Wednesday November 7, 4:59 p.m.

Well, the parents of the Younger got back to me and agreed on my offer to resign my position. Didn't take them too long, did it? They asked me to come once more on the 18th...I frankly would rather have them fire me right out...hate goodbyes.

On happier notes, The Beehive was having another grand ol' time reminiscing about their Canada trip yesterday. Looks like the winner was the Madison Manor Hotel in downtown Toronto...so, if any of you young Japanese folk are looking for a place to stay near the University of Toronto and don't mind paying between $120-$150 CDN, look up the old Mad on the Net.
Looks like the 27th will be set aside for a reunion of the Beehive. Mrs. Perth will be coming down from Sapporo while Mrs. Potter will be coming up from Okayama. Most likely, the party will be held at Mrs. Travel's house.
The ladies came to a tentative decision to keep the smaller configuration, considering that they believe that trying to bring anyone into the tightly-knit group could be difficult. It would mean that I would be restricted to just 3 weeks out of the 4 for lessons but I was pretty much that way for several years anyways.
Afterwards, we made our way to the local Parco Department Store by JR Tsudanuma. We ended up having lunch at a bakery/restaurant called Baget on the 6th floor. The chefs whipped up 10 different kinds of breads, rolls and croissants for our all-you-can-eat pleasure when we order the lunch of the day. Pretty good stuff, although the ladies would have preferred the stuff more freshly baked. I didn't mind. The rolls were tasty enough to sop up the gravy from my burger plate. Definitely worth another visit.

My session with 002 was fun as usual. I actually received a gift of some Mandarin Oranges from her via her mother's orange tree. Yep, we are south enough to have those. The juku was shortened by a couple of hours since both The Siberian and Jolly cancelled out. So I just had the kids and Mrs. Mild. Kept the kids happy with a series of games. Although I missed out on the extra 6,400 yen, I was able to hit the hay much earlier. Actually got 7.5 hours of sleep...an amazing feat on a Wednesday morning when I have to head over to Speedy's to teach The Nurse. Speaking of whom, she was in a much better mood today...this despite giving her next take-home test.

Just before I went back into REM sleep last night, I got a call from The Anime Duke. Looks like he and his clan made it back to Tokyo, and we set up things for dinner tonight after my lesson with 001. The three of them are off to the Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari Messe so they should be enjoying the new concept cars and campaign girls that go with them. The Duke and I separately contacted The Anime Chamberlain so that he could come by my place and check out that huge box of dollies that The Anime King had ordered so long ago.
And sure enough, at 1 p.m., he showed up at the station and we made a beeline for my place. I was amazed when he took a look at the huge crate and said that he could transport it as part of his check-in luggage. He even lugged most of The King's stuff with him back to the station! Mind you, he gave up a lot in sweat but he said that he had handled far worse. We did have some lunch at the neighbourhood Japanese-style family restaurant. I found out that he's quite the persnickety gourmand. He was trying out the specialties throughout the various areas in Japan from Hokkaido to Kyushu. The Chamberlain has always been rather sardonic and straight-to-the-point, and he didn't hold back on some of his comments about the more mediocre fare he had to engulf. But he did love the sea urchin sushi up in Hokkaido.
I wonder where I'll take the guys tonight in Shinjuku. I know a tonkatsu joint and Foo Foo in the station, but The Chamberlain tells me that the Anime Court is all ramen'ed out, so the latter choice is a no-go, and I'm not sure if the middle of the week is still pretty crowded in the restaurants.

For a while, I was all by my lonesone on my apartment floor. The clan of Filipinos in the one unit and my immediate misanthropic neighbour cleared out within a few days of each other. One has apparently moved into the apartment formerly occupied by the Filipino family but the other unit is still empty according to the green tape on the mailbox and the sheaf of papers hanging off of the door knob. I wouldn't mind if the place stayed empty for the rest of the year.

Well, NOVA President Sahashi has finally wormed out of the woodwork, although it's been via his lawyer. He has come clean on some of the illegalities that he'd perpetrated for years but has remained defiant on other aspects. I did have to laugh when I heard him maintain that his office...which looks like something out of Rich Dictators' Weekly...was merely apportioned to entertain foreign dignataries and show off one of NOVA's projects, Chanoma Ryugaku, the PC-based English lessons. I don't know of too many students' houses which have rooms filled with golden swords and furniture upholstered in rich Corinthian leather. Ricardo Montalban would swoon.

Monday November 5, 6:00 p.m.

It's been a weekend of some transitions. Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, the official Opposition party, pulled a Shinzo Abe and suddenly decided to resign his position since he couldn't get the DPJ execs' approval to get the party into a grand coalition with the governing Liberal Democratic Party. Ozawa considered that snub a lack of confidence and so he held a late-afternoon press conference yesterday. A bit of a lame reason to resign...kinda like the previous Prime Minister's alibi for his resignation...ironically, Ozawa was the alleged reason for Abe to cry boo hoo.

The other transition is one of my own making. I've decided to give my own resignation to the parents of the Younger, after some thought. Yesterday, the parents and I had a brief chat. They didn't really come and say it and I'm not sure if they intentionally hinted at it, but I could get the feeling that there was writing coming onto that wall. The father, nice guy he is, also expressed some shock and dismay at his daughter's recent English test results. I made the argument that perhaps the Younger just had a bad day...not to save my own skin but just to reassure the folks that their girl wasn't ending up as a delinquent...but the father said that probably wasn't the case. The key point was when they mentioned the idea of having The Younger go to the juku specializing in English. She would get the push she needed. I'm not much of a pusher; again, I've always been reluctant to teach kids for the simple fact that they have to learn, not want to learn. I do well with those adults who are pretty keen and avid about language study.
Well, when the idea of a juku came up, I just thought that having that instruction plus her regular English classes at school and my thing on top of that would frankly be too redundant for her. Plus, she's busy with other stuff as well such as her volleyball, piano and singing practices. That was good enough for me. I sent in the e-mail an hour ago. Frankly after 3 years with the girls, and having the Younger screw up on some basic stuff while the Elder flees, I think it's time to save on that money and time I have to spend on getting all the way to their neck of the woods from Ichikawa.

While losing one long-term client, I may be regaining another one. On Friday night at my own juku, the boss informed me that Seven is indeed coming back...allegedly. In fact, the boss had been planning to visit her at the hospital on Sunday and therefore invited me. However, on Saturday, Seven was released so that rendered the matter moot.

On Saturday, I saw Tully and the Coffeemaker for their semi-regular. The Coffeemaker told me that she'd seen "2001: A Space Odyssey" for the first time. I then asked her if she'd seen it sober, especially for the last 20 minutes. She shook her head for NO and shook her head again since she couldn't really wrap her head around that psychedelic trip. I reassured her that most teetotaling folks couldn't and recommended that she watch the much more mundane sequel "2010: The Year We Made Contact".

After the somewhat awkward conversation between myself and the Younger's parents, I took the subway down to Shiodome on the Oedo Line. I had to grab yet another plaything for my niece since apparently Canada Post has been bogged down with a deluge of packages and therefore, my b-day present for her may now be inhabiting the 9th level of Postage Hell. Whoa betide the sorters and carriers when Xmas Card season starts in earnest in a few weeks. Since it was on the way, I had lunch at my favorite hot dog place, Hansens, in the NTV Plaza. Y'know, sitting outside on a cool but sunny November day while noshing on two franks with fries brought a small respite of contentedness that I hadn't felt in a long time.

I then made my way over to Hakuhinkan, the Tokyo equivalent of FAO Schwarz, and quickly bought a cute little Miffy bag with candy for the niece. Not surprisingly, the Xmas decorations were already up in the store and there were enough headache-inducing kids running around. Ginza was closed off to regular traffic as would be the case on sunny Sundays so I took a little stroll down the main street before heading off home.

Today, The Class Act was off so I started with SIL. However, before my first lesson, I went to Com Pho, the Vietnamese lunchery underneath Maruzen for an early lunch. I guess the Krispy Kreme Multiplier Effect has really expanded. Even though Com Pho was several hundred metres away from Itocia where KK No. 2 is located, the place was already getting crowded even though I got there just shortly after 11. I had the usual Bun Bi, that cold mix of pho, pork strips and veggies in that sour soup.
Went up to Maruzen's 4th floor to pick up the latest METROPOLIS issue and see if there were anything else worth picking up. I did notice that there were some "Doctor Who" novels in the shelves; I guess the good Gallifreyan is making inroads even into this country.
I walked down to Yurakucho from Otemachi. Walked past the ticket booth for that Marunouchi double-decker bus tour. Would be interested in trying that out someday. The fare is just 1,200 yen for adults...pretty good bargain for a pleasant hour's ride around downtown Tokyo. I would've asked The Madame but with the drama from last Thursday, I don't think that's an option anymore. I also went through the main plaza of the Tokyo International Forum where all the food trucks. Another thing I'd like to try, especially since one of the trucks is selling souvlaki. I dropped by BIC Camera to see how much a copy of MS Word would cost....uh, well, I guess I'll see if I can grab a copy of it somewhere. And then I went into Sukibayashi HMV. The latest Yuming album was playing on speakers...a bit strange hearing the old "Blizzard" since I've always considered HMV to be a bit too hip to play some of the cornball stuff.
Got to SIL's neck of the woods 45 minutes early so I ended up cooling my heels in the rooftop game centre of Matsuzakaya in Ueno-Hirokoji. There was mix of mothers, children, retired folk and lunching salaried types in the centre. As for SIL, NOVA didn't pop up in the talk but Ichiro Ozawa's stunt did. We also talked about Frank Nagai, an enka singer who had unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide some years ago, only to end up with the mind of a 6-year-old.

So, I'm here at Speedy's. Those of you who actually have been brave enough to stick through my blog all these years may be sharp enough to realize that I shouldn't be typing this right now. I should be teaching The Full-Timer. Well, The Full-Timer cancelled her lesson today on account that her grandmother is ailing. So, I've only got Mr. TOEIC to wait for. The bossman informed me I've got another model lesson coming up this Thursday with a woman to whom I was briefly introduced a few hours ago. Sounds pretty high....kinda reminds me of The Chipmunk. If everything works out, she'll be my Thursday afternoon regular. Might make up for the loss of income from losing The Younger.

The Anime Chamberlain is back in town apparently. Got a message from him...says that he can come up to the apartment this Wednesday to check on the packages. Well, the only inconvenience for me is that I'm stuck here at Speedy's between The Nurse and 001. Plus, he and The Anime Duke's clan will be headed for The Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari Messe. So that may leave just Thursday morning. The Duke also hinted at dinner on Wednesday. Well, if it's in Shinjuku, it's doable although it'll have to be after 8:30.

I've also sent word to the folks at home that I probably won't be heading home this Xmas due to the actions of the Canadian dollar and my own dwindling money supply. Too bad but I had a feeling about this for some weeks now.

Friday November 2, 12:27 p.m.

And I was only making the remark as a joke. Apparently, the NOVA teachers are indeed putting up signs "Will Teach for Food". Yep, things are that bad. And to add to the brutal irony, the local media has put up pics of what kinda digs President Sahashi had as an office. It kinda puts the Imperial Palace to shame. No surprise that some rather shady business dealings between Sahashi and others have come to the fore.

But it's not just the English teachers that will be suffering. Prices for various things are gonna be jacked up: gasoline, foods, etc. Not a good end to the year.

However, at least Nagoya is feeling no pain right now. The Chunichi Dragons won The Japan Series 1-0 last night over The Nippon Ham Fighters from Hokkaido. It was a 53-year drought for the Dragons. Not exactly the Bambino's Curse on the Bosox but still a long time between championships. I'm sure the tenmusu and the miso katsu are flowing in the eateries of Aichi-ken right now.

Friday November 2, 11:33 a.m.

It was rather interesting yesterday during coffee with The Madame in the new mall, Itocia (the one with Krispy Kreme 2 and the accordingly ridiculous line-up), in Yurakucho. She asked about the English translation for the Japanese term, yuutsu. I first said "depression", but she countered that the condition wasn't quite that serious, so I suggested "melancholy" which got a positive response.
Melancholy was certainly the feeling I had by the end of our time together yesterday afternoon. We'd met up to have lunch at the new Vietnamese restaurant in the basement food floor of Itocia. Very good lunch special but definitely it was a good thing that we got there at 11. By 11:30, the place was full. I'm sure Japanese urban geographers will be starting to talk about the Krispy Kreme multiplier effect.
However, I digress. We ended up going upstairs to the 2nd floor for coffee in one of those old-style cafes with the Taisho-era (circa 1920s Japan) interior design and waitresses dressed in tuxes. We were in the middle of one of our talks when The Madame finally blurted out that she was getting engaged! Engage poker face!
I was rather surprised at how calmly I took the news. Deep down, I knew it would happen sooner or later...and women over here have a way of keeping even news of a relationship top secret from even the closest of friends. Still, part of me was still roiling inside when The Madame explained why she was getting married. One of her multiple omiai matches finally bore fruit earlier this year when she met a government drone. Apparently, the two had gone out on some dates when the man finally proposed to her in late September. She accepted on the basis that: 1)she wasn't getting any younger, 2) although she had zilch romantic interest in him, he would do and 3) she really wanted kids.
Well, for 3), I guess I couldn't blame her since her biological clock is ticking..but the other two reasons struck me as being pretty desperate and cynical. I think she may be making the worst decision in her life but she was pretty cheerfully fatalistic about it (being Russian in a Hello, Kitty way). I didn't tell her that last comment as such but I did question her on whether she was truly making the right decision. She was pretty committed (or ought to be, anyways).
She then went on to talk about her family's reaction to her engagement. In the past, The Madame mentioned that her father wasn't exactly the most stable of people. But from her explanation yesterday, it seems that almost all of her family have reacted in rather odd fashion. Her father has always been lambastingly critical of his daughter...of the fact that she was in her 30s and couldn't get married. Finally, she catches one but papa still isn't happy and apparently has banned his future son-in-law from ever entering the house. Her sister, for some reason, has also not given any sort of blessing either. Both have even gone on record that they wouldn't even attend the wedding. Only the mother has been on The Madame's side.
And then The Madame herself laughingly remarked that she's only told me and a couple of others about her engagement since she's not particularly proud of her long-sought achievement. Most likely, according to her, she and hubby will be just get married in Hawaii with no one in attendance and have just a small cocktail party in "celebration".
My feelings? WHAT THE F---?! That little idiot is just as screwy as her tyrant father. After some back & forth on the matter, I decided to end the conversation about 30 minutes early and walked her back to JR Yurakucho Station. She said that there was still some time left for talk before she had to go off to meet her mother, but I mumbled that I had to do some errands and quickly let her go. She has sent me a couple of e-mails happily thanking me for yesterday, so obviously she's none the wiser about how quickly I let her go home.

At this point, I'll just say that I've decided to terminate my end of this rather odd relationship. She'll figure it out later.

Well, I was feeling pretty lousy and...yuutsu...after that announcement. Some people guzzle down a ton of ice cream, others replace the shelf paper in their kitchens. I took a 10,000-yen note and went shopping for CDs. I bought the 2nd volume of J-Pop Queen Yuming's year-long opus, "Seasons, Colors". It was the Fall/Winter discs as contrasted to Volume 1's Spring/Summer. Being pretty much the only singer in Japan who's still relatively relevant after more than 30 years in the industry, listening to the various songs reflected the changes in musical tastes, instrumentation and her voice.
Along with two other discs, I also got Michael Buble's mini-album of Xmas faves. Slightly disappointed with this one. Aside from his live performance of "Let It Snow", the rest of the numbers had no brass. I think on that note, his fellow Canadian jazzbo, Diana Krall, beats him hands down.

I've started some embryonic efforts in trying to find a new place. It's surprising and nice to see that there are quite a few places that now offer apartments with no need of a guarantor, key money and the other robber baron tactics that real estate agencies here use to fleece new tenants. To be honest, I don't care about the key money so much but I would be happy not to rely on my uncle anymore for the guarantorship.

Well, aside from the search for delinquent NOVA ex-prez, Nozomu Sahashi, the only other big news is that the deadline for the continued re-fueling of coalition ships in the Indian Ocean came and went at midnight. So, the Japanese government called in the MSDF ship, Tokiwa, and any other vessels back home. Strike 1 for PM Fukuda. And now there are talks that there may be a Xmas dissolution of Parliament. Well, at least, the MPs may be home for their KFC on December 25th.

Just have The Ace for his class tonight...only for 45 minutes. He's actually requested to go down to 30 minutes but the boss told him that he's gotta make up some lessons thereby tacking on the extra 15 minutes to each class for the next 3 weeks.

Speaking of Xmas, most likely I won't be home for it. Just don't have the money right now.

Wednesday October 31, 2:53 p.m.

In the middle of the big temporal desert between classes. However, I've managed to keep myself busy. The Chef sent me her latest menus to be proofread...those I got done in about 40 minutes. I also went through the lesson plans for the three students tonight, including pushing the envelope via some handouts for the advanced EIC student. 002 called up to change her time by an hour for next Tuesday, and I had a couple of sandwiches thanks to one of the grandmas. Apparently, The Dentist will be by later on to give me some sort of confectionary (hopefully, not by Akafuku).

Not sure how the NOVA story is coming along. Things have been fairly quiet in the papers for the past couple of days. The ex-president is still missing in action...his face is on a WANTED poster at the Facebook NOVA forum. I'm still thinking Nozomu Sahashi is probably at the bottom of Tokyo Bay along with the body of Ichi the Killer, that deranged kid who'd murdered a NOVA teacher, Lindsay Ann Hawker, earlier this year. I did check the website where an English-language Q&A page has been posted by the lawyers. There were a lot of "I regret..." statements in it, so basically, the teachers have been hung out to dry. And to add insult to injury, the rates for both TEPCO and gas service will go up from the new year.

Well, and here I thought it was just the Hello Project girls who were going through some hard times. It looks like Johnny's Jimusho can now add one of their boytoys into the minus column. A former member of the pre-SMAP group, Hikaru Genji, some fellow named Akasaka, got busted for drug possession. He was looking pretty heroin chic in those recent videos....gaunt and pale. I'm sure the J-Pop forums are abuzz.

However, the big story here has been about the official questioning of that former Defense Ministry Vice Minister who may have been a bit too cozy with a defense contractor during his tenure. Same ol', same ol'...

Wednesday October 31, 12:02 p.m.

In a way, it's rather appropriate that Halloween would be a good day to address this issue since it is about all of the food horrors that Japanese society is going through. Earlier in the year, Fujiya, the leading confectioner of Japan, got suspended for several weeks after it was found out that it had been fudging (no pun intended) its best-by dates. Peko-chan was a truly sad little girl. Now that we're halfway through Autumn, it seems almost quaint and nearly forgotten that this little incident occurred considering what has now passed.
Meat Hope Inc., a meat distribution company, got nailed for passing ground up chicken, pork and what else was on hand doused in beef blood as pure ground beef; its pathetic president finally got arrested last week. The company responsible for one of Japan's most popular omiyage confection, Shiroi Koibito, along with two other major confectioners have also been busted for selling their wares beyond their best-by dates. And then, a chicken distributor has just been found out for selling substandard meat (foul fowl, if you like) as the best of the line; its president was just plunked back into civilization after having trying to commit suicide by exposing himself to the mercies of nature in a forest.
The articles and the news coverage have wailed far and wide about the seeming corruption of the Japanese food industry. However, strangely enough, none of the journos have talked about why this has been happening on such as systemic level. I think all of the companies have been victims of their own success. These aforementioned companies aren't poor entities. Fujiya and Shiroi Koibito are industry bellweathers. The Kyoto confectioner, Akafuku...also implicated in this sordid affair...was actually celebrating 300 years of operation this year. And yet, it decided to get into the muck and tried to get away with some shady practices. Why blow away centuries of reputation? Simple...the demand for all of these popular products was probably so great that the factories were under a lot of pressure to churn out the goods. And so, the cutting of corners began. And look where it has got them....somewhat humiliating (not sure if the management truly feels remorseful) deep bows in front of the flashing cameras and closed stores which has thrown out a lot of employees and disappointed a lot of customers.
But maybe there is hope (not meat hope, though). Fujiya re-opened some months ago and it looks like things are back to normal. Peko-chan is out in her witch hat and black cape. Perhaps a combination of careful production and the moving of the fickle media glare has given the first of the disgraced food manufacturers of 2007 a second chance.

Wednesday October 31, 11:32 a.m.

The Nurse was rather distracted today. She's never been the most robust personality but it looks like the reason that she was 2 minutes late (apparently a crime of Quel horreur! proportions in her family) was a spat between her and her hubby concerning the state of their kitchen. Her husband is apparently a bit of a Felix Unger. Still, she was very kind to give me a belated b-day present in the form of a DIY monaka set. Monaka is that local confection with a mass of bean paste filling a thin pastry shell. The Japanese versions of Haagen-Daas sell variations of monaka in the supermarkets and convenience stores.

Getting back to yesterday's developments, I had my pumpkin carving with the kids. Then, The Milds' son, Mild Jr., dropped in for a model lesson. His parents had told me that their son kinda resembled me in size. Well, I think he's a bit better-built, due to his judo and karate training. He works as a security officer/doorman for one of the hotels nearby, although with his build, I'd say that he would make an excellent doorman of a nightclub. His parents also underestimated his English skill stating initially that he had very little ability. Again, I'd say that he's more well-spoken than his parents. He's not gonna be too regular a student due to his schedule since he said that he only has time for his first lesson on November 27th and his December is filled up.
The Milds showed up...it was the usual somewhat awkward meeting between son and parents for a few minutes before Mild Jr. gallantly offered to head on home. As for the parents, we basically exchanged stories about our respective trips...I on Hong Kong while Mrs. Mild spoke on her travels through Sicily. Like The Beehive, she and her four buddies went there all by themselves...all the more remarkable since Mrs. Mild is nowhere near as good as The Bees in her English ability. According to her, Palermo was a little frightening due to the crazy traffic there and the ever-present threat of pickpockets although the Mafia didn't seem to figure very much. However, she and her friends came across sunnier folks and situations when they traveled through southern Sicily. Apparently, the Japanese tourist groups haven't yet infiltrated that area of the world which makes it a truly special place. I did get a small pack of olives as an omiyage while I gave The Milds a calendar of HK.
The Siberian dotakyaned...no surprise there. However, Jolly came in on a full head of steam. Seems he's pretty interested in learning English presentation techniques so despite the lateness of the hour, both of us got our respective second winds up and pulled off a pretty profitable hour.

I inquired lightly to the juku boss about a topic that she'd broached me about a few months ago about finding a new location that would not only house a new school but also new accomodations for me. I had kinda figured it would've been too good to be true, and sure enough, it looks like that avenue has been closed off. So I guess I'll have to start looking for new digs....provided that they don't require key money or a guarantor.

I got word from my brother that my b-day present for my niece never arrived. Looks like Doraemon has ended up in the black hole of Calcutta for post offices....i.e. some grubby postal handler on the other side of the Pacific. So I'll have to try again...probably after lunch with The Madame tomorrow, if she doesn't mind the little shopping detour.

It'll be another one of those Wednesdays with that big schedule hole in the time-space continuum. Between The Nurse and 001, I've got several hours of nothing. So, I'll have to whip up something for that final class for that way-too-advanced EIC student I've got after 001. The only reason she's taken up my trilogy of lessons is that she gets a member discount when she debuts in the kitchen next month. And....hopefully....The Judge will finally show up for his long-awaited lesson. It's his last assigned lesson before renewal so the stage will be set to see if he actually re-signs or resigns.

Wednesday October 31, 10:00 a.m.

It is supposed to be the witching hour tonight but I think virtually all of the major hijinks associated with Halloween happened last weekend. So aside from some kids' parties here and there, including one at the juku tonight, it should be fairly quiet. I'm not even sure if that supposedly annual "hijacking" of the Yamanote Line by the foreign element will be taking place.

Speaking of the juku, I had that annual pumpkin carving. Last year, it was with Seven (who's probably now fled us); this time, it was Chip N' Dale. We used those cute little mini-pumpkins instead of the big American ones...good call on my count as well. It took the kids about half an hour, their usual lesson time, to get everything done. Chip cut his thumb with the knife but I think the band-aid kept the blood flow in check.

Anyways, The Nurse has just arrived. She called up to say that she would be late. And she was...a whole 2 minutes. Gonna have to punish her for the malfeasance.

Monday October 29, 5:50 p.m.

Managed to print out a couple of Halloween pics for the kids to colour in tomorrow. The past weekend probably had the usual ton of similarly-themed parties in Roppongi and Shinjuku, and I gather that the hijinks will continue for the next couple of nights even though they are worknights. Maybe some of the foreign folks could come costumed as NOVA teachers (ooooh...that was nasty!). I don't think I'll be able to pull it off considering that I only have the kids for half an hour...barely enough time to carve out Jack O' Lanterns but I may even consider trying bobbing for apples.

I found out that Chaz Jankel, that mystery man from Ian Dury & The Blockheads fame, who came up with "Ai no Corrida" is finally coming out with a compilation of his best hits on actual solid CD in early November. For the past year, only those folks with an iPod could download his best stuff, but since I'm a 21st-century Luddite I've been out of luck. However, I could get my chance next month.

On the local pop cultural front, there is good news and bad news. On the good news side, old 80s Johnny Jimusho's dinosaur, Masahiko "Matchy" Kondo finally got his first kid at the ripe old age of 43. Man, took him long enough. And on the sad side, Hello Project's former Morning Musume's starlet, Maki Goto, has decided to leave the company in penance for her stupid brother's criminal activity. Not that it would matter all that much to the population at large.

Matt Damon will be showing up on SMAP X SMAP's Bistro SMAP's cooking segment. Yes, Kimutaku and the boys will be whipping up something for Jason Bourne. I only heard a bit of his Japanese, but Damon doesn't sound too bad stating "Matt Damon desu" and "Sugee oishii!" (Really delicious!) He may have a future in doing those Japanese commercials! Well, I could imagine if the dishes aren't to his liking, he can always pull off some of that Krav Maga on the guys. I say, kick Nakai-kun first.

Monday October 29, 5:13 p.m.

Well, news on the NOVA debacle has gone far beyond our borders here in Japan. Mom called me last night a week earlier than usual to ask me if I had any connection to the scandal. I reassured her that the last time I set foot in a NOVA school, let alone teach in one, was over 10 years ago. Even my brother sent me an article that popped up in the newspaper back home. Right now, there haven't been any major new developments aside that the British and Australian embassies are holding out a helping hand for their nationals who've ended up on the short end of the stick. SIL and I were wondering aloud about the whereabouts of former president and founder Nozomu Sahashi. I sardonically said that he may have found a perpetual hiding place at the bottom of Tokyo Bay.

I just found out that the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies to grab The World Series. In the papers over here, that would probably read Daisuke Matsuzaka swept the Colorado Rockies to grab The World Series. He did earn his keep by being the first winning Japanese pitcher to open a World Series game, but is he worth $100 million? Nope...noone in any sport should be worth that much. Well, the Kamedas should be grateful to Dice-K, though. The victory should easily sweep their turmoil off the front pages for the next week at least. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a victory parade held in Matsuzaka's honour in a few days. Not much solace for the Rockies' Matsui, though.

I've just got The Full-Timer and that new EIC student from 6 p.m....uh, correction...The Full-Timer just called to say that she'll be 15 minutes late. Then, it'll be dinner for me. Kinda glad that I don't have The Beehive tomorrow. Can sleep in a bit before I see 002 and the juku crowd. I've got that pumpkin carving with Chip N' Dale first thing. Gotta get some Trick Or Treat candy for the kids.

The Madame said that she wants to check out Itocia on Thursday. I'm already way ahead of her on that since I visited the mall last Thursday. And I think I know the restaurant we'll try out. Since the two of us have nothing else to do that day, we can raspberry the folks lining up at Krispy Kreme No. 2.

Sunday October 28, 1:45 p.m.

Yesterday, Typhoon 20 made its presence known for several hours starting from the early afternoon to late evening. I had to send The Matron my regrets for not going to her daughter's orchestral event all the way up in Tsuchiura but considering the wind and rain plus the fact that the JR Joban Line is pretty dodgy in such weather, I just couldn't chance going up there and meeting up with MB and The Satyr for DVD night at my place.
As it was, bringing the guys back home was a small exercise in wind tunnel combat. Somehow, our umbrellas managed to stay intact. We did have to change into drier wear though when we got into my apartment, though.
It was the usual pizza-and-triple-DVD night. As a little shift, I went with the Domino's Deluxe instead of Giga Meat (I'll go back to Giga next time). As for the cinematic bill of fare, we started off with "Ghost Rider" with Nicholas Cage. Man, that was a lousy movie. It was basically Cage as Elvis again with a bit of Method tics such as Johnny Blaze's love for jellybeans and The Carpenters. The story and writing also seemed as if it'd been patterned after a badly-knitted quilt. And of course, Sam Elliott was there to provide his usual pitch as weathered cowboy. It's amazing to remember that he was a former "Mission: Impossible" spy.
Things got much better with "Sunshine". This was the sci-fi flick about a group of scientists on the way to re-start the sun. It had that "2001: A Space Odyssey"/"Alien" vibe about it; almost felt like calling "Hal" at some points. And I think that the lead guy, Cillian Murphy, can pretty much play anybody...may get an Oscar sometime in the future.
Finally, there was "Rocky Balboa". Just like the character, the movie was simple but wiser and good-hearted. There was no real attempt to put in some meaty irony into it...it was just the other bookend for the 1976 debut. And people can still root for the big lug.
As usual, The Satyr headed back for home while Movie Buddy crashed overnight. It was an early start to the day, though, since I had to teach The Younger in the morning. But we still had time to grab breakfast at the local Skylark. We made some preliminary plans to catch "The Bourne Ultimatum" when it hits these shores in a couple of weeks.

As for the Younger, her mother landed a professional bombshell when she told me that her daughter failed her English midterm last week. Urk! I was grateful that she didn't mop up the walls with my guts (that probably would've covered the entire interior)...she was very gracious, but I still took it personally. I've been pretty kid-gloves with The Younger since I'd assumed that she was doing pretty well in the subject like her haughty older sister. But I was wrong. Well, I'm gonna have to dig myself out of this hole.
It didn't help that I was feeling pretty rundown since I only got 5 hours of sleep so a bit of that depression was threatening to seep in. However, as Rocky said last night, "...it's about how much you get hit and still manage to keep going forward". And at least, I'm not affiliated with NOVA in any way.

Sunday October 28, 1:17 p.m.

"Nope...it'll never close down...it's too big to close down."


Famous last words....or first words, actually, since those are the words I'd heard from an Area Manager on the first day of training for me at NOVA's Tokyo HQ in Harajuku almost 13 years ago. And at that time, it certainly seemed that Japan's largest English-language school chain could do no wrong: not only did it have its schools scattered and multiplying like rabbits, but it also had its tentacles in software, real estate, and travel. It was a conglomerate unto itself.

Man, how times change. I was heading down to Omotesando to pick up those pumpkins for carving with Chip N' Dale on Friday afternoon when I saw a headline on a red & white banner at a subway kiosk: in romaji and kanji, it read "NOVA...BANKRUPT". I'd had no doubts about the fate of my former employer but the end still registered surprise in me. After I bought the small gourds at the flower shop, I decided to go up to the 3rd floor of a building where Omotesando NOVA was located. Sure enough, there was a closed door and a closure notice pasted on it.
The NOVA implosion (much more accurate than the headline of "NOVA goes SUPERNOVA!") was the top news story on NHK that night. All of the branches have closed up shop, 400,000 students are now teacherless and 4,500 teachers are now without jobs. NOVA went into receivership and has court-appointed lawyers to handle its uncertain future. They have a month to find some sponsors. I'm not hopeful. The day before the Sword of Damocles came down on NOVA Usagi (the second-last and most popular mascot), the NOVA board of directors officially ousted the founder and president, Nozomu Sahashi. Students and teachers have been demanding an explanation from him, but hey, the board basically let him escape by firing him. Sahashi may have a moral obligation to face his accusers but not a legal one. And of course, as has been the case with many a disgraced CEO, he chose to flee. Even the lawyers can't seem to track him down.

My own thoughts as a former NOVA teacher? Well, it was indeed the McDonalds of English Teaching. Students came in and out of the small glass cubicles while teachers taught so many of the same lessons that they'd memorized the entire text within 3 months. I and a lot of the other teachers even back in the glory days of the 90s knew that NOVA management was up to some dodginess. It always seemed to straddle the line of legality when it came to things such as following national holidays (one of NOVA's mantras was that it would stay open virtually every day of the year, except for New Year's), and the revolving door system was just as true for the teachers as they were for students. NOVA was basically seen as a stepping stone for most of the foreigners who were employed until that next big thing came along.
The actual schools ranged in size greatly. I had it made because I'd been assigned to a small school...great to cultivate a feeling of camaraderie and continuity amongst students, staff and teachers. Whilst the feeling was that an assignment to one of the honko, the base schools, such as Shinjuku or Ikebukuro with tons of students and teachers was akin to being punished.
There was a lot to criticize NOVA on, but it did provide one good thing to me. The training did instill a basic structure on how to conduct a class. My 1 year of TESL education back home has largely been forgotten but the NOVA training is still in my noggin.
I guess I made it out a good decade before the fall happened. I feel really sorry for the teachers who didn't, though. They've got to bear the brunt of living on no income in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. However, I can imagine that Sahashi and the directors that pulled off the coup d'etat are still quite well esconced in their million-yen manshons.

Friday October 26, 10:20 a.m.

Fairly gloomy, rainy day out there. Just the right kind of weather for an indirectly disgraced boxer to face the music. A little over an hour ago...Koki Kameda, the oldest brother of the battlin' Kameda family, was facing a barrage of camera flashes and some rather tough grilling/chewing out by one crusading journalist over that mauling his younger brother, Daiki, gave his opponent, champion Naito, a couple of weeks ago.
It was a fascinating image of Koki. His head was shaved, presumably in atonement, and he had a look that probably noone has ever seen before: shellshocked fear. A very different expression from the usual one he and his siblings always gave before the media: loud, brash and cocky. This new Koki was almost drowned out by the camera clicking during his apologies. He almost looked worthy of sympathy...but then a lot of us who never really cottoned on to his family's bling, bling antics are probably pumping that fist in triumph right now.
I also thought it was a good reminder about that although Japanese society may be emulating its Western counterparts in many ways...such as sports trash talk...over here, there are limits. In the United States, the mouthing off and cockiness are all a part of the game and all of the Muhammad Alis are very much celebrated as they are reviled. Over here, the Kamedas found out that they leapfrogged over that line and have now been whacked.

Now, as my sports commentary has now finished...

Yesterday, I had most of the day off so I enjoyed one of my lunches at the neighbourhood tonkatsu restaurant before heading off to Yurakucho in a bit of atonement of my own. I still felt rather guilty for giving those (so-called) jade bracelets with the wrong year-animals to the Sisters of State and BC, so I decided that I would take a chance and see if (ha, ha) Krispy Kreme No. 2 would be a bit more quicker in the lineups.
As Bugs Bunny would say..."What a maroon!" I got to the basement of the latest shopping mall to drop into Tokyo, Itocia, and saw the usual snake of people...1h40min wait to be exact...winding from the newest store. Uh-uh....not getting anywhere near there. However, I finally did get to see what the inside of a KK looks like. Not a whole lot of space there, but most of the customers don't hang around to enjoy their doughnuts anyways.
But I did look around the food floor. With a mix of an urban geography theory and the Krispy Kreme effect, a lot of the other eateries and shops were enjoying brisk business. There was a wine shop, a Vietnamese restaurant, a dim sum place and an traditional anmitsu shop for starters. I decided to get some cute little teas from a place called Kapek for the ladies in recompense.
Above, there was an opening ceremony for a pachinko parlour, complete with live trumpet and kodo drums. It was probably the first time in memory that it was noisier outside than inside a parlour. I took a quick look through the Marui department store which makes up the bulk of the aboveground part of Itocia. Meh....the usual stuff. Still, the neighbourhood looks a lot more modern now than before.

I did my usual trek through the CD shops, At HMV, I found the second part of Yuming's big opus for this year. Earlier, I'd bought a 2-disc compilation of her "Seasons, Colours" set which covered songs that hinted at Spring and Summer. Well, the Fall and Winter collection has now been released so there are a few Xmas tunes in there. I was kinda surprised that "Koibito wa Santa Claus" wasn't included, though.
I also came across the disc and DVD for Morning Musume's 10th-anniversary. Yep, strangely enough, they're still around although they've pretty much dropped off the pop culture radar. Well, that's not quite true...the former members have been popping up, but for some rather bad news. One of the earlier "graduates" has gotten divorced from the drummer of rock band Luna Sea; another one of the first members, Natsumi Abe, got herself involved in an auto accident; and the younger brother of breakout member Maki Goto, Yuki, has gotten himself in hot water by being the alleged ringleader of a group of cable thieves. Gotta admit, though, that the cover was inspired. The current members of the troupe have been photographed mimicking the poses of the original members from their first single and their most successful one, "Love Machine". Will just love to see how the online fans react to that.

I also visited Yamano Music and the other HMV in Yurakucho. Yep, quite a few discs I wanna get for Xmas. And sure enough, the Xmas music marketing machine has already gotten into full gear. Michael Buble has released his mini-album of Yuletide standards.

Headed back to Ichigaya to see The Carolinan and BC. I gave them their tea and mumbled again about how sorry I was for screwing up their ages, but they didn't pay any mind. Once again, as soon as we started gabbing in English, it was amazing to see how quickly the surrounding customers cleared out. I'm just hoping that there aren't any future consequences to this trend.
BC may not only be my student but she may even become my colleague at Speedy's. She's interested in using her English skills and helping out with study-abroad programmes, which is just up Speedy's alley. The interview may be in a couple of weeks.

I finally got through the Bond capers, "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Yep, "Goldfinger" was aptly named since it's become the gold standard for all of the Bond movies...and other spy flicks...to follow. "Dr. No" may have been a relatively quiet start to the franchise, and "From Russia With Love" was a somewhat more standard suspense flick, but "Goldfinger" was the one to put it all together. The intelligent but mad villain, the seemingly invincible henchman, the great theme song...they're all there.

To wrap up the day, I listened to my recent purchase of Hiromi Iwasaki's remastered re-release of a 1985 disc called "Diamant". It's not something that I would ever proudly play at home parties but the songs do bring back the memories about how J-Pop was back in the day. Speaking of which, I got Soul'D Out's latest dirrrty tune, "Tonguede Tongue" running around in my head.
Strangely enough, in this day and age of J-R&B and J-Rock, there has been a resurgence in Group Sounds, which was the in-thing to listen to back in the 60s. Basically, a ton of bands consisting of mop-topped boys a la pre-Sgt. Pepper's Beatles, played similarly written tunes. There were The Tigers (led by future Japanese David Bowie, Kenji Sawada), The Four Leaves and The Spiders. A lot of these guys are now aging variety show veterans.

Still gotta find out whether the latest DVD night is a go for tomorrow. The mother of the Younger told me I've got her kid's lessons this and next Sunday, so the wake-up call for MB and I will be early. But I did dangle the possibility of the 11th.

Anyways, gotta get those pumpkins for Chip N' Dale today.

Wednesday October 24, 8:29 p.m.

Another wild and woolly one with 001. Basically spent nearly the entire session fielding her questions on Hong Kong as she was scanning through the photos. It's always good coming back from trips. Looks like she's been hitting the makkori (Korean liquor) quite a bit. Much stronger liver than mine. She was also very envious when I told her that The Class Act and I had made a celebrity sighting at The Mandarin Oriental in the form of Lee Byeong Hong, that Korean actor.

Looks like the new beginning for "Star Trek" has got its cast altogether. The roles of Kirk and McCoy have been filled. Kinda interesting about seeing Karl Urban as the new Bones. Can't imagine the guy who fought the Orc horde in "The Two Towers" will be grousing at Spock in the new movie. But then again, I'm sure all eyes will be on Chris Pine (sounds awfully close to Chris Pike) to see what his rendition of Starfleet's hammiest captain will be like.

And then I see the picture of Doctor Who No. 5...otherwise known as the celery-pinning, cricket-playing, nice Doctor....up with current Doctor, David Tennant. Peter Davison isn't exactly fat but he probably needed to let out those cricket pants out a bit in the 2 decades since he left the role.

Not sure but I may just stop by at China Quick for a bite to eat before heading home. Then, it's time to get some sleep. Luckily, I just have The Carolinan and BC tomorrow night.

Wed. October 24, 4:45 p.m.

The waiting game continues. Since it is the boss' b-day, I treated him to a takeout McD's Big Mac Set. Yup, not exactly the most exquisite of presents but he appreciated the gesture. In any case, his wife will proably take him somewhere more fitting.

"Heroes" has been playing its first three eps on SuperDrama TV! on heavy rotation for the past few weeks now. I haven't particularly become rapt with the series but if I have some time, I try to catch it. As for the two characters, Hiro and Ando...man, they really gotta get some authentically speaking Japanese actors. I can take Masi Oka but the guy who plays Ando has a cringeworthy accent. Well, at least, they're bringing in a true aidoru from the late 80s to play a new addition...possibly Hiro's love interest. Her name is Eriko Tamura, and apparently she can not only speak her native language but does a pretty good job with English and German.
She's probably in her early 30s now but almost 20 years back, she caused quite a bit of "hot and bothered" in her calendar when one of her photos had her pose for a shot in a flimsy bathing suit which basically showed a bit too much of her butt....just a crack (ahem...pun). And this was a couple of years before Rie Miyazawa's "Santa Fe" came out, a pictorial that launched that whole craze of Japanese actresses/singers baring all for the camera in the 90s.
So, it looks like "Heroes" has become quite the pop cultural cauldron. We have a former J-Pop singer, a former Doctor Who and Mr. Sulu. Now, if Mark Hamill isn't too busy...

Wednesday October 22, 12:36 p.m.

It was another early start to my Wednesday since I had The Nurse for her usual 10 a.m. Despite the Hong Kong trip, my shoulders are still feeling mighty tight. I may have to consider hitting some sort of clinic to get them unwrenched. As for The Nurse, she introduced all of us to a website which featured fortune telling via the ingredients and utensils of custard pudding. Yep, you heard me. Your entire future can be mapped out for you through your identification with spoons, lids, sugar and eggs. Uh...yeah...well, I figure that any society which has wrapped itself up with fortune telling via animals, blood types and derivation of names would probably jump on the purin bandwagon sometime during its lifetime.
By inputting my name and age into the dedicated search engine, I found out I was a lid...with all of the mirth that's implied. There was some gibberish in Japanese about my personality which I didn't pay too much heed to. But if you can read the stuff, you can give it a try. It's at http://tabetoko.com/pudding. Through this, I found out that Speedy is celebrating his 38th today. He's an egg, by the way.

Yesterday, I met up with The Beehive for the first time since they all got back from their Canadian odyssey last Thursday. Looks like, kilo for kilo, they had a better time than I did on their respective tour. Not to say that I didn't like Hong Kong but I think they appreciated their time through The Great White North more. They said everyone was friendly and considerate...all except, tellingly, one member of the TTC in Toronto (no surprise there...staff on the Toronto Transit Commission basically have lived in a siege mentality for years and years now). Like me, they liked taking pictures of their meals. Yep, the Toronto fare is still bigger than the portions here. I got quite a few souvenirs from them, too.

Since this is the first round with the students since my return from vacation, it's been a fairly easy round with all of the souvenir giving and photo-showing. 002 basically just had a chat session about my trip and I marked her test. No problems...she was virtually perfect.
I also gave out magnets to Chip n' Dale at the juku last night, along with the deactivated key cards from The Mandarin Oriental. Next week will be the pumpking carving for Halloween which saves me a lot from prepping the usual stuff. I think they're getting a bit bored so I'll have to go back to the fun n' games from November.
Then, it was 2.5 hours of nothing between the kids and The Siberian. There were the 90 minutes vacated by Seven and then we got word that Mr. Mild was still stuck in the wilds of Chiba on business. Mrs. Mild was off on an excursion of her own so that was another hour shot. The juku boss noticed I looked rather tired by the time The Siberian ambled in. I went through 20 crossword puzzles in those 150 minutes. As usual, The Siberian was all about the gab; we got onto one of his favourite topics, name etymology. I'll have to research Icelandic Naming Conventions via Wikipedia for him....I remembered that Bjork and her fellow Icelandians have some rather different approaches to naming themselves. As for Jolly, we also spent half the hour on the Hong Kong trip.

Well, I finished with The Nurse. Now it's just only 001 tonight. The Judge cancelled once more so I won't have to lounge around until his usual slot of 9:30 p.m. I could use the extra sleep.

I actually received a letter from the General Manager of the Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental thanking me for my comments on the accomodations there last week. It was a textbook response addressing on each of my comments (good food and bed, not-so-good Internet) so I was quite impressed. Not that I'll be hitting that hotel anytime soon....unless I win the lottery or The Class Act decide to bring me again.

I also sent a thank-you e-mail to the Butler for all his help last week. It's kinda nice to keep connections although I know that The Cap and The Iconoclast are also there as well.

Monday October 22, 4:57 p.m.

It's that time again...when I end up kicking myself repeatedly for some faux pas I've committed. Last night, I met up with The Sisters of State and BC in front of the police box nearest the West Gate of JR Shinjuku. I was giving them their souvenirs from Hong Kong; at first I asked them about their birth years since I got them the bracelets from the Jade Market in Kowloon. I took the chance back then of guessing their years so I could get the appropriate jade animal (e.g. 1965 was the year of the snake). I was so completely off the mark..I ended up giving them animal bracelets that were totally different; and the ladies looked rather nonplussed. Erk! It was only then that I realized how thoughtless I was.
Still, they did appreciate the trip to Mo-Yan. They were impressed at how much they could get in terms of salad and curry for such a cheap price. Plus, the coffee and the other condiments are free there. I played it very safe by ordering merely the large size of curry instead of the Megaton from the last visit. Of course, the trip home guaranteed me a good seat since my clothing smelled of spices and sweat.

Today, I met The Class Act for the first time since the return from Hong Kong. Not surprisingly, much of the talk was on our lasting impressions of the place. I definitely called for a return there; not immediately, since I would like to have some lead time before I get on a plane again.

Pretty busy day today. I also had SIL; I was sworn to silence by The Lady not to tell her sister-in-law about the trip there. But I still gave her a memo pad from Dynocks. I'm currently at Speedy's. I've got The Full-Timer and Mr. TOEIC tonight. But squeezed in between, I've got the latest English-in-Cooking student...an atypical customer since her TOEIC score in the 900s; basically, she could teach me English. But by joining the prep EIC, she saves some money when it comes to her debut this Saturday.

Well, I did put those HMV certificates to good use. I went to the local branch in Takashimaya Times Square yesterday and bought a couple of 007 DVDs: "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Of course, they are the Sean Connery Bonds. Accept no substitute. I used to remember ABC showing the latter movie almost once a season on Sunday nights but ironically, I haven't seen a scene of it in the last 20 years. It was a good time to get re-acquainted with it.
I've also been going through MB's present to me...the novel of "From Russia With Love". It has been a pageturner. I've been learning a lot more about the clockwork within all of the major characters such as Bond, Klebb, Red Grant, Tania and Kerim. But also the Bond depicted in the novel isn't quite the ultrasuave and cool-as-a-cucumber spy that Connery depicted. This Bond does get nervous and loses his temper on quite a few occasions. This is actually more reminiscent of the Daniel Craig Bond.

Well, a quick dinner...

Sunday October 21, 1:35 p.m.

It was an interesting day yesterday...had three types of social interaction. First, there was the biweekly lesson with Tully & The Coffeemaker. My occasional role as Souvenir Santa Claus continued (and will continue for another couple of weeks) as I handed out Mah Jongg memo pads to the kids. I've been lucky that the basement of the coffee shop, though musty, is plenty empty.
Then I raced back home to my station to meet The Anime Duke and his two traveling buddies from Canada. True to Canadian tourist form, they arrived wearing T-shirts and shorts while me and the natives wore jackets. I took them for lunch to the ramen shop downstairs; they really enjoyed the garlicky broth. The two friends were asking about a couple of products that I'd never seen before but we checked out the nearby 100-yen shop just in case, but nada...
Took them home. They'd never seen a typical 20-square-metre 2K apartment before and they were suitably surprised at how I have managed to survive in my glorified closet for the past 13 years. The Duke took one look at the massive box holding the three Idolmaster dolls for The Anime King and just dismissed any possibility of taking any of the boxes home outright, contradicting what the King had said.
I also heard the other side of the potential tiff between The Duke and The Anime Chamberlain. The latter warned me that The Duke was a bit too feckless and disorganized, and certainly The Duke won't be anyone I would consider traveling with since he likes to go wherever the winds take him that day. On the other hand, The Duke was getting a little miffy about The Chamberlain being too uptight and starchy about the whole thing. The Duke tried to call him up to no avail. It's a surprise to me how these two ever decided to go traveling together.

My third interaction was in Ebisu, one of the tonier areas of Tokyo just one stop away from Teen Mecca Shibuya on the JR Yamanote Line. The Satyr was celebrating his birthday, thanks to his girlfriend of several months, Miss Ivory. I got to Ebisu an hour early so I just walked through the Atre Mall, one of a chain of station malls (yes, there is actually a chain of station shopping centres here in The Big Sushi). The usual throng of people walking everywhere. I actually sat beside a Japanese woman and her gaijin beau having a quiet spat about something. I ended up going to one of the balconies overlooking the taxi pickup area. It was interesting how quickly cabs just go in and out picking up their fares. The Big Apple may have the largest number of taxis on the planet but The Big Sushi has the widest variety of taxi companies. I saw six cabs out there waiting for fares and each of them belonged to different firms.

At 6 p.m., I met Movie Buddy, The Sylph, The Satyr and Miss Ivory outside of the West Exit of JR Ebisu. Skippy would've come but she's busy nursing a cold and has therefore also cancelled her presence for Mo-Yan tonight. It's been a month since I saw MB but it's been close to 4 months since I last saw The Satyr. The five of us then waited near Garden Place for MB's Australian comrade-at-arms, Sam and his family. It took a while but he and his brood finally showed up and we walked over to the restaurant for the evening, China 8 Cafe.

The fare at China 8 was akin to what I'd had in Hong Kong just a few days ago. There was the Peking Duck, the gyoza and the sho ron po. A cute waitress just fell in love with Sam's 6-month-old son, which at one point got an admonishment from the chef carving up the duck for unprofessionalism. Being the chronic Libran, I could understand the chef's point of view since the waitress was getting rather sickly about her fawning but on the other hand, I thought that the chef doth protest too much.
Some more folks joined us at the already crowded table...all of whom were The Satyr's buddies. Then, Miss Ivory unleashed her surprise in the form of a birthday cake for both The Satyr and me...since mine came by on the day I'd left for HK. I did tell The Satyr that there shouldn't be anything done on my account. Good friends follow that request; close friends disregard it utterly. Plus, we both got presents. From MB, I got the original Ian Fleming novel of "From Russia With Love", which I'm using for my subway reading. Plus, I got some Godiva Chocolates. And from The Satyr and his lady love, I received HMV gift certificates. Guess where I'm going after I log off? After the dinner, most of the guys decided to go drinking but I demurred since I had The Younger this morning. But there has been talk for the seasonal DVD Night.

So, 3 different interactions. The first one had me in teacher mode so I was talking at 75% normal speed while I was just zipping along with The Anime Duke and his boys. The b-day party had me somewhere in the middle.

As I said, I had The Younger this morning. She was her usual sleepyheaded self. However, she brightened up considerably on seeing the latest arrival of Scrabble. We would've gone long with the game except that her parents offered to drive me over to Higashi-Nakano Station since the father was off to America for a conference for the next week.

True to my nature, I scouted for the meeting place tonight for the JR Shinjuku West Exit police box...found that straight away and then discovered that Mo-Yan was just at the end of the road where I used to teach at The Company years ago. Still three hours away from that meeting with The Sisters of State and BC. I had lunch at the nearby Excelsior Coffee near Mo-Yan. Pretty empty....which brings me to give a piece of advice when looking for someplace to eat on a busy Sunday in Tokyo. Always try out the commercial areas which are often deserted for lunch.
The novel "From Russia With Love" is somewhat different from the movie version in that it does go into very fine detail (as Ian Fleming always did) on everything. It's certainly different from the Mickey Spillane delivery of terse, bite-sized phrases. Fleming uses complete sentences with glorious description. James Bond doesn't even show up until nearly halfway through. A lot of the exposition in the first half is devoted to the characters of Rosa Klebb, Red Grant and the plan to assassinate 007 which I do appreciate.

Speedy contacted me yesterday about me trying to teach The Dentist and The Manhattanite on the next Saturday, although the 27th has been made an off day for me. He was offering me the classes probably since he felt I could've used the income due to my 3-day absence last week but I also think that he wants to get down to town on some of his other admin work that day. Well, The Matron mentioned some weeks ago about inviting me to some harp recital involving her daughter so I had to tell the bossman that it would be a wait-and-see until tomorrow afternoon...not sure what will become of that invitation. But if MB and The Satyr are coming over, then I may still decline even if nothing comes out of The Matron's plans.

Well, I'll probably be off to Takashimaya Times Square across the tracks. I'll check out HMV; I may even buy some Kinokuniya gift certificates for The Satyr as recompense for his kind gift last night. Krispy Kreme 1 supposedly says that there is merely a 40-minute wait for donuts today but I think it still looks like 90 minutes, at least.

Saturday October 20, 8:48 a.m.

Well, now that I've got Hong Kong off my chest, just some of the stuff that's happened over here.

The one news item that got my blood boiling was the news about that little girl who got stabbed to death right in front of her own house by some fiend...that's the only word I can use for this murderer. I really, really hope that the cops catch this guy. There have just been too many kid slashings and stabbings in this country.

And the other big news was the disciplinary bushwhacking that the notorious boxing family of Kamedas got from the national boxing association. I knew that Daiki Kameda needed to have a straitjacket wrapped around him when he decided to suddenly change his championship match with reigning champ Naito into a wrestling bout in the final round, but I was surprised that both the father and older brother Koki got nabbed as well. Daiki was given a 1 or 3-year suspension (I forgot which), Koki got censure and the dad has been ousted from the sport...just like that brutal oyakata Tokitsukaze.
To be honest, for all their bluster and bling bling, the Kameda antics didn't seem any different from the stuff that American boxers often pull in their press conferences. However, in a society that prefers to have the standing nail whacked down, the boys just went too far.

Getting back into the swing of things. I saw B2 on Thursday. She was fine. I've already started giving away the tons of souvenirs from HK. I gave her a pad...a writing one, silly. At the juku last night, Jolly was a cancellation but The Ace showed up. I gave him a kitchen magnet...hey, at least it was something. The juku boss got a calendar. Looks like The Ace may be doing the slow fade from me after more than a year of his Friday lessons. He's asked to cut down his time to 30 minutes.

The Anime Duke finally called me last night....almost 24 hours after his initial promise to do so. The Anime Chamberlain had contacted me the day before, and he warned me that his buddy is a bit on the feckless side. But it looks like it was just a matter of The Duke coming into town too late past the witching hour and losing his Internet connection. Anyways, he and his posse will be making a quick pass-through into my neighbourhood to see about those voluminous packages for The Anime King. So I'm gonna have to wrap up things quickly with Tully & The Coffeemaker this morning. And then, I've got The Satyr's birthday party to attend later in the evening. Skippy has to skip that and the Mo-Yan outing tomorrow with me, The Sisters of State and BC due to a cold.

Definitely back in the saddle again...

Thursday October 18, 5:33 p.m.

DAY 3

The final day of the tour through Hong Kong started with yet another round of breakfast at the buffet restaurant. However, I decided to rein myself in a bit at the tables. True to The Lady's whirlwind nature, we quickly hit the subways once more and headed off to Wah Tai Sin back in Kowloon to visit a temple. The incense there was quite overpowering. The Class Act did their praying while I politely demurred at any attempts to recognize religion.
Then, it was back on the train again so that all of us could get some final items for souvenir shopping. So it was back to IFC and Dynocks again while the ladies went upstairs to get some stuff from a tea shop. And then it was some more walking until we hit a dim sum place called Lok Fu. We were on a clock by that point so it was a quick run-through of the platters before we got back to the hotel to get checked out.
Once again, a chauffered van got us back to the airport on Lantau. And The Class Act and I made our goodbyes at check-in since they were on a JAL flight (Business Class, of course) and I on an ANA flight (cattle car...I mean Economy Class, of course). Managed to get a few more souvenirs for Speedy and The Beehive before boarding.

Hong Kong was indeed a revelation. In fact, the culinary journey worked a little too well...it made the crud served on the flight home all the more egregious. That was the worst saikyo-yaki (maybe saitei-yaki would've been a better description) of salmon I'd ever had. I really gotta work on getting to like planes again.

Thursday October 18, 4:46 p.m.

DAY 2

Got up at 6. Still good. No aftereffects from the previous night's horrors. I turned on the TV. One of the strange things about CNN showing on at the hotel was that all of the voices were pitched one octave lower. So, everyone sounded like Sith Lords. We had Darth Larry, Darth Anderson and Darth John King. Also, unlike in the other countries' hotels, it didn't seem like I could get any of the local HK channels...just variations on CCTV. It was pretty laughable watching the propaganda on that station. It resembled that classic SCTV sketch about accidentally getting Soviet television.

Met the ladies down in the lobby. One thing about staying at the Mandarin was that it was a busy place. Staffers always seemed to be talking with guests about something. And it was certainly a magnet for the foreigners. I saw many more Westerners than local Chinese which may say something about how much the rooms were. Actually, the night before, we did make a celeb sighting. Korean actor, Lee Byon Hung, was entering one of the bars with his entourage. I had been told that the hotel attracted its fair share of famous faces.

The Lady took us to a congee place nearby (well, actually we took the double-decker bus a couple of blocks) that she often frequents. I could see and taste why. The congee was probably one of the best I'd ever had. In the rice soup, there were chunks of meaty chicken and other veggies. Plus, we had the complementary plate of deep-fried bread to add to the hearty stew. It's one of the regrets of Japanese culinary culture that there were none of these breakfast restaurants in my adopted country...unless you count McDonalds.

Then it was off by taxi to the Peak Tram station where we hopped on the tram all the way to the top of Victoria Peak. This garnered the first major Wow moment of the whole trip. It was truly amazing to see all thse huge architectural stalagmites amassed together and going so high. I could only imagine how it must be to live in the penthouse apartments of some of those towers.

After getting back down, we headed back to the Mandarin...and surprisingly enough, The Lady suggested a brunch at the restaurant on the mezzanine. Didn't realize that The Lady had quite the appetite. However, both she and The Matron could observe that I had fully recovered from my brush with death the night before as I plowed into my dishes of bacon, scrambled eggs, danish and other stuff from the tables. Yup, I was back.

It was another brief return to the rooms before we headed out once more...this time, by subway to Tsim Sha Shui. Actually, we went quite a bit north to the Jade Market. There, I saw the ladies' true talent in haggling for all sorts of jade accessories (whether they were really jade remains to be seen). The market was located in this rather non-descript factory building where the fans were going on full blast to keep the heat out. I also noticed that a lot of the surrounding buildings had that decrepit look....quite a far cry from the techno-architecture of Central. The ladies' enthusiasm for their art got me drawn into the mix...and ended up buying a few trinkets myself for The Sisters of State and BC...yep, souvenirs had to be bought.

Once all of us got our business done in the Jade Market, we made our way down to the main street via a wet market. Yup, the odours of the place reminded me of old Chinatown in downtown Toronto in the summer. We walked down a few blocks when The Lady saw a tiny eatery serving Turtle Jelly...yep, you heard me right...gelatin made from the blood of the cute little reptile. The Lady swears by it, so I tried a bowl of the stuff; actually, it wasn't half-bad. It tasted of herbal medicine, strangely enough, but with a generous dollop of honey, I could down it easily.
It was a long walk down Nathan Road to Tsim Sha Tsui. I'd had earlier impressions of the area being a wider version of the tackier parts of Shimbashi in Tokyo but actually it looked more like Omotesando. By the time, we got to that side of Victoria Harbour, we could see a lot of the brand name goods stores. However, we went instead into the Peninsula Hotel, and the lobby was actually more opulent than the one in The Mandarin. Huge ceilings with huge chandeliers and a string quartet playing on the mezzanine. The reason we were there was that The Matron wanted to buy some very expensive chops at this store which had photos of some fairly famous clientele, including the half-carbon, half-silicone Kanno Sisters.

It was then time for lunch so we made our way up again north to a shopping/financial centre. There was some noodle place which The Lady had seen in the guide book. And it was another hit. We shared two bowls of pretty spicy noodle soup and a round of sho ron po dumplings. The gourmet tour was working to plan.
We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island. The way the ferry was rocking, I was afraid that both my brain and stomach would be taken back to the previous night's events, but it turned out to be OK...although since the ride was a mere 5 minutes, there wasn't much time for me to get sick on the rolling waters.

From that point onwards, The Class Act and I split up for the rest of the afternoon. They had to get some more souvenir shopping done and I decided to crash for about a couple of hours. At about 4, I also went out souvenir hunting and ended up scouring most of Central for the next two hours. There were just too many expensive department stores to find anything affordable. And I'm not sure what Chip N' Dale would've done with Manolo Blahnik shoes. However, near the end of my odyssey through the literal hills and valleys of Central, I managed to pick up a lot of stuff at this W.H. Smith-like bookstore called Dynock. The interesting thing about it was that it was wholly English in content....not a Chinese book to be found. Which reminded me how literate in their second language a lot of the folk here were (well, the ladies in the turtle jelly eatery couldn't speak it). The bank tellers, the taxi drivers, the building receptionists could all speak English fluently...not surprising since HK was an English colony until a decade ago. Here in Japan, you would feel that you had won the lottery if you could find a similar person who could even speak a few words.

Got back and freshened up before heading back down to the lobby at 7 to meet The Class Act and The Butler. I apologized to The Butler profusely for what nearly happened the night before. True to his profession, he smilingly laughed it off. Then it was off to Wu Kong, the Shanghai restaurant in Causeway Bay that would bring us the culinary highlight of the entire trip. The ride there by taxi also brought the second Wow moment...seeing Central in lights. It was truly a Blade Runner moment.

We went up to the 13th floor of this building in HK's version of Times Square where there was a huge queue waiting for taxis. The manager of Wu Kong graciously greeted us at the door and escorted us to the table. Some minutes later, my old university buddy, The Cap arrived and I did the intros. Then, the feast began. It was a 2-hour-long blur of culinary ecstasy including such delights as Shark's-Fin Soup, Mandarin Fish and Peking Duck. The masterpiece, though, was Steamed Crab in some sort of liquor. The manager brought us the still-alive but trussed-up crabs on a plate...some minutes later, they were brought back to us fully cooked into an orange glow. Now, I'm not a huge fan of crab since I don't like having to work for my food by trying to crack open shells but the taste of this crab was such that it was truly worth the time of hammering and cracking and sucking to get every morsel of this succulent arthropod into my digestive tract.
It was also good seeing The Cap after so many years. He was looking a little paunchier from his wiry days at U of T and had a few more laugh lines around the mouth and eyes but it was the same ol' guy. The Lady later remarked that the two of us were obviously bantering about like old buddies. Yup, it's been a long time since I could talk that easily with anyone.

We were all pretty stuffed by the end, and The Cap politely declined the offer, but the rest of us had one more stop at a dessert place called Moon Kee before retiring for the night. It was a very brief stop...just 15 minutes...but we had to try some of their sweet bean soups. Worked wonders for the digestion. We hopped into our taxi one last time, and gave our goodbyes to The Butler one last time since he couldn't see us off home the next day. He's a good guy to know.

Thursday October 18, 3:43 p.m.

Well, it was like an Indiana Jones movie....a lot of exploration and excitement, a bit of pain and even more awe, a few laughs and some trip-ups along the way. That is the short story for my trip to Hong Kong between the 15th and 17th.

DAY 1

Woke up at the horribly early hour of 3 a.m. in the morning to pack and then head on out to Narita Airport. This action would trigger a rather unfortunate payback later on in the day as you'll find out.
Arrived in Narita to see that even at the bright and early hour of 7, there were plenty of tour groups lined up to invade the rest of the world. I found my desk at HIS, the nationwide discount travel ticket agency in Japan and got mine for my ANA flight.
Just like Indiana Jones' phobia for snakes, I have developed a new one for planes...especially the economy section. I was stuck in the middle for both going and coming back. I could only imagine how the two of us would react to the overrated "Snakes on a Plane"...thank the heavens that it quickly fizzled. Not sure what it is that triggered it. Perhaps it was the flight from Toronto to Tokyo early this year via Hell...otherwise known as the airspace over Vancouver. There was a rather turbulent air mass which made me very prone to seeing what I'd had for the inflight meal...again. Even with an ANA flight, I was just itching to get off the plane for all of those 4 hours squeezed between two other passengers...even with VOB (video-on-backseat) display. Mind you, I did see Robin Williams' "License to Wed" as the in-flight feature....some of that maniacal Williams humour was back but I can see why it would make an ideal plane movie. As for the in-flight meal, the menu called for steak, but it was really just gloppy beef...stuff you may see at the end of a Yoshinoya serving day.

Got to Hong Kong weary but alive. It was warmer than Tokyo but nowhere near the blazing heat that it's notorious for. I met The Class Act at the carousels of this huge airport and then we met The Lady's butler in Hong Kong...The Butler. But the Butler wasn't in uniform...he was having a couple of days off just for us, so he was in Polo shirt and jeans. Really nice and accomodating guy.
True to service from a 5-star hotel, there was a van with chauffeur (yup, black suit and cap) which took us and the luggage to The Mandarin Oriental down in Central. It was a 30-minute trip from the airport...during which I got a taste of the amazing architecture that HK is renowned for. I saw a lot of nosebleedingly tall apartment buildings jutting out of the ground like stalagmites in a cavern. And there was that familiar haze which usually envelops the city; however, none of us suffered any asthma attacks during our time there.

From Lantau Island to Kowloon and through the under-Victoria Harbour tunnel over to Hong Kong Island....I just had to gape at the grandeur and size of some of those skyscrapers. Skyscrapers wouldn't be the appropriate word...these were skystabbers. There was the HKBC Building competing with the behemoth for The Bank of China and the International Financial Centre (IFC) for mastery of the skies. And it wasn't just height but breadth as well. Some of these buildings were simply massive...certainly would put some of big buildings, such as Tokyo City Hall and Sunshine 60, to shame.
We finally got into The Mandarin Oriental Hotel...as I said, a place with 5 stars and a long reputation, only to find out that our rooms were still not ready from one of three Japanese staffers. Not a great start. In fact, I'd have to say that perhaps the hotel may need a bit of a wake-up call itself by getting one of its stars knocked off. On the plus side, the hospitality and the rooms were indeed top-notch...there was also a very large plasma screen TV, newspapers and fresh fruit ready for the taking. And the breakfast buffet on the mezzanine was just wonderful to behold.
However, I'd have to say that there were minuses as well. The Internet connection with the wireless keyboard was a bit of a disappointment...especially since one had to pay $16 HK for the day's privilege. There was no mouse but one of those rubber trackball-like these stuck into the keyboard...not the fastest maneuverability. Plus, the keyboard had limited range...I couldn't really use it from the bed. It was either bring the chair right dead centre or type on it standing up in front of the screen like Geordi LaForge does in TNG. And often the keystrokes wouldn't register onto the screen, so blogging would've been too much of a pain in the neck.
But it wasn't just me...The Class Act also had a bit of a problem. For some reason, the hotel charged them for spa usage when in fact, the ladies never went anywhere near the place. And the staff also screwed up on the pickup time to head back to the airport. Nope, not exactly 5-star level service.

During that one hour reprieve we gave the staff to get the rooms ready, The Class Act, The Butler and I wound our way through Des Voeux Ave to find a bank to change our money from yen to Hong Kong dollars. We found a large one in which we made our way to the massive basement level for currency exchange. I discovered that the banking services are set up like the banks in North America. There were none of the cute tellers in bright uniforms or the benches to sit on while waiting. It was the snake-like queues with all of the staff looking very smart in sharp suits. Still, it was a wait for more than half-an-hour but when we finally reached out tellers, we were out within a few minutes.
Then, we decided to give the hotel another extra few minutes while The Class Act searched for that famous place which makes those very special 1000-year-old eggs. We found this very non-descript place with an open front, and a seemingly crabby old woman who sold them. The Butler's wife, an accountant, worked in the next building, so she cameoed and husband and wife managed to negotiate for some boxes of the stuff to be sold to The Class Act. We finally got ourselves checked in. However, the ladies decided to head on out to Kowloon by Star Ferry for some early souvenir shopping while I decided to chill out in my very air-conditioned room.

A couple of hours later, I was summoned down by The Class Act for dinner. The Butler took us on foot a couple of blocks to the aforementioned IFC. As we negotiated the human traffic in the overpasses, I noticed that there were far more Westerners in suits in HK than there are in Tokyo's Marunouchi district. We finally got into the IFC mall and up to the 4th floor where our first dining experience in HK would take place...a trendy restaurant called Cuisine Cuisine.
And this is where some of the pain part would come in. As I'd said earlier, I had awakened at the ungodly hour of 3 in the morning with not a lot of sleep prior. Plus, I was getting some major neck stress from sitting in the plane. Well, that and some champagne that I shouldn't have had in the first place helped to launch a major headache at the restaurant...which then led to my stomach. Too bad, too...the fare there was Szechuan but of a surprisingly mild and fusion sort. I was able to politely ingest some of the stuff there but I finally had to head over to a washroom to try to clear my brain. No explosions occured but no relief did, either. The ladies knew something was up when I got back...The Matron remarked that I looked an awful shade of cerulean blue...didn't really match the orange curtains. She gave me a couple of Bufferin but I knew that it wouldn't help much now that the migraine was in full rage mode. And sadly, I had to leave a lot of the main course behind since I didn't want to add any more ammunition, so to speak, to the gun.
We all hopped into the taxi. By that point, I was pretty much mute just trying to hold things together. The next stop in the journey, pre-planned, was Happy Foot, a reflexology place. I would've been just happy to get back to the hotel to pray to the porcelain god but for some reason, I decided to go with them to this place. By the time we made it up the 11th floor where Happy Foot was located, I was standing but that was about all I could do. Everyone there just stared at me and wondered when I would erupt although the staff was classy enough not to bring the bucket over. I replied in kind and didn't vomit.
After another trip to the washroom to try to clear my head, I staggered to my armchair in the dimly lounge where The Class Act had already dunked their feet into bowls of brown water. I was more than happy to collapse into one of them....a chair not the ladies. For the next 50 minutes, a masseur went to work on my tootsies. And since this was the Asian variety of reflexology, there was more pain involved. The guy squeezed, pounded, kneaded, pinched and just about used every technique on my soles, toes and heels to get some sort of violent reaction from me. Aside from some sudden groans, I was dead to the world. But it worked...by the end of the session, I was feeling like a regenerated Time Lord. A lot of the pain was missing from my head...nothing like an even more painful experience to expunge pain. And I got the bonus head massage as a coda, although by that time I didn't need it. I was one grateful tourist.

Now that I was back to normal again, the three of us (The Butler had already left at the beginning of our session...felt badly about that but I had another chance to give him my gratitude the next night) walked back to the hotel. My senses were back on observation mode once more so I noticed how more brighter and bigger the neon signs were in HK. We passed by the famous Yung Kee restaurant...which actually served those 1,000-year-old eggs that the ladies had bought earlier in the day.
Got back to my room, took a shower, and got into bed...just relieved that I didn't need to yawn in Technicolour.