Monday August 20, 5:27 p.m.

It was an interesting weekend. For one thing, meterologically speaking, The Big Sushi got what it hadn't expected at this time of year on Friday night: a magnificently cool evening. It was like a death row prisoner getting 24 hours of freedom. I didn't have to turn on a single appliance to get temperature relief; I just opened the windows and let Nature waft in. I thought that the Fall had arrived a month early. But as it turned out, it was just a parole. Sunday brought in the heat and humidity once more.
At the same time, though, Chiba was still getting its shakes. But it looks like the worst is over for now, although the earthquake authorities warned us for some sizable tremors for the next week or so.

The only highlight for Saturday was another seasonal party at 002's. Being summer, yakiniku was the theme so the afternoon was given over to the hotplate and plenty of beef and veggies to be fried. The amazing thing was that The Baker actually came in on time...and with plenty of her mother's baked goods to satisfy us. It was the usual cast of characters: 002 and her husband with 001 and The Baker along with myself. The Baker also brought over a teacher from her current school. Talking with him, it was almost like talking with a mirror image of Speedy. He's not just a teacher but also the co-owner of the school. It was an identical story...someone who is idealistic enough to make a niche amongst the bigger English schools in the area. Like me, he's an old NOVA hand...and he had some stories about the old place that would suggest that Japan's largest eikaiwa school is in bleaker hands than is probably known.

Sunday was just a day at home...just switching back and forth between NHK and NHK Educational. One had the Annual Koshien High School Baseball Tournament while the other had the weekly I-Go matchup (yes, I'm still keeping up with my new hobby). I also got some shopping done....I was rather shocked that a lot of the veggies were sold out by mid-afternoon. Mind you, it is BBQ season so that a lot of folks may have stocked up, but I'm wondering if various storms all over the world may have contributed to a drop in availability. I already heard that Hurricane Dean may have wiped out Jamaica's banana crop.

I had The Class Act for the first time in a few weeks. Looks like the both of them had quite the time in Hawaii. The Lady was complaining mightily about her inept housekeeper/caretaker there which may necessitate another trip to The Aloha State to interview new candidates. Ah yes...something that I'm very familiar with, of course. But no SIL today. However, The Full-Timer should be back in 20 minutes and then a couple of more students including the Judge.

Friday August 17, 8:59 p.m.

Well, I'm done here. I finished with the latest EIC student an hour ago. She has the latent ability but doesn't have much confidence in using it...a pity since she's normally an AEON student. Speedy has been hoping that she'll make a transfer to our school but frankly from today's lesson, I don't see that happening. Plus, it didn't help that I had to teach her in the sauna-like conditions of the regular classroom instead of the lounge. I remarked to her that if she were to imagine that my lesson could be akin to a refreshing session of hot yoga...

Still, I've completed my long day at the school and will be ready to head on home. I may just turn on the AC all night again since I woke up so cool and dry this morning. Plus, I think I've been a good boy by not having to turn on the air conditioner all day.

Tomorrow, I will be getting ready for 002's summer BBQ at her place. Gonna be enjoying a lot of yakiniku...

Friday August 17, 6:16 p.m.

I've gotten through The Nurse's lesson and dinner. Once again, it was the chicken stick, the cheese dog and the salad. Digestion is proceeding normally. In less than an hour, I'll have my final lesson of the day with this EIC student.

I took a look through "Orion's Arm" after several months of not visiting the site. They've got a few new updates but it's still a pretty heady slog to go through for those not accustomed to hard SF. Not advised after a starchy dinner.

Looks like one of The Anime King's gang will be heading over here. The questions are coming out about travel plans.

Friday August 17, 1:14 p.m.

Still a little less than 3 hours away until my next class with The Nurse. I actually have prepped for that class and even for the EIC student a few hours later. I've even gone through some of that curricula. At this rate, I'll probably be browsing through the DVD that accompanies the text to relieve some of the tedium. However, though I can't really browse YouTube here, I have been going through Wikipedia. I finished up all the stuff dealing with "Peanuts" so I naturally jumped to some of the other venerable and venerated comic strips such as "Doonesbury" (I used to see it in The Toronto Star daily but never really got into it...wasn't too political back then) and "For Better or For Worse", Lynn Johnson's magnum opus in my ol' hometown. I lost sight of the Pattersons when I moved over here 13 years ago, so it was revealing to see on my last trip back home to find out that the original kids have all grown up and gotten kids of their own. The death of Farley the Dog was a shocker.

I don't think Japan has any strips currently running which can match any of the North American strips I've mentioned above. However, there is "Sazae-san", the story of the prototypical can-do Japanese housewife surrounded by her loving extended family in residential Tokyo. The original strip, written by the late Machiko Hasegawa, ended its run in the papers decades ago but it has still held onto legendary status since it still lives on in television form on Sundays via Fuji-TV. In fact, the half-hour cartoon has usually signaled the end of the weekend when it comes on at 6:30.
"Sazae-san" has some distinct similarities and differences to its North American counterparts. Like "Peanuts" or "For Better or For Worse", there is a large group of regular characters in which Sazae's family, the Fugutas, is the core. And like Charlie Brown and the rest of his gang, the characters in "Sazae" exist in a time warp, never aging. However, the series has resolutely stayed away from anything approaching controversial such as homosexuality or racism; Sazae has only dealt with stuff no more threatening than with the latest naughty doings of her wayward brother...which usually consist of trying to shirk his chores or doing things which would only get a half-joking finger wag from an bemused cop. Snoopy is far more dangerous. Still, this isn't to belittle Japan's most famous cartoon. I can only wish that there were more people and neighbourhoods in The Big Sushi like the ones in the show....although I admit that the setting in "Sazae-san" probably has never existed.

Friday August 17, 9:25 a.m.

Another day of sizzling heat and humidity. But it was sure nice to have the AC on all night. I just decided that I would give the money to TEPCO and sleep in sweatless bliss. I actually felt a little shiver when I woke up. Of course, I got the rather rude awakening when I stepped outside. Hopefully, if the weatherguys are right, the fever should break tomorrow...just in time for 002' seasonal party.

It was also quite the quake day yesterday. First there were the three tremors which rumbled through Chiba, including one while I was making my last report here. Then, I heard about the major shake in Peru which has gotten our tsunami warning systems active. So far, no tremors today.

Yesterday, I met up with The Madame once more in Shibuya for lunch at that Chinese tea house right by Mark City. They've got a pretty nice lunch set there but the fare could use a bit more seasoning although the waitress said that we wouldn't need any soy sauce or spices. Still, I've been weaned on fast food so my tongue's probably been numbed by all the artificial ingredients over the years.
Afterwards, the two of us tried to swim through the humidity in the neighbourhood and made our way to the Tokyu Department Store near The Lady's mansion. The Madame was trying to look for some new shoes. She found out from the information desk that the shoes she wanted were to be found at the Shibuya Station branch. One of the throwbacks from decades past, the information desk lady was still wearing a very Kennedyesque tea party uniform and was very informative...even calling up the Shibuya Station branch to see if those shoes were there. Sure enough, they were indeed there and the two of us, deciding to avoid any more heat, we hopped on the free shuttle bus which coursed through the area. I'd passed by the stop numerous times over the years on the way to and from The Lady's place but had never tried the shuttle. It was nice on our feet but it wasn't particularly all that cool and when we made a 4-minute stop at the Tokyu Hotel, the guy stopped not just the engine but also the AC with the door way open.
After about 10 minutes of riding, we finally got off at the East Exit of Shibuya Station where I thought I would say my goodbye to The Madame since I had to make that phone call to the travel agency about my ticket to Hong Kong. The guy I wanted to speak to was unavailable which meant another round of fax tag. So I ended up meeting with The Madame once more and acted like the dutiful boyfriend/husband while she shopped for her shoes. Another example of the still-fine service here in Japan, the shoe department clerks were waiting for The Madame's arrival since they'd got the heads-up from the information desk.
I gotta admit that in all the years I've known The Madame, I never knew she could be quite the negotiator with sales staff. She kept up quite the banter with the seasoned vet. However, it turned out that the saleswoman had recognized my friend from a couple of years back during her last major shoe excursion up in the Ikebukuro branch and apparently The Madame's sister is quite the Imelda Marcos when it comes to her shoe shopping; she made history when she cleared an entire shelf with her credit card one time.
After about an hour of solid talk and trying on shoes, The Madame snagged her purchase and we made one more stop at the underground cafe for 250 yen coffee. There was an interesting mix of old folks and Shibuya gals with their beaus. Of course, the gals were spitting out their annoying dialect at high volume. On the way up on the Hanzomon Line, we noticed a lot of young women were decked out in summer yukata, which usually means that there is a fireworks festival nearby. Sure enough, I found out this morning that there was such an event last night at Jingumae Stadium.

After finally parting from The Madame, I made my way up to Mitsukoshimae Station Starbucks where I had my monthly with B2. Yep, it's official...she's gonna try to get back her flight attendant status with her old company. So I was helping her with her covering letter. I told her it will help by namedropping The Ballerina's name. If she's successful, I will have lost a student by next May, but I'll have gained a happy friend.

Well, today is a long one. Just three lessons but they're separated by hours. The Judge is up in 10 minutes, followed by The Nurse at 4 p.m. and then a new EIC student at 7 p.m. At least, I won't be needing my AC today.

Thursday August 16, 8:59 a.m.

It's been a classic case of Shake n' Bake this morning. On the 30th anniversary of the death of Mr. "I'm All Shook Up", the Kanto is going through this massive heat wave; but to add insult to injury, Chiba has had 3 fairly strong quakes within the last four hours. The first woke me up in the wee hours with the second and third tremors hitting around 8 a.m. Not sure if this is the sign of something big coming. Well, if we survive the next couple of days, the weather folks have said that there will be a break in the torridness during the weekend.

After playing a form of facsimile tag, I may have been able to secure a ticket for Hong Kong for that trip with The Class Act in October. Strangely enough, it's an All Nippon Airlines flight, not an air company that I would associate with discount ticket agencies but who's complaining? Anyways, I've informed The Lady so I'm sure we'll be entering the next stage when we meet on Monday.

Last night, in the air-conditioned confines of Speedy's, I taught my 3 hours with 001 and The Judge. Both folks were a little sluggish...not surprising considering the natsubate (summer fatigue) they must be suffering from. I'm not exactly at 100% power myself. Meanwhile, The Admin has been off for the past several days on leave, so her sub is some sort of high-powered translator (I'm not sure how she feels about having to serve tea and greet students). Nice young lady but as quiet as a mouse.

Another sign of the dog days of summer in Japan....those controversial visits by the politicos to Yasukuni Shrine. And sure enough, there was a Koizumi sighting yesterday at the famed burial site for the war dead. A lot of media there but there was nowhere near the sturm und drang that used to accompany his visits when he was the PM. And he refused to add anything to the fire by staying resolutely mute.

Today, I'm seeing The Madame for lunch, then I gotta call the travel agency to make sure everything is OK before I see B2.

Wednesday August 15, 4:14 p.m.

Forgot to mention that tomorrow is also a rather auspicious day. It's the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death. And just like today being the 62nd anniversary of V-J Day, I'm not sure if much of the younger generation anywhere has much interest in ol' Swivel Hips outside of seeing those commercials hawking his distinctive visage and old hits, or even catching the grandparents listening to "Love Me Tender". Perhaps to the kids weaned on the Johnny's Entertainment Group bands here in Japan or on any of the hip-hop acts back in the States, Elvis Presley must come across as pretty creaky....or, horrors, just plain square; that's rather ironic, considering that the man had his lower half blacked out during a televised appearance, lest the view of his gyrating pelvis overly arouse the female persuasion.
But as I said about V-J Day in the last entry, that's not such a bad thing. Personally, I would be very worried if there were still teenagers in the millions going nuts about a guy who's been dead 30 years. Do I really want to see thousands of kids in the 2030s still lining up to put flowers for that dead guitarist from X Japan, Hyde? I think the contemporary acts would be so insecure and music wouldn't really be progressing as fast as it should. Not to say that Elvis and The Beatles should be swept under the garbage heap of history (and we all know that will not be possible), but I think it'll be enough that there is either a niche group of diehard fans to carry the flame or a large population who can still remember a tune or two from these guys.
And besides, all of us still remember that amazing pop artist from hundreds of years ago, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his songs. Not everyone is a classical music buff (I'm not) but his memory is still alive and well. The Golden Age of Jazz may be long gone but people here are still into Swing or Bop. And so, Elvis (and Stevie and Nirvana) will still be fondly remembered long after we've also left this mortal coil.
Certainly, the former Prime Minister of Japan is an ardent fan, considering his cute if embarrassing display of air guitar prowess in Graceland in front of George W. Bush, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley last year (I gather that Junichiro Koizumi's display was a bit of revenge for having Dubya's father throw up on late PM Miyazawa back in 1989). And much more locally, my student SIL is a good fan of Elvis, not only in terms of his songs but also some of his movies although both of us agreed that he never really threatened anyone at the Oscars.

Completely off-topic, but I did catch a funny video on YouTube yesterday. It was the mashup between that hit song of two years ago, "Hey Ya!" by Outkast and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". You really haven't seen Linus or Sally boogie until you've seen them dance to this song.

Wednesday August 15, 2:56 p.m.

It's another blazing day...perhaps the hottest one yet this summer. Up to about 35 C in Tokyo, although that's just the air temp. The actual temp from the concrete is probably 5-10 degrees higher. We are truly in the midst of a heat wave, or moshobi, as it is called here. Still, I'm glad I'm not up in Saitama. Because the folks up north live in a basin, or bonchi, they have to suffer even worse temps.
However, adversity has brought out the creative side in the urban management folks. Meeting places such as Roppongi Hills have attached mist dispensers to key spots on the walls so that fine sprays of water can keep the masses cool and watered. Apparently, the idea came from the farmers who usually do the same to their cows during summer. Not to say intimate that humans and cows are very similar, but rush hour and cattle calls seem to share certain values.

Being the middle of O-bon, there's been a lot of traffic coming and going out of Tokyo. I do not envy the families their ordeal of driving on expressways-turned-parking lots. However, I am sympathizing with one motorcyclist who had a rather grisly end to his little trip. Yesterday, he accidentally banged into a guard rail on the highway...he lost a little chrome, a little paint and, oh yes, his lower leg. Apparently, the fellow kept riding for another 2 kilometres until he started feeling somewhat faint (massive blood loss and shock can do that to one), and then he realized that he was missing something vital. His rescuers managed to find what was left of his leg but it was too late to re-attach it.....decomposition, high heat and a very unsterile environment made that a foregone conclusion.

However, there is somewhat good news. The heat wave will break...a bit...by this weekend. Perhaps, we'll be down to the chillier temperatures of 30 C.

Yesterday, I had a day off since both The Beehive and the juku were on summer vacation. Just ended up hitting the I-cafe for a few hours since I didn't want to give too much more money to TEPCO. Still, I'm sure the bills for this month and September will be quite inflated. Today, it's back to business. I've got 001 and The Judge for a few hours tonight. Can't complain...both are fine students. Tomorrow, I'm meeting The Madame again for another lunch and chat before I see B2 for her monthly session. Looks like Friday will be somewhat full...I've got The Judge, The Nurse and a new EIC student. Actually, I've got them spaced out by several hours; a bit of a drag but again the students are good.

Let's see...the big entertainment news...and true to the supremely superficial nature of geinokai stuff, one of the tabloids has reported that Masayuki Nakai, the leader of SMAP, and the big pop singer for the last couple of years, Kumi Koda, are apparently an item. I'm sure a press conference will follow.

But the significance of today's date is that it's been 62 years since Japan officially surrendered to the United States in World War 2. The media has been asking some of the younger folk about what August 15th meant to them. All of them had blank looks and admitted that they didn't know. Of course, the reporters and wide show panelists probably tut-tutted and lamented the reaction while thinking about that proverb about those not remembering history are doomed to repeat it. Then again, those finger-wagging journos should think a little further...the Japanese live in a time in which war has been so far gone from these shores that the younger generations remember little about it. I don't think that's so much of a bad thing. Obviously being complacent about potential problems such as North Korea isn't good either but believe me, I'm happy that kids in Japan aren't drawing pictures of planes bombing villages and dead people cut into pieces like their counterparts are in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Monday August 13, 5:29 p.m.

Found out that Merv Griffin passed away. I just barely remember him from his talk show back in the late 60s and 70s. It was really just because of Rick Moranis' hilarious take on him during the SCTV years that Griffin still exists in my memory. I guess he won't be back...now before I get accused of being sick here, that's what the guy joked when he was asked about what would be written on his epitaph.

Just finished off making some answer sheets for the curricula. The Full-Timer got my acknowledgement about tonight's cancellation so I've just got another 2.5 hours before The Judge comes into view.

I was listening to one of my CDs that was gathering dust on my shelves. It's an old J-Pop one; well, it's from a band from the 80s called PSY-S. In an era when tuneless aidoru were all over the airwaves, PSY-S was an interesting combination of poppy synths (probably a Synclavier since it seemed to sample a number of instruments) and a petite woman, Chaka, who had a voice which was pitched high to near helium levels but could probably cut steel at the same time. The band's offbeat tunes (with titles like "Fuzzy Pain", "Parachute Limit" and "Woman-S") were also quite apart from the non-aidoru new music musicians such as Yumi Matsutoya or Anzen Chitai; I can posit that it was the precursor to all those Shibuya-kei entities such as Kahimi Karie, Cornelius or Pizzicato Five.

Speaking of Karie, I finally got to see a few of her videos on YouTube. Man, that "Little King Kong" was intriguing. Rather indie, mod and retro all at the same time. May have to consider picking up a Best Of CD sometime...if she has issued one. These auteur types can be a bit snooty about releasing compilations.

Monday August 13, 3:08 p.m.

A better-than-average weekend, I suppose...

On Saturday, I think I may have had the optimum student for those dreaded DVD classes. This one was engaging, enthusiastic and, best of all, she actually laughed at the "Friends" jokes. Yes, this one is a keeper. Now, if we're lucky and she also has buddies who are at her level, we may finally get this carcass re-animated. The good news is that she's locked for the next session on the 25th.

After that, Speedy and I went down to the newest Shinjuku theatre chain, Wald 9, near Shinjuku San-chome. There we met Skippy and Mrs Speedy to catch "Ratatouille", the latest Pixar classic. Before that, we had dinner on the 8th floor of the complex, the main restaurant floor. Skippy had to hem and haw a bit but we finally decided to have our meal at Matroishka, a Russian eatery. I'm not sure if this were the same restaurant that had moved up to better digs from the old basement corner near Isetan Department Store, or if it's a second branch. In any case, I went for the Burger Plate Special (yes, I know...it's a Russian place) which, despite its American main course, did come with the requisite borscht appetizer.
We all remarked that considering it was a Saturday, the restaurant was not all that full. Then, Skippy came out with the sage comment that movies were running up above us so we had the lucky timing of eating out between major dinner crowds.

"Ratatouille" was a most charming piece of entertainment. I had heard "Cars" the year before wasn't exactly the blockbuster that "The Incredibles" was a few years ago, but I think this new flick (or should it be, flic?) will probably be a see-again for the whole family just like "The Incredibles". And just like its superhero older brother, "Ratatouille" has funny and sympathetic main characters such as Remi the Rat, his brother Emile, and his human buddy, Linguini, along with a moustache-twirling villain. And Linguini even has a romantic interest, Collette, who is probably the spikiest female character in the entire Pixar family. Not surprisingly, she is voiced by Janeane Garofalo. The movie also wins in that some of the effects are truly incredible; case in point, the early scenes of Remi braving the sewer pipe rapids. But the fact that a lot of the mundane kitchen duties of the characters such as chopping vegetables or putting in ingredients into the soup are almost seen as live-action truly illustrates how far computer animation has come since the days of "Toy Story".
The other Pixar touches are there: director Brad Bird has a cameo, Michael Giacchino brings in his Gypsy Jazz sound as compared to the Lounge Swing of "The Incredibles", and there is a barnstorming finale as the rats come to the rescue in the kitchen (as distasteful as that may sound). Kudos also go to Peter O'Toole for his mellifluous voicing of Anton Ego. However, I didn't see John ("Cliff Claven") Ratzenberger's name up there in the credits; you'd think with a name like that, Bird would've made him a key player. I thought the story in the last third of the movie was a bit rushed but the ending made for a nice twist. Things did work out but not in the way that a conventional approach would've demanded. All in all a great movie and I'm now even more looking forward to an "The Incredibles 2".

Yesterday was a love letter to Japan's Con Ed...TEPCO, thanks to my blasting the air conditioner all day long. I had no place to go to so I just stayed in my little apartment and just vegged. Didn't touch anything related to English teaching....just needed to cleanse the palate, so to speak.

And it looks like that palate will be further cleansed. I've got The Judge today for a double but The Full-Timer sent in a cancellation notice for tonight. Well, I'm out of 3,000 yen cash but at least I avoid the smell of coffee and cigarettes infusing itself into my clothes. And on a steamy day like today, that would unleash a multitude of sins onto my fellow commuters later tonight. Basically, I'm looking at a pretty lean week. I've got the students who've gone onto summer hiatus (The Class Act, SIL, The Beehive and The Junior). Plus, the juku is on O-bon holiday this week. If it weren't for the fact that The Judge has asked to cram in a lot of classes this week, I probably would've been virtually on a week's holiday myself. Still, I've got absolutely nothing tomorrow but I really don't want to give TEPCO any more tribute than is necessary so I may be stepping out somewhere despite the torrid heat out there.

Friday August 10, 1:16 p.m.

Wasn't expecting to be here at the I-Cafe today but in the last few hours, I've had a few reasons to send out the e-mail. In a way, though, it's a good thing. Along with the regular electricity bill, I also got a notice from TEPCO about being a bit more careful with power usage yesterday stating that due to the big earthquake in Niigata a month ago, the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Plant has had to be closed down which will put a big strain on all of us in the Kanto. TEPCO has asked us to kinda curb those appliances, including air conditioners, between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m.
My city of Ichikawa must then therefore be the dream city for the TEPCO boys. Most of the population heads into Tokyo during the day...which would therefore also mean that Ichikawa is a dream city for thieves. Some wags would say that there is no distinguishing between the two parties. In any case, there shouldn't be too much power activity from this bedroom town. So I thought I could get away with blasting the AC during those prime afternoon hours. But then came that need to send out the e-mail.

For one thing, I called up No. 1 Travel, that discount travel agency with the lousy commercials to see if I could procure tickets for Hong Kong when I have my second excursion with The Class Act in October. Well, the lady there said that there was no problem with getting over there on the date I asked for but there was nothing for coming back although there were seats available on the next day. I've decided to contact The Lady for consultation.
Then I had to check to see if Skippy would join Speedy and I for "Ratatouille" or as it is called here "Remi's Delicious Restaurant" tomorrow night after my shift at the school. Surprisingly enough, she said yes. So, I've got that extra 1,800 yen, not including dinner expenses to budget.

Despite my gripes about spending, I still splurged the 4,000 yesterday to buy the latest issue of the "Peanuts" opus with Charlie Brown and the gang...some things in my life will transcend even my budget. It's the 1963-1964 edition; from the strips inside, I could recognize that these were the first strips I remembered from my childhood from signing out some of the original paperback compilations from the primary school library. Charles Schulz was now going through the glory years. Amazing how this guy was able to have these little folks spout out these potent nuggets of adult neuroses.

I only have the juku folks tonight. Jolly will be coming in to make up that lesson he missed out on the other night while The Ace will be coming for his usual Friday 60. The juku will be going on O-bon recess next week so my Tuesday will be completely free. I think the boss will be treating this O-bon even more seriously since her mother died less than a month ago.

Tomorrow will be a busy one, though. I've got The Carolinan and then Tully & The Coffeemaker at the Ichigaya Tully's before I have to head out to Speedy's for The Dentist and then the DVD "Friends" lesson. Still, I can still save on the AC bill.

Thursday August 9, 9:51 a.m.

Looks like the sci-fi franchises are still throwing around the A-list casting rumours like 10-metre lightsabers. First, there was the Tom Cruise-as-Christopher Pike rumour for "Star Trek" yesterday. Then, I've come across the rumour that Doctor Who may be bringing in Sir Ben Kingsley to play none other than Davros, the creator of the Daleks. I have to admit that there is a certain resemblance in the cranial area and if Kingsley were aged about...hm, oh, let's say, 20 or 30 more years, it would be nearly perfect. I think there would be a bigger chance of Kingsley playing a prime Who villain than Cruise as Pike; Sir Ben is no stranger to either sci-fi or villainy, and last season, Sir Derek Jacobi got to play The Master, albeit for just a few seconds. With all of these British knights popping up on Who, I can wholly expect to see Sir Alec Guinness come back as a past Doctor...in spirit form, of course.

Thursday August 9, 9:23 a.m.

Back here again after a long Wednesday night. Got home about midnight to a stifling apartment. Took a well-needed shower and even had the AC on for about 30 minutes...was planning to sleep in the living room with the AC but the thing was just making too much noise...and the thought of having irate neighbours (especially with yet another weirdo next door) murder me in my sleep activated my cowardice hormones, and so I endured a sweaty night in my bedroom with my little fan gamely trying to cool me. Luckily, I only had to stay at home for less than an hour before hitting the road again.

I'm doing pretty well considering that I got just 5 hours of fitful sleep. Did the McBreakfast near the school and read The Japan Times. There was a rather blistering article by a Ronald Blum on Barry Bonds; Blum's dissing of Bonds makes Bob Costas sound like Bonds' best buddy. Even over here, Bonds 756th homer made the front pages, sharing space with the two Koreas' sudden declaration of a summit. All I can say is that I hope the next big Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth will take over as soon as possible.

Got to the school to see Grandma Dynamite by the 1st floor elevators doing very well after her little sprain a couple of weeks back. Speedy's teaching her right now; he looks pretty rumpled, so I guess the trip to Dubai had limited restorative effects. I've just got The Nurse in half an hour, and then I just do a bit of curricula stuff before heading on out. No other classes today so I hope to have a nice and pleasant evening in cool comfort.

Wednesday August 8, 5:20 p.m.

Started to feel the fatigue setting in so I, contradictorily, decided to get on with dinner. Thanks to the La Vie En France bakery branch nearby, I downed a chicken stick (nope, it doesn't sound too French, but it's a nice crisp wrap with chicken chunks & white sauce inside) and something called an epi. I'd never heard or seen one before but it's this fairly long French breadstick if it had been designed by Picasso during his Cubist period. Each knob has a small bit of bacon inside. That small bit is able to release a bit of its oil which completely adds to the epi's savory nature.
Probably the reason for my stamina hitting rock bottom some minutes ago was that I'd downed a couple of those Marseille Raisin Butter Cookies for a snack an hour or so ago. What they, you say? Well, a company in Hokkaido has been creating these little desserts which consist of a hunk of butter and/or clotted cream with tons of raisins in between two rectangular cookies. As the Borg would say, "Resistance is futile". The Dentist, who originally hails from Japan's northernmost prefecture, went back to her old home and bought back some boxes as souvenirs. Lovely stuff but they sure go down like lead inside your stomach. Now, that would be a challenge for Takeru Kobayashi, formerly the Hot Dog Eating King. If the thought of him spewing pre-digested pork matter and bread turns your insides, just imagine him doing the same with those raisin butter cookies.

Speedy is back up; he'd been taking a nap to soothe some of that headache he's been suffering. Looks like it's been another busy week for him.

Wednesday August 8, 3:40 p.m.

Well, I see that Big Barry Bonds finally did the inevitable...break Hank Aaron's record. I'm sure Bob Costas would love to break Bonds, period. I didn't hear too much about it until I came across the unusually small article on the CNN website. I guess it's one of those few times in which the media really didn't want to trumpet this particularly controversial record. I, myself, have reached the big 1,900 in my blogging career. Within a couple of months, I may be able to hit the big 2,000....and without any chemical influences....well, perhaps caffeine.

It's another hot and steamy one in The Big Sushi. In Ichigaya, everyone was rushing into the bookstore...that is, the ones who weren't lucky enough to squeeze into the coffee shops during lunch hour. One aisle looked like a rush hour subway. The New Yorker and I were lucky to get the last table in Tully's for our lesson. She was once again in slow mode today but then again, a crowded cafe isn't exactly ideal surroundings for a shy student in a lesson.

I heard another one of those ridiculous casting rumours for the upcoming revamped "Star Trek". You have heard of Matt Damon as Captain Kirk? Well, how about Tom ("But, I'm always in every scene!") Cruise as Captain Christopher Pike? Oh, I can see and hear all the Trekkies throwing Vulcan ears at the Scientology Institute now. As Comic Book Guy (from "The Simpsons") would say, "Worst. Idea. Ever."

Looks like The Maple Leaf project is well under way. The melancholy BC wanted to go to The Maple Leaf, the Canadian pub in the heart of Shibuya. So, I was able to get The Carolinan's OK for her to come with us on the 26th. Plus, The New Yorker can also make it out, albeit around the 9 o'clock hour.

Speaking of melancholy, Japan's Sumo Association is currently looking up in askance at what to do with its first truly rebel yokozuna, Asashoryu. Several days ago, the native Mongolian begged off the usual intercompetition promotional tours, which involve signing autographs and playing with kids who may want to become future sumotori, citing back problems. Well, the JSA let him off the hook and look at what their generosity got them. Some guy managed to get a home video of Asashoryu back in his home country, playing a pretty healthy game of soccer with retired Japanese soccer legend, Hidetoshi Nakata. I can imagine Nakata inspiring anyone to kick a mean ball, but that video made the sumo champion look mighty guilty. Not surpisingly, there was a huge hue and cry in the JSA, the media and the fans. Not particularly behaviour befitting a Grand Champion, they say. And so, Asashoryu has been suspended from participating in the next two tournaments....basically, he's out for the rest of the year.
Now, Asashoryu is a mighty sad panda. His counselor has said that he's just inches away from full-blown depression and that he may decide to return to Mongolia to mull over his prospects. Well, I'd tell the JSA to get a full explanation from the lug and give him a second chance, and then just strip his rank if he screws up again.

Wednesday August 8, 9:42 a.m.

Met The Madame yesterday for lunch down in Shibuya. Looks like she's set up a niche in my life once more for the next little while, at least. We had lunch at a Chinese place in Mark City; the price for the lunch set was not too bad for a place in a major commercial hub (1300 yen), and the portions were OK as well, although they would look pretty chintzy in Toronto's Chinatown.
Afterwards, we had tea at that teahouse we'd gone last time for lunch. Apparently, there was a tea seminar going on on the more spacious 3rd floor so we had to settle for a table on the 2nd. The Madame is sensitive to air conditioning. She actually put on two cardigans (though they were flimsy fashions) inside; being the Canadian, I was quite comfy. We shared plates of coconut tarts and milk plums; the latter dish is just raisinized plums coated in sweetened milk powder. I was quite impressed with them, actually.
Finally, The Madame could no longer withstand the relentless AC so we moved it back into Mark City where we sat on lighted benches which actually made me feel like cooking bacon. Still, The Madame was quite happy with the warmer surroundings. The local Coldstone Creamery was attracting a very long line. I'll have to try that place out someday.

The night at the juku started out very noisily. Actually, I got there a full 2 hours ahead of my first class with Chip N' Dale. The juku boss was in feisty, take-no-crap mode since she had to teach three future teenage delinquents. While I was prepping in the one room, I had to listen to her trade verbal jabs with her young charges. Happily, it was only for an hour. The only ones not to show up last night were Mr. Mild and Jolly.

I've got myself a fairly full day, almost all compressed into the evening hours. I've got The New Yorker at 1 in Ichigaya but then it's wall-to-wall at Speedy's with 001, a new EIC student and then The Judge to wrap things up. Unfortunately, it's gonna be one of those quick sleep at home things since I've gotta be back at the school first thing tomorrow to teach The Nurse. But after that, I'm free and clear. I'll probably head to Akiba or Shinjuku to get my brother his birthday present; I've just sent him his card.

I got the gift of "300" on DVD from The Anime King as thanks for continuing to be his middleman for his anime shipments. Not exactly chomping at the bit to watch the Trojan flick but I'm free on Sunday so I should be able to view it then....after the last of the "Doctor Who" episodes.

Monday August 6, 5:11 p.m.

My weekend was one of the rare ones without any lessons to teach. A good thing, too, since it was blazingly hot and humid. Spent most of the morning on Saturday overhauling my apartment since 1) MB was coming over and 2) it desperately needed the cleaning. I was able to pull it off in about a couple of hours without suffering heat prostration; it did help that I'd left the AC on.

MB called me up for the pickup and we both did the usual of grabbing munchies at the supermarket and then ordering Domino's Pizza for dinner. It was basically a Bruce Willis Night at the Movies with "16 Blocks" and "Lucky Number Slevin" being the main features. Along with "Die Hard 4.0" which I'd seen a few days earlier, ol' Bruno kept within his comfort zone of playing cops and antiheroes but still it was nice to see that he was stretching a bit. Of course "Die Hard" had him playing the wisecracking and tough-as-nails John McClane. However in "16 Blocks", he played the type of cop that John McClane would've loved to beat into pulp: a dissipated alcoholic with a broken moral compass. For most of the movie, Jack Mosely (same initials?) was a man of few words until he finally came out of his whiskey-induced stupor and approached McClaneville again. MB noticed that there was a bit of Clint Eastwood's "The Gauntlet" in it...not sure if Willis was trying to channel ol' Squinty Eyes but he and Mos Def made a good pair. Of course, David Morse was his usual self playing a Machiavellian dirty cop. The DVD had an extra, much more downbeat alternate ending. I'm usually more for the latter, but this time, it was nice to see Mosely reaching redemption.

"Lucky Number Slevin" was a pretty offbeat number, though with a pretty top-heavy cast. Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Stanley Tucci along with Bruce? It wasn't exactly Oscar-calibre but it made for a worthwhile diversion. Bruce played a slick assassin with a lousy toupee called Mr. Goodcat in a flick that was basically one big Kansas City Shuffle. Maybe it was the cinematography, but it had an indie vibe to me. Bruce was again fairly mute, letting Josh get most of the joshing done with Morgan and Sir Ben. And Lucy was about as winning as I'd every seen her. No Ice Queen here.

Usually, there is a 3rd feature at the quarterly DVD nights but MB brought only two. However we did get one fashioned for us, thanks to the good folks at Super Drama TV! The two of us got to see the pilot episode of that old CBS action chestnut, "Airwolf". That's right...we got to see Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine give Seagal-level line readings...even before Seagal became famous...while piloting the aerial rival to NBC's "Knight Rider". It was painfully 80s...the Flashdancing women, the Giorgio Moroder-like synth soundtrack (although the theme song will forever be etched into my brain), and those villains-of-the-time, the Libyans.

Got up the next day feeling very cool and dry since MB needs the air conditioner on to survive. I think that TEPCO will love my August tribute, though. We did our usual visit to Skylark and just coasted there for about 3 hours before heading out to Yurakucho Mullion where we met Skippy and MB's squeeze, The Sylph. Yep, it was time to catch the latest instalment in the increasingly darkening series of "Harry Potter". Skippy had frantically called up on MB's phone during our ride on the subway to see if she could grab the tickets since apparently the SalonPas Theatre in the Mullion was selling out like hotcakes. So by the time we met her, Skip had all our tickets ready and waiting. We spent an hour cooling our heels in an underground cafe in the Tokyo International Forum...the basement looks like something from the original "Rollerball". There was some sort of outlet-like sale on the main convention floor on B2, so The Sylph made use of her good time and went shopping. Between Mullion and TIF, there was another new gleaming tower of glass and steel being built on what used to be an aging group of buildings housing various pachinko parlors and the famed COCA Thai hot pot restaurant.
As for the new SalonPas Theatre, it was the same theatre that I'd seen "Ronin" a decade ago. As for the name, SalonPas is a medicinal product which is basically BenGay on a bandage. The jokes were flying about whether we would all get that whiff of mentholatum when we entered the theatre or our butts would get that numbing sensation as soon as we sat down.

Now as for "The Order of the Phoenix", it was a pretty fun movie to watch. Mind you, I can hardly remember each of the previous four entries of "Harry Potter" since I seem to have a determinedly Muggle sense when it comes to the thrall that has surrounded the franchise. However, I will remember this one for two things: 1) the fact that this movie was getting awfully crowded with characters: Mad-Eye Moody, Professor Lupin, Sirius Black along with new characters of Bellatrix and Lena Lovegood (apparently, she grows up to become Phoebe on "Friends")...and that's to compete with the regular Hogwarts crew. It was becoming a regular "X-Men" entry. I think Lupin only had one line at the beginning of the movie before being relegated to Jedi extra status at the end.
Speaking of the end, that brings me to 2) the fact that the big battle at the end of "Phoenix" pretty much put to shame anything that the Yoda/Dooku/Obi-Wan/Anakin group could rustle up in "Attack of the Clones". Dumbledore and Voldemort showed how a mighty battle between two titans at the top of their game should be fought. I'll definitely be looking forward to the war when "The Deathly Hallows" finally makes its appearance on the big screen in about 3 years' time.
Afterwards, MB and The Sylph, who have been keeping with the books, gave a middling-to-good grade on the movie version, although both agreed that the book is far better at explaining things. I will probably enjoy the series more when I finish off the movies and then go onto the books.

Skippy had been telling us about this Indian restaurant south of the main intersection of Ginza called NAIR. However when we went there, much to Skip's dismay, the place was closed for some reason. So, instead, I took the gang up a block to The Siam, the Thai restaurant that I usually frequent for the lunch buffet. It was the first time that I've gone there for dinner. Actually, the price wasn't too bad...just under 2,000 yen each. However, it was obvious that Movie Buddy and The Sylph aren't exactly the most spice-accustomed folk; they were gulping down a lot of drinks after each of the dishes.

Finally, we made our final stop at Starbucks No. 1, the one that started the coffee invasion a decade ago, just south of the main drag in Ginza. MB was fascinated by the humoungous mirror in the unisex washroom. Most likely, the next flick for us will be "Transformers". I don't think the ladies will be joining us for that....it's a guy thing. Maybe if I have the funds to spare, I may catch "Ocean's 13" later this week.

Today has been a fairly easy day. Just had 002 on a rare Monday meeting since The Class Act is off on summer hiatus. Then, I rushed over for SIL's last lesson before she goes on summer break as well. She was panicking a bit since the AC wasn't doing a great job at cooling the office but I assured her that it just needed a bit more time....kinda like Bush with his Surge. Unlike that, though, the wait did bring results. It was nice and chilly by the end of our session.
I now only have Mr. TOEIC (provided that he doesn't dotakyan again) tonight for his last lesson before he takes off for his homestay next week. The Full-Timer is enjoying herself in sunny Hawaii.

Friday August 3, 9:53 a.m.

Saraba...chikyuu yo...

Or, as we Canucks and Yankees heard it all those years ago: Goodbye, Mother Earth...

Yup, if you were a kid in Japan in the 70s or like me, a kid growing up in North America back in the early 80s, you would recognize those opening words to the theme song of one of the most classic anime, "Space Cruiser Yamato" or "Star Blazers". Hearing such an unusually orchestral and serious theme for a TV cartoon was pretty much unheard of back in those days, and it still resonates and even brings a lump to the throat even now.
Well, the lyricist behind those mighty words for the Yamato, Yu Aku, passed away a few days ago at the age of 70. His was a name that I'd seen in kanji in the liner notes of so many albums but I hadn't realized how wide his fame was until the tributes started pouring in. I was a bit surprised that the J-Pop forums that dealt with 70s and 80s music hadn't acknowledged Aku's passing so I'm writing my own little eulogy.
As I said, Yu Aku was a lyricist who had his fingers in a lot of the kayo kyoku genres. He may have written the theme song to "Space Cruiser Yamato" but he also wrote most of the hits for 70s aidoru duo, Pink Lady, including arguably their signature song, "UFO". In fact, he seemed to revel in making signature songs for a lot of the Showa-era artists such as Akiko Wada, Kenji Sawada and Masako Mori. He even wrote similar songs for enka singers such as Harumi Miyako. For a guy to whip up tunes that become one with their singers takes a certain sort of genius. I guess he would be the Japanese equivalent of a Hoagy Carmichael or a Diane Warren.
Not surprisingly, the two ladies of Pink Lady, MIE and Keiko "Kei" Masuda, have popped up on the screens for the past couple of days giving their thanks and tributes to the man who was basically responsible for them becoming one of the legendary, if brief, acts in Japanese pop music history. Apparently, a CD set of Aku's works is already out. I'm also expecting that there will be some sort of retrospective on the man coming out soon.


Well, tribute over....back to some of the more mundane things in life. While CNN was covering that Minneapolis bridge collapse, NHK was giving the same treatment to Typhoon Usagi for most of the night. We in the Kanto can only just imagine the power since the hurricane is coming nowhere near us. It'll be another torrid one here in The Big Sushi.

Just got The Ace tonight so today's devoted to getting household cleaning supplies in preparation for MB's arrival here tomorrow night. Not that the man is a major neat freak a la Felix Unger, but it's just that I'm an uber-Oscar Madison.

I sent out an envelope containing the latest proofread notes for The Chef. Not surprisingly, she just sent me an e-mail asking about the next lesson. I also got word from The Anime King; he's sending me the next supply of postage cash in prep for the next shipments of "The Idolmaster"; plus, he's throwing in a DVD of "300". Not sure why he chose that but it'll be interesting for me to see it.

The guys on that Fuji-TV morning show, "Mezamashi Terebi", were getting all tingly about the fact that fellow Canuck, Avril Lavigne, is planning to make a live appearance next week. Hmm..I'm not sure how a spiky-tongued Sk8er Boi like her will mesh with the oh-so-polished proceedings on that show.

Anyways, gotta check out those deals on the Net for tickets to Hong Kong.

Thursday August 2, 3:23 p.m.

Well, last night was pretty peaceful. Found out from Speedy that Mr. TOEIC will be heading to Toronto for a week's homestay in a couple of weeks so his next class should be geared towards Telephone and Directions English. The former I've already started on; hopefully, I can pull off some miracles with the latter. The Judge was his usual steady self.

It's another scorcher out there. All that stuff about Typhoon Usagi is just limited to Western Japan. Here, it's a lot of heat and humidity. The only good thing is that my laundry can now dry in less than an hour.

Kinda in a holding pattern here concerning the hangover that the LDP is suffering from right now. Prime Minister Abe insists that he'll be staying in his job despite the 22% popularity rating. He's probably the only guy in the G-8 who actually envies George Bush's popularity. Still, the week's not up yet. The main news here is that collapse of that highway bridge in Minneapolis. CNN is of course on it like tar. Paula Zahn must be feeling pretty wistful right now. She started her tenure at CNN during 9/11 and she's ending it with another disaster.

Well, Skippy suggested Yurakucho Mullion to see "Harry Potter" on Sunday. It's been a while since I've been to that complex to catch a flick. And there are quite a lot of restaurants to choose from for dinner purposes afterwards in Ginza. Meanwhile, MB is still slated for DVD night on Saturday.

Wednesday August 1, 7:12 p.m.

Last night, the juku was pretty much back to normal. It was nearly the opposite of last week's situation; everyone showed up except for The Siberian. Dale showed up with Chip, Seven was back after attending her concerto last Tuesday, and Jolly came for the final slot. The Milds were also back after spending a number of days in Austria. I'd heard that they would be going there but I didn't realize it would be so soon. Anyways, I got some rather nice souvenirs in the form of some Mozart chocolates. I've been rather lucky having such travel-happy students. I know so much about Hawaii since that seems to be the destination of choice of a lot of my flock; I really don't need to go there anymore.

Today was pretty much a free day. Being the first of the month, I was able to pay just half-price for "Die Hard 4.0" at the neighbourhood theatre. It was nice to see Bruce Willis back as John McClane although it's too bad that the character has really fallen from the matrimonial cliff that he'd seem to pull himself from at the end of the first movie. However, I thought with the PG-13 rating, the movie pulled its action punches despite some of the crazy setpieces (a semi versus a jet...who knew?). So we got a strangely unprofane McClane, very little blood being spurted about and a rather quiet finish to the villain of the piece. I think Alan Rickman can still rest easy. If there is a "Die Hard 5", I hope that the R rating is reinstated, although I realize that's pretty much fat chance.

Afterwards, I found out that Mr. TOEIC has decided to come here tonight for the class that he had missed out on Monday. So, I've got him and The Judge. Hopefully, Speedy will be finished with the counseling session with that prospective student, so The Judge can get the good room. He intimated that he wasn't too thrilled with the other room which doesn't smell too good and is way too warm. I relayed his grievances to the boss who just looked askance and asked me to humour him.

The downfall of the LDP continues further. Looks like the Ministry of Agriculture has gotten the bull's-eye. After only two months in the job, Minister Akagi gave in his resignation this morning; probably he pulled the trigger on himself when he heard rumours that his boss, Prime Minister Abe, was going to fire him for that stupid taxation shell game. So, we've lost two Farm Ministers to suicide and scandal. One wonders when Abe himself will be falling on his own sword....half of those polled want him to go. But the depth is simply not there. If tradition holds, it would be current Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki who could take over. But hey, why not jumpstart the United States by several months and put in Japan's first female head of state, Yuriko Koike?

The rest of the week will be pretty slow. I've only got The Nurse tomorrow, then just The Ace on Friday....just as well since I'm planning to give the place a good cleaning out in prep for another visit by Movie Buddy. I figure it'll take a couple of days. I was looking at Tokyu Hands for a new toilet seat to replace the cracked one but I guess such things do not exist here, so I'm left with heavily taping the horseshoe like an ailing hockey player's knee, lest MB gets a rather nasty surprise during one of his trips to the loo.

Tuesday July 31, 2:03 p.m.

After the cool and rain of yesterday, we're kinda back to the heat and humidity that's normal for this time of year. Looks like Typhoon Usagi has decided to go on the usual track and head for Kyushu and Shikoku instead, but we might catch the tail (?) end tomorrow or the day after.

Going into the summer schedule now. The Beehive is off for the next 5 week so I've got my morning free but I have 002 in about an hour and a half. And then, I've got the juku folks. I sent out feelers to the boss last night whether I'll have a repeat of the no-shows. So far, I've got one bite. The Siberian has canned out; ironically, he was the only one, aside from Chip, who showed up last week. Have to find out whether or not Mr. TOEIC will be showing up tomorrow. It doesn't really matter; I'm gonna have a pretty late start to my working day. Late enough so that I'll probably catch a movie at the neighbourhood cineplex. It's gonna be "Die Hard 4.0" with Bruno.

The Chipmunk sent out an all-points bulletin telling everyone that she's changed her cellphone number after a con man gave his victims her number before going on the lam. So for the past few weeks, she's had to field a lot of complaints. True to her nature, though, she's been making lemonade from these lemons and having some good conversations with the poor folks. But enough was enough, apparently, and she's changed her number.

I bought a DVD of another Mel Brooks flick from the 70s when he was still considered funny. Still, "High Anxiety" kinda comes under the category of "Doesn't Seem as Funny as I Used to Remember It". But there were a few zingers here and there. And Madeline Kahn was certainly the funniest hottie back then. Perhaps I'll see if I can get "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" sometime.

Just before coming to the I-cafe, I had lunch at the local Subways. In an "Awww..." moment that should melt your mozzarella, I was serviced by a shy young girl who was making her very first sandwich. Of course, the manager and the one other veteran were on hand to coach her through the scooping of the tuna to the wrapping of the sandwich (she had a bit of trouble there but she was OK by the end). I gave her some encouragement by telling her she did a good job. It didn't get me a discount but I was offered a hand to carry my tray and my heavier-than-usual bag to my seat.

I heard that legendary director Ingmar Bergmann had passed away. I guess that Death finally did pick him up. Probably for the funeral, the organizer wondered about putting a mirror by his face just so, so that attendees could see it both in profile and front forward. Ooooh, I can be so mean...heheheheh

Monday July 30, 8:44 p.m.

Well, I should've bought myself a lottery ticket. A little less than an hour when I hinted that Mr. TOEIC could either delay or cancel outright, we had to call him some minutes after his scheduled arrival time to find out that he couldn't make it tonight. He could've let us know but I gather that he was so bogged down that he couldn't fine the time. So, I'm basically done here and ready to head on out for home.

Looks like Speedy's regular dinner outing was a fairly raucous affair. Unlike the previous two organized parties, Saturday's do at Ebisu Garden Place had folks popping up all over the place without calling ahead without so much as a "May I..?" I didn't bother going for other reasons but I am glad that I didn't go to this one since having experienced and even organized such manic get-togethers in years past, I think I've gotten a little too old to take that sort of stuff anymore.

Recently, there's been a spate of Hollywood starlets gone bad. Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and future loony bin resident, Britney Spears, have kinda done stuff that they would probably not want to tell their grandchildren, provided that they survive that long. Over here, the really bad stuff has all been on the male side....and it's been pretty perverted crud. A couple of comedians decided to blow up their careers by doing things such as looking up high school girls' skirts or have their way with them. Of course, over the course of the decades, both male and female entertainers have had their careers derailed by being discovered with drugs. On the wholly female side, crimes, if you can actually call them that, have been largely restricted to aidoru breaking their Prime Directive No. 1 which is publicly falling in love with a guy or...heaven forbid...getting caught smoking a Lucky's. You can probably check out the Wiki site on Morning Musume to pick out most of the offenses there.
However, there was an incident recently involving a geino by the name of Kenji Haga who was busted for extortion and intimidation. Haga seems to be just one of those lifelong losers with a checkered past but somehow he used to be able to get out of the problem and survive as an aging dancing/acting gadabout (no shortage of those in Japanese entertainment). But usually things don't get that out of hand for most folks in showbiz here.
It would also seem that a lot of US entertainers seem to have more lives than a cat and Time Lord combined...that or they have a very good lawyer. They can keep on screwing up and there will also be someone to bail them out of trouble. Just lay low for a while and then come back fresh as a daisy. Over here, everyone can get a second chance as well but that's it. Those two comedians I was talking about? After one of them got his chops busted for looking up those skirts with that customized mirror, he bleated repentance very publicly (unlike in the States, the apologies are very open and with a full court press) but then later on got busted again for other malfeasances and now he's persona non grata....that's it...he's probably washing dishes in the kitchen or picking up garbage in the early morning hours. The thing is that once someone screws up, everyone that's associated with him/her is also considered to have screwed up as well for not watching out for the idiot. Pretty humiliating, which would also explain the vehement public statements that the offender's (former) friends made after a second offence.
Basically, the moral of the story in Japanese showbiz is this: everyone loves a bad boy...on the surface, that is.

Monday July 30, 7:27 p.m.

It's unseasonably cool...downright comfortable. It feels more like April or October, certainly not the blistering weather we had during the weekend. Part of that can be due to that major storm we had last night during the election (omen for Abe?). Plus, we've got another typhoon possibly making a beeline straight at the Kanto on Wednesday. Nomenclature for typhoons on this side of the Pacific gets as strange as the weather here...this time, Typhoon No. 5 has been dubbed Usagi....Japanese for rabbit. Yes, apparently we're at risk by a storm named after a cute bunny. We might as well prepare ourselves the Miffy onslaught.

It has been a regular Monday in terms of work, but it'll be the last one for a few weeks since we are entering August. The Class Act goes off on their regular hiatus although SIL will keep up the side. The Full-Timer just told me she's off on yet another trip. And just like The Sisters of State a month ago, she'll be taking her mother for the first time to Hawaii. The lass had just come back from Thailand a fortnight ago. Must be nice to enjoy traveling so much. In any case, she'll be absent next week. Not sure about Mr. TOEIC. He's scheduled to be here in about 25 minutes (although he's prone to sudden delays or outright cancellations) but I wonder if he'll also decide to head out for some vacation time next month as well.

Basically this week will be the start of the quiet August. Today and Tuesday will be the only real busy ones and I've already gone through 75% of today and I start the next day at the ripe ol' time of 3:30 with 002. On Wednesday, my first and only class will be The Judge at 9:30 p.m. although Speedy has just informed me that he may put in another student at 7 in place of 001 who's off this week. Thursday will only see The Nurse and then Friday may just have The Ace. Might be time to put in some movie viewing even though Skippy is chomping at the bit to have us all see "Harry Potter" on Sunday. Speaking of which, George Clooney is in town to promote "Ocean's 13" which I am actually interested in catching despite the sophomore horror of "Ocean's 12".

Just one other thing on the entertainment scene. Just a week after Princess Tenko suffered a near-death occupational hazard with one of her sword-absorbing boxes, the trouper was back in form here performing the same trick. However, it was obvious she was still suffering..she had a stylish mask covering the right side of her heavily made-up face and she could only whisper any words since her broken ribs ensured that normal speaking would be an experience in agony. For all those budding magicians out there, she should be your role model.

Monday July 30, 5:20 p.m.

The weekend was personally a fairly quiet one although things around me were pretty swirly. It was also one in which all of us had thought that The Rainy Season had definitively come to an end. A lot of heat and humidity was thrown at us like a fireball during Saturday and Sunday.

Met up with The Coffeemaker, and this time, Tully was back after his tour of duty at the world-famous Georgetown University in June. He didn't get to meet George Tenet but his class got visits from the EPA, purely cordial....they came to give lectures. The Coffeemaker got some commemorative stamps as a souvenir, while I got South Beach Diet chocolate chip cookies. Not sure if Tully had meant to send me a message in that.

On Sunday, I saw The Junior for the first time in a few weeks. I swear that the girl is growing like a week everytime I see her. Ironically, after that time, it'll be 5 weeks before I see her again since August is usually their holiday month, although it apparently won't be much of one for the lass. Even though class is now out for her, she has to attend volleyball practice like the rest of us have to go to work. I got my semiannual O-Chugen gift money from the mother which I quickly used to get that DVD set of "Zen'in Shugo Hachiji da yo!" (Everyone Gather Round! It's 8 o'clock!), the big comedy-variety show that was the centrepiece of The Drifters, the legendary comedic troupe. It was a favourite of the family's during the early days of VCRs. I also used the opportunity to get Michael Buble's latest, "Call Me Irresponsible". Another solid piece of pop and jazz. I'll definitely have to consider seeing him in concert next time he's in town.

The past weekend also had Fuji-TV give its annual summertime 27-hour telethon-that's-not-really-a-telethon. There is no Jerry Lewis, no Ed McMahon, no maudlin videos of kids suffering from MS and no tote board. It's basically the longest variety show of the year. In past years, the entire show was hosted by SMAP leader, Nakai-kun. But I guess Nakai-kun finally decided that sleep was more important, so the reins were taken up by the goofiest SMAP, Shingo Katori, since he's got his big movie out right now, "Saiyuki". He's not only the goofiest member of the group, but also the one with the most costume changes. He dressed up as a couple of his previous incarnations, Oha Mama and Nin-Nin The Ninja (you can imagine that these are kiddie heroes), and at one point, he even came out (cross-)dressed as transsexual-of-the-moment Ikko. It made for easy viewing as a couch potato.

However, Fuji-TV was one busy station as were all of the other stations on Sunday night. After 27 hours of variety programming, it went straight on into the Upper House Election coverage. Boy, I bet PM Shinzo Abe (if he still keeps his job by the end of the week) had been wishing that he could've enjoyed some of the hysterics during the telethon. He and the Liberal Democratic Party got majorly creamed. Even the pundits hadn't predicted the LDP would get some much wrath from the population, but then again, losing half of their pension records can incite some pretty big tirades. In any case, for the first time since the LDP came to power all those decades ago in the postwar era, the party has had to concede Senate power to the Opposition. The LDP Secretary-General and one other old party hack have given in their resignations; some people are waiting for Abe to do the same but the fact is that there is noone else to fill the PM vacuum if it comes to that.
Of course, the LDP debacle was the big story, but the 2nd-biggest was inexplicably the rise of a former TV Asahi announcer into the seat of the Senate. And she got into the LDP...the losing side! I was first introduced to Tamayo Marukawa about a decade ago when she probably first started her career as an announcer when she was part of a battery of bilingual newsreaders for a late-night program of just 5 minutes long announcing the main news stories from CNN, of which TV Asahi is one of the affiliates. Her English, when compared to the others, was something out of this world but it certainly wasn't natural. Just couldn't understand the dialect she was using; I needed to get another interpreter to hear her interpret the news. Well, I can only hope that her diction has vastly improved since then. One wonders if she may have to climb a similarly steep learning curve in her new job as a Senator. NHK did a feature on her which played like a Cinderella story...something that the commercial stations would usually do, complete with John Williams soundtrack. There she was in the rain trying to get anyone to shake her hand and utterly failing, there she was bowing her head in deepest shame after divulging that she hadn't voted in the last 3 elections, there she was showing off her bare feet growing a bulging mass of veins and arteries due to the heavy amount of walking she's had to do, there she was getting those handshakes in the late moments of the campaign during a fireworks festival and then finally getting that win in the proportional seat election race. Man, Julia Roberts can play her in the biography. All this in the last couple of months. To think, at the beginning of this year, she had been still playing sidekick to Tamori on "Music Station" and "Tamori Club".

Friday July 27, 12:01 p.m.

Summer has definitely arrived. Other than a brief downpour yesterday afternoon here at Speedy's, it's been blazing hot and humid...as a Tokyo summer would be. I was quite aware that I must've smelled like any other noxious salaryman covered in sweat and infused with copious amounts of caffeine. Friday nights coming home on the subway will be olfactory nightmares from now til October.

Yesterday, the reason for the caffeine coming out of my pores was that I met up with The Sisters of State at the same Tully's but at vastly different times of the day. The New Yorker I met at 1 while The Carolinan was a 6:15. In between was a quick trip over here to teach The Nurse. The Carolinan kept me informed about the spiritually ailing BC; it looks like my message to her didn't end in a resentful backlash against me. However, The Carolinan said that BC was feeling quite tired at the moment. BC had asked about a trip to The Maple Leaf sometime in August, so I figured that maybe we could pick one of the Sundays next month for a trip there.

I've got The Chef, the quietly mercurial student of ours here in less than an hour. After that meltdown last month because of her sudden request, all of us here (Speedy, The Admin and me) are being just as quietly wary of her. True to form, The Chef finally sent me her latest menus for me to proofread via my personal fax yesterday...a big sheaf of it and asked me to get it done by today. I was slightly put out....felt like one of those resentful corporate underlings after getting slapped with a Herculean task by an unreasonable boss. However, I sent my acknowledgement of receipt fax over to her and then later an e-mail politely asking her to send it earlier. She did say that she'd only received the menus herself just yesterday, so I'm taking that into consideration. As the bossman said, The Chef has that slight Drama Queen quality to her and I think she doesn't quite do what she does maliciously...she's just a bit high strung.

Later on, I've got The Ace for his 9:00. So, I'll probably have another several hours of downtime between lessons. I don't particularly want to go on home since that would mean turning on the air conditioner and wasting some more electricity and therefore paying TEPCO more money that they don't really deserve since they screwed up that news on the radiation leak at the Kashiwazaki Nuclear Facility after the big quake on Marine Day....that facility just happens to be the largest facility of its kind on the planet. So, I'll just head over to the friendlier I-cafe for a few hours before dinner.

Before heading out to work, I did run to Daiei and picked up that clone of the Brita filter. I had thought about actually buying the real McCoy. And as it was, the BRITA filter tap only cost from 3,150 yen; not bad considering its solid reputation, but however I saw the cost of those replacement filters and saw that they cost almost as much as the main unit itself. With a 5-month cycle between replacements, I would've been paying close to 5,000 yen per year as compared to paying just less than 2,000 yen to replace the 498 yen cheapo filter four times a year. All this just to plug up a leak. But I just stuck the sucker onto the tap and turned it on and off...sure enough, I've saved myself some water.

Now that the dog days of summer have arrived in earnest, I've been hitting the cold udon or hiyashi chuuka noodles at the convenience stores now. I don't think I could really eat a hot plate of deep-fried chicken at this time. And a further sign that the dog days are here is that at a lot of the vending machines, there are a lot of Sold Out signs.

Well, Election Day for the Upper House is just around the corner, and the pundits are screaming that Shinzo Abe and the LDP are in for a Humpty Dumpty Great Fall. Mind you, it was never going to be easy for any replacement Prime Minister to follow the flamboyant Junichiro Koizumi especially when most Japanese pols come off as about as exciting as drying paint. However, the scorecard for Japan's Cigarstore Indian is looking pretty bleak: Cabinet Ministers with a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease, a dead Minister of Agriculture from suicide due to some rather shady dealings, the new Minister of Agriculture having to hem and haw his way out of some potential tax evasion, and last but not least, half the population of the country finding out that their pension records may be unrecoverable. Yup, I could see some pretty tense dinners between Shinzo and Akie. You know, I may just be glued to my TV Sunday night.

But the woes of the Abe administration must mean nothing compared to the meltdowns in the United States. A President who seems to be begging to become the most reviled Commander-in-Chief in history, a Congress which seems to want the same status, a potentially corrupt Attorney-General, two Presidential aides who merely snub a Congressional subpoena....and I haven't even mentioned Iraq yet. Then, there is an NFL star who seems to have a fetish for seeing dogs tear each other apart, a baseball star ready to hit the record books while battling allegations of steroid use, two young stars who feel that getting charged for DUI is a rite of passage to be savored and a former pop star-turned-basketcase traumatizing a photo shoot. Wow! The United States is truly a country where even the worst things come out like a Hollywood epic. Go fig.

Wednesday July 25, 8:24 p.m.

Well, I'm feeling not unlike a heel right now. 001 was rather shellshocked today when she found out that I wouldn't be going to the semiregular Saturday dinner outing. Perhaps she thinks I may have betrayed her somewhat since I didn't say anything when Speedy came in a couple of weeks ago to put the spiel on her. I'd already made up my mind not to go by that point (for some financially psychotic reason, the bossman seems hellbent to have us pay 5,000 yen a shot for those dinners), but I couldn't say that in front of either of them for obvious reasons. And I hadn't thought that she would accept the invitation since she hadn't come to any of the other previous parties in the past so it was with some surprise to hear that she was planning to go. Now, she's not too sure. Knowing me, I'll probably be kicking myself all the way home tonight but I'll be OK in the morning.

Just have The Judge in less than an hour. Hopefully that class will go somewhat more swimmingly...

Wednesday July 25, 5:32 p.m.

Since I got that CNN/YouTube Debate rant off my chest, I forgot that I have some stuff locally here to relate. It looks like I've got another student to add onto my slate. She's one of Speedy's...one of the grandmothers that I'd taught during his absence. Apparently, she wants to have an hour of free talk with me first thing Friday morning while she does the technical stuff with the bossman on Wednesday. I guess I'll dub her Grandma Dynamite since she talks at about a parsec a minute...plus, it comes from that guest character on "The Flintstones" all those years ago.

The Upper House Election campaigning has been relentlessly going on for the past several days now. We've got the cars with the megaphones crying out their candidates' names all over the streets. Yesterday, I witnessed the candidate from the Japanese Communist Party exhorting her need of support from her Toyota. I could never imagine something like that happening in the States. If anyone even uttered a hint about his/her allegiance to Communism in the good ol' U.S. of A., the FBI would just come sweeping down on his/her neighbourhood like a squad of TIE fighters. Mind you, the Japanese version is about as harmless as kittens. The big day is Sunday. Man, Fuji-TV will be one busy station this weekend. Not only will have they have to cover the elections, but they're having their annual 24-hour TV marathon.
The Upper House Elections, like their equivalents anywhere else, don't mean too much in the grand scheme of politics, but everyone will be looking whether Shinzo Abe will be able to grab a majority of the seats. If he doesn't, what could that mean for his fortunes? The Class Act made a good observation of him when they remarked that unlike the maverick Koizumi, this current guy has come off as being the goody-goody Crown Prince. Very courtly and gentlemanly but not exactly the gung-ho type to engender leadership.

Wednesday July 25, 4:18 p.m.

I guess Tokyo is starting to approach a more desert-like climate. Burning hot and humid in the day, but (relatively) cool in the evening. Still, my shirts have become sponges soaking up the perspiration.

Yesterday, it was the combination goodbye party for Mrs. Perth and final lunch for the Beehive before the annual summer hiatus. We held it at the Funabashi TOBU department store branch of Ume no Hana, a famous chain of Tokyo restaurants specializing in tofu. Mrs. Jade was nice enough to handle all the arrangements, so we got our own private tatami room. All of the regulars were there: Perth, Jade, Mrs Alp, Mrs Tee and Mrs Travel was back from her latest sojourn to Turkey. So, some part of the lunch was spent exchanging stories on Turkey and Alp's recent vacation in Switzerland. Also heard that Mrs Tulip and her family are moving further up in the condo chain...they're now nicely esconced in some penthouse suite in Toronto.
As for the fare, it was all different types of tofu dishes...and also yuba, which is actually the thin skin taken from tofu during processing. So, we started off with a large bowl of tofu sitting in cold soy milk which we ate with all sorts of yakumi (garnishes) such as grated ginger, sliced onion and the like. We also had shrimp siu mai wrapped up in a yuba skin, mamedofu (tofu made with green beans), deep-fried tofu, etc. It was all very good, and surprisingly even I was quite filled by the end of lunch (although I have to admit that a few hours later, I had to take in a Big Mac set before seeing 002...I guess the fare at Ume no Hana is the Japanese illustration of a Chinese dinner).
It was the end of Mrs. Perth's time with The Beehive as I gave my good wishes to her, and it was also a new beginning. From September, we may have some new permanent digs for us on the Keisei Line...there's some sort of facility which rents out classrooms at cheap rates. It's a drag in that I'll have to change twice but at least we're no longer nomadic. Also, Travel and Tee will be searching for a new classmate or classmates.

002 was her usual giddy self...she told me about her trip to that relay race in the mountains near Mt. Fuji right on the weekend of Typhoon Man-Yi's near arrival in Tokyo. Luckily, the organizers had the good sense to shorten it to just 6 hours, but the group still manage to get drenched.

The session at the juku last night was a bit bizarre. Of course, there was the fact that it was the first time for me to be there since the boss' mother died last Monday. When I got there, though, the boss was pretty much back to her cheerful, up-with-people self. However, she invited me into the the living room where a large picture of her late mother was situated with bowls of oranges and other food sitting in front. As per Japanese tradition, I knelt in front of the picture, lit an incense stick, waved out the flame so that the ember at the tip emitted its characteristic aroma, stuck it in a bowl of white sand, quietly rang a bell with a metal wand before praying for a few seconds.
At this point, I would've said that it was then back to business. However, there was very little business last night. I only ended up having Chip the boy and a few hours later, it was The Siberian. What happened? Well, Dale just plain didn't show up, Seven was off doing a concert for piano and Jolly did one of his occasional cancellations. However, the big surprise was that The Milds also no-showed. This struck both me and the boss as being rather strange for my oldest and most loyal students since I started at the juku 3 years ago. When the boss called their house up, their adult son informed her that apparently the couple is out of the country on vacation. I don't recall ever being told about that. The boss profusely apologized for the lack of students for which I reassured her. Sho ga nai.
Another interesting thing was that the juku boss actually went off to The Matron's husband's law office by herself on Monday to start the ball rolling on her mother's estate. She'd been asking me if I could accompany her, but it looks like she got the gumption to go on her own. Everything went well, apparently. I also got the customary O-chugen gift from The Matron today, so I killed two birds with one stone and sent a fax to her husband thanking both of them for the package of sweets and their assistance to the boss.

I just have 001 and The Judge tonight so the morning was spent doing household stuff. For one thing, I have a leaky faucet. For the 13 years I've been in my apartment, I'd had no problems with the kitchen tap until a few weeks ago when a persistent drip started. I finally unhoused what must've been the BRITA filter's prehistoric ancestor from the main tap, and the leak got worse. I headed out to Daiei...there were some cheap possibilities to stop it; BRITA was indeed well represented but the system looked tres cher so I decided to go for a cheaper alternative. But I haven't bought it just yet...I needed to check the dimensions of the tap before plunking down the yen. Also, I searched for a toilet seat. My current one has a rather nasty crack in it which, you could imagine, can wake me up better than a tall glass of OJ (mind you, I've got it taped up like Bobby Orr's knee). Nada on that front, but Yamada Denki had those newfangled seats with the bidet-like attachments....for the price of at least 40,000 yen. Ahhh...I'll stick with toilet paper (oooh, that was a nasty pun), thank you very much. As for the ongoing battle with the roaches, some new hotels are out there and the infestation has been brought down to a few stragglers. Still, I'll have to make sure that all of the bugs are out of here by the time MB comes on by on the 4th.

I watched CNN's much-anticipated (at least to the producers there) YouTube debates with the Democratic Presidential Nominees yesterday...or at least bits and pieces of it. The way Anderson Cooper and the other folks were flogging it for the past several weeks (months?), I'd thought the cable network had been promoting its own Deathly Hallows (complete with countdown clock).
And true to overhyped media events, the sizzle far outweighed the steak. Mind you, Cooper was savvy enough to verbalize some wiggle room at the beginning of the debate by saying that none of them really knew what the night was gonna be like. Well, the new format came off as being gimmicky with everyone in the audience and on the stage looking at the screen as various YouTubers did their own "Tiny Talent Time" while posing questions; the answers were all the same. This whole premise that the nominees wouldn't be able to roll off some heavily practiced spin response was pretty much nothing....I couldn't imagine that any of the pols' staffs didn't have Internet-savvy geeks doing their own screening of the 3,000+ videos from the completely open site. And if the pols didn't want to answer any particular question, neither Anderson nor a video could stop them...case in point, John Edwards when asked by AC about Liz Edwards' verbal sparring with Hillary Clinton. Edwards just swatted that question like a Carolinan fly in summer. Basically, it was the usual thing that we've come to expect from the debates....Gravel was pissed, Biden was snarky, Richardson was earnest and Obama was noble. The only big difference was that we got to see the candidates get neck strain looking at the big screen.
Still, it was a laudable effort by the good folks at CNN and YouTube. They tried to bring a bit more immediacy and intimacy between the nominees and aw-shucks regular folk. And more importantly, perhaps the two media giants may have accomplished something that even MTV hasn't been able to do....draw in the 18-34 demographic.

Well, before I log off, I toast Paula Zahn...the bell has finally tolled. She just resigned.

Monday July 23, 7:34 p.m.

Just had The Full-Timer. Looks like she had another good time in Thailand. She tried a bit of the Muy Thai kickboxing style. She usually comes off as a rather unassuming young lady but she does like to try the martial arts. With her brother doing Tae Kwon Do, her house ought to be the safest one in the neighbourhood. I got a box of spicy Pritz as a souvenir.

I've got Mr. TOEIC and that'll be my Monday. It looks like this week will be a busier, more normal type. I had my usual Monday classes with The Class Act and SIL. The Lady and her hubby had just come back from Singapore...first-class, all the way of course. Then, I've got The Beehive for the final class before the usual summer hiatus. It'll also be a goodbye party of sorts as well for Mrs. Perth, so we're gonna hold it at Ume no Hana, a restaurant that specializes in tofu. The juku classes are back in session as of tomorrow after last week's period of mourning for the boss' mother.

The Harry Potter mania has also struck Japan, albeit to a far less manic degree than it has in New York or London. Japan has its Pottermaniacs but when the book came out a couple of days ago, there weren't the huge lineups that Krispy Kreme gathers every single day. In fact, when I went to Tower yesterday, I just nonchalantly ambled up to the display on the 7th floor and picked one book up...and of course, read the ending immediately. Glad to see that all of the main characters live well into parenthood (I think it was a foregone conclusion that Ron and Hermione would shack up). A pity about Dumbledore and Snape, though. In any case, the main reason that there hasn't been the crazed run for the books is that with the book being written in English, I don't think there are too many folks here who would be willing to survive the 800-page challenge. Most of the locals will wait the 12-14 months to get the Japanese translation.

I should be expecting Mr. TOEIC very soon...

Monday July 23, 5:37 p.m.

Well, it certainly feels like the Rainy Season has come to an end. It has felt like an ocean of sweat out there for the past couple of days.

I had the day off yesterday so the only thing I did was head over to Tower Records to ostensibly just browse around, but I ended up picking up one more book on the ancient game of I-go. It's another book by American specialist Shotwell; my first book was also by him but yesterday's purchase seems to be the more comprehensive of the two.

Then I met up with The Bohemian for the first time in a few months. He was looking somewhat paunchier than the last time I'd seen him...which was drunk as a skunk trying to cross the street in Shibuya. He luckily survived. I met him in front of Hachiko, the first time in a number of months I'd done that. Yep, it was pretty darn humid there with all of those other folks piling in front of the famed meeting place. The usual colourful types were there....Shibuya ko-gals, regular folk and one crazed homeless man screaming obscenities to anyone who dared to make eye contact.
As usual, the two of us ended up at En, our usual haunt. The Bohemian was quite happy to find out that there was a half-price campaign on beer. And getting there at 4 always guaranteed us the first table; the place really didn't start to fill up until about 6. The conversation didn't touch back on that rather awkward meeting a few months ago...it was just as if nothing had happened. Mind you, it helped that we were served mostly by male wait staff and one somewhat older woman so there was none of that embarrasingly bad flirting that I berated him on last time.
However, also as usual and true to The Bohemian's nature, some of the talk necessitated me tellling to keep the volume down since he liked to talk about his trips to the fuzoku houses (fuzoku, by the way, basically means sexhouses like the ones in Kabukicho)....of course, I'm apparently the only one who knows about this. He says that he only goes for 20-30 minutes....I won't imagine too long what he accomplishes in that short period of time. He also referred back to his perverted acquaintance who has a rather unhealthy interest in S&M and scatology. I was doing quite a bit of verbal misdirection to get him back to more acceptable conversation.
Luckily, when I showed him my I-go book, his curiosity perked up and we ended up heading back to Towers so that he could pick up a book of his own. Yep, in English, since he figured it would be good language practice for him.

Will continue later but I gotta head out for The Full-Timer...