Friday May 18, 11:39 a.m.
Well, it hasn't been a good week for morality in Japan. Apparently, Japan's most popular governor, Higashikokubaru of Miyazaki Prefecture, finally got his black eye yesterday; something about some hidden cache of money. But I think me, every other local here and the kitchen sink knew that there was gonna be a downfall sometime for him. Politicians are never clean. I bet, though, he kinda regrets suddenly getting medieval on the journalists' asses a few weeks ago.
Also, less than a month after that incident with that yakuza holed up in the apartment in Machida City, there is currently (at least, it was still current when I left home 40 minutes ago) another similar incident in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture (near Nagoya) playing itself out. And this time, there is a hostage. Some former gangster went ballistic on his family (shot and injured his kids) and then shot three cops including a SWAT officer who has since died. Right now, he's got his ex-wife as the hostage in a residential neighbourhood. The whole thing started 18 hours ago; I'd thought that the ordeal would have been finished overnight since the police in the Machida incident waited until the thug in that apartment got sleepy to make their move. However, at this time, the screens are still showing a lot of cops in heavy gear milling about the neighbourhood. So, a lot of the broadcasters have been shaking their hands sagely and sadly about what Japanese society is coming to. At this point, I'm kinda wondering what the Japanese underworld is up to. First, the assassination of the mayor of Nagasaki by a yakuza chieftain and then these two apartment incidents. I think the locals are wondering if America's cultural invasion has now included the NRA. Getting back to this guy holding his ex-wife hostage in Nagakute, though, I wonder if the fact that he's now a copkiller will get him the same price on his head that a similar crim would get in the States.
More on the latest teen psycho to make the front pages here....that kid who decapitated his mother on the eve of what would have been her 47th birthday. Apparently, the media have been making hay of his deposition that he wishes that there would be more war and terrorism in the world so that there would be more killing of people, and therefore his act would be justified. Ah...I'd say that he's ready for that straitjacket now. As I said, not a good week morally.
Fortunately, my life has been far more mundane (and hopefully, it'll remain that way forever), although Ichi the Killer (the guy who lived fairly close by) is still at large. Yesterday was virtually a day off for me except for meeting B2 at the usual Starbucks in Mitsukoshimae. It was a good session and she basically prefers just the interview style of lesson since I'm only meeting her monthly. I hope she isn't going to hold it against me that I made her buy a text.
The e-mail has been busy, though, mostly due to The Chipmunk's requests of me to check her applications for her son. For some reason, she wants to claim Canadian residency for her sons. She actually does have landed immigrant status so the path is somewhat easier for her. Also, I've gotten word from The Polynesian about getting back to her lessons. Well, she's proposed this Sunday...I hope she actually does show up this time. If she pulls another fast one this time, then I dump her like a rock.
I did listen to that "Ghostbusters" soundtrack yesterday. Well, it is very 80s...along with 3 versions of Ray Parker Jr.'s title song, there is Air Supply, Laura Branigan and The Thompson Twins, although I don't think their contributions even showed up in the film...and frankly, I don't think the stars would even go anywhere near their stuff. Heck, there was even a nod to the 70s in the form of "Disco Inferno" which was the tune being played during nerd Louis Tully's party (disco did suck back then).
Well, just got the Ace for his 60 tonight.
Just a place to deposit my thoughts on life here in the Kanto and about anything else that sticks to my walls.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Wednesday May 16, 10:28 p.m.
And thus, another long day at the school is coming to a close. I managed to do OK with the model lesson student, a patent judge (at least I know what I'll name him if he does sign up). He looked quite young for a man his age....I almost had him carded.
But aside from that 1 hour and 10 minutes, it's just been doing my share of browsing on the Net via Wikipedia. I can't believe I hadn't done it earlier but I finally got to go through all that stuff on "Saturday Night Live". Man, what a history that show has had. From Chevy Chase to Will Ferrell. Unfortunately, I've missed out on the last 13 years but as some would cheekily say, there wasn't much to miss...even with Ferrell. To be honest, even when I got back to Canada over the Holidays, I didn't really catch SNL all that much. It's kinda like my old comics habit; once you kick it, that's it. Still, I would like to get that DVD of the 25th anniversary special; very much doubt that there will be anything released this year. I don't know of anyone pulling out all the stops for 32nd anniversaries. Well, at least I know I'll be going through a lot of SNL stuff on YouTube when I hit the I-cafe tomorrow.
As expected, despite his proclamations to the contrary, Speedy is still at it on the keyboard despite being borderline exhausted. Hey, his company...
Just got B2 for her monthly. It'll be nice to sleep in...
And thus, another long day at the school is coming to a close. I managed to do OK with the model lesson student, a patent judge (at least I know what I'll name him if he does sign up). He looked quite young for a man his age....I almost had him carded.
But aside from that 1 hour and 10 minutes, it's just been doing my share of browsing on the Net via Wikipedia. I can't believe I hadn't done it earlier but I finally got to go through all that stuff on "Saturday Night Live". Man, what a history that show has had. From Chevy Chase to Will Ferrell. Unfortunately, I've missed out on the last 13 years but as some would cheekily say, there wasn't much to miss...even with Ferrell. To be honest, even when I got back to Canada over the Holidays, I didn't really catch SNL all that much. It's kinda like my old comics habit; once you kick it, that's it. Still, I would like to get that DVD of the 25th anniversary special; very much doubt that there will be anything released this year. I don't know of anyone pulling out all the stops for 32nd anniversaries. Well, at least I know I'll be going through a lot of SNL stuff on YouTube when I hit the I-cafe tomorrow.
As expected, despite his proclamations to the contrary, Speedy is still at it on the keyboard despite being borderline exhausted. Hey, his company...
Just got B2 for her monthly. It'll be nice to sleep in...
Wednesday May 16, 4:45 p.m.
May not have too much time here. Looks like in the same way as my home computer did a year ago, this current one I use at Speedy's may also be on its last legs. Crashing seems to be as natural to it as logging on. Well, luckily, I did manage to get that e-Card to DTE for her birthday.
Since I'm here for hours between The Nurse and that model lesson, I took a little over an hour off to head over to Shinjuku. At first, I popped in for lunch at McDs....yup, not the wisest action since I'd had brekkie there this morning. In fact, the lady who served me then was still there; luckily, she had the generosity not to give me a shocked glare at someone who dares go there twice.
Got to Shinjuku...and wasn't shocked to see the usual snake curling around Krispy Kreme, although it was the middle of the week and not the weekend. Anyways, I've washed my hands at the entire phenomenon. I can hope that enough people have become disillusioned at the wait that if and when a new branch ever gets opened, noone comes over in spite.
I finally did get my "Ghostbusters" CD at HMV, along with the latest issue of "Empire" Magazine. The floor wasn't as filled as it was on Sunday with shoppers and diners but brisk business was being had.
And now I just wait for another 3 hours...001 is not showing up today.
May not have too much time here. Looks like in the same way as my home computer did a year ago, this current one I use at Speedy's may also be on its last legs. Crashing seems to be as natural to it as logging on. Well, luckily, I did manage to get that e-Card to DTE for her birthday.
Since I'm here for hours between The Nurse and that model lesson, I took a little over an hour off to head over to Shinjuku. At first, I popped in for lunch at McDs....yup, not the wisest action since I'd had brekkie there this morning. In fact, the lady who served me then was still there; luckily, she had the generosity not to give me a shocked glare at someone who dares go there twice.
Got to Shinjuku...and wasn't shocked to see the usual snake curling around Krispy Kreme, although it was the middle of the week and not the weekend. Anyways, I've washed my hands at the entire phenomenon. I can hope that enough people have become disillusioned at the wait that if and when a new branch ever gets opened, noone comes over in spite.
I finally did get my "Ghostbusters" CD at HMV, along with the latest issue of "Empire" Magazine. The floor wasn't as filled as it was on Sunday with shoppers and diners but brisk business was being had.
And now I just wait for another 3 hours...001 is not showing up today.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Wednesday May 16, 11:16 a.m.
Well, had another good one with The Nurse. Looks like she's been doing quite well in the lessons although she isn't looking forward to the inevitable test next week. And that's basically it for me today since I just have a trial lesson tonight. Not that I look at a potential new student any less than a signed one but I've always got one or two model lesson plans up my sleeve ready to go on semi-automatic. The model lesson itself won't be taking place until 8:30, so I've got plenty of down time til then. I will probably do a few more hours of curricula-building and then with Speedy's blessing, I may hop on down to Shinjuku for a couple of hours.
To continue on with yesterday's stuff...I did meet 002 for her regular. She's got just a few points left on her dance ticket before the spectre of renewal rears its head. All of us know it, and she's 90% sure that she'll continue on with us. Speedy, though, is concerned about that 10%, though. Once again, the spectre of conflicting interest also popped up since the lass started asking me about my private, non-Speedy situation. Not a situation I like to find myself in.
My juku Tuesdays will be getting longer from now on, now that Jolly has returned to the fold. Not only that but he has asked to take his half-hour classes into the full-hour ones....which will take me from 10 to 11...and that's taking into account I've usually got the Nurse for a 10 a.m. Wednesday class. So, the money will be great but I am looking at nearly 5 straight hours of lessons with Chip N' Dale, Seven, The Milds, The Siberian and Jolly; I've got a half-hour break which often gets eaten when Seven and I get into a talking groove, but there's the possibility that the boss may put in that high school student later on. Well, the money is good but boy, even the boss is a bit worried at what the long haul will do to my health.
Still, even with the late signoff last night and the early call today, I'm doing quite a lot better than Speedy since he has to do the long hours nightly. He said that come hell or high water that once the demo lesson is done at 9:30 tonight, we are all out of here. But then he has said that before...
In the local news, it looks like less than 48 hours after Mother's Day and a full decade since one of the most heinous murders in Japanese postwar history, we've chalked up another psycho killer. Some high school boy with that loner profile calmly entered the local police station yesterday with a bag carrying his mother's head which he sawed off while she slept. I don't even want to know how that could've been pulled off. It was 10 years ago when the Jun Hase killing took place; a mildly retarded boy was decapitated by a classmate and his head was placed on the school gates early that morning. Unfortunately, in the intervening time, there has been plenty of evidence that a lot of kids are just not normal.
And in the last couple of days, one of the biggies in news broadcasting announced that he's battling lung cancer. Tetsuya Chikushi, the anchor for "News 23", the TBS 11 p.m. flagship news show, confessed that he's gotten Stage 1...not surprising after years of imbibing tons of cigarettes like fish through water. He'll be taking time off the show to go through the rigours of chemotherapy. The story reminded me of that rather sad signoff from Peter Jennings of ABC before he succumbed to the same disease some months afterward. However, unlike Jennings, Chikushi was sounding like his old self so perhaps there is some hope for him....even at his advanced age of 71.
Well, had another good one with The Nurse. Looks like she's been doing quite well in the lessons although she isn't looking forward to the inevitable test next week. And that's basically it for me today since I just have a trial lesson tonight. Not that I look at a potential new student any less than a signed one but I've always got one or two model lesson plans up my sleeve ready to go on semi-automatic. The model lesson itself won't be taking place until 8:30, so I've got plenty of down time til then. I will probably do a few more hours of curricula-building and then with Speedy's blessing, I may hop on down to Shinjuku for a couple of hours.
To continue on with yesterday's stuff...I did meet 002 for her regular. She's got just a few points left on her dance ticket before the spectre of renewal rears its head. All of us know it, and she's 90% sure that she'll continue on with us. Speedy, though, is concerned about that 10%, though. Once again, the spectre of conflicting interest also popped up since the lass started asking me about my private, non-Speedy situation. Not a situation I like to find myself in.
My juku Tuesdays will be getting longer from now on, now that Jolly has returned to the fold. Not only that but he has asked to take his half-hour classes into the full-hour ones....which will take me from 10 to 11...and that's taking into account I've usually got the Nurse for a 10 a.m. Wednesday class. So, the money will be great but I am looking at nearly 5 straight hours of lessons with Chip N' Dale, Seven, The Milds, The Siberian and Jolly; I've got a half-hour break which often gets eaten when Seven and I get into a talking groove, but there's the possibility that the boss may put in that high school student later on. Well, the money is good but boy, even the boss is a bit worried at what the long haul will do to my health.
Still, even with the late signoff last night and the early call today, I'm doing quite a lot better than Speedy since he has to do the long hours nightly. He said that come hell or high water that once the demo lesson is done at 9:30 tonight, we are all out of here. But then he has said that before...
In the local news, it looks like less than 48 hours after Mother's Day and a full decade since one of the most heinous murders in Japanese postwar history, we've chalked up another psycho killer. Some high school boy with that loner profile calmly entered the local police station yesterday with a bag carrying his mother's head which he sawed off while she slept. I don't even want to know how that could've been pulled off. It was 10 years ago when the Jun Hase killing took place; a mildly retarded boy was decapitated by a classmate and his head was placed on the school gates early that morning. Unfortunately, in the intervening time, there has been plenty of evidence that a lot of kids are just not normal.
And in the last couple of days, one of the biggies in news broadcasting announced that he's battling lung cancer. Tetsuya Chikushi, the anchor for "News 23", the TBS 11 p.m. flagship news show, confessed that he's gotten Stage 1...not surprising after years of imbibing tons of cigarettes like fish through water. He'll be taking time off the show to go through the rigours of chemotherapy. The story reminded me of that rather sad signoff from Peter Jennings of ABC before he succumbed to the same disease some months afterward. However, unlike Jennings, Chikushi was sounding like his old self so perhaps there is some hope for him....even at his advanced age of 71.
Wednesday May 16, 9:49 a.m.
Man, already past the halfway point this month!
Yep, got the agreement from The Entrepreneur. "Spiderman 3" is the most depressing blockbuster this year...definitely not a date movie. I think the surviving characters would probably be in need of intense counseling. Mind you, they may end up on Doctor Strange's doorstep.
Yesterday was another one of those long Tuesdays. The Beehive had its first session at Becker's. Hmmm...it was OK with me and The Teacher but I'm not too convinced that it's our type of place where the ladies are concerned. As was the case last week, it was another free-for-all conversation on the Great Canadian Tour. I've been seeing if there is a good B&B for the group. Not that easy...
The skies opened up again without The Japan Meterological Agency's permission. Well, at least the only casualty on my line was just a forlorn bath towel...back into the machine it went. I spent my three-hour layover between The Beehive and 002 just hanging around the station of JR Funabashi. After searching for a restaurant for half an hour (those restaurants at the top of the department stores are just too pricey), I ended up at the local Fujiya eatery on the top floor of the TOBU store.
Gotta stop off here...The Nurse should be arriving shortly.
Man, already past the halfway point this month!
Yep, got the agreement from The Entrepreneur. "Spiderman 3" is the most depressing blockbuster this year...definitely not a date movie. I think the surviving characters would probably be in need of intense counseling. Mind you, they may end up on Doctor Strange's doorstep.
Yesterday was another one of those long Tuesdays. The Beehive had its first session at Becker's. Hmmm...it was OK with me and The Teacher but I'm not too convinced that it's our type of place where the ladies are concerned. As was the case last week, it was another free-for-all conversation on the Great Canadian Tour. I've been seeing if there is a good B&B for the group. Not that easy...
The skies opened up again without The Japan Meterological Agency's permission. Well, at least the only casualty on my line was just a forlorn bath towel...back into the machine it went. I spent my three-hour layover between The Beehive and 002 just hanging around the station of JR Funabashi. After searching for a restaurant for half an hour (those restaurants at the top of the department stores are just too pricey), I ended up at the local Fujiya eatery on the top floor of the TOBU store.
Gotta stop off here...The Nurse should be arriving shortly.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday May 14, 10:41 p.m.
Just itching to get out of here but I just had to blog this. I did get my heart-rendering manifesto over to The Tulip...a second time, since my computer decided to have a heart attack the first attempt (curse you, Microsoft Advantage!). I don't know quite why I sent over the reassurance since I don't think she really appreciated my attempts to teach her last year, but I know what it's liked to be raked over the coals. I think part of the incentive was also to reassure myself.
Anyways, on top of my self-help therapy, Speedy had me and the new Girl Friday eat some of the leftover quiche from Mr. Influence's latest kitchen trek...still think I'm a real man, though.
Looks like the trip to the Canadian Embassy is off. Mrs. Travel contacted me to state that things are back on the nomadic front (next stop, Beckers) due to the fact that she has to stay in close proximity to her sick grandson. Works for me since at least I'll be closer to 002 tomorrow.
Anyways, I'm outta here.
Just itching to get out of here but I just had to blog this. I did get my heart-rendering manifesto over to The Tulip...a second time, since my computer decided to have a heart attack the first attempt (curse you, Microsoft Advantage!). I don't know quite why I sent over the reassurance since I don't think she really appreciated my attempts to teach her last year, but I know what it's liked to be raked over the coals. I think part of the incentive was also to reassure myself.
Anyways, on top of my self-help therapy, Speedy had me and the new Girl Friday eat some of the leftover quiche from Mr. Influence's latest kitchen trek...still think I'm a real man, though.
Looks like the trip to the Canadian Embassy is off. Mrs. Travel contacted me to state that things are back on the nomadic front (next stop, Beckers) due to the fact that she has to stay in close proximity to her sick grandson. Works for me since at least I'll be closer to 002 tomorrow.
Anyways, I'm outta here.
Monday May 14, 7:58 p.m.
Well, now that I've got the review for what has now become the top-grossing film of the year so far (don't count "Pirates of the Caribbean III" out), I can take care of the day's business.
Pre-theatre, I had the kids for their regular. The Elder actually took to the more specific worksheet pretty well much to my relief. Over Golden Week, their family had done a bit of traveling to Osaka and to Universal Studios Japan. I got a nice souvenir from the father in the form of a Hanshin Tigers canister of chocolate-and-nuts nuggets. Nice to have for breakfast this morning. Yup, love those Tigers. I guess the Osaka team is to the Tokyo Giants as the Boston Red Sox are to the Bronx Bombers. But the roles are reversed in a way...the Tigers have the really vociferous fans and an instantly recognizable team song.
Afterwards, I had lunch in Shinjuku at that Chinese eatery with the cheap lunch sets in the basement of the Maynrd Building...I really scored a good one by finding this place. On a Sunday when the masses regularly clog up just about every restaurant in the entirety of Shinjuku, I have been able to find a tasty restaurant with a 900-yen meal with all-you-can-eat gyoza and veggies without having to throw Gordie Howe elbows to get through. Of course, Krispy Kreme remains defiantly a source of doughnut idolatry.
I finally got to check the upper floors of Takashimaya Times Square where all the trendy restaurants are. It looks like the floors got a moodier...oops, caught myself using Japlish again...I should say, more atmospheric facelift. Times Square, feeling the heat from all of those whippersnappers such as Tokyo Midtown and Shin Maru Biru, gussied up some of its long-standing eateries while bringing in some fresh blood such as West Side Park Cafe. May be some places to try out with Skippy or even when The Little Dancer's clan comes into town. However, I just checked out the HMV which shares space with those restaurants. I guess my geekiness came to the fore since I was looking for the "Ghostbusters" soundtrack....my renewed fondness for the 1984 flick has now extended to the music, although really I was looking forward to the extended remix of Ray Parker Jr.'s magnum opus. I did find it but didn't pull the trigger since I hadn't been sure how much I would be paying for the "Spiderman 3"/Baker Bounce outing. I did find it, though, so its days on the shelves are now numbered.
I headed down to Roppongi Hills. It was somewhat more populated with people than on that Friday a few weeks ago when I could throw my voice in its curvy corridors to field echoes; still, it has peaked. I met up with the gang and gave my congratulations to the upcoming nuptials between Movie Buddy and The Sylph. The Satyr and Ivory were also looking pretty comfortable in their new relationship. Skippy was just there to give us the tickets for the movie, since she suddenly had to take care of her student. C'est dommage but she will be able to see it easily enough in the near future. She would pick us up at the entrance and lead us to Baker Bounce when the film finished. I remarked that she would make a most excellent concierge. Maybe that opportunity will arrive fairly soon. She told me that her company of the past couple of years, IBM, will be pulling up stakes and move to Shanghai come October. Of course, she won't go.
The trailers before "Spiderman 3" reflected what will become a plethora of viewing choices in the next few months. "Shrek 3" and Johnny Depp's latest try at Keith Richards were dutifully advertising themselves. Then, there was "Die Hard 4.0". Almost 20 years after John McClane's run-in with Hans Gruber, the cop-that-never-dies (sans hair) will be going up against a techno-savvy gang, a helicopter and even a Harrier jet. MB and The Satyr remarked later that we needn't see the movie since most of the movie was already shown during the trailer.
After enjoying (or commiserating) Spidey, Skippy was, sure enough, there at the front of Toho Cinemas to escort us over to Tokyo Midtown. We did a bit of browsing around (at these shops, browsing is really all we can ever do there), we got to the hamburger shop. Because of our number of 6, we lucked out by getting the back set of booths which was set up in a way that we got some semi-privacy. I ended up getting a Bacon-and-Cheese burger with a Dr. Pepper. The Satyr and MB got themselves Root Beer for their drinks. I was tempted but then I was reminded by my days at A&W and decided to play it safe. The ladies took a sip of their beaus' sasparilla and decided that Root Beer tasted approximately like a liquid version of medicated Salon-Pas pads (something like Ben-Gay on gauze). Well, to each her own. The burgers were impressive although none of us did order the legendary, Homer Simpson-inspired Double Burger (I, for one, wanted to survive a few more years); however, I was quite taken by the generous helping of Chicken Fingers for just 400 yen. Those were some pretty meaty fillets of fowl. On the other hand, in the Fish n' Chips, apparently the chefs have only decided to define the chips in the merest sense of the plural...only three home fries to complement the fish. All of us finished our most excellent dinner with a round of Apple Pie A La Mode and coffee. Our collective life expectancies may have been lowered by our repast but at least we'll die happy.
Now, as for today, it was another full one. I had my first real session with The Class Act since Golden Week. I heard a rather interesting one from The Matron. Her daughter, The Tulip, a lass who only lasted a few rounds with me and who had always seemed to be someone who never suffered fools gladly, had gotten rather weepy with her Mum after discovering that she'd been a flame target on the notorious Channel 2. How she got on there I don't quite know but Channel 2 pretty much has everything. Ahhh...the tender age of 20 and she's already gotten her first panning. Well, a parallel situation could be made about her and what Mary Jane Watson got in "Spiderman 3". In any case, although her mother rectified the situation well enough, I feel like I should also give my support as well for some reason.
After my usual lunch at Wendy's, I tried to make a quick beeline to Tower Records...yes, I was looking for that "Ghostbusters" CD, but sure enough, the place was closed for its bimonthly inventory. Then, I dipped into the Shibuya HMV but nada there. I hopped on the Ginza Line and went over to SIL's neck of the woods since there would be an HMV nearby in the Ueno ABAB (the unlikely name for a long-standing department store). I was unlucky there, too, but did discover a Sweets Forest restaurant. Sweets Forest is a chain that specializes in 70-minute all-you-can-eat dessert buffets. I put the sighting under advisement.
The interesting anecdotes kept on coming with SIL. Apparently, she has had a neighbour suffering from multiple-personality disorder for several years. Her neighbour (or should I say, neighbours) lives alone and is rampantly loud in all of her incarnations. The police have gotten complaints from everyone in the area but as a lot of plots in suspense dramas go, there's very little they can do unless the offending party actually hurts someone.
Fortunately, The Full-Timer was very down-to-earth today, although disappointingly weak in her Conditionals, according to her take-home test. Still, it was a flying-colours sort of pass. My fourth class, Mr. TOEIC, had to cancel suddenly...something that will probably happen fairly often considering his job. So, here I am, typing this. But I've got many miles to go before I sleep since I have to start up a new curriculum for the re-emerged Jolly tomorrow night. And I also have to think of more stuff to entertain the juku kids, Chip N' Dale. Plus, there's the mini-field trip with The Beehive to the Canadian Embassy as well. Never a dull moment...even as an English teacher.
Well, now that I've got the review for what has now become the top-grossing film of the year so far (don't count "Pirates of the Caribbean III" out), I can take care of the day's business.
Pre-theatre, I had the kids for their regular. The Elder actually took to the more specific worksheet pretty well much to my relief. Over Golden Week, their family had done a bit of traveling to Osaka and to Universal Studios Japan. I got a nice souvenir from the father in the form of a Hanshin Tigers canister of chocolate-and-nuts nuggets. Nice to have for breakfast this morning. Yup, love those Tigers. I guess the Osaka team is to the Tokyo Giants as the Boston Red Sox are to the Bronx Bombers. But the roles are reversed in a way...the Tigers have the really vociferous fans and an instantly recognizable team song.
Afterwards, I had lunch in Shinjuku at that Chinese eatery with the cheap lunch sets in the basement of the Maynrd Building...I really scored a good one by finding this place. On a Sunday when the masses regularly clog up just about every restaurant in the entirety of Shinjuku, I have been able to find a tasty restaurant with a 900-yen meal with all-you-can-eat gyoza and veggies without having to throw Gordie Howe elbows to get through. Of course, Krispy Kreme remains defiantly a source of doughnut idolatry.
I finally got to check the upper floors of Takashimaya Times Square where all the trendy restaurants are. It looks like the floors got a moodier...oops, caught myself using Japlish again...I should say, more atmospheric facelift. Times Square, feeling the heat from all of those whippersnappers such as Tokyo Midtown and Shin Maru Biru, gussied up some of its long-standing eateries while bringing in some fresh blood such as West Side Park Cafe. May be some places to try out with Skippy or even when The Little Dancer's clan comes into town. However, I just checked out the HMV which shares space with those restaurants. I guess my geekiness came to the fore since I was looking for the "Ghostbusters" soundtrack....my renewed fondness for the 1984 flick has now extended to the music, although really I was looking forward to the extended remix of Ray Parker Jr.'s magnum opus. I did find it but didn't pull the trigger since I hadn't been sure how much I would be paying for the "Spiderman 3"/Baker Bounce outing. I did find it, though, so its days on the shelves are now numbered.
I headed down to Roppongi Hills. It was somewhat more populated with people than on that Friday a few weeks ago when I could throw my voice in its curvy corridors to field echoes; still, it has peaked. I met up with the gang and gave my congratulations to the upcoming nuptials between Movie Buddy and The Sylph. The Satyr and Ivory were also looking pretty comfortable in their new relationship. Skippy was just there to give us the tickets for the movie, since she suddenly had to take care of her student. C'est dommage but she will be able to see it easily enough in the near future. She would pick us up at the entrance and lead us to Baker Bounce when the film finished. I remarked that she would make a most excellent concierge. Maybe that opportunity will arrive fairly soon. She told me that her company of the past couple of years, IBM, will be pulling up stakes and move to Shanghai come October. Of course, she won't go.
The trailers before "Spiderman 3" reflected what will become a plethora of viewing choices in the next few months. "Shrek 3" and Johnny Depp's latest try at Keith Richards were dutifully advertising themselves. Then, there was "Die Hard 4.0". Almost 20 years after John McClane's run-in with Hans Gruber, the cop-that-never-dies (sans hair) will be going up against a techno-savvy gang, a helicopter and even a Harrier jet. MB and The Satyr remarked later that we needn't see the movie since most of the movie was already shown during the trailer.
After enjoying (or commiserating) Spidey, Skippy was, sure enough, there at the front of Toho Cinemas to escort us over to Tokyo Midtown. We did a bit of browsing around (at these shops, browsing is really all we can ever do there), we got to the hamburger shop. Because of our number of 6, we lucked out by getting the back set of booths which was set up in a way that we got some semi-privacy. I ended up getting a Bacon-and-Cheese burger with a Dr. Pepper. The Satyr and MB got themselves Root Beer for their drinks. I was tempted but then I was reminded by my days at A&W and decided to play it safe. The ladies took a sip of their beaus' sasparilla and decided that Root Beer tasted approximately like a liquid version of medicated Salon-Pas pads (something like Ben-Gay on gauze). Well, to each her own. The burgers were impressive although none of us did order the legendary, Homer Simpson-inspired Double Burger (I, for one, wanted to survive a few more years); however, I was quite taken by the generous helping of Chicken Fingers for just 400 yen. Those were some pretty meaty fillets of fowl. On the other hand, in the Fish n' Chips, apparently the chefs have only decided to define the chips in the merest sense of the plural...only three home fries to complement the fish. All of us finished our most excellent dinner with a round of Apple Pie A La Mode and coffee. Our collective life expectancies may have been lowered by our repast but at least we'll die happy.
Now, as for today, it was another full one. I had my first real session with The Class Act since Golden Week. I heard a rather interesting one from The Matron. Her daughter, The Tulip, a lass who only lasted a few rounds with me and who had always seemed to be someone who never suffered fools gladly, had gotten rather weepy with her Mum after discovering that she'd been a flame target on the notorious Channel 2. How she got on there I don't quite know but Channel 2 pretty much has everything. Ahhh...the tender age of 20 and she's already gotten her first panning. Well, a parallel situation could be made about her and what Mary Jane Watson got in "Spiderman 3". In any case, although her mother rectified the situation well enough, I feel like I should also give my support as well for some reason.
After my usual lunch at Wendy's, I tried to make a quick beeline to Tower Records...yes, I was looking for that "Ghostbusters" CD, but sure enough, the place was closed for its bimonthly inventory. Then, I dipped into the Shibuya HMV but nada there. I hopped on the Ginza Line and went over to SIL's neck of the woods since there would be an HMV nearby in the Ueno ABAB (the unlikely name for a long-standing department store). I was unlucky there, too, but did discover a Sweets Forest restaurant. Sweets Forest is a chain that specializes in 70-minute all-you-can-eat dessert buffets. I put the sighting under advisement.
The interesting anecdotes kept on coming with SIL. Apparently, she has had a neighbour suffering from multiple-personality disorder for several years. Her neighbour (or should I say, neighbours) lives alone and is rampantly loud in all of her incarnations. The police have gotten complaints from everyone in the area but as a lot of plots in suspense dramas go, there's very little they can do unless the offending party actually hurts someone.
Fortunately, The Full-Timer was very down-to-earth today, although disappointingly weak in her Conditionals, according to her take-home test. Still, it was a flying-colours sort of pass. My fourth class, Mr. TOEIC, had to cancel suddenly...something that will probably happen fairly often considering his job. So, here I am, typing this. But I've got many miles to go before I sleep since I have to start up a new curriculum for the re-emerged Jolly tomorrow night. And I also have to think of more stuff to entertain the juku kids, Chip N' Dale. Plus, there's the mini-field trip with The Beehive to the Canadian Embassy as well. Never a dull moment...even as an English teacher.
Monday May 14, 5:03 p.m.
SPIDERMAN 3
I had always thought that my personal reviews were given somewhat short shrift whenever I tried to jot them down, so I've decided to give them their own entry...something I did a few years ago when I gave my rant on the two Matrix sequels.
So, yesterday, I met up with the newly engaged MB and Sylph, along with the other new couple of The Satyr and Miss Ivory at the former Virgin Theatres, now known as TOHO Cinemas for the latest adventures of everyone's favourite webslinger.
As usual, my take on the movie is somewhat kinder than what a number of critics have said. I think "Spiderman 3" is actually quite a nice addition to what has become (again, my opinion) the best comic book-turned-movie franchise. When I had first heard that Spidey would be taking on not one, not two, but three villains in the latest installment, the red alert lights flashed on and off in my brain....thoughts of the majority of "Batman" flicks flew in my head. But I'm glad to say that Raimi has pulled it off again. He was actually able to miraculously weave the triple threat of New Goblin, Sandman and Venom pretty well. Still, it makes me wonder how deeper the story could've been if any of the three bad guys had been given the solo treatment that Doc Ock got in "Spiderman 2".
The other observation after seeing the third movie is that it was by far the most depressing of the 3 Spiderman movies released so far, and that's saying a lot considering that Peter Parker has always been the Sad Sack of the Marvel Empire. And this observation also rings ironic since this is the flick in which Spiderman finally gets to be loved by New York, a tough audience for any superhero. Think of it..."Spiderman 3" is marketed as Peter Parker's dance with the devil, but Harry Osborn and even Mary Jane Watson in one scene have their chances to be jerks (all three also have their opportunities to show off their dancing "prowess", but enough about that), and all three go through major scarring...physical and/or emotional. By the end of the movie, we just don't know if Peter and MJ have gotten back together or are just holding on after going through some major hell. That's quite the end of a plot arc that started with the two lovebirds making out in a web.
As usual, the famous tagline of "With great power, comes great responsibility" hangs heavy in this installment as well. In fact, the movie illustrates what happens when Peter doesn't just leave it quietly as he did in the last movie, but absolutely shreds it in this one. His turn to the dark side takes down just about everyone he touches: MJ, Harry, Gwen and even the slimy Eddie Brock. But Harry Osborn also does his dance with the dark side and Sandman's haunted profile is the future projection. Of course, at the end, Harry (and maybe even Sandman)is redeemed and given a good end. Basically, this movie was able to show its characters' descent into darkness and emergence back to light (of some sort) much better than "Return of the Jedi" or the "Star Wars" prequels.
You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned any of the special effects. Well, they are stunning but it looks like I've paid more attention to the story than anything else, not a bad endorsement for an escapist series. However, although the multiple-villain approach was actually successful, a new series of Red Alerts has now gone off on hearing that Sony Pictures are going for a sextology of Spiderman. Hmmm....thoughts of The Law of Diminishing Returns of a Movie Franchise, or in short, Sequelitis, are dancing in my head. Just how many times can Peter Parker keep being reminded of that "power/responsibility" tagline? And just how many times can MJ continue to be kidnapped by a supervillain, without the kiddies rolling their eyes? James Franco may no longer have to worry, but will Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst be willing to revisit their iconic roles for another decade?
Inquiring minds want to know....nuff said.
SPIDERMAN 3
I had always thought that my personal reviews were given somewhat short shrift whenever I tried to jot them down, so I've decided to give them their own entry...something I did a few years ago when I gave my rant on the two Matrix sequels.
So, yesterday, I met up with the newly engaged MB and Sylph, along with the other new couple of The Satyr and Miss Ivory at the former Virgin Theatres, now known as TOHO Cinemas for the latest adventures of everyone's favourite webslinger.
As usual, my take on the movie is somewhat kinder than what a number of critics have said. I think "Spiderman 3" is actually quite a nice addition to what has become (again, my opinion) the best comic book-turned-movie franchise. When I had first heard that Spidey would be taking on not one, not two, but three villains in the latest installment, the red alert lights flashed on and off in my brain....thoughts of the majority of "Batman" flicks flew in my head. But I'm glad to say that Raimi has pulled it off again. He was actually able to miraculously weave the triple threat of New Goblin, Sandman and Venom pretty well. Still, it makes me wonder how deeper the story could've been if any of the three bad guys had been given the solo treatment that Doc Ock got in "Spiderman 2".
The other observation after seeing the third movie is that it was by far the most depressing of the 3 Spiderman movies released so far, and that's saying a lot considering that Peter Parker has always been the Sad Sack of the Marvel Empire. And this observation also rings ironic since this is the flick in which Spiderman finally gets to be loved by New York, a tough audience for any superhero. Think of it..."Spiderman 3" is marketed as Peter Parker's dance with the devil, but Harry Osborn and even Mary Jane Watson in one scene have their chances to be jerks (all three also have their opportunities to show off their dancing "prowess", but enough about that), and all three go through major scarring...physical and/or emotional. By the end of the movie, we just don't know if Peter and MJ have gotten back together or are just holding on after going through some major hell. That's quite the end of a plot arc that started with the two lovebirds making out in a web.
As usual, the famous tagline of "With great power, comes great responsibility" hangs heavy in this installment as well. In fact, the movie illustrates what happens when Peter doesn't just leave it quietly as he did in the last movie, but absolutely shreds it in this one. His turn to the dark side takes down just about everyone he touches: MJ, Harry, Gwen and even the slimy Eddie Brock. But Harry Osborn also does his dance with the dark side and Sandman's haunted profile is the future projection. Of course, at the end, Harry (and maybe even Sandman)is redeemed and given a good end. Basically, this movie was able to show its characters' descent into darkness and emergence back to light (of some sort) much better than "Return of the Jedi" or the "Star Wars" prequels.
You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned any of the special effects. Well, they are stunning but it looks like I've paid more attention to the story than anything else, not a bad endorsement for an escapist series. However, although the multiple-villain approach was actually successful, a new series of Red Alerts has now gone off on hearing that Sony Pictures are going for a sextology of Spiderman. Hmmm....thoughts of The Law of Diminishing Returns of a Movie Franchise, or in short, Sequelitis, are dancing in my head. Just how many times can Peter Parker keep being reminded of that "power/responsibility" tagline? And just how many times can MJ continue to be kidnapped by a supervillain, without the kiddies rolling their eyes? James Franco may no longer have to worry, but will Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst be willing to revisit their iconic roles for another decade?
Inquiring minds want to know....nuff said.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Saturday May 12, 3:56 p.m.
Writing this after completing the day's classes. I had Tully and the Coffeemaker for the first time in nearly a month. Of course, both were customarily 10 minutes late. But I wouldn't have The Manhattanite for a few hours, so I wasn't too nervous. Tully is pretty chuffed about doing his special stint at Georgetown next month for an English programme. I told him that he could actually secretly sit in on one of George Tenet's lessons. The lad could learn Public Griping. As for the Coffeemaker, man, did she look exhausted. She had to pull an emergency all-nighter at her company since her boss fell ill with the measles (man, I hope the guy's already had his kids); she just came from work and had to head back again. Not a situation I would trade with anybody.
Didn't have much time for lunch so I just downed a small can of Chip Star before I had The Manhattanite. Looks like she and her mother were on the move; they'd gone to Barcelona for Golden Week. They (and I did tell her this) were quite brave folks in that they eschewed the regular comfy tour for their own trip...and neither of them are very strong in English, let alone Spanish. Despite the lass' low level, the lesson was fun, and Speedy finished it up nicely by bringing in some Red Wine Frappe concoction that Mr. Influence had whipped up for one of the school's rare cooking parties last night. Yup, that frappe certainly made things go a whole lot smoother. In fact, I'm still feeling no pain right now.
I'm still here on account that I just made up a worksheet for The Elder daughter for her lesson tomorrow morning. She was back in sullen mode the last lesson and since "Communication Strategies" should be done by students who are actually interested in English, I thought that the supplementary material was key for us to keep our insanity. Luckily, The Junior is a whole lot less high-maintenance. But I will be heading home within the next half-hour. Gotta get dinner on the table and iron.
A bit of a pity for tomorrow's outing with the movie gang for "Spiderman 3". Looks like Skippy, despite her being the organizer for the meet, has to pull out for the movie phase of the outing since her student's mother has decided to switch days on her. She could have just as easily declined but I guess Skippy is very committed to the family; can't fault her on that. Still, she said that she would make it out for the Baker Bounce dinner segment.
Last night, after I had my lesson with The Ace at the juku, I got back home and decided to watch "Ghostbusters 2" on the DVD. I had been remarking that the disc got short-shrifted in the specials department....no commentary, no making-of documentaries, just trailers for the two movies that are already in the "Ghostbusters" DVD. It was the third time for me to see the 1989 sequel, including catching it at the theatre and a second time catching just part of it. As it is, it wasn't such a bad movie although I remember not being too impressed with it on first viewing (mind you, I wasn't supremely impressed with the original, either; it was a movie that had to grow on me). But I could see why it didn't do all that well critically (although it apparently was one of the top-grossing films of that year), and perhaps why there weren't any specials.
For one thing, "Ghostbusters 2" should've been called "Ghostbusters 2.0". It was basically a reset and copy of the original, better movie in terms of plot. The boys had to (re-) prove themselves to society, and once again, we had the montage of them busting ghosts (although this time, Winston is in on the fun), and once again, Dr. Venkman had to prove himself worthy to Dana, and once again, the final scene featured a nearly identical fight with a massive opponent (although Vigo is arguably far scarier-looking than Mr. Stay-Puft). I could see why Ramis, Reitman and the producer didn't bother to provide a commentary for this one; they would only have needed to pick up the transcript for the first one's talkfest. Of course, there were some slight tweaks and alterations such as a less nebbishy Louis Tully, a more boho Janine Melnitz and a more human Egon...and would you get a load of the New Jack haircut on Winston?! However, there was a nagging similarity to the proceedings which had left me with a "been here, done that" feeling when I left the theatre all those years ago. And in fact, I'd just read on Wiki that Harold Ramis and Dan Ackroyd had only meant to make just the one movie, but the Columbia beancounters just couldn't resist the mucho box office and how well the cartoon, "The Real Ghostbusters" did and so put the pressure to bear on the lads to come up with the redux. Still, the guys did pull off the passage of time and how the characters mellowed more with each other which was probably the best thing in the movie. The original movie had a lot of heart through its characters, and the sequel still showed that. More creative plotting would have guaranteed a better reception.
Still, I was surprised to read that Dan Ackroyd had mentioned earlier this year about getting "Ghostbusters 3" off the ground in CG. I was even more surprised that the somewhat reclusive and taciturn Bill Murray would even consider providing his voice to this project. Still, I'm keeping an open and cautious mind to it. I still think that a live-action treatment with more contemporary comedians could pull off a re-introduction.
Well, I'm just about done like dinner.
Writing this after completing the day's classes. I had Tully and the Coffeemaker for the first time in nearly a month. Of course, both were customarily 10 minutes late. But I wouldn't have The Manhattanite for a few hours, so I wasn't too nervous. Tully is pretty chuffed about doing his special stint at Georgetown next month for an English programme. I told him that he could actually secretly sit in on one of George Tenet's lessons. The lad could learn Public Griping. As for the Coffeemaker, man, did she look exhausted. She had to pull an emergency all-nighter at her company since her boss fell ill with the measles (man, I hope the guy's already had his kids); she just came from work and had to head back again. Not a situation I would trade with anybody.
Didn't have much time for lunch so I just downed a small can of Chip Star before I had The Manhattanite. Looks like she and her mother were on the move; they'd gone to Barcelona for Golden Week. They (and I did tell her this) were quite brave folks in that they eschewed the regular comfy tour for their own trip...and neither of them are very strong in English, let alone Spanish. Despite the lass' low level, the lesson was fun, and Speedy finished it up nicely by bringing in some Red Wine Frappe concoction that Mr. Influence had whipped up for one of the school's rare cooking parties last night. Yup, that frappe certainly made things go a whole lot smoother. In fact, I'm still feeling no pain right now.
I'm still here on account that I just made up a worksheet for The Elder daughter for her lesson tomorrow morning. She was back in sullen mode the last lesson and since "Communication Strategies" should be done by students who are actually interested in English, I thought that the supplementary material was key for us to keep our insanity. Luckily, The Junior is a whole lot less high-maintenance. But I will be heading home within the next half-hour. Gotta get dinner on the table and iron.
A bit of a pity for tomorrow's outing with the movie gang for "Spiderman 3". Looks like Skippy, despite her being the organizer for the meet, has to pull out for the movie phase of the outing since her student's mother has decided to switch days on her. She could have just as easily declined but I guess Skippy is very committed to the family; can't fault her on that. Still, she said that she would make it out for the Baker Bounce dinner segment.
Last night, after I had my lesson with The Ace at the juku, I got back home and decided to watch "Ghostbusters 2" on the DVD. I had been remarking that the disc got short-shrifted in the specials department....no commentary, no making-of documentaries, just trailers for the two movies that are already in the "Ghostbusters" DVD. It was the third time for me to see the 1989 sequel, including catching it at the theatre and a second time catching just part of it. As it is, it wasn't such a bad movie although I remember not being too impressed with it on first viewing (mind you, I wasn't supremely impressed with the original, either; it was a movie that had to grow on me). But I could see why it didn't do all that well critically (although it apparently was one of the top-grossing films of that year), and perhaps why there weren't any specials.
For one thing, "Ghostbusters 2" should've been called "Ghostbusters 2.0". It was basically a reset and copy of the original, better movie in terms of plot. The boys had to (re-) prove themselves to society, and once again, we had the montage of them busting ghosts (although this time, Winston is in on the fun), and once again, Dr. Venkman had to prove himself worthy to Dana, and once again, the final scene featured a nearly identical fight with a massive opponent (although Vigo is arguably far scarier-looking than Mr. Stay-Puft). I could see why Ramis, Reitman and the producer didn't bother to provide a commentary for this one; they would only have needed to pick up the transcript for the first one's talkfest. Of course, there were some slight tweaks and alterations such as a less nebbishy Louis Tully, a more boho Janine Melnitz and a more human Egon...and would you get a load of the New Jack haircut on Winston?! However, there was a nagging similarity to the proceedings which had left me with a "been here, done that" feeling when I left the theatre all those years ago. And in fact, I'd just read on Wiki that Harold Ramis and Dan Ackroyd had only meant to make just the one movie, but the Columbia beancounters just couldn't resist the mucho box office and how well the cartoon, "The Real Ghostbusters" did and so put the pressure to bear on the lads to come up with the redux. Still, the guys did pull off the passage of time and how the characters mellowed more with each other which was probably the best thing in the movie. The original movie had a lot of heart through its characters, and the sequel still showed that. More creative plotting would have guaranteed a better reception.
Still, I was surprised to read that Dan Ackroyd had mentioned earlier this year about getting "Ghostbusters 3" off the ground in CG. I was even more surprised that the somewhat reclusive and taciturn Bill Murray would even consider providing his voice to this project. Still, I'm keeping an open and cautious mind to it. I still think that a live-action treatment with more contemporary comedians could pull off a re-introduction.
Well, I'm just about done like dinner.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Friday May 11, 12:33 p.m.
Well, happy 1800th entry. May I live to reach 2000. In any case, this auspicious occasion comes on the heels of one of those horrible events that often plagues the average Tokyo commuter...the shutdown of the only line into the city. Yup, that is what happened to me this morning as I made my way to the station at the early time of 6:50 a.m. I should've noticed something was up when I heard those winds whistling past my window on waking up. Sure enough, I was greeted by a huge mass of humanity flowing beyond the ticket gates and down the stairs into the street. The Tozai Line had to be shut down in Chiba since the winds were flying at a zippy 25 m/s. Of course, any delay on the Tozai in the mornings and evenings ends up being a traffic cataclysm of Biblical proportions. I think one piece of advice should have been given to the station staff immediately....shut down the up escalator. People, including me, were getting crushed by folks coming up the thing. Somehow, after lounging about the ticket gate area, and I mean lounging as in waiting in an old-fashioned movie theatre before "Star Wars" comes on, I plowed my way through the seething masses and trudged over to the nearest McDonalds for brekkie. On the way, I saw that any alternate ways into town were eradicated as there were huge lineups for the bus and taxi. The lone girl manning the counter at the Big M was clearly overwhelmed by the sudden inrush of hungry and frustrated salaried folks...she forgot to give me my cream, sugar and maple syrup for the hotcakes.
I headed back home and contacted Speedy. I gave him the heads-up about my situation and promised him a final update for a go or no-go. Luckily, I didn't have to go for the Abort option as the Tozai got back on line within a minute of me calling the boss. So once again, I trudged to the subway. Yep, it was quite a squeeze but luckily everyone here is very accustomed to these delays, so I managed to ride out the storm. It's always an interesting feeling being ridden into town nearly breaking that Law of Physics which states that two solids cannot occupy the same space. It felt like being surrounded by human air bags. I couldn't have moved if I had even wanted to; still, I kept my hands absolutely still and pointing downwards lest my actions were to be construed as a chikan's opportunity.
I've always headed out early in the morning whenever I've had early classes since I detest rush hours. However, this ride into town wasn't too, too bad. By Otemachi, things came to a decent sense of space. Still, I will still maintain my rule of avoiding the dreaded Tokyo commute.
As it is, I just had The Nurse for her 60. You might think that I would be rather miffed about going through all that hell for just an hour of class, but again my philosophy is that if the student is good, I'll go through Hell AND Earth for him/her....but I wouldn't quote that too loudly. And I was finally able to get through the second draft of all that text curricula. I hope to be out of here within the next 30 minutes.
My contact at the U of T asap got back to me about The Beehive's possibilities on local B&B's. I hope to find something good for the ladies.
Yesterday, I just had the twosome of 002 and The Carolinan with several hours of downtime in between. I actually got the chance to take a look at the first "Ghostbusters" on DVD. I'd seen it countless times before but it was the first time to have seen it in some years. Taking this fresh look at it, I was quite surprised at how zippy it went....always a good trait in an escapist summer movie, and how much Sigourney Weaver was pretty much just the damsel-in-distress.
When I first saw the movie, it was back in the steamy summer of 1984 in Toronto, in between my high school and first year of university. "Ghostbusters" may have been all the rage but I remember distinctly catching a matinee show at a nearly empty theatre, perhaps a couple of months after its debut. Mind you, even back then, it probably didn't take long for a blockbuster to quickly lose steam. As it was, I realized that the movie was the big Second City Comedy Troupe flick, or the big merger of folks from both "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live". It wasn't (and still isn't) a laugh-out-loud funny movie but it did have a lot of heart within its cast. I think Bill Murray was the keyman here...if you're a fan of his, you should be OK with it; if not, look elsewhere. Although I wanted to see the movie again after so many years, I really also wanted to check out the specials. And I wasn't too disappointed...it's good to hear the commentary by Harold Ramis, someone who I've known since I was 10 years old watching the original SCTV on Global TV, and Ivan Reitman. Not surprisingly, Bill Murray isn't though. I got the feeling that he's not much on re-living past events, and Ramis & Reitman have laughingly hinted that he was a bit of a kvetcher during the shoot.
It is interesting to note in my twin pack that the original "Ghostbusters" got the special attention as being "The Collector's Edition", while its sister disc of "Ghostbusters 2" got bupkiss...well, virtually bupkiss. I guess the second movie really was the ugly stepsister. Still, for all that talk of making a 3rd movie, I think the probability is that if a third entry is made, it will be in the re-imagined vein of what the Batman, Superman and Doctor Who franchises have all gone through. Both Ackroyd and Ramis look like they wouldn't be able to fit into ECTO-1 anymore (ouch!), although if there is a need for a live-action Slimer...(double ouch!). I'm all for a new version of the paranormal investigators and eliminators...there certainly is room for some additions from the current crop of Second City alumni (Mike Myers, Will Farrell, heck, even Dana Carvey could use the paycheck), and obviously the SFX have been amped up a lot in the past 23 years.
Anyways, time to head on home...
Well, happy 1800th entry. May I live to reach 2000. In any case, this auspicious occasion comes on the heels of one of those horrible events that often plagues the average Tokyo commuter...the shutdown of the only line into the city. Yup, that is what happened to me this morning as I made my way to the station at the early time of 6:50 a.m. I should've noticed something was up when I heard those winds whistling past my window on waking up. Sure enough, I was greeted by a huge mass of humanity flowing beyond the ticket gates and down the stairs into the street. The Tozai Line had to be shut down in Chiba since the winds were flying at a zippy 25 m/s. Of course, any delay on the Tozai in the mornings and evenings ends up being a traffic cataclysm of Biblical proportions. I think one piece of advice should have been given to the station staff immediately....shut down the up escalator. People, including me, were getting crushed by folks coming up the thing. Somehow, after lounging about the ticket gate area, and I mean lounging as in waiting in an old-fashioned movie theatre before "Star Wars" comes on, I plowed my way through the seething masses and trudged over to the nearest McDonalds for brekkie. On the way, I saw that any alternate ways into town were eradicated as there were huge lineups for the bus and taxi. The lone girl manning the counter at the Big M was clearly overwhelmed by the sudden inrush of hungry and frustrated salaried folks...she forgot to give me my cream, sugar and maple syrup for the hotcakes.
I headed back home and contacted Speedy. I gave him the heads-up about my situation and promised him a final update for a go or no-go. Luckily, I didn't have to go for the Abort option as the Tozai got back on line within a minute of me calling the boss. So once again, I trudged to the subway. Yep, it was quite a squeeze but luckily everyone here is very accustomed to these delays, so I managed to ride out the storm. It's always an interesting feeling being ridden into town nearly breaking that Law of Physics which states that two solids cannot occupy the same space. It felt like being surrounded by human air bags. I couldn't have moved if I had even wanted to; still, I kept my hands absolutely still and pointing downwards lest my actions were to be construed as a chikan's opportunity.
I've always headed out early in the morning whenever I've had early classes since I detest rush hours. However, this ride into town wasn't too, too bad. By Otemachi, things came to a decent sense of space. Still, I will still maintain my rule of avoiding the dreaded Tokyo commute.
As it is, I just had The Nurse for her 60. You might think that I would be rather miffed about going through all that hell for just an hour of class, but again my philosophy is that if the student is good, I'll go through Hell AND Earth for him/her....but I wouldn't quote that too loudly. And I was finally able to get through the second draft of all that text curricula. I hope to be out of here within the next 30 minutes.
My contact at the U of T asap got back to me about The Beehive's possibilities on local B&B's. I hope to find something good for the ladies.
Yesterday, I just had the twosome of 002 and The Carolinan with several hours of downtime in between. I actually got the chance to take a look at the first "Ghostbusters" on DVD. I'd seen it countless times before but it was the first time to have seen it in some years. Taking this fresh look at it, I was quite surprised at how zippy it went....always a good trait in an escapist summer movie, and how much Sigourney Weaver was pretty much just the damsel-in-distress.
When I first saw the movie, it was back in the steamy summer of 1984 in Toronto, in between my high school and first year of university. "Ghostbusters" may have been all the rage but I remember distinctly catching a matinee show at a nearly empty theatre, perhaps a couple of months after its debut. Mind you, even back then, it probably didn't take long for a blockbuster to quickly lose steam. As it was, I realized that the movie was the big Second City Comedy Troupe flick, or the big merger of folks from both "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live". It wasn't (and still isn't) a laugh-out-loud funny movie but it did have a lot of heart within its cast. I think Bill Murray was the keyman here...if you're a fan of his, you should be OK with it; if not, look elsewhere. Although I wanted to see the movie again after so many years, I really also wanted to check out the specials. And I wasn't too disappointed...it's good to hear the commentary by Harold Ramis, someone who I've known since I was 10 years old watching the original SCTV on Global TV, and Ivan Reitman. Not surprisingly, Bill Murray isn't though. I got the feeling that he's not much on re-living past events, and Ramis & Reitman have laughingly hinted that he was a bit of a kvetcher during the shoot.
It is interesting to note in my twin pack that the original "Ghostbusters" got the special attention as being "The Collector's Edition", while its sister disc of "Ghostbusters 2" got bupkiss...well, virtually bupkiss. I guess the second movie really was the ugly stepsister. Still, for all that talk of making a 3rd movie, I think the probability is that if a third entry is made, it will be in the re-imagined vein of what the Batman, Superman and Doctor Who franchises have all gone through. Both Ackroyd and Ramis look like they wouldn't be able to fit into ECTO-1 anymore (ouch!), although if there is a need for a live-action Slimer...(double ouch!). I'm all for a new version of the paranormal investigators and eliminators...there certainly is room for some additions from the current crop of Second City alumni (Mike Myers, Will Farrell, heck, even Dana Carvey could use the paycheck), and obviously the SFX have been amped up a lot in the past 23 years.
Anyways, time to head on home...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Wednesday May 9, 8:21 p.m.
Well, it's been an eventful week. The Queen has finished her trip to the States on a good note, despite being the victim of a Bushism; the French have elected an unpopular politician (talk about the contrarian nature of these guys); and I was gonna make the punchline about Hitomi Yoshizawa graduating from Morning Musume. But I was skunked by none other than a former Musume herself. On Tuesday morning, I turned on the telly and sure enough, there was my clone, Karube the entertainment reporter on Fuji-TV, breathlessly announcing that the littlest Musume, Nozomi Tsuji at the tender age of 19, was not only going to be getting hitched to some teen idol, but she was gonna have her own musume in several months. I checked the J-Pop forums, and boy it was like watching the politico forums on Election Day 2000. Massive shockwaves.
Speaking of betrothals, I got a laconic message from MB stating that he and The Sylph will be making that big leap into permanent bondage withone another. Now, I guess the next couple will have to be The Satyr and Ms. Ivory, The Sylph's good buddy. Skippy got the same message, too. No doubt she'll be bouncing the walls at this time. Anyways, I'm sure we'll all be chatting about it on Sunday.
Tuesday was a busy day, as it usually is. The Beehive and I started our new life as nomads at the massive food court in the AEON shopping complex (probably named since it seems like it takes an aeon to reach the court from the entrance) just 5 minutes away from the north exit of JR Tsudanuma. The ladies had a ball of a time for their 90 minutes negotiating their agenda for their eventual tour across Canada in October. Even though I won't be joining them, they've assigned me the task of searching for a B&B for them. Well, I've sent an SOS to an old friend of mine back in T.O. If everything works out, I hope there can be one in The Annex, the gentrified neighbourhood just across from the University of Toronto. In any case, the ladies are quite serious about the big trip. Next week's session will be a field trip of sorts to The Canadian Embassy in Aoyama. It seems that there is a rotational element to our nomadic existence; the week after next, we'll be setting up stakes in the Beckers hamburger joint in JR Tsudanuma itself. The variety is nice but I do hope that a permanent place will be found within the next several months.
Afterwards, it was off to Ichigaya to teach The New Yorker. It looks like she and her sister, The Carolinan, had a so-so time at this ukelele concert in Yokohama over Golden Week. I didn't get too much detail from her about it so I'll be asking the big sister tomorrow night during her session.
Then, it was back to Urayasu for the juku classes. Man, it was a pretty full session there. I was glad that my lesson with the kids, Chip N' Dale, went well. The last few classes were pretty lacksadaiscal affairs. I think the two maple chocolates helped. Class with Seven was its usual friendly and laidback self...I shared a wedge of Baum Kuchen with her this time. The Milds were twisting themselves into knots trying to unravel the mysteries behind Present Perfect. But not too much damage. The Siberian only had a 45-minute chit-chat; we always manage to get onto some new topic. Last night's was on international swearing. He was rather amused by my relating that American hip-hop songs played over the speakers at stores are the unvarnished versions and not the ones with the swear words excised. From my talk, he was reminded of Gwen Stefani's "Hollerback Girl", the original version with four-lettered vocabulary intact.
I got my surprise when I opened the shoji to my room and saw Jolly sitting and talking with the juku boss when I finished up with The Siberian. Well, look what the cat dragged in. In any case, his new time slot will be 10-10:30 on Tuesdays (if he does come in regularly...he didn't seem too confident about that). The expression on my face wasn't lost on the boss, and in fact she realized that she'd forgotten to tell me about that little tidbit of information. I wasn't too miffed although I did let her apologize profusely.
Well, I'm gonna have a rather large hole in my schedule tomorrow since The Dentist cancelled her lesson. So, it's just gonna be 002 in the morning, followed by The Carolinan in the evening. At least, I'll have some time to look at that old 80s cinematic chestnut, "Ghostbusters" whose twin-pack DVD set I bought at HMV today. I guess I'm waxing a bit nostalgic. If I ever run into Ray Parker Jr. near The Imperial Castle (I hear he jogs regularly there), I'll have to swap stories with him. Just in case you didn't know; apparently, he has set up digs in The Big Sushi...along with Kobe Bryant's dad.
Well, it's been an eventful week. The Queen has finished her trip to the States on a good note, despite being the victim of a Bushism; the French have elected an unpopular politician (talk about the contrarian nature of these guys); and I was gonna make the punchline about Hitomi Yoshizawa graduating from Morning Musume. But I was skunked by none other than a former Musume herself. On Tuesday morning, I turned on the telly and sure enough, there was my clone, Karube the entertainment reporter on Fuji-TV, breathlessly announcing that the littlest Musume, Nozomi Tsuji at the tender age of 19, was not only going to be getting hitched to some teen idol, but she was gonna have her own musume in several months. I checked the J-Pop forums, and boy it was like watching the politico forums on Election Day 2000. Massive shockwaves.
Speaking of betrothals, I got a laconic message from MB stating that he and The Sylph will be making that big leap into permanent bondage withone another. Now, I guess the next couple will have to be The Satyr and Ms. Ivory, The Sylph's good buddy. Skippy got the same message, too. No doubt she'll be bouncing the walls at this time. Anyways, I'm sure we'll all be chatting about it on Sunday.
Tuesday was a busy day, as it usually is. The Beehive and I started our new life as nomads at the massive food court in the AEON shopping complex (probably named since it seems like it takes an aeon to reach the court from the entrance) just 5 minutes away from the north exit of JR Tsudanuma. The ladies had a ball of a time for their 90 minutes negotiating their agenda for their eventual tour across Canada in October. Even though I won't be joining them, they've assigned me the task of searching for a B&B for them. Well, I've sent an SOS to an old friend of mine back in T.O. If everything works out, I hope there can be one in The Annex, the gentrified neighbourhood just across from the University of Toronto. In any case, the ladies are quite serious about the big trip. Next week's session will be a field trip of sorts to The Canadian Embassy in Aoyama. It seems that there is a rotational element to our nomadic existence; the week after next, we'll be setting up stakes in the Beckers hamburger joint in JR Tsudanuma itself. The variety is nice but I do hope that a permanent place will be found within the next several months.
Afterwards, it was off to Ichigaya to teach The New Yorker. It looks like she and her sister, The Carolinan, had a so-so time at this ukelele concert in Yokohama over Golden Week. I didn't get too much detail from her about it so I'll be asking the big sister tomorrow night during her session.
Then, it was back to Urayasu for the juku classes. Man, it was a pretty full session there. I was glad that my lesson with the kids, Chip N' Dale, went well. The last few classes were pretty lacksadaiscal affairs. I think the two maple chocolates helped. Class with Seven was its usual friendly and laidback self...I shared a wedge of Baum Kuchen with her this time. The Milds were twisting themselves into knots trying to unravel the mysteries behind Present Perfect. But not too much damage. The Siberian only had a 45-minute chit-chat; we always manage to get onto some new topic. Last night's was on international swearing. He was rather amused by my relating that American hip-hop songs played over the speakers at stores are the unvarnished versions and not the ones with the swear words excised. From my talk, he was reminded of Gwen Stefani's "Hollerback Girl", the original version with four-lettered vocabulary intact.
I got my surprise when I opened the shoji to my room and saw Jolly sitting and talking with the juku boss when I finished up with The Siberian. Well, look what the cat dragged in. In any case, his new time slot will be 10-10:30 on Tuesdays (if he does come in regularly...he didn't seem too confident about that). The expression on my face wasn't lost on the boss, and in fact she realized that she'd forgotten to tell me about that little tidbit of information. I wasn't too miffed although I did let her apologize profusely.
Well, I'm gonna have a rather large hole in my schedule tomorrow since The Dentist cancelled her lesson. So, it's just gonna be 002 in the morning, followed by The Carolinan in the evening. At least, I'll have some time to look at that old 80s cinematic chestnut, "Ghostbusters" whose twin-pack DVD set I bought at HMV today. I guess I'm waxing a bit nostalgic. If I ever run into Ray Parker Jr. near The Imperial Castle (I hear he jogs regularly there), I'll have to swap stories with him. Just in case you didn't know; apparently, he has set up digs in The Big Sushi...along with Kobe Bryant's dad.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Monday May 7, 7:35 p.m.
Glad to get the Bufferin just in time. By the time I met up with The Part-Timer, my head was throbbing to the point that I couldn't help but take on a Clint Eastwood squint. So I quickly downed the 2 tablets with my veggie juice at smoky Doutors (Clint, being a jazzbo, would love this coffee joint since it's got all the atmospheric smoke); it was a bit touch-and-go but as the lesson went on, the pain and pressure slowly dissipated. I was feeling downright buoyant when I said my goodbyes to my student.
BTW, I have to promote The Part-Timer since she's no longer technically a part-timer. She became a full-time employee as of May 1, so as mundane as it sounds, she's now the Full-Timer. She's not quite sure what her new position will entail but I hope it means more benefits in terms of bonuses. She had a fairly quiet Golden Week. She and a friend of hers went to an autograph session (sign kai, as they would say it in their pidgin English here) at the Sanseido Bookstore in Kanda over the holiday; her buddy was off to see a K-1 athlete by the name of Genki Sudo. The Full-Timer wasn't too overcome by the thrill since she's just got a passing interest in the sport of kickboxing, but her friend and the other folks in line were basically frothing at the mouth. Some were crying in joy, others were shaking. Kinda reminds me of the time I was in Shibuya years ago when by chance that ancient boy band, The Backstreet Boys, were visiting the Tokyo-FM studio. I came across dozens of high school girls sobbing, screaming or shaking in their loose socks after they were allowed to be in the presence of pop cultural greatness.
Looks like Mr. TOEIC is gonna be a half-hour late. Kinda figured that he would do that. His job in sales is a prime candidate for sudden temporal changes. Looks like I can get some curricula stuff done...or not. In any case, Speedy is currently training yet another new face. I dub she Miss Monday. Pretty (and) fresh, she is too. She answered her first phone call with a very crisp business response when Mr. TOEIC called. Ahhhh...the wonders of young adulthood.
Glad to get the Bufferin just in time. By the time I met up with The Part-Timer, my head was throbbing to the point that I couldn't help but take on a Clint Eastwood squint. So I quickly downed the 2 tablets with my veggie juice at smoky Doutors (Clint, being a jazzbo, would love this coffee joint since it's got all the atmospheric smoke); it was a bit touch-and-go but as the lesson went on, the pain and pressure slowly dissipated. I was feeling downright buoyant when I said my goodbyes to my student.
BTW, I have to promote The Part-Timer since she's no longer technically a part-timer. She became a full-time employee as of May 1, so as mundane as it sounds, she's now the Full-Timer. She's not quite sure what her new position will entail but I hope it means more benefits in terms of bonuses. She had a fairly quiet Golden Week. She and a friend of hers went to an autograph session (sign kai, as they would say it in their pidgin English here) at the Sanseido Bookstore in Kanda over the holiday; her buddy was off to see a K-1 athlete by the name of Genki Sudo. The Full-Timer wasn't too overcome by the thrill since she's just got a passing interest in the sport of kickboxing, but her friend and the other folks in line were basically frothing at the mouth. Some were crying in joy, others were shaking. Kinda reminds me of the time I was in Shibuya years ago when by chance that ancient boy band, The Backstreet Boys, were visiting the Tokyo-FM studio. I came across dozens of high school girls sobbing, screaming or shaking in their loose socks after they were allowed to be in the presence of pop cultural greatness.
Looks like Mr. TOEIC is gonna be a half-hour late. Kinda figured that he would do that. His job in sales is a prime candidate for sudden temporal changes. Looks like I can get some curricula stuff done...or not. In any case, Speedy is currently training yet another new face. I dub she Miss Monday. Pretty (and) fresh, she is too. She answered her first phone call with a very crisp business response when Mr. TOEIC called. Ahhhh...the wonders of young adulthood.
Monday May 7, 5:44 p.m.
That headache is not going away. I've tried the usual massage on the scalp but that never really had much effect on me. I guess my head's just tightened up too much...along with the rest of my upper body. I may have to make a detour at a nearby drugstore to pick up some Bufferin before The Part-Timer. One thing for sure...no more coffee today. I realized that I've drunk 5 cups of the stuff in the past 11 hours. Heck, even my urine smelled like it needed cream and sugar; my apologies to those who are drinking the jo as they are reading this.
In any case, I listened to the last of my binge purchases over the weekend. I gotta admit that the newest MISIA release, "Ascension", may be one of those discs that will have to grow on me. I just didn't find it particularly that absorbing. It was a case that most of the songs sounded a little too similar to me. I think "Luv Parade" and perhaps one other song were the standouts although I already have the single to the first tune. Her very first album all the way back in 1998 had the same problem but I just blamed that on first-album jitters. I kinda wonder if her stuff is suffering from the usual Dreams Come True syndrome: solid singles but ho-hum albums.
Anyways, gotta head out to the drug store. Speedy doesn't have any headache pills on hand here.
That headache is not going away. I've tried the usual massage on the scalp but that never really had much effect on me. I guess my head's just tightened up too much...along with the rest of my upper body. I may have to make a detour at a nearby drugstore to pick up some Bufferin before The Part-Timer. One thing for sure...no more coffee today. I realized that I've drunk 5 cups of the stuff in the past 11 hours. Heck, even my urine smelled like it needed cream and sugar; my apologies to those who are drinking the jo as they are reading this.
In any case, I listened to the last of my binge purchases over the weekend. I gotta admit that the newest MISIA release, "Ascension", may be one of those discs that will have to grow on me. I just didn't find it particularly that absorbing. It was a case that most of the songs sounded a little too similar to me. I think "Luv Parade" and perhaps one other song were the standouts although I already have the single to the first tune. Her very first album all the way back in 1998 had the same problem but I just blamed that on first-album jitters. I kinda wonder if her stuff is suffering from the usual Dreams Come True syndrome: solid singles but ho-hum albums.
Anyways, gotta head out to the drug store. Speedy doesn't have any headache pills on hand here.
Monday May 7, 5:03 p.m.
Just my luck that it's 25 C out there and I had to wear the good suit...the good suit for winter; I don't have a lighter summer suit. But if I bought a Men's Aoki suit here, I would always be afraid that if the slightest bit of water got onto it, it would disintegrate like cheap Kleenex. In any case, I had to wear my suit instead of the usual garb by Hiro from "Heroes" since today's session with The Class Act took place at a French restaurant.
Actually, I almost forgot about the special meal out today; luckily, I had started planning the week's lessons yesterday afternoon when I saw the schedule change. The Matron had called me up a couple of weeks before to inform me that all of us plus her hubby and son would be heading to a small French bistro just metres away from her hubby's office. Well, the roll call turned out to be much larger...it was the five of us with The Lady's brother-in-law (damn fine command of English), the hubby's secretary and the hubby's nephew who's starting his career as a French chef. The place is called Aux Provencale, a little hidey-hole that noone outside of residents, both domestic and commercial, would know about. The Matron's husband kindly introduced us to the head chef and we were all seated at the long table.
Not surprisingly, the food was great: Duck A L'Orange and other such stuff with a generous dessert plate at the end. Some of us, including me, did indulge in a bit of champagne; I should've held off since I did have SIL afterwards. However, it wasn't so much that I was afraid of losing SIL's respect in my lack of professionalism, but just that I was in that lousy world between tipsiness and hangover en route to SIL...which I had to rush, by the way; never good in an inebriated state. Still, a very pleasant way to start off the post-Golden Week.
I was also lucky that SIL and I decided to dip into nostalgiaville again with all of our favourite TV shows coming back to mind. Everything from "The Untouchables" to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was covered. I even discovered that the lady is a passing fan of The Pet Shop Boys. I will have to bring over the DVD of their videos next week.
Still feeling pretty full after that buttery lunch. So I'm just going to have a couple of rice balls before I do my first lesson with The Part-Timer in a few weeks. I did make a take-home test for her. Then, I've got Mr. TOEIC for his 60 afterwards. I don't think I'll have a chance to tackle any curricula stuff tonight since I've got another full slate of classes tomorrow. Looks like this week is very much back to normal. However, at this point, it looks like I'll just have 001 for Wednesday.
Skippy is getting the plans for "Spiderman 3" under way for this Sunday. But instead of our usual target for Shinjuku, she wants all of us to try Roppongi Hills instead. It would seem that she wants to try out Tokyo Midtown for the dinner afterwards. I've got a feeling that Baker Bounce will be getting a try out from us.
Just my luck that it's 25 C out there and I had to wear the good suit...the good suit for winter; I don't have a lighter summer suit. But if I bought a Men's Aoki suit here, I would always be afraid that if the slightest bit of water got onto it, it would disintegrate like cheap Kleenex. In any case, I had to wear my suit instead of the usual garb by Hiro from "Heroes" since today's session with The Class Act took place at a French restaurant.
Actually, I almost forgot about the special meal out today; luckily, I had started planning the week's lessons yesterday afternoon when I saw the schedule change. The Matron had called me up a couple of weeks before to inform me that all of us plus her hubby and son would be heading to a small French bistro just metres away from her hubby's office. Well, the roll call turned out to be much larger...it was the five of us with The Lady's brother-in-law (damn fine command of English), the hubby's secretary and the hubby's nephew who's starting his career as a French chef. The place is called Aux Provencale, a little hidey-hole that noone outside of residents, both domestic and commercial, would know about. The Matron's husband kindly introduced us to the head chef and we were all seated at the long table.
Not surprisingly, the food was great: Duck A L'Orange and other such stuff with a generous dessert plate at the end. Some of us, including me, did indulge in a bit of champagne; I should've held off since I did have SIL afterwards. However, it wasn't so much that I was afraid of losing SIL's respect in my lack of professionalism, but just that I was in that lousy world between tipsiness and hangover en route to SIL...which I had to rush, by the way; never good in an inebriated state. Still, a very pleasant way to start off the post-Golden Week.
I was also lucky that SIL and I decided to dip into nostalgiaville again with all of our favourite TV shows coming back to mind. Everything from "The Untouchables" to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was covered. I even discovered that the lady is a passing fan of The Pet Shop Boys. I will have to bring over the DVD of their videos next week.
Still feeling pretty full after that buttery lunch. So I'm just going to have a couple of rice balls before I do my first lesson with The Part-Timer in a few weeks. I did make a take-home test for her. Then, I've got Mr. TOEIC for his 60 afterwards. I don't think I'll have a chance to tackle any curricula stuff tonight since I've got another full slate of classes tomorrow. Looks like this week is very much back to normal. However, at this point, it looks like I'll just have 001 for Wednesday.
Skippy is getting the plans for "Spiderman 3" under way for this Sunday. But instead of our usual target for Shinjuku, she wants all of us to try Roppongi Hills instead. It would seem that she wants to try out Tokyo Midtown for the dinner afterwards. I've got a feeling that Baker Bounce will be getting a try out from us.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Saturday May 5, 3:47 p.m.
Yikes! Can't believe how long I spent on that last entry, but when you get me onto music topics...
It wasn't all on music, after all. I have been watching that one week of tribute to The King of Talk, Larry King. I saw bleating George Tenet, Oprah and Katie Couric turn the tables on King. Then, there was the 2-hour special on American pop culture through King's eyes on Thursday. As a student of the topic, it was rather intriguing to see how King changed along with the pop zeitgeist.
Then, there was this morning. Now, I guess being a Libran with a bit of a mean streak, I always get a little contrarian whenever I see anyone, no matter how seemingly deserving, get a whole bunch of lovin' tribute. That includes Larry King...especially Larry King. This is Mr. Softball, a title that he did, much to his credit, 'fess up to during the 2-hour special. He said that he feels that he has to make the interviewee feel as comfy as possible instead of using the Mike Wallace attack-and-shred tactics. OK so he's in that same league as the late-night hosts such as Leno and Letterman...well, not Letterman; he can be quite nasty...more like, Johnny Carson, I guess. Still, King has had a lot of guests who should've been grilled but weren't. No wonder he's been able to score 40,000 guests...noone is afraid of him. So, I looked for any anti-King sites or any criticism. I really couldn't find anything, aside from a Wiki entry that said one of his older children was estranged from him. Well, OK...so he's a nice guy...
...still, that Bill Maher love-in this morning almost made me do a Joan Rivers gagging motion (about the only woman in the 2-hour retrospective that came close to truly criticizing him). I swore it reminded me of the most egregious stuff of the Sammy Maudlin Show from SCTV with all of those fawning celebs such as Bobby Bittman and Lola Heatherton...and it was all real. I think Celine Dion was the one who kinda put it over the top with her impromptu singing. It immediately brought back to mind the truly surreal Kenny G. moment when he tooted something narcoleptic during that incredibly weird and uncomfortable tribute to "Star Trek"....and this, coming from a Trekkie. Y'know...I think if Larry had had his way, I don't think this would've ever happened. All I can really say is that: 1) Larry, no more celebrations, and 2) producers of "South Park"...you've got your latest killer target.
And The Polynesian cancelled out for tomorrow...ah
Yikes! Can't believe how long I spent on that last entry, but when you get me onto music topics...
It wasn't all on music, after all. I have been watching that one week of tribute to The King of Talk, Larry King. I saw bleating George Tenet, Oprah and Katie Couric turn the tables on King. Then, there was the 2-hour special on American pop culture through King's eyes on Thursday. As a student of the topic, it was rather intriguing to see how King changed along with the pop zeitgeist.
Then, there was this morning. Now, I guess being a Libran with a bit of a mean streak, I always get a little contrarian whenever I see anyone, no matter how seemingly deserving, get a whole bunch of lovin' tribute. That includes Larry King...especially Larry King. This is Mr. Softball, a title that he did, much to his credit, 'fess up to during the 2-hour special. He said that he feels that he has to make the interviewee feel as comfy as possible instead of using the Mike Wallace attack-and-shred tactics. OK so he's in that same league as the late-night hosts such as Leno and Letterman...well, not Letterman; he can be quite nasty...more like, Johnny Carson, I guess. Still, King has had a lot of guests who should've been grilled but weren't. No wonder he's been able to score 40,000 guests...noone is afraid of him. So, I looked for any anti-King sites or any criticism. I really couldn't find anything, aside from a Wiki entry that said one of his older children was estranged from him. Well, OK...so he's a nice guy...
...still, that Bill Maher love-in this morning almost made me do a Joan Rivers gagging motion (about the only woman in the 2-hour retrospective that came close to truly criticizing him). I swore it reminded me of the most egregious stuff of the Sammy Maudlin Show from SCTV with all of those fawning celebs such as Bobby Bittman and Lola Heatherton...and it was all real. I think Celine Dion was the one who kinda put it over the top with her impromptu singing. It immediately brought back to mind the truly surreal Kenny G. moment when he tooted something narcoleptic during that incredibly weird and uncomfortable tribute to "Star Trek"....and this, coming from a Trekkie. Y'know...I think if Larry had had his way, I don't think this would've ever happened. All I can really say is that: 1) Larry, no more celebrations, and 2) producers of "South Park"...you've got your latest killer target.
And The Polynesian cancelled out for tomorrow...ah
Saturday May 5, 2:35 p.m.
We're in the middle of Golden Weekend. Already the big U-turn rush has begun so all of the families are creating the largest parking lots in the country by cramming up the highways for as long as 50 km. I would love to see what the stress levels must be like inside each car; I think the energy produced altogether could do away with nuclear power plants for several years. Nothing worse than being behind the wheel for several hours with a nagging wife and impatient ("Are we home yet?") kids. Just one of the reasons that I'm glad I'm still single.
Yesterday, I gave in to my shopping version of Vulcan pon farr, and hit the streets in Ginza, Otemachi and Nakano to lose some weight & money and perhaps gain some CDs. As for the losing weight part, I think the best I could do was a zero-sum game since the first place I hit in Ginza was The Siam, that Thai buffet restaurant on the southwest corner of the main intersection of 4-chome. Not surprisingly, it was fairly crowded but I could get a table immediately. I kinda tempered myself on the really spicy stuff such as the curry and pad thai but the spices started my histamines flowing in my nose so I had to take off into the bathroom a couple of times to blow it (over here, blowing one's nose at the table is a huge no-no). As I was heading back to the elevator after paying the bill, there was one rather miserable old man slouching on a chair looking like he overindulged. He was passing wind a couple of times as well, which meant I was rather glad that the lift came as quickly as it did. Pacing, that's the key to surviving a Thai buffet.
When I got out of the Ginza Core, the main drag had already been closed off for the holiday hoko-ten (closed off to vehicular traffic). And lots of people took advantage of that to stroll the area. And thus, like Spock did on that extra-special second-season opener of "Star Trek", I fell into thrall of my pon farr impulses and went crazy with my HMV and Yamano Music point cards. At the first HMV branch in Sukibayashi (the commercial area just a couple of intersections north of Ginza, I bought up an Billy Joel disc and the latest issue of "Total Film". Only needed one more point to fill the entire HMV card up, so I went over to the other HMV branch just 500 m away (ah...that explains the proximity) and bought the latest by Misia, the J-R&B songbird. So, the card was now filled so then I went back down to the main closed-off drag and headed over to Yamano Music. Since HMV tended more toward the contemporary and hip, I walked to Yamano for the more traditional and kayo kyoku. Yamano is probably the best chain for finding the older stuff, including the J-Pop of yesteryear and enka.
And I wasn't disappointed either; I did find a couple of remastered 80s singers' discs to add to the collection. Unfortunately, I couldn't find two DVDs that I've been searching for: the "Ghostbusters" double pack and the extras-filled version of "The Maltese Falcon". It was just as well, though, since my wallet was now on fumes. It wasn't all audiovisual purchases, though. I did pop into Ito-ya, the stationery store, to pick up a Mother's Day card.
After my spree, I went back up north and passed into Yurakucho. The atrium in the middle of The Tokyo Internation Forum was very packed with folks lining up at the various food trucks selling stuff as exotic as doner kebab and loco moco. Also, there was a concert of what sounded like a trio doing Celtic music drawing in a lot of crowds. It certainly was refreshing to seeing this group instead of the usual Peruvian pipe guys doing "El Condor Pasa", but they have moved over to Akiba.
I made my way up the concrete jungle between Yurakucho and Tokyo Station. I did come across the Shin-Maru Biru (New Marunouchi Building), the latest commercial complex to open up in Tokyo but didn't bother to enter it. Instead, I went over to Oazo (ie the huge Maruzen Bookstore) to see if the latest "Metropolis" magazine had come in. No dice so I just hit the Tozai Line and went all the way to the west end in Nakano.
There, I got off and walked through the famous old-style shopping street of Nakano Sun Plaza. I did have a plan, though, and that was to visit Otokichi Music, a secondhand CD and record shop crammed into a second-floor walk-up that's been a solace to the world's J-Pop/aidoru/kayo kyoku fans for years. I did order a couple of discs from them online and have visited the shop once before. I'd had a hunch and sure enough, I was glad that I acted upon it. I found another disc in the oeuvre of one Ruiko Kurahashi, that 80s songstress. I also saw some CD singles that were currently sold out of a teenage Eri Fukatsu from the late 80s. A lot of students have bounced their brows on hearing that the acclaimed actress from series such as "Odoru Dai Sosasen" (Bayside Shakedown) did start out as one of the hundreds of aidoru. I've got a feeling that her switch in jobs was one of the more wiser business decisions in her professional life. In any case, if any of you J-Pop fans do come into the Tokyo area, I highly advise a visit to the temple of Otokichi.
As proof of my insanity, I used the last couple of bills to purchase the Kurahashi CD. I had to make another beeline to the ATM once I got back home to get some cash for the rest of the weekend. Fortunately or unfortunately, the ATMs now remain open during Golden Week.
Now, as for my purchases:
There seems to be a new Japanese trend based on the American penchant now for re-releasing old albums digitally re-mastered on disc. My Yamano Music purchases were representative of that. As I had mentioned, I bought the works of a couple of old 80s singers, although neither of them belonged to the aidoru kashu category. Well, Hiromi Iwasaki did start back in 1975 in that aidoru vein but her pipes quickly showed that she was one of much higher quality, arguably the best in the business at that time. I bought an album of hers originally released back in 1982 which contains her most famous and best hit, "Madonna-tachi no Lullaby", a song that seems to have become the go-to song for ending themes for mystery-suspense specials on Japanese TV. However, I've already got that song; it was actually one other tune, "Koi wa Senso" (Love is War [and yes, it certainly is]) that I was going for. It's one of those songs that had been dogging me for a quarter of a century, and I finally got it. It's an interesting tune for Iwasaki since it almost sounds technopop...not a usual genre for the songstress who's now more famous for belting out musical showtunes.
The other singer is strictly someone of the 80s...a lady by the name of Eiko Sato, but her nom du kayo kyoku was EPO...how she got the name is a mystery I still haven't solved. I think she's someone who represented that subgenre of J-Pop known as City Pop...perhaps the Japanese equivalent of Urban Contemporary. She really only had 2 major hits. Not surprising, considering the genre, her first hit was "Downtown" (not the Petula Clark classic); she'd had quite the pedigree backing her up on that one...she had New Music legends Tatsuro Yamashita and Taeko Onuki helping her out. Then, there was her 6th single, "U, fu, fu, fu" (and that is pronounced as "Oo, foo, foo, foo", just to dispel any attempts at linguistic naughtiness). I actually own a CD back home of hers, the 1988 "Poptracks" which has her doing cover versions of other musicians including Minnie Ripperton's "Loving You", but from that I got the feeling that her two major hits were indeed hits because they were done as either CM jingles or ending themes. She's never struck me as being a master songwriter...more like an artist who has a way of creating short but sweet tunes that will just stick to you like glue. I guess comparisons to Barry Manilow may be in order. But I don't know what she's up to...another person to look up, I guess.
And then there is my last J-Pop songstress, the elusive Ruiko Kurahashi. I finally came up with her genre (and perhaps the reason that she really never hit it all that big on the Oricon charts). Strangely enough, the genre finally popped up with its name when I checked about what former Morning Musume member Kaori Iida was up to (cultural curiosity, I swear). Apparently, the tallest Musume Iida is now heavily into singing European enka...that blend of Japanese enka, jazz, Latin, French chanson, Portuguese fado and Italian balladry. (Just think of what Julio Iglesias sings and you'll get the idea) Well, in all of the other albums that I have of Kurahashi (I'm starting to think that I'm probably the only person in the country who has as many of her discs as I do), she sings European enka...a genre that true enka singers have dabbled into from time to time. However, this new album I acquired yesterday, "Jun'ai" (Pure Love), I just got the impression that the 1988 release was just when she got hitched herself. Not only are the tunes themed on engagements, weddings and marital bliss, but the liner notes have the lady looking at her most feminine. In previous photos, she looked, well...frankly, quite butch, like one of those Takarazuka Revue types. Man, she really must've fallen in love! However, I guess the marriage may not have lasted all that long...by her 1991 release, she was looking rather pale with a cropped punkish cut.
As for Billy Joel, I got his 1980 album, "Glass Houses". I thought the Piano Man would be mostly dealing with themes of rebellion as the cover photo and tunes like "You May Be Right" and "It's Still Rock N' Roll To Me" would suggest. However, it also has "Don't Ask Me Why", perhaps the very first Joel tune I'd ever noticed on radio all those years ago, and a happy-go-lucky ditty that Joel sings in his higher register falsetto voice. And in fact, the last few tracks seem to have him returning to some of his older balladry. Still, I think Joel also does his most chameleon-like changes here as he takes on Jagger, Elvis Costello and perhaps even Talking Heads/Ronnie Spector.
We're in the middle of Golden Weekend. Already the big U-turn rush has begun so all of the families are creating the largest parking lots in the country by cramming up the highways for as long as 50 km. I would love to see what the stress levels must be like inside each car; I think the energy produced altogether could do away with nuclear power plants for several years. Nothing worse than being behind the wheel for several hours with a nagging wife and impatient ("Are we home yet?") kids. Just one of the reasons that I'm glad I'm still single.
Yesterday, I gave in to my shopping version of Vulcan pon farr, and hit the streets in Ginza, Otemachi and Nakano to lose some weight & money and perhaps gain some CDs. As for the losing weight part, I think the best I could do was a zero-sum game since the first place I hit in Ginza was The Siam, that Thai buffet restaurant on the southwest corner of the main intersection of 4-chome. Not surprisingly, it was fairly crowded but I could get a table immediately. I kinda tempered myself on the really spicy stuff such as the curry and pad thai but the spices started my histamines flowing in my nose so I had to take off into the bathroom a couple of times to blow it (over here, blowing one's nose at the table is a huge no-no). As I was heading back to the elevator after paying the bill, there was one rather miserable old man slouching on a chair looking like he overindulged. He was passing wind a couple of times as well, which meant I was rather glad that the lift came as quickly as it did. Pacing, that's the key to surviving a Thai buffet.
When I got out of the Ginza Core, the main drag had already been closed off for the holiday hoko-ten (closed off to vehicular traffic). And lots of people took advantage of that to stroll the area. And thus, like Spock did on that extra-special second-season opener of "Star Trek", I fell into thrall of my pon farr impulses and went crazy with my HMV and Yamano Music point cards. At the first HMV branch in Sukibayashi (the commercial area just a couple of intersections north of Ginza, I bought up an Billy Joel disc and the latest issue of "Total Film". Only needed one more point to fill the entire HMV card up, so I went over to the other HMV branch just 500 m away (ah...that explains the proximity) and bought the latest by Misia, the J-R&B songbird. So, the card was now filled so then I went back down to the main closed-off drag and headed over to Yamano Music. Since HMV tended more toward the contemporary and hip, I walked to Yamano for the more traditional and kayo kyoku. Yamano is probably the best chain for finding the older stuff, including the J-Pop of yesteryear and enka.
And I wasn't disappointed either; I did find a couple of remastered 80s singers' discs to add to the collection. Unfortunately, I couldn't find two DVDs that I've been searching for: the "Ghostbusters" double pack and the extras-filled version of "The Maltese Falcon". It was just as well, though, since my wallet was now on fumes. It wasn't all audiovisual purchases, though. I did pop into Ito-ya, the stationery store, to pick up a Mother's Day card.
After my spree, I went back up north and passed into Yurakucho. The atrium in the middle of The Tokyo Internation Forum was very packed with folks lining up at the various food trucks selling stuff as exotic as doner kebab and loco moco. Also, there was a concert of what sounded like a trio doing Celtic music drawing in a lot of crowds. It certainly was refreshing to seeing this group instead of the usual Peruvian pipe guys doing "El Condor Pasa", but they have moved over to Akiba.
I made my way up the concrete jungle between Yurakucho and Tokyo Station. I did come across the Shin-Maru Biru (New Marunouchi Building), the latest commercial complex to open up in Tokyo but didn't bother to enter it. Instead, I went over to Oazo (ie the huge Maruzen Bookstore) to see if the latest "Metropolis" magazine had come in. No dice so I just hit the Tozai Line and went all the way to the west end in Nakano.
There, I got off and walked through the famous old-style shopping street of Nakano Sun Plaza. I did have a plan, though, and that was to visit Otokichi Music, a secondhand CD and record shop crammed into a second-floor walk-up that's been a solace to the world's J-Pop/aidoru/kayo kyoku fans for years. I did order a couple of discs from them online and have visited the shop once before. I'd had a hunch and sure enough, I was glad that I acted upon it. I found another disc in the oeuvre of one Ruiko Kurahashi, that 80s songstress. I also saw some CD singles that were currently sold out of a teenage Eri Fukatsu from the late 80s. A lot of students have bounced their brows on hearing that the acclaimed actress from series such as "Odoru Dai Sosasen" (Bayside Shakedown) did start out as one of the hundreds of aidoru. I've got a feeling that her switch in jobs was one of the more wiser business decisions in her professional life. In any case, if any of you J-Pop fans do come into the Tokyo area, I highly advise a visit to the temple of Otokichi.
As proof of my insanity, I used the last couple of bills to purchase the Kurahashi CD. I had to make another beeline to the ATM once I got back home to get some cash for the rest of the weekend. Fortunately or unfortunately, the ATMs now remain open during Golden Week.
Now, as for my purchases:
There seems to be a new Japanese trend based on the American penchant now for re-releasing old albums digitally re-mastered on disc. My Yamano Music purchases were representative of that. As I had mentioned, I bought the works of a couple of old 80s singers, although neither of them belonged to the aidoru kashu category. Well, Hiromi Iwasaki did start back in 1975 in that aidoru vein but her pipes quickly showed that she was one of much higher quality, arguably the best in the business at that time. I bought an album of hers originally released back in 1982 which contains her most famous and best hit, "Madonna-tachi no Lullaby", a song that seems to have become the go-to song for ending themes for mystery-suspense specials on Japanese TV. However, I've already got that song; it was actually one other tune, "Koi wa Senso" (Love is War [and yes, it certainly is]) that I was going for. It's one of those songs that had been dogging me for a quarter of a century, and I finally got it. It's an interesting tune for Iwasaki since it almost sounds technopop...not a usual genre for the songstress who's now more famous for belting out musical showtunes.
The other singer is strictly someone of the 80s...a lady by the name of Eiko Sato, but her nom du kayo kyoku was EPO...how she got the name is a mystery I still haven't solved. I think she's someone who represented that subgenre of J-Pop known as City Pop...perhaps the Japanese equivalent of Urban Contemporary. She really only had 2 major hits. Not surprising, considering the genre, her first hit was "Downtown" (not the Petula Clark classic); she'd had quite the pedigree backing her up on that one...she had New Music legends Tatsuro Yamashita and Taeko Onuki helping her out. Then, there was her 6th single, "U, fu, fu, fu" (and that is pronounced as "Oo, foo, foo, foo", just to dispel any attempts at linguistic naughtiness). I actually own a CD back home of hers, the 1988 "Poptracks" which has her doing cover versions of other musicians including Minnie Ripperton's "Loving You", but from that I got the feeling that her two major hits were indeed hits because they were done as either CM jingles or ending themes. She's never struck me as being a master songwriter...more like an artist who has a way of creating short but sweet tunes that will just stick to you like glue. I guess comparisons to Barry Manilow may be in order. But I don't know what she's up to...another person to look up, I guess.
And then there is my last J-Pop songstress, the elusive Ruiko Kurahashi. I finally came up with her genre (and perhaps the reason that she really never hit it all that big on the Oricon charts). Strangely enough, the genre finally popped up with its name when I checked about what former Morning Musume member Kaori Iida was up to (cultural curiosity, I swear). Apparently, the tallest Musume Iida is now heavily into singing European enka...that blend of Japanese enka, jazz, Latin, French chanson, Portuguese fado and Italian balladry. (Just think of what Julio Iglesias sings and you'll get the idea) Well, in all of the other albums that I have of Kurahashi (I'm starting to think that I'm probably the only person in the country who has as many of her discs as I do), she sings European enka...a genre that true enka singers have dabbled into from time to time. However, this new album I acquired yesterday, "Jun'ai" (Pure Love), I just got the impression that the 1988 release was just when she got hitched herself. Not only are the tunes themed on engagements, weddings and marital bliss, but the liner notes have the lady looking at her most feminine. In previous photos, she looked, well...frankly, quite butch, like one of those Takarazuka Revue types. Man, she really must've fallen in love! However, I guess the marriage may not have lasted all that long...by her 1991 release, she was looking rather pale with a cropped punkish cut.
As for Billy Joel, I got his 1980 album, "Glass Houses". I thought the Piano Man would be mostly dealing with themes of rebellion as the cover photo and tunes like "You May Be Right" and "It's Still Rock N' Roll To Me" would suggest. However, it also has "Don't Ask Me Why", perhaps the very first Joel tune I'd ever noticed on radio all those years ago, and a happy-go-lucky ditty that Joel sings in his higher register falsetto voice. And in fact, the last few tracks seem to have him returning to some of his older balladry. Still, I think Joel also does his most chameleon-like changes here as he takes on Jagger, Elvis Costello and perhaps even Talking Heads/Ronnie Spector.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Wednesday May 2, 11:26 a.m.
Had another nice lesson with The Nurse. Some intriguing intonation in her sentences which needed some re-adjusting, though...
Back to the DVD night...MB and I had another one of those morning-after lunches at Skylark before heading out to Akiba. We checked out Sale, the US DVD import store crammed onto the 2nd floor of that building across from JR Akihabara along with a dozen other stores. Not surprisingly, flicks like "Happy Feet", "The Departed" and "Babel" were out on sale there. Mostly though, the place seems to specialize in very genre-oriented fare like horrors and Asian films. Then, it was off to Yodobashi Akiba to see if MB could find some English-language books but the section at the Yurindo Bookstore branch up on the 7th floor was somewhat disappointingly thin. We just had a round of coffee in the Excelsior Coffee on the main strip; for some reason, there wasn't much activity on the closed-off street; although the usual gauntlet of maids were in front of the station giving away tissue and flyers for their cafes, I only saw one homely girl in a high school uniform posing for photos on the main avenue. I guess all the usual geeky hijinks take place strictly on Sundays.
Weatherwise, it's been pretty much to plan. The 2 working days have been filled with clouds and rain although today seems to be doing quite well so far. However, the rest of Golden Week should be remarkably...well, golden. The Nurse and I were talking about Tokyo Midtown, so I was thinking about heading down there tomorrow as part of my monthly spending binge, at great risk of being crushed by the huge numbers of people not only from Tokyo but also from beyond the borders. However, I would like to see if I could grab a burger at the second coming of Baker Bounce there, and also see The Cook at the ABC Cooking School just a few doors down in the mall. Last week, the TV Tokyo program, "Admatic Tengoku" devoted its hour to Midtown and gave a small amount of time to the school.
"Spiderman 3" finally got started here yesterday, a full 3 days before its North American debut. The TV showed the huge lines snaking out from the theatres, in emulation of the ones that have been plaguing Krispy Kreme for the past 6 months. So far, I've come across reviews from all over the spectrum, so I can guess I can say that the latest adventures of the Wallcrawler have been decidedly mixed. That's good enough for me. So, it'll be at least me, Skippy, Movie Buddy and The Satyr on the 13th.
Well, I've got a lot of hours before 001 shows up for her weekly. And then, I've got Mr. TOEIC for his 90. I should be quite ready for the weekend by the time he finishes with me tonight.
Had another nice lesson with The Nurse. Some intriguing intonation in her sentences which needed some re-adjusting, though...
Back to the DVD night...MB and I had another one of those morning-after lunches at Skylark before heading out to Akiba. We checked out Sale, the US DVD import store crammed onto the 2nd floor of that building across from JR Akihabara along with a dozen other stores. Not surprisingly, flicks like "Happy Feet", "The Departed" and "Babel" were out on sale there. Mostly though, the place seems to specialize in very genre-oriented fare like horrors and Asian films. Then, it was off to Yodobashi Akiba to see if MB could find some English-language books but the section at the Yurindo Bookstore branch up on the 7th floor was somewhat disappointingly thin. We just had a round of coffee in the Excelsior Coffee on the main strip; for some reason, there wasn't much activity on the closed-off street; although the usual gauntlet of maids were in front of the station giving away tissue and flyers for their cafes, I only saw one homely girl in a high school uniform posing for photos on the main avenue. I guess all the usual geeky hijinks take place strictly on Sundays.
Weatherwise, it's been pretty much to plan. The 2 working days have been filled with clouds and rain although today seems to be doing quite well so far. However, the rest of Golden Week should be remarkably...well, golden. The Nurse and I were talking about Tokyo Midtown, so I was thinking about heading down there tomorrow as part of my monthly spending binge, at great risk of being crushed by the huge numbers of people not only from Tokyo but also from beyond the borders. However, I would like to see if I could grab a burger at the second coming of Baker Bounce there, and also see The Cook at the ABC Cooking School just a few doors down in the mall. Last week, the TV Tokyo program, "Admatic Tengoku" devoted its hour to Midtown and gave a small amount of time to the school.
"Spiderman 3" finally got started here yesterday, a full 3 days before its North American debut. The TV showed the huge lines snaking out from the theatres, in emulation of the ones that have been plaguing Krispy Kreme for the past 6 months. So far, I've come across reviews from all over the spectrum, so I can guess I can say that the latest adventures of the Wallcrawler have been decidedly mixed. That's good enough for me. So, it'll be at least me, Skippy, Movie Buddy and The Satyr on the 13th.
Well, I've got a lot of hours before 001 shows up for her weekly. And then, I've got Mr. TOEIC for his 90. I should be quite ready for the weekend by the time he finishes with me tonight.
Wednesday May 2, 9:39 a.m.
Another one of those early starts due to The Nurse's class. The Golden Week has been one of two things for most of the folks here: either it's the one long major holiday lasting 10 days or it's two long weekends divided by a 2-day workweek. In any case, the exodus hasn't really led to a large decrease in commutership on the subways, though. It was still pretty packed on the trains this morning.
MB showed up for the periodic DVD night after spending some down time with his buddy at an Akiba Cafe Veloce for a couple of hours of PSP play. After getting our usual Domino's pizzas, we settled to watch what turned out to be Dystopia Night: "Shaun of the Dead" and "Children of Men".
"Shaun of the Dead" was more amusing than laugh-out loud funny. Still, it was one of those nice movies to catch on the machine, and I'm now looking forward to seeing "Hot Fuzz", most likely that will also be on a future DVD night rather than at the theatres. I don't think "Hot Fuzz" would catch much buzz here. Simon Pegg and his buddies did a good job at tweaking the zombie genre just so that it became its own movie instead of just being a parody of one like the splatter job of the "Scary Movie" series. And the humour is so very British...reminded me of the old Monty Python...I swear that one gag was lifted straight from one of John Cleese's pieces.
"Children of Men" was of course much more serious. It wasn't a long movie...just under 2 hours. And this whole thing about The Human Project and why women hadn't become pregnant in 18 years was just all McGuffin, as the real story revolved around Clive Owen's return to humanity albeit of the ultimate sort by the end. And I gotta admit that the one-take shot of the final battle between the government and The Fishes was probably just as harrowing to watch as catching the entire D-Day invasion in "Saving Private Ryan".
In any case, The Nurse will be here soon.
Another one of those early starts due to The Nurse's class. The Golden Week has been one of two things for most of the folks here: either it's the one long major holiday lasting 10 days or it's two long weekends divided by a 2-day workweek. In any case, the exodus hasn't really led to a large decrease in commutership on the subways, though. It was still pretty packed on the trains this morning.
MB showed up for the periodic DVD night after spending some down time with his buddy at an Akiba Cafe Veloce for a couple of hours of PSP play. After getting our usual Domino's pizzas, we settled to watch what turned out to be Dystopia Night: "Shaun of the Dead" and "Children of Men".
"Shaun of the Dead" was more amusing than laugh-out loud funny. Still, it was one of those nice movies to catch on the machine, and I'm now looking forward to seeing "Hot Fuzz", most likely that will also be on a future DVD night rather than at the theatres. I don't think "Hot Fuzz" would catch much buzz here. Simon Pegg and his buddies did a good job at tweaking the zombie genre just so that it became its own movie instead of just being a parody of one like the splatter job of the "Scary Movie" series. And the humour is so very British...reminded me of the old Monty Python...I swear that one gag was lifted straight from one of John Cleese's pieces.
"Children of Men" was of course much more serious. It wasn't a long movie...just under 2 hours. And this whole thing about The Human Project and why women hadn't become pregnant in 18 years was just all McGuffin, as the real story revolved around Clive Owen's return to humanity albeit of the ultimate sort by the end. And I gotta admit that the one-take shot of the final battle between the government and The Fishes was probably just as harrowing to watch as catching the entire D-Day invasion in "Saving Private Ryan".
In any case, The Nurse will be here soon.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Sunday April 29, 1:43 p.m.
Glorious day out there. Probably around 25 C and sunny. Quite unlike the maelstrom of yesterday. I was watching the news yesterday. Apparently, Tokyo was getting whacked by gusts of up to 30 m/s. Some events held under tents got a rather rude awakening and some construction lattices got knocked over...surprisingly noone was injured.
There was also some whacking in the political arena. Looks like Japan's most popular governor (for now), Governor Higashikokubaru of Miyazaki Prefecture has started using some of his political capital to attack a politico's typical enemies: the media and other politicians. The media was no real surprise...even the domeheaded governor admitted later on his sudden tirade at his press conference was more bluster than actual grievance against the journos; he just wanted to stake his borderlines about what's permissible and what's not. However, a few days ago, in an interview along the Miyazaki coastline, he decided to take on the most powerful (and far from popular) governor in the country, Shintaro Ishihara. Higashikokubaru said that Ishihara's re-election meant that the arrogance of Tokyo will continue on and that there won't be any fruitful change. Well, a lot of folks had thought that the 74-year-old Ishihara was looking a bit frayed around the changes. However, the broadside from the countryside knocked the old man into verbal action. Ishihara started launching some sidewinder missiles of his own on Friday. Not surprisingly, Higashikokubaru got a friendly visit from one of Ishihara's main rivals in the recent elections, former Miyagi Prefecture governor Asano. As for political capital he has gained in the first 3 months of his tenure, I would advise the popular Governor Higashikokubaru that a far higher authority across the Pacific stated something similar and is now paying much more than he'd thought. Still, although panelists today on the morning political program said that this little spat would only stay one, I'm kinda looking forward to a battle between the Ishihara Gundan and Beat Takeshi's Army.
Got the place cleaned up for MB's arrival later today. I also sent a clarification to The Polynesian who's not exactly the most prompt replyer. Basically, she's lost her window of opportunity to see me tomorrow but I'm still holding out next Sunday.
Caught a new TV show last night on TBS starring the World's Busiest TV Personality (according to the good people at Guinness), Monta Mino. He's decided to further extend his masochistic schedule by hosting one of those celeb-populated game/obstacle course shows that the natives here seem to love. Called "Captain Do-Mino", it has Mino dressed up like a B-grade space captain while his "executive officer", Takashi Fujii (the fruitcake Japanese host from "Lost In Translation") is the human megaphone following orders to the various guests to take part in what could be described as an Akihabara-style array of games such as a variation of that old game, Dance Dance Revolution, via pads on a musical suit, and Memory Tic Tac Toe. The very first guests featured a fairly formidable lineup including the Queen of J-R&B, Akiko Wada.
Glorious day out there. Probably around 25 C and sunny. Quite unlike the maelstrom of yesterday. I was watching the news yesterday. Apparently, Tokyo was getting whacked by gusts of up to 30 m/s. Some events held under tents got a rather rude awakening and some construction lattices got knocked over...surprisingly noone was injured.
There was also some whacking in the political arena. Looks like Japan's most popular governor (for now), Governor Higashikokubaru of Miyazaki Prefecture has started using some of his political capital to attack a politico's typical enemies: the media and other politicians. The media was no real surprise...even the domeheaded governor admitted later on his sudden tirade at his press conference was more bluster than actual grievance against the journos; he just wanted to stake his borderlines about what's permissible and what's not. However, a few days ago, in an interview along the Miyazaki coastline, he decided to take on the most powerful (and far from popular) governor in the country, Shintaro Ishihara. Higashikokubaru said that Ishihara's re-election meant that the arrogance of Tokyo will continue on and that there won't be any fruitful change. Well, a lot of folks had thought that the 74-year-old Ishihara was looking a bit frayed around the changes. However, the broadside from the countryside knocked the old man into verbal action. Ishihara started launching some sidewinder missiles of his own on Friday. Not surprisingly, Higashikokubaru got a friendly visit from one of Ishihara's main rivals in the recent elections, former Miyagi Prefecture governor Asano. As for political capital he has gained in the first 3 months of his tenure, I would advise the popular Governor Higashikokubaru that a far higher authority across the Pacific stated something similar and is now paying much more than he'd thought. Still, although panelists today on the morning political program said that this little spat would only stay one, I'm kinda looking forward to a battle between the Ishihara Gundan and Beat Takeshi's Army.
Got the place cleaned up for MB's arrival later today. I also sent a clarification to The Polynesian who's not exactly the most prompt replyer. Basically, she's lost her window of opportunity to see me tomorrow but I'm still holding out next Sunday.
Caught a new TV show last night on TBS starring the World's Busiest TV Personality (according to the good people at Guinness), Monta Mino. He's decided to further extend his masochistic schedule by hosting one of those celeb-populated game/obstacle course shows that the natives here seem to love. Called "Captain Do-Mino", it has Mino dressed up like a B-grade space captain while his "executive officer", Takashi Fujii (the fruitcake Japanese host from "Lost In Translation") is the human megaphone following orders to the various guests to take part in what could be described as an Akihabara-style array of games such as a variation of that old game, Dance Dance Revolution, via pads on a musical suit, and Memory Tic Tac Toe. The very first guests featured a fairly formidable lineup including the Queen of J-R&B, Akiko Wada.
Saturday April 28, 5:59 p.m.
Both The Dentist and I missed a couple of mighty bullets this afternoon. For my student, she got in...sans umbrella...just a few minutes before The Mother of All Downpours descended upon The Big Sushi for several minutes. We were witness to some massive sheets of precipitation smacking down on whatever and whoever was left on the pavement. Fortunately for her as well, the rains let up just when her lesson ended. As for my bullet, I missed it when I realized that I'd planned the right chapter...but for the wrong level of book. Ach! However, she still had hers and I've been doing this job long enough so that I could literally teach from her text upside down.
Just spent the last couple of hours doing some curricula. Was in danger of falling asleep a couple of times but still managed to finish off yet another text. Now, I'm planning to head on home to do some major relaxation before cleaning up things tomorrow morning before MB comes on over.
Both The Dentist and I missed a couple of mighty bullets this afternoon. For my student, she got in...sans umbrella...just a few minutes before The Mother of All Downpours descended upon The Big Sushi for several minutes. We were witness to some massive sheets of precipitation smacking down on whatever and whoever was left on the pavement. Fortunately for her as well, the rains let up just when her lesson ended. As for my bullet, I missed it when I realized that I'd planned the right chapter...but for the wrong level of book. Ach! However, she still had hers and I've been doing this job long enough so that I could literally teach from her text upside down.
Just spent the last couple of hours doing some curricula. Was in danger of falling asleep a couple of times but still managed to finish off yet another text. Now, I'm planning to head on home to do some major relaxation before cleaning up things tomorrow morning before MB comes on over.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Saturday April 28, 2:40 p.m.
A fairly decent day out there. However, for the beginning of another Golden Week, the Tozai Line was pretty packed as I made my way to see the kids again. The Elder was reliving her sullen days with me today although The Junior made up for it. Since I had a couple of hours before seeing The Dentist at Speedy's, I just went over to a Chinese eatery just above Shinjuku Station on the Oedo Line. Pretty filling stuff with Spicy Chicken and rice...and the dumplings and veggies are free. Not bad for 900 yen.
I took a quick dip into Kinokuniya Bookstore. But on the way there, I saw that Krispy Kreme still has that huge 2-hour lineup attached to it. And we're going on 6 months since the place opened before Xmas. When is the chain gonna open a second branch?
Some more adjustments on my calendar. The Coffeemaker contacted me to cancel hers and Tully's lesson on the 30th, and the kids's mother wants my lessons switched to Sundays next month from the regular Saturdays. Well, at least, Movie Buddy and I can be rather leisurely with our holiday Monday. However, The Polynesian is taking her sweet time replying despite the fact that I've been contacting her cellphone e-mail.
A fairly decent day out there. However, for the beginning of another Golden Week, the Tozai Line was pretty packed as I made my way to see the kids again. The Elder was reliving her sullen days with me today although The Junior made up for it. Since I had a couple of hours before seeing The Dentist at Speedy's, I just went over to a Chinese eatery just above Shinjuku Station on the Oedo Line. Pretty filling stuff with Spicy Chicken and rice...and the dumplings and veggies are free. Not bad for 900 yen.
I took a quick dip into Kinokuniya Bookstore. But on the way there, I saw that Krispy Kreme still has that huge 2-hour lineup attached to it. And we're going on 6 months since the place opened before Xmas. When is the chain gonna open a second branch?
Some more adjustments on my calendar. The Coffeemaker contacted me to cancel hers and Tully's lesson on the 30th, and the kids's mother wants my lessons switched to Sundays next month from the regular Saturdays. Well, at least, Movie Buddy and I can be rather leisurely with our holiday Monday. However, The Polynesian is taking her sweet time replying despite the fact that I've been contacting her cellphone e-mail.
Friday April 27, 5:36 p.m.
Forgot to mention one thing. With all the news that's gone on these past two weeks such as the Democrats and the White House slugging it out over the Iraq War, the Virginia Tech Massacre and other such nonsense, one little positive news story managed to peep out into the mediasphere like a chick breaking out of its shell. A couple of European astronomers may have come across the first inhabitable planet outside of our solar system. And it's not all that far away...just trillions of miles. Cosmically speaking, I guess that's just down the street. As a currently dormant Trekkie, I'm quite a happy camper, although I haven't been tricked by any of those CG pictures of this so-called planet. The astronomers don't have technology nearly advanced enough to actually see this Earth-like orb...just a lot of shadows and gravity fluctuations. Still, I am hoping that I will live long enough to see that TIME magazine cover stating "We are not alone".
In a related story, Stephen Hawking just had his fun time on The Vomit Comet for some gravity-free hysterics. He still insists that space is indeed the final frontier.
Forgot to mention one thing. With all the news that's gone on these past two weeks such as the Democrats and the White House slugging it out over the Iraq War, the Virginia Tech Massacre and other such nonsense, one little positive news story managed to peep out into the mediasphere like a chick breaking out of its shell. A couple of European astronomers may have come across the first inhabitable planet outside of our solar system. And it's not all that far away...just trillions of miles. Cosmically speaking, I guess that's just down the street. As a currently dormant Trekkie, I'm quite a happy camper, although I haven't been tricked by any of those CG pictures of this so-called planet. The astronomers don't have technology nearly advanced enough to actually see this Earth-like orb...just a lot of shadows and gravity fluctuations. Still, I am hoping that I will live long enough to see that TIME magazine cover stating "We are not alone".
In a related story, Stephen Hawking just had his fun time on The Vomit Comet for some gravity-free hysterics. He still insists that space is indeed the final frontier.
Friday April 27, 5:04 p.m.
A bit of a weird one at 002's yesterday. I was going to her place for her regular home lesson when the skies suddenly opened up, despite the forecast that it was gonna be sunny all day. However, it luckily only lasted as long as the lesson itself. The strangeness wasn't just limited to the outside pyrotechnics, however. 002 has always been one of my steadiest and hardest-working students in my little flock...but she does have an underconfidence problem. She got a little tongue-tied with the comparative form of "as...as", and got comprehensively flustered within a minute. I had her repeat some of her corrected statements again but she remained somewhat unnerved. And then she half-jokingly said I was in my more "Sparta" mode today. (over here, Sparta refers to a more rigid style of teaching...namely, more ball-busting). I was a bit surprised by that statement since I don't think I changed anything in my delivery; I think she got that wrong image from all the beating that she was doing on herself. In any case, the instinct kicked in and I did my Dancing Bear routine for the last few minutes which brought her spirits back up.
Got over to Ichigaya to teach The Carolinan and BC. Those were more steadier affairs although the former was still fumbling over her structure and the latter also has a bit of a insecurity problem as well. As for BC, she'll be away for about a month, since she'll be doing a trip with friends in Belgium and Holland. In any case, by the time I got home, I felt like I really earned my yen. Luckily, I could sleep in this morning.
Woke up and caught some of CNN. There was a Democratic Presidential Nominee debate last night? First time I heard it. There were 7 or 8 of those folks including Obama, Clinton and Edwards tussling about on the issues; problem was that there were 7 or 8 of those folks. The debators and the media griped about how little they could get anything out of it with all of those Democrats on their podia.
Headed out to Ichigaya once again to teach The New Yorker at the Tully's. She was running the spectrum in terms of proficiency...one moment she took an eternity to answer a question and then later on, she was giving out some pretty good stuff. Looks like she and her sister, The Carolinan, will be headed out next week to catch a Hawaiian ukelele concert in downtown Yokohama. It's kinda hard to imagine The New Yorker...this quiet nail artist with a boho fashion sense....going nuts for uke music. However, the Sisters of State along with their mother will be making another beeline for The Aloha State in early summer. Would've enjoyed the talk further if it hadn't been for a gaggle of gyaru geese who were just jabbering away at huge decibels on the other side of the room. Shibuya gals don't seem to be satisfied enjoying the fine art of conversation unless they can speak at a volume that can make the windows vibrate.
Tully the student contacted me to say that he could get into Georgetown U. for a month-long English course. Lucky him...I'm sure he'll have lots to say on Monday for his class. I even got word from The Polynesian after her long absence to ask for classes again. And I even got a call from The Ballerina during breakfast yesterday. She got into Narita after another flight on her airline. Looks like it'll be a very short layover for her. She's meeting her buddy in trendy Shimo-Kitazawa today and then she's back on the plane tomorrow. Her voice has taken on a somewhat unusual if slight Eastern European accent. I wonder if she's been hanging out with gypsies.
Even earlier, I got a wake-up call thanks to The Matron. She had left a message on Wednesday night saying that she would call in the morning, so when the bell rang, I was able to leap out of the bed and grab the phone. Looks like the first class in May for The Class Act will be a field trip to a French restaurant near her hubby's office.
After The New Yorker, I went over to Maruzen in Otemachi to pick up the new text for the Elder sister for her class tomorrow. Yup, after about 3 weeks, I'm back at the kids' house. Actually, today was the launch date of yet another fancy-schmancy shopping/restaurant complex in downtown Tokyo. This time, it's the New Maru Building, just across from the old one. I would've taken a look but decided that the place would be too crowded. Besides, I was looking more forward to my Bun Bi at Com Pho downstairs.
So, I've got my class later at the juku with The Ace, another face that I haven't seen in a few weeks. Then, just some quick shuteye before seeing the kids tomorrow morning and then The Dentist at Speedy's. The Manhattanite was also supposed to come but did the quick cancellation. Movie Buddy will be over Sunday night for DVD night. The Satyr declined since he and his new girl will be off somewhere.
Looks like the first two reviews I've seen for "Spiderman 3" have been less than glowing. CNN has referred to it as "solid but not amazing" while the fellow for Tokyo Metropolis, a reviewer about as curmudgeonly as J. Jonah Jameson, just said that the second sequel is merely a cash cow (spider?) and show window for special effects. Well, I also thought the first Spiderman was kinda like what CNN said, but I also enjoyed it all the same, so it shouldn't be too bad.
A bit of a weird one at 002's yesterday. I was going to her place for her regular home lesson when the skies suddenly opened up, despite the forecast that it was gonna be sunny all day. However, it luckily only lasted as long as the lesson itself. The strangeness wasn't just limited to the outside pyrotechnics, however. 002 has always been one of my steadiest and hardest-working students in my little flock...but she does have an underconfidence problem. She got a little tongue-tied with the comparative form of "as...as", and got comprehensively flustered within a minute. I had her repeat some of her corrected statements again but she remained somewhat unnerved. And then she half-jokingly said I was in my more "Sparta" mode today. (over here, Sparta refers to a more rigid style of teaching...namely, more ball-busting). I was a bit surprised by that statement since I don't think I changed anything in my delivery; I think she got that wrong image from all the beating that she was doing on herself. In any case, the instinct kicked in and I did my Dancing Bear routine for the last few minutes which brought her spirits back up.
Got over to Ichigaya to teach The Carolinan and BC. Those were more steadier affairs although the former was still fumbling over her structure and the latter also has a bit of a insecurity problem as well. As for BC, she'll be away for about a month, since she'll be doing a trip with friends in Belgium and Holland. In any case, by the time I got home, I felt like I really earned my yen. Luckily, I could sleep in this morning.
Woke up and caught some of CNN. There was a Democratic Presidential Nominee debate last night? First time I heard it. There were 7 or 8 of those folks including Obama, Clinton and Edwards tussling about on the issues; problem was that there were 7 or 8 of those folks. The debators and the media griped about how little they could get anything out of it with all of those Democrats on their podia.
Headed out to Ichigaya once again to teach The New Yorker at the Tully's. She was running the spectrum in terms of proficiency...one moment she took an eternity to answer a question and then later on, she was giving out some pretty good stuff. Looks like she and her sister, The Carolinan, will be headed out next week to catch a Hawaiian ukelele concert in downtown Yokohama. It's kinda hard to imagine The New Yorker...this quiet nail artist with a boho fashion sense....going nuts for uke music. However, the Sisters of State along with their mother will be making another beeline for The Aloha State in early summer. Would've enjoyed the talk further if it hadn't been for a gaggle of gyaru geese who were just jabbering away at huge decibels on the other side of the room. Shibuya gals don't seem to be satisfied enjoying the fine art of conversation unless they can speak at a volume that can make the windows vibrate.
Tully the student contacted me to say that he could get into Georgetown U. for a month-long English course. Lucky him...I'm sure he'll have lots to say on Monday for his class. I even got word from The Polynesian after her long absence to ask for classes again. And I even got a call from The Ballerina during breakfast yesterday. She got into Narita after another flight on her airline. Looks like it'll be a very short layover for her. She's meeting her buddy in trendy Shimo-Kitazawa today and then she's back on the plane tomorrow. Her voice has taken on a somewhat unusual if slight Eastern European accent. I wonder if she's been hanging out with gypsies.
Even earlier, I got a wake-up call thanks to The Matron. She had left a message on Wednesday night saying that she would call in the morning, so when the bell rang, I was able to leap out of the bed and grab the phone. Looks like the first class in May for The Class Act will be a field trip to a French restaurant near her hubby's office.
After The New Yorker, I went over to Maruzen in Otemachi to pick up the new text for the Elder sister for her class tomorrow. Yup, after about 3 weeks, I'm back at the kids' house. Actually, today was the launch date of yet another fancy-schmancy shopping/restaurant complex in downtown Tokyo. This time, it's the New Maru Building, just across from the old one. I would've taken a look but decided that the place would be too crowded. Besides, I was looking more forward to my Bun Bi at Com Pho downstairs.
So, I've got my class later at the juku with The Ace, another face that I haven't seen in a few weeks. Then, just some quick shuteye before seeing the kids tomorrow morning and then The Dentist at Speedy's. The Manhattanite was also supposed to come but did the quick cancellation. Movie Buddy will be over Sunday night for DVD night. The Satyr declined since he and his new girl will be off somewhere.
Looks like the first two reviews I've seen for "Spiderman 3" have been less than glowing. CNN has referred to it as "solid but not amazing" while the fellow for Tokyo Metropolis, a reviewer about as curmudgeonly as J. Jonah Jameson, just said that the second sequel is merely a cash cow (spider?) and show window for special effects. Well, I also thought the first Spiderman was kinda like what CNN said, but I also enjoyed it all the same, so it shouldn't be too bad.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday April 25, 9:07 p.m.
Been here for almost 12 hours now, and I'm pretty fit for bed just about now. 001 was fine but by the end of her lesson, I think all of us (Speedy sat in for the last few minutes) were pretty ready to call it a day. At least, I won't need to get started until 002's lesson in the afternoon. Still, I'll have to plan for The Carolinan and BC tomorrow night. I also received a short e-mail from the long-absent Polynesian who wants to resume her lessons. I'm sure she'll have a tale to tell.
The good news is that I got my pay today from Speedy. A nice amount this month...may splurge a little bit.
Been here for almost 12 hours now, and I'm pretty fit for bed just about now. 001 was fine but by the end of her lesson, I think all of us (Speedy sat in for the last few minutes) were pretty ready to call it a day. At least, I won't need to get started until 002's lesson in the afternoon. Still, I'll have to plan for The Carolinan and BC tomorrow night. I also received a short e-mail from the long-absent Polynesian who wants to resume her lessons. I'm sure she'll have a tale to tell.
The good news is that I got my pay today from Speedy. A nice amount this month...may splurge a little bit.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Wednesday April 25, 12:43 p.m.
So far so good. The Nurse was continuing her status as "go-to student to teach" this morning. And The Cook has cut her double lesson down to a single since...dammit...she's just not ready for the big time quite yet. I'm actually fairly relieved since my energy levels are also just not all that high today. My shoulders feel rather fossilized right now....could do with a good massage, but I don't think one will be forthcoming in the coming hours. Just glad that I've got 001 to wrap up things.
Well, the judgement came down on the Lucie Blackman case yesterday. Blackman was that British flight attendant-turned-gaijin hostess who was raped, murdered and dismembered allegedly by millionaire psychopath Joji Obara all the way back in 2000. That was a case which basically fell off the media radar for several years until it popped up again last month, close to the verdict and coincidentally, in the light of the Lindsay Ann Hawker case. Most of us thought Obara was gonna get the gallows but unfortunately, most of us weren't judging the case. The three judges decided to throw the nutbar into jail for life for serial rape but not for killing Blackman since there is no evidence directly linking him to any killing. Not a happy lot received this news, not least the poor lass' father and sister. In defense of the judges, though, the evidence was circumstantial; there have been columnists in "The Japan Times" today and probably in "The Daily Yomiuri" countering the judges' decision by stating that circumstantial evidence was enough to convict other defendants. However, I'm of the opinion that circumstantial is circumstantial. There's gotta be a conviction based on solid facts and evidence. Not that I'm happy that Obara has gotten literally away with murder, but he has gotten the maximum possible outcome outside of death, life imprisonment. I don't think he'll be seeing too many girls in the big house.
I've been noticing that the Major Leagues have gotten quite a surplus of Japanese players since Hideo Nomo made his breakout back in 1995. Until recently, everyone here could root for one of the Japanese players like Matsui or Ichiro in the hopes that he could get that World Series ring. Now, although the Japanese media breathlessly announce matchups like Matsuzaka vs. Matsui as if they were Mothra vs. Godzilla, American baseball has gotten enough players from here so that matchups of teams with J-names are pretty much common stuff. No matter who plays who, there'll be a Japanese winner and loser. Heck, Tomo Ohka got his win for the Jays the other day over Boston, which contains the more heralded Matsuzaka. Speaking of whom, I'm not sure if Dice-K got his win on Monday but, and it might just be me, but am I getting the feeling that the 51-million-dollar man isn't living up to full expectations? Then again, can anyone live up to $51 million? Hopefully, the (so-far) congenial Matsuzaka won't end up being called a toad by the team owner like former New York Yankee Hideki Irabu did by George Steinbrenner when he wasn't living up to his promise. Then again, Kei Igawa of that very same team may replace Irabu in the G-Man's doghouse.
Speaking of Japanese imports in other genres (and this isn't about the fact that Toyota has overtaken GM), my clone in the form of Masi Oka as hero Hiro of "Heroes" has finally gotten an article written about him in "The Japan Times". The problem is that the picture they showed of the genius-level actor is of him wielding some sort of club menacingly....like the picture of Cho Seung Hui from the Virginia Tech massacre. The news and the photos had been out there for a week....couldn't the newspaper have picked a more appropriate picture of Oka?
Well, time for some lunch...
So far so good. The Nurse was continuing her status as "go-to student to teach" this morning. And The Cook has cut her double lesson down to a single since...dammit...she's just not ready for the big time quite yet. I'm actually fairly relieved since my energy levels are also just not all that high today. My shoulders feel rather fossilized right now....could do with a good massage, but I don't think one will be forthcoming in the coming hours. Just glad that I've got 001 to wrap up things.
Well, the judgement came down on the Lucie Blackman case yesterday. Blackman was that British flight attendant-turned-gaijin hostess who was raped, murdered and dismembered allegedly by millionaire psychopath Joji Obara all the way back in 2000. That was a case which basically fell off the media radar for several years until it popped up again last month, close to the verdict and coincidentally, in the light of the Lindsay Ann Hawker case. Most of us thought Obara was gonna get the gallows but unfortunately, most of us weren't judging the case. The three judges decided to throw the nutbar into jail for life for serial rape but not for killing Blackman since there is no evidence directly linking him to any killing. Not a happy lot received this news, not least the poor lass' father and sister. In defense of the judges, though, the evidence was circumstantial; there have been columnists in "The Japan Times" today and probably in "The Daily Yomiuri" countering the judges' decision by stating that circumstantial evidence was enough to convict other defendants. However, I'm of the opinion that circumstantial is circumstantial. There's gotta be a conviction based on solid facts and evidence. Not that I'm happy that Obara has gotten literally away with murder, but he has gotten the maximum possible outcome outside of death, life imprisonment. I don't think he'll be seeing too many girls in the big house.
I've been noticing that the Major Leagues have gotten quite a surplus of Japanese players since Hideo Nomo made his breakout back in 1995. Until recently, everyone here could root for one of the Japanese players like Matsui or Ichiro in the hopes that he could get that World Series ring. Now, although the Japanese media breathlessly announce matchups like Matsuzaka vs. Matsui as if they were Mothra vs. Godzilla, American baseball has gotten enough players from here so that matchups of teams with J-names are pretty much common stuff. No matter who plays who, there'll be a Japanese winner and loser. Heck, Tomo Ohka got his win for the Jays the other day over Boston, which contains the more heralded Matsuzaka. Speaking of whom, I'm not sure if Dice-K got his win on Monday but, and it might just be me, but am I getting the feeling that the 51-million-dollar man isn't living up to full expectations? Then again, can anyone live up to $51 million? Hopefully, the (so-far) congenial Matsuzaka won't end up being called a toad by the team owner like former New York Yankee Hideki Irabu did by George Steinbrenner when he wasn't living up to his promise. Then again, Kei Igawa of that very same team may replace Irabu in the G-Man's doghouse.
Speaking of Japanese imports in other genres (and this isn't about the fact that Toyota has overtaken GM), my clone in the form of Masi Oka as hero Hiro of "Heroes" has finally gotten an article written about him in "The Japan Times". The problem is that the picture they showed of the genius-level actor is of him wielding some sort of club menacingly....like the picture of Cho Seung Hui from the Virginia Tech massacre. The news and the photos had been out there for a week....couldn't the newspaper have picked a more appropriate picture of Oka?
Well, time for some lunch...
Wednesday April 25, 9:34 a.m.
Nothing like an early morning commute on a stuffy subway with slightly damp folks to wake up one. Fortunately, no "road rage" took place.
Had my McBreakfast at the branch near Speedy's. I think that'll be my kitchen away from home during these morning classes at the school. At least, McD's has a semblance of a non-smoking area unlike Doutor's which seems to be the last refuge on Earth for desperate smokers.
I've got a large slate today with The Nurse, The Cook for her double lesson and then 001 to wrap up. Speedy is already proclaiming that he'll be taking off early tonight on account of exhaustion but from past experience, that usually means he'll only be staying 2-3 hours overtime.
Yesterday, The Beehive and I had our very last lesson in the meeting room on the 3rd floor of that bowling alley that we'd be using for years and years. At least for me, it was over 8 years. No particular tears, but all of us did thank the staff personally. So it was off to our temporary residence on the other side of Tsudanuma Station. I'd never been to the other side before; it's certainly a lot more urban and bustling than the relative residential feel where the alley is. From the 8th, we'll be trying out the food court at the JUSCO supermarket. We took a look at the place and actually had lunch there. The court is huge...and packed with a lot of families with screaming kids but then again, it was noon. I'm hoping that 10 won't be as frenetic. Still, the choices for eats and drinks were quite intriguing. I saw a couple of ramen places, a Pepper Lunch (the sizzling hamburg steak chain) and a Baskin-Robbins. I decided to have a taco/spaghetti set (!) at one stand. Not too bad, actually. The chairs are quite large, even for my girth. If the food court doesn't work out, Mrs. Alp suggested Beckers, the hamburger restaurant in Tsudanuma Station itself, where I used to teach with The Teacher. And as a last resort, we may end up doing rotations with the students' homes.
As for the juku, the mysterious Jolly finally re-surfaced though it took the fact that he had my TOEIC CDs to get him to come out of the woodwork. Apparently, he will be coming back into the fold, although the boss said that most likely he'll be shifted to the very last slot on Tuesday night due to his strenuous schedule. Well, we shall see...now, that he has given back the discs, I wonder if he'll just pull off another disappearing act again, this time for good. As it turns out, I'll be having the full slate of students next week despite it being Golden Week. Not complaining too much since it'll be a pretty light week financially.
Nothing like an early morning commute on a stuffy subway with slightly damp folks to wake up one. Fortunately, no "road rage" took place.
Had my McBreakfast at the branch near Speedy's. I think that'll be my kitchen away from home during these morning classes at the school. At least, McD's has a semblance of a non-smoking area unlike Doutor's which seems to be the last refuge on Earth for desperate smokers.
I've got a large slate today with The Nurse, The Cook for her double lesson and then 001 to wrap up. Speedy is already proclaiming that he'll be taking off early tonight on account of exhaustion but from past experience, that usually means he'll only be staying 2-3 hours overtime.
Yesterday, The Beehive and I had our very last lesson in the meeting room on the 3rd floor of that bowling alley that we'd be using for years and years. At least for me, it was over 8 years. No particular tears, but all of us did thank the staff personally. So it was off to our temporary residence on the other side of Tsudanuma Station. I'd never been to the other side before; it's certainly a lot more urban and bustling than the relative residential feel where the alley is. From the 8th, we'll be trying out the food court at the JUSCO supermarket. We took a look at the place and actually had lunch there. The court is huge...and packed with a lot of families with screaming kids but then again, it was noon. I'm hoping that 10 won't be as frenetic. Still, the choices for eats and drinks were quite intriguing. I saw a couple of ramen places, a Pepper Lunch (the sizzling hamburg steak chain) and a Baskin-Robbins. I decided to have a taco/spaghetti set (!) at one stand. Not too bad, actually. The chairs are quite large, even for my girth. If the food court doesn't work out, Mrs. Alp suggested Beckers, the hamburger restaurant in Tsudanuma Station itself, where I used to teach with The Teacher. And as a last resort, we may end up doing rotations with the students' homes.
As for the juku, the mysterious Jolly finally re-surfaced though it took the fact that he had my TOEIC CDs to get him to come out of the woodwork. Apparently, he will be coming back into the fold, although the boss said that most likely he'll be shifted to the very last slot on Tuesday night due to his strenuous schedule. Well, we shall see...now, that he has given back the discs, I wonder if he'll just pull off another disappearing act again, this time for good. As it turns out, I'll be having the full slate of students next week despite it being Golden Week. Not complaining too much since it'll be a pretty light week financially.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Monday April 23, 10:25 p.m.
Managed to finally get a decent lesson with Mr. TOEIC tonight...good enough so that he's renewed for another year. Just kept things nice and steady and focused on one target structure.
I also sent the latest list of questions to be answered by The Cook for her double lesson on Wednesday. She sends the recipes that she has to teach the foreign students at her cooking school, and I make up questions for her that I think she may be pelted with during her lesson. From looking at her lesson plan, though, I think some very intense proofreading is also in order. In one recipe, it talks of a "gridiron"....well, unless Montana or Favre or Stauback have made the same drastic change in hobby, I think she may mean "griddle".
Movie Buddy has contacted me for the first time in a while. Looks like we've got another DVD night on the way. It'll be the upcoming Sunday since we'll be entering Golden Week then. I've sent word out to The Satyr.
Speaking of movies, we've got a quite few out fresh on the slate this past weekend. "Rocky Balboa", "Hannibal Rising" and "Music and Lyrics" have gotten out the gate here. Not sure if any of them are worth my 1800 yen. As for that last entry, Hugh Grant is (or has just) making his appearance on "SMAP x SMAP" tonight. I saw ads for the show this morning; he was grinning with the tall SMAP'er, Shingo Katori.
Well, I've got my usual Tuesday with The Beehive...or what's left of it...we've been pretty sparse in recent weeks, and then another 6-hour layover before I got the folks at the juku.
Managed to finally get a decent lesson with Mr. TOEIC tonight...good enough so that he's renewed for another year. Just kept things nice and steady and focused on one target structure.
I also sent the latest list of questions to be answered by The Cook for her double lesson on Wednesday. She sends the recipes that she has to teach the foreign students at her cooking school, and I make up questions for her that I think she may be pelted with during her lesson. From looking at her lesson plan, though, I think some very intense proofreading is also in order. In one recipe, it talks of a "gridiron"....well, unless Montana or Favre or Stauback have made the same drastic change in hobby, I think she may mean "griddle".
Movie Buddy has contacted me for the first time in a while. Looks like we've got another DVD night on the way. It'll be the upcoming Sunday since we'll be entering Golden Week then. I've sent word out to The Satyr.
Speaking of movies, we've got a quite few out fresh on the slate this past weekend. "Rocky Balboa", "Hannibal Rising" and "Music and Lyrics" have gotten out the gate here. Not sure if any of them are worth my 1800 yen. As for that last entry, Hugh Grant is (or has just) making his appearance on "SMAP x SMAP" tonight. I saw ads for the show this morning; he was grinning with the tall SMAP'er, Shingo Katori.
Well, I've got my usual Tuesday with The Beehive...or what's left of it...we've been pretty sparse in recent weeks, and then another 6-hour layover before I got the folks at the juku.
Monday April 23, 7:14 p.m.
Well, my nearly 4-day weekend is over and I'm back on the job today. Just the usual suspects of The Class Act and SIL. However, the Part-Timer is off for the next couple of weeks. So, it's just that TOEIC fellow tonight. It's officially his last lesson with the school, so Speedy is hoping for a renewal but I'm a bit more sanguine.
Friday was a nice day to stay indoors and just veg. The only TV highlight was an NHK documentary on none other than The Carpenters. Yep, you got it..."On Top of the World", "Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun"...those Carpenters. Y'know...in their native States, mentioning that one likes the brother-sister act would probably bring unnaturally straight faces or naturally arched eyebrows....and those faces belong to folks my age. Couldn't imagine what the kids today would say. Carpenters songs would probably only be played ironically (like on that Simpsons episode where Homer first met Marge) or at weddings when things are coming to a close. But then the Carpenters had initially worked from a distinct disadvantage; being a white bread band that played sappy love songs in the era of Hendrix and Zepp will not exactly get you to a cool label.
But here....that's why they say "Big in Japan". The Carpenters are the musical equivalent of the young, pre-"Breakfast at Tiffany's" Audrey Hepburn. They'll always stay evergreen and popular, even with the kids. In an age of Kumi Koda, SMAP and J-R&B, the Carpenters still have relevance in the Land of the Rising Sun. Heck, even a couple of the trendier (re: starring teen heartthrobs) dramas had "On Top of the World" and "I Need to Fall in Love" as theme songs. I think the fact that karaoke boxes are still considered a proper form of recreation has also helped. I remember a variety show that featured them years ago in which one of the cute young tarento that was on the panel weeping her eyes out, not knowing that Karen had passed on years before she was born. Yes, the Carpenters live on and I don't have to whisper my like for the group's songs in this country.
Saturday was the 002 party. The theme was tekka maki or hand-wrapped sushi. So, 001 and 002 whipped all the fillings which included maguro, negitoro and egg. The Baker did show up this time with all of her mother's baked goodies. It was another pleasant affair. And I even brought the Scrabble, at 002's request. Though the four of them (002's hubby got into the act as well) toiled a bit at coming up with the vocab, they seemed to do quite well at the game. However, I think it'll probably be a one-shot.
Sunday was another full day off. I was lucky not to have had any lessons since the winds were whipping at a gale-force 27 m/s. The Tozai Line, out in the air in my area, shuts down automatically at 20 m/s. It was also the second of two by-elections nationwide. On a day which saw the world news services like CNN and BBC focusing on France and Nigeria, NHK focused on a couple of cities...one, because it had been declared bankrupt some time ago, and the other because its mayor had been assassinated last week. After Nagasaki mayor Itcho Ito got shot to death by a disgruntled Yakuza thug, the new guy, Tomihisa Taue, is a career civil servant who came up through the ranks. The tragedy for the Ito family was complete when the late mayor's son-in-law, who bravely stood in as a proxy, couldn't pull it off. On the other side of the country, bankrupt Yubari in Hokkaido may have gotten some new blood with a new mayor.
I did forget one other major gun-related incident (aside from Virginia Tech and Nagasaki). Last Friday, all stations were laser-focused on Machida City, one of the satellite towns of Tokyo, when yet another Yakuza decided to hole himself up in his own apartment after having shot down his own sempai in front of a convenience store nearby. For 15 hours, he kept the tactical teams at bay for some inexplicable reason (the crim was all alone in his apartment; in the States, that probably would've been an invitation for the SWAT guys to come and get him) until at 3 a.m. Saturday morning, the teams finally threw in the flash-bangs and got him out all kicking and screaming. Mind you, the idiot had shot himself in the head just a few minutes before...I mean, how unlucky can you get? The guy basically signed his own death warrant by shooting his own goodfella, has probably earned himself either the gallows or a life sentence, and couldn't even kill himself at point-blank range. True to form, though, the media breathlessly announced exactly how many shots were fired. It might be difficult for Americans (or the NRA) to fathom, but the Japanese are very prickly when it comes to how many bullets were sacrificed on either side. For the record, flash-bangs aside, 9 shots were fired...all of them from the thug.
Well, time for Mr. TOEIC...
Well, my nearly 4-day weekend is over and I'm back on the job today. Just the usual suspects of The Class Act and SIL. However, the Part-Timer is off for the next couple of weeks. So, it's just that TOEIC fellow tonight. It's officially his last lesson with the school, so Speedy is hoping for a renewal but I'm a bit more sanguine.
Friday was a nice day to stay indoors and just veg. The only TV highlight was an NHK documentary on none other than The Carpenters. Yep, you got it..."On Top of the World", "Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun"...those Carpenters. Y'know...in their native States, mentioning that one likes the brother-sister act would probably bring unnaturally straight faces or naturally arched eyebrows....and those faces belong to folks my age. Couldn't imagine what the kids today would say. Carpenters songs would probably only be played ironically (like on that Simpsons episode where Homer first met Marge) or at weddings when things are coming to a close. But then the Carpenters had initially worked from a distinct disadvantage; being a white bread band that played sappy love songs in the era of Hendrix and Zepp will not exactly get you to a cool label.
But here....that's why they say "Big in Japan". The Carpenters are the musical equivalent of the young, pre-"Breakfast at Tiffany's" Audrey Hepburn. They'll always stay evergreen and popular, even with the kids. In an age of Kumi Koda, SMAP and J-R&B, the Carpenters still have relevance in the Land of the Rising Sun. Heck, even a couple of the trendier (re: starring teen heartthrobs) dramas had "On Top of the World" and "I Need to Fall in Love" as theme songs. I think the fact that karaoke boxes are still considered a proper form of recreation has also helped. I remember a variety show that featured them years ago in which one of the cute young tarento that was on the panel weeping her eyes out, not knowing that Karen had passed on years before she was born. Yes, the Carpenters live on and I don't have to whisper my like for the group's songs in this country.
Saturday was the 002 party. The theme was tekka maki or hand-wrapped sushi. So, 001 and 002 whipped all the fillings which included maguro, negitoro and egg. The Baker did show up this time with all of her mother's baked goodies. It was another pleasant affair. And I even brought the Scrabble, at 002's request. Though the four of them (002's hubby got into the act as well) toiled a bit at coming up with the vocab, they seemed to do quite well at the game. However, I think it'll probably be a one-shot.
Sunday was another full day off. I was lucky not to have had any lessons since the winds were whipping at a gale-force 27 m/s. The Tozai Line, out in the air in my area, shuts down automatically at 20 m/s. It was also the second of two by-elections nationwide. On a day which saw the world news services like CNN and BBC focusing on France and Nigeria, NHK focused on a couple of cities...one, because it had been declared bankrupt some time ago, and the other because its mayor had been assassinated last week. After Nagasaki mayor Itcho Ito got shot to death by a disgruntled Yakuza thug, the new guy, Tomihisa Taue, is a career civil servant who came up through the ranks. The tragedy for the Ito family was complete when the late mayor's son-in-law, who bravely stood in as a proxy, couldn't pull it off. On the other side of the country, bankrupt Yubari in Hokkaido may have gotten some new blood with a new mayor.
I did forget one other major gun-related incident (aside from Virginia Tech and Nagasaki). Last Friday, all stations were laser-focused on Machida City, one of the satellite towns of Tokyo, when yet another Yakuza decided to hole himself up in his own apartment after having shot down his own sempai in front of a convenience store nearby. For 15 hours, he kept the tactical teams at bay for some inexplicable reason (the crim was all alone in his apartment; in the States, that probably would've been an invitation for the SWAT guys to come and get him) until at 3 a.m. Saturday morning, the teams finally threw in the flash-bangs and got him out all kicking and screaming. Mind you, the idiot had shot himself in the head just a few minutes before...I mean, how unlucky can you get? The guy basically signed his own death warrant by shooting his own goodfella, has probably earned himself either the gallows or a life sentence, and couldn't even kill himself at point-blank range. True to form, though, the media breathlessly announced exactly how many shots were fired. It might be difficult for Americans (or the NRA) to fathom, but the Japanese are very prickly when it comes to how many bullets were sacrificed on either side. For the record, flash-bangs aside, 9 shots were fired...all of them from the thug.
Well, time for Mr. TOEIC...