettes and whiskey and used frying oil. I had to resort to rotational breathing (inhale through my mouth and then exhale through my nose) at times and turning discreetly away on the train. Quite a feat I engineered considering I was with her for 12 hours.

Yes, it was a 2-hour trip up to the wilds of Saitama. When we finally got to our destination, our host up there told us that he'd be a half-hour late, so we ended up having lunch at a soba shop just across from the station. On the Red Arrow, the juku boss had told me that Chichibu Soba had quite the al dente texture to it. Much to her dismay, she thought the soba there was quite soggy. I found it quite palatable, actually, although I was a bit more concerned about the slow service. Soba and coffee would be the main culinary theme for the rest of the day, as unlikely as that combination would be.

The boss' cousin eventually picked us up and our first stop was a real estate agency run by his good friend, a very amiable sort. We spent a good hour there discussing about the possibilities of setting up a new school there in terms of what the market, the rent and the competition are like. It was a good discussion and even I put in my 2 yen worth. The boss, knowing her personality, naturally got quite animated.

Afterwards, the cousin took us to the school (and potential rival) which was responsible for educating his child in English. The place was closed and it was located on the 2nd floor over a beauty salon. Back at the agency, he showed us a couple of pretty glossy pamphlets of the school; they resembled invitations for a Queen's concert at The Opera House. Certainly the tuition reflected it. I was rather astonished to hear the 300,000-yen price tag to teach his kid...who incidentally tagged along with us for some of the ride and seemed to be all of three years of age. The juku boss quickly dipped into the beauty salon where she found out that the stylists have frequently had to go upstairs to complain about the racket that the kids were making. Well, definitely, this new school won't be on any floor above ground level, then.

Next, we drove over to his place where he showed us a huge carton of educational materials that the school had given him for the kid. Three years old, and he can't even speak Japanese yet, and he has enough vocab cards and CDs to open up his own school. Our juku is very much bare bones and cut n' paste. The materials from this other school looked like they had been designed by Dentsu.

Our next stop was the Nagatoro River. The boss was surprised at how much of a tourist trap it'd become since her days as a child living there. The shopping street certainly looked like anything in Nikko or Kyoto nowadays. I was impressed with the scenic beauty of the river, though, although the cousin remarked that it has seen better days in terms of cleanliness. As I could see, the river was a telltale murky green...not particularly inviting for a swim. And here I was in a suit (which the boss had asked me to wear) negotiating through some often craggy rock formations. We ended up having another coffee and soba (much better for her) at a restaurant/cafeteria setup run by some old friends. The soba definitely had more bite.

Our final stop as the sky darkened was the pub run by the boss' aunt and uncle. It looked very homey inside and in fact, the kid was sleeping on the tatami. There were a couple of oldtimer regulars just whiling away the time while the uncle and aunt were busy behind the counter. I felt somewhat envious of the boss' close relationship with her extended family. something that I have never been able to get with my own family due to distance and some other unfortunate matters.

Finally, we were back on the train to Ikebukuro. It was almost an uneventful ride until the last leg when we were delayed by a good 15 minutes due to some moronic vandal leaving stuff on the track. And then, the subway ride home was puncutated by an unforecast rainstorm. And I just merely left my laundry hanging on the line. So I was rather broody because of that fact and the unfortunate BO that surrounded the boss; she didn't even blink twice about it. I did send a thank-you e-mail to let her know that I was grateful for the opportunity to head up to Chichibu just in case she may have been a bit put off..doubtful due to her usual high spirits.

I got home and pulled off the wet stuff. Luckily, though, they were indeed wet, they weren't dripping. So there's a 50/50 chance that they may be dry by tomorrow morning. My nostrils are still permeated with the smell of coffee and oil and cigarettes though.

Doing my e-mail housekeeping, I found out that my plan for Namjatown is a go. Misty got back and told me that a lot of her classmates are interested in my proposal for the 2nd so it looks like that's rolling. Plus, I've got DTE's thingy on the 5th. Looks like she wants to do Tony Romas again. That's fine with me since it'll be simpler to plan than doing it at En. Movie Buddy was quite high on Tony Romas himself.

Betty Boop sent a message to me for the first time in a while. She told me that she choked when she tried to help an American find the right subway for Asakusa. Well, when one doesn't practice English all that much... In any case, she's hoping that we can do some lunch before I head back to the home country.

The Dancer sent me another tape a couple of days ago so I took a look-see. Most of it consisted of a sci-fi miniseries called The 4400 which seems to be a mix of X-Men, X-Files, Unbreakable and Taken. Interesting idea but it looked so Canadian...as much as I don't want to denigrate my own country's culture in the arts, I've just never been all that impressed with the national stuff aside from SCTV (which is a Classic). Also, the attempt to generate a Mulder/Scully chemistry between the two main characters ended up being as inert as a lump of lead. I checked the comments about the series on the IMDB...pretty mixed and heated debate...more so than usual. However, most everyone was of the opinion that the ending was not much of one.

Well, such a long entry. I'll be starting my week with a workout at the gym since The Class Act has been re-scheduled to Wednesday and it looks like I won't be getting any other opportunities to work out until Friday, and I may brave the trip to SR's Balinese massage place in Ebisu. If I can get in, I'll be shucking out 6000 Natsume Sosekis for the scalp treatment but I do love a good rubdown on the old pate.

But first I hope the laundry dries out...

Saturday November 20, 5:09 p.m.

The lessons with the girls went OK. Even the older girl was more on the ball. Decided to get a bit fancy with dinner tonight. I'm making my famous Sweet N' Sour Chicken for the first time in several months. May even take a look through those tapes of US TV although I'm not particularly all that interested in them outside of The Simpsons.

Will have to turn in a bit early since I've got that "business" trip up north to Chichibu, Saitama with the juku boss.

Friday November 19, 7:50 p.m.

The allergies were bothering today so I picked up some medicine along the way. Still, I had to reach for the Kleenex discreetly several times during The Teacher's class. And frankly, they never truly went away, probably due to the clammy weather.

I was able to pick up those books that Shard's wife had asked for. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. There was a distinct section at Maruzen for beadwork.

Ended up talking with SR for three hours today on such cheerful topics as the next terrorist attack and the inevitable Great Tokyo Earthquake. The Tea Room was uncharacteristically hopping today due to some sort of event nearby, but by the end of our chat, it was back to just us two.

The coordinator sent me a message asking if I could teach next Thursday. That day would probably be better for me, content-wise, since it's just a regular conversation class. However, I do have Jazz Buddy until 1:30 so that's impossible. I assume I still have the Friday assignment which is Speech class. Unforunately the topic is the wonderful world of Capital Punishment. I can only shudder if I have to take care of the lowest class.

Well, dunno if it's raining tomorrow too but I've got the kids in the morning. I'll have the elder sister for the first time in a month so I can only imagine what Miss Sullen will be like.

Thursday November 18, 9:38 p.m.

Well, Jazz Buddy was better today. I used another source of material which seemed to have worked better. I also found out that my e-mail just isn't getting through to her cellphone so I can only rely on phone or when I meet her. Then, I suggested to her that our last meeting before my vacation could be held at a deli in the Park Hyatt.

I kinda followed a hunch and went back to the school to have lunch. I was just wondering if the Coordinator had even relayed my proposal for a trip over to the Gyoza Museum tonight. Sure enough, she didn't say anything but my visit did give me the chance to start the ball rolling for that visit. It'll just be put to the 2nd instead. Looks I may have a couple of goers. I also heard from the coordinator that a newbie teacher had a major shouting match with one of the higher students due to some misinterpreted slight. Needless to say, he is no longer teaching the kids. Mind you, I think I was probably the same way when I first started teaching. At the same time, it was nice to see the kids and teachers such as Movie Buddy, The Jester, The DJ and The Veteran.

I did make it to the gym today. I even upped the weight for my machine training so I'm sure that I'll be in even more pain tomorrow. I'll have to let The Teacher know that I won't be able to teach her next week since I may be filling in at the school then.

The top story on the news today was the murder of a young girl by a sociopath-at-large. The nut even sent a message to the dead girl's mother via the girl's own cellphone stating that he had her. Hope the police hunt him down like a rabid fox.

Wednesday November 17, 8:11 p.m.

Well, in a feeble restaurant critic's attempt to be punny, LAST wasn't quite first. I got there around 11:30 just when it opened. It's a much smaller place than the Farm Grill and the variety and amounts of dishes were appropriately similar. The owners are gonna to have work a bit on their selection. The usual buffet favorites were out there such as Spaghetti Pepperoncino and Rice Curry, stuff that will fill you up fast and make you want to get that extra drink. However, the Chinese soup was laughingly just chicken consomme with green specks, and the fried chicken tasted fried but that's about it. Still, for a thousand yen, it was OK but I could imagine the food critics fainting in disgust. The decor was all in American Diner and the music was country and 70s music. Yup, definitely Californian. I'll probably tell Movie Buddy about it but I won't plan a group outing around it.

I met The Hawaiian and her aunt today. At first, I was a bit apprehensive when the Aunt came off as a bit quite and immediately leaned on her niece for translation but once she got more used to me, I realized that she's quite the enthusiast for English. Her listening was surprisingly high but her responses lacked any sort of proper syntax so I do have my work cut out for me. Still, she'd be a welcome asset at the school. The Hawaiian is starting to get a bit itchy about heading over to Oz for a few months at least next year, so I'll probably lose her again pretty soon. Still, I can't really teach her much since she's so high a student.

When I got back to the neighbourhood, I shopped for a fresh supply of undergarments since some of the stuff I have now is starting to resemble some of Brando's wardrobe in "A Streetcar Named Desire". Plus, I got a stack of cheap audio tapes...as rare as they are now in this age of MDs...to prep that pronounciation exercise for Jazz Buddy. Man, I wonder if I'm gonna have another round of psychoanalysis with her tomorrow.

And I actually picked a little something for dinner tonight despite my lunch at the buffet. But in fact, I didn't really eat all that much.

The top story on NHK News tonight was the various scenarios about if a Shindo 7 earthquake were to hit Tokyo straight on. The way it looked, I'm pretty much dead in my neighbourhood. I just hope that I'm not anywhere in the metropolis at all when it hits. Let's say that it doesn't bode well for the 12 million there.

Since it doesn't look like I'll be getting any takers for this immimently-to-be-aborted trip to the food cities in Ikebukuro tomorrow, I'll probably load up on lunch after JB before hitting the gym again. It's a step in the right direction anyways...loading up on gyoza and ice cream or loading up on the exercise.

Wednesday November 17, 8:53 a.m.

I think I am pretty achy this morning which has got me started in a bad mood. I got a bit snippy with The Hawaiian when she sent me a letter stating that there was a bit of confusion over today's meeting time. In retrospect, the language was pretty mild so I don't think she'll take offense but still, I know the intent was there on my part, so I still sent a second missive apologizing.

Well, I'm achy. So no trip to the gym today. Instead, I'll follow the Devil today and try out LAST for lunch just before heading out to see The Hawaiian and her aunt. I hope they have some very strong coffee there.

Plus, Shard gave me a request to find a book for his wife. Should be easy enough to do.

CNN has started showing teasers for Bill Hemmer coming over here to do his American Morning show next month. Interesting timing...I'll be leaving for home the same week.

Wednesday November 17, 12:01 a.m.

Had my lunch at the kaiten sushi today. There still wasn't too much running on the conveyor belt so I did order some of the stuff from the chef. I had my first workout at the gym for the first time in 8 days. Surprisingly, I was half a kilogram down from what I posted last time. I'm thinking about whether to go there tomorrow morning before I meet up with The Hawaiian. It'll depend on how achy I feel when I wake up. I've got a new student in the form of the Hawaiian's aunt so I'll have to be on my best behaviour.

Had quite a few letters in the inbox tonight. Had my usual long "chat" with Shard over the minutiae of popular culture. Always enjoy that.

The classes at the juku went well. The Beauty Pair came back after convalescing from their cold last week. I even got a present from Mr. Eccentric via them. They'll be heading off for Las Vegas from this weekend so they're pretty pumped about hitting the slots. Just hope that the slots don't pump them out of too much money. My boss was OK if a bit more scatterbrained than usual.

Listened to that Tom Jones CD. Yup, it was pretty good but I can't help but feel that he brings a certain sameness to everything he does, no matter all the accolades that have been written up about him in the liner notes. Then again, I've yet to hear all the tracks. It's also unbelievable that I can remember seeing his old ABC show when I was a mere baby back in the 60s.

The Hawaiian has taken up my invitation to catch The Incredibles on the 5th. So that's probably a 6th member now.

Monday November 15, 9:52 p.m.

Ready to kill my computer right now. Crashed 3 times last night and it did the same thing tonight. Not only that, but it managed to somehow screw up everything with my resume so spent the last 20 minutes fixing that.

Looks like I'm officially in charge of this party for DTE. She made my job easy and hard for me simultaneously when she told me that she had no preferences for restaurant. Well, I can always check out that LAST place in Shiodome although some of the group may ask why I'm picking out a distinctly American place for an American's goodbye dinner. Well, I figure that I can just always go DOMA DOMA, that upscale izakaya chain. Problem is that those places always require a set dinner for large numbers. In a way, I hope we don't make it too big although at this point, it looks like it'll be DTE, myself, MB, Skippy and Arwen. JB has yet to respond but she never does which irks me.

The rain came down pretty heavily this morning but by the afternoon, there was some sun filtering through. It amazes me that just a couple of months ago, we had been going through the Summer of Hell. Today, I wrapped myself up in my jacket and scarf. Tomorrow, blizzard? During the break between lessons, I hit HMV for three CDs. I couldn't find anything in the jazz category. But I did buy, believe it or not, the Best of Tom Jones. Well, I bought it for two tracks anyways...one being that collaborative cover of Prince's KISS (is he still going by that sign?) with The Art of Noise.

The other two were J-Pop. One is an interesting choice for me: a rap/pop/R&B song by a female duo called Bennie K. The single is known as Sunrise, which sounds something that the B-52s would sing. It's very catchy in a ROAM type of way. The girls themselves have taken on the mantle of J-Pop hit female duo which has been worn by pairs like Pink Lady and Wink. The two girls, though, like a mix of Stepford Wives and Shibuya gals. And my final purchase was the second single of new band Tokyo Jihen with formerly solo Shiina Ringo as the lead singer.

My lesson at The Company was pretty smooth. I just had the one best student of the class, and not surprisingly, he managed to catch up from his absence last week. In fact, he even exceeded his fellows by a page or so.

Well, I'm a month away from heading back home so I gather that it's time to throw on the Xmas music. Yee-hah!

Monday November 15, 7:52 a.m.

Gonna need an umbrella for most of the day. Drag. Kinda feel considerably older than 39 right now. Bring on the Geritol and Metamucil. I'm sending off the video of Japanaese TV shows and Seirogan. What's Seirogan? It's the local equivalent of the worst-smelling medicine you can think of...but it works. I think there was a cough syrup that had the same boast.

Last night, I caught a movie on Pay called Flowers and Snakes. Lest one assumes that it's a nature movie, it is an S&M flick. Now, let me say right from the start, I'm not a purveyor of whips-and-cream cinema. However, what got me to watch this was that it had been released last year to rather lurid fanfare in the magazines and talk shows. Not that S&M is a new deviant activity in the porn industry; I'd say that it's had much of a place in the underground as it's had in American porn. No, the reason that Flower and Snakes garnered such "acclaim" is the lead star/victim (I think I may have mentioned about this very briefly in an entry last year...not that I expect you to remember). Aya Sugimoto started out as a sports car model and then came out with a few songs on CD (virtually anyone who becomes a regular on TV here apparently has a clause in his/her contract that demands an attempt at singing despite the obvious lack of talent) with frequent appearances on variety shows. In other words, she was the run-of-the-millTV personality, albeit a gorgeous one. But somewhere down the line she got married, disappeared for several years, before popping out again after a divorce.

So it was with some shock and titillation that she came out with some nude pictorials and then this S&M flick. Think of Vanna White turning on a spit instead of turning letters herself, and that was the feeling going around here in its initial release. Mind you, the shock was tempered by the fact that Sugimoto has always had that Amazonian sex appeal so most people weren't downright scandalized in a way that they could have been if someone like, say, veteran pop idol Seiko Matsuda had starred in it. Still, the shock came from how far Sugimoto was willing to go to play the victim. Basically nothing was left to the imagination although certain "key" scenes were obviously simulated and of course, her private parts were pixillated as is the law in Japan.

According to some of the Net reports from the ordinary people that had seen it, they were frankly left cold by the experience. Nothing particularly arousing about it aside from the fact that a famous celeb was willing to be strung up. In fact, to me, it seemed like that the entire enterprise was a summer stock-like beginner's exercise in S&M film for trendy drama actors. Along with Sugimoto, there was a former idol singer playing her husband and an actor playing a very dirty, very old man (I swore it's the same actor who plays the lovably tetchy boss in those iced coffee commercials). Well, I can actually say that I saw it and for a good deal less than if I'd seen it at the theaters or paid the money for the DVD. As for Sugimoto, she can be seen occasionally on a celeb cooking show. I gather that she knows her way around pointed utensils...

Well, off to work I go...

Sunday November 14, 5:20 p.m.

Just came back from dinner. Thought I was going to tuck myself into some sushi. But as it turned out, there was hardly anyone in the place and the conveyor belt had very little of the stuff rotating. Since I don't particularly enjoy having to order dishes up every minute, I gave the restaurant a pass and did some window shopping of sorts before I settled on that new ramen restaurant just down the mall. I had a bowl of ramen loaded for bear with BBQ pork, garlic and miso. I also threw in an extra 200 yen for some garlic rice which had enough power to knock down a T-Rex. My pullover definitely smelled like I had a ton of garlic. That's why Febreeze is such a hit in Japan.

Earlier in the day, MB got back to me via chat. It looks like he and his girlfriend enjoyed themselves at Phantom last night.

Luckily, it didn't rain today although things were kept pretty overcast and cool.

Sunday November 14, 12:55 p.m.

Cool and overcast...typical weather. But I still threw out my futon on the ledge to air out, if only for a short while.

Finished taping for the parents; I was lucky enough to find a couple of enka shows to throw on. And I even had enough space to tape a mystery drama.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his new capacity as governor of California, made his 20-somethingth trip to Japan to promote the joys and wonders of the Golden State. Instead of his old leather-and-sunglasses getup, he was sporting some major shiny suits. But his hoary trademark line was still spouting from his lips. Now that he has political clout along with the Hollywood one, he got to meet with the government boys including the PM.

The big news today is that Princess Nori is engaged. I always wondered if she were going to fulfill her spinster status but that can finally be pitched out. The way the news announcer is putting it, it sounds like she's leaving the Imperial Family and becoming a commoner, though. It'd be a perfect premise for a reality show back in the States. How does a princess cope with mundane life?

And speaking of my life, I'll be doing some cleanup and ironing today along with the usual prep work for my lessons tomorrow. However, I intend to take advantage of the 20% off special at the sushi restaurant.

Saturday November 13, 1:56 p.m.

Lazy, lazy Saturday. Still, I managed to get up at around 8 this morning. I find out that Scott Peterson finally got his comeuppance. Nancy Grace was snarling like a banshee on Larry King. What else is new?

Had a long chat with Movie Buddy this morning. He's still nagging me to get that microphone for the computer. I still say that we have a telephone, and he doesn't know that I get pretty intractable when someone tries to push me into anything. Apparently, he and his girl are off to see "The Phantom of the Opera". Nothing says marriage is closer when a couple heads off to see a musical.

Just got a message from Arwen. Looks like she's also good to go for DTE's second farewell. I guess DTE isn't thinking of putting up stakes here after all.

Thought I was going to stay all weekend at home but I have to make one outing tomorrow to check books out for a new student, The Hawaiian's aunt, since I won't have any time between then and Wednesday.

Friday November 12, 10:48 p.m.

Man, was that some funeral for Arafat in Ramallah! Reminds me of the chaos that surrounded Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral years ago. Well, he got the sendoff he would've loved.

The day came off as expected with the students. Pretty rainy and chilly, though. It should be better tomorrow so I can do the wash. I find myself with two full days off so I hope to get a lot of relaxation in.

I got my first message from Shard for the first time in several weeks. I've always looked forward to his messages since our missives to each other are in the form of long pop cultural exchanges. And this one was no different. I think I spent a good 30-40 minutes responding to his one message.

Thursday November 11, 10:39 p.m.

Well, I gotta backtrack on my opinion about that mystery sub which infiltrated Japanese waters yesterday. Apparently, it could be a Chinese sub not a North Korean one. My bad.

It was another stint as counselor with Jazz Buddy this morning. She looked even more hangdog than last week. She's been getting down for various reasons such as work and her sister from Hell. But notably, she's just frustrated from her dinner with a friend and some Indonesian acquaintances since she had some trouble keeping up with the English side of the talk. I tried to reassure her that if she just keeps up with her practicing, there will be dividends. I'm just worried about how much she's been working; she has always looked somewhat tired...now, she just looks plain exhausted.

I had those several hours to kill between JB and The Carolinan so I used the first of those hours to have my occasional ramen lunch at Foo Foo. The spicy soup worked well today considering the coolness of the weather. Then, I headed down to the Ginza area for the first time in a few weeks via Shiodome. I'm pretty glad I did so. However, I saw that where the late lamented Farm Grill used to be, now stood a Don Quixote discount shop...oh, the sadness. But at the same time, I discovered a possible new replacement for the good ol' Grill. Out of curiosity, I went up to the third floor of the Shiodome City Center, that big green tower which also houses the Oregon Bar and Grill steakhouse all the way up on the 42nd floor. On that third floor, I saw a sign for a "Calfornian cuisine" restaurant called LAST. In this country, a "Californian cuisine" restaurant usually translates as all-you-can-eat buffet. So I just went down the corridor and saw the entrance to this place. There was also a large placard with photos of what they served. Hey, looks good to me. I'll have to do a recon trip sometime next week...maybe next Wednesday since my schedule will be pretty sparse. I obviously couldn't go today since I was still digesting my ramen. Then, up in Yurakucho where that large Fujiya tower is, I found out that a new dessert buffet restaurant has opened up. Gotta let the gang know.

I had some time to check out Yamano Music and HMV. I let go of my disicpline a bit and bought a couple of CDs there. Yamano Music seems to be the only major CD store to sell re-issues of J-Pop albums from the 70s and 80s, so I bought a Junko Yagami disc. Yagami was one of those artists who didn't fit into the bubblepop idol; instead, she fused in some Latin, disco, R&B and jazz influences into her pop. She now goes by the name of June Stanley and lives in the US and releases the odd album. The second album I got was from HMV in Yurakucho and it was that swing jazz disc I had mentioned a few days ago.

I checked out the nearby Bic Camera, ostensibly to find the new location of the Coca restaurant, that eatery which was well known for its dim sum and Thai hot pot options just behind the Mullion complex in a non-descript building. It doesn't seem to be a move, though; the original restaurant seems to be still up and running. The new place, though, looks rather sleek and urbane unlike the rather old Chinatown look to the original.

Finally, I made my way up to the Tea Room. It started raining a bit then but it wasn't enough for me to bring out the umbrella although every other sentient being did so but then again over here, if a drop even appears on a sleeve, the brolleys open up. I spent a good 2 hours there before The Carolinan showed up. It was a pleasant lesson and we had a brief chat with the owner about some of the celebs who've passed through the cafe over the years. She also remarked about how worried she gets when those big patches of no business hit the place. It would be a great pity if the place had to close down.

Well, tomorrow will be my usual lessons with The Teacher and SR. Then, it'll be trip to the gym. It'll be needed. I looked rather bloated in the mirror today.

Wednesday November 10, 9:06 p.m.

Looks like we had a little taste of invasion today. Some unknown sub entered Japanese territorial waters which put the SDF on full alert. Nice to know some country is considerate enough to test our defenses. We'll have to send Kim some extra rice in return.

Had an extra treat at the house where I usually teach The Class Act this morning. Since there wasn't too much time between their lesson and the one for SIL, the lady of the house was kind enough to have lunch made for me in the form of a bowl of hot soba. The lesson itself was notable for the fact that one of the two got a bit frustrated at the large amount of indecipherable slang in the article. I wasn't too depressed since she was the one who had supplied the material in any event. However, I defused things a bit by introducing the wonderful game of Solitaire with my deck of cards. Can't believe that neither of them had ever heard of the game before. Then when I mentioned about how my old junior high school kids back in my JET days used to play card games during field trips on the bus, they pointed out that those days are long gone. The kids nowadays are too involved with Game Boys and their cellphones. I remarked that I still had my Solitaire. The same lady told me about her family's dinner outing at the New York Grill in the Park Hyatt (that hotel where "Lost In Translation" was filmed). It seems as if they were all thrilled by the jazz trio playing dinner music there. She offered to put in a reservation if I were ever to go there. Very kind of her but I'd probably only go if I had a date and I think that's very unlikely considering my romantic disinclinations right now.

After SIL, I did my usual jaunt to Tower Records. I once again held off on my CD purchases though I did buy TIME and EW. TIME went into its post-election analysis about what happened with Kerry. I'm sure a lot of people worldwide are still thinking about that as well. I did take a listen to a bit of that soundtrack for The Polar Express. The first track had Tom Hanks doing his best Rawhide impression along side a bunch of kids. The CNN critics didn't seem too hot on the movie saying that the animation looks creepy; well, it is different but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Since I had that coupon for The Maple Leaf, I went there for dinner. I basically risked undoing any benefit that I got from my gym outings by ordering a Sloppy Joes and poutine, otherwise known as the Cholesterol Couple. However, I enjoyed every messy bite, heheheh.

Shibuya is already into Holiday mode. All of the Xmas trees are up and the displays are showing that festive spirit. Just like in the US.

Getting to the Starbucks where I teach the OL, I found the place initially packed for some reason. Quite a few gaijin in there as well. However, by the time I got back from the washroom, there was a major exodus of customers thankfully.

I've got the Jazz Buddy and the Carolinan tomorrow. Just hope that JB is in better form. Not quite sure what I'll do in the intervening 6 hours. Almost feels like an old full-timers day at the school.

Wednesday November 10, 7:38 a.m.

I was taking a look through Michael Moore's website to see whatever became of Moore after the election and I came across a link to the website, "Sorry Everybody". When I went over there, I found a whole bunch of photos with sad people and their written apologies to the world for how the election went. It's gotten coverage on CNN, and apparently when I told some of the guys back home about it, The Anime King sent word back that he couldn't get through. I figure that there was a sudden deluge of hits after the CNN feature went to air because I could access it again with no problem. Although I can understand the feelings of those who sent in the pictures, in retrospect, I think it can come off as a bit smarmy so I'm not surprised that there has been a huge amount of hate mail from the Bush voters.

Looks like another Tom is making multiple trips over here for a movie. Tom Hanks will be heading here tomorrow to campaign for The Polar Express after having come here VERY recently to plug The Terminal. I recollect that years before Bill Murray's trumpeted star turn in Tokyo last year, Hanks was in the Big Sushi to film scenes for Ron Howard's Gung Ho. Apparently, tne New York debut of The Polar Express took place last night with the stars coming out. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith greeted the Fuji TV rep in the Big Apple with a hearty "Konbanwa" and "Sumimasen"; his pronounciation wasn't too bad. I wonder if he'd picked some of his Japanese up from Liv. She's been doing commercials here for an iced coffee company for months.

Was lurking through a J-Pop website. Just can't believe how many people internationally are into the genre. Kinda scary at how relentless their search for information on Morning Musume can be. From the messages, I can assume that it's still not all that easy to get a lot of info from here outside of Japan. Every little episode from any show is fully dissected and fully appreciated like a drop of water in a desert.

Tuesday November 9, 10:03 p.m.

I got to the juku to find out that the Beauty Pair had suddenly canned their lesson due to cold. The boss was profusely apologetic but I didn't particularly mind. In their stead, the boss had her lesson before that nice couple came in. Speaking of them, they evidently had a very good time in Portugal last week, and it was heartening to hear that they were much more secure in hearing English.

Hope to hit the hay by 11 since I've got a slightly early start to the day tomorrow. I've got The Class Act and SIL and then the OL. In between SIL and OL, I've got a few hours so I will take advantage of a coupon and head to The Maple Leaf for dinner.

Tuesday November 9, 1:55 p.m.

After my lesson with the ladies this morning, I headed over to City Hall to pick up my new ARC. Took less than 5 minutes. Then I just headed back home and got a pretty large lunch from SUBWAY. That should tide me over past dinnertime.

Kinda glad that I'm not heading to the gym today. I'm still feeling pretty achy and I can also laze about a bit longer before heading to class. The couple that I usually teach in the second slot will be back from their short vacation in Portugal. Their story should be good practice of the Simple Past...I hope.

So I hear that Bob Geldof is finally having the legendary Live Aid concert released on DVD after almost 2 decades. Good golly...has it been that long? I remember catching it when I was in university that one fateful weekend in July. Should be worth buying to see some of my old favourite bands.

Monday November 8, 9:04 p.m.

Straight in and out from The Company today. Feeling exhausted; I hope it's just because of all the lactic acid from the workout today.

Watched some footage of the Emperor and Empress visiting the beleaguered evacuees in Niigata today. The majority of them seemed to be elderly folks so they were very appreciative of the visit...some were openly weeping. The symbols of state always visit disaster-ridden areas such as the 1991 Mt. Unzen volcano disaster, the 1993 Hokkaido quake and the 1995 Kobe quake.

That class at the school that I was supposed to teach got canned according to the call from the Scheduler. A bit disappointing but at least I can head out to City Hall tomorrow and pick up the gaijin card with plenty of time to spare.

Monday November 8, 1:36 p.m.

Had my outing at the gym. It was my first Monday morning stint there, and sure enough, not too many people which was great for me. I had lunch at the neighbourhood Pepper Lunch. Low quality beef and my clothing always smells like a brazier but I can't beat the price.

I just have the one lesson over at The Company tonight so I have a couple of hours before I head out the door again. Apparently there was another Shindo 5 aftershock off in Niigata.

The Doctor let me know that The Incredibles is one great movie. The CNN reviewer was even more glowing. Gotta see it.

Saturday November 6, 8:51 p.m.

Had an interesting lesson with the Mom of those two sisters. I gave her a major case of the willies when I told her that I had no fear of clasping one of those giant cockroaches that are endemic to this country. Man these guys are just terrified of the insects.

Then, I made it to the Tea Room to see M+M. No cockroarch talk there but we chatted a lot on food. It was a lot busier than usual there; the wait staff was just flying all over the place.

A lot of the comments from the folks back at home and the students here concerning Bush's win pretty much can be condensed into one question: "What the hell were they thinking?!"

Movie Buddy had a brief chat with me over the Messenger about having the dumb luck to get the first 3 discs of 24, Season 3. It's been so many months since I saw the last season that I didn't get particularly envious. But I know that MB will be largely missing this weekend if 24 is of the same calibre as the first 2 seasons. As for me, I'm just taping some travel shows for the parentals. They seem to be the only thing that I can tape for them since enka music has largely disappeared from the tube. For dinner, I just made up my usual pork kimchi and rice...also steamed half a gigantic sweet potato that one of the Beehive gave me. I feel gassy as hell right now. I'm gonna have to keep the windows open wide tonight.

I was checking the Cartoon Network website when I came across one of their new shows: Puffy Amiyumi. Good heavens! The Japanese kitschy pop duo merely did some stuff at a Texas music festival and suddenly they've achieved Shonen Knife fame. And now there's gonna be a cartoon on them. They've been around here in Japan for nearly a decade but their peak was a few years ago and they've largely been appearing solo in different variety shows now. Ami and Yumi have long past the "syndicated" point of their career so they will always be recognizable and liked figures on the tube but musically, they'll just be a late 90s phenomenon.

Tomorrow will be a major clean up here since I've got absolutely nothing. I figure that I'll be giving Mom the monthly call.

Saturday November 6, 7:37 a.m.

Feeling pretty achy and tired this morning. Serves me right for not properly warming down after my workout last night. All that lactic acid must be stagnating in my veins. I inadvertently slept an extra hour which usually signifies that I needed it.

Got at least the one kid today and probably her mother, although I've prepared for the other sister. The classes are one hour ahead of schedule so I can take a bit more time getting over to the Tea Room to see M+M. It'll definitely be nice spending a night at home.

In fact, this weekend will be nice and quiet. Can actually clean up the place.

Friday November 5, 9:31 p.m.

Well, my lesson with The Teacher went smoothly. Afterwards, I headed for Maruzen to get my crosswords and newspaper. Tried to find someplace for lunch but the restaurants seemed a little too upscale in price and status. So I just ended up having lunch back in the school lounge. It was good to see the DJ and the Interpreter after so long. The DJ and I had a good talk on the aftermath of the election. He is somewhat bewildered about the results as most of us in the world are.

I told SR that the countdown to my possible permanent departure for the Great White North began yesterday. She had a minor panic attack about me leaving since she didn't really who she could turn to for future English lessons. I think there's plenty of time left. Besides, The Teacher didn't seem too dismayed when I told her last week.

Some good news...I actually got a class at the school next week. Ironically, one of the senior students saw me today and remarked that she never sees me outside of the events.

Had my second outing at the gym tonight. I lost another pound...good stuff. I tried a couple of the other machines as well. My shoulders are feeling pretty tight right now.

Friday November 5, 8:46 a.m.

The new Star Wars trailer came out on Fuji-TV. Looks like it'll be a chock o' block of action and darkness...and probably more of the "stylized" acting.

Now that Bush is back in business, he called for "reaching out and healing". Hah! The man was able to grab the popular vote, the electoral vote, and extra seats in both the Senate and the House. He'll probably steamroller everything. It'll be four more years of the same. Now, I'm just wondering where Michael Moore has gone.

Had my rubdown in the afternoon yesterday. As I thought, it was pretty empty there at the clinic. A somewhat nebbishy masseur took care of me this time. He was rather conscientious about his work which I appreciated...he asked me at certain times whether his moves were too painful. I assured him that he was doing fine. He also gave me some advice on how to tone up my triceps.

Another good day today. So, I just did my laundry. And then I'll have my regular lessons with The Teacher (hopefully, she'll be in a better mood) and SR. Then, it'll be my night session at the gym with the new sneakers. I bought a pair of amazingly cheap Nikes. They were only a shade over 3000 yen including tax. I even thought that they had to be knockoffs but the telltale swoosh was there on both the box and the shoes, so I guess they must be the real thing. Perhaps the advertising has so ingrained in me that Nikes must be astronomically expensive that I didn't know about the cheaper models.

Thursday November 4, 2:44 p.m.

Atlas shrugged. The world sighed. Bush won.

Well, a decade ago today, I stepped back onto the Land of the Rising Sun to be transported twice across town before I was dragged into my NOVA apartment in Shibamata. Clinton was still relatively unstained, HEY!HEY!MUSIC CHAMP had just started with the youngish Downtown duo and I had much darker hair. I've been through hundreds of students, most of whom have been very nice...a few budding psychos but not too bad, made a few friends, lost a lot of them due to distance or "creative differences", and managed to live in the same apartment for virtually the same amount of time.

Last night, I had a bit of a bellweather moment about my 10th anniversary here when I had that meeting with that acquaintance who is to launch his own conversation school in January. He's been here the same amount of time but he's got quite a bit more ambition than I do. We initially spoke on my availability to teach there, but it soon got into the possibility of actually partnering up with him to help the place grow. I said that it would all depend on how my Xmas vacation goes in terms of what the parentals want of me. If they want me back home, then it's all moot. But if I can come back here and he helps me get my landed immigrant status, then the project could be doable. However, it would also mean that I'd lose a lot of my privates which would be a pity.

Jazz Buddy should've just phoned in her lesson today. She was just so exhausted. Every syllable was interspersed with a yawn, so the first hour was mostly on her job satisfaction. I say she should head for a spa. I think she was rather envious about how genki I was. It is a very nice November afternoon.

Wednesday November 3, 9:37 a.m.

I was called after 8 this morning, and since I rarely get such calls unless they are from my school or from some annoying telemarketer, I didn't answer with the most cordial of voices. Hearing the unknown voice at the other end didn't make me feel any better.

However, when he identified himself as the husband of my good student from my old NOVA days, I quickly got into line and into Japanese mode. I now feel somewhat bad since he had the sad news that his wife had passed away a couple of days ago. I feel doubly as bad since I really didn't possess the vocabulary to express condolences so I'm not sure if I sounded like a complete coldheart. In any case, he was very gracious. I have sent off messages to another teacher and one of her classmates since they're the only people whose addresses I have from those days.

When I met my first student for the first time, I had only been working at NOVA for a few months. She struck me as the usual middle-aged housewife but over the years as her English improved (and that it did), she also changed her image from that of typical housewife to a more hip lady with her fashion and her hobbies. She loved Spain and also studied the language very hard. I still have her tiny plastic bag containing a few precious strands of saffron that she'd gotten from her last trip to the country. Even when I left the company several years ago, she still maintained sporadic contact with me via her annual Sumida Fireworks Festival parties on the rooftop of her apartment. She will be sorely missed.

Tuesday November 2, 10:55 p.m.

Well, the day is finally here. Election Day is off and running Stateside. Already in their desperation to show any sort of results considering the great cautionary atmosphere, the media have jumped on some sort of hick town to announce that Bush has captured that area with a total of 26 votes. Dunno how Kerry is feeling but Bush sure looks giddy and flush with confidence. He was actually cordial with the reporters.

My day was considerably more subdued with just my regular Tuesday classes. In between, I made my first trip to the gym in well over a week. Sure enough, I basically ballooned back up to the weight that I started at but I guess my guilt and power to release some unvented energy balanced the scales a bit since I lost a full pound after just an hour of workout.

Tomorrow, I've got a lesson with The Hawaiian despite the fact that it is a national holiday: Culture Day. My morning will be spent on US political culture watching CNN. Still, I gotta do some cleaning up here. Then in the evening I meet up with an acquaintance concerning his new English school. I may be asked to help out there although nothing will be set til January.

Monday November 1, 9:34 p.m.

Now that Halloween has gone for another year, those typically grayer skies and deeper dusks have returned although the temps were a bit warmer today. The important thing is that there was no rain. I can imagine that the department stores are now setting up their displays for Xmas...another kowtow to US culture.

I had the Class Act again where I got another tip on a good restaurant which serves Chinese dumplings. May have to get another bunch together to check that out. Then, after 5 months, one of the CA's relatives returned from the cold to take my lessons again. She was pretty much the same although she said that she hadn't spoken a word of English during that time. Her confidence remains pretty low, though.

My class at the Company was a bit slow tonight. Looked like two of them had taken some sleeping pills beforehand. However, had them relatively alert by the end.

Well, ready for the quadrennial spectator sports event known as Election Day. It'll be Wednesday morning once the results are finally known so I'll have a hot mug of coffee and a danish on hand to enjoy as I watch what happens between Bush and Kerry.

Monday November 1, 9:34 p.m.

Now that Halloween has gone for another year, those typically grayer skies and deeper dusks have returned although the temps were a bit warmer today. The important thing is that there was no rain. I can imagine that the department stores are now setting up their displays for Xmas...another kowtow to US culture.

I had the Class Act again where I got another tip on a good restaurant which serves Chinese dumplings. May have to get another bunch together to check that out. Then, after 5 months, one of the CA's relatives returned from the cold to take my lessons again. She was pretty much the same although she said that she hadn't spoken a word of English during that time. Her confidence remains pretty low, though.

My class at the Company was a bit slow tonight. Looked like two of them had taken some sleeping pills beforehand. However, had them relatively alert by the end.

Well, ready for the quadrennial spectator sports event known as Election Day. It'll be Wednesday morning once the results are finally known so I'll have a hot mug of coffee and a danish on hand to enjoy as I watch what happens between Bush and Kerry.

Sunday October 31, 8:05 p.m.

Some frankly vengeful spiritual force must be enacting a very Halloween curse on me. First, it was the Carolinan to ask whether I'd gained weight, and today Skippy said that I looked like Mr. Incredible. Great! Man, you skip a week from the gym and you just get abused.

Anyways, the four of us caught COLLATERAL. We had to be thrown all the way into the very front row so at least one of us had some neck strain. Well, the movie itself was OK. It definitely had that tinge of Michael Mann and it seemed to lift certain plot lines from some of his old movies like MANHUNTER and HEAT. Like some of the critics out there, I was a bit iffy on the believability factor of having Tom Cruise's psycho killer spouting philosophy as if he were a handsomer and slimmer Hannibal Lecter. Ack...it is a Hollywood movie.

Afterwards, MB, The Ballerina, Skippy and I just had some lunch at the Tofu Cafe just one level down from the theatre since the two ladies engorged themselves on the caramel popcorn and the basket was only half-empty. Geez, women and their bird appetites in this country. I think anorexia is more of an established lifestyle than a disease here.

Well, Shosei Koda was confirmed as the headless body found in Baghdad this morning. From talking with Skippy and The Ballerina, it seems that in their circle of friends, Koda was asking for it so there wasn't much sympathy there but I'm sure it's being saved up for his family.

Saturday October 30, 11:43 p.m.

As expected, it was a drearily cold and wet day today. Just had my lesson with the one sister and her mother. Then I went all the way down to Tama Plaza to see Movie Buddy over at his girlfriend's place. Tama Plaza is just one of those residential places centered around the station. We had some good and spicy ramen before buying a bunch of very caloric foods such as Haagen-Daas Apple Pie ice cream and watching a double feature on his DVD player.

Dark City was a small but interesting flick made for the comic book set. It had 24's Kiefer Sutherland as a doctor with a Peter Lorre shtick and Jennifer Connelly, who seems to be naturally attracted to these ingenue roles in sci-fi movies. And the supposed lead actor is an absolute unknown to me. The whole story struck me as being a template for the Matrix without the groundbreaking effects but it was still a good timewaster.

The Recruit was also in the same vein, especially on a rainy day. It was entirely predictable. I had pegged the real villain within the first 15 minutes. Al Pacino toned down his usual histrionics but it's still hard to believe that this is the same actor who portrayed Michael Corleone even if it were 30 years ago.

Afterwards, I spent another hour gabbing about all sorts of sci-fi stuff such as Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 before I made my way across town back home. I won't be here all that long either since I'll be meeting MB yet again...this time with Skippy and maybe even The Ballerina to watch COLLATERAL. Just gotta think of a place to eat afterwards.

Friday October 29, 8:07 p.m.

A rather deadly side effect has been arising from the Niigata earthquake. Economy-class syndrome may have claimed the lives of a good fraction of the deaths. Among the tens of thousands of evacuees, a lot of them have been spending their lives in the cramped surroundings of their cars. And just like being in the economy class of an airplane for several hours, these people have been risking blood clots from staying within their cocoons without stretching. They're simply afraid of staying in buildings which could collapse.

My lesson with The Teacher turned me into the sounding board or stressball once again. A couple of times, she vented about her hubby and her son's homeroom teacher. Luckily, later on in the lesson, I brought out my ol' Vegas standup routine which had her in stitches.

Then I met The Engineer for lunch in the Ginza. We traveled around the area for a while before finally deciding to dine on eel-on-rice. He remarked that it wasn't the best eel but for only 998 yen, what can we complain about? I ended up helping him out on an errand which had me just lug a heavy suitcase for a bit. I definitely got the better deal of the bargain by not only getting the usual Reeses Pieces from him, but also getting a free lunch. The next time I see him will be back in the ol' hometown.

I'm currently watching MUSIC STATION, the Japanese equivalent of American Bandstand...without the dancing, though. One thing I have to wonder about...you got all these live acts of various genres performing. Well, I have to wonder what these acts must think of their fellow colleagues when they perform since the quality level varies greatly. Morning Musume is up there singing their latest tuneless hit; it was sung so off-key that I had to switch off the volume for the duration.

Well, I've got the kids tomorrow but that's about it. It'll be another cold rainy day.

Friday October 29, 12:32 p.m.

Looks like another school Halloween party is in the can for another year. It's possible that we had our largest number of costumed students yet. And we had our second consecutive year of transvestitism with one of our more delicate-looking guys ending up resembling supermodel Ai Tominaga except for the fact that he was several centimetres shorter. Still can't believe that the real thing is preggers.

I had the Carolinan afterwards. I was stung a bit by her when she innocently asked me if I'd gained weight. OUCH! I guess I really need to get back to the gym tomorrow night. Well, after downing 7 slices of pizza, I guess I did look a bit bloated. However, I still decided to head over to the post-event party at a nearby Chinese restaurant across the river where the coordinator and some of the other remnants of the party had some dinner. I still managed to down a bit of soup and fried rice before stumbling back home.

Finally got word from Skippy. She will still join us for Sunday. Gotta hit the hay though so that I'm semi-lucid for The Teacher. Luckily, the "lesson" for her is pretty much on automatic but I gotta keep up appearances.

Wednesday October 27, 10:38 p.m.

Pretty straightforward day. Got my lunch at Foo Foo, that ramen place in Shinjuku Station. It's been a while so I had my usual Pai Ko Tan Tan Men. Pretty garlicky but good. And they actually got the order right this time.

I guess the Fall is definitely here to stay. There was actually a bite to the coolness tonight, quite a far cry from the torrid heat of a couple of months ago. I think a lot of the locals are trying to escape from the cold now. The Starbucks where I usually teach the OL was pretty packed tonight. However, I was able to gradually sidle to a good table.

I guess I really lack sleep. On the way from my lesson with The Hawaiian, I decided to take a nap on the subway down to Starbucks only to overshoot my destination by a couple of stations. Usually an internal alarm gets me up a station before my arrival. Not this time. But luckily, I wasn't in any major hurry.

My Messenger has been quite busy today. I had a brief conversation with The Bohemian on it before he decided to talk with me on a real phone. He's not into "chat" and I can understand. He's be up in the north for well over a couple of years now and he still can't seem to make any friends up there. He does have a rather intriguing personality but I can't believe it's been that difficult for him. Later on after I got back from work, I got into my second chat session with The Movie Buddy. Unlike the Bohemian, he seems to really thrive in chatroom mode. It looks like it could just be the two of us for COLLATERAL. I have yet to hear from Skippy and the Scarecrow turned me down.

The people up in Niigata have been going through some major difficulties because of the earthquake but they've also been major troupers. It seems like relief efforts have been very organized from the setting up of temporary shelters to the food supplies. Still, every aftershock sets everyone on edge.

That Japanese fellow who got kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents isn't an SDF soldier but just a traveling civilian who decided to throw common sense to the winds and traipsed into a danger zone. Several hotels rejected his request for a room and two people warned him not to enter the country but he brushed them off with the typically foolish bravado of a man in his twenties stating that he wouldn't be captured. Well, he's learned a bit of reality now. His parents held a press conference tonight begging for their son's release and apologizing for all the trouble that he has caused. I know that I'll be seen as being very cold hearted by saying this but the abductee is truly an idiot...but I won't go as far as saying that he deserves to be killed.

Wednesday October 27, 11:18 a.m.

About half an hour ago, Niigata got rocked with a tremor that was just a shade weaker than the quake that hit the area during the weekend. Of course, it was felt all over the place. I was just sitting around when the apartment started to do a bit of rocking. It was a relatively weaker Shindo 3 here but Niigata was up to 6-. All of the channels are back on war footing again.

I had been thinking about hitting the gym this morning but for some reason, I just wasn't feeling up to it. Sometimes, my instinct tells me to do or not do something. And perhaps I was a winner again with this quake. To be honest, I've been feeling pretty tired for the past few days now. Not sure what's up.

Wednesday October 27, 8:25 a.m.

It had to happen. Earlier this year, three Japanese civilians had been kidnapped and threatened with gruesome immolation by Iraqi insurgents. Luckily, they were released. However, the news has now come in that an SDF officer has been taken by the Zarqawi gang, and they've had a record of beheading everyone they've taken. The strange thing, though, is that the abductee looks more like a hippee than a soldier although perhaps his long hair may have been a result of his length of stay and no barber. At this point, however, Koizumi is more afraid of the U.S. than he is of the insurgents so the abductee is at the mercy of his kidnappers.

It looks like the first snow has come into Sapporo. The place looks like a winter wonderland right now.

Tuesday October 26, 10:50 p.m.

Mission accomplished. I was able to lug the two pumpkins over to the juku despite a steady if light rain. Everyone had a great time carving Jack O'Lanterns out of them. The juku boss showed her somewhat scatterbrained side when she thought we would be having another pancake party. I set her straight. She also recruited me to come with her in mid=November to check out a potential new site for a second school all the way up in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. Well, if it gets me out of the city once in a while...

One thing about using the new Hotmail account for e-mail. It is certainly efficient and I don't have to use the spam filter anymore but I also feel a bit "lonely" in that the responses have been few and far between. One of the M+M just told me that my reply to her request came out as "Invalid Text" so I'm wondering if the others are getting the same sort of thing and not bothering to tell me.

The death rate keeps creeping up from that Niigata quake. Currently at 31 and probably climbing...the sad thing is that a number of the deaths have been due to exhaustion.

Tuesday October 26, 2:40 p.m.

Dreary. The rain has been falling steadily. Just my luck that I have to lug two pumpkins over to the juku later today. Hopefully, there will be a little respite in the precipitation. Otherwise, it's gonna be a bit tricky taking those gourds and bobbling an umbrella. Plus, I still have the texts.

Got treated to another lunch today after my lesson with the ladies. Today, it was sushi...nice thing to be treated to.

Monday October 25, 9:00 p.m.

There must be some sort of enervation switch that automatically comes on when one turns 39. I have been feeling pretty beat over the past few days. Most of the time I've been nodding off on the subway...much to the mirth of some other riders at times. Tonight I was lucky I was reading something...something with large glossy colourful pictures (thank you, TOTAL FILM) which kept me awake although the fatigue was ever present. Maybe it's time to hit the multivitamins from here on end.

I downloaded MSN Messenger at Movie Buddy's urging. Man, am I amazed at how fast ADSL is. 30 MB downloaded in less than a minute. Back in my dialup days, 30 MB was the impossible dream; now it's just a fleeting thought. Sure enough, as soon as I had activated it, MB was ready and waiting for my log-in and we had a nice chat for 10 minutes. He said that he'll looking forward when I get that mike set up so that we can actually talk via IP phone. It does make me scratch my head, though. Why would one want to discuss stuff over IP phone when we have perfectly fine analog ones?

Then, just before I took off for work, I got a call from The Engineer. We won't be able to meet up for the group dinner on Thursday but I will be catching him for lunch in the Ginza on Friday.

After my lesson with The Class Act, I headed out to the nearby Don Quixote to pick up the remainder of my costume. Don Quixote, you ask? It happens to be a chain of discount stores...I'm not sure how the name came about although I could imagine that the founder initially thought starting a chain of cheap product stores in brand-name-crazy could have been a windmill-tilting venture. He needn't have worried. The store is doing fine. I bought a wig...right next to the row of vibrators.

I was planning to pay my rent at the nearby bank but the lineups there resembled those for Star Wars (the original ones), and then I realized that it was the 25th and therefore it was payday for most of the working public. I just headed for lunch at the TGIFridays and helped myself to a wonderful Philly Cheesesteak.

I passed by the Shibuya branch of Parcos, a major department store. Apparently, Victoris Beckham, former Spice Girl and current wife of soccer great David Beckham was due to show up some 20 minutes later. However, I decided to save myself from the close encounter. Instead, I went over to the HMV. I did pick up that TOTAL FILM magazine (and boy was I glad to pick it up, too) and was tempted to pick up a swing jazz CD compilation. It had some of the classics such as The Peter Gunn and Pink Panther themes by Henry Mancini, and "Sing, Sing, Sing", a song that is getting dangerously overplayed on movie trailers dealing with the old Jazz Age. Currently, a movie's come out dealing with local high school kids struggling to become a swing band which has renewed some interest in the old genre. Being the jazz fan, I'm happy to hear about the comeback but I think it'll probably be just a brief blip. There was a similarly short but intense flourish in ballroom dancing after "Shall We Dance?"'s release. I don't hear too much about the waltz or the rhumba right now.

Back home again. Just gotta get some prep work done for tomorrow's classes. Won't be hitting the gym, though, since I've gotta lug the two pumpkins over for the "lessons" at the juku. And I frankly don't wanna have to try to stuff two oversized gourds into the locker. Plus, I gotta get some Trick or Treat candy.

I'll be checking what's up with the earthquake situation at 10 on NHK. But I get the feeling that things are starting to stabilize a wee bit.

Monday October 25, 7:57 a.m.

Can't believe it's 2 months before Xmas.

There is a Japanese adage that describes the great four fears: earthquakes, thunderstorms, volcanoes and Dad. Well, the first one has been scaring the population of Niigata for the past few days now. I was awakened this morning by a slight tremor so I checked NHK. Sure enough, I saw scenes of a town in Niigata getting rocked by a Shindo 5 aftershock. It was very sad seeing evacuees scrambling for very limited supplies of food and water, and huddling in blankets as if they were from a third-world nation. I can't even imagine what it would be like if that Saturday quake had hit Tokyo straight on. What's worse for the prefecture is that there's heavy rain on the way which could trigger landslides.

I've got the Class Act and then my usual company class today. I'm sure the quake will make up some of the talk today. In between classes, I have to get the remainder of my costume for Thursday.

I started the ball rolling for next Sunday's next outing to catch Tom in COLLATERAL. Not quite sure what the turnout will be. Could just be Movie Buddy and Skippy.

Sunday October 24, 5:32 p.m.

Made that trip to Omotesando. I had lunch over at the crowded Kua'Aina burger joint. Not cheap...but the fare was almost worth the price (double the cost of a Big Mac set). I only say almost since although the burger was great, the fries are still pretty chintzy. The Mac fries still hold the top rung for me.

Then I got my two pumpkins at that same flower shop that the bunch of us had gone to yesterday. I was quite happy to see that those gourds were really inexpensive. The average US pumpkin at Kinokuniya costs around 3000 yen. We could get the 3 of them for the same price at the flower shop. Sure eases up on the party budget.

For some reason, my Hotmail decided to throw all of the correspondence from Shrek and The Engineer into the Junk Mail folder. I was pretty lucky to check it before it all got thrown out. The Engineer will be coming again to Japan for a wedding but it looks doubtful that I'll be able to make it out for dinner with them since I've got that Halloween party over at the school and then I have The Carolinan afterwards.

Sunday October 24, 10:18 a.m.

Cool and sunny today. Perfect autumn weather. Still have the noxious aftertaste of garlic in my mouth. At our quake-disturbed curry dinner last night, I ordered the garlic naan. I just love the stuff in my cooking but boy, do I pay for it afterwards. My mouth is a WMD right now and only time will dissipate it.

Now that the light of day has come upon the area, the Great Niigata Earthquake's damage can be seen in much starker detail. Niigata is a rural prefecture so structures and people are more widely spaced out. However, the damage there is still considerable when compared to the big quake in Kobe back in 1995. Major roads look like they've had whole sections gouged out with a giant scoop. Electric poles are tilted like Towers of Pisa and houses have collapsed. Many areas are without power or water. Right now, 15 have died (mostly the elderly and children) and over 700 have been injured. The messages are still pouring into NHK-3 asking about the welfare of loved ones in the area.

As for my (considering the events in Niigata) fortunately uneventful life today, I'll be heading out to Omotesando once more to pick up a couple of more pumpkins for the carving at the juku on Tuesday. I'll probably pick up some candy as well for Trick or Treat. I was a bit disappointed that the bunch of us couldn't head out to the Kua'Aina hamburger joint down the street for lunch yesterday due to time so I may still indulge before I get all the shopping done.

So far, so good. My ADSL seems to be in working order. I gave it a little test via JibJab, that website that's gotten a lot of fame recently for producing those hilarious Bush-Kerry cartoons. I checked both cartoons out and they streamed in nicely. The only glitch is that I can't seem to register with my provider but since I can now travel throughout the Net, I don't particularly care too much.

Saturday October 23, 11:00 p.m.

This has been the season of discontent in Japan this year. We've been getting pummeled by typhoons and now tonight Niigata Prefecture got rocked three times by a Shindo 6 or M6.8. Either way you put it, it's a strong quake. I was out with three of the current students at my school for dinner at an Indian restaurant in Tokyo after they helped me pick up stuff for the Halloween party. Midway through our dinner, things starting shaking a bit with the lamps swaying and the wind chimes sounding off. One of the kids accurately pegged it at a Shindo 3 in the Big Sushi and we thought it was just one more of those little hiccups we get from time to time. However, when I got home and turned on the TV, I found out that things were a lot more serious 200 km away. Since then, we've been getting aftershocks even here. Just about every channel has been focused on the quake since it came about around 6 p.m. and NHK-3 has set up its own message board for loved ones all over the country to ask for their families and friends who are in the affected area to call in if possible.

One thing, though...so far, there have been 3 deaths and several injuries with reports of collapsed roads, blackouts and warped roads. However, when you compare what kind of damage a Shindo 6 could wreak in other countries, Japan is always well prepared...or as much as a nation can be when a quake hits.

Well, I did get that LAN board and trepidatiously set everything up so I'm actually back online at home again. Still, I've been having trouble registering my newest computer addition...I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

Friday October 22, 2:15 p.m.

Nice, sunny day today after all that Typhoon Tokage hubbub. It did get pretty intense on Wednesday night but it was briefer than its predecessor. My timing was good; I was able to get home an hour before the subways were shut down by the storm. However, this typhoon managed to do more damage and take more life than the other one. Anderson Cooper did his usual tabloid best by saying that there could be another one on the way. For your information, the 24th typhoon is heading west and won't affect us at all.

Japan's love-in with US baseball is over for the season now that the Bosox managed to pull off the greatest playoff comeback in Major League history. As a true Libran, I'm of two minds about the Yankees losing. It's a pity that Matsui won't be going ahead into the World Series but I'm not too sorry to see that the Yankees fans won't be gloating obnoxiously...who's your daddy now? Mind you, the Boston fans certainly weren't too patrician in their celebrations out in the street. Goes to show that hooliganism isn't a purely European phenomenon. Over here, the Japanese press didn't mention anything about the record that the Red Sox pulled off...just that despite Matsui's herculean efforts, the Yankees couldn't do it.

The Teacher got me those Speedos today. Luckily, they weren't those "barely there" thongs but some rather regular looking trunks. However, they still look pretty tight. I may yet look like Mr. Incredible in the trailer where he's struggling to put on his belt.

Went off to get my haircut at the usual place yesterday. I also had a bit of a taste of reality of salon life there. My regular stylist was doing her usual banter with me when Imentioned something and she just replied with some completely different response. Goes to show that all that banter is not really heartfelt.

I ended up making a second jaunt into downtown Tokyo after my initial trip to see Jazz Buddy. The sole reason was not to disappoint that current student who'd wanted me to come down to her Harajuku cafe. I did so and had a good chocolate croissant and coffee. Walking through Harajuku and Omotesando on a Thursday night was pretty pleasant. It was not nearly as crazed as it is on Friday nights or on the weekends with all those swarming kids in their costumes. Still, it was jaunty enough. I ended up walking all the way down to Shibuya since I didn't have any pressing issues at home and did my usual visit to Tower. I picked up one magazine, my only concession to pop culture during my period of austerity spending. Also, I sacrificed a bit on my dieting with a purchase of a doner kebab at a truck which was parked conveniently outside the store. Then again, it isn't too much of a sacrifice since 60% of the dish is shredded cabbage. Good to keep me regular.

Well, had my visit to the City Hall to start the ball running on my alien card renewal. I left my photos and signatures. Now I just have to wait about 10 days to pick up the new card.

Wednesday October 20, 12:14 p.m.

Been a while. We're on the cusp of another typhoon here. There's been a steady rain in Tokyo since yesterday morning and the winds ought to be picking up by tonight. As luck as would have it, I have my regular lessons later today so heading home ought to be "interesting". My first omen came from the subway traffic control centre which announced that my line may be shutting down if the waves of the rivers start lapping over 2 m (I live on the portion of the line that's outside).

Hopefully, Typhoon Tokage ("Lizard") will be out of the area by morning tomorrow. I've already had to cancel a couple of errands since I would like to lessen the amount of time I'm outside. I'm staving off my trip to the city hall for my new gaijin card to Friday and the same goes with my other outing to the sports club. So, it's just Kinkos, The Hawaiian and The OL...although there may be a slight possibility that the latter person may just leave a message cancelling her class due to the coming storm. Also, I "have" to drop in on a current student's workplace in Harajuku since I did promise to see her at her bakery. I did say that I would visit her on Thursday night but I'd forgotten that I have that appointment for my haircut then. So, throwing fate and common sense to the wind, I'll be trying to squeeze in that drop-in between lessons. As for the trip home, I may end up having to use an expensive taxi to get home. Grrrr...

My birthday passed by without too much fanfare. I did get a few well-wishes and cards from various people here and abroad but otherwise, I just treated myself to a hearty dinner at the neighbourhood tonkatsu eatery and to some cake that The Teacher so kindly gave me last week. But I think I am starting to look like I'm into middle age. I looked into the reflective surfaces alongside the escalators at Shinjuku Station...not too good.

Skippy actually contacted me after a number of days to say that she couldn't use her computer due to some defects which would explain her supposed "cold shoulder" to my invitation for Thanksgiving. She did dangle the possibility of catching "Collateral" on Halloween. Speaking of which, Tom Cruise actually got a bit more personal with the fans here when he arrived yesterday to promote the movie. He did his usual handshaking at the arrivals section of Narita with tons of women but he also threw out the first pitch (badly...that was about the most outside ball I've ever seen) at a local baseball game and he did a round of gladhanding at Fuji-TV. His smile was plastered on his face just like makeup.

The Halloween festivities are proceeding as usual. I've got my posse ready for pumpkin pickup on Saturday afternoon. I actually have a full day off then since the kids have canned their lessons, but instead of moving up the time, I'll use the free morning to look for some stuff for The Anime King and my brother and then see if I can accessorize for my costume. Plus, I have to get a couple of pumpkins for my juku classes next week. And most importantly, I've gotta pick up a LAN board in Akihabara; I found out the hard way that without it, my ADSL is dead in the water. I was definitely not one to be approached between 9:30 and 10 p.m. on Monday. I was a core of bad temper amongst tentacles of wiring and cables.

Let's see...we've had a heat wave and family-related massacres this year. And now, we've got bears attacking the rural folk. It seems like not a day has gone by without at least one report of a bruin mauling someone on a rocky lane somewhere. I'm not quite sure if this is truly the epidemic the media's painting it out to be...the usual thing is that one station picks up on one incident and everyone else dogpiles on it.

The Doctor actually sent me an English article on somewhat fading popstar Hikaru Utada. It's the first substantial article I've read on the singer and it was interesting to hear some of her thoughts on the fame that she's accrued over the past 5 years. It doesn't look like she's been particularly wowing everyone lately except for her diehard fans. Perhaps she may end up a bit like her predecessor, Namie Amuro. Amuro is still out there releasing music but that's about it...she's just out there. I also saw Dreams Come True on the morning TV promoting their new Xmas single and announcing the fact that they're now 15 years in the business. Again, they're always welcome but the roar of the nation is long gone.

Thursday October 14, 5:21 p.m.

Back at the gym again. Over the past couple of days, I've come across a few characters working out here. On Tuesday, it was some sort of "gyaru" or Shibuya equivalent of the Valley Girl. She was decked out in strawberry blonde hair, tan skin, pink workout outfit and loose socks. Plus, she always dramatically wrapped her pink towel around her before and after a session on each machine. Talk about desperation... Today, it was some pretty gabby old lady who was obviously on her first day here. As for me, I was a bit surprised that I actually lost nearly a kilo between Tuesday and today, and that was considering that I'd had a rather large lunch after my lesson with Jazz Buddy.

As for her, she was her usual self. I lent her my Jane Monheit album which she was quite happy to borrow since she's a fan. We got into the topic of American food so I told her about TGIFridays which is one of the big US chains here in Tokyo. She was rather intrigued about the Philly Cheese Steak. I gallantly offered to show her the delights of the sandwich.

Well, being the last day of my monthly budget, I'm not looking forward to totaling everything up tonight. I know that I'm gonna be in the minus column again. Actually, I leafed through the latest issue of METROPOLIS yesterday which had an issue on how to gain landed immigrant status. Basically, for me, I'd have to get a full-time job again....that is, if I am gonna stay here permanently. I'll have to talk with the folks back at home once I go home in December. I'd, of course, lose my life of Riley timewise if I did get a new full-time job but on the other hand, I'd have a stable, more promising salary.

Yesterday, I went down to the photographer who took care of my passport shots to get my photos for the update of my Alien Registration Card. Luckily, I also brought that floppy disc with the photos inside. All he had to do was just crop and reprint. Saved me money and time.

Still pretty gloomy outside although it hasn't really rained in the last couple of days. However, I was finally able to air out my mattresses if only briefly.

Tuesday October 12, 5:41 p.m.

Well, it has been a while since the last entry. I thought I would be making it on Friday from the sports club but the rains were coming in something fierce so I decided to cancel the workout and go on straight home. Lucky I did, too, since the rain just kept getting harder and harder. I could only imagine that the subways were packed to the gills with damp and smelly commuters.

I was also lucky twice on Saturday since my Saturday students didn't have their regular lesson due to their so-called sports day. However, I'd think that it was mostly cancelled due to the arrival of Typhoon No. 22. And sure enough, it failed to disappoint. Of all the record number of typhoons to hit the mainland, it took the very last one to hit Tokyo straight on. I was a bit worried about what could happen so I filled up my bathtub with water just in case the water supply cut out and my otherwise useless shower radio was ready to go as an emergency communications source. The worst of the storm hit around 5 p.m. Winds whipped up to gale force and the rains came down in sheets, the first time I've seen that happen in nearly a decade. Sure enough, NHK reported that T22 would not only be the most powerful typhoon of the year but the worst one since 1994. My windows got the best cleaning in their lives and my balcony got an extra layer of soil. Otherwise, that was about it from the Sturm und Drang.

The next day was PH's annual Thanksgiving feast. She sighed with some relief that all the weather problems happened the day before. I never got that reply from Skippy to my invitation. I'm starting to wonder if she'd sent it to my old address after my very last check with my old provider and before my contract with it finished up. I hope that that is the case; I'd think I would rather give up on women if she also decided to go the way of The Madam and Arwen.

T22 left us quite a legacy. Since its foreshadowing on Friday, we haven't had a single sunny day. It was indeed a pretty dreary long weekend and my laundry is still damp after washing it yesterday morning.

I finally did get my workout in this afternoon. Because I only made it to the gym just once last week, I'll hit the place three times this week. Not surprisingly, with all of the culinary debauchery on Sunday, I was back to where I'd started weightwise. Ah, well.... But the second trip to the gym won't be happening tomorrow. I gotta head out to the photographers again to get a second series of photos made up; this time, it's for the new Alien Registration Card that's gotta be made next week.

Christopher Reeve passed away this weekend which is sad. He tried so hard to walk again after that horrific accident which left him paralyzed. However, he did leave a legacy of awareness on the public about the plight of parapelegics and quadrapelegics which will translate to a cure someday.