Monday March 30, 7:51 p.m.

Well, there you see it. For some reason, my neighbourhood happens to have the only vending machines...perhaps in the entire Kanto...to sell Virgin Cola. Maybe Sir Richard Branson has some sort of kickback with the Ichikawa City government. Not sure, but MB was definitely surprised by this little piece of trivia. As it is, the cola doesn't taste quite as good as Coke or Dr. Pepper. However, as a collector's item, I'm keeping this can on top of some of the CD shelves. MB was also surprised to find out that Virgin Records had been kaput for some years. I rather enjoyed their huge store in Shinjuku back in my early years here. It was where that Marui Department Store extension is now. It occupied the entire basement floor beneath Marui...maybe the equivalent floor space of three of the Tower Records floors in Shibuya, arguably the biggest CD store on the planet in terms of area and sales. It was also where my interest in jazz started in earnest when I bought my first Bill Evans disc there. Some years later, the store moved down the street toward Takashimaya Times Square on the 1st and 2nd floors of another building, but it only lasted a couple of more years there before it disappeared for good.

Speaking about disappearing movies, "Watchmen" is probably gonna be headed for a quick box-office demise....ironic for a movie that was adapted from what has been called the "Citizen Kane" of comic books. But then again, "Citizen Kane" was far from being anointed a classic when it had been first released in 1941.

Yep, MB and I caught it at Roppongi Hills last night (with a prior mini-Burger Tour stop at Baker Bounce in Tokyo Midtown). The reviews haven't been too kind to it...I just saw the METROPOLIS review of it, and the oft-cantankerous critic slagged it off as being incoherent. Well, for folks who had never read the graphic novel, perhaps, but MB and I had read it over the years so we knew what was up; we just wanted to know how well the unfilmable could be filmed. And I think Zack Snyder did as good a job as could be hoped for. Nope, the acting wasn't the greatest so we won't be seeing any Heath Ledger moments in this one. But the film had some style throughout and even during the opening credits. And the characters...most of them...were likeable. Liked Rorschach and Nite Owl the best.

I think it was kismet that MB and I had caught "Rambo" and "Knocked Up" before catching "Watchmen". The two movies had been good preparation for what we saw in this movie, strangely enough. It contained plenty of gruesome violence (kids under 7 definitely shouldn't be catching this one...not that they would be able to understand it anyways) and the profanity, sex and relationship angst were in full bloom here. Certainly, this graphic novel became quite a graphic movie. Plus, the addition of music from the 60s, 70s and 80s was also a nice plus; it was certainly a surprise to hear "99 Luftballons" alongside Leonard Cohen. But all that aside, both MB and I had a good time with it. I don't think I'll catch it again at the theatre, but I would certainly put down the yen for the DVD. I found the "Watchmen" CD with those songs but it doesn't contain Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan" which I was disappointed about.

Today, I found myself feeling somewhat as foolish and as helpless as the remaining Watchmen after getting defeated by Ozymandias at the end of the movie. Seeing that I only had two lessons in two days, I had decided that I would visit the Lilac Forest in Sunshine City. Yes, you must be thinking that I must be off on some sort of drug-induced trip mentioning such names. Well, the two places actually do exist on this plane...Sunshine City is the large shopping complex in Ikebukuro and Lilac Forest is part of the Namjatown complex specializing in massage clinics. I hadn't had a massage in a couple of years...I think the last one was when I went over to Creambath Ebisu. I took a look at Dhora Villas, the clinic that specialized in Indian massage and decided to go for the 30-minute head session. It would only cost me 3,000 yen. However, I let the smooth-talking masseuse there talk me into getting what would be the reflexology treatment along with the head treatment and ended up paying 7,500 yen in total! I just barely avoided embarrassment in that I was able to pay for everything from the remaining 7 bills and one large coin in my wallet. I'm not sure if the lady there was trying to shake me down intentionally (can't see that happening in a place like that...that would be more the type of stuff that happens in Kabukicho) but I still felt somewhat fleeced, although she did a good job and that one hour just whipped by. I did ask for a quotation from her but she said something or other I couldn't quite catch, and unfortunately my mild-mannered self didn't push the subject. Still, a lesson was learned....I won't be going inside the Lilac Forest ever again. Didn't even have enough cash to enter The Gyoza Museum for a bit of lunch. It was just as well...the kids and their mothers were flooding the place and the upstairs Ice Cream City.

After that little financial lightening, I replenished my wallet at a nearby convenience store and headed down to Shinjuku. I figure that I could use a bit of cheering up and decided to treat myself to that buffet that Skippy had introduced me to a couple of weeks ago....The Platinum Buffet in Mylord. It was pretty much the same deal as the Sunday night dinner, except that there was no roast chicken so the cost was about 500 yen cheaper. A lot of young ladies, a number of them with their beaus. I think I was the only single guy in the place....fingers were probably pointed in my direction. And then an army of high school girls in full uniform entered looking properly mesmerized by the culinary possibilities...especially the chocolate fountain. Well, got my fill and left within 45 minutes.

As I said, I only have Medicine Man tonight and tomorrow, it's just Suzanne for 2 hours at the juku. Basically, it's a full weekend except for that couple of classes. Once I get some morning stuff done, I'll be taking a look at Expery, that shopping complex across from Tokyo Disneyland that has popped up in the juku students' conversations every now and then. I'm hoping that I won't be gouged there.

Our staff got increased by one starting from today. She will be La Fille...she spent a year in a small town in France. Ray introduced us and pointed out her Gallic connections. So there was a minute or so of La Fille and me spouting some limited Francais to each other. Basically, Ray and our just-returned staffer were showing her the ropes.

Earlier, I saw the DVD of "Get Smart". Yep, I did buy it. I caught a few of the extras, including a very unfunny short of Steve Carell espousing the benefits of the movie in mock languages; just glad that Japanese wasn't part of it. Still, it was nice watching the film again for the nostalgia value, and Terence Stamp had the best lines.

Sunday March 29, 3:30 p.m.

We've been lazing around the apartment for most of the day here at MB's apartment. Had a nice Sunday breakfast with sausages, bacon and toast with a couple of coffees.

Compared to the orgy of violence we got from "Rambo" last night, MB, The Sylph and myself watched the 2nd half of the double feature in the form of "Knocked Up", the Judd Apatow flick with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. This was an interesting one perhaps more for the reaction it got than for the actual movie itself. A lot of the critics put it up as one of the best comedies of 2007 but it cleaved opinion amongst the public; the naysayers called it stupid, condescending and sexist. For me, I found it funny and realistic in terms of what I thought a typical relationship between two essentially decent but flawed (i.e. human) people. The whole story is sparked by a condom misunderstanding but it's really just the usual culture shock that occurs in a long-term romance. It has the shy, giggling first approaches at romance tempered with the inevitable nagging and knockdown dragouts before a certain balance results. Some of those naysayers said that with the exception of a rotund Harold Ramis, everyone else in the movie was unlikeable. Well, yep, Ben and Allison had their jerk-off moments but I've yet to see anyone on this planet who hasn't acted like an ass anytime in their lives. I think the only truly unlikeable character was Allison's sister, Debbie, and even she showed a bit of niceness toward her sister. Nope, it wasn't always the most comfortable movie to watch but I'm starting to get the message that it is those movies which really get me to think. And at this point, I'd say that it just emphasized that marriage is definitely not my path.

In any case, we'll be heading out soon to catch another way-different movie..."Watchmen". However, it does share one thing in common with "Knocked Up" in that opinions for this flick have also been rather divided. If we're lucky, we may be able to grab a bite at Baker Bounce in Tokyo Midtown.

Sunday March 29, 2:25 a.m.

Yes, you saw correctly. That is an "a.m." for the time entry....which means I'm spending another night at MB's for DVD night. Actually, it's a somewhat shorter version since we only saw one movie tonight..."Rambo", the 4th in Sly Stallone's series about a misunderstood Green Beret. If this flick were food, it would be a very rare steak indeed. There was more blood in this one than in the first three combined plus an addition of "Friday the 13th". I mean, this would be an excellent primer for a medical student in Anatomy class. MB and I were just marveling at the lengths that John Rambo and his strike team went to prove that the enemy did indeed have such things as brains and viscera. Just one of those great Saturday night movies with the guys. We also got "Knocked Up"...no snickering, please; it's late....but that will be best viewed later this morning.

Earlier yesterday morning, I saw The Coffeemaker for the first time in 2 months. Tully didn't show up on account of some stuff he had to do concerning his move into his first company dormitory. According to The Coffeemaker, Tully never made it to Europe for some reason. I could only assume that there was a family emergency which is too bad. Now that he will become part of the regular workforce in a few days, it could be quite a few years before he can do anything approaching a continent-wide tour.

Afterward, I went out to Komazawa Park, one of the big areas of green in Tokyo...home of several Olympic facilities from the 1964 Games. MB and The Sylph were part of an O-Hanami party there. Once again, I felt a bit insecure about just bringing a bottle of tea and two canisters of Pringles considering that there was quite a spread of homemade food. However, I did remember that I'd brought The Ace's omiyage from his trip up to Kusatsu Hot Springs...a box of manju. The party consisted of The Sylph's former work compadres who've gone on to bigger and better things. The weather was pretty fair but the cold was still refusing to take its leave a week after Spring officially began. So, there were a few of us who were shivering on the blue tarp. All of us eventually ended up in the host's apartment for an hour or so while we played with the frenetic house dog.

MB nodded off several times since he had quite a lot of picnic food inside of him and a lot of the women were engaged in Japanese gossip. However, I may have gained another couple of private students in the form of the host and his wife. The only thing is that I would have to come out to Komazawa Park on alternating Sundays....ay ya. Well, I gave the host my e-mail address and asked to give me a contact sometime if he and his wife were really interested.

MB and I left the party at around 5, leaving The Sylph to do some further gossiping with her girlfriends. We caught the bus back to Jiyugaoka....not very far away...and crashed over at the apartment for a couple of hours while playing that hit game, "Little Big Planet". Man, I was already exhausted just going through the three training levels . However with MB's tutelage, I was able to not embarrass myself with Sackman. We later met up with MB's wife at the nearest video shop to get the two discs and then we had dinner at a new Italian restaurant that MB had discovered. It's called "Imola" and has some really good pizza and pasta. The crust on those pies were very tasteworthy and the smoked salmon cream pasta was so rich that we probably didn't need the cream for our after-dinner coffee.

MB has been able to secure the tickets for "Watchmen" later this afternoon at Roppongi Hills. Even here, the reaction seems to be mixed. Giovanni Fazio, the reviewer for "The Japan Times" wasn't too kind to the movie but he acknowledged Alan Moore's laudable deconstruction on comic superheroes. However, we've learned not to let the critics get us down. We'll take our own look-see.

Starting to feel the wooziness of sleep trying to break down my walls. Best think about retiring.

Friday March 27, 7:19 p.m.

Well, things kinda kicked into high gear after I met The Bow. We unfortunately had to spend the first 10 minutes of our time together searching for another venue to talk since the Maynds Building Starbucks was packed...coffee-swilling bastards. So we ended up at the other Starbucks closest to Krispy Kreme...outside. Nope, not the ideal location considering the weather. Felt badly for her since near the end she was shivering a bit and my legs felt creakier than an old door. I ended up paying for both our teas as an apology. As for The Bow, she's an intermediate lady...not quite as smooth as her old co-worker, The Carolinan, but has good potential. She's quite the musician...not only does she play the Chinese niko, but she also has experience on the flute, accordion and one other similar instrument which apparently can cost upwards to $7,000. Now, that's dedication. Well, despite the shivery first meet-&-greet, she's still willing to give me a shot so we're gonna try for Maynds Starbucks again, but this time, I'm getting there nice and early and grab a table and plant roots.

I must've burned quite a lot of calories keeping warm outside since I nearly conked out several times on the way back home. I had to pick up my scheduler since I had left it back in the apartment, and I'm pretty much blind without it. There was a message on the machine from the juku boss who threw in a sudden trial lesson; at first, I tried to think of ways of trying to duck it since I was pretty tired and had less than an hour to eat dinner before heading out to the juku. But I said what the heck since it would only be a half-hour thing anyways before The Ace comes in. Apparently, the lass works at Tokyo Disneyland and she needs the English to take care of the foreign customers. So my brain came up with approaches but when I arrived here, the boss dolefully told me that she cannot get a hold of her now to say everything was hunky dory. I figure that with my luck today, she'll probably pop up at the front door so I'm still ready to go.

With dinner and a Snickers in me now, I'm pretty juiced up although with the chocolate bar, I may end up crashing halfway into The Ace's one-hour lesson.

Just wondering how Tully & The Coffeemaker will be tomorrow morning. I haven't seen them in almost 2 months since Tully went on that European excursion.

Friday March 27, 8:15 a.m.

Kim Jong-Il (to Japan): Would you like a Sword of Damocles with your WBC win, sir?"

Yup, the Master of the Hermit Kingdom is once again gonna throw over one of his Taepodong missiles, under the guise of launching a satellite with an even longer, more unpronounceable name. Well, the US has stationed a couple of its cruisers off these shores just in case he decides to flip us. More to come, I'm sure.

Another early one...decided to go for the more expensive but probably healthier breakfast from La Vie De France. I've got a bit more lead time before the first student, Prissy, gets in. Still gotta hit those translations from The Corner, plus see if I can quickly concoct a handout for Prissy. Then, a few hours later, it'll be The Bow's first meeting with me, followed by the usual Friday night juku tandem.

Had just a bit of time before bed to read the forward for the latest "The Complete Peanuts" I got yesterday. It was by actress/singer/bon vivant Kristin Chenoweth who won over even the most antisocial critics with her performance as Sally Brown in the stage version of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown". The forward was in the form of an interview instead of the usual monologue by past celeb fans such as Diana Krall. Just to show that the publishers were updated on the current pop cultural calendar, they mention that her tour de force tune as Sally, "My New Philosophy" was on YouTube. So I just looked at it...pretty hummable and she does seem like she's got the patent on the character. She's slightly less than 150 cm tall, so I guess the best intro for her would be "Give a big hand to the little lady".

Thursday March 26, 10:33 p.m.

Our Music Man has been rather coy about his field of business, but I'm getting hints that this guy is in truly in the music industry...perhaps he may be a concert pianist. Not quite sure. However, he's said that he would be renewing for more, which is good news. Also, it looks like 001, my very first student here at Speedy's, is gonna put herself up for continued torture and renew for more lessons for me, although I'm not sure if she's gonna sign up for another huge package. I was rather surprised since she's been with us since the very beginning and one would think that she would've gotten pretty tired of us by now. There may be hope that The Fashion Designer and The Businesswoman may also re-sign instead of resign.

As for that big package on the right, that's the jaga buta from Hokkaido I was telling you about and the stuff that The Restauranteur was raving about. It's potato dumplings with a ground pork centre, kinda like Chinese soup dumplings or sho ron po. Yup, pretty tasty stuff as I remember it.

Anyways, gotta head on home to come back here.

Thursday March 26, 8:51 p.m.

Well, you heard about the Octomom. I'm the Octoteacher today. I had my fingers in quite a few pies over the past several hours which included a back-to-back-to-back with Miss Sedona, The Big Lug and The Carolinan. Then there was the new batch of translations from The Corner, making up some sheets for tomorrow's lesson with The Restauranteur, sending a confirmation e-mail to the Carolinan's friend, The Bow, and then uploading my pics into Facebook. And I find out that I've got a model lesson next Thursday.

Pretty tired but I still got The Music Man in about 30 minutes and I've gotta repeat the process again tomorrow since I've got Prissy first thing in the morning. At least, I've earned my money today.

The Carolinan was in better spirits today. We talked a bit about her sister, The New Yorker, who has just left for The Big Apple for a brief solo trip. I think we're both a little worried about the lass.

Thursday March 26, 2:10 p.m.

Pretty glorious day out there but still a lot colder than it usually would be. I think we could give Toronto a run for its money for coldest metropolis right now.

Up above is where I was last Friday...the 7th (I believe) Annual Tokyo International Anime Fair at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Again, pretty nice to have seen some of the old stuff like Macross and Yamato, but I wasn't really into the new stuff. Still, tried to get some photos of the affair. Would be interesting some of the more grittier stuff later in the year; I believe the manga fair should also be happening at the same place sometime in late Summer or early Fall. Most likely, the families would probably eschew that one.

Last night ended up pretty well. Usually The Fashion Designer and I would try to slog ourselves amiably through the lesson as we battled hay fever and fatigue. However, I amped up the humour level so we were able to cruise through things a bit more smoothly. However, it was one of those early wake-up calls for Grandma Dynamite and it was a double so it took some major muscular control to hold the yawning. However, I did get some nice homemade preserves from her.

Went out for a few hours since Miss Sedona decided to take a rare late afternoon class. Used that 10,000 yen to purchase some DVDs, a CD and the latest of "The Complete Peanuts" which just came into Kinokuniya. Then it was lunch at Foo Foo. I think I'll be all set until after the triumvirate of Miss Sedona, The Big Lug and The Carolinan; I've got a few hours between them and Music Man for a small dinner.

Team Samurai Japan came home to a heroes' welcome of 1,200 ravenous baseball fans last night. Strangely enough, formerly married Norika Fujiwara also came back to a gauntlet of reporters. Despite the barrage of questions, she looked quite happy, but then again, she would be after dumping the creep.

Wednesday March 25, 5:40 p.m.

One of our own has returned to the roost. After several months away in Romania, Kay came back and has started regaling Speedy and Ray about her adventures in Europe. I've just downed a carb-heavy dinner of a cheese dog, sesame chicken salad and iced marble bread. That should just about soak up any gastric juices.

The picture on the left is my completed recreation of a classic game between two I-Go masters. Still really can't play the game without consulting books.

More new apartments are popping up in my neighbourhood. The latest one has been set up beside a newspaper distribution facility. A decade ago, it used to be the only 7-11 in my area, but it has since moved to north of the station. Anyways, this new 3-story apartment building has taken on a Roman Column type of look. One wonders if the architect had been inspired by Barack Obama's backdrop when he accepted the nomination for President back last year.

Wednesday March 25, 3:58 p.m.

It's been a cold wet day. Still the news about Japan's win over the Koreans in yesterday's WBC Final has been keeping everyone warm. I have to admit that despite my snarky comment yesterday on the game, I did catch the rerun of the last few innings and found them pretty nailbiting. It actually was somewhat of a classic game. My only worry is that Kim Jong Il may use that as provocation enough to aim one of his Taepodong missiles at Tokyo.

The former Mr. Norika Fujiwara timed his mea culpa press conference perfectly so that it took place while the WBC buzz was going around. Still, he had some mighty crow to swallow from the press as he apologized for causing the divorce. If there is anything good to say about him is that at least he took sole responsibility for screwing up his short marriage. But he'll probably go back to the same things that were responsible for putting his union on the rocks since he's back to singledom.

Had The Admin this morning. I lent her the Miki Imai "Fiesta" CD since it contained two covers of Carpenters songs. It was another gab fest for the most part which is starting to make me wonder if she's already gotten tired of the text. I'm just wondering if she's already gotten tired of me. Just gabbing is a easy way to get money but it's also the short path to losing a student. She did tell me about the ski resort that she and her family had gone to the past weekend. They went to the New Otani NASPA hotel near Echigo-Yuzawa Station on the JR Joetsu Shikansen Line....just one station north of my old station in Gunma. I'm not a skier by any means and will not be hitting the boards anytime in the near or far future but I was thinking of taking some R&R after Golden Week, perhaps using all of that handout money. Just would like to hang out in some classy suite while reading and then take advantage of all that fine dining and massage.

It would seem that my Wednesday seems to have fallen into a new routine. Usually after The Admin, I head on out to that Chinese eatery in the Maynds Building for the 950 yen lunch before walking over to Kinokuniya. I was stunned to see that the Krispy Kreme lineup had gone down to just a few short metres outside the door. I realize that it was raining but even during the worst of weather, the KK lineups were always at least 30 minutes long. This lineup looked like it could get swallowed by the store in a few minutes. I guess the honeymoon may finally be over. After Kinokuniya, I went all the way up to HMV next door before making the 5-minute walk to Tower Records and then I head on back to Speedy's.

The next edition of the "Peanuts" tomes has come out. I'll see how my pay looks like before I make any decisions.

President Obama made yet another big appearance via press conference this morning. He gave CNN's Ed Henry some late frost for doing his job, which was to ask why it had taken Barack and his bumbling Treasury Secretary so long to react to the AIG Outrage. Well, I say good for Ed. No easy passes for Barack. Not that I have soured on the President but I think the love affair between him and America should cool down a bit. I'm frankly not sure about him being the Everywhere, Everytime chief of the US....especially if he's gonna put his sizable foot into his mouth each time as he did on Leno.

Anyways, I got the usual Hump Night lineup of 001, The Diver and The Fashion Designer.

Tuesday March 24, 7:02 p.m.

Well, pulled out either my Counselor's hat or my bartender's cloth out for Suzanne tonight. Just glossed over that part of "Desiderata" that we'd already done last week before we got into this deep discussion about her and her boyfriend, and the meaning of marriage. I started polishing the table top with my tissue....all this over the Meiji chocolates that I'd brought and the cake donuts she'd brought. To be honest, though, I've always found these psych one-on-one sessions one of the perqs of my strange little career. To be able to talk with various folks from various backgrounds on matters of life and death as they mean to them is definitely a bonus for me. Can hardly wait then for next week since she'll be the only show in town at the juku and it'll be a 2-hour session. Of course, I can only charge English teacher rates. I would love to have her talk with The Milds since they are a couple who are totally comfortable with each other and have been so for decades.

Now that The Traveler isnot coming, I can perhaps enjoy a bit of Net surfing and crossword solving before The Milds do show up. No chance of deep philosophy with them but they're still good folks to talk with.

Tuesday March 24, 4:31 p.m.

The juku boss got a new computer screen to replace the old one that had been damaged by leaking plasma. It had been like looking through a storm-drenched windshield all these months. Still, the computer needs an overhaul since I can't get into Hotmail or Facebook. Well, every little bit helps.

Had my last Beehive session for the month. Mrs. Travel got herself some funky new glasses, courtesy of a Ginza optician called Kamuro. I was kinda interested in seeking the place out myself until I heard the prices for getting a pair there. I think Megane Drug will be my ultimate destination. Mrs. Jade was back after a week away; apparently, last week she had suffered some internal bleeding in her hand(!); she's OK now but it does stress her fragile constitution. And speaking of the walking wounded, Mrs. Alp was more like her old self after suffering a bit of overextension in her exercises. The ladies will be away next Tuesday since all of them will be taking another big trip together. But it will be domestic this time; they'll be heading over to Okinawa where Mrs. Pottery now lives. Mrs. Perth will making her all the way from the other end of Japan as well.

So at this point, it looks like next Monday and Tuesday will share the unique trait of having just one lesson each. I've only got Medicine Man since The Class Act, SIL and The Full-Timer will be absent on Monday, and for Tuesday it'll just be a 2-hour session with Suzanne at the juku since The Beehive will be off, and the Traveler and The Milds won't be in for their regular lessons. I do have some plans though for those two days...still thinking, though.

As it is, I've only got two lessons tonight. Just Suzanne and The Milds. The Traveler called in sick. Suzanne has been on her poetry kick, so once we finish "Desiderata", I've got a Margaret Atwood piece called "In The Secular Light" for her to nosh on. Gotta keep some Canadian content in the lessons.

Once again, it must be that time of year when Speedy gets all frustrated about the school's fortunes. Our great benefactor and venture capitalist had lowered the boom on the bossman since our place seems to be still bleeding money after 4 years of operation. And so, Speedy was openly commiserating about what to do; he even thought of the idea of opening up a kids' wing near another station. Well as long as it's a wing and it stays away from me, I'll still be around. I'm no financial genius but, although...yes...having to follow deficit spending to survive for this long is not good, I don't think there are many new companies who've been around for 4 years that are particularly runaway successes. So, we are not alone, and perhaps our benefactor is protesting a doth too much.

Well, apparently Samurai Japan, the team in The World Baseball Classic, got to take home all the marbles once more after winning over the Korean team in the States. Excuse me, while I stifle a bit of yawning here. Still, the Korean team must be fuming about this.

The other big piece of gossip in the geino pages over the past few days has been the divorce of actress Norika Fujiwara and comedian Takanori Jinnai. Geez, who didn't see this coming? When they got hitched a couple of years ago to huge media attention and a rental of a major temple, even back then the oddsmakers were laying down some ratios about when, and not if, the big breakup would occur. Apparently, Jinnai has been doing a bit of Chris Brown on his now ex-wife along with seeing some other women. Hmmm....I think Jinnai's next gig will be at a suburban ramen shop near you. Odd, though...I had always thought that it would be Norika who would be beating up her hubby black-and-blue.

I've been reading that "Star Trek" novel about the proto-Kirk, Christopher Pike, in "Burning Dreams". It'd gotten some pretty short but not sweet reviews on Facebook. Kinda like MB whenever he sees flicks that critics have savaged, I don't think it's nearly that bad. Aside from one overly florid opening line and some atypical characterization of Sulu (a bit too flippant toward Ambassador Spock), it's been a good read.

Anyways, the juku boss' kid should be showing up in the next 5 minutes so I'll end it off here.

Monday March 23, 7:22 p.m.

Well, got the translations done and hopefully they'll pass muster with The Corner. In any case, I got them in within the deadline. 19 more pages to go. Grateful that The Full-Timer decided to cancel tonight, and it was just as well for another reason. The Doutors that we usually use is undergoing renovation this week to separate itself into smoking and non-smoking sections. We would've been homeless nonetheless.

So, I've got 2 hours to decompress before Medicine Man comes by. There must be a full moon out there waiting to rise. The winds today caused a Fedex plane to crash (tragically confirming my prediction that the two personnel aboard had died), and screwed up train systems. Plus, I saw CNN and NHK announcers making some rare screwups of their own. I almost lost one student, the New Yorker, due to the wind-ravaged JR schedule, and The Full-Timer canned. And Speedy's student has cancelled for the 4th week in a row.

I had The New Yorker's final class before she heads on out to the Big Apple this Thursday for a bit of recreation, a bit of research into a potential future out there. She's going there solo; she's not the best English student in my flock so I'm hoping that everything goes well for her. My own schedule was getting tight since The New Yorker cut it close and then I had to race out to see SIL. Luckily, I got there in a nick of time for another rousing talk on everything under the su n.

And now, about the long weekend. Friday the 20th was supposed to have been the official First Day of Spring but started out as one of Noah's 40 days of rain. It was miserable as I made my way out to Odaiba to see if I could catch one of the two Governor Ishihara projects that weekend. When I arrived at Tokyo Big Sight, the upturned pyramid had its huge mass of acolytes, consisting of men, women, children and otaku, waiting in the hundreds. There was no way I was gonna join that mass. But I didn't give up; I just decided to come back a few hours later.

So I made my way on foot from the Ariake area to the main mall area where Decks and Fuji-TV were situated. Took me 20 minutes on foot, a trek that I would be doing twice more during the course of the day. I know I must've gotten to Odaiba way too early when even the malls weren't open when I got there; had to wait about 10 minutes. There were also some crowds waiting for them to open, presumably to take advantage of the restaurants. I ended up having an early lunch at a place called ATU in the mall that wasn't Decks. It had a decent though not spectacular buffet which filled me up by noon. When I hit the first floor of the mall, I noticed...or didn't notice a once-familiar smell. The Cinnabons aroma would always assault me like Dino did to Fred anytime I came, but the smell was gone because the store was gone. Does that mean that this franchise has also gone like Nathan's? Maybe wornout American franchises also have a limited shelf life in Japan. Well, the cinnamon roll has established itself via other stores so at least the seed has been planted.

I went across the street to Fuji-TV, the Meccano-like building complex. Inside there was some sort of awards ceremony for some kids' artwork being emceed by a cute announcer that I've seen on Channel 8. I would've taken her picture but I didn't want to take a risk of being attacked by camera-averse staffers so I decided to save the shots for the quick walking tour of the 5th floor upstairs.

By the time I got out, the sun had actually come back and the day was looking very promising. Walked back toward Tokyo Big Sight but made a pit stop at VenusFort, the mall that's apparently strong enough for a man, but made for a woman (to quote an old deodorant). As usual, the Italian piazza 2nd floor was pretty enough for one shot on my Exilim but held little more appeal than that since I don't have a girlfriend or wife so I just dipped down to the 1st floor and visited that home of kitsch, Village Vanguard. Nothing like the legendary jazz joint in New York, this place is like Weird Al Yankovic's attic on steroids. Of the entire VenusFort, this is the only place that I would stop at.

Made my way back to Tokyo Big Sight and, lo and behold, it was simplicity itself to enter the convention hall and make my way to the Tokyo Anime Fair. Tokyo Big Sight should've been called the Hall of Shintaro Ishihara that day since it wasn't only hosting his legit anime festival but also the final meeting of all those running in the 3rd Annual Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, another one of his pet projects.

Just paid my 1,000 yen and entered into the world of anime and otaku. Actually, although there were plenty of the young, backpacked and geeky walking the aisles, the scene was also tempered by a lot of families as well. I caught exhibits in tribute to the works of Osamu Tezuka, the father of Astro Boy, as well as one devoted to my old favourite anime, Space Battlecruiser Yamato. There was even a young shapely lady dressed up in Yuki Mori's black-and-yellow skinsuit. She was pretty but I still think the only one who could approximate the same look as the animated woman is Gwyneth Paltrow. There were some other similarly attired women strewn all throughout the three auditoriums but they were officially there to look pretty and present the various exhibits. I did my duty and took their pictures (which I will show in a later entry).

Basically, I made my tour of the fair in little less than an hour which kinda made the point that I'm not really into the contemporary stuff. I don't think I'll be spending my hard-earned yen on any upcoming productions. Still, at least I can say that I was there.

I made my third walk across the man-made island to the nearest subway station since I didn't want to find myself stuffed onto the Yurikamome with tons of otaku. As it turned out, though, the subway station nearest the Big Sight wasn't all that crowded after all since it seems like folks were still lingering around.

Saturday was just a working day for me. I just had The Businesswoman, The Intellectual and The Big Lug. The Businesswoman will be heading out to Chicago later this week; she only has one lesson left on her current batch, a point that Speedy was sure to indicate to her as she was going out the door. Not sure if she's gonna renew, though. The Big Lug had a whale of a time in New York City, his first time there. He wants to go back for another trip sometime in the near future. He received another bonus in the form of a promotion and a transfer of sorts over to the Tamachi head office which, according to him, means that he will be able to come and see us more regularly.

Yesterday was the Tokyo Marathon as I'd mentioned before. This time, the race was scheduled a full month later to accommodate those who didn't want to end up freezing. It didn't mean too much, at least for this year, since the beginning of that windstorm was smacking the runners around. Another African won it, a fact that I'm sure chagrined Governor Ishihara no end as he shook the champion's hand.

So, I think I'm caught up now.

Monday March 23, 11:36 a.m.

Would be teaching The New Yorker at this moment but unfortunately she's been delayed on her train due to the high winds buffeting the Kanto since last night. I was afraid that I would be delayed as well since my station is on the outside part of the Tozai Line, and the line was indeed affected but nothing that destroyed my chances to get to Ichigaya. In fact, I got there a full half-hour ahead of schedule.

So, I'm cooling my heels in this Ichigaya I-cafe run by a guy who look like a clean-shaven Weird Al Yankovic, Japanese version. The New Yorker tried to leave her number on my message machine but I couldn't get all the numbers despite listening to it a number of times; hence, the emergency visit to the cafe. Luckily, her e-mail is still working. She'll be hitting here about 12:10...hopefully. That should still get me to Ueno for SIL's lesson, although lunch may be problematic. I may have to get something at Tully's although I don't really like eating and teaching at the same time...doesn't look too good.

The winds have disrupted more than subways. The morning news was suddenly hit with bulletins about a Fedex plane which crashed at Narita around 7 this morning. The crash looked pretty bad....the small jet bounced once off the runway before hitting the tarmac again and bursting into flame and flipping upside down. There wasn't any official word on casualties but I then saw emergency personnel with the big blue tarps escorting the stretcher to the ambulances, and that doesn't usually bode well for the chances of living people. I kinda thought that something bad would happen today after hearing some louder-than-usual airplane sounds last night during the windstorms.

The Full-Timer also contacted me to say that she would be cancelling this and next Monday due to overtime. Her soon-to-be former employers are apparently squeezing every little ounce of work out of her before she finishes up. Still, that means I have a good chance to get those translations for The Corner written up and sent off since I will now have 5 hours of computer time between SIL and Medicine Man.

Got a lot of catching up to do but I'll have to leave it here for now.

Thursday March 19, 10:34 p.m.

Well, the night went off without a hitch. And made what was probably the easiest 7,000 yen in recent memory. Speedy had me and the other teacher, The Avid (she's very keen on the profession), host a dinner party/dress rehearsal/special lesson at a nearby Chinese restaurant for his young charges of insurance company staffers before they on out for the real thing in the States later this year. It wasn't all just talking and eating, though. The Avid and myself had to supervise some exercises in socialization for the students. Still, I've had far more arduous classes to earn my money.

The Music Man was my last guy up. He's doing well and he was a good one to finish the week on.

Will be heading home pretty soon. Tomorrow is the national holiday known as the Vernal Equinox. For most people, it means that we have a long weekend. Ironically, I'll probably be waking up relatively early and heading on out to Odaiba to see if I can get into Tokyo Big Sight for the 7th Tokyo Anime Fair. I'm not huge into the art form anymore but I just wanna see if I can get some pics to show the home crowd and perhaps I may even see some old Reiji Matsumoto paraphernalia or stuff from Tatsunoko Productions. If I can't, I'll just be happy getting some shots of the neighbourhood. I'm pretty sure though that there will be some cosplay folks getting their kicks being exhibitionists, despite the rules against them.

Thursday March 19, 1:59 p.m.

Just finished with Miss Sedona. As it turned out, she was the first lesson of the day. As I was heading out the door last night after another semi-tortuous (self-inflicted, I assure you) session with The Diver, Speedy was reminded that Grandma Dynamite had to cancel the morning's lesson today, so there was no need for the early wake-up. I headed on home and ended up having a late dinner at McD's in my neck of the woods....no, not the wisest gastronomic action at my age but what use is a temptation if you're not going to act on it.

As a result, I could take my time this morning which included dropping off at Takashimaya Department Store in Nihombashi on the way to work to buy the final White Day present of the year for Miss Sedona. It was a bunch of Yoku Moku cigares...always dependable. As for the lass herself, she got the good news that she will get her working-holiday visa for Canada, so a major hurdle has been overcome, so her days with us are now officially numbered.

Now, it'll be a few hours of translation time for me as I tackle the latest website from The Corner.

Wednesday March 18, 9:34 p.m.

Finished for the day. 001 was fun as usual. We actually had a good gab on digital cameras. As for The Diver, we ended up spending nearly half the period trying to translate one story. That's one very focused lady.

Well, hope to be out of here within the next 5 minutes and get an extra amount of sleep before coming back here for Grandma Dynamite.

Tuesday March 17, 7:45 p.m.

Finished off two of my students tonight. Suzanne is on the poetry kick. We analyzed Max Ehrmann's "Desiderata"; it was a good workout for both of us. She prefers going through vocab via poems instead of the usual vocab books since she feels that the words come more alive in literature. She has a point there. Then I had The Traveler; the lesson was far simpler but still it was a good workout for her, too. Just have The Milds to go.

I heard from The Entrepreneur that he'd caught "Watchmen" with Chip Guy the other night. Not surprisingly, he didn't mention the wife. He gave it a thumbs-up but not a raving one, though. I'm still not deterred, though. I should enjoy it for what it is. I think the DVD of "Ironman" is coming out here tomorrow. After I saw part of it at The Anime King's house over the Holidays, I really need to pick it up.

Toonces The juku cat was doing his usual hijinks during my lesson. At one point, he was digging through my extra handouts on the covered piano. I was afraid that he was thinking of taking a dump on them. Hard to believe that he was such a tiny fellow 3 years ago. The juku boss was thinking of just giving it to someone else, but he's now part of the family.

Tuesday March 17, 1:10 p.m.

Just in time for Spring: Spring weather. It's supposed to be hitting 20 C today. The laundry should be bone dry by now...and covered in pollen. My washing machine, after 14 years of faithful service, is finally showing its age. For the past few months, it's been leaking in a couple of places and now I have to turn off the water supply once the wash and spin cycles begin, lest my 2nd-floor neighbour gets some very local showers.

It was an even smaller turnout at The Beehive session today; just Travel and Tee. Jade was a no-show and Alp is busy taking some relatives out somewhere. Travel was just raving about some rustic izakaya her friend had taken her out to Kanda. It's right up Tee's alley since one of her buildings is located in the area and she has a great love of drink.

I took a look at some more pages on the Tokyo Anime Fair which is supposed to start tomorrow, although the public won't be able to get inside Tokyo Big Sight until Friday. The pictures that Danny Choo took of last year's affair look pretty enticing. I can now understand why the cosplay otaku have never been allowed...it's sponsored by The Man...i.e. Governor Shintaro Ishihara. It's a legit event. Apparently, the controversial bigot used his creation to tongue-lash the folks there in its very first year for not being Japanese enough, and he majorly dissed Mickey Mouse. I think "His Honour" really isn't into anime but just wanted to get on the "Yokoso Japan" bandwagon.

Finally got the security info I needed from The Corner to get access to those web pages. They don't look too, too difficult. Still haven't heard from MB's friend about the venue for tomorrow's model lesson, although I'm to meet him at the same rendezvous point as last week.

Monday March 16, 9:06 p.m.

Now I know I'm getting old...probably one of the best gauges in this country is that now-12-year-old unit, Morning Musume. They were the subject of a Japan Times interview, and the two longest-serving members in MM history, Ai Takahashi and Risa Niigaki, had been two of the littlest munchkins when they first appeared. Now they're a couple of years into official adulthood. And then there is the so-called Fallen Musume, Ai Kago, who has now probably gotten a lot of middle-aged salarymen swooning (and I'm using the term very loosely), due to her contribution to a pictorial magazine series that features various pinup girls and even actresses in as little clothing as possible.

I kinda wonder how the original leader, Yuko Nakazawa, must be feeling. Mind you, she recently popped up in a TV Tokyo travelogue program...and TV Tokyo usually appeals to the middle-aged folks. Then again, the same channel used to have the Morning Musume Sunday show.

Monday March 16, 7:54 p.m.

A slightly off-synch night so far. My session with The Full-Timer was a bit tense, though it wasn't that The Full-Timer was angry at me or anything. The entire lesson was based on correcting and discussing her resume since she'll be leaving soon. She was slightly twisting herself in knots about the arrangement and any additions or deletions...perfectly understandable. However, near the end...she seemed to dawdle a bit and then asked about how she would say goodbye to everyone at her company. Not sure if she were thinking of including me in that statement. Well, it's been over 3 years now...

And then I got the beginning of that huge translation project from The Corner...only to find out that I can't access any of the pages without prior authorization. Having only 6 days to do 6 pages isn't exactly easy with this sort of delay.

Well, let's see what Medicine Man brings to the equation...

I listened to that Art of Noise album last night in bed. It's their first release, "Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?" Yup, the first 4 tracks got me fired up but then "Moments in Love" came along and lulled me straight to sleep....lovely thing, ambient is.

Monday March 16, 5:10 p.m.

It was a pretty miserable day yesterday for my hay fever. My nose was filling up like Hoover Dam after a major rainfall and my eyes were tearing up something awful. Still, I braved the outside to head out to Maruzen to find a suitable book for MB's friend on Wednesday. Found one. It's called "Face The Issues" which contains excerpts from NPR. It's an Intermediate level book, and although MB's friend was using an Advanced book from the Headway series, he did say he was having difficult with listening to native speech, and this text has got the raw stuff...no listening exercises purposely made for English textbooks. I hope it works out for him...just gotta ask him if he would mind burning the CD onto an empty disc. Actually, I lucked out on that part. Usually, the accompanying CDs cost a ridiculous amount of money...more than twice as much as the text. But this one is about the same price. Still, I've yet to hear from him about a venue.

There was a special interview show with the ever-unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso yesterday on NHK with a team of reporters and acerbic commentator Terry Ito. He was the guy who kinda blasted the late Ai Iijima for "causing" so much grief to her still-living friends for dying on them. Still, Ito is the guy to have to really give a "Hardtalk" type of interview to the famous. And he didn't hold back, but Aso seemed to bat the questions back with the skill of a Romulan. I've got a feeling that Ito wasn't too satisfied, though. And I'm not satisfied with the fact that Aso refused to answer the question when he would hold general elections.

I'd tried out those Hokkaido pork-and-potato dumplings that The Restauranteur had been raving about and had given packages to me and the juku boss. Yes, they were quite good...kinda reminded me of Hong Kong soup dumplings or sho ron po. In fact, I kept the broth that came with the package and used it to make my own little soup last night.

It's been another good day weatherwise, although I'm sure the pollen has been flying. I've got the meds inside me and the mask on me. In the morning, I went down to the Azabu-Juban branch of my bank to find out what the kerfuffle was concerning the inability of my cable company to start up the furikomi for my bills. The lady that had been manning the foreign customers' help desk ever since I came to this country was still faithfully there. She checked things out and said that the cable company hasn't registered at all on their computers. Odd...I'll resend my application.

Speaking of cable, it looks like I've found a good nostalgia channel called Channel Ginga. It's been broadcasting a lot of old Japanese, British and American shows. Heck, it's even airing "The Andy Williams Show" late on Sunday nights...last night's episode was all the way from 1962, a good three years before I arrived on this Earth. Betty Grable and Lawrence Welk were the guests. My parents were near-religious viewers of "The Lawrence Welk Show", so I recognized Bobby The Dancer (although his regular partner, Cissy, from the show) wasn't his dance partner on Andy last night. Still, it was a hilarious blast seeing the two hoofers doing the foxtrot, the twist and the watusi when they were the hottest dance craze. It was just hilarious watching an old NBC variety show reflecting a wholly different era. It's not all 50s and 60s stuff; they're showing episodes from "Moonlighting" (which in Japanese is called "The Blue Moon Detectives"). Unfortunately, I'm out of the house during their showtimes. I told SIL today about it, and she was pretty intrigued. Well, if they put on any "Laugh-In", I'm there.

After the visit to the bank, I walked it up from Azabu-Juban up to Roppongi...only 10 minutes. It was too bad that I hadn't brought my camera with me. It was a nice day out there and the prettier side of Roppongi with Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown are very camera-friendly. However, the restaurants in the area aren't price-friendly, so I just had lunch at the underground Wendy's by the station. The classy Aoyama Book Store beside the police station had some sort of outlet store sale on the 2nd floor for the past month (ending tomorrow), so I just took a look-see. It was one of those situations where I was the only one in there with the cashier looking expectantly at me so I felt I was obliged to pick up a book (mind you, the paperbacks all cost 500 yen), so I decided to buy a "Star Trek" novel concerning the brooding Captain Pike...the original one by Jeffrey Hunter.

When I walked around Tokyo Midtown, I'd completely forgotten about the Food Court in the Galleria basement. I went inside and found out that although it was the peak of lunch hour, there were some empty tables. The entrees there were more expensive than the Wendy's meal, but I would still like to give it a try sometime.

SIL was the second-last student for whom I got a belated White Day present (she'd given me something back on Valentine's Day). I bought her some cookies from a confectionary shop called Antenor for 682 yen...tasteful but cheap. I still have to get one more present for Miss Sedona when she comes in on Thursday.

Getting back to Speedy's, I found out from Bay that there were two e-mails sent for me. One was from The Bostonian stating that she got through the presentation although the computer was giving her conniptions. The other was from The Nurse who has yet to show up for a lesson since this year has begun. Apparently, her mother had been seriously ill, but is now on the mend. It'll be good to have her back. Also found out that Mr. Pronounciation is pulling out of his lessons; kinda figured that he was gonna do that since he was cancelling on me all the time. Guess things weren't working out.

Will be heading over to Doutor's in about 10 minutes to teach The Full-Timer. I was shocked to learn the other day while I passed the cafe that it's gonna be splitting the place into smoking and non-smoking sections. I really hope that it just doesn't mean putting up signs like in the Ichigaya branch. Still, there is hope that I won't come back to the school smelling like an ashtray. I wonder what The Full-Timer's future with me will be like. She'll be leaving her company in a couple of weeks; not sure if she's gonna be able to continue at this rate.

The Tokyo Anime Fair will be starting up later this week. I'm thinking about heading down to Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba to shoot some pics, but when I took a look at the website, the powers-that-be said that no cosplay will be allowed. Sure...take all the fun out of it. It only costs 1000 yen to get in but I'm not sure if I'll physically be able to enter with the crowds coming in on a holiday Friday. Still, I'm hoping for some rebellious types who'll put on the Evangelion or Ranma garb.

Monday March 16, 4:36 p.m.

While I was reading Howard Schultz's de facto autobiography on his time with the world's most famous coffee shop, I came across the story of his launch of Japan's first Starbucks over a decade ago. And here it is, just south and east of Ginza's main intersection. He mentioned how much he was wilting under Tokyo's notorious summer heat and humidity when he got it started, and he also talked about the huge lineup. I do remember that; I guess it was the Krispy Kreme Japan of its day. Now, it's just crowded inside during the weekends, but I have been able to get inside a few times to grab a latte and dessert. I'm almost finished with the book.

Saturday March 14, 1:20 p.m.

Ah, the wonders of Baum Kuchen. Yes, that picture is not one of grilling doner kebab from Turkey, but of the German iced roll cake. I took this shot back on Sunday where this thing was rolling in the show window of the Ginza department store, Matsuzakaya. I kinda think that some of the boys must be giving chunks of BK to their GF today on White Day.

Unfortunately, today should be rightly called Gray Day since that is the meterological tone outside. The rain and gale-force winds started just before The Ace showed up for his lesson last night...mostly the latter, thankfully. Didn't want to have to contribute to the various skeletal remains of busted umbrellas that littered the streets.

I guess the maxim is right that those who give will receive. After being Choco Claus for a week, I ended up getting stuff for a change from my two juku students last night. The Ace managed to smuggle some Columbia Supremo (I want to stress that this is coffee I'm talking about), two bags' worth of light and dark roast. And then, The Restauranteur, as promised, brought over a frozen box of these dumplings called jagabuta (literally translated as "tater pig"). Stuff that Homer Simpson would love. I'm gonna give it a shot tonight.

The gales continued onto this morning, which affected the Tozai Line schedule but luckily by the time I got outside, the winds largely subsided so that it was only rain. The sun is supposed to come out later today, but I'm not getting any indication of it all so far.

I heard from my two potential students over e-mail. MB's buddy was generous enough to let Thursday's meet-and-greet slide and so the Wednesday class will be going on as scheduled. Then, The Carolinan's friend, who will be laid off next week and will therefore have plenty of time for English lessons, has also contacted me for lessons. I'm glad for the business but I feel sorry for her.

Found out from Ichikawa TV that our cash handouts won't be headed our way until mid-May at the earliest. Not that I'm all that put out...12,000 yen isn't a huge amount. Of course, there were the warnings of being aware of the various conmen who'll try to grab the cash.

Speaking of The Ace, we both found out how small our world is. The Ace works at a food additives company nearby. The company used to be owned and operated by Grandma FON's late husband. I jokingly said that if I ever got those two together, The Ace would be the most powerful employee by association. He half-jokingly asked me not to go through with the plan.

Anyways, I've got just The Publicity Agent in about 45 minutes and then that's it for me. I still have to head on out to Kinokuniya to find a textbook for MB's friend.

Friday March 13, 7:25 p.m.

Apparently, there are gonna be some meterological fireworks going on later tonight; perhaps just after I get home. Perfectly appropriate considering the date today. Just wonder what it's gonna look like tomorrow. I've only got the one class tomorrow at Speedy's...The Publicity Assistant.

After my lone stint there with Prissy, I went down to Shinjuku, over to Mylord to see how the Platinum Buffet was for lunch. Yep, it was cheaper than the dinner but being the noon hour, it was packed to the gills and so were the other restaurants which occupied the three floors of the complex. So I quickly eschewed that thought and just went all the way down to the basement level where my beloved Foo Foo was and had my usual tan tan men. My point card was filled to the brim so I got 50% off my lunch. Afterwards, I checked out the Starbucks in the Maynds Building over the Oedo Line part of Shinjuku Station as a bit of recompense to MB's friend for perhaps not giving the best impression yesterday. I think for the time we're looking at, that branch of Howard Schultz's favourite coffeehouse should do OK. I'll have to let him know tomorrow...that is, if he hasn't already ditched me. By chance, I ran into Mrs Speedy since she works in the same building. Speaking of Schultz, I've been reading his book on how he took this little Seattle coffee distributor and made it into the global cafe that it is today. His account isn't nearly quite as creepily cultish as that other book I'd read a few weeks ago, but I sometimes think his agent must've advised him to embellish or adopt an "It's A Wonderful Life" tone to it. For a page or so, he even had his own evil Mr. Potter to go with his George Bailey. Kinda weird reading this Starbucks history inside an actual Starbucks.

Then I met The New Yorker in Ichigaya as usual and gave her the latest White Day box of chocolates. It was a good day for me in terms of having point cards. I not only got my 50% discount for filling up my point card at Foo Foo but I reached 20 stamps on my Tully's point card which got me a free Honey Milk Latte. The New Yorker wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders but she was excited about heading to The Big Apple in less than 2 weeks by herself. We're gonna squeeze in one more lesson before she takes off.

I hit Urayasu a number of hours early before the juku lessons, so I ended up walking for over an hour down the main street where the Restauranteur's establishment was, and just walked straight towards where Tokyo Disneyland is supposed to be although things started getting rather deserted before I decided to turn back. I had my second dinner at the Italian place in the past month. This time, I did go for the hefty Sauteed Chicken, though not as massive as that pasta I had a couple of weeks earlier. The Restauranteur was more than happy to banter with me in English in front of her other customers. I remarked that my so-called curse as the ameotoko (Rain Man) was finally broken since I wasn't carrying an umbrella with me today, but she countered that she'd heard the news that rain was on the way at 11 tonight. I hadn't been aware that there was an non-presence clause in the contract. During dinner, I leafed through the latest TokyoWalker that was in the magazine rack and discouvered that Tokyo will not only be exploding with cherry blossoms in the next few weeks but there will also be a ton of new store and mall openings including a major underground facility in JR Ikebukuro and a huge glass tower where the original Kinokuniya Supermarket used to be in Omoteasando. Even Omotesando Hills, which couldn't have been built more than 3 years ago, is apparently undergoing a renewal of sorts. That's Tokyo for you...ever-changing. Maybe calling it The Big Sushi isn't quite the word for the world's largest metropolis...perhaps it should be known as the world's Doctor Who. I bet Skippy is just salivating at the possibilities right now. The Restauranteur, by the way, said that she would be bringing something called jaga buta or pork & potatoes, from a Hokkaido retailer.

Satisfyingly stuffed, I ambled to the juku where the boss told me about that kid she'd been teaching on Tuesday nights. Surprisingly enough, she told me that she had let him go. Apparently, the kid's just hasn't been getting with the program and has been giving my boss a bit of surliness. Usually, she would have brushed this off and given him some tough love, but she realized that since her serious operation back in December, she hasn't been quite at full power, hence the heave-ho. I listened to her since she needed someone to listen whether she'd done the right thing. I told her that she did since it was obvious that things weren't working out and there was no need for her to suffer physically because of a kid who was going through a phase that could last a few years at the very least. It sounds like he's gonna go through his teen angst and get out of it, or he'll end up stabbing people at a shopping mall. But he's no longer welcome here. In a way, it was somewhat reassuring to know that not even the juku boss can win everyone over.

I've gone through my fourth cup of caffeine and sugar today, thanks to Starbucks, Tully's, The Restauranteur's place and now the juku. It's definitely gotten my insides churning a bit (I had to take a brief respite from this entry for a much-needed washroom break).

I did get that payment from Cozy for those February translations. Quite a relief.

Friday March 13, 11:59 a.m.

Just about ready to go. I finished up with Prissy; also gave her her White Day present since she was kind enough to give me a Valentine's Day gift last month. And I gave the staff White Day contribution to Ray. It was a workout for Prissy since she got hung up on pronouncing liaisons.

I'll be heading off to see if I can try some lunch at the Platinum Buffet, although I know that the place will probably be packed to the gills with hungry folk. Still, if it doesn't work out, there's always Foo Foo. And I plan on trying to check out the Starbucks in the Maynds Building as a possible site for MB's friend; that is, if he still intends on using my services. I'm still stinging a bit about how that meet-and-greet went. But I kinda think now that perhaps our personalities may not mesh all that well...he's a hard-rock drummer, while I'm strictly a jazz/J-Pop man.

Friday March 13, 9:00 a.m.

Another early one here. Saw quite a few folks with the masks on...I've got mine on as well, and Speedy seems to be suffering mightily from hay fever. In fact, he sent a missive to everyone about asking students to hang their coats up in the outer office instead of in the classroom to minimize the pollen spread.

The Bostonian last night did quite well with her presentation. I'm hoping that all goes well with her in a few hours when she gives her magnum opus.

Figured out how to upload photos from the digital camera...gotta be careful about how big these photos get, though. I think the computer may have torn a muscle lugging one of my shots to Skippy. So as my test bed, I've uploaded Kripsy Kreme #1 in Shinjuku....even it is starting to feel the economic pinch...the lineup is just a measly 15 minutes now...my, what times have befallen us.

Thursday March 12, 7:12 p.m.

It's been an interesting day...somewhat bipolar. From the high energy of the Grandmas, I've gone into a funk about what may have been a less-than-stellar sales job with MB's buddy, and then The Carolinan got into a slightly depressed state about her job future and some of the things she's had to do to save money. At one point, I thought she was going to burst into tears like BC. Still, she and I managed to hold on through. But yes, this economy here hasn't been too good to us this year. All I need is The Bostonian to show up to say that she got axed and this night's fate will be complete.

Thursday March 12, 4:37 p.m.

Came back from meeting up with MB's friend in Shinjuku. Not sure if I made that good an impression on him. I was feeling a bit weird after 5 hours of sleep plus a double espresso within me. It never occurred to me to take notes as I was talking to him; it would've at least given an impression that I was serious but frankly I didn't think I really needed to do so in any case. He's a fluent fellow who sounds natural (though not perfect) with only a few structural errors. He's probably one of those guys who's gonna be a challenge to keep motivated. In any case, I sent him an apology and a thank you for today.

I did pick up the White Day chocolates for the female staffers at Speedy's. The bossman was worried that the chocolates may not last til Monday. However, I think the ones that I bought should be ample; their best-by date is February 201o.

I guess I'm coming down from that double espresso high; I'm feeling pretty worn out now, and I still have The Carolinan and The Bostonian to teach.

Thursday March 12, 12:45 p.m.

Both Grandmas were cooking with propane today. Grandma Dynamite has gotten her groove back, and Grandma FON was going off a mile a minute about her upcoming trip to Yakushima, a World Heritage Site which is a 10-hour ferry ride from Kobe. FON has got gumption...I'll give her that. She's gonna try to trek through the rugged terrain despite having to use a cane to get around in Tokyo.

Bay told me that she could see Mt. Fuji outside the kitchen window. I could second that observation. It's quite rare to see the most aesthetically beautiful mountain in the world from Tokyo usually due to the smog, but it's been exceedingly clear today. I quickly made a wish to get some money...most likely, it'll come in the form of the government handout.

Well, I'll be heading out in a few minutes for lunch and then to meet MB's friend for that initial meet-and-greet at JR Shinjuku.

Thursday March 12, 10:28 a.m.

My lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me. Have that feeling of droopiness. Still, it was nice to have Grandma Dynamite since she's gotten her mojo back. The review went quite well and she even gave a recipe of some sort of fruit jam for which she'll make a sample for me next week. And who says English teaching is a thankless job.

I've been hearing about these spree killings all over the globe over the past couple of days. Japan seemed to have cornered the market on that last year all on its own but we've been spared that bit of psychopathy this year so far.

Thursday March 12, 8:09 a.m.

An "unprecedented" 2nd sunny day in a row; may have to get that lottery ticket. However, that also means the pollen is probably flying out there today. Last night, The Fashion Designer was suffering mightily during the lesson with her hay fever. It's a wonder that she got through it at all.

I've got five in all today...the busiest day this week. I've got the Grandmas in the morning, then MB's buddy as a potential student, followed by The Carolinan and The Bostonian in the evening. I could be properly chuffed by the time I finish tonight. Thankfully, The Bostonian will be finished by 9 p.m.

Wednesday March 11, 5:49 p.m.

Well, the good news is that The Carolinan got back to me and said that her friend would be available during the daytime so that opens up a whole world of possibilities for us. The bad news is that Speedy received word that he won't be getting nearly as much as he had hoped for in his latest bank loan. I've been reading another book on the Starbucks phenomenon; this one written by the president himself, Howard Schultz, in which he states that trying to keep a company afloat on loans isn't the best way to go. Perhaps, the bossman may want to re-read his book again since it came from the school bookshelf.

I just tried to help Bay with some English description in terms of where Hackettstown, New Jersey is located. We had to download the Google Earth map of the area to get the best view. Never a dull moment in this job.

001 should be here pretty soon.

Wednesday March 11, 4:38 p.m.

Feeling pretty full from the buffet, I tried to walk some of it off by heading eastward toward the Yaesu Bookstore near Tokyo Station. I realized that at the intersection just before the bookstore, I saw the 100% Chocolate Cafe just down the street. After doing a quick browse at Yaesu, I decided to get the goodies for The Sisters of State and for The Bostonian there. Instead of the smaller pieces I got on Sunday, I went for a slightly larger package for each of them. The Carolinan, by the way, had asked me if I would be willing to teach one of her colleagues. I responded that my weeknights were all filled up but if she were interested in a Saturday night, I could oblige her.

I walked down the main street over into Ginza once more and went into Yamano Music. When I got into the basement where all of the Western CDs were sold, I heard what sounded like one of my favourite J-Pop bands, Sing Like Talking, but it was actually a new unit called Wagner Love. It was uncanny how similar the band and lead singer sounded like SLT and Chikuzen Sato; so much so that I made the impulse buy of their disc from a lady with a pretty face but a terrible manicure (she was a nailbiter, to be sure).

I listened to the first couple of tracks from that Dip In The Pool CD I got from bargain basement Recomints. It was one of their later efforts, "KM 93.11". Yup, Miyako Koda has an ethereal but earthy voice, and the tunes sound somewhat European, perhaps in a Shibuya-kei way. From what I've gleaned from the Net, it seems like a lot of their albums are now out of print so I'll have to rely on stuff I can find at places like Recomints, Otokichi and Liberty.

When I got into Speedy's, Ray told me that one of our old staffers, Marcie, will be coming into the fold after a few months in Europe taking care of the affairs of her recently departed mother-in-law. That should ease things for the bossman and Ray since both AK and Bay will be off on holidays.

Heard from one of my old buddies at the ol' school, The Captain. He's just gotten onto the Facebook bandwagon so we've had that usual Facebook welcome chat.

Wednesday March 11, 4:30 p.m.

Choco Claus was back in action this morning. I gave The Admin her present this morning. Afterwards, I went down to Ginza to see if I could gain access to Pierre Marcolini, the famed chocolatier. It's on Miyuki Avenue between the main 4-chome intersection of Ginza and Yurakucho. Well, there was a rope line to handle the lineup and I could barely make out a counter behind the stained glass. There didn't seem to be any price list outside which probably means a very hefty one once you enter, and I didn't want to be forced into a decision so I gave it a pass.

Ended up having lunch at that Chinese buffet place in Ginza Inzs across from Yurakucho Mullion. For the regular price of 1480 yen, the restaurant has added a small shabu-shabu option. It is small and you only get two strips of fatty beef to swish for a few seconds in some heavily anise-d stock, but for vegetarians, it's a godsend since you can have access to all of the nappa, pumpkin and tofu; just glad that they didn't add to the price.

Tuesday March 10, 4:06 p.m.

We've been having a sunny day so far, but I did feel a few rogue raindrops on the way to the juku. I can only hope that they stay that way but knowing this month so far, we may be heading back to rain again.

Had a minimal crew for The Beehive this morning. It was just Travel, Alp and Jade. Mrs. Alp was walking and sitting in pain throughout the lesson. Apparently, she may have stretched a rib muscle or even broke a rib after a bit of overexertion in some sort of exercise with her mother. I think she may have been better served by heading straight to a hospital.

Had another 3-hour stint at the I-Cafe. As usual, cruised through some YouTube, and came across Dip in the Pool, that eclectic 80s-90s duo whose CD I picked up at Recomints yesterday in Nakano Broadway. Quickly scanned through a few of their videos; very laidback style...music to have brunch by and the lead, Miyako Koda, has a fairly good hold on English pronounciation since she seems to sing all of her tunes in that language. She's also a former magazine model and certainly looked it in the videos; quite different from some of those models-turned-singers who came after her like Yu Yamada who's more into the hi-techno stuff. I'd say DITP is far more ethereal. At the other end, I caught an old Art of Noise video for the "Dragnet" movie. Pretty lousy visuals and lousy version of the song considering the remixes have been very toe-tappingly danceable (remember...I was in a cubicle watching this; not much space in there). I think a contemporary elementary school student and a decent software program could make a far more accomplished video.

Perhaps I should start calling myself Chocola Claus. I've given out my third box of chocolates to the juku boss for White Day, after The Publicity Agent and The Full-Timer. Bought a couple of more boxes at Seiyu for The Admin and 001 tomorrow. It will keep on continuing from there. I had a late powwow with Speedy last night about what to do with the female staffers (AK, Ray and Bay), and basically we decided to go halfsies on a nice box of chocolates from either Godiva, Leonidas or Pierre Marcolini. Most likely, I'll only be able to pick it up on Sunday, the day after White Day due to scheduling, but the bossman feels that the ladies aren't all that enthused about the day itself; Ak, for example, has had an engagement cut off so I'm not sure if she's been feeling particularly all that romantic.. BAy is de facto married to her American guy so she's most certainly not feeling romantic and I think Ray has always been hiding a 50-year-old cranky guy in her. On second thought, perhaps I shouldn't bring any chocolates for them.

So far, it'll be the usual Tuesday night crew at the juku: Suzanne, The Traveler and The Milds. Got their chocolates right here.

Those Paramount Studios marketers must be doing triple duty on the new "Star Trek" movie. They just put out their 5th trailer (or perhaps that should really be 4.1 since one just has the additional scene of ancient Spock). This may be a Shock & Awe attempt to soften all of us (not just the Trekkies) and get us accustomed to the new Classic Trek crew 2.0 before the movie comes out in May. Either that or Paramount is just showing us the whole movie over several months.

Monday March 9, 7:40 p.m.

My first class with The Full-Timer went well as usual. I gave her the White Day chocolate (I hope she likes marshmallows) and she gave me some cookies from Hawaii. She and her family only spent a couple of nights on the island but made the most of their time there. In actuality, her grandparents are...or were...Hawaiian. Despite the brevity of their time there, The Full-Timer felt refreshed...also, I think the fact that she only has another couple of weeks at her company and lousy boss (I know a bit about lousy bosses) before she finally flies the coop has also given her some impetus to get through the month.

The Full-Timer is also heavy into kickboxing, and she reacted with some surprise to find out that one of her favourite boxers may have a training gym right in my neck of the woods. I just told her that a gym had been started up recently nearby by the name of Kohiruimaki. She quickly remarked that there was a famed kickboxer by that name. Now, Kohiruimaki isn't exactly a common Japanese name like a Saito or Tanaka. The only other Kohirumaki I know of is an old J-Pop singer from 20 years back. So the two of us are assuming that this gym's owner is the guy himself. I pass by the place almost everyday and it's been doing a good job of marketing by having the entire front of the gym decked out in glass so walkers-by can see the young turks working out via skiprope or kickboxing gear. I have a feeling that The Full-Timer may actually make the trip out to my neighbourhood sometime to see her hero.

I learned that the government has passed that cash handout bill. So, all Japanese citizens and permanent residents (that would be me) are eligible to get 12,000 yen transferred into their accounts. May make up a bit for all the tax I've just paid today...plus, I've still got Cozy's fee coming in. Not too bad at all.

Well, waiting for The Bostonian to come in worrying like a Nervous Nell about her presentation.

Monday March 9, 5:02 p.m.

Spent the majority of Sunday just traipsing around Ginza. First, I went over to The 100% Chocolate Cafe in Kyobashi. The place is half-Starbucks, half- Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Since White Day is just around the corner, I went out to get some goodies for the juku students. I'd been wondering how the little place was gonna handle the overflow of White Day customers and their regular cocoa-sipping guests, but luckily, management had the good sense to set up the White Day wares outside, although the staff must've been pretty chilly out there. I managed to buy four cute little boxes of White Day Chocolates for the occasion for 2,000 yen altogether. I remembered from my first visit there a few years ago that we'd went to a Subways for lunch so I repeated history.

Walking from there to Ginza only took a couple of minutes. As usual, from around noon, the powers-that-be closed down the main road to vehicular traffic. A number of the bakeries and chocolatiers were also in the White Day mood. I also caught a bit of Akiba hokoten in the incongruous environment of Ginza. There was a young lady wearing something very frilly lying down on the pavement like a dead body while a grungy photographer was taking shots of her. Certainly attracted the cellphone cameras.

I searched through all of the music shops like HMV and Yamano Music for that elusive "Best of The Art of Noise" disc but just couldn't find it. But I did get a good walk out of it. Outside of Fukaya Books, a bookstore on the main Ginza drag famous for having celeb book signings, there was a rather large crowd amassed outside. Apparently, local young haafu tarento, Becky, was inside doing the honours. I did have the digital camera with me but decided that waiting for several minutes for her to come out wasn't worth it so I just went over to Shimbashi where the Shiodome City Centre was. I found out to my disappointment, although not surprise, that the NTV Plaza branch of my favourite hot dog place from Coney Island, Nathan's, was gone. Now, there might only be the one in Shinagawa Station. I ended up sitting sipping coffee and having a couple of snacks in the nearby branch of La Vie De France. It was pretty chilly outside and gloomy, much like the weather that has been characteristic of the past several weeks.

Took the Oedo Line to Shinjuku and waited for MB, The Satyr and their significant others to show up in Wald 9. We saw "U23D"...nope it ain't a tax form; it was the live concert coverage of the famed band with those 3D glasses. Even though I was never a fan of Bono, I had to admit that the band gave a great concert and the 3D effect was impressive. Thankfully, Bono, The Edge and the others didn't fall into the usual cheap 3D manipulations and start pressing their faces up at the special cameras like Dr. Tongue. MB liked it immensely while his wife, The Sylph, ended up sleeping (!) through most of the concert, despite all the raucousness of the Brazilian audience. When The Sylph isn't impressed, she doesn't hesitate to nod off. I also had to admit it was a surreal feeling being silent witnesses to one wild concert in 3D. The movie was surprisingly quick-paced; it didn't seem all that long before the end credits started rolling up.

We met Skippy in the lobby afterwards (guess she's not a huge U2 fan either). Her choice of restaurant for us last night was a buffet place up on the 9th floor of the Mylord complex in JR Shinjuku. The place was called Platinum Buffet and had all the trimmings for a 21st-century all-you-can-eat place including chocolate fountain. I had never had the privilege of trying one of those. As buffet dinners went, 2,100 yen was a bargain and the menu was good although it will never reach the decadent heights of the late, lamented Farm Grill. Still, I wouldn't mind giving the Platinum Buffet another shot in the near future.

Looks like the next meeting of the movie group will be when "Watchmen" comes around later this month. We're looking forward to catching it. However, it seems as if the film will be nowhere near its graphic novel ancestor in terms of classic status. Apparently, even the audiences have come away feeling decidedly mixed and there has been a massive dropoff in viewers since it got started a couple of days ago. I'm sure Alan Moore is cackling his "I told you so"s.

Well, today was Tax Day for me. I checked my numbers and then brought the completed return along with my hefty payment to the tax office. I was very glad that I had collected the paperwork when I did since there was a mammoth lineup to get the returns whereas the line to hand them in zipped by quickly. I was in and out of there within 10 minutes...noticeably lighter in the wallet, mind you.

Took the Sobu over to Akihabara to the Tower Records over there. I finally succumbed and just got The Art of Noise's first effort, "Who's Afraid of The Art of Noise" since it had "Beat Box" and "Close to the Edit". It didn't stop me from combing over the other CD outlets. I had forgotten that there were a couple of Doner Kebab places in Akiba...if I'd remembered, I would've gone for one of those instead of doing The Colonel again. Even though it was a Monday, the maids were out there in force giving out the flyers. I had quite a bit of time, so I was perusing the various disc shops such as Ishimaru, Liberty and Sale. The last place had Season 4 of "Doctor Who", the one with Donna Noble. I would've loved to have gotten my hands on that one, but at 14,000 yen, that's just a little too rich for my blood....especially after my taxes.

Hit the Sobu once more to head over to Nakano, that other otaku haven. Checked out Otokichi but couldn't find the Naoko Kawai discs I wanted and so I headed upstairs through Broadway. The three different branches of Recomints, another one of those discounted CD shops had a lot of their wares outside in wagons for the perusing. Ended up getting 5 CDs for 500 yen...the cheapest you can get in The Big Sushi...one of which was an old Jody Watley album. I also got a release by an old eclectic group called Dip in the Pool. I'll be doing a lot of listening over the next few days.

I've got all my three in the next few hours. The Full-Timer ought to be back from her trip in Hawaii; I've got her White Day treat ready for her. And then I have The Bostonian for another round of presentation practice before Medicine Man is back in the saddle.