Saturday March 5, 7:26 a.m.

Overcast day. What else is new? I'll be heading out to see MK and then her reportedly more fluent friend for her initial lesson...well, level check, actually. I'll probably be making the sweet n' sour today since I still have the fryer of oil from the last batch that I'd like to use before final discarding. I'll tell you the Japanese really hit the target when they come up with that coagulant to get rid of that oil with no muss, no fuss.

Apparently, somehow, the e-Trekkies have been able to find out that Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis of The Previous-Previous-Previous Generation will be making an appearance in the final episode of "Enterprise". There's been no mention of it anywhere on the official site for Star Trek but the guys at Dark Horizon have confirmed that the two actors have signed the contract. The rumour also has it that Commander Riker and Counselor Troi will be watching an old holo-program of the S.S. Enterprise from the Enterprise-D. I'm a bit iffy about that part since I think the two of them are a bit too long in the tooth to convincingly play their Enterprise-D selves. If anything, I'd more likely see then on the USS Titan, Riker's first command. In any case, it certainly seems that Paramount has definitely pulled the plug on this franchise, with all due respect to those Trekkies fighting for its survival. Considering the finality of the title of the season-ender, "These Are The Voyages..." and the appearance of the TNG folks, it would look rather disjointed, to say the least, if the series were revived. Just look at what happend with Babylon 5 when they got their last minute reprieve from cancellation. That sudden 5th season has been widely reviled.

I did get some words of encouragement from Jazz Buddy about the somewhat lackadaiscal lesson on Thursday. Still doesn't change anything from my rant the other night.

Friday March 4, 11:06 p.m.

Enjoyed a nice quiet evening. The snow's now a memory. If the rest of Japan wants to laugh at us Kantoites, they'll have to wait another day. Looks like the rest of the country is gonna get smacked by a snowstorm tomorrow.

Used the remaining taco mix powder with some ground beef to not make taco rice (no cabbage, no cheese) but to produce a kind of soboro, a Japanese mix of rice and ground meat. I threw in some diced onions for extra heft. Not too bad at all.

Looked at some old Japanese TV from a time when I couldn't get enough of the stuff. It was a repeat of an old Kato & Ken comedy-variety special. From the hairstyles, fashion, music and guests, it must have come from the late 80s. There were a few faces who are still on the tube who looked positively babyish on the show. Rather nice to watch some of the old stuff.

Just got through a chat with Movie Buddy. Looks like The Sylph's birthday is on the weekend so he's got some nice surprises for her in store.

Friday March 4, 1:51 p.m.

The snow is slowly tapering off, an hour or two behind schedule but we were duly informed of this change in plans on one of the wide shows this morning. The announcer also noted that we may be in for some more of this dumping over the next few days. The Teacher was fine as always; JR didn't inconvenience her a bit.

I'm rather glad that I turned down PH's invitation tonight considering the slush outside. My running shoes couldn't keep my feet from getting soaked so what chance do my dress shoes have? Now I wonder what MK's situation will be like tomorrow morning.

My ex accepted my apology cheerfully. I sometimes wish she wouldn't be so noble.

Well, I've got stuff to do. Gotta get "December" done which should be quite easy since I was only here for half of it last year before taking off for The Great White North. Then, I gotta plan for MK's lesson and think about her friend. That's about it...thankfully. I don't have to worry about the kids. At least I won't have to trudge all the way out to their neck of the woods this weekend. It'll just be one short hop to Kiba and back.

Friday March 4, 8:06 a.m.

Kinda hard to believe that I'm writing this at this time of year, but there's a good ton of snow falling down over our heads right now. Roused out of REM sleep around 4:30 so I just looked out the window; it didn't look white out there so I thought it was another screwup by the Weather Office. However, when I truly got up a few hours later, we had a Winter Wonderland. My subway seems to be in working order so I don't think I'll have any problems meeting The Teacher although she has to take an oft-problematic JR so she may have to leave a bit earlier than usual. We'll probably only get 2 or 3 cm in the immediate vicinity which will probably have the residents in the Tohoku sneering, "WIMPS!" at us. Of course, I'm also quite accustomed to a far larger accumulation where I come from.

My mood hasn't particularly improved since my last tirade, but I think I owe my ex an apology. She didn't choose the night for our lessons, I did, since there was no other night to teach her. On the other end of the romance spectrum, I read Movie Buddy's latest blog entry. Looks like The Sylph had an even bigger surprise for his birthday last week. Not only did she pull off the surprise b-day party but last Saturday she even dragged him suddenly to Haneda Airport for a trip to Kumamoto, a place that he had always wanted to go to, for a weekend trip. As the title of his entry states, "She rocks". I gave him my congratulations.

Well, how the mighty have fallen. Looks like there was an even bigger loser than me yesterday. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, once noted as one of the richest men on the Earth before Bill Gates wiped out the competition and the head of the once mighty Kokudo conglomerate, got his comeuppance in the form of an arrest warrant for insider trading and irregularities in his stock reporting. He controlled various entities such as the Prince Hotel chain and the baseball team, Seibu Lions. Well, the usual media scrum was there to cover the long line of sober-suited tax guys and police as they marched into his house and picked up boxes of data and most likely, the man himself. This news was competing head to head with the big snow.

I would be watching Lou on CNN right now but my satellite seems to be even more delicate than the JR when a good snow comes down so I'll just settle for finishing off my breakfast.

Thursday March 3, 9:04 p.m.

Was passing through the supermarket when I heard the usual kiddies' songs saluting Hina Matsuri. And just on the eve of a potential snowstorm. Well, I made my contribution to the holiday by buying a couple of cakes with the seal of the festival on it. It's about the closest that I'll ever come to paying tribute to young folk.

I had what I would call a complicated, irrational day. I met Jazz Buddy and went over to the New York Muffin Cafe. It looks like that'll become our new base of operations. Anyways, during our usual talk, she divulged that earlier in the week she and a whole bunch of other students including Skippy and Jazz Veteran had met up for dinner. For some reason, that threw me for a loop...the fact that a bunch of alumni would get together without any teachers...notably me. Yes, it does sound amazingly arrogant of me. I mean, why shouldn't they get together without any of the other teachers. They probably must feel a whole lot more comfortable not needing to speak in English. Still, I was...hurt. It must have shown since JB at the end said that I didn't look or act like my usual pro self; in fact, she stung me a second time by saying that I looked more like her...half-asleep and slightly pale. Well, I managed to mumble a apology before slinking away in a rather foul mood. I sent a more profuse apology by e-mail to her.

The whole ugly internalized affair got me thinking, though. For all of the seeming camraderie amongst myself and the students, I think now that I've put too much stock in our so-called "friendship". I'm not really their friend; I'm their former teacher. Just a walking resource for their second-language hobby. They can't fully relax in front of me and I know I can't let my hair down fully in front of them. That's not a friendship. Perhaps the head teacher of the ol' school who has never shown up for a grad party as far as I've been there may be right after all in not showing up. Well, I know what I have to do now.

To no surprise, my ex cancelled her lesson with me tomorrow for the second time. Frankly, I think she and I are wasting each other's time. Friday night is party night for which she loves. I just told her what I thought and wished her well with her life. End of story.

To add a bit of sweet to my bitter, that other delivery which I'd thought was another package for The Anime King turned out to be gift certificates for all of the big department stores from my new Internet provider. Very nice of them...just don't know what I'm gonna buy.

Back to bitter. As I said, I'm probably making my slow inexorable march toward Curmudgeonville. Y'know, I get all worked up about not getting invited to some stupid student dinner and yet, I've turned down two invitations to PH and Speedy's parties over the next couple of nights. I swear, I think I am twisting into the Dark Side. I only hope noone acquainted ever finds this blog. Just so embittered with life right now!

Thursday March 3, 7:36 a.m.

I was ready for some snow but the forecasters are saying 3 DAYS OF IT?! What the--? Apparently, even downtown Tokyo is supposed to be getting some good accumulation of the white stuff from tonight. But then again, we've been tricked before by the Weather Office so I won't believe it til I see it after 9 tonight.

I've got almost my usual Thursday lineup. I've got Jazz Buddy in the morning, and then I help out Speedy for a few hours at his school. But I don't have MK tonight so I can avoid the worst of the rush hour.

Wednesday March 2, 9:40 p.m.

Managed to finish off the latest tape of "Enterprise" in one day..probably the first time I was able to do that in all these years of The Entrepreneur sending me Trek tapes. Well, if the series is indeed being cancelled, it's sure trying to go out with a bang. The last episode on the tape: Trip jumping ship to Columbia, Reed possibly being one of the first agents for Section 31 and I finally find out what was behind the ridgeless Klingons of the Classic Trek.

In between eps, I managed to head for the gym and got my workout in so at least if I don't go anytime again this week, at least I got it in once. Still have a gut the size of a small house, though.

I was invited to a couple of things. First, the school coordinator told me about the welcome party for the new kids on the block next month. Well, if I'm not gonna be teaching there anymore why should she want me to come? However, I held my tongue. Then, Speedy asked me about celebrating the end of the model lesson season over at his school on Saturday. Well, don't really feel much like celebrating this weekend and since MK and her buddy will be meeting me on Saturday not too far away from home, I declined his kind invitation. Yup, a few more years...and my conversion to the Dark Curmudgeon Side should be complete.

Well, it might actually snow later tomorrow night...in which case, it will be copying one year ago almost to the letter. So, I wonder if we're gonna get a repeat of that horrible summer heat. Feeling a bit tired; I'll hit the hay in another hour.

Wednesday March 2, 10:30 a.m.

Took an initial trip down memory blog lane just now to see if it'd been pretty cold a year ago considering this winter's relative freeze. Sure enough, my posting for that week revealed that, yes, things were plenty frosty, and in fact, there had been a bit of snow later on in the week. Little did we know that we were to face the Summer of Hell. I can scarcely believe that it was also a week ago this week that the Beehive and I made that trip to the Edo Museum in Ryogoku.

I was replying to the Entrepreneur that I feel almost giddy that I have noone, nowhere and nothing to teach today. It's been a long time since I scored that triple... I think since I got back from Canada. The first of two packages got delivered a few minutes ago; it was the suitcase carrying my hotplate from the Pancake Day festivities of last month. I still have to wait for one more delivery...I assume it's another purchase from the Anime King. Once that's done, I guess I can get ready for an outing at the gym. Hopefully, I can get some other stuff done like doing another month of bookkeeping beforehand. I was able to catch the first couple of eps of "Enterprise" from the latest tape from The Entrepreneur. "Daedalus" struck me as being a bit overdramatic but then again William Shatner made a point of being so in several episodes of the original. The next episode had a nice gotcha ending which made me go, "Oh, ho!" And it was nice to see the underused, luscious Hoshi Sato show that she's not the quiet goody-goody.

Got a memo from the mother of the two kids. Looks like the 12th will also be a scratch due to school matters. So I actually won't be seeing them until the latter half of the month.

Tuesday March 1, 11:28 p.m.

Well, it's been a quietly eventful day. After finishing off another couple of days' worth of bookkeeping, I received a message from one of the juku boss' friends who suddenly asked me to teach her son. Hmph..I first thought that I'm gonna have to inform the boss that she ought to be checking with me first to see before having her give out my phone number. But my usual initial annoyance gave way to my more reasonable side and thought that, well, I can probably teach him in the hour before I start my regular classes at the juku.

I got to the juku a couple of hours later. As soon as I made my first steps to head upstairs to my classroom, I heard the usual frantic cries of greeting from the boss. Hmm...I know what this is all about, I thought. However, I had a further surprise in store for me when the boss breathlessly told me that the son was already in the room and that I would be doing a quick model lesson for him right then and now. Oh, grand....I internally sighed. For the nearly two years that I've been teaching at the juku, I've always enjoyed the casual atmosphere. However, I think there has to be a certain amount of protocol when it comes to giving a model lesson to a prospective client.

The kid was the usual teenage Japanese boy. Shaved head, gawky and shy as all get out. He was also half-Italian. Not that that was surprising; I've met my fair share of students of mixed parentage including last year's Biologist. One reason that I've never been too fond of teaching kids is not just having to deal with a being that's undergoing major emotional roller-coasters as a rite of passage but also because I tend to OVERestimate the teen's knowledge of the world. I'm so accustomed to teaching complete human beings. Well, I did throw a few curve balls at him unintentionally to which he just gave me a blank look or a mumbled "I dunno". Actually, his comprehension was pretty good and I get the impression that his knowledge of grammar was also fairly solid, but as is true with almost all kids (I've had a few exceptional gabbers in my career), he doesn't have a whole lot of fluency. Well, I gave him a 15-minute tryout; I didn't have anything planned for him and since I had this literally thrusted upon me, I didn't feel any particular obligation to give him the full treatment since I need to actually PLAN a lesson before I give one.

The aftermath of this all came about after my regular classes when the boss called up the kid's mother and had me talk with her. HER English was a far sight better than the boss' so it was easy to talk with her about what her son needs (not particularly wants, since I didn't detect any great desire on his part). Both she and the boss stated that the kid actually liked me (huh?). Well, I guess he had better since he's gonna have to come out 40 minutes by train over here. In any case, if the son is OK with it, I'll be starting with him next Tuesday from 6. Interesting turn of events...I'll be having my juku classes bookended by a couple of teen boys. I wonder if I'm gonna survive this year.

Speaking of the different atmospheres at the juku and at my old school, I ended up talking with the boss about the kid and then we got into some other stuff. Before we realized it, the time was 10:50. Of course, the boss had a major epileptic fit and apologized profusely. She even insisted that I get paid for that hour. Now that's a revelation. It was usually the custom for all teachers at the old school to check their monthly pay schedule to see that they weren't being shafted by the accountant, and the jerks there wouldn't pay for us to write student reports on our own time without resorting to some major yelling from us (luckily, the staff were remarkably resilient when we did confront them). And here was this lady running this tiny juku on a far smaller budget willing to pay for an hour that I didn't teach and just spent listening to her. Something is both right and not right about this situation.

Got home tonight to find out that not only do I not have the OL tomorrow but the Hawaiian as well. She just sent an e-mail over to me stating that she's gotten the cold again so she's gonna bail out. Well, at least I save myself the train money if lose the pay. And I guess I can actually watch my tape of Star Trek episodes that The Entrepreneur has sent me. I can even do the gym now. Still, it won't prevent me from waking up earlier since I've got a couple of packages being delivered my way in the morning.

Tuesday March 1, 2:15 p.m.

I was just about to write down "February"...but understandable under the circumstances. It's still plenty wintry here in the Kanto. In fact, we may still get some snow later this week. Not quite sure what this will mean for the summer. Perhaps hay fever season may be shunted further down the Spring.

Had my first session with the Beehive for a couple of weeks. Ms. Travel was the first one there as usual; she'd just come back from an epic trip to Macchu Picchu in Peru. She was looking quite Peruvian in her fashion. She was sporting an alpaca cardigan with some accessories which had the shape of some of those Nazca etchings. She went by Air Canada since it is the only airline which could pull off the most direct flight from Narita to Lima via Toronto. There, she was able to bring back some icewine and icewine-filled bonbons. The sweetness was so high that there was no chance of the breakdown in decorum that we'd had back in early January

Afterwards, the ladies took me out for lunch for the first time this year. It was one of the domestic restaurants in the soon-to-be-shut-down Daiei department store. Very good stuff there for a reasonable price but then again, I wasn't paying.

Now that I'm back, it's time to get back to bookkeeping and then prep for tonight's lessons. No gym today. However, I hope to get something in tomorrow sometime.

Monday February 28, 11:36 p.m.

I'm going through a little lull right now checking e-mail and doing my usual blog entry. However, I'm racing through stuff. I did a bit of looking at tomorrow's lesson plans, wrapped the Anime King's latest delivery, and even ironed the pile of wrinkled clothing. I've still got to hit the bookkeeping but I gotta feeling that I'm gonna have to do another double-month tomorrow.

I gave my purchases from the sale a test run today. Worked out well. The pants ride up a bit high in the crotch but I gather that they must be worn to be seen more than for comfort. I was most impressed by my shirt, though. I didn't notice until I had gotten it back home but my dress shirt doesn't have any buttons. Instead, it has a zipper. I actually have a pullover dress shirt. I guess higher costs do translate into higher creativity in the fashion industry.

Looks like "Million Dollar Baby" did the million dollar sweep at the Oscars although it didn't approach the heights of "The Lord of the Rings" last year. Kinda too bad that I won't be seeing it; just not into dramas at all. "The Aviator" will probably be the closest that I'll get. And whatever happened to "Sideways"? I think that movie, after all the hubbub of it being the romantic comedy to come into Oscar, got an eponymous look from the Academy. At least the actor who got snubbed won't feel too bad. Everyone got snubbed.
However, "The Incredibles" got best animated feature which makes my day. Can hardly wait to get the DVD.

How about that Halle Berry, eh? She's certainly shown that she has a sense of humour and a lot of guts for actually showing up to the Razzies which probably brought down the house. She's certainly earned my respect although I'm sure that her agent must have taken the heart pills. As for someone who doesn't have much of a sense of humour, look at Sean Penn.

Had my usual class with The Class Act. Looks like SIL never told her sister-in-law that she wouldn't be coming for lessons anymore. Also, her reason for not coming started metamorphosizing into an alibi when my student told me that SIL's mother's cataract surgery was a wild success. SIL said that she would probably need to take care of her mother for the next number of months....ahh...I don't think so. Another one of those face-saving measures that she just wanted to cut out. In any case, the Class Act lessons are starting to approach those of The Teacher's in terms of raunchiness. Last week was on homosexuality; today for some left-field reason, we actually got into one of the lady's daughter's bust size. Ahhh...love my job.

Did my usual errands before getting some lunch at TGIFridays. Had a really smiley waitress who was really nice but kinda scared me with that million-watt grin...it was almost Cheshireish. The Company class was a bit of a slog.

The OL has cancelled her lesson for this Wednesday which means that it'll just be The Hawaiian. Received a call from Speedy about which text to use for this high-level student. Looks like I'll be doing some research at Maruzen or Kinokuniya again.

In the middle of listening to Michael Buble's latest release, "It's Time". He's doing a few more non-jazz covers this time around, including a duet with Nelly Furtado and even a Beatles classic.

Well, I guess after I'm finished Buble, it'll be a shower and then bed. The bookkeeping can wait til the afternoon. I just hope that I don't have to give up on my gym.

Monday February 28, 8:15 a.m.

I'm starting to those itches in my nose, and my eyes are starting to tear up. Looks like hay fever is back in town. Down the medicine, up the mask. With my bum knee and foot, I ought to look just perfect as one of the walking insane.

Well, it's Oscar Night in Hollywood which translates as Oscar Morning here. The only live coverage for the Academy Awards in on NHK Satellite, which I don't have. I think Japan does it perfectly right here; they just give out the results, throwing out the other 3 hours and 56 minutes of lame jokes (Chris Rock...no matter what you say, you're still in an emcee straightjacket), bad musical interludes and often stilted presenter dialogue.

Got the Class Act on the new regime of textbook. Hopefully, that translates into better structure for both of them. Then I've got the Company as usual. I have to pay my last installment of the past year's National Health Insurance plan. Will be nice to see that go away, if only until July.

Sunday February 27, 9:41 p.m.

My right foot is acting up again. It can't be gout...my toe hasn't swollen to volleyball proportions. The pain is in the left back...not sure if it's the tendon or nerves but I've walking up and down the stairs like an old grandmother...worse...I saw some old ladies beating me. Ah, well...chalk it up to age. Since the average male lives to his early eighties, I figure I'm quickly approaching the midpoint.

Got together with Speedy and his crew in front of Ikebukuro Station to head for this big invitation-only access to a huge shopping fair for some local high-end clothing. I couldn't really say it was a conglomeration of friends aside from Speedy himself. It was more of a bunch of acquaintances and first-time meetings with the same goal: get rare access to some decent clothing.

Speedy was under the false impression that we'd be able to scoot right on in since the massive lineups were back in the morning when the doors opened. Not quite...the lineups still looked like the ones for Phantom Menace before the truth came out about that movie. And with a ton of invite-only folks lining up for some ridiculously low, low prices on fashion, there was the odd incident of venting at the poor staff by a couple who apparently didn't have their invites with them. It's too bad that there wasn't a Rick Blaine type to coolly get rid of the interlopers.

It was naturally crowded in the convention space. A lot of clothing stores were represented. However, it wasn't the rush hour subway situation that I had dreaded. I was able to move about. All of us basically scattered never to see each other again. I didn't buy all that much considering the majority of folks who must have believed that clothes were going extinct today. After about 30 minutes of searching, I managed to buy a pair of slacks, a creamy purple shirt wth matching tie. Came out to a grand total of 10,000 yen. Not too bad for the good stuff.

Sat in the lounge for about another 30 minutes when something told me to look back. Sure enough, my Spidey senses were working well. I saw Speedy and one of the other acquaintances come on up. Speedy hit the jackpot with his stuff, but then again he's no longer just an English teacher...he's the president of a school which automatically means he's been "promoted" to businessman. I don't envy him.

Hobbled home and made some taco rice for dinner. Made enough to choke a T-Rex so I'm eating the rest for dinner. I finally got a response from Skippy in terms of "The Aviator". Looks like we are a go for March 27th. I'm kinda wondering if I should bring in the new graduates into this as well.

I'm currently watching "The Peacemaker". Currently seeing this for the first time, it has already come down in my book as one of the few movies that I regret not seeing in the theater. It really keeps the suspense going at fever pitch...a very intense Tom Clancy thriller that isn't Tom Clancy. Up to this point, I thought George Clooney was cool in "Ocean's Eleven". Not any more. Strike up a target on the DVD hit list.

Sunday February 27, 1:05 a.m.

Another long day has come to an end. Had my kids in the morning, albeit at a much more decent hour than of late. Then, I went over to Speedy's school to help him out in his campaign to bring in students. I had a definite advantage in that I knew two of the prospective students from a previous party and that the other two were pretty decent folk. Pulled out my best comedic routine and hit one over the park. They actually learned something, too. I was a bit surprised when Speedy asked me if I wanted to download something or use any of his newfangled software to help teach. I'm definitely old school. Just the whiteboard and a marker. I have a lot to learn about 21st-century language teaching.

I was the last one to teach during the campaign so I was the cleanup hitter. Afterwards, a bunch of us including my students, Speedy and his wife and one other teacher had dinner inside the school's luxurious lounge. The pizza Speedy ordered was pretty gourmet. It comes from some pizza chain called SALVATORES. An Italian name more than six letters long...yup, that pretty much says gourmet pizza to me. And the pies failed to disappoint. These weren't the usual deep-dish pizzas with tons of cheese and tomato sauce. These were the original Italian thin-crust pies with a bit more subtlety in their flavours. Kinda wish they had branches in my neck of the woods, but they're pretty scarce even in Tokyo. And the designers of the pizza just happen to be WORLD experts in their field. A couple of them have even won competitions in Italy itself. That's some pedigree!

But that wasn't all of the good culinary stuff at the school today. One student's mother, a professional baker, whipped some tasty little apple pies and chestnut pies as an appetizer of sorts. Very scrumptious, and I was lucky to take home the leftovers for breakfast today.

I've programmed 7 hours of sleep starting in less than 30 minutes. Then later today I meet up with Speedy once more. However, this time isn't for business but for clothes shopping. Apparently, there's gonna be a major sale of some pretty prime brand name clothing with discounts of up to 70% in Ikebukuro. Well, I've gotta see what I can pick up in terms of shirts and ties. Maybe if I can swing it, I can even get a suit.

One last comment on Speedy's school now that I actually got to teach there. The setup and current status reminded me of what I'd heard about my old school when it got its start 30 years ago. It also started in a small room on a floor with just a couple of teachers. I wonder how Speedy's school will develop over the years...will it also end up become a richer, prosperous school with well-meaning students and teachers hampered with substandard materials and soulless staff? I wonder if the stone-faced president of the old school was once a fresh-faced idealist like my friend. I very much doubt that I'll be around nearly that long to find out, though.

Friday February 25, 11:00 p.m.

Do you know where YOUR children are?

Considerably easier day today compared to the rushing around I did yesterday. That rather intense flurry of snow at midnight last night gave way to just some very gray and cold weather. On the way to see The Teacher, I went to pick up some medicine at the pharmacy just across from the station. I usually pick that place amongst the plethora of drug stores in my neighbourhood since at that place, I can just pick a box of pills straight from the shelf instead of having to ask for it at the counter. The less said, the better. However, the pharmacist noticed me struggling to pick a bottle so he decided to help me out. When I told him I was looking for something to combat my hay fever, he showed me some bags of herbal medicine with the store name on it. Automatically, my spidey senses went on alert. Was he trying to scam me to buy the in-house product? Still, it was just the same price as the usual stuff I buy which is just for colds anyways. I took a few of the pills at the cafe. I have to admit that I did feel better by the end of my session with The Teacher.

As for The Teacher, it was one of the more mirth-filled sessions since she talked about having to run over to her younger son's Kumon class earlier in the week. Apparently, the poor kid had a stomachache and promptly vomited all over the classroom, taking out an unsuspecting family of zabuton and two carpets plus the front of his shirt. The Teacher went into supermother mode and had the offending chyme-soaked furnishings washed...on her coin...and got them back to the school within the hour. Man, imagine any mother in Canada going to THAT much trouble?

Got home and promptly fell asleep on my couch for an hour. Then I tackled "April" and "May" for my bookkeeping since I couldn't do anything about it last night. Finally, I was able to get some long overdue cleaning done. Dinner consisted of a mess of wieners and cabbage with a side of daikon salad. Not fancy but costwise, it was a whole lot lower than the small fortune I shucked out for MB's birthday party last night. It was still good food, though.

KInda nice to have a quiet night at home just listening to my jazz. But tomorrow is another day. And I've got the kids back at the more civilized time of 11, and then I've got this model lesson to teach over at Speedy's in the evening.

Friday February 25, 1:22 a.m.

That little scratchy sound I hear on my windows is the arrival of millions of wet snowflakes. Yup, Winter is back after a short reprieve yesterday in which the temps hit 19 degrees!. When I put my street clothes into the washing machine out on the balcony, the snow was starting to accumulate. Uh-oh! Luckily, it'll get warm enough later today that all of the stuff will melt away by lunch time. I'll also only have The Teacher so I won't be doing any major traveling.

Unlike yesterday in which I met up with Jazz Buddy, went to Speedy's to work on lesson plans for a few hours, went to the Tea Room to teach the Carolinan and the New Yorker, then finally over to Ginza to celebrate Movie Buddy's birthday. I really made good use of the one-day pass.

Jazz Buddy and I had a bit of a breakthrough. We actually had a pretty meaningful lesson, and without any need for textbooks. We just gabbed and some new expressions were sifted through the verbal chaff. She applied them and she learned. Huzzah! Our latest new forum was The New York Muffin Factory in the basement of the Shinjuku I-Land restaurant complex near the Andersens where I usually meet her. It's certainly more cramped than the Andersens and the Starbucks where we used to hang out but the muffins can't be beat. I can only hope that future lessons will be as happy.

I did get that Foo Foo lunch that was sadly yanked from me and MB on Sunday. Great stuff that ramen on a cold day like today. Definitely one place I would regret seeing closed...knock on wood. I still have yet to totally recover from the loss of The Farm Grill.

Looks like my work so far on the lesson plans have bulked up my planning muscles. I was able to get quite a bit of work done which impressed the boss. He brought me up to speed on the upcoming model lesson on Saturday. The one faux pas was discovering that I managed to rip a couple of holes in those cheap socks I'd bought a couple of weeks back. I had to discreetly hide my big white toe during my time there. Showing one's piggies while at work is not exactly kosher in this nation although I'm sure Speedy would be cool with it. Still, it was enough for me to get my shoes on as soon as I finished my stint there and buy some equally cheap but sturdier white socks at the convenience store near the Tea Room. I did a quick change in the Room's bathroom.

My work with the sisters was OK. The New Yorker is pretty shy but she can catch on quickly. I'm sure with the right direction and speed, she'll be able to put together a rudimentary conversation in a few months' time if not sooner. I'm just a bit worried about her innate shyness though. As for her much more fluent sister, no problems whatsoever.

The rains started when I left with the Carolinan back to the subway station. At that point, the precip was still watery but it sure got cold. I took the line all the way down to Ginza and found the restaurant easily. It's a place called ISOLA. The only thing called ISOLA that I know was a J-Horror movie a few years back. Nothing horrifying about this place's cuisine, though. The Italian was just scrumptious...although the Bismarck pizza of prosciutto and raw egg is an acquired taste. Movie Buddy was wallowing in his b-day enjoyment. There were a few others there including The Sylph and one of my very first students at the school when I started teaching there over 7 years ago. She's the only one in my time there to have gone 2 years. The Sylph was also one of her classmates during that time and another one of my first victims at the school.

My knees and right leg were calling Uncle by the time I got home. My knees felt like Bobby Orr's before reconstructive surgery. It must be the cold weather...good heavens...all I need to hear is that I'm arthritic.

I got home to check my e-mail and find out that I got a couple of more letters from a new alumnus and my co-host from the grad party. Always nice to hear from the kids. Hopefully, we can arrange a bit of dinner one of these days.

Wednesday February 23, 9:34 p.m.

Well, I put on my mask and swallowed the remaining medicine. No problems with hay fever. There were quite a few people out with their masks on as well. It was pretty windy so the pollen could fly up people's noses unabated. However, it turned out OK for me anyways. When I got home, I shot all of my clothing with that pollen-catching Febreeze.

The classes went OK as usual. I was lucky enough to find the Doner Kebab truck in front of Towers open for business so I helped myself to a nice chili kebab. Very reasonably priced for what I get. I picked up my text for the New Yorker for her class tomorrow. Gotta plan for that one plus the others. I'm gonna be pretty busy, and I'm quite tired now as it is. And I have to tackle "March" in my race for my tax return.

Wednesday February 23, 7:18 a.m.

We're gonna get a taste of Spring today. It'll be hitting around 17 degrees in the Kanto but with the warmth comes the pollen count. I may have to swallow the pills and even put on the surgical mask. I'm definitely gonna have to spray me down with the anti-pollen Febreeze when I get home tonight.

In those New York sitcoms, the characters often complain that their water initially comes out brown. Strange thing about my Ichikawa water. I poured some into my mug to make coffee and I got a froth. Not a head on a good beer or latte level but it did look like somewhat spat out some soap bubbles.

I'm already starting to dread going through my fiscal past. It was rather depressing reading through those dark early days of 2004. However, the fact that I'm still here in a relatively warm apartment does give me hope.

I picked up my weekly METROPOLIS magazine at Maruzen. METROPOLIS is the free English-language magazine detailing events, want ads and articles on life in the Big Sushi. Well, this week's editorial was from someone who seems to be a cheerleader for NOVA, the oft-slagged English conversation school which happens to be the largest chain in Japan, and my former employer from many moons ago. He certainly made a very impassioned case for his company although he made sure in his writing that he was speaking for himself; there were a lot of "to me" and "it's not for everyone". However, I still couldn't shake the feeling that he came off sounding like one of the party hacks. He certainly isn't just one of the teaching drones; he mentioned late in his piece that he was on the management level. Obviously he is quite happy with his lot in life.

Allow me to provide my sort-of counterpoint to the writer's story. I come here not to praise Caesar but not to bury him, either. My first gig in my current life here was at the Golden Arches of English Teaching for a couple of years. I even had 18 months of being the top dog at my branch. It was educational in that I realized I had no real love for administration which gradually to my departure. To be honest, I didn't have a bad time at all at my former employer. A good part of that reason was that I'd been assigned to a newly-born branch in a traditional area of Tokyo. Over the past several months, our school was lucky enough to attract a mostly nice group of students and a mostly decent group of dedicated teachers. The atmosphere created was one of a friendly, family type....something that certainly wasn't true of some of the other branches I heard.

I certainly can agree with the writer about the salary and training aspect. I was somewhat gobsmacked when he wrote down that salaries START at the mid 280.000 level. I'm not sure if NOVA is trying to account for the rise in inflation; I certainly hadn't started at that level. But I digress. It is a good salary to have. And if one stays at the firm for a good long time and does a good job, that salary will eventually creep up to a goodly monthly salary. And training is comprehensive. You could be a total neophyte when you come into the company and within a few months, you would be an absolute veteran. Frankly speaking, you would have to be a total idiot to fail at NOVA. In addition, there are always periodic observations by the head teachers on the regular teachers with comments. I certainly didn't get that with my previous school. My snaky manager just laughed cynically when I asked about observations and feedback during my first contract review. It's all about the money with him and his staff. It is with NOVA as well, but at least the company tries to ensure product quality.

Having said that, NOVA won't ever shake off its McDonalds image ("Do you want your fries with your Present Continuous?"). All the branches basically have the same appearance: creamy decor, cubicles or free tables, and Voice Room. The lesson format is very strictly structured. The writer mentioned that the lessons are "plug and play". Well, my PlayStation has been gathering dust in my closet for a few years now. For a teacher who wants to push the envelope and bring in a lot of creativity to lessons, NOVA is just a bit too constricting...physically, as well as figuratively, if one is assigned to a "cubicle" school. NOVA is great for the teacher getting his/her feet wet in Japan and the person who is only here for a lark and wants some good quick cash. Certainly, the career opportunities are there but they are in administration, not teaching, and you already know my feelings about the former. Basically, for most teachers, NOVA is the revolving door while for the students, it's the fast food outlet. And for the Japanese sales staff, it's a quick road to ulcers and nervous breakdown. Their salaries, as far as I know, are pretty minimal, and their jobs are very stressful as they always try to reach an ever-increasing quota of new students to recruit.

Also, I have to wonder about another couple of points the writer mentions. He says that the infamous nickname of the company as "NO VAcation" is a myth and that he has been able to swap shifts so that he can enjoy good lengthy trips all over Asia and back home. He must have been a wizard in his teaching days, and one with a lot of stamina. When you swap shifts, you can actually get those Saturdays AND Sundays off (a very rare situation for teachers in NOVA) but you have to pay for that with extended workweeks; there are tradeoffs. Also, NOVA doesn't recognize national holidays which is a selling point. Great for students who'd be hard pressed to find time to come to a school; perhaps a bit depressing for teachers although if one, such as me, starts out at NOVA, one doesn't feel it as such. Having been at a school where those holidays are recognized, it would be awfully hard for me to return to NOVA. The second point is about the famous non-fraternization rule between students and teachers. He proudly boasted that he doesn't particularly need the company of students. He's got other Japanese to become friends with. Well, let me say that NOVA's Prime Directive is just legal underwear. NOVA teachers DO go out with students, platonically or otherwise. And rumour has it that even the higher echelons also do the same although I'm not sure if the Directive applies to them. For me, I would have liked to have gotten to known my students better during my time there, and I think I could handle myself with aplomb offschool as well as onschool. Apparently, the writer isn't THAT confident about his abilities. As it is, once I left NOVA, I did spend more recreational time with my old students.

To finish up, I can only say that I will be very interested in seeing what the rebuttals (and boy, will there be rebuttals) will be like in future issues of the magazine.

Tuesday February 22, 11:24 p.m.

Had that long wakeup call since the Beehive wasn't having me today. However, I still have yet to start on "February" of my bookkeeping. I'll have to get that done straightaway although I still want to get some sort of sleep in.

I got back to the gym. I tried out some more new machines such as the bench press and the pectoral press. In the meantime, there was the aerobics class going on the in the transparent room ahead of me. The teacher just sounded like a DJ at Velfarre and dragging a lot of rather rotund women into the woodwork. They managed to crawl out. Since I got back from Maruzen rather early in the afternoon, I was able to get through my workout a full 2 hours before my usual arrival at the juku. So I decided to have dinner at the downstairs family restaurant. I will have to be more conscientious about what I eat before lessons. I had the hamburg steak in demiglace sauce with some pretty raw onions. I was rather self-aware of my breath that night. The Siberian seems to enjoy the lessons but still not a bit blocky in his delivery.

Got word from the Sylph, MB's girl. Looks like she's planning another B-day party for him in Ginza on Thursday and I got the invite. I'm not sure if I can make it out since I've got the Carolinan and the New Yorker on that night but if it's still going on at 9, then it should be OK. I've only got The Teacher on Friday. My ex cancelled out on me for the night.

Monday February 21, 11:46 p.m.

I finally got the second guy for The Company for the first time this year. Boy, was he rusty. He was pretty much the lower of the two after having been the ace of a low group all last year. However, he soon got with the program. Hopefully, he won't be doing too much more of those long absences.

Afterwards, I met up with PN at the Hyatt. Maybe I should have thought of somewhere more cheaper. As soon as we sat down and got our menus at what I thought was one of the more reasonable restaurants there, she had a mild hissy fit about the prices and suggested fairly strongly about moving out to another place. Well, I answered very civilly that we were in the hotel area of Shinjuku so prices wouldn't be too much different withn a 1 km radius; she acquiesced to that and ordered an ice cream sundae. One thing I won't do is change restaurants after we've already committed ourselves by stepping inside. She saw the menu outside and she made the decision to go in. As far as I'm concerned that means we stay in.

All that was just part of her dislike for Tokyo, and Japan in general. We had a good chat on the good and bad of life in Japan; most of what she said was on the bad of Tokyo. She asked me why I liked living here since she's rather hellbent on getting out of Dodge. I simply replied that I've been very comfortable for the past decade; certainly, the largest megalopolis in the world has its obvious drawbacks but I've learned to avoid most of them or live comfortably enough with them. I think that is what PN found appealing about life in Toronto...she could handle life there. However, again, I know that she's also found a way to complain about every city she's been in, including her former home of T.O., so I'm still not sure if she'd be absolutely content about returning once she's there.

On the way home, I realized that I've yet to buy the texts for The Siberian for his lesson tomorrow, so now I have to rush out to Maruzen to buy that. Plus, there's the text for The New Yorker on Thursday night. I'm not too miffed although it will mean a trip out to Tokyo. I think I can still get that lesson plan out there to Speedy and even tackle "February" for my tax return...knock on wood.

Monday February 21, 2:24 p.m.

I actually got a decent 8 hours of sleep last night thanks to The Class Act shifting times this week over to Wednesday morning. So, I got my first massage in over a month; thank heavens that the director of the clinic was the one who kneaded my worries away and not the woman with the jackhammers-for-thumbs. Afterwards, I got my two free Subway sandwiches since I filled up my point card. But those days are now over since the franchise has gone to a new system of a much smaller point card with only a modest discount the reward. Drat!

Also picked up a new photo album to fill with the grad photos. Got a few good ones of the young filly with the gams. And I picked up a notebook to start the long arduous trek to prep for my tax return. It's not too difficult weeding out the expenses and categorizing them but, boy, is it time-consuming. I just completed January. My tax advisor told me to go at it one month a day. Good advice. I'd go mad tackling the entire year in a day.

I was also able to air out the mattresses for the first time in 2 weeks due to my schedule and some of the inclement weather that had been plaguing us for a while. Today is pretty sunny if chilly. I've got my lone class at The Company, and then I meet PN at the Hyatt afterwards. I'm not sure where we'll go for dinner...maybe we'll try Foo Foo since I was vastly disappointed yesterday.

Sunday February 20, 9:57 p.m.

Well, MB and I caught ALEXANDER at the Picadilly today. Before that, we had our first disappointment in that Foo Foo wasn't open. In fact, the entire underground mall was closed down due to electrical rewiring. Not too happy about that. However, we did have a good consolation lunch at Samrat, the Indian restaurant near the theater. It was a pleasant time to chat about movies and yesterday's grad party. MB is starting to get that itch that I did a couple of years ago when I decided to go freelance. He's also worried about the status of the school since it seems like the classes there just keep on getting smaller and smaller.

As for ALEXANDER, it wasn't the bomb that the critics back Stateside were crowing about. I think that the dogpile mentality is alive and well in the media. In fact, not being able to go to Foo Foo was the far bigger disappointment. As usual, MB enjoyed it more than I did. I didn't think the movie was all that much to call home about but it did make for a serviceable docudrama with some A-list talent. Colin Farrell did fine with the eponymous character as he rose into the world's leader and fell into madness and death. Angelina Jolie's lips blabbered their best emulation of Lady MacBeth. As for Rosario Dawson...holy cow. I think Morgana the Stripper should look out behind her back. She may have competition now.

Generally, I felt that this wasn't a TROY action piece, and I think that's partly why the movie got the drubbing it did. There were only two major battles while the rest of it centered on Alexander's rise and fall and all the melodrama it contained. Certainly, the beginning was rather slow but when Alex started his conquests, things did pick up some more. I knew right off the bat that it was Vangelis who was behind the score. I almost expected those CHARIOTS OF FIRE joggers to come running by. Still, it was an OK movie done in by bad marketing and some media who've had their knives out for Oliver Stone for years.

Sunday February 20, 1:06 a.m.

I've attended about 12-14 graduation parties at my old school since I started there in 1997 since we have two of them a year. I think the one I attended yesterday was by far the most emotional I'd ever been to. There had been warning signs from the students that the restaurant where we would have the party would be awash in lacrymal fluid by the end for some days. They weren't wrong.

I got there in my Sunday finest and started off the party with my co-host, one of the current students. The party went normally enough: the usual awardings of diplomas, the food and drink, and the various games and songs. Plus, it was good to see people like The DJ, Movie Buddy, The Jester and The Satryr among others.

However, the waterworks got started after The Doll gave the first goodbye speech to everyone. After that, the second student, normally one famous for her rather explicit descriptions of her love life, just let the floodgates open and barely tumbled through her speech. Of course, a chain reaction started, and a lot of the women just started weeping like Elvis fans on August 16 1977. There were rumours that even a couple of the teachers got a bit misty-eyed (no, not I..say I). It certainly says a lot about how close this year's gang was to have this sort of thing happen. It's probably one of the few times that I have actually regretted going to freelance status...not being able to see these guys on a more regular basis. But I figure that like in past years, the new alumni will reach out to get people together for a short while before fate, nations and time eventually promote the life drifts. I think it's pretty much happened with last year's group. However, with this group, perhaps this golden feeling may last just a bit longer. But I know a couple of the ringleaders will be heading offshore for the next few months, so it's pretty much wait-and-see.

Certainly, the weather contributed to the somewhat melancholy feeling. We even got a bit of snow in the morning as I headed to teach my kids. However, that all turned to rain by party time. And it never really stopped by the time I got home.

After the main party, there was the usual series of after-parties. Some of us did a bit of karaoke for an hour nearby (it was the first time in recent memory that there were actually more men than women in the karaoke room). and then we joined the main group at an izakaya. It's always amazing how alcohol can change people...as naive as that may sound. The Doll, for instance, had five large empty mugs where beer and other libations had once been located. She got into a running drunken act with the Jester for the duration of the party talking of her "relationship" with the Jester who lives close by. Then the Jester got into a rather intense conversation/argument with the offbeat Oddball which kinda worried the other students. I had a separate talk with both combatants and the conclusion was that it was all much to do about nothing.

Then, after that stage, there was even the final 2-hour stage at another izakaya that we often haunt. The group was far smaller and I was the only teacher left. However, the atmosphere was a lot less fraught with up-and-down emotionalism, and I could actually talk with the kids in both Japanese and English. Looks like if the alumni parties for this group get started, it'll be at Tony Romas. It seems like my engorging of the extra large rib plate there last year made news with the newly graduated.

Naturally, I feel tired after another long Grad Day. But I'm meeting up with Movie Buddy later today to have some Foo Foo ramen and then catch Alexander. MB couldn't make it out past the main party so I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about over lunch.

Saturday February 19, 6:04 a.m.

Yup, another early wake-up call for the kids. Yesterday was a pretty full one for me. Had the Teacher, SR and my ex. The Tea Room was pretty lively since there was another event apparently with a bunch of elementary school teachers. Between SR and the ex, since I had a little bit of time, I traveled up and down the Ginza Line just to see if there were any prep work in store for this so-called televised celeb battle on the subways that was due to have happened last night. Didn't see a blessed thing.

Met my ex in the lobby of her workplace and went to the nearest McDonalds. This branch of the Golden Arches has the distinction of having a drink bar and a special sitting area for people to plug in their mobile phones if they don't want to rely on battery power. Our so-called first lesson was more of a reminiscent talk of our old days as an item....and of her current days with her new beau. Apparently, this is her second boyfriend After Haruhiko, and he's 5 years her junior which makes him as young as my son (if I had an especially bad "accident" during junior high school). She was always a bit of a nurturing type so perhaps the match might work out but she seemed a bit apprehensive about it after 2 months of seeing this guy.

On my way home, I took a look out the window of the subway to see if there were anything going on at the stations. Nope, nothing. Just the usual look of tired commuters on their way home before the drunks take over. No sign that there was even any sort of amazing battle on the subways with Utchan-Nanchan. And by the time I got home, the program had just finished.

Well, today I got my kids and then I have to head out for the big grad party. Could be one laden with waterworks considering what the kids are saying. Awww...mush.

Thursday February 17, 8:15 p.m.

Pretty tired after another "counseling" session with Jazz Buddy, and that first session with my tax consultant. All that nervous energy can really dissipate quickly. However, talking tax with the guy turned out to be pretty educational and lifesaving. I was feeling very much like a student in his tutorial, and he got me on my homework for the next couple of weeks which is to sort out my expenses and revenue for the past year. I'll see how much I can pull off during the next Monday since I could have the entire day off.

The second session with MK turned out well. I even got a referral from her..quick work.

Wednesday February 16, 9:19 p.m.

Another cold and rainy day. At least I didn't need to leave home that early. There was another kick from Mother Earth at around 10:30 a.m. but nothing to write NHK about. I had lunch at the local Pepper Lunch. Always good for hot hamburger and rice.

Stopped off at Speedy's today to pick up some name cards and flyers. The winds were really flying by then. I thought that the rain would turn to sleet.

The Hawaiian made about as perfect an essay as she could outside of a few silly errors. I don't really think she needs much of an education in writing. She almost fell out of her seat in laughter when I told her about my brush with sterility thanks to the long ordeal on the bike the other day.

Now I know I'm on the slippery slope downhill to senility. Just went straight to sleep on the Oedo. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. Might as well forget about bringing the crosswords and magazines.

I got another present...this time from the OL. However, it wasn't a belated Valentine's Day one but a souvenir from her trip. It was a couple of packages of rather elaborately packaged udon with bonito flakes for the stock and some special miso. Well, my breakfast seems to be set.

The current trend of psycho attacks in schools continues unabated, I'm afraid. Well, at least today's attack was thwarted before anything serious happened. Some guy managed to breach the grounds of some elementary school when he was quickly spotted and nabbed by some teachers. The guy just said that he was looking for someone. Now, that wouldn't usually merit an emergency response, but when the rest of the guy's talk turned out to be understandable by Andorians...well, can't take the chance. As for that 17-year-old loner who murdered the teacher and seriously injured two other adults the other day, he confessed that he had a huge grudge against a teacher at the school for some sort of bullying years ago that went unnoticed. He said he would've settled to hurt any of the teachers.

Now, as a result of this and past attacks, a number of schools in Tokyo have hired security for their grounds. A sad sign of the times although it still doesn't approach the metal detectors of some of the schools in the States.

Wednesday February 16, 9:00 a.m.

Well, got rocked OUT of my sleep at 4:47 a.m. this morning when a M5.4 quake struck the Kanto. Of course, it was straight onto NHK. The announcer went on loop mode telling people to watch out for falling objects and to calm down. Not sure if one can do both, really. My living room is already a mess, so it took a few minutes to discover that a few of my CDs did fall off the shelf. Otherwise, no other damage...I think.

Getting back to REM sleep was pretty much out of the question. Still, further insult to injury occurred just after 7:30 when one of the Class Act gave me a surprise call to request a schedule shuffle. At least, I will be able to sleep in a lot longer on Monday. MK did a similar request by the more civilized e-mail for an earlier time.

I'll be hitting the lesson planning as of now and try to get a couple of chapters done before sending the package off to Speedy.

Tuesday February 15, 11:27 p.m.

Finally made it back to the gym after two weeks of eschewing it due to various reasons like disease and other events. Pushed myself a bit harder than usual...a bit of self-flagellation and penance as it were. I think I did pay for it; I feel rather achy all over right now. I did try a few new machines out and instead of the treadmill, I finished things off with a 25-minute stint on the stationery bike. I probably won't do that again anytime soon...let's say that I know why the possibility of sterility rises with longer exposure to a bike seat.

Thought I might continue the punishment by hitting the gym again tomorrow but it looks like that won't be happening since I really gotta get through those lesson plans. I may still just drop by Speedy's to touch base on my way to see the Hawaiian.

I added another chocolate box to the collection today at the juku. The Beauty Pair contributed theirs to my Valentine pot. However, it was a solo act by Yuri since apparently Kei was conked out on account of her visit to the dentist. The Milds also ended up just being Mrs Mild since the hubby was out at a wine-and-dine with some clients. And then I had the new guy, The Siberian, for his second lesson. Pretty good but still has some of those teenage elements in him.

I noticed that the posters are going up for that big subway variety show on Friday. The posters have Utchan and Nanchan punching each other out. I kinda wonder how this is gonna pan out. Friday nights are not usually known for the usual staid commuters on the other weekdays since the end of the week is known as the drinking night. Could be rather tumultuous having a bunch of celebs running into a bunch of garrulous drunks on the subway. However, the possible saving grace is that the show will probably end before the big exodus of sots for home.

Tuesday February 15, 6:47 a.m.

I've never been a huge fan of people suddenly disrupting my schedule, no matter how good the intent was. Of course, I can't really reveal that to those people. This happened to me twice by phone last night just when I was about to prep for today's lessons. And I actually had the naive thought that I would be able to tackle my ironing. Ah, well...I still have two days' worth of trousers.

The first call was from PN who wanted to have my ear again on her future. That lasted a good half-hour. Then, a few minutes after that, I got a call from my tax consultant who just happens to be the son of one of the Class Act. I was able to catch somewhat more of the jargon from him than I did from that motormouth at the local tax office. Still, after half an hour of that, I think both of us would have been better served by just arranging a face-to-face right off the bat. So we finally did for this Thursday.

As an aside from visiting that student at ChocoCro last night, she mentioned that she'd seen Movie Buddy and The Ballerina at the school yesterday. It was one of her "Hi-Bye" stops. Once again, she was in her full flight attendant regalia and makeup. LOTS of makeup, my student said which got an internal knowing giggle from me.

Monday February 14, 10:36 p.m.

Well, for a guy who wrote off Valentine's Day as a holiday for the young and hopeful, I managed to score a couple of extra boxes of chocolate from The Class Act. Unfortunately, there was a bit of bitter in the sweet when SIL announced that she wouldn't be able to see me anymore because her mother will need more assistance after she gets her eye surgery done next week. Ah, well...dem's the breaks. However, the time will be open for any other student.

During the break between The Class Act and SIL's final class, I went up to HMV nearby and found that Michael Buble's latest has reached these shores. I took a listen to it at the post. Not too bad but I'm gonna wait a bit before I finally bite.

I got my money from the Prez at The Company tonight which is great for paying my rent tomorrow. I frankly kinda wonder about my future there with the currently lone student as well. However, the student did quite well today. In fact, at the end we had a rather serious discussion about the possibility of North Korea bombing us. Nice little palate cleanser before dinner, eh?

I fulfilled my student's request and went down to Harajuku to her ChocoCro shop. She was behind the counter in her uniform of T-shirt and cap. And she rewarded me with a bag of chocolate-coated croissants which got me 3 for 3 in the Valentine Day's sweepstakes. For some stupid reason, I ordered a black coffee which I never drink; I think I simply fell for the cheap price. I rather sheepishly came back down for a cream; ; my student came up and gave me a good-natured recommendation to order the watery American next time.

I managed to take the JR back up to Takadanobaba Station. I initially had some good thoughts about the ride home since the Yamanote was uncharacteristically not so busy at 8 o'clock. However, that soon changed when I switched over to the Tozai. My first hint of trouble was seeing a larger-than-usual number of commuters on the subway. Mind you, at Takadanobaba, since it's usually the 3rd station from the starting point of the eastbound run, there are plenty of seats. However, what caught me was seeing that all of the end seats (the prime seats) were taken. Then, when I got on, I was seated next to some moron who had a mouthclicking problem, there were a couple of loudmouthed ko-gals (as redundant as that may sound) not too far away. And then I had one of those megadecibel snorers sitting across from me. Of course, from Otemachi Station onwards, the train got considerably crowded so at least I was grateful for the seat, if not the company I kept. By the time I got to my station, the guy who was standing over me either couldn't or wouldn't move so under my breath, I muttered a rather rude but inaudible "Doke" instead of the usual "Shitsureishimasu". "Doke" for you Japanese language learners means "Get your ass out of the way!" I was rather lucky that I wasn't caught in the grip of subway rage.

I got home to see that there was another attack at an elementary school. This time, it wasn't a kid who got hurt but a teacher who got stabbed to death by a 17-year-old loner who had skipped school for a number of years. Where were his parents?! Fortunately, no kids were injured but still they and the parents must be traumatized. I'm sure they must be wondering if there is still a safe place for kids anymore in Japan. Well, not too much consolation but Japan hasn't quite reached the stage of metal detectors yet.

Monday February 14, 7:04 a.m.

Well, it's Valentine's Day...not that it has much to do with me. Mind you, I did enjoy the kids' chocolates and said so in the letter to their Mother.

Once again, the Engineer had a chat with me online. He also once again chastised me for being such a Luddite and merely taking photos of the Quarterback's wedding with just plain film. I said I'll get a digital camera once I find out how much I'll have left after I file my taxes. Then again, I'm just providing an excuse since digital cameras have plummeted in price. I don't even know if my old SOTEC can facilitate a digital camera hookup. In any case, he did get me to sign on to Gmail, this new-fangled e-mail service. But to do so, I had to update my Internet Explorer. Not a bad thing...my screens certainly look nicer and even the posting screen for this blog looks better, too.

Speaking of taxes, I did a look-over of the form. It doesn't look all that difficult. I could understand the majority of what to write in which spaces but I'm gonna ask The Class Act today to translate a couple of words. The only thing is that there doesn't seem to be any spaces for deductions for my own little business. As it stands, I can only deduct from my National Health Insurance

Mom called me last night during my chat with the Engineer. She was the who had been ringing my phone without leaving any messages. I knew she did that since she didn't want to incur any costs from her end but I'd already called her last week so I had eliminated her as a possibility. I thought I had some sort of phone stalker on my case. Or it could have been Teddy Bear, my rather bipolar former student from long ago. He usually has the similar custom of hanging up just before he has to leave a message since he doesn't like leaving them.

I'd forgotten to mention during the hysteria of Pancake Day last Thursday that there was a surprise appearance by 77. She wanted to brush up on her TOEIC so she stopped by the school. She mentioned that she hasn't seen Arwen or the others since late last year so she was hoping that something can be arranged for next month. I sent something to Arwen and she said that it's very good. Looks like I'll be aiming for The Aviator.

Not sure what my schedule is gonna end up like today. I've got The Class Act a half hour earlier due to some plans that one of them has to attend. SIL might cancel again and I wasn't too sure about that Company's student evasiveness last Monday. I may just get that call once again for cancellation. Doesn't mean I'll be getting home all that early, though. I did promise one of my soon-to-graduate students at the school that I'd visit her workplace in Harajuku tonight.

Sunday February 13, 1:02 p.m.

Went to the salon for my cut and shampoo. Then, when I was paying my money to the manager and my usual cutter, she landed a little bombshell on me. She'll be leaving the store as of March 31st. She got married over the Holidays so she and her new hubby will be moving to the wilds of Gunma Prefecture. She's always been a sweet young lady with the happy talk and all, so it'll be a pity to see her go. True to her nature, she got a bit misty at the cash register but I did reassure her that I'll pop on by for one more cut with her in late March. She was kind enough to let her replacement know about me and my style. I'm now wondering if all those sniffles throughout the session were really because of a cold. I sent off a missive to my ex since she's the one who pulled me away from my old barber and introduced me to the stylist.

It certainly felt Canadian outside this morning. Pretty cold and the blah sky overhead didn't help warm things up.

Well, after lunch, I gotta get started on my taxes. Yeah, you heard me...I gotta fill out a return. After years of relying on my previous companies to do the dirty work, I have to pick up the pen and put down all of my income in Japanese. I'll go pretty slow since I have to translate the form first. This won't be fun but such is the costs of being a freelancer...a tax-paying one, that is.

Saturday February 12, 11:20 p.m.

After that epic last entry on the wedding, I wanted to get back to the mundane of the day. Woke up this morning to a bloated stomach. Teaches me for overindulging at the buffet table last night.

The kids were fine and I even got a Valentine's Day present in the form of homemade chocolates from the elder sister..."giri-choco", of course. What say I? "Giri-choco" stands for "obligatory chocolate", the perfectly platonic exchange of confections just to commemorate the holiday.

After that, I just went to Kinokuniya the bookstore in Shinjuku to pick up yet another couple of texts before taking the train home. Nowadays. I seem to be doing much more sleeping on the subway than anything else. It's starting to get embarrassing how I doze off in mid-puzzle, although I do find it somewhat amazing how I can still grip my pen while I'm asleep.

Dinner was once again two slices of Aussie beef all fried up. The steaks sure come in handy when I have to come up with something for cooking. Speaking of beef, yesterday was not just Japan's b-day and the Quarterback's most important day but it was also the return of gyudon, that bowl of stewed flavoured beef slices on a bowl of rice. Not too long ago, stores like Yoshinoya were providing the salaryman's saviour dish in the millions. Then, BSE came along and now gyudon has become pretty much extinct like the Passenger Pigeon and the Dodo. However for one day yesterday, there was enough of a shipment of untainted beef that gyudon outlets like Yoshinoya could provide the public with their raison d'etre much to the tearful delight of millions of people who lined up for hours to taste that delicacy which is now also a rarity. As for me, I never developed a particular like for the stuff since the topping always struck me as being mere scraps of beef and stringy fat. I can live without that.

Well, tomorrow I head out for my bimonthly haircut at the usual place.

Saturday February 12, 2:34 p.m.

Happy B-day, Dad!

Yesterday was the big wedding bash for The Quarterback and his homecoming queen. I put on my monkey suit and took my present and headed out to tony Azabu-Juban. For all those Sailor Moon fans out there (and you know who you are...stop hiding!), A-J is the neighbourhood of the eponymous character since the TV station which originally aired the cartoon, TV-Asahi, isn't too far away.

It was actually my first time to walk through the area, and my ignorance showed when I went out in a completely wrong direction for 10 minutes before getting my bearings straight and returning to the subway station. Once I got back on track, I discovered Azabu-Juban is quite the handsome neighbourhood. The slope I was walking up on seemed to have a very Italian flavour to it. There was a rather tight traffic circle on the way up being traveled by some not-inexpensive looking cars. As I went further into the interior, I found some not-inexpensive houses as well. I could imagine the Class Act setting up residence here.

After turning right into a smaller street with the unlikely name of "Racoon Slope", I came across St. Mary's Church. Despite the earlier misdirection, I got there in plenty of time.

Gotta hand it to the Tokyoites. These guys dress up even on a daily basis so when a wedding pops up, everyone takes it to 11. A lot of very sleek suits and slinky dresses were on display as I went into the basement locker room to put away my bag and present. As I came out, I encountered one of the socializing problems I dread the most. Some old Japanese acquaintances that I hadn't seen in 10 years who used to be in my old club at the U of T knew me by name. However, the ability wasn't reciprocated regrettably so I had to fall back on my powers of acting and evasion. The faces were vaguely recognizable but names are just deleted after a certain time limit. I did quite a bit of bowing to some of these faces without saying much until the first person whose name AND face I did recognize popped in. It was Shrek and Fiona. Then, Speedy and his wife entered. And finally, PH made her grand appearance. With all of these faces remembered and unremembered, I came to the conclusion that this was actually a club reunion disguised as a wedding. Mind you, there were other factions representing the bride and groom's past.

The wedding was Western-style as you might guess from the venue of a church. Shrek, Fiona and I were seated on the very last pew in the back. Shrek wondered what kind of service this was gonna be. I had no idea...things looked Christian with the stained-glass, the organ and the enrobed staff. Things got underway when one of the female staff came in from the back and almost punctured my eardrum with a very soprano hymn. Then, the Quarterback solemnly and slowly schlepped up the aisle in a morning coat. When he took his position at the altar, his diminutive bride was next to enter on the arm of her father. Even though she was wearing heels that would've made Elton John swoon, she was still very petite.

The ceremony, which lasted for a thankfully brief 30 minutes, was presided over by an Italian priest speaking in mostly choppy Japanese although he did say some snippets of English. Automatically, I thought about the fact that there were a lot of these foreigners who masqueraded as marrying priests when they weren't teaching English so I hope The Q checked this guy's credentials. Mind you, this was a church so I think it was pretty secure. It's the professional wedding halls that might be a bit suspect. The big highlight came when The Q and his Queen walked down the aisle, and he bellowed a joyous yell of accomplishment.

There was the usual rash of picture-taking and petal-pelting and some quick conversations of reunion before we all broke up temporarily for a few hours. I quickly left the area and had some lunch before taking the subway over to Omotesando. There was still an hour before the reception took place so I had a coffee for an hour at the Canadian version of Starbucks, BLENZ. Being a holiday Friday, the cafe was packed so I had to settle for an hour on the outside ledge...in the smoking section. Now I knew how the smokers felt in exile as I shivered by my table. Still, I don't regret the ruling and I give full accolades to North America for further defeating the cancer stick.

I walked over on the main street for about 10 minutes passing some very boutiques and cute restaurants. I even found The Blue Note before finally reaching the party venue, MODA POLITICA. Now, for those who want a bit of 21st-century style in their wedding receptions, this is the place. The exterior had a bit of the stony style made famous by architect Ando as I traipsed up the steps. When I entered the door, there was a huge event space. The Homecoming Queen was already there coordinating things. Two large islands of tables floated on top of the sea of smoothed wood (sorry, when I write this long, I have to wax a bit poetic or I nod off). The tables had all the food we would ever need for the evening. On the huge white wall, three images of MacIntosh computer screens loomed overhead. In an alcove, a few of the Q's buddies had the Macs on the tables. It was gonna be a high-tech reception.

Everyone showed up at the appointed time of 6. The party started off with the Q's little movie studio gang showing an MTV-style opening introducing the two hosts of the evening. Not surprisingly, the two came out in flashy tuxes with overly large bowties. Then, there was another video done to a grungy ballad as black & white images of the bride traipsing through a winter forest went across the screens.

Finally, the Q and his bride entered to lights, dry ice and music. True to their nicknames, the Quarterback carried his Queen on top of his shoulder as if he'd won a college bowl game. I'd say he did. There was even a nice touch thanking all the guests by having a montage video showing all the friends via footage taken over the years.

The food was truly volumnious. A lot of places would have enough food to feed everyone for barely a couple of helpings. This place kept a bottomless-is-best policy. It kinda made a guy like me who has a weakness for buffets just give up on all pretensions of a diet. And of course, there was wedding cake.

By around 8 o'clock, the party was still going on...highly unusual in time-conscious Japan where parties are usually 2 hours on the dot. In fact, the Quarterback had just started the disco segment and getting people to dance to the sounds of techno. Well, that was my cue to leave since I hung up my dancing shoes back in the late 80s. Besides I also had my kids early this morning. So I quickly said my goodbyes and slipped into the night. The pictures should be quite good.

Friday February 11, 9:21 a.m.

Happy two-thousand-and-somethingth birthday, Japan! Makes me wonder if the Quarterback will still remember his anniversary when most Japanese don't know the significance of this day.

Well, speaking of weddings, some 24 years after he first walked down the aisle, Prince Charles is gonna do it again with Camilla "Rottweiler" Parker-Bowles. I remember catching the first wedding here in Japan while I was staying with the relations in Osaka. The whole family got together in the late evening. The only comment I could come up with is that the laundry bill for Diana's train must have been enormous. Such was the depth of my wisdom in my teenage years.

Thursday February 10, 10:59 p.m.

Another long Thursday comes to an end. Jazz Buddy's session was all counseling and no teaching; JB's been having problems with her future and her sister again so she was bending my ear. Out of some ethical, if not financial, sense, I waived any payment from her much to her surprise. Hopefully, that'll instill some sort of line when it comes to future lessons.

Then, it was back to the school to set up for the annual Pancake Day. The coordinator had to pull out early due to the need to visit a hospital for the finger that she nearly severed the night before. She said that she mistook her digit for a potato. Methinks she needs to change the prescription for her glasses.

Pancake Day itself started off with me making the dash to the nearest supermarket 10 minutes' walk away to pick up a whole bunch of supplies. As it turned out, a lot of them weren't left in their packages which rather dismayed me; I ended up giving them away in a paper-scissors-stone tournament. Also, half the maple syrup went the same way as well. Mind you, the students who had showed up enjoyed making the fondue and the pancakes, and some of them were rather surprised that maple syrup has 5 different grades like olive oil. I did rush through a quick explanation of how we get maple syrup from the trees but I still have to smooth that out. But I'm not sure if I'm gonna get another chance this time next year.

The Jester and The Satyr were the other teachers who did show up for their share of flapjacks. Speedy did make it to the school alright. He managed to get quite cozy with the kids.

Earlier in the afternoon, I stopped off at the Tea Room to ask about a wedding present. It would be much better (and cheaper) than handing in the usual envelope of 30,000 yen, and it would have the advantage of being rather unique. The manager kindly showed me some ideas. We ended up deciding on a package of a pot, a tea cozy, two cups and three bags of special blends of tea. The price indeed came out to just a third of what I would've had to hand in the envelope.

Later that night, I met the Carolinan and her sister, the New Yorker. The New Yorker is quite different from her more linguistically adept sister. Not only is she a beginner in the second language but she's also quite shy as well. A lump of clay to be molded...love a challenge. As for the Carolinan herself, no problems. When we finally left the Tea Room, the manager had the wedding package ready to go.

Back home and hopefully, I'll be in bed within an hour. I wanna get some cleaning up done here before I head off for The Quarterback's wedding in oh-so-cool Azabu-Juban. It'll be much colder than today so I may have to wear the winter coat over the suit...not exactly the most appealing look but heck, I'll be 40 this year. I'm beyond impressing anyone anymore.

Man, another psycho is attacking kids again...or at least their knapsacks. Some nutcase in his 40s stabbed a boy's backpack while the kid was holding it. I kinda wonder if the cops oughta just shoot the bastard on sight.

I see those SAVE ENTERPRISE folks haven't given up the goat quite yet for their beloved soon-to-be cancelled show, although the producer has certainly accepted their fate. Now, the mass media campaign is trying to get the Sci-Fi Network to pick up the show. It's not without precedent. Buffy got switched that way for at least another year of life. The thing is, though, whether the cast has started to look at other projects.

Wednesday January 9, 10:26 p.m.

Japan is a happy country right now after their soccer team's win over the North Koreans. It was a pretty nailbiting game at 2-1. Good performances by both.

My day started out lugging a suitcase carrying my hotplate and my regular bag with some other stuff over to the school. Actually, they weren't all that heavy but I did have to contend with the usual throng of commuters...kinda like swimming against the spawning salmon.

After I dumped the stuff at the school, I rushed down to meet my ex at her workplace. She took me to a yakiniku restaurant since our old haunt, the hole-in-the-wall tonkatsu joint, went belly-up. She was certainly back to her ol' happy-go-lucky self before we started our relationship 3 years ago, and she pretty much dropped some big hints that the romantic phase is definitely over. She was rather evasive though about her own love life when I asked after she had grilled me on mine. She didn't get anything from me since I had nothing to give. The lunch special was quite tasty...a small plate of kalbi, kimchi, soup and salad plus bottomless rice for the grand total of 990 yen. And there's also complementary coffee although I'm not sure if coffee best complements a Koream BBQ. The ex also gave some rather interesting trivia about the restaurant's upstairs neighbour which happens to be a pervert bar. If I'm not mistaken, the bar consists of a mockup of a train in which customers can "board" and grope the female passengers at will. BTW, Tokyo hit a record last year with 2,101 gropings on the real trains.

The Hawaiian was still sounding rather hoarse after her bout with the flu but the OL was in fine fettle as usual.

Movie Buddy contacted me and set up a next outing to catch "Alexander". Ah, well...I've seen bad movies before. Looks like it'll be the 20th and then a visit to Foo Foo for some spicy ramen. Speedy also contacted me about helping him with some of his model lessons on the 26th. Looks like his phone has been ringing off the hook since he got some advertising. He should be coming over to the school tomorrow. Speedy also informed that I needn't have to pay the customary weddng envelope money since The Quarterback's wedding isn't one of those traditional overglorified affairs. However, since I don't have any time to get anything else for them, I'm pretty much locked in to paying something. Gah!

Wednesday February 9, 8:48 p.m.

Everywhere else, the news is about Iraq or Condi Rice. In our little corner of Asia, the big thing is tonight's soccer match up in Saitama between Japan and North Korea. I am glad that it's being held out there in the boonies and not in the city. The traffic would have been hellish, to say the least.

Gotta drop off the equipment including the hotplate at the school today, and then rush off to see my ex for lunch, get another text for my juku boss (she was wailing that I won't be able to teach her for the next few weeks because of the inclusion of the new student), teach The Hawaiian and then the OL.

The good thing is that it's gonna be balmy. Going all the way up to 13 degrees. Not too bad at all.

Tuesday February 8, 2:00 p.m.

Add rain to today's weather. Pretty cold outside. Even had a bit of a shake during the Beehive's class but it was just a momentary thing. Afterwards, I had lunch at the kaiten sushi place. Things seemed to have slowed down a lot there. The conveyor's moving but nothing's on it aside from the container of wasabi packets. I ordered the set lunch of sushi. Pretty good.

Tomorrow's supposed to be the big soccer match between Japan and North Korea. The North Korean team arrived on Sunday at Narita. Quite a few of the pro-Pyongyang association showed up to greet them. Considering what I've heard of the harassment that the resident North Koreans have been getting in Tokyo recently, I kinda wonder how frosty the air was at the airport. Security has been pretty tight around the arena.

Looks like the Daiei (the Japanese Walmart) by Tsudanuma Station is closing down after several years of service. I was watching NHK News when it announced that the store was closing a few hundred of its branches. I had a bit of a personal stake in it since the only department store in my neighbourhood is a Daiei. I thought it would be on the chopping block since I never thought it was all that busy outside of the weekends but it was saved...probably because of its loner status in my area. On the other hand, the Tsudanuma branch had to face off against several other stores on the other side of the station.

Well, I'll be hitting the gym in about 90 minutes after a week of teetotaling due to my cold. Hopefully, I'll get one more chapter done for Speedy before I go.

Monday February 7, 9:52 p.m.

It was a very February day. Overcast, bare trees and Tokyo cold (which is equal to Toronto balmy). In other words, it was very blah. The local suicide hotline could be quite busy this week. It'll be a pretty cold one tomorrow...only going up to 5 degrees. My hometown and my adopted one will reach parity. May even get some rain or snow.

SIL cancelled again today but the Company was back...which was too bad for Movie Buddy. He had contacted me earlier in the morning to see if I were up to catch ALEXANDER. Actually, from what I've heard of the flop, I wasn't but it'd been a while since I've seen MB so it would have been nice to catch him again.

Since I had that large gap between classes, I went off to Tower again and picked up a magazine. There was an encyclopedia on the DC superheroes and supervillains that I would have loved to get but since I've gone into austerity. I can't afford that luxury anymore.

I walked up to Omotesando to try out Nathan's again. This time, I did go whole hog, so to speak, and got the Double Dog set. The hot dogs didn't disappoint and the fries were nice n' hot. Interesting texture to them as well; they were of the crinkly-cut home variety of fry.

Decided to walk up all the way to Shinjuku again. Always rather interesting to walk up Meiji Dori and see some of the various boutiques and little restaurants that pop up along the way. Meiji between Omotesando and Shinjuku isn't stuffed with stores like a huge mall; there were some long gaps of just nothing but commercial offices and apartment buildings and small ramen shops. That fact, plus the fact that there was the mid-afternoon lack of people contributed to a bit of melancholy during the walk up in the drab weather. I did pass by some sort of fashion school whose students seems to consist of foreign students. Pretty comely students, too. Also, I passed by the Communist Party HQ, a pretty monolithic building. I can't imagine anything like that being built in Manhattan.

I made it all the way to the Starbucks near The Company, and just sipped a Marshmallow Mocha for about an hour before heading to the class. Since the year began, I've only had the one student for that lesson. The best student has gotten very busy recently while the weakest student has not only disappeared from class but has also disappeared from the company. The Prez told me a couple of weeks back that he's been suffering from some "mental" problems although I'm not sure if he'd been putting me on. I know that the weakest student's wife has been hospitalized, though.

Had some time to wolf down some dinner. I find myself with a bunch of stuff including wrapping up the next package heading out to the Anime King which I've done, prepping for tomorrow's lessons and then writing up another lesson plan for Speedy. My week will be fairly busy. I've got to get stuff ready for Pancake Day and get some crisp new 10,000-yen bills for The Quarterback's wedding on Friday. Over here, when you go to a wedding, it's customary to donate some money in a special envelope. The bills have to be odd in number so that they can't be separated equally and therefore hint at any potential discord in the marriage. 30,000 yen is the least one has to contribute without any perceived guilt; the closer the relationship to either the groom or bride, the higher the contribution. I'm keeping it to the minimum...sorry, I gotta live.

I also have to lug the hotplate and some of the other utensils over to the school on Wednesday and then quickly scoot over to meet my ex for lunch and then perhaps head over to teach the Hawaiian although I've yet to find out what her condition is.

Ahhh...Superchannel isn't just the Japanese home for Star Trek and Columbo, but it also takes in a lot of short-lived orphans. Caught one of them this morning. It just happened to be MANCUSO, FBI. Now that was an interesting show. It had the Klugmanesque Robert Loggia as the crusty agent. The show had a rather odd mix of over-the-top hardboiled dialogue, somewhat Canadian TV production values and late 80s fashion. I checked out some information on the show on the Net. None of them mentioned the trivial info that at the time the show had aired, there was an actual actor, Nick Mancuso (same name as the character) who had his own NBC (same network as the show) program called STINGRAY. The actor looked considerably more handsome. In any case, it's kinda hard to believe that this rough n' tough character actor who's been in everything from INDEPENDENCE DAY to the SOPRANOS was once T.H.E. CAT, another starring character from a short-lived show. I vaguely remember one episode in which this rather effeminate sounding guy identified himself as this former master thief-turned-bodyguard.

Sunday February 6, 8:38 p.m.

Met PN at Shinagawa Station. We spent about half an hour looking for a relatively cheap place for lunch. We settled on one of the restaurants in the Pacific Meridien; in fact, it was the same one that my brother and I had breakfast when he came here on business over a year ago. FYI, all the buffets in the Shinagawa area start at 2000 yen and at 11:30 a.m. The restaurant we went to wasn't all that special as buffets go but the smoked salmon was quite delicious. In any case, we weren't really there for the food.

As I had expected, PN vented about Japanese society and business. She said she was almost ashamed of her own country for its narrowmindedness and racist policies. I couldn't really defend anything from my end since I also believe those bad parts of my adopted country. But I did counter that with the bad comes the good. Japan is still a very safe country with a record of politeness in its service. And I think the government policies and the attitudes towards foreigners will eventually change within the next number of decades. I suggested to her that she she should consider taking a service job in the hotel industry. Recently, a lot of hotels have been going up at a near-unprecedented pace and they will need staff. I think her experience at home and overseas will serve her and any hotel well. However, she said that she really didn't like Tokyo life for which I replied that she can't have everything. She also said that she'd like to return to Canada but as I recall she was also doing her fair share of griping about that country during her stay there.

Having said that the country is very safe, I'm afraid to say that's increasingly more from a relative than an absolute point of view. There certainly seems to be a flouting of law. There was that psycho who had stabbed a baby to death and injured a few others at an indoor playground at a department store; he had actually been released on parole for a previous offense. Then just last night, a drunk moron plowed through 8 senior citizens on a road in my prefecture killing half of them. That driver had had his license revoked for speeding. Open the gates of Hell for these two.

Then there's the mystery of all that money which was found floating in the water in Saitama all last week. Well, the culprit was found. Some woman had robbed an acquaintance, and then got panicky during the getaway and threw a ton of the money out of the car. No idea why anyone in this day and age still carries $300,000 in cash in the house.

Started prepping for The Quarterback's wedding this coming Friday. Bought a new dress shirt, socks and some cologne OK'ed by French actor Alain Delon called Le Samourai. The cologne cost more than the clothes, and the cologne wasn't all that pricey. Just 2100 yen compared to the rarefied costs of Chanel colognes.

Gotta continue working on those lesson plans for Speedy. I figure I'll try and get one done a night. Even that might be optimistic.

Saturday February 5, 8:31 p.m.

Another one of those long days. After my kids'classes, I just headed straight for the Tea Room to meet the one M. Again, I got there rather early so I enjoyed a leisurely lunch before she arrived. Since it'd been more than a couple of months since our last meeting, we had quite a lot to chat about.

Then it was off to Omotesando to pick up the maple syrup and the other goods for next week's Pancake Day. Fortunately I had the help of one of the school students. We finally made it back to the school by 6; it was my first time back at the old place since early December. Looks like the school has finally gone full bore into glossy advertising. First, their website with a couple of students and teachers looking off in the distance like a scene out of "Lamp Unto My Feet". And then there's a new large pamphlet with a bunch of happy pictures. As is true with all advertising, there's a lot more than meets the eye.

Got back home. Since I've gone through the supermarket food, the sushi and the SUBWAY, I decided to go for the ramen. So I had a nice bowlful of the noodles, some gyoza and a bowl of really garlicky rice. Nice going down on a chilly day. Even picked up a cup of Haagen-Daas Apple Pie Ice Cream to cool me down. Still gotta help out with those lesson plans.

Got the confirmation from PN. She'll be heading in at 11 tomorrow so I'll be waiting at Shinagawa for perhaps a bit of brunch.