Wednesday February 20, 5:06 p.m.

Back at Speedy's again after teaching The New Yorker in Ichigaya. Had the rather surprising happenstance to run into my ol' manager at the ol' school...the somewhat smarmy mealy-mouthed one. Past teachers once told me that you'd know when the manager truly disliked you if he seemed rather pleased to see you. In that case, I can comfortably state that he really despises me.

Before that rendezvous, I had lunch at China (Not-so-) Quick nearby. Service was its usual perfunctory-if-not-so-friendly self. At 750 yen for a good-sized bento, I was satisfied, though.

On the way back to Ichigaya Station, there was a small group of people dressed in blue coveralls, helmets and white gauze hay fever masks giving out flyers. At first, I thought the ultra right wing was starting to lighten up their fashion statements a bit, but in actual fact, it was probably the other end of the political spectrum. As one lady was exhorting the commuters with a megaphone, the group was decrying yesterday's accidental slice-and-dice by an Aegis destroyer (not the cruiser I had misidentified it as), the Atago, of a fishing boat off in Chiba waters. Their eventual purpose was to demand the dismantling of the Self-Defense Forces. Good luck on that. Unfortunately for the MSDF, it looks like a lot of sailors will be going through the wringer in the eyes of the media and people for the next few days at least. I think the only guys who won out on this one is that Chinese factory responsible for the poisoned gyoza...they've been knocked out from the spotlight.

Anyways, speaking of food, I gotta eat mine. 001 will be here in less than 45 minutes.

Wednesday February 20, 1:28 p.m.

Almost ready to head out the door to see The New Yorker. It's been one of those lazy few hours between lessons and a malfunctioning computer in front of me. I did plan for tonight's lessons. But I'm feeling pretty tired right now.

Well, the world has seen a few hiccups in the past several hours. Fidel Castro has finally decided to step down officially...Cubans have barely raised a conga line in response. The party of the late Benazir Bhutto may have won the Pakistani elections although I'm not quite sure what Musharraf will do now. How about one more dclaration of martial law for old time's sakes? And the Obama Steamroller is still making itself known after Barrack grabs Wisconsin from Hillary...not sure what Hawaii is thinking quite yet. And of course, Kosovars are holding their collective breath over what revenge Serbia and the USS---er, I mean Russia have in store for them.

Wednesday February 20, 11:26 a.m.

Just finished with The Nurse...another absurdist humour-filled riot. We managed to unravel her problems of contrasting Simple Present with Present Continuous. Looks like this day will be sandwiched with nurses (no snickering in the audience, please). I just had this one now and my night will be over with The Diver...someone who's in more need of TLC. In between, I've got The New Yorker and 001.

Yesterday, much like Monday, promised more than it actually delivered. But it wasn't actually a bad thing. Monday had all these frontloaded classes of which three dotakyan'ed. Tuesday had my last two guys of The Siberian and Jolly can out. For The Beehive, it was just Mrs. Alp, Travel and Jade. There was some talk about their upcoming trip to Croatia. Mrs. Jade, channeling the absent Mrs. Tee, was worrying quite a bit about it considering the current situation in Kosovo. But Mrs Travel, being the veteran adventurer, laughed it off and stating the three months before launch. We ended up having lunch at a Korean bibimpap place in department store near JR Tsudanuma. Good food...and very hot, but not because of the spices but due to the actual heat of the stone pot.

002 was her usual self during my house call. Her husband had done the marathon and struck a personal best. The lass had tried to qualify for it last year but failed so she's gonna go for it again for the next year.

For the juku, only Dale showed up. We worked on diseases for which she did quite well; certainly with a whole lot more oomph than she had shown last week. Her mother and little brother (a bit of a holy terror at 4) came in for the 2nd time in as many weeks. I'm not sure if I should take that as a hint.
Mild Jr. showed up for his regular spot of occupational role-playing. He's gonna be promoted to the position of top of security at his hotel...not sure if he's too thrilled about it, though. For a guy who looks like an enforcer, he's quite mild-mannered like his parents. As for The Milds, I had their last lesson before they take off for a week's tour of India tomorrow. They are going on a typical Japanese tour which will probably mean that they won't get anywhere near anything remotely dangerous...which gave me some relief. As I usually warn my students before they take off on an overseas vacation, I don't want to see their names listed on an NHK News Bulletin.

My newborn adventure with my real estate agency over that misunderstanding on Saturday continues. I tried calling the office to see if my fax had gotten there safely. The young lady on the other end of the line cheerfully admitted no knowledge so I left them my number in the hopes that one of the higher-ups would call. Haven't heard a thing. I may have to visit them personally to get some action. To remind folks, I'd received a letter from them accusing me of non-payment of my rent last month for which I have the proof in the form of a bank statement that I did indeed pay up...as I have every month for the last 14 years.

The big news right now here is that crash between an Aegis-equipped MSDF cruiser and a fishing boat off Chiba...no guesses needed to find out who won. The father and son aboard the little boat are still missing, and I can't really expect them to be found alive after all this time (more than 24 hours ago) and in this weather.

Feeling pretty tired after two nights of just 11 hours of sleep. I'm rather happy that I don't need to come in until The Yogist's lesson tomorrow afternoon. I'll be interested to find out how she fared in The Tokyo Marathon.

Monday February 18, 9:22 p.m.

Well, this is one for the record books. I had been expecting a very heavy, Admin-sympathizing night schedule. But as it turns out, I've ended up with a long intermission between SIL and Medicine Man...who should be arriving any minute now. First, The Full-Timer and The Diver cancel. Then, Mr. TOEIC outdoes himself by not only calling in to delay his arrival but then calls a second time to cancel outright. Such is the lot of a staffer in eigyobu (Sales Division). Speedy has reassured me that I will be paid in full for sudden cancellations. Easiest pile of yen I've earned all month. The Admin will be falling off her chair in laughter tomorrow, I bet.

I got another quick little order from Cozy. I just translated his little sliver of wording right in Gmail.

As for Medicine Man, this is his fourth and final lesson so far if he doesn't renew...hope he does; although I'm well aware about what happened to The Judge.

Monday February 18, 8:00 p.m.

It looks like The Diver may be amenable to a Wednesday night slot, so I don't lose any income; it'll just be transferred. So I'm just waiting for Mr. TOEIC. Ironically, he's usually the go-to guy for dotakyan...apparently, since I haven't heard anything from him yet, I'm assuming he'll actually make it tonight.

Luckily, with the unexpected free time, I have been able to concoct something for the kids. It'll be on the wonderful world of disease.

It'll be a typical busy Tuesday. The Beehive and then 002 followed by the juku crowd. Perhaps Jolly may opt out. I know that The Milds will not be coming the following Tuesday due to their trek through India.

Had a little chat with Speedy. Officially, then, the search for The Admin's replacement is now on. BC's name did pop up. Over the past few weeks, I've been hearing some of her complaints about Speedy's ways, so it was no surprise that he told me a bit about BC. And never the train shall meet.

Monday February 18, 6:42 p.m.

Well, so much for the heavy night. Not only has The Full-Timer opted out today but The Diver just called to cancel as well. So my next class won't be til 8:30. A bit of a drag, perhaps, but I can still use the time to concoct something for Chip N' Dale tomorrow night at the juku. Speaking of the li'l munchkins, I'm not quite sure how much longer I'll have them. I haven't exactly been pulling them along too quickly and Dale certainly looked a bit lax last week. I only get 1600 yen for the two of them, so I may start suggesting that they look for a proper kids' teacher.

Monday February 18, 5:10 p.m.

It's only a Monday and yet I'm already feeling run down. Maybe it's the onset of the flu...although I haven't had the flu in nearly 30 years. Let's say this, the last time I had influenza, I distinctly remember missing that episode of the original "Battlestar Galactica" in which Starbuck's father was played by Fred Astaire. No...I'm not imagining this...Astaire did play Starbuck's father.

Or perhaps it's some lingering stuff from the kerfuffle surrounding my apartment and the real estate agency. Yup, it's renewal time which means paying the renewal fee of oodles of yen plus getting the guarantor to sign up. I've decided to change the guarantor (which is mandatory in most cases) from my uncle to the juku boss, since I rarely have any contact with him. Another big headache is that when I came home, I got a form letter from the local branch of the real estate agency gently accusing me of not paying last month's rent. Well, I just let out a huge "WHAT?!" in surprised outrage and ran out to the nearest ATM...nearly 10 minutes on foot away and updated my passbook. Sure enough, there was the proof in the pudding...I did pay my rent...and so I made some photocopies of the passbook and sent off a politely worded counter message by fax (despite the fact that I was feeling far from polite at the time). I haven't heard anything since then so that may be a good sign. In any case, I'm in the clear so it's up to them to let me know what they did with my money.

Before that, I had a pretty good lesson with The OL. She rather surprised me with her book report. A lot of that rust from last week disappeared and she gave me a comparative study of "A Christmas Carol" and its representation of life in Victorian England. Certainly a whole lot more than the usual "I liked it because..." comments I get. So I decided that the next few lessons at least should centre around those reports since it does get her speaking at a mile a minute; it's obvious that she enjoys espousing on English-language literature, her major at university right now. However, I did give her some remedial grammar exercises to cover some of the patches. Her next assignment will be George Orwell's "Animal Farm", required reading in my old junior high school days.
I even got a little present from her via something that her supposedly otaku sister (not the UL but the other one) whipped up from scratch...a fabric bookcover. Apparently, the only sister I haven't met from her clan is quite the whiz at homemaking.

Yesterday, I met Tully and The Coffeemaker for the first time in 2 months...nearly forgetting that The Tokyo Marathon was under way. The Tozai Line was a lot busier than usual for a Sunday and Iidabashi Station was more reminiscent of a weekday at rush hour with lots of folks in jogging gear and with banners. However, Ichigaya was as quiet as usual...the runners had passed the area several minutes before. At least, the weather was far sunnier than last year's drippy inaugural although the chill was still there. I wonder how The Yogist and 002's hubby did. This time around, the organizers and even some impromptu volunteers had whipped up enough bananas and onigiri for starving participants. But there were still not enough porta-potties. But then again, there will never be enough porta-potties no matter how many are present. When one has to wait 10 minutes to take a whizz...
As for Tully and The Coffeemaker, they didn't suffer any rust but The Coffeemaker tends to clam up whenever she's given too much of a challenge such as business idioms. Still, they will be back on March 1.

Today is a pretty loaded day...despite The Full-Timer's sudden cancellation due to work (she's the payroll person at her company....which probably means very busy at this time of year). I had The Class Act (The Lady's chef whipped up a new dessert of matcha mousse with strawberries) and SIL. SIL and I looked at an article on the passing of Maharishi something-or-other, the Beatles' ol' guru in India. Considering his influence on the boys, it could be said that the Maharishi may have been indirectly responsible for the paradigm shift in American pop music. Maybe Paul could have used some of his pearls of wisdom just about now.
Well, I've got a bit of breathing room since The Full-Timer is off today. But I'll have the threesome of The Diver, Mr. TOEIC and then Medicine Man back-to-back-to-back.

In the past few weeks, I've been audience to a lot of deaths...those of a Japanese director, an Australian actor and some tragic ones of students at Northern Illinois Univeristy. So it's with some relief that I could actually witness the birth of a nation....Kosovo...although Russia and Serbia wish that it was stillborn.

Last night, Fuji-TV had its comedy competition for a few hours. A whole bunch of the comic cognescenti descended upon its studios to find out who would get the top prize...and therefore a boost in popularity, and ergo, yen. There were some new ones but there were some of the other vets...such as that Yoshio Kojima, the bikini-pant sporting lunkhead who's been using his lone shtick of pumping his arm into the ground while yelling "Sonanno kankei nai!" I think it's safe to say that his 15 minutes are almost up. Then, there was prettily porky Kanako Yanagihara with yet another one of her salesperson characters....still not sure how long she'll last. And then there was latecomer Edd Harumi...the former corporate etiquette trainer who has climbed up the ranks with her warped version of her job while hissing "Gooooooood!"Now, she's using her talents as a dancer to add to her shtick...she literally kicked up her heels to "My Sharona" by The Clash. I'm sure she's taken Yoshio's place on YouTube.
But the winner ended up being the fellow who has become famous for his impersonation of Dylan McKay from "Beverly Hills 90120". No accounting for taste, apparently. If all this sounds pretty warped...that's because it is.

Saturday February 16, 3:58 p.m.

Just had The Manhattanite an hour ago. She's doing OK...having her Italian singing lesson right about now. Yep, that's also been a popular activity among some of the women here.

Will be heading off shortly for Nihonbashi to teach The OL. It'll be a shoring up of things forgotten over the past year. Still have yet to hear from Tully and The Coffeemaker about tomorrow. However, The Coffeemaker did propose the 17th so I'm assuming everything's online for that one...but just not sure what I'll be doing with them.

Got another rush job done for Cozy. Just a little memo but I'm sure he appreciates that I have gotten the first three jobs in for him quite a bit ahead of time...although I'm unsure of the quality.

Tomorrow's the 2nd annual Tokyo Marathon redux. Last year, the runners had to face rain and some mighty cool temps. This year has been downright cold, and so we can probably only hope for some sun. 002 will be enjoying the race from the comfort of her living room this time around but her hubby will be in for his second try. And The Yogist will be making her debut as a marathon runner. She couldn't come for her Thursday class because she had to register for it; she was pretty nervous but I'm sure she'll do well. Just have to wonder how this race will affect the subways on the way to Ichigaya tomorrow.

Friday February 15, 4:22 p.m.

Gotten a few more chocolates from the students. The Sisters of State were the latest folks to bring tribute to their old teacher. And the Admin was also very generous as well. Looks like I'm gonna have to make way in the March budget for the vengeance on White Day. Speaking of the sisters, The Carolinan has given me her say-so to start thinking about that outing to Spyros, the Greek restaurant in Roppongi. Probably won't be for another 6 weeks, though.

BC seems to be on a more even keel now since she started at Speedy's back in January, although I think the bossman has paid a price. BC may have been an emotional wreck last summer but she's gotten back her second wind...and using it to blow back some arguments against her new boss. She's said that she doesn't really mean to scare him but I think she's a little less patient with his rapid-fire ways than The Admin and me. As for The Admin, who has been with us for almost a year, has officially given her notice to the boss since she needs to stay closer to home in Izu. So I warned BC that she may be top dog for a while or that she'll need to help train a new assistant.

Today, I just have The Ace later tonight. Usually I would just keep it within the neighbourhood on Fridays just to save myself a bit of money...although considering the annual income tax mugging and my lease renewal, it hasn't meant much at all. But today I had to get a present for the juku boss since her husband has consented to be my guarantor for aforementioned renewal which gets me off the hook from an uncle I hardly ever make contact with. So since I would be in Ginza, I decided against better health judgement and indulged in my Chinese buffet in Yurakucho. Yep, I got myself stuffed nicely on the siu mai and ma bo dau fu although I never went overboard in my foodie tendencies. It cost me 1,800 yen for all-you-can-eat. However, across the hallway was the relocated Thai restaurant, Siam, offering its lunch buffet for just a measly 945 yen. I'll have to give that one a shot next week.

I ended up getting the juku boss and her husband a box of Harrod's tea and a small jar of marmalade from the depachika of the main Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza. Busy as usual but probably not as nuts as it was yesterday due to Valentine's Day.

I got word from The Coffeemaker for the first time in almost 2 months. I thought she and her buddy, Tully, decided to break things off with me. Instead, she asked about my availability to resume lessons starting on Sunday. I've sent her a positive response with a counterresponse pending. Speaking of work, I'm gonna be massively backloaded on Monday. I've got my veterans of The Class Act, SIL and The Full-Timer before the lineup of Mr. TOEIC, The Diver and Medicine Man. I'll probably be properly baked by the end of that night.

Stopped off at Maruzen after a much-needed walk through Yurakucho up to Otemachi. I wanted to see if I could find some book on Business Japanese since I'm doing those translations for Cozy. No luck....and that translation yesterday took 5 hours straight at Speedy's. I was feeling mighty stiff after that session. And still, I wasn't too satisfied with it. But ready or not, I have to hand it in tomorrow. However, I did come across the Anglicization of yet another manga series, "Dr. Slump".
Recently, there's been a spate of English-translated versions of popular manga. "Dragonball" has now got English running through its pages as well as "Death Note". And several months ago, Skippy had lent me a few volumes of "Nodame Cantabile" in the English format.
"Dr. Slump" is special, though, since I had received a couple of the original Japanese books all the way back in 1981 by my homestay sister. This series had been the first big success story for Akira Toriyama before he came up with his magnum opus of "Dragonball" a few years later. I ended up getting the entire series over the next decade and it's still sitting somewhere back in Toronto. I enjoyed the story of Arale, the perpetually toddleresque android, with her lecherous, Kansai-ben spouting inventor, Dr. Norimaki, because Toriyama unabashedly mashed up his anime style of drawing with elements of Hollywood parody (guests like Superman and Mr. Spock appear side by side with Japanese icons Godzilla and Gamera....one of the main characters' fathers is Clint Eastwood!), raunchy humour and fourth-wall breaking absurdism. For anyone who enjoys "Dragonball", I would recommend "Dr. Slump" wholeheartedly.

Sticking the pop culture, I caught the latest video by Kaela Kimura, Japan's poppier answer to Avril Lavigne. I'm not a huge fan of hers but I think her new song and video, "Jasper" is quite catchy. And I find out that she had some help from the techno guy Takkyu Ishino who has come out with some fun hooky tunes of his own. "Jasper" is the tie-up song for "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" which is supposed to hit town this weekend.

Thursday February 14, 8:57 a.m.

Well, another Valentine's Day. I've managed to score chocolates from 002, Mrs. Mild and one of the grandmotherly students so far. I'm sure all of the depachika chocolate outlets as well as the chocolatiers will be doing volume business.

Managed to finish off the classes last night without pulling a muscle. 001 was her usual self; one of the highest forms of praise that I can get is when a student remarks how quickly time flew in the class. 001 said so. The Diver was also quite happy with her third lesson. Kept things strictly to the text and lots of drills. And I finished things off with Medicine Man. As for 001, she's off to Hokkaido for yet another run on the slopes....this is her second time in as many weeks. I guess 11 years at the hospital can have its benefits. And then in another 2 weeks, she's off to Alaska to see the Aurora Borealis for the first time.

I had to close up the shop last night since The Amazon was only meant to be here til the beginning of my class with Medicine Man. So I tried to fulfill Speedy's wishes and turn off the power. I thought I did but came in this morning and found out that I hadn't switched off one heater properly. I'm lucky that Speedy isn't the upbraiding type. I've only got The Nurse at the school while I have The Carolinan and BC as my privates.

Man, quite a few people leaving this mortal coil this year. Roy Scheider of "Jaws" fame passed on this past weekend. And then the main news this morning is on the death of Kon Ichikawa, another one of the big directors here.

Really cold this morning. Kinda surprised that my pipes didn't freeze.

Wednesday February 13, 4:56 p.m.

The winds of Hell have been blowing around here for the past couple of days. Not too many casualties in terms of people but there are a whole lot of bicycles and pylons which have seen better days.

The juku crowd was generally OK except for Chip N' Dale. I'm kinda wondering if the Wall has inevitably arrived for the kids. Dale was pretty listless. I've never been a great fan of teaching kids and the end usually begins when the light goes out of their eyes. However, I did get some Valentine's Day goodies from The Milds (as I also did from 002); incidentally, the new retirees will be heading for a week's tour of India from late next week. Man, I hope they survive the experience. As for The Siberian, the young lad spent most of the long weekend hitting his favourite izakaya three times in as many days...doesn't remember too much either. Jolly helped cap the night with a good go in his lesson.

I've got the night group tonight with 001, The Diver and Medicine Man. Most of this morning was spent watching the latest primaries in the US. Amazing what this Obama guy is doing. He's finally gone ahead of Hillary in the delegate count. And as the CNN guys were also noticing, there's quite a difference in style of delivery between Barack and John McCain. Obama is addressing arenas of screaming young folk as if he were Freddie Mercury, while McCain has a pretty subdued audience with the old guard behind him.

Just found out that Mr. TOEIC has cancelled yet again his double on Saturday...which just leaves me with The Manhattanite for the sole class at the school. I'm sure Speedy will be really thrilled at that news since he really wants to save on the upkeep, and opening up a school for just one student doesn't really do that. However, for me, I'm lucky enough to have The OL afterwards in Nihombashi.

The Cat has confirmed my arrival in her neck of the woods for next Saturday afternoon.

A little over a year ago, Japan saw yet another celeb become governor of a prefecture. The guy's stage name was Sonomanma Higashi...a comedian with the head of a sausage but with the mentorship of none other than Beat Takeshi. With his entry into a more sober world, we also discovered why he chose the stage name...his real name is the unwieldy Hideo Higashikokubaru. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
I certainly thought that he would have much impact on the political scene as some of his predecessors like former comedians-turned-governors Yukio Aoshima of Tokyo and Knock Yokoyama (both dead now) of Osaka...basically none or bad. The former was pretty much a non-factor while the latter got ousted for sexual assault on an assistant. Strangely enough, though, the new governor of Miyazaki Prefecture has probably become one of the most popular and well-known regional rulers in recent history....and considering that he had to immediately take care of the crisis of culling bird flu amongst tons of chickens in his realm. In the year that he's been in charge, he's become quite the eager salesman and booster for his province that even Governor Ishihara of Tokyo can only wonder about.
And another successful point about Higashikokubaru's reign is that unlike past geinojin-turned-seijika, he hasn't totally toned down his hilarity. He's still getting regularly asked to appear on the variety shows as himself, and he's more than happy to blurt out the one-liners. I even saw him on an episode of Utaban...which strictly has only musical guests on. I don't think even former Prime Minister Koizumi had this much pull in the entertainment world in the early part of his rule. Basically, the Governor of Miyazaki has now set the bar high for any entertainer who may be entertaining ideas of hitting the stump.

Tuesday February 12, 4:28 p.m.

It's another cold and rainy one out there. It was supposed to be mid-afternoon snow but I guess the temps didn't fall far enough.

Yesterday was the latest chapter in The Burger Tour. The newest stop was near Jiyugaoka Station, about 15 minutes west of Shibuya by Tokyu Toyoko Line. I'd been to Jiyugaoka a number of times in the past...it's basically a suburban hub with all sorts of little stores, restaurants and what-not surrounding the station. It was the usual crew...Skippy, MB and The Satyr along with myself. The Satyr's squeeze, Miss Ivory, was also supposed to show up but she's gone down with the cold. The Sylph won't go anywhere near meat anymore so, obviously, she was a no-show. Looks like I won't see her much then from now on.
It was a 10-minute bus ride to Komazawa Park, a relatively huge piece of greenery in western Tokyo. And just across it was AS Classics, the famed burger joint. I'm not sure where the name came from but then again past burger joints we've gone to have names like Brozzers and Baker Bounce, so I can't really cast too many aspersions on this place. Skippy had made reservations but they weren't really necessary since there were plenty of empty tables available. The place was typically American Diner in decor, and there was even a small wood stove burning near our table.
As has been the case the last few times on the Tour, the burgers were the great attractions while the sides were pretty mediocre. I had the Cheeseburger which was another huge mother. MB and I ordered Fish n' Chips and were given two large tablets of batter-fried fish with home fries and a mysteriously large plop of what looked like freeze-dried-then-thawed tartar sauce. Again another strikeout looking for a decent platter of FnC. I think the last place that had good stuff was the Australian pub in East Shinjuku. MB and I decided that we should start an alternate tour looking for fine Fish n' Chips...and Buffalo Wings, for that matter. The restaurant ran out of the wings...not a good sign, frankly...good spicy and meaty wings have been hard to find since The Maple Leaf closed up shop last May. Basically, we had a good time there but I wouldn't go there again anytime soon since it's so far away from my neck of the woods.

On the way back to the station, Skippy told me about the so-called scandal around Kumi Koda, the singer to dethrone Ayumi Hamasaki as J-Pop Queen. I'd heard bits and pieces for the past few days but didn't really get anything concrete. Apparently, the Osakan singer said something rather impolitic on a radio show. Her manager or her manager's friend was having trouble having a baby for which Koda jokingly blurted out that after 35, a woman's ovaries tend to go to pot so best make them children ASAP. Well, something hit the fan...and the complaints rolled on in which forced her to make a taped apology.
I rather rolled my eyes at this. I mean, back in the West, a comment like that would be called into bad taste of course but the celeb offender would backhandedly apologize or defiantly not apologize, citing free speech. However, over here, things are somewhat different. Anyone studying Japanese Culture 101 will know that Koda doesn't say things for herself but for her in-group, and since Japan has a shame culture, even a little nasty joke like that can reflect badly. What compounds things, though, is the grafted Western tabloid culture that has hit mass media over here. And another Western...or perhaps human...trait is that people just love to break down people they've brought on up.

I was surprised by the news of the fire and subsequent collapse of Namdaemon, that huge structure in Seoul last night. I remember taking a picture of it when The Class Act and I had gone to Korea a couple of years ago. And it was basically the de rigueur backdrop to any news report from Korea. So seeing it go down like it did was a shock to me....as if The Imperial Palace in Tokyo or The CN Tower in Toronto had come crashing down. Apparently, some aged homeless man did the foul deed.

Just had The Beehive. Ms. Perth made a surprise visit since her father was ailing. And also Ms. London, the one who had introduced me to the ladies nearly a decade ago, also came as well. It would have been a full hive if Ms. Pottery and Ms. Tulip had been there. They were all gabbing about their latest travel project, a few days in Croatia later this Spring. We continued the discussion at a pasta restaurant in Funabashi for which I was plied with the noodles the ladies couldn't eat...which meant I felt like the first victim in "Seven".

Then, it was back to see 002 for her second lesson of the year. According to her, The Baker has been having a tough time at work recently. 002, 001 and I had always been joking about the fact that The Baker would be a rather tough boss to work for and that Tokyo Bay was probably littered with the remains of those assistants who didn't meet her very stringent standards.
Well, it looks like one of her staff finally had enough. The Baker was recently a victim of gyaku-ijime....reverse bullying. Someone had stolen her laptop and left a rather nasty note. It's never easy and always lonely at the top.

Well, I have the usual cast of characters at the juku tonight...except for Mild Jr. who's double-shifting. Apparently, one of his colleagues had also been having problems with his superior and took off suddenly.

Sunday February 10, 10:39 p.m.

Saturday night was pretty miserable in terms of weather. Apparently, neighbouring Tokyo and Saitama got the snow that had been forecast, but my neck of the woods in Chiba just got doused in cold, cold rain. Also, had a dinner which wasn't the most comfy...for the second time, I went to Yayoiken, that sit-down bento restaurant which had been built in the station mall a few months ago. The only other time was right on its first day. The food was pretty good then, as it was last night. Karaage bento, if you must know.
The only problem was in the timing. I came in at about 7 p.m....the time when most of the salarymen drag their sorry asses for something other than instant ramen. Also, the kitchen must've been filled with a bunch of greenhorns. For a restaurant that works on the ticket-dispensing machine system, the staff was pretty slow. And the drill sergeant manager made them know that fact pretty sternly...just a few metres away from we customers. Not exactly the most inviting dining experience.

However, today was quite pleasant and balmy. Up to 11 C. Still ended up bringing the scarf and mittens. With the unusually cold winter this year, one can't be too careful. I met BC at JR Shinjuku and we went out to Saboten, that tonkatsu restaurant in Odakyu Mall. Then, we headed off to Nakano to her friend's niko concert at Zero Hall. The niko is that Chinese string instrument which popped up a lot during movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Actually, the concert had started around 2:30 p.m. with an intermission. We got there about 7:30 since her friend was due to play in the very last performance. We like the niko but not to the extent that we would risk economy-class syndrome. Not surprisingly, the various performers played traditional Chinese tunes as well as covers of pop songs from Japan and abroad. One group played "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic", but I forgave them for that because they also brought out some really Yoda-like masters for the finale. The Carolinan showed up at about 7:30 p.m.
The concert ended an hour later, so the three of us just headed on out to a nearby Caffe Velocce for some coffee and cake. We've already gotten started on the plans to head out to that Greek restaurant in Roppongi that Speedy and I had gone to a number of months back.

Well, got National Foundation Day tomorrow...which will merely mean an extra day for me to clean up the apartment before heading out to meet my other group of buddies for the latest chapter in The Burger Tour.

Saturday February 9, 5:09 p.m.

Well, the Dentist was her usual barrel of laughs. She'll be heading off to Hokkaido for a little R&R next week, so I won't be seeing her til March. I'll be heading up to the wilds of Nagano Prefecture to see The Cat and her kittens on the 23rd. Meanwhile, today, the bossman is taking a very rare Saturday off to indulge in an onsen in Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture. Kusatsu is pretty famous for its hot springs so I could imagine that they're doing volume business this holiday weekend.

As for me, I'll be off for the next couple of days. I'll be meeting up with BC for dinner tomorrow before the two of us catch The Carolinan in Nakano for a concert of her friend. She plays the niko, that Chinese string instrument. Most likely, I'll take BC to Saboten, the tonkatsu chain restaurant in the underground Odakyu Mall by JR Shinjuku. Then, on Monday night, I'm meeting up with The Burger Tour gang for our latest conquest across from Komazawa Park.

Still have yet to see the snow come on down. Perhaps if we are lucky, it'll be one of the examples of the weather forecasters getting it wrong like they did up til a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday February 9, 2:53 p.m.

Another possible snowy evening in store for us today. I'm at Speedy's where it's just BC and me before The Dentist shows up in about 20 minutes. I typed out the translation for Cozy and sent it over to him...hopefully, it passes muster. I got a bit of money riding on it.

I saw The OL for the first time in nearly a year at Nihombashi. We had our first reunion lesson at an old-style but trendy little coffeehouse called Ueshima in the Coredo mall. She was awfully rusty after a year of nearly no English communication whatsoever; basically she'll need a full review of just about all the basics that had been covered a couple of years ago. However, she started to warm up by the end of the session. She's gotten a straighter perm compared to her frizzy do back then. Her sister and my former student, The UL, said hello back to me although there was no sign that she wanted to resume her classes. The OL will be trying to crunch in as many classes with me as she can during her 6-week Spring vacation for her nighttime university education.
The OL is one of the more compassionate folks I know. She raised my fee by 500 yen due to the gradual inflation that's been permeating life here in the last couple of months. A package of Sapporo Ichiban went from 68 yen to 100 yen...nearly a 50% jump! And we're looking at a price hike in milk and other things from March. Plus, I've got my taxes and rent renewal to look forward to. I wonder what the suicide rate is gonna be like next month.

Friday February 8, 10:30 a.m.

Another sunny & cold one here in The Big Sushi. But it looks like the weekend may be snow-filled; man, this has been an unusual winter. The weather forecasters have been talking about the pattern that's been happening this past week: a snowfall every 3 days. So, we may be looking at midweek snow next week.

Well, a bit of a surprise in timing if not inevitability...Mitt has quit, and right at the conference that would love him. Meanwhile, the guy who's seen with equal parts of suspicion and derision, John McCain is now the presumptive nominee for the Republican party. (I think the audience was looking downright consumptive.) Give a nice round of tepidness and catcalls for the possible future President of the United States.
Pretty ironic that a guy who is loaded with cash and has the looks of a middle-aged superhero lost out to a stubby, garrulous fellow who looks more like Dr. Evil. McCain has got his work cut out for him. Arch-conservative Ann Coulter threatened to vote for Hillary Clinton if he got the nomination...now that's pretty harsh.

Over here, the big news was that tainted gyoza scare. Yoichi Masuzoe, the beleaguered Minister of Labour and Welfare (he's become the John McClane of the government) has gone on record saying that this could've been a deliberate attack.
As I said, it was the news. But last night, the top story on all of the news shows was the arrest of that former sumo stablemaster and 4 of his underlings for beating a wayward apprentice to death for not being sumo enough. Tokitsukaze had already been ousted from the world that he'd known for decades last year...supposedly the first and only person on record to ever have that humiliation. And now, he's become a jailbird. Just goes to show that the vaunted Spartan education ethos here has limits.

I got started on that rush job translation assignment that Cozy had given me. Yep, not all that easy. A lot of new kanji that I haven't been able to decipher quite yet, even with the help of three dictionaries (E-J, J-E and kanji). And so I'll be hitting the translation dictionaries online for further help. I'll probably be investing in a Business Japanese lexicon tomorrow at either Maruzen or Kinokuniya between classes. And there is always the act of just asking BC at the school tomorrow.
Still devoting more than 2 hours to the task was pretty interesting. If I start internalizing this newfound knowledge of business Japanese, there could be another source of income right there.

Thursday February 7, 3:20 p.m.

Making this entry at the Kinko's in Shinjuku...just across from Krispy Kreme #1. Yep, still the usual snake-like lineup...about an hour's wait according to the signboard. The reason I'm here paying 210 yen/10 minutes instead of doing all this at Speedy's is that I've had a rush translation order from Cozy and the document couldn't be opened at the faltering computers back at the school. Luckily, I was able to pull it off here. And so, I've got a few hours of translation to do after dinner tonight.

Last night, after that arduousness with The Diver, I did have that model lesson student. He was a businessman with a fairly good grasp of the English language, friendly and conversational. In other words, he'll either not sign up or stay only for a little while. A telling sign is that he told Speedy after the lesson that he would wait a month before a final decision. I don't think I taught a bad lesson, but I think that upper-intermediate level men here just wouldn't find much with me. However, he did appreciate my tip on how to avoid jet lag...and he's got a 27-hour trip to Sao Paulo in the next few weeks.
Of course, Speedy went into one of his "Woe-is-me" stories after that one. Of course, I know that the school has yet to enter the black after 3 years of operation but sometimes I'm just reminded of the situation one too many times.

The Yogist has definitely shaped up (no pun intended) as one of my favourite students. Always willing to try hard and perky to boot, she's starting to rival 001 in that department. She's also been fretting a bit about her upcoming participation in the Tokyo Marathon on the 16th. I don't doubt that it will be a tough one for her since she's doing this for the first time, but out of all of us at the school, with the obvious exception of the marathon veteran 002, she's probably the best-conditioned to make it to the finish line.
She also reminded me that there will yet be another subway line completed for opening in June. This one will be extending from Shibuya through Shinjuku to Ikebukuro, a straight-line arrow punching through the three major hubs of Tokyo. I can only imagine that commuters will be descending into the depths to reach this line...it's a wonder that the bedrock underneath doesn't look like a giant ant's nest.

Well, since I'm in the area, I might as well check out HMV across the bridge in Times Square. May pick up a magazine.

Thursday February 6, 12:55 p.m.

Only 5 minutes before The Yogist comes in, so I'll have to make it a short one.

Unlike yesterday, it's pretty sunny if cold. Hopefully, this'll hold up for another couple of days.

001 was her usual laff-riot. Didn't even touch the textbook. However, it was quite the opposite of The Diver's lesson....she's one of those really underconfident, mutter-under-her-breath types who can really drag things down. I was very patient with her, though...remembering that The New Yorker was also very much like this in the early days. The New Yorker still isn't fluent but at least she's with the program now.

Skippy's got the next Burger Tour all set for the holiday Monday...yep, it's National Foundation Day, not that many people would care except for the ultra-right wingers. This time, we'll be off in the western reaches of Komazawa.

Anyways, time to go.

Wednesday February 6, 4:18 p.m.

Well, I would've just loved to be at home this morning as a relatively new spectator in the gladiator sport known as Super Tuesday. From what I've seen on the CNN website, it looks like that Democratic battle will continue on long into March and has already become rather legendary. As for the Republican nomination, McCain will probably get the nod...if not this month, then in the Spring. At least, I've got two days' worth of highlights to catch.

Instead, I had my somewhat laconic class with The Nurse and then I headed on out to see The New Yorker. It was snowing pretty steadily when I got to Ichigaya this afternoon, although all of the fluffy flakes melted on impact. Kinda wonder if it's gonna continue to do that into the evening. We see some accumulation then.

Two down, three to go. The lesson with 001 will be breezy, I predict. As for The Diver, I hope things settle down with this nervous Nellie; and of course, there will always be some tension with a model lesson student.

Wednesday February 6, 9:36 a.m.

Well, it's Super Tuesday Stateside. Huckabee has taken W. Virginia, while Obama has got Georgia in his back pocket. But there are still a few hours left.

Over here, it's Busy Wednesday for me. On my slate today: The Nurse, The New Yorker, 001, The Diver and a model lesson student in the final slot at the school. It's also starting out as a snowy Hump Day...this is rather unprecedented. I don't think I've ever heard in my near decade-and-a-half in the Kanto of 4 separate days of snowfall. Mind you, the snow outside is of the convenient variety...nice n' dry and very meltable.

The juku crew was fine as usual. Only Chip showed up...Dale is apparently home with the flu. Mild Jr. came over followed by his parents. Mr. Mild celebrated the big 60 last weekend...a rather auspicious birthday in Japanese culture which is known as kanreki. I'm not sure of the history behind it but it involves a lot of wearing of the colour red. And Mr. Mild now officially joins his wife in contented retirement...and daily playing of his new Wii Console.
The Siberian showed up for his sporadic chit-chat. Last night's topics involved his phobia of butterflies and the concept of marbling...yep, we do get rather esoteric. And Jolly once again dotakyaned to Friday night.

The OL further detailed our reunion for Saturday morning. Most likely the cafe of choice will be in Nihombashi...will be convenient for me when I head up to Speedy's for The Dentist.

Tuesday February 5, 4:16 p.m.

Since I didn't have The Beehive today, I could sleep in a bit before heading on out. I paid the last of the City Tax premiums for FY 2007 and the 2nd-last premium for National Health Insurance. So, I'm feeling rather financially light. Still, managed to enjoy a full Subway tuna sub before heading out to the Ichikawa Tax Office to pick up the deductions form. Yep, I've already started doing the calculations for the return.

I saw 002 for the first time this year. Looks like she had a pretty bittersweet New Year...certainly not a happy one. Her grandmother passed away right on January 1, not exactly the greatest day to have a loved one leave this mortal coil....kinda like having a relative die on Xmas Day. She asked me about possibly having that postponed dinner this weekend, but unfortunately, I've got that concert with The Carolinan and BC on Sunday, followed by the next Burger Tour with Skippy and friends.

The OL contacted me about her next set of classes. Looks like I'll have to be squeezing her in here and there since my schedule has been filling up in the last week or so. So far, The Nurse is still rarin' to come early on Wednesday...a pity, since I'd wanted to catch all the hoopla surrounding Super Tuesday on CNN. It'll be truly a Hump Day tomorrow since I've got her, The New Yorker and then 001, The Diver and yet another model lesson.

Gotta give a shout out to a sci-fi fellow....Barry Morse passed away on Groundhog Day at the ripe old age of 89. Not only was he a transplanted Brit and household name in Canada, but was a genre guy as the intrepid Lt. Gerard in the original "The Fugitive" and congenial Professor Victor Bergmann in "Space: 1999".

Well, gotta prep for Chip N' Dale and the rest of the juku crew.

Monday February 4, 7:22 p.m.

Looks like I'm in the middle of some employee-employer pains. I taught The Full-Timer just now, and apparently she's come to the end of her tether concerning her eccentric manager. She and her mother will be heading to Guam this Thursday for some R&R...hopefully, she'll be able to vent somewhat. And a few hours ago, The Admin informed me that BC and Speedy haven't been getting on too well...clash of personalities. Speedy is a bit anal at times but BC is also a bit hypersensitive. And The Admin has been planning to head back home to work there in early Spring. Could be an interesting February...

I sent off a missive over to my old friend in Nagano, The Cat, asking if I could come and visit her family later on this month. Can't believe it's been a decade since I ended up cooped up in my apartment for nearly 3 weeks with a busted ankle while watching the 1998 Games in that prefecture. I still have a banner that my friend had given me after it had fallen down from one of the poles in the Olympic Village.

The big news still surrounds that poisoned frozen gyoza that has affected hundreds of Japanese nationwide. It's still too early to state how the dumplings got that way, but already the tabloids are screaming conspiracy theories of a bio-terrorist attack. It's been amazing how quickly the Chinese government have tried to stem the tide...just as amazing as how much an Olympic torch can act as an incentive.

Anyone who thinks that Tommy Lee Jones is devoid of a sense of humour can probably check out the latest in his series of canned coffee commercials for BOSS Coffee. For the past couple of years, he's portrayed this mute alien...just Tommy Lee Jones....no costume or makeup (try to persuade that guy to put on any funny prosthetics) observing everyday Japanese behaviour. This time, he's the lighting guy for an Akihabara aidoru who ends up as a customer in a Maid Cafe. You can probably catch it on YouTube.

Anyways, back to work. Gotta lot of it now.

Monday February 5, 5:38 p.m.

Man, had a couple of downpours over the past two days. One was purely meterological. Some 5 weeks late, but we finally got that Hallmark-level Christmas Winter Wonderland yesterday. The Kanto got dumped on with about 3-5 cm of the white stuff. Not exactly anything to shiver about in Toronto (especially when my hometown got assaulted with 20 cm the other day), but basically we can compare Toronto and Tokyo in terms of scale. The panic button gets pressed here at 1/10th the level of snow as it does in Toronto. I was lucky in that I had the day off on Sunday; just managed to go and come back from the supermarket with supplies...only needed to be careful with my steps on some of the more slippery sections of the pavement. This morning, most of the sidewalks were scraped off and the thaw has gotten rid of most of the stuff aside from some small piles, and those will be gone by tomorrow.

The other downpour was professional. Just in the last few hours, I've found out that 002 and my old student, The OL, are back online. And Cozy has sent me my first translation assignment. So, it's not really a downpour but still, the three came in in pretty short order.

It's been the regular Monday lineup so far with The Class Act and SIL. SIL has enjoyed the Elvis calendar that she'd gotten from The Matron via Hawaii. She was wondering how The Matron had found out about her hobby...I just whistled a lot. And I've got The Full-Timer in about 10 minutes. Both The Diver and Mr. TOEIC have cancelled their lessons for tonight, but I still have Medicine Man in the last slot tonight.

Man, that Super Bowl must've been something special. I read the upset victory by the Giants on CNN just now. I bet a lot of folks must've lost theirs a few hours ago.

Saturday February 2, 2:59 p.m.

Oops, she did it again! Couldn't resist...Britney Spears is back on that 72-hour mandatory hospital watch. Over here, the kiosks have had headlines blaring out, "Britney Attempts Suicide!"...which is of course false since the tabloids back Stateside haven't blared any similar lies in the past 24 hours.

Another American who supposedly has gotten Japan in its thrall...according to CNN (yeah, right)...none other than that smoovy Barack Obama. Apparently, the way the report goes is that the senator from Illinois is just wowing the Japanese population. Well, it's true that his books have been on large display at the bookstores; I was at Maruzen today and there is a section with his books prominently displayed, but so are Hillary's tomes. And despite the shots of busy Ginza, I'm not getting any indication that the oh-so-pronounceable name here has become so popular that he's getting his own T-shirts. We shall see in November...or sooner.

Saturday February 2, 1:54 p.m.

Well, it's the Binational Observed Holiday Weekend. Today is Groundhog Day in the West, so I expect that Punxatawney Pete...Phil...Pat?...will be making his appearance in the next 24 hours to see whether or not Winter will be continuing. From what I've heard from The Anime King and my sister-in-law, it could be a while yet. Apparently, Toronto is getting pounded yet again by 20 cm of the white stuff. And even over here, Tokyo may once again be threatened by another dreaded dusting. Luckily, I'm at home all day tomorrow watching I-go. The other half of the BOHW is the 3rd which is the annual Setsubun where beans are thrown at the devil to drive him out...kinda like getting rid of Osama Bin Laden with bad language.

As I said, The Anime King contacted me about the snowstorm. And then he talked about he's been starting to listen to some of the J-Pop hits of yesteryear. He mentioned the doll-like duo of Wink as an example...that was way back in 1988. The girls made their reputation as the Pink Lady of the late 80s with their stilted moves and their takes on Eurobeat songs. One has largely disappeared into the ether...popping up occasionally in risque photo shoots (the final tether of desperate tarento) while the other, Shoko Aida, has found some success as an atypically quiet TV personality.
I mentioned to him about my latest purchase of the Kanako Wada CD since she's an 80s artist and she was behind the theme songs of that famous anime series of that time, "Kimagure Orange Road". I actually came across it by accident last night while I was channel surfing over SkyPerfect.

My sister-in-law and my niece finally came across that ritual that every parent and child go through....the kid vomiting in the car. It didn't help that my brother was off at a conference Stateside. I tried to be the big brother and told her about my own passage of that ritual here in Japan decades ago. She seemed a bit more cheerful in her response.

Well, I've got The Dentist and then The Manhattanite in less than an hour. We've got a new getabako (shoe cabinet) in the entrance hall...this time, with proper hinged doors instead of the hellish sliding ones which didn't slide. BC was telling me that the bossman was showing his more anal ways by verbally wringing his hands at which way the doors should swing. That's the boss for you.

Friday February 1, 4:32 p.m.

January has already gone into history. At this rate, I should be looking forward to my cremation in no time.

Since I only had The Yogist yesterday, I was able to have an early night at home. I was finally able to peruse "The Maltese Falcon". Very grateful to have gotten the North American version from my brother since the Japanese have been selling the cut-rate models for just 500 yen with very little in the way of extras. The one I got is chock filled with stuff: along with the commentary and trailers, I also got the previous two inferior versions of "The Maltese Falcon", along with a blooper reel (yep...neither Dick Clark nor "Star Trek" weren't the ones who came up with the concept of bloopers) of various actors in the Warner Bros. universe screwing lines up and swearing (a debonair James Stewart whispering "Son of a bitch!"...classic), a documentary on the movie itself, and a TNT special about Humphrey Bogart's movie trailers. And it was pretty nifty of the DVD producers to arrange things so that it felt like the original movie experience at a theatre of the 40s with the trailers, a 15-minute musical short, old Bugs Bunny cartoons and even a newsreel highlight.
As for the Bogie classic itself, I'd never seen "The Maltese Falcon" before although its reputation, of course, preceded it for years. After seeing it last night, it made for an interesting comparison piece with the other movie that Humphrey is famous for, "Casablanca". The latter movie's Rick Blaine is a hard-bitten cynic who finds redemption at the end. In "Falcon", Sam Spade isn't just a cynic but he's an ice-cold son-of-a-bitch leading around other ruthless characters; and Spade doesn't find redemption at the end. Everyone gets sent up the river but Spade ends up in his own emotional prison...a lifetime sentence. Film noir, indeed.
But for the movie that started the film noir genre, I was struck by how light and comic some of the scenes came off. Even the music sounded sitcom-ish at times. It definitely deserves further viewing...with the commentary.

The other media piece I explored was the other present from my brother, the Chaz Jankel compilation, "My Occupation". It's definitely one for all those who love the disco/new wave stuff from the 70s/80s. Still kinda disappointed that the original version of "Questionnaire" wasn't included...just "Reve de Chevre" which is the stripped-down sliver version. Well, there's always the Japan-only release.

Just have The Ace for his half-hour tonight. Kinda wish that the boss would just have him come twice a month for an hour each, instead of the 4 half-hour lessons.

The big news last night was about the food poisoning cases that have been rolling through Japan over the last month due to tainted packages of frozen siu mai and gyoza dumplings....imported from China. Incredibly, the Chinese government has flown out of the starting gate to resolve things PDQ (considering the other major problem of moving all those citizens trapped in blizzards). Perhaps, the fact that the Beijing Olympics is on the slate this year may have been an incentive.

And that supposed mano-a-womano smackdown at The Kodak Theatre in LA between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton never happened. The debate was so cordial and sedate, all it was missing was a silver tea set and a string quartet. Still, history was indeed made with the first African-American and the first woman to be in such a forum to be nominated for President from the Democratic side. Should be interesting come Super Tuesday.

Thursday January 31, 12:42 p.m.

It's Bill Day...so had to pay off a few of them, including the biannual one for home insurance. Plus, I still gotta pay off the premiums for NHI and City Tax. Not feeling too financially stable right now.

Came to work seeing what looked like Speedy and The Admin having an argument. Actually, the two were having a mutual venting session over an unreasonable customer...happens from time to time. I just politely ignored them and had lunch. Those Hokkaido sausages I got from Ms. Travel the other day certainly hit the stop. She and two others from The Beehive had gone up north to the island to visit Ms. Perth. They had a good time playing in the snow and noshing on the local delicacies.

002 is back in from the cold. She confirmed her lessons for her regular Tuesday afternoon slots. She should have some stories to tell next week.

Those debating stages in California must be looking pretty empty right now, now that a couple of more folks have bitten the dust. Rudy Giuliani with his WTF? campaign strategy quickly threw in the towel after that embarrassing defeat in Florida and I just heard that John Edwards has also left the race. So, that Democratic debate tomorrow will be quite the arena for a smackdown between Hillary and Barack...mano a womano. Meanwhile, the Republican debate looked a bit like the ESPN newsdesk with four guys still in there. However, John McCain must be riding high in the saddle right now, although he still has to get those conservatives.

Anyways, The Yogist should be here any minute....

Wednesday January 30, 10:49 p.m.

Finished up with Medicine Man's first official lesson. Man, he's a shy, reticent one. The bossman took his Polaroid (as we usually do with all of our students)...he looked like he had just gone to a family funeral. We gotta get this guy some major social activity. But we also found out that MM hails from my family's neck of the woods in Wakayama Prefecture...hope he remembers that when it comes to renewal time.

Speaking of MM, I actually got e-mail from one half of M+M...I'd almost forgotten about those two ladies. It's been several months since I heard from them. Looks like they want to resume our conversation again. Well, now that I've been drafted for active Saturday service at Speedy's, it's gonna be a bit difficult to schedule...but I did suggest February 23.

That talk about Kanako Wada got me looking for the original singer of "I Should Be So Lucky" (finally got the title right)...namely Kylie Minogue. Reading up on the Wiki on this song brought out some party-trivia worthy nuggets such as that it was apparently written from the foundation of Pachelbel's "Canon"...sure doesn't sound like it to me. Also, the boys Stock, Aitken and Waterman whipped it up in about 20 minutes based on how unlucky Minogue seemed to be waiting outside their studio.

Then, I discovered from the Japanese-language Wiki on Wada herself that she's been pretty much retired from the biz for the past 17 years since marrying another old folkie, Michael Maki, who was responsible for the hit "Bara ga Saita" (A Rose Has Bloomed) decades ago. So, now this singer has another link with the Australian chanteuse: same pop song, same initials.

Wednesday January 30, 8:29 p.m.

Well, I guess I'm not the only one who appreciates the qualities of one Kanako Wada. I just checked out a few homepages and YouTube. Apparently, there's quite a rabid following for the lass...all of them through her contributions to the anime "Kimagure Orange Road". But it seems as if none of the comments mention the compilation album that I just got a few days ago. So, if any of them are reading this, I'll let them know that it does exist. Just check out Amazon or even come out here. Plus, they'll be happy to know that the KOR ballad is the very first track.

Nice to know that she's loved somewhere...

Wednesday January 30, 7:54 p.m.

Just have that model lesson student-turned-regular student for the 9:30 lesson. Yep, a bit of a drag to have to come out here for just one night class but that's the nature of my occupation. I've already got a friend who's been tagged as The Doctor, so I'm naming this guy Medicine Man. He's a nice enough bloke but he's also as quiet as a church mouse; willing to learn, though.

It was one of those crosstown commutes that I have to do occasionally yesterday. I had The Beehive for their usual at Beckers yesterday morning before having to come here to Speedy's to teach The Nurse for one of her rare Tuesday afternoon classes. Then it was back to Chiba for the juku classes. Both Mild Jr. and The Bohemian were absent. I got that belated Xmas present from my brother. It had what I was hoping for...that Chaz Jankel CD "My Occupation" and a 3-disc Special Edition of Bogey's "The Maltese Falcon". This DVD is definitely a keeper. It not only has the definitive effort of Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, but also the first two versions including the more comedic version with Bette Davis titled "Satan Met A Lady".
As for the Best of Jankel, it has his hits of "Glad to Know You", a funky disco hit with some of the most Dadaist lyrics ever put to paper, along with the original "Ai No Corrida" and a chopped version of "Am I Honest With Myself, Really?"...and that still rates 8:34. I've got the extended version from his first album which spans 15 minutes. I knew that "Questionnaire" wouldn't be on the disc but I'm still a bit disappointed that it isn't present. But there's always the Japan release (if it ever gets over here) which always seems to include a bit more. And perhaps "Questionnaire" the album will be remastered.
I did listen to that Kanako Wada album during the afternoon. Very 80s...down to the cheesy synths. Recently, there has been a flood of these remastered discs featuring artists from 20-30 years ago. I've got a fraction of them in my nostalgia haze: PSY*S, Ruiko Kurahashi, Yoshie Kashiwabara. I guess the studios needed to let the ol' dogs out for accounting purposes, perhaps, since these discs have very little in the way of liner notes and the pics are just copies from previous albums. Still, I was surprised to hear that Kanako's cover of "So Lucky In Love" was given a bit more oomph.

I got e-mail from Skippy. Looks like she wants to undertake another burger trip. This time, the target is in Komazawa...west of Shibuya. It'll be great for Movie Buddy since he's virtually in the neighbourhood. Most likely, the latest invasion for ground beef will be during the next long weekend in February.

Monday January 28, 3:35 p.m.

Had my first lesson of the year with The Class Act this morning. Got a bit of a winfall as well via souvenirs. The Lady gave me a bit of tea from her latest foray into Hong Kong, and The Matron gave me a New York Times Crossword Calendar along with a bar of Lindt Chocolate with Cherry and Chili (!)...70% cacao...from Hawaii. Actually, The Lady gave us samples from her bar since she's not huge on sweets. I could only pick up the faintest hint of heat on my tongue, but then again I've been eating so much spicy food over the years that my tongue has gotten be part asbestos by now. The Matron even had an Elvis Calendar for SIL; I guess after all my talk on her about her love for The Pelvis, The Matron decided to pick something up for her. Ironically, I couldn't see SIL today due to some sort of doctor's appointment.

Since I had the extra time, I just did my first lunch at Wendy's in Shibuya before hitting Tower Records. Despite my financial conundrums, I did fire the gun and picked up a disc; it happens to be one of those 80s J-Pop artists who never really hit the big time (I seem to have a soft soft for these has-been and never-was chanteuses from 2 decades ago). The lady's name here is Kanako Wada, and the disc is a compilation of her hits. She had a minor hit almost 20 years ago with a jingle for some instant soup spaghetti called "Dreamin' Lady"; but otherwise, most of her fame came from theme tunes for anime, notably for "Kimagure Orange Road", or KOR as otaku like my friends in The Anime Court would say. Her voice is somewhere between the smokiness of a Kahori Kohiruimaki and the etherealness of a Reimy or Ruiko Kurahashi, other singers who didn't really hit the ranks of Seiko Matsuda or Akina Nakamori...but that's not exactly a slam against them. Wada also happens to be the first J-Pop singer to do a cover version of Kylie Minogue's first big hit, "I'm So Lucky In Love"; something to mention since current popsters Mihimaru GT have come out with their own version of the song.

Another cancellation to lessen my load. Mr. TOEIC, to noone's surprise, had to dotakyan tonight due to a sudden business trip. So basically, I've got The Full-Timer, The Diver and that model lesson with that doctor later on. At least I'll have a little breather before the doctor comes in. Pored over some of those Medical English books that Speedy had lent me on Saturday. Can't say that any of them are particularly all that friendly. I may have to adapt or concoct something totally on my own.

The Chipmunk contacted me about a possible new home for me. It's gonna be farther out...20 minutes instead of the current 10 minutes I have to walk from the station to my home but if it means cheaper rent and bigger digs, well...I'll be willing to take a look at it. I've also asked her for some more help when it comes to negotiations.

Saw Barack Obama do a royal smackdown on both Edwards and Clinton (figuratively, although I do wonder, considering last week's two-way abuse, if Michelle Obama hadn't considered something more physical against the junior senator from New York) yesterday on CNN. He gave a pretty stirring near-Kennedyesque victory speech. The Class Act and I touched upon the US elections briefly...after massive gossip on the latest amazing restaurants in Tokyo and Hong Kong. The Lady feels that it's still a bit early for Obama to take centre stage just yet. We both think that Hillary Clinton will still get the Democratic Brass Ring later this summer and may eventually become the first female President. But we also worry that if the senator from Illinois actually becomes President, he may achieve Kennedyesque status in a more dubious way...as a possible assassin's target. I'm still not totally convinced that all Americans would accept an African-American President. Still, we're months away.

In the sumo world, there was a smackdown of a far more physical sort between the two Mongolian yokozuna, Hakuho and Asashoryu. This was the equivalent of the dream Super Bowl of loincloths: one is a fallen champion seeking (I think) redemption, the other is a champion seeking to continue his domination of the sport. And boy, everyone is buzzing over the fact that the final match of the first tournament of the year was one to remember for years. It was 47 seconds (an eternity in sumo terms) with the two behemoths struggling titanically (each rikishi looking like they had one up on the other) until Hakuho finally throwing Asashoryu to the ground. The dohyo was littered with ecstatically thrown zabuton. I think the right man won.

And Osaka got another celeb governor. His name is Toru Hashimoto, a 38-year-old lawyer who's also become the charismatic TV personality. Now, he's head of the second-largest metropolis in the country. The Class Act also gave their opinions...basically calling him a fame-hogging question mark. I kinda wonder myself. Some have said that the Prime Ministership may not be too far away. Considering that Yasuo Fukuda isn't exactly holding a lot of support right now, there may be some approach by the LDP mandarins. Hashimoto also has another interesting trait...he's the father of 7, count 'em 7, kids. If he ever does get the big job, that's gonna be one noisy Prime Minister's mansion in downtown Tokyo.

Saturday January 26, 12:53 p.m.

I've just taught The Manhattanite about an hour ago. In fine fettle as usual. And I've got The Doctor later this afternoon. So far, it's just BC and me in the school since the bossman is taking a rare opportunity to partake in a process called sleeping in. The weather is cold and sunny...just like a typical Tokyo winter day.

I had that three-in-a-row with The Sisters of State and BC on Thursday night. The aforementioned sisters will be heading for Bali in mid-March. Must be nice being siblings who can actually be like traveling buddies. As for BC, she and I had a bit of a talk on our mutual boss, Speedy. Nothing too conspiratorial...but we both agreed that his personality can be a bit intimidating for some students. Could possibly explain why 001 and 002 usually demur whenever I have to be absent from their classes and suggest that Speedy take my place.

I just had The Ace last night at the juku. Jolly tried to get in under the wire by asking to come in just a half-hour before The Ace's lesson. The boss took one look at my face and made the call to decline his request. Jolly's a great guy and has been a good student and even if he couldn't find out until last night whether or not he could come in, I really didn't want to set the precedent that he could just come in on the turn of a dime. Luckily, he was understanding about it. And besides, I'm sure he would probably enjoy a night out in Shimbashi with the guys anyways.

Newswise, it was the tragic case of Mrs. Hatakeyama that took up the reports last night. Mrs. Hatakeyama is the tortured woman responsible for killing not only her own daughter but also the little boy of a neighbour. Her appearance and her case history kinda strike me as being similar to that Charlize Theron character in "Monster". In any case, I think the gallows will be her final destination.

SIL cancelled her lesson for this Monday. Not too bad since I'm pretty loaded down with classes on the 28th. I could use with the 6-hour space between The Class Act and The Full-Timer.

Wednesday January 24, 12:48 p.m.

I've been reading through Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" as my latest commuting book. It's been an absorbing read so far. Basically, it comes across as a "how-to" manual for creating epidemics or fads. And in his theories about Connectors, Mavens, Salesmen along with his various laws, he weaves in everything from Paul Revere's Midnight Ride to Sesame Street to Bernard Goetz to apply his teachings. I haven't taken in everything at face value...his Power of Context, for example, is more illustration than illumination of something seen and heard before. However, having said that, some of his earlier stuff on the different types of people needed to get a fad started is worthy of thought. Perhaps, I may try something with those Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that I get as tribute from some of the ol' gang from home.

In any case, The Yogist should be here shortly.

Thursday January 24, 12:11 p.m.

It's back to a normal Kanto Winter day....sunny but cold. But we also have some pretty arctic winds blowing through the megalopolis. Not exactly helping the Wind Chill. I've got a quad today on the schedule. The Yogist is first at bat in less than an hour, and then I have the whole gang at Tully's tonight: The New Yorker, The Carolinan and BC. It'll definitely be a busy one on Monday. The entire Monday crew will be back to normal: The Class Act, SIL, The Full-Timer, the new kid on the block...The Diver, Mr. TOEIC...and yet another model lesson with this doctor to wrap up.

I haven't been paying too much attention to the domestic news over the past few days due to all the WWF-style wrestling between the two frontrunning Democratic candidates in the US. However, there is one piece of news that's been festering in my craw since it broke yesterday morning. It's a sad addendum to what has already been a tragic case.
Several days ago, a scumbag managed to rob an apartment by not only tying up a young woman immobile to the fridge but also by slapping on some masking tape over the nose and mouth of her 18-day-old baby so that the tyke wouldn't scream. The money he took was the gift money for the baby from various wellwishers. The baby died.
Now, just a few days after the funeral, the family will now have to hold another one. The helpless 22-year-old mother committed suicide by jumping from a bridge. If there's anything that proves that there is no God...

Wednesday January 23, 8:04 p.m.

Looks like 001 will be making another one of her skiing pilgrimages next week up to Hokkaido. So, it'll be another 2 weeks before her next lesson although she promises that she'll be here for all the Wednesdays in February. Still, she'll be heading to Hokkaido one more time then before she takes off for an aurora tour in Alaska on Leap Day.
I envy folks like 001 and Jolly who head up to the lodge for skiing. Despite my Canadian-ness, I never learned how to get down the slopes. I had done cross-country skiing in Ontario back in the 6th Grade, and tried doing the snowplow during one of the special Ski Days up in Gunma-ken during my JET days but never really acquired the taste or skill for the sport. And over here, skiing is just as much as a lifestyle as it is in Switzerland. 001 is getting together with a couple of buddies on Sunday at Haneda Airport, sending her skis and equipment ahead by courier, and then they'll board the JAL flight to Hokkaido to Shin-Chitose Airport where a shuttle bus will drive them over the next couple of hours to Kiroro Resort. They'll then partake in a few hours of early evening skiing before having a nice dinner at the lodge, a bath and then some well-earned sleep before hitting the buffet, slopes, brunch and dinner...in that order. Nice but pricey lifestyle...way out of my reach. Sometimes I wish that things had turned out a little differently for me.

Just waiting for the EIC student who'll be coming here in about 45 minutes. The snow has stopped but it's still spitting precipitation out there.

Wednesday January 23, 5:12 p.m.

Well, the snows finally came en masse onto the Kanto from late last night. Still, there are only a few centimetres (if that) on the ground. And in my neighbourhood, it's only been cold rain that's fallen...I guess that heat shield has been in good condition. Of course, the morning news shows have been covering the atypical weather like any other major typhoon.

The last 24 hours have seen the world economy teetering on the brink of recession, and the aftermath of the latest Hillary n' Barack fisticuffs (I just don't see these two ever getting together as running mates). However, the other big news was the surprise demise of actor Heath Ledger. I was just watching CNN's "Lou Dobbs" when the scroll just showed the headline "Heath Ledger dies". I was never a fan of his although he had been coming up through the thespian ranks as a full-fledged actor...not just a movie star. Still, it is a pity that he has left this mortal coil so soon. However, I will finally see him on the big screen, if posthumously as The Joker on "The Dark Knight".

Last night, I had just the usual juku night. Chip N' Dale showed up and it was just them. Those model students from last week never called back. The boss asked Dale about them, and she just replied that their parents were kangaechu (still thinking). Otherwise, it was Mild Jr., The Milds and The Siberian to wrap up. Jolly dotakyan'ed again due to a cold he probably suffered while skiing in Naeba last weekend.

Just have 001 and that EIC student tonight. Kinda wonder if that rain outside is gonna convert into snow once more. Not too much fun commuting in that kind of weather.

Tuesday January 22, 4:37 p.m.

Well, the forecasts still keep showing that snowman icon over the Kanto....but I still haven't seen a blessed snowflake.

Managed to survive the loaded night last night at Speedy's. As I said, I had The Diver for her model lesson. She was a lock but she'll be a lowbie for sure. Then, I had Mr. TOEIC for the first time in over a month. Not too bad considering how low he is. And then, I had my final student for EIC. Quite a bit higher than the previous two, but she's pretty soft-spoken.

Met that friend of the juku boss this morning at the station. He kinda looks and talks like a comedian by the name of Cozy Kubo...so I'll just tag him Cozy. Despite the nickname, he's a pretty sobersided if congenial fellow. We went to the nearest coffee shop to discuss business. For one thing, his request isn't a one-shot but an off-on thing involving translation of various documents from his office. He gave me a couple of samples. Fairly technical stuff but he gave me about a week to peruse them before he actually starts sending me the work. So, I'll be looking forward to the extra income, although I don't know what a professional translator would earn on a couple of pages of technical details. The boss told me that I shouldn't go for the low wages she has to pay me but I'll have to consult some folks about what to charge. We shall see.

In any case, I caught the highlights from that debate version of The Thrilla from Manila involving Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. John Edwards seemed to be a trumped-up bystander with his own dais. Man, it is getting nasty out there.

Got another long night ahead of me...

Monday January 21, 8:35 p.m.

Well, got through the first two fingers of the gauntlet. The Full-Timer was no problem, of course. Apparently, her bizarro supervisor has become somewhat more normal after a bit of counseling by powers above. She even went out for coffee with him...I asked her if she'd brought a knife, just in case. She also informed me that her father had to go in for some elective surgery which brought up the topic of tonsils. Over here, the extraction of tonsils is rare, to say the least...while in the West, it's pretty much a rite of childhood passage.
Then, there is my model student-turned-newest regular....ahhh, how shall I christen her? Ah, The Diver. She's actually a nurse but since someone already has that tag, I'll go with her hobby. Anyways, she's not a complete tabula rasa but pretty close to it. However, she is a trooper so that's good enough for me.
Of course, Mr. TOEIC has just called in to say that he'll be 10 minutes late. A pity since I won't be able to extend due to the fact that I still have that EIC student to take care of after his class. Anyways, he's just buzzed in.

Monday January 21, 5:21 p.m.

Supposedly, according to the CNN website, today...January 21...is the year's most depressing day. And we haven't even reached Income Tax Day. Hopefully, we don't have too many fluent readers of English in this country...otherwise, we may have to look up in the sky a lot to make sure sure we don't get smooshed by falling bodies. Suicide happens to be one of the leading causes of death here.

Bought a new text for Jolly...something that's specific to his job as a salesman. Then, I had lunch at my usual place of Com Pho underneath Oazo at Otemachi Station. Went for the Sesame Pho which is just clogged with sesame seed paste. I heard somewhere that sesame has a lot of curative properties. If so, I should be Adonis. Speaking of Jolly, he and his girlfriend went off to Naeba Ski Resort this past weekend. He should have a pretty interesting report...provided that he doesn't cancel out tomorrow night. Naeba is the most famous ski slope in the Kanto area, and the singer Yumi Matsutoya are pretty much bonded at the hip with this place due to a number of her songs being used as commercial jingles.
I've yet to hear from the juku boss about those two boys who'd come in for the model lesson last week. I wouldn't be surprised if they decided not to sign and it would relieve me of some extra headaches.

The juku boss actually set me up with this tax accountant friend of hers in terms of some translation job. I'm supposed to meet this fellow, who I'd spoken with briefly over the phone during our viewing of "Blood Diamond" yesterday, tomorrow morning for a meet-&-greet at the station.

I saw the teaser trailer for the upcoming "Star Trek" movie (still basically a year away) on YouTube this morning. It apparently got laughed and sneered at by the audiences back home and Stateside. I'm a Trekkie but I'm also not surprised by the cold reception that it got, considering the poor showings of the last two films and the not-so-warm feelings toward the last Star Trek series. I think the franchise could still use a bit of rest.

Well, I've got The Full-Timer in about 20 minutes followed by a model lesson, then Mr. TOEIC and finally an EIC student. If I don't go mad tonight, I should be OK for that tax accountant tomorrow morning. SIL was her usual self earlier this afternoon.

No hint of snow yet.

Monday January 21, 9:35 a.m.

An intriguing DVD/movie weekend, to say the least. It would seem that the overriding unintentional theme amongst 3 of the 4 movies I saw over the past couple of days have dealt with doomed vengeful sociopaths. And amazingly...Movie Buddy, The Satyr and I played absolute contrarians.

First off, and you folks who actually read my ramblings can see it here. And I will even bold it for you. The Reader's Digest version of my feelings for "Sweeney Todd" is: IT SUCKS! Yep, you read it right...you may be seeing what could be the only negative comments for Tim and Johnny's latest collaboration since it would seem that just about everyone else such as TIME, Internet Movie Database and even the usually garrulous reviewer for Tokyo METROPOLIS loved it. Heck, MB even said that if it hadn't been for the fact that he was trapped in the middle of the row, he would've walked right on out and gone to the solace of his PSP.
As for me, I just couldn't get into the musical. Not that I hate musicals...or even dark musicals (heck, I've got the original London soundtrack of "Phantom of the Opera"...without having seen the play). I enjoyed "Chicago" although it has had its share of detractors over the years since it won the Oscar for Best Movie. And "Sweeney Todd" has actually won 2 Golden Globes already....which is astounding. The songs all sounded the same (ironically like Tim Burton's usual go-to-guy for music, Danny Elfman, when he did "Nightmare Before Christmas"; another overrated Burton production which also had overly similar songs) and there wasn't a hummable one in the bunch. 10 minutes into the movie, I was already starting to fidget and wishing...oh, how I wished....that the throat-slitting could get started. In that respect, "Sweeney" failed to disappoint...it was truly a horror-musical. It is also a horrible musical. I knew that MB was despising the movie since he usually gets fidgety and sigh-y on seeing a waste of hard-earned yen and time...the final clue was seeing him finally put his head in his hands. The only other time I'd seen him do that was for "Revenge of the Sith".
I couldn't really blame the cast...they did try hard. Perhaps, Johnny Depp did merit his Golden Globe and kudos to the other actors. It was just that it was wall-to-wall music of the lousiest kind. Y'know...if "Sweeney Todd" had been just a straight drama, I would've enjoyed far more than I did. As it is, though, I am now fervently rooting for "Atonement" or "Jesse James" to get the Oscar for Best Movie. Perhaps the other title for this one should've been a twist on the aforementioned Star Wars sequel but anagram the final word.

Strangely enough, it was the one of the DVDs on Saturday that the three of us had seen...a flick that didn't get anywhere near the adulation, the advertisement or the cash flow of the abomination that is "Sweeney Todd", but also dealt with a doomed psycho...that provided a good chunk of entertainment. We actually caught "Crank"....90 minutes of pure hilarious mayhem with a juiced-up Jason Statham (we had approached this one with some trepidation at first because of the disappointing "Transporter 2")...it was just a nutso over-the-top action flick. And that scene between Amy Smart and Statham in the plaza was definitely a highlight.
Also, caught "Smokin' Aces"...a flick that tried to emulate the vibe of "The Usual Suspects" and "Lucky Number Slevin". Basically, it was a movie to see which contract killer would survive to the end. Actually saw Chris Pine (the future Captain Kirk redux) as one of the neo-Nazi Tremor brothers.
Finally, MB and I saw the odd picture out of the theme of doomed psycho..."Blood Diamond". We enjoyed it for the most part although we also thought that DiCaprio was trying to be a little too earnest to get his Oscar. For that matter, the movie was just screaming to be nominated.

Well, in one of those coincidences...we went to Tony Roma's for a hearty meal in Roppongi (we'd caught "Sweeney Todd" at Roppongi Hills). We did the same thing after we'd seen "Revenge of the Sith"...another flick that met with withering criticism from MB. Skippy and Miss Ivory were also part of the movie "experience". The only one who actually enjoyed it was Miss Ivory. Even Skippy said that she wasn't all that impressed.

It was supposed to be wall-to-wall teaching today. However, The Lady of The Class Act had called up a few nights ago to cancel today's lesson since her buddy, The Matron, had to pull out. Still, it'll be a busy one with SIL's first of the year followed by The Full-Timer, an EIC student, Mr. TOEIC and a model lesson student.

I'm currently borrowing a book from The Satyr called "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell; it talks about that important period of time when something goes from nothing to a huge phenomenon. Maybe it'll explain the inexplicable popularity of Crocs...good heavens, they look like those plastic shoes worn in Japanese bathrooms during cleaning with holes punched into them.

Well, the weather guys are still warning about snow and have been for the past few days although I've yet to see a single flake. The skies look fairly threatening but they still haven't put out...yet.