Tuesday June 17, 4:54 p.m.

Well, after nearly 20 years, the government finally gave notorious serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki what everyone (including himself) had expected and hoped for...his chance at the noose. He was executed earlier today and the Justice Minister made the announcement around noon. I'm sure the news hit the stands via bulletin. I'd just come to Japan for my stint on JET when the news of this owlish man who had killed little girls, desecrated their bodies and ate a couple of them hit the screens and papers like a howitzer. Miyazaki became the poster boy for all that was supposedly wrong with the otaku of Akihabara (ironically, not too long after, a tarento named Hachiro Taku parodying a doll-obsessed otaku became a popular fellow on TV). The timing of the execution is interesting...it came just a week after another otaku, Tomohiro Kato, had attacked Akihabara itself in a stab-and-run massacre and just a couple of days after a slew of copycats threatened to follow Kato's lead. A warning?

In any case, unlike in the States where executions are publicly advertised on all of the networks, the Japanese justice system never announces its executions until after the deed has been done. The death-row inmates sometimes get less than 24 hours' notice although they may have been waiting for years and years. I'm sure as I type this, the TV stations are going over the history of this madman Miyazaki once more.

Well, The Beehive just had a couple of its members show up...Mrs. Alp and Mrs. Jade. There was more on the Croatian trip....I received another souvenir in the form of Croatian raisins, or perhaps they should be called sultanas instead. They're fairly big and juicy suckers although I could hardly call them dates. I'll probably share them with The Milds in partial thanks for Sunday. Mrs. Alp also informed us that Mrs. Perth's father had finally passed away last Tuesday which brought up the topic of Japanese funerals. However, by the end of the session, the two ladies were bursting at the seams at this possible new project of setting up a private party at a nearby hotel when Mrs. Tulip returns for a summer vacation late next month.

002 and I had another rollicking good time although I'm starting to wonder if we're just chatting a bit too much in these lessons.

When I got into Urayasu, the lanterns from last weekend's festival were still up. But it was basically back to normal business after all of the mikoshi-fueled madness of last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The welts on my right shoulder are healing quite nicely now, although I'm joking that they look like the aftereffects of a vigourous session at an S&M club in Roppongi. I'm still an hour away from seeing The Milds and perhaps Jolly. It'll be a short session tonight in any event. However, this Friday is looking atypically busy here. I've got Mild Jr. and The Ace, but before them, I may have a new student in the form of a lady who wants to up her TOEIC score from 600 to 800 points. That would be patently impossible but I'll see what I can do for her. I'm not sure if it would be worth the effort since she lives all the way out in Narita, but the lady says that the juku is on the way between her job in Tokyo and her home. Oooooookay. I did see The Brazilian...who was looking considerably less genki than she did when I'd first met her. She just went through 3/4 of a marathon grammar session with the boss before the boss herself cut things short due to her young charge's imminent collapse.

Well, I did try to hold off but the hunger is coming back again so time to grab a little something at the conbini.

Monday June 16, 9:14 p.m.

Yes, as it turned out, Slim erred on the time so he literally dropped a rice ball and flew over here on a wave of sweat and embarrassment. He was profusely sorry but no worries here. He has established himself as a fine student.

Looks like Skippy's hopes for Harrison Ford to show up on the premiere day of the latest Indiana Jones flick will be dashed. The big man had already shown up for the Japan special premiere last week at Roppongi Hills and even did a Bistro SMAP. Kinda glad I missed that.

Anyways, I'm ready to get home at an insanely more reasonable time than I've had for a Monday in several months.

Monday June 16, 7:42 p.m.

Uh-oh. Slim hasn't shown up yet, and he's usually punctual to the second. I've got a feeling he's misunderstood the time. We'll see...

Looks like the police have been keeping a very sharp eye for any copycat would-be killers after The Akihabara Massacre. The cops arrested a 17-year-old girl in one of the far-flung prefectures after they'd found out that she was "inspired" to do the same thing. Not sure if she had also been targeting Akiba, though.

Well, so far so good. BC seems to be in fairly good spirits. I asked Speedy quietly about her condition and she seems to be doing OK.

Tomorrow I've got The Beehive at the usual place. And I've still gotta give the last two presents from Mom for Mrs. Jade and Mrs. Tee. Then, it'll be 002 followed by the juku gang. Well, it'll be more like a trio...just The Milds and Jolly, although Jolly is always a maybe.

So I see that John Barrowman of "Torchwood" and "Doctor Who" fame will be showing up on CITY-TV's "Breakfast Television" in about an hour or so back in Toronto. I wonder if he'll be trying to pick up everyone in sight on Queen St.

Thought as much...Slim thought his class was for 8:30 p.m. He's coming around the mountain, as we speak.

Monday June 16, 5:31 p.m.

Continuing on about The Urayasu Festival...Mr. Mild and I came back to his house for a little respite. We ended up playing his Wii Sports on the plasma TV. Well, mikoshi-carrying and Wii tennis may not be my forte, but I seemed to have been in the groove like Tiger Woods yesterday when it came to Wii bowling. Not sure what it was, but I was able to get 5 strikes in one game.

We made one more foray outside, but this time I changed back into J-Canuck, regular citizen. It was about 5 p.m. and our mikoshi had already reached "home" as it were and the young'uns were making one final tired toss of the shrine before finally calling it quits. Some congratulatory iced coffee and squid-on-a-stick, and then Mr. Mild and I were walking through the non-mikoshi festivities in old Urayasu. I keep mentioning old Urayasu, the reason being that Mr. Mild explained that The Urayasu Festival is only held in the original town, and not Shin (New) Urayasu which was built on reclaimed land. The main sidewalks were clogged with festivalgoers stopping at the various stands selling okonomiyaki, choco-bananas and yakisoba. One guy was even frying up chicken steaks. After a good long walk, we reached Seiryu Shrine, one of the three main shrines in Urayasu. We dutifully lined up and made our prayers. Also, the 38 mikoshi that were involved in all of the hijinks were to be brought majestically into the shrine grounds with all of the "Mae da!" that had been characteristic of the day. The schedule was running late, so I only saw the first huge mikoshi being brought in. That turned out to be the only really dangerous point in the festival as the exhausted bearers almost lost control of it and unfortunately there was a crowd surrounding the shrine. People ended up being slightly crushed and pushed as the guys struggled to get hold onto it. But that was about it. I gave my thanks to Mr. Mild and made my way home. Mr. Mild promised (threatened?) to show the prints from my stint under the mikoshi tomorrow at the juku. I'm sure much hilarity will ensue.

Today has been the usual Monday. I got to see The Class Act for the first time in a couple of weeks. I got a couple of small containers of turtle jelly from The Lady via her trip to Hong Kong last week. I'll probably give one container to the Milds in thanks for yesterday. I should warn them to put on lots of honey before eating the jelly. Then, I had SIL...again a lot of nostalgic talk. I'm having The Full-Timer in about 15 minutes followed by Slim to wrap up. It'll be an uncharacteristically early night since folks like The Tippler and Medicine Man won't be coming in tonight. I'll definitely head on back home once I'm finished with Slim.

That earthquake up in the Tohoku area has had deaths, missing and injuries regrettably. And the green hills look like whole slabs had been carved out from them. Although the loss of life is tragic, I still have to say that the consequences of that quake compared to the ones that have hit China and other countries in recent years have convinced me that Japan is the leading nation when it comes to earthquake prevention and emergency aid. Just wonder when The Big One is gonna hit the Kanto, though. It's like a geological game of Russian Roulette.

Monday June 16, 4:40 p.m.

Well, we're past the halfway mark for this month again. It's getting warm out there...including my apartment which should reach oven levels in the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to toughen myself up from using my air conditioner so that I don't end up in hock to TEPCO.

Saturday night was once again DVD Night with Movie Buddy and The Satyr. First up was "The Kingdom", the action-thriller flick with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner as an FBI team in Saudi Arabia. It was pretty much a connect-the-dots flick...not particularly imaginative or gripping but entertaining enough. The best movie of the night was "Superbad" which had teens with some unbelievably potty mouths. And the characters weren't the usual stereotypes...at least, not totally. Everyone, including McLovin, cussed each other out with equal measure. Then, there was "Apocalypto" which was 3/4 historical tragic epic and 1/4 "Rambo".

Strangely enough, while MB and I were watching "Apocalypto", I received a call from GC for the first time in years. It was almost as if there had been no grand silence between us. Unfortunately, the timing was rather bad since we were in mid-feature so I asked him to call me back the next night.

The next day had MB and I doing our usual post-DVD breakfast at the nearby Skylark's. While I was headed out for The Urayasu Festival, MB would be heading for Akihabara. He only realized it too late, but he was wearing a T-shirt which had what looked like blood spatters and some kanji which translated into "I'm sorry for cutting you into little pieces." Not particularly the right tee to wear, considering last week's bloodbath there.

As for The Urayasu Festival, I'd mentioned last entry about that frenzied scene in Classic Trek where the residents of Landru's planet always went completely nutso for about 12 hours. Well, this festival only comes around once every four years. And the residents of old Urayasu certainly acted as if they were members of Landru.

It all started when I got to the Milds' house. Mr. Mild had me decked out in happi coat, 27.5-cm tabi and sash. The weather was ideal for mikoshi-carrying...sunny but not too hot. At first, Mr. Mild and Mild Jr. took me to one of the main streets to see this huge parade of mikoshi, or portable shrines, each being carried by a dozen or so ever-so-happy folks in traditional gear. Finally, came our turn. Mild Jr. and I took our places under the wooden bars of our mikoshi. When it was time, we started strutting our stuff. We had to yell "Mae da! Mae da" (Ahead! Ahead!) which was the Urayasu version of what other festivalgoers usually say, which is "Wa shoi! Wa shoi!" I tell you...those 5 minutes were pretty much a roller coaster. The mikoshi itself wasn't too heavy since there was a good gross of hardier types carrying it along with me. But when it came to tossing the mikoshi up and down, my right shoulder ended up getting mugged worse than a tourist in Central Park. Mild Jr. would later tell me that I sounded as I had been slowly dying. That solid wooden bar just thwacked my shoulder several times.

It was a bit of break for lunch at the Milds' place where Mrs. Mild put out a pretty nice spread of food. Then, it was back to mikoshi-carrying again. The sun was far brighter and hotter in the afternoon, of course, and so I only lasted a few minutes, which probably didn't get much respect from the surrounding veterans. It was only a few minutes but I felt like I went through the wringer. However, to add to my internal humiliation, Mr. Mild, retired fellow, went under the shrine 3 times for some minutes each time, and a number of the younger ladies were literally shouldering the burden as well. Mr. Mild later told me that there were two types of people at The Urayasu Festival...those that were mikoshi maniacs and those who were mikoshi-phobic and preferred to watch. I think I became a convert to the latter. Mr. Mild and I noticed one guy walking in front of us...he was built like a sumotori and had a rather sizable hump on the back of his neck which looked like an angry red lava flow ready to blow...now he was a mikoshi maniac!

The majority of the time, the mikoshi carriers kept on doing their chants and moving along, but once in a while, they would stop and proceed to perform another action which involved bringing down the shrine to a low level and rotating it 360 degrees while the supporters yelled "Maware!" (Turn it!). That looked like backbreaking work. But the real craziness was when the dozen or so carriers would suddenly start tossing this huge heavy mikoshi up in the air three times....a bit risky but somehow they were able to steady the thing without having it crash onto automobile traffic (yep, there were some unfortunate motorists who had to negotiate through the strees of old Urayasu).

More later....

Saturday June 14, 12:43 p.m.

I got a taste of what the bossman must have gone through. During Slim's lesson, the phone was ringing off the hook a few times, and finally I thought I just had to answer it just in case it was Speedy himself. Instead, it was an inquiry from a civilian. Erk! I tried to muddle through my bad Telephone Japanese and just managed to jot down her phone number and a first name; it didn't help that she was talking next to a busy street. As for Slim himself, he came in 20 minutes late. He either seemed distracted because of work or he gets down on himself if he makes too many errors in his homework, so I tried to be as encouraging as possible.

But in any case, I'll be leaving the telephones to Speedy from now on.

Saturday June 14, 10:28 a.m.

Back at Speedy's by myself. I've opened everything up...including a kettle of boiling water for the tea. Slim ought to be here in about 30 minutes.

Hmmm...been a morning of BREAKING NEWS on both sides of the Pacific. First, Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" heads for that newsdesk in the sky. Since we don't get NBC here, I only knew him by news clips on CNN and an interview on the same network on behalf of his book about his father a few years ago. Wolf devoted the entire hour of "The Situation Room" to him, and the way the other networks are covering the death, it almost sounds as if he were the second coming of Walter Cronkite. And TVNewser had two pages on the announcement; never saw that on the site before. Still, it's tragic to see a guy leave so young and just on the eve of Father's Day, too, when he had a son and a father.

Then, just as I was about to leave home, I saw my calendar weaving from side to side like a punch-drunk fighter, and then I felt a bit of vertigo. I first thought it was a breeze, then I realized it was an earthquake. There has been a M7.0 up in the Tohoku area...pretty strong one. Everyone in Tokyo got a whiff of it. If I could be TVNewser for a sec, NHK was right on top of it, including the prerequisite shots of the local newsrooms when the quake hit but it took another 5-10 minutes for the commercial channels to get on the ball. I guess they just couldn't leave their visits to the trendiest restaurants to cover a potential disaster in the making. We're pretty jaded about quakes here.

Speedy called me up last night after I'd gotten home from the juku just to say that I had to activate BC's computer to get access to the listening files in the textbook for Slim's lesson. He sounded a bit less frenetic, but that was only because he was so exhausted. BC has given so indication that she would be coming in, and Speedy has just given up on her. He has far more patience than me when it comes to people's foibles, but I think even he has reached his breaking point.

Friday June 13, 9:20 p.m.

I can hear the taiko drums out there for the festival, so I guess things are still going strong. Hmmm...I wonder if I'll need an alternate route home.

The juku boss came in all a-panting. She was decked out in her festival gear having lifted her share of mikoshi, and just as quickly, she went out. Mild Jr. came in. He'll also be in the festival lifting those portable shrines this weekend. He explained why The Urayasu Festival is quadrennial instead of annual. He said that it was for security...apparently, in years past, the festival had its share of violence via battling mikoshi of competing shrines which brought the wrath of the police. Mild Jr. also (half-)jokingly remarked that the mikoshi crews then battled the police. In any case, the powers-that-be decreed that the festival would only take place at an Olympic pace.

Tomorrow is the debut of the newest and probably last subway to be built in Tokyo, the Fukutoshin Line. I would love to check it out but it'll probably be filled to the brim by subway otaku.

Friday June 13, 6:54 p.m.

I recall an episode from Classic Trek, "The Return of the Archons", in which for about 12 hours, the residents of a planet go into a mad frenzy daily, screaming "Festival! Festival!" Well, things aren't as orgiastic here but The Urayasu Festival has started. As I was walking down Miyamae Avenue, all those lanterns that had been put up a few weeks finally looked appropriately positioned as crowds of locals were walking up and down the street, stopping by the stalls for franks-on-sticks, yakisoba, choco-bananas, and the like. Several older guys were dressed in their happi coats, headbands and tabi directing traffic, and a group of younger guys were practicing on their chants as they lifted their mikoshi. Of course, it wouldn't be a festival without a bit of Harajuku youth...there were small gaggles of boys and girls dressed slovenly with dyed hair schlumping along. I also did notice an interesting fashion thing as I was getting off at Urayasu Station. A few young girls...or I should say, gyaru...were dressed in happi coats and shorts but with yukata-like print designs. A new phenomenon in place? Pretty happy overall considering it's Friday The 13th.

But another festival...a weekly one, compared to the quadrennial one above...is truly feeling the wrath of Friday the 13th. The Public Security Agency put the kibbosh on the pedestrians' paradise of Akihabara until further notice...plainly because of the events of last Sunday, although the authorities had already been concerned about some of the other things that had been going on such as adult video actresses showing their wares, so to speak, in the hokoten, before the police swooped down. Still, a madman was able to accomplish what a politician had been hoping for. It's a pity...the hokoten was one of the events that put Akihabara on the map. The Maids will still be about on the sidewalks and perhaps in front of JR Akihabara handing out their flyers, but there will be no more dancing anime characters, no more otherwise innocent otaku walking about, and no more people just enjoying a Sunday afternoon in one of the most unique urban developments in the world.

I'm here by myself right now. I used my own key to the house to get into the juku. I guess the boss and her husband must be out in the festival right now. I've only got Mild Jr. tonight. Gotta ask him about the directions to his family's house on Sunday.

It was a nice day today...I actually felt good about walking outside. I headed out to Daiei and used up the remaining gift certificates on clothing and various household items, before noshing on a Wendy's meal. It'll probably be my last one for a good long while. I got my City Tax premium schedule last night. All I can say is OUCH! However, Speedy is majorly singing the blues. He called me to say that The Manhattanite is coming in at 1 tomorrow. I could tell that the bossman wasn't in a good mood. Most people get grouchy and their volume soars. As for Speedy, what he lacks in volume, he more than makes up for in speed of delivery. Yep, he was jabbering a mile a minute on the phone since it was just him in the office today being a one-man administration since BC has basically become hikikomori. I think it might be safe to say that BC may no longer be showing up at the office anymore. In any case, tomorrow, like I am right now in the juku, I'll be a solo in Speedy's school when I teach Slim and The Manhattanite.

The Satyr has confirmed his reservations for DVD Night, so it'll be back to a threesome tomorrow.

I can't quite figure it out, though. I gave that apology to The Carolinan last night for my fishy breath since she kinda made a sly back-and-forth about what I'd eaten. I got a reply from her saying that she doesn't what I'm talking about. I really hate these alternate universe shifts.

Thursday June 12, 9:46 p.m.

Looks like there has been some further movement in my schedule. Slim has booked in his next three lessons...one of which will be falling on Saturday morning. Well, c'est dommage, but again he's a good student so I don't mind, and I can still meet MB and The Satyr for DVD night a bit earlier than scheduled. That is, if their significant others can let the leash go for a few hours.

But now I've just heard that BC managed to leave one of her annoyingly cryptic notes in the schedule that The Manhattanite did indeed book a lesson for Saturday afternoon, so apparently barring a call from the girl, she's on after Slim. Man, if it weren't for the fact that BC was so on the edge right now...

The juku boss also left a message saying that The Ace won't be coming in after all tomorrow night (I thought that Jolly was the go-to guy for cancellations), so it'll just be Mild Jr. I'll have to speak to him about the directions to his house for the Urayasu Festival on Sunday. I think Mr. Mild steered me wrong about the bus directions.

Looks like I'll be keeping it close to home tomorrow, get some added sleep, get some socks and undershirts with the last of the certificates. Just trying to decompress right now...

I did send my written apologies to The Carolinan for pelting her with fish breath tonight. She may have been joking but it's never bad to be humble.

Thursday June 12, 7:55 p.m.

After the Yogist's lesson, I headed off to Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. The cats and dogs of this morning finally lifted, and I could get there without needing to open up the brolley. Noticed that Krispy Kreme #1 only had a 40-minute wait and it wasn't a bad day at that point, so I guess the trend has finally peaked. Mrs. Mild did point out that Krispy Kreme #2 only demanded a 20-minute wait from her until she got her two dozen donuts.

I picked up Movie Buddy's belated b-day present there using some of the remaining gift certificates. I tried to find something Bondian but the books there were of the expensive coffee-table variety. Instead, I got this new retrospective on Indiana Jones which got pretty high marks from the reviewer in EMPIRE Magazine.

I walked all over Shinjuku looking for some place for a late lunch or early dinner. Ended up going to SUBWAY for the first time in several months. I had stopped going when I saw them starting to actually charging for cheese in their subs. However, I had to relent and ended up having a full tuna sub. My choice would have ramifications later on.

When I headed for the subway, I did notice the newest skyscraper to hit the Shinjuku skies, west of the station. I don't know what it's called but it looks like that gherkin building in London, except it has some angles carved out of it...as if some mad rabbi circumcized the hell out of it. Any more of these buildings and we may get that Blade Runner skyscape after all. I also found that Burger King #1 in the basement plaza of Shinjuku I-Land. Not too many people there despite the fact that when it had opened over a year ago, there was a lineup to rival that of Krispy Kreme #1.

I got back to Speedy's just in time to see The Carolinan waiting at the station. As we were walking back to the school, we started talking about our mutual friend, BC. She had also noticed that BC wasn't too happy the other night when we all went out for dinner at the nearby cafe. We continued the talk into the first few minutes of the lesson. I then told her about her emotional breakdown a couple of weeks ago and how worried I and the bossman were about her fragile state. She related that another friend of theirs said that BC had declined her invitation to a concert of hers due to ill health. We can only hope that she can snap out of her funk soon.

One thing about The Carolinan, one of my longest-standing students. She knows me well enough that she can take a few potshots at me but she does it very indirectly. Apparently, my tuna sub breath traveled a little too far than desired...she just asked me innocently what I'd had for dinner. When I replied "SUBWAY", she then asked me which sandwich I'd had. When I replied tuna, she gave this "A-Ha!" look. I can take a hint...I'll duly brush after a tuna and onion sandwich or I'll just eschew it altogether.

Anyways, Slim ought to be here in about 15 minutes...

Thursday June 12, 11:49 a.m.

Just finished with Grandma Dynamite. Found out that she's also a huge Mariko Takahashi fan along with Mrs. Mild (would just love to have those two together).

As expected, BC's bailed out again today. Now, she just can't (or won't) move out of bed...which brings up red flags. I think she's clinically depressed. Speedy may just want to get that want ad out now for new assistants. I may have a word with The Carolinan tonight.

I read...or tried to read...the Wiki entry on "Pink Lady and Jeff"...yes, it's been a pretty boring day. For those who are younger than 30 years of age, this example of Japanese & American cultural relations gone rancid was an NBC TV show whose producers inexplicably decided to have the legendary (at least in Japan) 70s pop idol duo, Pink Lady, co-host in the loosest sense of the word with comedian Jeff Altman a variety show. Of course, being part of an ethnic Japanese family in Canada, my parents made my brother and me watch the visual car crash. "Shogun" was also considered compulsory viewing when it came on a few years later....along with "Mr. T and Tina" (but that's another story). The two things I remember about "Pink Lady and Jeff" were their performances and the memory-cringing running gag of the two girls stripping off to bikinis and sharing a hot tub with Jeff (can you say bathing suits on washboards?) at the end of the show. The fact that it was one of the worst TV shows ever vomited onto the screen has been well known; what I didn't know was that it apparently was the final nail in the coffin for primetime variety shows. I gather that "The Brady Bunch Variety Show" didn't quite do it. Ironically, The Not-Ready-For-Primetime-Players were wowing them on a late night variety show called "Saturday Night Live" on the same network at about the same time. Thirty years later, though, there has been a happier coda of sorts with Puffy Amiyumi living their American life via The Cartoon Network. Still, I think AKB 48 needn't think about packing their bags quite yet.

Thursday June 12, 8:29 a.m.

It's raining a menagerie out there. Pretty miserable but I bet a month from now we'll all be begging for precipitation. I know that The Yogist just loves this type of weather. She could be absolutely manic today.

The only big question today is whether BC will come in or call in sick once again. In either case, she'll probably be hugely depressed.

Wednesday June 11, 10:44 p.m.

And thus another Hump Day comes to an end. 001 has been enjoying her weekly shots of "Heroes". I even showed her the final scenes of the season finale via YouTube during the break. The Diver passed again with flying colours. The angst remains though she is improving...really. And Medicine Man was his level-headed best though it's obvious he doesn't have much of a social life. He'll be headed off to a conference in Malaysia next week so he won't be around then.

It'll be another long day here tomorrow as well, since I now have Grandma Dynamite permanently on the schedule followed by The Yogist. And it looks like I may have The Carolinan sewn up as, at least, a frequent visitor to Speedy's which will keep both our nerves calm. Slim will be batting cleanup.

Wednesday June 11, 5:33 p.m.

Summer at Speedy's is just around the corner, y'know, when it's time to put in the air conditioner. The two of us installed it into the classroom window. The bossman also informed me that Grandma Dynamite is a lock for Thursday mornings. So, another early morning into the neighbourhood tomorrow.

Met The New Yorker down at Ichigaya, our old stomping grounds. Somehow I've gotta get her coming here to the school more often. Never easy teaching at a cafe in the middle of the afternoon. She'll be heading to Okinawa this weekend for a short vacation.

It'll be the usual Hump Day lineup: 001, The Diver and then Medicine Man. The Diver should have done her test...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is a clean pass. She may have a major heart attack if she doesn't.

Wednesday June 11, 11:59 a.m.

Crisis averted...The Nurse didn't get a perfect score on the Make-Up but she aced it anyways. The rest of the lesson went smoothingly. I did tell her that I had used some of her black rice supplement in my white rice on Sunday. Luckily, instead of getting a gray mix of carbs, I got a rather brilliant purple.

BC has called in sick. Speedy told me that she had to leave early yesterday as well due to...something. And here I was blogging last night about my concerns about her. I told him about her crying breakdown a couple of weeks ago while he was away. He figured that something like that would happen. I gather then that lessons with her are probably now off the table.

With all that has happened in the past few days, a feat such as Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Kosuke Kitajima smashing the world record on Sunday managed to barely make the news radar. Well, it did help that he did it while wearing that new miracle Speedo swimwear. That little controversy kept him and the rest of the Japanese team in the news. The problem was that though Speedo was helping all of these international swimmers break records, Team Japan could only use swimsuits manufactured by the sponsors Asics, Mizuno and one other company. Well, the impasse was resolved yesterday when a press conference announced that the swimmers themselves could choose the suit that would, in their estimation, be the most useful in getting that Gold. So, Speedo is now very welcome. However, Mr. Kitajima in his usual shoot-from-the-hip style said that the press shouldn't stress the suit as much as the person in it.

The Coffeemaker got back to me concerning Sunday. Yep, she's cool with the re-schedule. I'll see them on the 21st instead.

Wednesday June 11, 9:05 a.m.

Jolly did show up last night. Still had a slight fever but he was much more on the ball. In fact, he was definitely on the golf ball on Saturday...less than 24 hours after he appeared like Death Warmed Over to the juku boss and me. He had the best score out of his 17 workmates on the course. However, the other big news last night was me being drafted into the quadrennial Urayasu Festival this weekend by The Milds. I'm to help carry a mikoshi...those huge portable temples that everyone sees as part of traditional Japanese culture on TV all around the world. Unfortunately, by the time I'd accepted and gone home, I realized that I was supposed to have Tully & The Coffeemaker on that same day. Well, instead of breaking the bad news to The Milds, I decided to ask The Coffeemaker if she would consider re-scheduling...not the most appropriate thing to do but I figured that I see the pair once or twice a month. The Urayasu Festival is once every four years. And the pair has asked me to re-schedule on occasion, so I think I can sacrifice some professionalism for an opportunity...although my shoulder may not agree later on Sunday night. It was strange, though....I'm usually pretty good when it comes to checking my schedule before committing to something. But when The Milds invited me, I just jumped at it...and I'm not really a festivalgoer. Maybe some sort of kismet is on its way. Also, the festival appearance will mean an early start to MB and me after DVD night. I invited Movie Buddy to the festival, but he declined saying that he wasn't much for them either. Instead, he'll be heading over to Akihabara. I'll feel a little bad again about having to curtail our usual Morning After breakfast, but then again he would've had to do it anyway since I did have the lesson with Tully & The Coffeemaker.

Seguing into Akihabara, the media is still on The Akihabara Massacre. Allegedly, Tomohiro Kato has broken down into tears but has remained steadfastly unapologetic about his actions on Sunday. I guess that would be no surprise since he was (and maybe still is) a man filled with psychotic rage. There was a near-psychotic media scrum when he was taken out of Manseibashi Police Station. Despite his defiant stance, he did have his head bowed down in seeming penance. But there have been some interesting observations concerning the crime. One was that Kato's parents took the unprecedented step of holding a news conference outside their home and apologizing for their son's heinous deeds. Although their faces were kept away from the camera lens, the cameras and microphones were keyed on them as the mother collapsed in miserable prostration. Whenever any of these sorts of crimes have played out, the parents of the perpetrator have never been shown or at most, perhaps, the media only gets a secondhand account from them via the police.
The second thing was that on YouTube, I saw a remarkable video with a Maid speaking in fairly fluent English acting as reporter-on-the-spot just minutes after the attacks had begun.

I also read an editorial in today's "International Herald Tribune" which was gleaned from the Japanese affiliate, "Asahi Shimbun" which kinda grated on me. I'm not sure if the translation lost something or if the contributor hadn't meant to do it, but the tone of his or her description of Kato seems to treat him as if he were some petulant girl acting out for not being allowed to go out with her friends. Terms like "self-centred" and "selfish" were bandied about, and true, Mr. Kato does have those traits but those adjectives seem rather pale compared to the horror of what he actually committed. The man is a sociopath...he's no longer human.

Tuesday June 10, 7:29 p.m.

It's certainly been the most leisurely wait before a lesson that I've ever had at the juku in recent memory...and I am approaching the 4th anniversary of my time here. Certainly, when your first (and possibly only) students happen to be The Milds, the nicest couple of married English students you can ever get, well, you won't have to fret too much about what to do for the lesson. Plus, The Milds are the students that have been with me since their nearly mute beginnings. In the past 3 hours, I've managed to have my dinner and read through the latest issue of EMPIRE Magazine. The juku boss, feeling bad that I've had to "waste" a lot of the late afternoon waiting since The Brazilian has suddenly opted out, gave me a Haagen-Dazs sandwich, thereby adding to my fat content...metabolic syndrome, be damned.

And at this point, we're still having cool comfy nights to contrast with the increasingly warmer days. That should change as we enter July, but for right now, I'm quite happy with the meteorology. Still haven't heard from Jolly...not sure if he'll be showing up or not, but usually if he is to cancel, he usually does so around this time.

BC has continued to remain an enigma. Since her emotional breakdown in front of me a couple of weeks ago due to the shenanigans of her dastardly boyfriend, she's been having her mood swings...kinda like my ex....she's definitely not been a morning person....everytime I've come to Speedy's in the a.m. she's come off sounding as haunted as the character in Munch's "The Scream". However, she does warm up in the afternoon. Still, I'm not sure about what she really wants to do even though she has been accepted to school in British Columbia. She has yet to answer me about what she plans to do about any remaining lessons with me, although she really doesn't need me anymore in that capacity since she works alongside me, speaking English without needing to pay me. Well, we'll see what she's like tomorrow.

Tuesday June 10, 4:27 p.m.

Well, it looks like The Brazilian won't be showing up after all. I was greeted loudly in English by the juku boss as I was walking toward her house a full 20 m away. The lady who was walking on the other side of the street must've been wondering what that was all about. In any case, The Brazilian is apparently laden down with work and it looks like that she probably won't be attending either of our lessons for the rest of this month. She basically has the same job as 002...a health care worker for the elderly. But she appears to be working with a rougher breed of geriatric. When she came in for her grammar lesson with the boss, the boss noticed a huge hole...yep, that's right, a hole...in her right arm. The Brazilian remarked that one of the inmates...ah, I should say patients...chomped down on her hard. I guess having that second childhood means becoming like Baby Face Finster. The boss also noted that The Brazilian was just having a hell of a time getting through the most basic of grammar concepts. In a way, then, I'm happy that The Brazilian has opted out for the meantime. I can only imagine how she would've fared with me.

So, it'll just be The Milds and maybe...just maybe...Jolly tonight. Man, talk about what a difference a week makes. I was being swamped with work last week and now it looks like I'm on O-Bon holiday.

002 was her dependable self. We got onto talking about her futon which were sunning themselves nicely out on the balcony. I told her about a news report that I'd seen a few years ago about the need to replace pillows and perhaps futon rather regularly since they quickly become the new home for millions and millions of ticks and mites. That got her attention very quickly and also turned her off for a few minutes. To think, that the population of an entire solar system could be crawling around you all night as you sleep...well, maybe you won't after reading this. For the record, the experts suggest putting the pillow in a plastic bag and then stuffing it in a freezer for a few hours will halt the progress of the critters. And in the summer, I'm sure they will feel mighty refreshing once you hit the hay.

Yup, it's definitely summer out there. My wash must be bone-dry by now. However, I hear that the Rainy Season will be rearing its ugly head once more from tomorrow.

Well, the big battle over the legendary "Hockey Night in Canada" theme is over...for now. CBC couldn't put up the money so CTV snapped it up in a New York minute instead. Dolores Claeman, the original composer, was just so happy in her home in London (not a hockey fan probably), while CBC was commiserating that it couldn't hope to raise up the funds that its rival did. I guess CBC kinda feels what John McCain must be going through looking at the Obama machine. In any case, CBC is putting its chin forward and starting a contest welcoming new song candidates for HNIC with a prize of $100,000 (I think). Meanwhile, I'm wondering what CTV needs this song for...perhaps it has some ideas for a hockey program of its own. There are fans of the original song out there who are clamouring for some sort of protest to get back "The Hockey Song" to the Ceeb where it belongs, but it'll just be like those Trekkies who shouted to renew "Enterprise" after it had been axed. They'll yell and scream for a few months and then life will just go on.

Permit me to wax nostalgic on Canada's 2nd national anthem. When Saturday night was truly Hockey Night in Canada, that theme was the clarion call. But hearing the longer Mancini-esque version at the end always struck me as the signal to hit the hay for Sunday...that is, until I discovered "Saturday Night Live". Now since I've come here, "Hockey Night in Canada" has expanded to regular doubleheaders with all sorts of little programs here and there, and there's now an annual Hockey Day in Canada. Geez, you leave a country for a decade....

Tuesday June 10, 10:02 a.m.

Well, we're still officially 11 days away, but I'd say today rates as a nice summer day, unlike the Noah's Ark-type of weather we had last night. I will be needing the menthol wipes by afternoon.

The analysis of Mr. Kato, the instigator of The Akihabara Massacre continues. The police and the media have painted a picture of a man of massive insecurities possessing an otaku-like exterior covering a volcanic temper. He's also a product of a broken home. His parents separated due to sarakin problems. There is a photo of him in survival game gear, as well as a cartoon drawn of him by his old classmates depicting him blowing up in rage.

Skippy informed me that although she was in Shinjuku at the time, an acquaintance of hers had been in Akiba at a time just after the attack; he'd thought it was some sort of popular performance and just avoided the massive crowds. MB just replied that he would see for DVD night on Saturday. He's not really the type to address anything that doesn't directly involve him. The Anime King also contacted me partly about the incident.

Monday June 9, 9:56 p.m.

Trivia of the Day: Alexander Siddig, ex-Dr. Bashir of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", just happens to be the nephew of Malcolm McDowell ("Clockwork Orange", "Heroes", and he was Dr. Soran from "Star Trek: Generations"). Plus, he married (and divorced) fellow DS9'er Nana Visitor, and had a fling with Kim Cattrall, best known from "Sex and the City", but for Trekkies, known as Lt. Valeris, the treacherous Vulcan from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". Talk about your Trek royalty!

In any case, to continue with the Akihabara Massacre, apparently the AKB 48 girl group had been performing in one of the buildings on Chuo Dori during the attack. They didn't know a thing until their worried parents started sending frantic messages on their cells. I actually sent out a general message to Movie Buddy, The Satyr and Skippy to check about their whereabouts yesterday. So far, The Satyr checked in to say that he was home all day then. I did get some message of concern from The Wild Thing in Hong Kong on Facebook. I reassured him.

Finished up with Slim just now. Man, the classroom was a sauna, as it usually is as we head into summer. The major rain and thunder have subsided thankfully. Hopefully the sun will show up tomorrow as promised. At one point, even hail was forecast. In 14 years here, I have never seen so much as a frozen snowball come down in this country.

Monday June 9, 6:42 p.m.

With all of the previous day's events, I did forget to mention that one of America's sports broadcasting legends had passed by over the weekend, so I wanted to pay a little tribute. ABC's Jim McKay passed on. I hadn't heard from him in years but on the news about his death, his voice and "The Wide World of Sports" theme began to percolate through my misty memories once more...especially his opening words during the theme: "....the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat..."

And then there is another sports legend which may be passing. But this one isn't a person, it's a theme song of its own. It happens to be the theme song for "Hockey Night in Canada"; I'd read over the past few days that the composer of the tune and CBC have had a falling out of sorts concerning the tune that's known to just about every Canadian born in the last half-century. I hope that there can be some happy ending to this little spat. I mean, I have only seen a HNIC broadcast barely a few times over the last 15 years since I've been here, but the theme song and the show are national institutions for Gretzky's sake. Heck, my cousin had an album with the original HNIC logo on it. It just wouldn't be a Saturday night without the brass playing that theme song (and it wasn't a few years ago during that stupid NHL strike). Man, just feel like going to YouTube right now and hearing for old time's sake. I'd say bring in Don "Grapes" Cherry into the negotiations. He'd kick some ass! Maybe bring in Blue as well (although I know the mastiff is probably long gone by now...tells you how long I've been here).

Monday June 9, 6:02 p.m.

The carnage in Akihabara yesterday will probably be holding the media in its thrall for this week. And probably will be cast off like snakeskin next week. It's one of the criticisms I have for the somewhat tabloid nature of the press here. The cameras will probe every little nook and cranny in Mr. Kato's life for the next five days...probably places that they don't really have to look. And then, it'll be off to the next lurid story. Does anyone remember last week's big story of the guy who had killed his neighbour in Tokyo, chopped her up like onions and then flushed the chunks down his toilet? And what of the recent rash...no, epidemic...of suicides in various hotels involving hydrogen sulfide? And then there are the two folks responsible for their run-by-stabbing sprees earlier this year. Has there been any follow-up about why they did what they did? I would like to know.

As I said in my last entry, it's a strangely light day today in terms of work. I only had SIL earlier today and then I have Slim for an evening lesson. Of course, SIL and I discussed the Akiba incident before going over an article on a story that now seems to pale considering the local circumstances....Obama's final clinching of the Democratic nomination. Things will probably be the same tomorrow. The Beehive is off. I start with 002 with my weekly house call and then I've got my first official lesson with The Brazilian...that young firecracker student that had been thrust upon me last week. Then, it's The Milds followed by....maybe...Jolly, providing he didn't end up in a hospital after his ghost-like appearance on Friday.

I was able to get some errands done. I sent off a package to my brother back home consisting of a couple of boxes of rice crackers and a copy of Samuel Jackson's anime, "Afro Samurai". I don't know if it'll be to his liking but it was the only English-language DVD I could find of the genre. Then, I had my haircut. Not surprisingly, the barber banter consisted of...you guessed it, Akihabara.

Monday June 9, 5:11 p.m.

Y'know...yesterday was a pleasant day. I went to Jimbocho, the bookstore area in Tokyo, to get a bit of exercise and browse. The area was appropriately quiet and the streets surprisingly empty of traffic. At that time of 3:00 p.m., I would still be unaware for another 4 hours that at about the noon hour, carnage had exploded in Akihabara. At that time, I was watching the weekly I-Go tournament on NHK-3 where I'd thought the surprise of the day was (the man playing White ended up resigning a full half-hour before the end of the program).

I turned on the NHK 7 o'clock news last night while the rice was cooking. I got that Whoa! moment when I saw the scene on Chuo Street, the main drag going through Akihabara. It was incredible....I saw bodies laying on the open street where there would be the usual hokoten activities of dancing girls in various anime costumes, the otaku snapping photos on their cells, and maids handing out flyers for their cafes. Instead, hundreds of people were being held back by police officers while passersby were helping those who had been stabbed by a madman wielding a truck and a survival knife as weapons of mass destruction. I saw one fellow being given heart massage...in vain, as it turned out. At the end, 7 people were dead while 12 people were treated for wounds. And then there was the money shot of the psycho being arrested, his face spattered with blood.

His name is Kato and he dropped the knife as soon as the lone officer pointed his gun and warned that he would shoot....a remarkable thing to say in a country where even a shot would make news. Mr. Kato did drop the gun and then slumped to the ground beside a building. The one thing I noticed was that he was the oldest 25-year-old I'd ever seen. This man had driven a rental truck all the way from his apartment in Shizuoka Prefecture, hours of driving, to, by his own admission, kill people. Akihabara was the area he knew and frequented; he knew that the world-famous area would be filled with shoppers looking about for the latest and the best in electronics and anime and manga. He drove his truck and ran down three people without decelerating before he did make a stop on a street I know...the one with a McDonalds and going under the underpass between JR Akihabara and the new UDX Building. There was a huge impact crack on the front windshield. Then, he set about on his rampage...he stabbed deep into several people, 7 of them fatally. I saw large pools of blood in the various cellphone photos that were sent into NHK and the other stations. Considering the hell that he wrought, from the first person that he ran over to his final acquiescence in front of the cop's gun took a mere 5 minutes.

CNN and BBC even led their hourly broadcasts with this story. The angle was that this was a horrific event in a country of very little violent crime. How uninformed they are. The CNN newscaster interviewed a Temple University professor about the whys and wherefors for this crime. At one point, he rambled on about a possible Yakuza connection for which I laughed sardonically and then he made a snide swipe at how the local commercial networks preferred to just show their variety programs and golf shows instead of going live. Well, NHK and Fuji-TV devoted their nighttime broadcasts to the massacre that night. And that professor can be a bit relieved that all of the stations led off with the story in their morning wide shows.

Yesterday's tragedy was merely the third run-by-stabbing spree this year in the Kanto area, following a similar incident involving a deranged teenager in Shinagawa in January, and then another one a few months later in Tsuchiura, a small city in neighbouring Ibaraki Prefecture. The carnage took place on the same day that several years earlier, the notorious Mamoru Takuma set about killing elementary school children in Sakai City near Osaka. Between then and now, there have been a number of similar senseless attacks ranging from knifing sprees to individual stabbings on schoolchildren by men dressed in black on bicycles. There have even been a couple of subway pushings by crazed men this year. And last year, I remember the shooting spree by a gun-toting nut in a gym in Western Japan around Xmas. The point is that Japan may be safer than most other developed nations but it is not a totally safe nation. Heinous crimes do occur regularly and they seem to be committed by very sick folks who are in desperate need of mental health counseling. It's been known for some time now that Japan has a serious dearth of specialists in that area. And my biggest fear is that these incidents have spawned some deadly ideas in some death-fixated people. Who was Mr. Kato inspired by and who has he inspired next? Akihabara isn't the only commercial and entertainment area in Tokyo. We have Shibuya, Ginza, Shinjuku and Odaiba by Tokyo Bay. Half of these areas also have hokoten...streets that are closed from vehicular traffic for the afternoon so citizens can stroll leisurely. Will the existence of these pedestrian paradises now be in danger because of yesterday's incident?

The Class Act was away today so I had lunch at Oazo in Otemachi. But I did go up to Akiba. It was perhaps kismet that it had started raining when I arrived at Suehirocho on The Ginza Line. Suehirocho is at the northern edge of Akihabara. However, when I started walking into Electric Town, I was struck by how normal things were, despite the fact that less than 24 hours earlier there was a massacre taking place. In a way, I guess, it's a good thing that things could revert back...at least on the surface. Even when I had been watching the news last night and NHK was going live to Akihabara, Chuo Dori seemed the same as usual. Holding the umbrella and carrying my bag, I made my way to the corner which had been designated as the place to lay down lilies, bottles of soft drinks and other symbols of tribute to those who had died. There was a large canvas roof set up with a table underneath to hold the symbols while several news crews gathered to take in the sight. But other than that (plus a gaggle of reporters surrounding a more-than-happy fellow gabbing about the incident), the street where the damaged truck had been parked was normal as was the rest of Chuo Dori.

The last thing I'd like to touch upon is what Mr. Kato had said in explanation of his rampage. He said that he was tired of the world and that he wanted to kill anyone. This has become a chilling mantra...almost a verbal calling card for all those who have come before him and, unfortunately, those who will probably come after him. How many other Japanese are there out there who have become tired of the world?

Saturday June 7, 12:38 p.m.

Finished off my lesson with Slim about 40 minutes ago. He was suitably dressed in blue tee, jeans and that other horrible fashion item...ankle socks...to infest the world (the other is Crocs) since it was a Saturday. I'm assuming he's now en route with his family to Inokashira Zoo to watch the elephants, his daughter's favourite animal. I would have been envious but I'm not exactly dressed prim and proper myself...wearing a denim shirt, chinos and no tie. As expected, he's made the next lesson for Monday night, so no free evening for me, but for a guy this studious and decent, I would unreservedly go to bat for him.

I've been reading up on that secret cabal between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton the night before. Wolf Blitzer couldn't help chuckling at how skillfully the press was hoodwinked. First, the press corps ended up flying off in the plane without Senator Obama which got them frothing at the mouth and grumbling at a new aide. And then, there was a massive presence of Secret Service agents, Suburban Cruisers and news crews around Senator Clinton's Washington residence where it'd been assumed that the meeting was taking place, only to find out that it had actually taken place a couple of miles down the road in Senator Dianne Feinstein's house. I think at both times, that muted trumpet which usually signals the notes of cock-ups was playing rather mournfully. Always love it when the so-called probing eyes and ears of the fifth estate don't exactly work.

I was also reading, in a totally different arena, the Wiki entry on that old chestnut, "Hawaii Five-O", and how Jack Lord truly befitted his family name. I'd heard over the years about his near-iron control of the series. And the Wiki reported that anyone not pulling their own weight on the show got the wrath of the Lord. A number of the surviving actors admitted that Lord's tough standards did make them better actors...although I could feel the word "grudgingly" somewhere in that statement. It kinda reminded me of a late-show I had caught a few days ago about the rise of this new Japanese tennis phenom, Kei Nishikori. It showed him as a young boy some years back with his fellow tennismates at an academy run by former World Tennis Federation pro, Shuzo Matsuoka. There was one scene in which Matsuoka, not exactly the most laid-back fellow at any time when one sees his appearances as a commentator on TV, was berating his young charges for slumming in the courts. But soon after, there was another scene with Matsuoka firmly praising young Nishikori on his performance. Perhaps Jack Lord also had that sort of approach with the cast.

Still pretty quiet around the office. However, Speedy should be here in about another hour or so.

Saturday June 7, 10:28 a.m.

Waiting for the intrepid Slim to come in for his lesson in 30 minutes. I've got basically a regular day here at Speedy's. After Slim, it'll be a 3-hour holding pattern before The Dentist comes in and then it's The Bostonian to wrap up.

Last night, it was another case of Jolly not needing to show up. However, it was truly an ailment that was killing him. He looked somewhat like Death Warmed Over, the second person in as many weeks that I've labeled (BC was the other one, but that was more of an emotional problem with her). He said that he had a slight fever; by the end of the lesson, both the juku boss and I were wondering if I would find him lying in the street outside the house on the way home. And yet, true to the usual plight of the average Japanese salaryman, all talk about getting a remedy has to take a backseat to his duty of playing golf with his colleagues this morning which meant a wake-up call of 5:30 a.m. That just can't be good. The boss put on her mothering cloak and advised him to head to a hospital. And just like the usual son, he just nodded and yepped and ignored her advice.

I was kinda wondering how he was doing, when lo and behold, The Anime King sent me an e-mail just now. Looks like Toronto is going through what Tokyo has been getting for the past couple of weeks: an up-and-down meterological situation. Today will be nice and hot before the rains yet come again tomorrow.

My coming week looks to be rather lighter than this past one. At this point, I've only SIL for Monday, but I figure that Slim will be getting in his lesson in the evening. I was rather hoping for a night off but considering how dedicated he is to his English education, I think he'll snap up the Monday night opportunity, especially since my Wednesday night will be filled.

Friday June 6, 7:33 p.m.

Back on Wednesday night, when I was teaching 001, we had our little talk about her idol, George Clooney which prompted all that searching on YouTube for young Clooney in a mullet. However, the most senior student at Speedy's also noted that she had a thing for Orlando Bloom which prompted his Japanese commericals for Shiseido cosmetic line, UNO. The BGM was a variation on the Chaz Jankel classic, "Ai no Corrida", which was then made into an R&B hit back in 1981 by Quincy Jones. Since I was already at the site, I also keyed up that song for her.

If you'll bear with me, I am getting to a point of sorts. "Ai no Corrida" was also the Japanese title of the notorious Nagisa Oshima erotic drama based on the exploits of one Sada Abe, a real-life figure back in early 20th-century Japan who loved her man so much that after his death, she decided to lop off a little flaccid souvenir. In a weird sort-of coincidence, I'd be seeing this poster of a movie with sexy tarento Aya Sugimoto in flagrante delicto with her starring man for some weeks. I rolled my eyes as I thought "Here she goes (and comes) again" since for the past few years, she's spackled up a new reputation in Japanese showbiz as a woman who would just about show and do anything in terms of sex. Madonna's "Sex" looked like a Peanuts comic compared with the stuff she pulled off in "Hana to Hebi" (The Flower and The Snake)...Freudian slip sold separately. In any case, the new movie is called "Johhnen" (dunno the translation) and it just so happens that it's also about Sada Abe, this time with Sugimoto in the role. To be honest, I did see the original "Ai no Corrida" but only the heavily butchered one with many of the really hardcore scenes taken out; still as it was, it was definitely not a version to be seen anyone under 35.

A couple of headlines I've just read on CNN.com: "Japanese melon sells for $6,000" and "New York Promotes French Pop"...I guess I must've read this through the Brane into the Bizarro World. Speaking of Branes and Braneworlds, I've been slogging through "Warped Passages" still. Well, it hasn't exactly as I expected....Lisa Randall is still trying to explain quantum physics to me; despite what the tributes have implied about how she makes it so easy to digest, I still find my eyes glazing over.

Got into Urayasu to find some place to eat dinner before heading to the juku. But my go-to family restaurant was undergoing renovations, as well as the second choice of KFC (yup, I know quite a drop down). The ramen row across the street didn't look too healthy, so of course I ended up going once more to The Golden Arches. Not that Mickey Dee's is all that healthy either.

I got a call from my real estate agency...the same one which contacted me about that rent error back in February, thus causing that financial crunch. Believe me, I had no love hearing that woman's voice again. However, it was entirely my fault this time; apparently, I pressed the wrong keys during the transfer of the rent last month at the ATM and ended up not paying enough. I was only a few thousand yen short, so I transferred it quickly before they sent any thugs over. If the agency checks its accounts again, the money should be there on the other side since I didn't get any notice on the ATM that the amount wouldn't show up there until Monday. I haven't gotten any further phone calls so I think they caught it. I realize that the folks there aren't bad people (or at least, that's what I tell myself over and over), but the adage "Kill the messenger" looms large in my mind. I'm sure the staff does have to deal with welchers time and again.

Well, it'll be another 90 minutes before Jolly comes on over.

Friday June 6, 4:30 p.m.

Well, The Nurse was back to all sweetness and light. She even gave me a gift in the form of a small packet of black rice grains. It's a health food....she bought it at a drug store, of all places. I just have to add a teaspoon of the stuff to my regular white rice in the cooker to have a nice batch of more nutritious...and pink rice. My peace offering was far more down-to-earth...a bunch of mini-chocolates from Speedy's cache. In any case, I'm feeling far better although I still have to hang around for another several hours before I teach Jolly.

Friday June 6, 1:33 p.m.

Daddy's home! Speedy's back in the house after his 2-week business trip in the wilds of North America. We got our generous tribute of chocolates: Twix, Reeses, 3 Musketeers, etc....enough to leave us solidly diabetic. He had a bit of time to catch the new "Sex in the City" movie in NYC. He said the fans will be very happy...non-fans should look away. I gave him the prelim report on all of the students I'd taught for him.

The sun's back out and so is the heat. It's feeling pretty warm out there at 27 C. I was lucky to finally get the laundry out there hanging. I've got The Nurse...keeping my fingers crossed about her. And then, Jolly said that he would show up tonight for the lesson...at 9:30 p.m. Ugh!

Mrs. Travel of the Beehive called up about my availability on Wednesday mornings to teach one of her other English classes in her neck of the woods. I don't think that's possible since I've usually got The Nurse in the wee hours on that day.

Obama and Clinton had a private meeting at her house about the future of the party. But how private can it be when there are dozens of Secret Security, a fleet of Suburban Cruisers and oodles of media hovering outside?

Thursday June 5, 10:09 p.m.

I'm done like dinner. Wrapped up with Slim tonight. Looks like he's been going through the wringer tonight. As for me, it hasn't been nearly as hectic, but as they say, waiting can also be exhausting. I was waiting for about 4 hours between Bunny's and Slim's lessons. I think the rains have finally stopped but it's still plenty wet out there. I spent a lot of the down time just reading Wiki entries for "Cheers" and "Frasier", and then I went to see the "Frasier" quotes. I think this sitcom basically beat every other show in the number of witticisms.

I'll actually be able to catch up on a bit of sleep tomorrow, but I gotta get back here tomorrow afternoon for The Nurse's lesson. It wasn't too good last week; I've got her make-up test all made up. Just hope we're both in good shape. Then, I may have Jolly tomorrow night. I hope the boss doesn't tell me to teach him 2 hours.

Thursday June 5, 3:14 p.m.

Guess it's time for pi(e)!

Finished up with The Yogist a little over an hour ago. She was her usual very giddy, energetic self...quite unlike my usual image of a yoga teacher. I found out today that she's an enthusiastic chocoholic and an avid participant in hot springs. Hope things go equally as well with Bunny, who should be here in about 10 minutes. My first time with her a couple of weeks ago had us sidetracking all over the place due to our shared interest in movies. so it's looking hopeful.

BC and I made use of the last of the McDonalds coupons which expire today. Amongst my purchases, I actually bought the first McFlurry in my life. It was the Kit Kat one...pretty good, sweet, and teeth-wincingly cold. Found out that BC will be leaving us at the end of June with her final departure for Canada in August. Told her about the Doctor Who-ish nature of our assistants leaving us after several months each time. However, there may be another one waiting in the wings to take over; Speedy had once told me about this cousin of The Dentist's who's just come back from Canada and may be willing to fill in.

Thursday June 5, 12:00 p.m.

Got through the grandmothers. Grandma Dynamite certainly lived up to her name. Kept me on my toes. My first thought after she left was wondering how I was gonna survive teaching her from week to week. Speedy's already hinted that he doesn't want to have to do the same when he gets back. I don't think he's gonna get his wish. Having Grandma Tango was naturally a lot more calmer. But that'll be the last time I teach her for the next several months.

Looks like there is that intermediate lull right now between Obama clinching the Democratic nomination yesterday and the start of the final battle against John McCain and the Republicans. Hillary Clinton is still keeping her cards close to her chest while Barack muses about who he's gonna pick for his running mate. The list for Vice-President is being bandied about while the biggest elephant on that list is the person Barack had just run against. The Japanese media have also picked up on the significance of this long-awaited result. Fuji-TV's "Mezamashi Terebi" morning show put up images of McCain and Obama with their stats listed up beside them just like they were digitized sports trading cards. For the record, McCain is 174 cm and Obama is 182 cm. McCain likes hot dogs while Obama is a potato chip man.

Got The Yogist in less than an hour. BC and I are planning to make a McDonalds run...without Speedy since he's still yet to land back at Narita...our coupons are running out today.

Thursday June 5, 8:48 a.m.

Well, as inevitable as swallows and San Capistrano, the cockroaches have returned to roost in my apartment, just a few days into this month. One was walking around aimlessly in my bathtub until it sought refuge in the drain, much to its doom. And then there was one medium-sized mini-tank crawling around the bedroom wall last night. I activated the electric repellant, set up the roach motels (or would they be called roach ryokan here?) and gave the bedroom a bit of a spray. Sure enough, as I was leaving for work this morning, that roach was writhing on its back by the door. Looks like he got hit with the pesticide cloud. I'm sure as Rainy Season continues, I'll see more check-ins into the motels.

My schedule will be nicely staggered. I got Grandmas Dynamite and Tango followed by a little break, and then it's The Yogist followed by the chatty Bunny in the afternoon. An even longer respite follows before Slim wraps it all up. Slim hasn't exactly been the miracle man but he's been progressing very nicely.

Thursday June 5, 8:08 a.m.

Another McBreakfast and an early arrival at Speedy's this morning. I've got Grandma Dynamite at the near-obscenely early time of 9:15. Speedy got back to me last night about what to do with our prodigal geriatric...basically humour her was the call. I wasn't too enamoured by his aside that he would prefer that I teach her for the 2 hours that she wants each time since I was looking forward to decreasing my early calls. But we will discuss this when he comes back in next week. I think at the very least, I should get my own keys to the school.

It's been a while but I actually had my first down class with 001...relatively speaking, that is. She wasn't too enthused about the advanced forms of using Future (Future Perfect, Future Continuous, etc.) but it was a simple matter of getting to our usual snappy banter and then she was as right as rain again. She has definitely gotten hooked onto "Heroes". I believe she's just seen Episode 5...apparently, she's witnessed D.L.'s use of his phasing power for the first time. Of course, I was mean and tantalized her about the future episodes about who may or may not die by the season ender. She was especially intrigued about what Micah's ability is. I just answered that he'd be the go-to guy for all your electronics repair needs. We also went over some old ground and talked about her love affair with George Clooney. I decided then to take her over to YouTube and searched for his early days in TV...not on "ER", but "The Facts of Life". Found excerpts of Blair and Tootie but no Mullet George (maybe his agent sent a cease-and-desist order to the site); however, Yahoo was able to pull up several images of his slimmer days. Needless to say, she wasn't too impressed with 80s George.

As for The Diver, it was another roller coaster ride of angst and handwringing going over the review before I finally handed over the test. Amongst her problems is apparently memory loss. I had to remind her that she could take home the test and do it there. But it was nice to end a very long day with the calmness of Medicine Man. I'd already realized it but he said he wasn't too fond of parties (we were doing a chapter based on them). He's a pretty introverted fellow...friendly, but introverted.

The only local news I caught in my brief snatches at home over the past 48 hours is that Tokyo managed to pass the 1st stage in being considered for the 2016 Olympics along with Chicago and Rio De Janeiro. I think Governor Ishihara and a few other pols were the only ones to jump up for joy; the rest of us merely yawned and got ready for work. Believe me, we don't need these Games.

The Cat contacted me via e-mail to say that she was interested in picking up those English texts since she was getting back into the studying game and teaching kids again. Good for her.

Wednesday June 4, 5:18 p.m.

Just digesting my conbini meal...saving my energy up for the bottom half of Hump Day. I finished up with The Big Lug a few hours ago and then whipped up the make-up test for The Nurse. Looks like The Big Lug has gotten used to me now; he ensured that I would be teaching him in a couple of weeks. We got into talking about housing in the Tokyo area. He mentioned that a lot of the housing in the Takadanobaba/Waseda University area was pretty reasonable since it is a student area. It may be decades old, which would therefore bring in some concerns about quakes, but a lot of the interiors have been redone. Yep, I'm still interested in finding some new digs after nearly a decade and a half in the same apartment but there is the case of inertia and of course money.

I guess it was a matter of time, but I finally got drafted by the local medical profession. I got a summons of sorts from the government imploring me to get my cancer checkups by the end of the year. The Class Act pointed out in my summons that since I was on National Health Insurance, I could the checkups dirt-cheap. I'm not a huge fan of checkups but I figured that I would need something like this to force me to go to a clinic. I looked up the Ichikawa City website, and it turns out that there has been a push by the goverment to get its residents nice and healthy. The cancer checks will include stuff like colo-rectal which does wipe out a lot of my age group's male members. This will probably mean that I'm gonna get the silver snake up my shaft...not looking forward to that. Perhaps I may be lucky, though, in that there has been this new computer-operated capsule that a person ingests so that it can take pictures of his entire GI tract before it comes out the other end. Of course, the potentially messy part comes in digging out...ahem...the device from the stuff. Well, I just gotta find the right hospital.

Wednesday June 4, 12:34 p.m.

Well, I'm sure the champagne corks are flying around in Camp Obama (perfect name for a camp, doncha think) right now, and the news studios are crammed with talking heads since Barack Obama...finally...became the Democratic nominee for President. Trying to imagine how the Clinton folks are feeling right now. I can guarantee some of them aren't feeling particularly charitable.

I've gone through a third of the gauntlet for today. I had Grandmas Fado and Enka just now. For both, I just had to balance between the book and light conversation. Grandma Enka definitely prefers the latter...she was cordial but she made it plain in no uncertain terms that she was no fan of the current text. The colours are too bright, she says. I guess Speedy will just have to grit his teeth since he couldn't find anything to give her as a new book. Still, that will be somethng he can handle since I'll be handing them back to him next week. It'll probably be a year before I teach them again.

I've been going through that new book, "Warped Passages" by Lisa Randall. As the tributes have said, she has managed to make concepts such as Braneworlds and bosons actually palatable. I had been expecting more about alternate worlds...she's still very much explaining quantum physics at the current stage of the book...but at least I've been able to go through the book far better than my previous attempt at "Closing Time", the sequel to "Catch-22" which was frankly a little too Ionesco for my tastes.

Wednesday June 4, 8:23 a.m.

And thus another Hump Day begins. No longer raining cats and dogs but the remains are still here. It'll only be a respite as well...they come back tomorrow.

As expected, during the Milds' lesson, Jolly called in to cancel his lesson. He's said that he would come in for Friday. In a way, I was hoping that he wouldn't since otherwise I would have a night off but he said he would, so so will I. Apparently, the lad's been sick which explains his absence last Friday. The juku boss was kind enough to offer a way out but I declined; however, I did ask her to confirm his arrival just in case that illness turns out to be an epidemic.

As for the Milds, Mrs. Mild went to some concert of a 16-year-old phenom named Daichi Saotome who's a kabuki artist who takes on female roles (he actually looks a bit like current "It" actress Yu Aoi)...kinda reminds me of that old Elizabethan tradition of having only males perform in The Globe. Anyways, Mrs. Mild isn't really a kabuki fan; it's just that her buddy is and she really wanted her to come along. Apparently, Mr. Saotome has his own cadre of rabid middle-aged female fans. Mrs. Mild was on one of the many buses hauling the fan club to the hall in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture. There was a near-riot by many of the rabidettes on her bus when they felt cheated by some perceived slight from the management. I remarked that Mrs. Mild had finally gotten a taste of what the otaku (or would that be, otakette?) world is like.

I was also quite surprised to see that the Milds had lugged in a couple of boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts. I did get a reward of one chocolate ring at the end of the lesson. I'd assumed that Mrs Mild had bought them at Krispy Kreme Japan's 3rd outlet in Saitama (where BC lives), but actually she said she bought them at the 2nd outlet in Yurakucho, downtown Tokyo. Apparently, she only had to wait 20 minutes in line there. Is the fad finally falling?

With Jolly out of the picture last night, I met that intriguing student the juku boss had told (or warned) me about. Yup, she's a firecracker all right. I spoke with her for about 30 minutes. She's picked up a Portuguese accent from her ex-boyfriend from Brazil. Pretty low but she's quite sharp and already started using the new vocabulary that I'd taught her a few minutes previously. It'll be an interesting test since it'll be a tag team effort on both mine and the boss' efforts. She'll teach her the grammar; I just have to answer her questions and get her to converse as much as possible.

However, today, it'll all be Speedy's gang. I've got the grandmothers for the last time before Speedy gets back (although Grandma Dynamite will be back on my regular schedule from tomorrow), followed by The Big Lug, then the usual nighttime lineup of 001, The Diver and Medicine Man.

Barack Obama is getting tantalizingly close to that magic number. Even the Clintons are subtly getting and giving out the message that it's almost all over. CNN is reporting that Hillary has, for the first time, not scoffed at a possible VP slot behind her rival.

Tuesday June 3, 6:37 p.m.

It's all over except for the writing on the wall...CNN.com reported that Hillary Clinton is about to concede to Barack Obama after months of initially exhilarating and then recently acrimonius battle between the two. Not sure if that means Hillary is gonna be willing to be Barack's No. 2 or even if Barack will consider her as Veep. Kinda wonder what the fallout will be considering what happened over the weekend with the DNC deciding to give just half-votes to Florida and Michigan.

Had my dinner of spicy Thai rice, Chip Star, mini-Mille Feuille and a Green Apple Tea straight from the conbini. Yep, that could be a recipe for Montezuma's Revenge. I really gotta get away from that tender trap of whipped cream in that dessert. I could barely finish that one. Still that cream helped cool down the heat from the Thai rice.

Actually got a message from my old friend in Nagano, The Cat. Looks like she's interested in checking out the major bookstores here for English-language texts. I guess she may be starting that side business of teaching little kids. Of course, I recommended the main Maruzen branch across from Tokyo Station as well as Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. It would be nice if she and her family came down to the big city for the day.

Tuesday June 3, 4:40 p.m.

Typhoon No. 5 gave us a glancing blow from the Pacific, but it was enough to snarl up the JR this morning. I made it out to Tsudanuma to see The Beehive for the first time after their epic trip to Croatia. It turned out that the ladies got back at 4 p.m. yesterday; rather surprised that they even bothered to hold a session this morning considering that they probably would've appreciated a day off. Mrs. Alp showed up some five minutes after the session was supposed to have begun, and then Mrs. Travel (usually the first one to arrive) ran in like a bat out of hell after having overslept about an hour later. That was all she wrote for attendance. Mrs. Perth was in the neighbourhood as well but she joined us for lunch nearby instead. I was finally able to give out some of the presents that Mom had asked me to dole out so I had to lug two big bags in stormy weather since my attempts had been thwarted for the past couple of Tuesdays due to bad weather.

Croatia was a good trip for the ladies. Apparently, the weather was the equivalent of the dog days of summer there. Mrs Alp, as the official diarist and photographer of the tour, took some remarkably postcard-quality shots of Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb. It was a very scenic tour. Aside from a snotty restaurant staff and one welcher, they found the people there very pleasant. And I was surprised to see that Croatia definitely possesses some beautiful examples of nature, considering that this was a war zone a decade or so earlier. All in all, for the Beehive, the trip was very worthwhile. And Mrs. Travel isn't done yet; she's heading out to the States in a few days for a private little trip of her own. So, no Beehive next week. In fact, the first two days of next week look pretty bare in the cupboard. So far, I've only got SIL as an official slated lesson for next Monday. The Class Act, The Full-Timer, The Tippler, Slim and Mr. TOEIC will not be showing up. Speaking of the last guy, he's back and he seems a bit more fluent and confident in his abilities. He remains a lowbie, but since his recent transfer to the Overseas section, he's been getting a lot of opportunity to speak English at work.

I saw 002 today. She was her usual self...very giddy and giggly. Now, I've got the juku classes. Since Suzanne is now off for the next few weeks, I'm starting up at 7 with Mild Jr., the Milds and Jolly (maybe). And I've got an unusual model lesson squeezed in between my most senior juku students and Jolly. The boss is in the midst of teaching this very low young lady who had a Brazilian boyfriend and will be headed off for Sweden in a few months on business the very basics of grammar. I'm to answer any questions and branch off there for conversational practice. No texts whatsoever.

Looks like the Trekkies may be putting their flag up half-mast. Director Joseph Pevney and composer of the original theme from "Star Trek", Alexander Courage, got beamed up to that starship in the sky. To be honest, I didn't even know they had been still alive.

Speaking about deceased, I've been getting vibes via CNN that the Hillary Clinton campaign may finally be running aground. The New York senator has been sounding a bit fainter these days and rumours abound about a lot of backstage negotiating between her camp and Obama's. I think we should all know by this tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if the Obama-Clinton ticket is made official considering how much of a band-aid the Democrats need right now.

Monday June 2, 7:07 p.m.

Just finished with The Full-Timer. Looks like she's getting that itch to move on overseas...perhaps Singapore. I'm all for it...really, it's the final acid test to bring that English to full fluency.

We've had a couple of interesting visitations by foreign celebs. Just last Saturday, Yon-sama, that Korean actor who's the inexplicable darling of millions of middle-aged women here arrived for the umpteenth time. This time, he landed at Kansai International Airport to be mobbed by over 30,000 crazed females...which probably some sort of record. The way the press described it, I would've thought the description of the chaos there was due to a bunch of middle school girls, not middle-aged women. A number of them were openly weeping after having a touch of their god. Then, there was some sort of massive talk fest with him and even more women in Osaka yesterday. Apparently, The Lady was also in Osaka to attend a relative's wedding only to have trouble getting back home by The Bullet since all of the JR trains were packed with rabid women her age.

Then there was another visit by crazed Mariah Carey...the chanteuse who's been allergic to clothes lately. She brought her new hubbie in tow and even used him as a chair during an interview with Fuji-TV's Mr. Karube. I'm sure my clone was somewhat mystified...and aroused at the same time. She also threw out the first pitch at a Giants game at Tokyo Dome. She threw like...a girl. I think the ball went a whole 2 cm before hitting the ground. Of course, millions of cellphone camera-sporting fans didn't mind at all.

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

Monday June 2, 5:30 p.m.

Another one of those blue Mondays. Pretty gloomy out there and rain will be coming back tonight. Another chatfest with The Class Act and SIL today. But I'm running the gauntlet tonight here at Speedy's with The Full-Timer, The Tippler (she's opting out after tonight due to her schedule...maybe she'll come back during the summer), Slim and Mr. TOEIC to wrap up. I haven't seen the last guy in months.

Yesterday, I managed to catch a couple of sequels which were merely OK. First off, I saw "Ocean's Thirteen" on DVD on Sunday morning. I never caught it at the theatre since I'd heard it was mediocre, and I did go through that horror that was "Ocean's Twelve" a couple of years back. Both MB and The Satyr did say it was OK, though. So with some of that money Mom gave me, I decided to splurge. Looking at it, I can compare "Thirteen" to a reunion at a school that one doesn't have much nostalgia for. It was nice to see the gang one more time but it's time to move on. It was certainly better than "Twelve". The other observation was that while "Ocean's Eleven" was a loving tribute to the Las Vegas of the 50s and the original Rat Pack, this second sequel was more a reflection of the current Disneyfied version of Vegas today.

I also did catch the latest Narnia sequel, "Prince Caspian" yesterday with MB, The Satyr, Skippy and Miss Ivory. I was never all that enthralled with the first one...it was a nice diversion but that was all. This new one was much the same. It was a mix of "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter". Kinda dragged at the beginning and then I found the ending (though it did hew with the books) rather lame with the older Pevensie siblings being banned from Narnia since they refused to see Aslan...kinda petty for a lion, if you ask me.

Afterwards, The Sylph joined us (she isn't much for sword & sorcery flicks) and we went to MB's birthday wish restaurant, Samrat in Shinjuku. The Indian restaurant is one of the best in town. The service was kinda like the old days...nice friendly waiters with a chatty manager telling us about the specials. Of course, we all went for the Curry Buffet with complementary naan and tandoori chicken thrown in. Considering that I didn't have much for breakfast and lunch, I managed to stuff myself silly with all the naan, butter rice and curry.

Also purchased a couple of more CDs during the mini-splurge. One was the techno outfit, Justice's first disc. I basically got it just for the single "D.A.N.C.E." since for some reason, the single is no longer selling. The other is an old re-release of PSY-S' "Mint Electric". Also got "Afro-Samurai" for my brother since it was the only one I could find with English dubbing.

It'll be another busy week since the bossman is still off in the States. And the Beehive is back in the house tomorrow after their trip in Croatia. Guaranteed the talk will be all on that.

Saturday May 31, 3:19 p.m.

The end to another Saturday. Kinda interesting how the personality tries to fit with the students. With The Businesswoman, I'm fairly professorial while with Slim, I'm the usual run-of-the-mill English teacher. And then with The Manhattanite, I'm the stand-up comedian. It'd been a few weeks at the very least since I saw her. Yep, she's pretty rusty. Any resemblance between me and a chameleon or the various incarnations of Doctor Who are purely coincidental.

Will be heading out soon to take advantage of the extra cash that I got, courtesy of Mom, and some gift certificates also courtesy of the same person. Got quite the wish list, too. If everything works out, I may be watching "Ocean's 13" and "Shrek 3" on DVD tonight. If I'm very lucky, I may even be able to find an anime for my brother that has English subtitling. A bit iffy, but he's OK if it's straight-out Japanese.

Saturday May 31, 10:41 a.m.

Back at Speedy's for a triumvirate of lessons with The Businesswoman, Slim and then The Manhattanite. It's still raining out there...looks like the Rainy Season may have hit us a bit early this year, and I hear that another typhoon might be on the way for the middle of next week.

Well, happy to say that I did get that short note from Cozy translated and off to him before The Ace came in half an hour later. However, Jolly did dotakyan again and not even a word from him. The boss tried to ring up his cellphone without success which means that he was either fully in thrall to his partying tendencies or conked out on the train somewhere. But I still made my money.

Heard about that crane incident in Manhattan last night. Geez...the second one in 3 months. I can imagine Mayor Bloomberg getting a few eggs thrown at him. And there's the uproar about Scott McClellan, former press secretary for the Bush administration, coming out with his tell-all book. He probably won't be invited to any Republican functions anytime soon.

Over here, some more stuff has been coming out about this fellow, Ishizu, who had been arrested for a string of stab-and-run robberies over the past couple of weeks in the Kansai and Kanto areas. His story reads like Michael Douglas' character, D-Fens, in that 90s film. Just a schlub who was having words with his noisy downstairs punk neighbours until he finally snapped, screamed epithets from in front of his apartment building, and then stabbed those same neighbours before taking off on his new career of criminal. One of the teens showed his new stapled scar on his head.

Well, The Businesswoman should be here in the next 5 minutes or so...

Friday May 30, 7:13 p.m.

Looks like Urayasu is sprucing up for its quadrennial festival again. All the lanterns have been lit up and ready to go.

I printed out Cozy's latest assignment so I'll be getting to work on that in the next few minutes. With luck, I should even get it back to him translated before The Ace comes in. I got a message from BC stating that Grandma Dynamite will be returning to the fold from next week. Looks like both Speedy and I will be having a date with her once more. She's not nearly as proficient as Grandma Tango but not as structurally over-the-place as Grandma Fado...and she's quite the firecracker when talking. Should add to the caffeine buzz in the morning.

Skippy finally got back to us about Sunday's outing to see "Narnia". We'll be at the Wald 9 complex in Shinjuku. Not sure what the dinner plans will be since The Satyr wants to have a little something for MB's birthday.

I've been reading on Dark Horizons that Harrison Ford wants to revive Jack Ryan; maybe all those millions going ka-ching at the box office for his other major character, Indiana Jones, may have perked him up. He'll be joining Sylvester Stallone in that department of hoary ol' action stars of the 80s trying to get their groove back. On the same site, I read that even "Beverly Hills Cop" is getting its own look-see. Man, never thought that studios could have Mid-Life Crisis themselves.