Friday September 3, 11:56 a.m.

The Ramen Museum is probably the first of the food emporiums that now populate the big cities like Tokyo. I made my latest visit back on that steamy Monday after checking out of the Sakuragicho Washington. Walking out of the massive JR Shin-Yokohama Station, I was already feeling like a limp dishrag during the 10-minute walk to the museum and it was only 10:45 a.m. I'd been told that it was good to get to the place early since the place gets crowded between 1 and 5 p.m. Looks like there were some others who got the message since there was already a small group of people who were waiting in front of the locked doors. Then, when that busload of Chinese tourists arrived some 5 minutes before opening time, we all got into line lickety-split.

As you can see from the picture right here, the front of the Ramen Museum looks pretty austere but there is an interesting spiral design at the right which probably refers to one of the de rigueur toppings on a bowl of noodles, the naruto, a thin pink-and-white spiral of steamed fish cake.

Of course, one doesn't go to The Ramen Museum to look at the history of noodles but to actively partake in the digestion of said noodles. But it'll cost you...300 yen just to get into the place and then the average price of a bowl once you get into the sub-basements is around 800 yen. But the museum has gone all out to provide a depiction of old Showa Era-Tokyo from the 1950s; just think of Marty McFly ending up in The Big Sushi instead of that small town from "Back to the Future". There are even ancient announcements of arriving subways from the time period which occasionally get barked out through the speakers.

As I said, it's good to get to the ramen as soon as possible since lineups can get pretty long. So I held off on the photography until I finished my main business there. I ended up going for the Kumamoto representative, Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire), and got myself a bowl of their cha-shiu men for 950 yen. Usually the image of Kyushu ramen is of a pretty thick, artery-hardening broth coating noodles and just about anything else in its path, but the Kumamoto soup was actually rather light though the chefs didn't skimp on the rich flavor. And they didn't skimp on the pieces of BBQ pork.

Afterwards, I tried to walk off some of my added cholesterol by going through the mock-up of old Tokyo. It's rather nice to walk through the rusticity of the postwar era when a lot of buildings were still constructed in dilapidated wood instead of the huge concrete behemoths of today...including the soon-to-be-completed Tokyo Sky Tree. I could imagine hearing a jazz standard being crooned by legendary Hibari Misora as I walked through the alleys.

Some minutes later, I came across a paper sign which said in kanji, "The Future" on the stairway. So I returned to the present in the form of the 1st floor gift shop. I ended up buying a couple of boxes of ramen noodle pieces covered in chocolate for a couple of the juku students. I did try some with Mr. Mild later that night; well, let's say that I had good intentions in mind when I bought the stuff.

Friday September 3, 9:26 a.m.

Back at Speedy's again early for the 2nd day in a row. Somehow, this sort of habit has gotta stop sooner or later. This time's culprit is The Photog. Something has also gotta be done about this guy. He can't just keep rambling in classes, especially now since his New York project has been set back half a year. He's a nice guy and all but that sort of thing is gonna get old fast.

Basically once I'm done with him in a couple of hours, I have several hours of nothing until the juku lessons at 9. I'll probably head over to Jimbocho and check out that old CD shop with all of the obscure 80s discs. The important thing is that I just wanna chill out at home for a few hours until game time.

Thursday September 2, 10:36 p.m.

And thus another Hump Day comes to a slow end. Mrs. Thursday was shy but quite capable in her inaugural lesson tonight. Hopefully, she'll be a stayer. And The Music Man was his dependable self. I found out that both students will be absent next week since they'll both be heading for Guam for a short vacation. Can't complain about that. Besides, that will mean that I'll also have a rather early start to my Thursday night with The Carolinan being my final student.

Tomorrow, I've just got The Photog in the morning and then just the juku students. I heard that The Photog's assignment to New York has been thrown back until early next year. Doesn't make any of our jobs any easier.

Thursday September 2, 7:38 p.m.

About to get the last third of my classes under way. I've gone through The Patent Attorney, Grandma Dynamite, The Shareholder and The German. Grandma Dynamite's lesson was interesting in that it basically had her practicing the ol' show tune from "Fiddler on the Roof", "Sunrise, Sunset" in English. With The German, it was another gab session...mostly on the upcoming battle between PM Kan and former political strongman Ozawa.

I've now got a new student, Mrs. Thursday (couldn't come up with a better moniker for her, sorry), in about 20 minutes, followed by The Music Man.

Thursday September 2, 8:24 a.m.

Another beginning to a hot one in The Big Sushi. Drank down another isotonic drink on the way here. Gonna be another Hump Day with six students under my belt.

I've been doing some damage control vis-a-vis my e-mail. I rather foolishly answered to an acquaintance's so-called request to join an SNS called Tubely, and when I did so, it automatically sent requests to everyone in my contact list. So I've had to send apologies to everyone because of this virus.

Wednesday September 1, 9:56 p.m.

It may officially be September now, but the weather is still saying mid-August. Still scorching hot out there with nary any sign that Autumn is on its way. That timer on my AC has already gone off so I will be greeted with some cooler air when I get home and when I hit bed I can feel comfortable.

The above is a couple of pics from my annual Yokohama Chinatown dinner. For 1,980 yen, I was able to the pick of the litter for food. It was an all-you-can-eat but not a buffet. I just order it and the waiters or waitresses bring it over. I could order as much as I could handle, and what I could handle was 9 dishes by my lonesome. The food was good but not great. Although I could get as much Peking Duck as I wanted, I was still a little nonplussed by the fact that each serving of duck only consisted of two slivers of duck skin. Also the soup dumplings came with very little soup. Not all that impressed, but even with the all-you-can-drink option, it was a good 500 yen cheaper than the place that I had gone to last year.

I had three students today for my first round of students at Speedy's after Yokohama. The Overachiever and I had a great talk about political scandals (too bad he said that he may be leaving Tokyo for some sort of work in the near future). And then with 001, it was basically on the upcoming Arashi concert this Friday. She's even made up a couple of hand fans with her hero's name on it. Then Miss Sony was fine as usual.

Tomorrow will be Hump Day with 6 on the slate, including Grandma Dynamite who seems to be making just cameo appearances lately.

Tuesday August 31, 10:02 a.m.

Well, the mini-vacation in Yokohama is just about over and again I have to write quickly since I'm at a coin-operated I-stop in the hotel. I guess I know why Twitter is so popular, but I've always enjoyed writing prose more than little tweets.

By and large, the culinary experience was good, not great. I don't think I've ever had a soup dumpling that didn't have any soup in it...more on that later.

On my way to the Ramen Museum to get some noodles before I have to whiz on back home and get ready for the juku lessons. I think Speedy is right...I really ought to have 2 nights here rather than just the one.

Saw "Monsters and Aliens" on the hotel video. Missed this one at the theatre, and I think it was OK to catch this one on the small screen. Not quite as fun as "The Incredibles" or as legendary as "Toy Story". This was basically a meeting of funny voices from the A-list of the Fox Japan lineup (Hugh Laurie, Kiefer Sutherland) and "Saturday Night Live"; there were some funny sight gags and the inevitable topical in-genre humour but a lot of the jokes were pretty much limited to old Warner Bros. cartoons. Not a home run by any means, but a nice solid double.

Anyways, gotta go.

Monday August 30, 6:55 p.m.

Yep, I'm here in Yokohama. Man, I couldn't ask for a hotter day to arrive in Japan's 2nd-largest city. I was pretty much melting when I got to the hotel at check-in time. Had to buy an extra undershirt but doing OK if feeling pretty bloated after the annual Chinese buffet, but this time, it was a different restaurant. More to follow when I get home.

Saturday August 28, 10:13 a.m.

Rather incongruous pictures above, eh? The above left photo is of my breakfast at Jonathan's yesterday....it's a carbon copy of Denny's. I had a rather decent scrambled egg set with a salad, bacon, hash brown and a sausage that snaps. The pic also signifies that I'm now on my 3.5-day vacation. Nice to relax...or try to relax. I've gotten so accustomed to working literally every day that I can't easily snap out of work mode. I actually have to work at relaxing...remind myself that there is no need to look at texts or come up with lesson plans in my head or on paper. I will certainly try to achieve that before I head on out to Yokohama on Monday. But sure enough, one of my translation clients has sent me an e-mail asking for some document to be translated, but since I'm not the only translator in his flock, it's an open call. I'll politely let him know that I'm off for a week.

The picture on the right is The Photog's new project. The title reads "Eigo de Twitter" or "Twitter in English". Yes, for those intrepid students in The Land of The Rising Sun, they can now write freely write in nonsyntactical utterances and they won't get tsk-tsked for it. For The Photog, this is truly a godsend since he can only speak nonsyntactically.

I saw Mr. Swank for the first time in a month. He and his family had just gotten back from The Aloha State only the day before, and he looked like a guy who had just indeed returned from Shangri-La (the mythical land, not the hotel)...tanned, slightly out of it due to jet lag (I had a similar experience with The Artist on Thursday), and with a goatee. He was definitely not up to doing a regular lesson since he so conveniently forgot to bring his lesson notes with him and therefore any chance of looking at completed homework went out the window in the first 5 minutes. So it was just aimless chatter. I had kinda figured that it would be going this way since he has that rather laidback personality, but still I get rather uncomfortable about getting my money by just talking with a student. I mean, could he be thinking about why I hadn't been strong enough to wrestle him into a regular lesson? But a part of me was happy that I could start my holiday with an easy class.

So I got home early Friday and turned on the AC and made up some of my famous Kimchi Chicken Sandwich and watched some "Music Station" on TV Asahi. I've been watching the premier Japanese music show since the late 80s and it's been interesting to see how J-Pop has changed over the decades.

Today is gonna be a hot one. It already felt like 30+ degrees just coming here to the I-Cafe and we're still a couple of hours away from noon. But again, that should be the only thing I'll worry about for the next few days.

Friday August 27, 12:47 p.m.

Had my free-for-all lesson with The Photog. I was able to settle him down a bit to boost his vocabulary on illnesses and recommended restaurants...not that there was any connection between the two. He's apparently coming back for September with hopefully a more structured approach to his learning. And he's started his English career on Twitter and Facebook. I think Twitter will be more to his liking since that SNS apparently doesn't need syntax.

Got The Shareholder in about 40 minutes, then I have run off into West Shinjuku for Mr. Swank. Never got any response from him but I assume that he'll be there.

Friday August 27, 10:07 a.m.

Miss London is back in the school after several days of summer cold. The bossman was slightly miffed that she was about 10 minutes late but that's the Marunouchi Line's fault, not hers.

And apparently, another guy is back in the fold of controversy. Ichiro Ozawa, the former (and perhaps current) superpower in the Democratic Party of Japan, gave the announcement that much of the media had been speculating about...that he will be running for the leadership of the party against current president and Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Considering that this is a fellow who not only has had a long reputation of (supposed) dark deeds throughout his career but also had to step down a few months earlier along with ineffectual previous PM Hatoyama for some other perceived misdeeds, Ozawa's maneuver has to rate as one of the ballsiest and most mysterious moves. He doesn't have much public support because of his reputation but I don't think Ozawa much cares about anyone outside of his support group. The mysteriousness comes from the fact that he had always been more of a backroom type of guy...controlling the more personable pols like a puppetmaster. But if he actually wins the presidency, he becomes the de facto Prime Minister. He'll now be the one out there, not the one behind the curtains. However, not everyone is moaning about this new state of affairs; some folks are hoping that his years as a cagey powerbroker may actually bring some oomph into the ruling of the nation since Kan hasn't really made much of an impact since he took power in late Spring.

Friday August 27, 9:15 a.m.

Unfortunately, the upload didn't quite take, but the sign says, "Please use the escalator on your behind." Yup, one of the reasons that I love living in this country so much.

I'm doing another one of those late night-early morning transitions...basically, just going home to sleep for 5 hours between sessions. Kinda regret assenting to teach The Photog this morning at 10:45. He is a nice guy but, frankly, his stream-of-consciousness sessions yield mere nuggets of education for him. My lesson today is his last lesson on his contract; the bossman and Miss Efficiency are fairly confident that he will re-sign although part of me wonders if it would just be better if he resigned. But again, I'm just grumbling because I had to come in early.

Still, this is my last day of work before I have my 3-day holiday weekend. And the wonderful thing is that I just have The Photog, The Shareholder and...perhaps, Mr. Swank for my shift today. No juku lessons tonight since The Restauranteur has cancelled tonight's session.

It's been a bad year for The Restauranteur. She had already lost a couple of relatives earlier this year due to old age and disease. Now she can add accident to that list. The reason that she's not coming tonight is that she and her family are mourning the loss of her nephew due to a senseless motorcycle accident last Friday. Her nephew had just been newly engaged, and he, his buddies and his fiancee were finishing up a party. One of his friends asked for one more ride on the ol' chopper when his fiancee practically begged him not to go in fear for his safety (as would be expected with a party with a bunch of 20-somethings, there was a fair bit of alcohol involved). Initially, the nephew listened to common sense and declined the offer but apparently went with his buddy to his house for some guy time while everyone else went home. Tragically, at his buddy's house, he was invited one more time for one more ride and this time the nephew succumbed to his friend's harpings and went on that bike. The two of them on that bike put in a bit too much speed and ended up wiping out permanently on a stretch of road. No more engagement, no more wedding, no more future. And the idiot buddy's family now has to forever carry the burden of forever apologizing to everyone for what the son did.

Thursday August 26, 8:42 p.m.

Yup, the above are from my trip to Khazana on Monday for that curry buffet lunch. I really have to refrain from engorging. And yet, the dishes just tempt me too much.

It really has been a busy day here. Although the gaggle of staffers have all gone, La Fille was kept on her feet taking care of two incoming business students for Mr. Sydney, another new teacher, and a new student to whom I'd given a model lesson a couple of weeks earlier. She handled them like a pro.

The Carolinan informed me that she'd taken her sister, The New Yorker, for lunch at a Chinese buffet place for her birthday before catching "Inception". Yep, as expected, The New Yorker ended up sleeping through a lot of it.

Just The Music Man before I finally head on home. I sent word to Mr. Swank about his lesson tomorrow but I have yet to hear anything from him. I hope that he has returned from his month-long trip in Hawaii.

Thursday August 26, 6:22 p.m.

Ah, did forget to mention that The Entrepreneur and his wife are now the proud parents of a baby son. It's been a good half-decade for my old friend. He not only has his own thriving business, but he's gotten the love of his life and now a kid to play catch with eventually.

Thursday August 26, 6:18 p.m.

We had a full house in terms of administrative staff. Along with Miss Efficiency, we had Ms. Schmooze, the new staffer Ms. MBA and La Fille filling up the desks. It was a situation that Ray or even The Admin wouldn't have imagined during their times here. And another new teacher, The Brit, is taking care of a student right now. It would seem that Speedy is starting to grow.

Thursday August 26, 2:34 p.m.

Got through The Photog's lesson. He's a very stream-of-consciousness type of guy when it comes to his lessons. No structure, no set topics. Just let it go. We spoke on everything from movies to his camera to cockroaches.

Just The Carolinan and The Music Man although I won't be finally done until 10:15 tonight.

Thursday August 26, 12:59 p.m.

Well, I've gotten through the first two of my quintet. The Patent Attorney was as smooth as usual. The Artist was about half an hour late...kinda disturbing trend from her, but then again, she IS an artist. And she looked pretty heavily jet-lagged from her trip to New York last week. She had a good time at the museums but felt that the food was largely lacking, except for some supermarket-bought lasagna.

I have The Photog in about 15 minutes. I hear him right now gabbing away at Speedy. Hopefully, the bossman will have some sort of insight for me as to how to approach The Photog.

Thursday August 26, 8:27 a.m.

Only a few minutes before The Patent Attorney comes in so I'll have to type fast. Yesterday was pretty much a Hump Day...5 lessons. And I've got the same amount coming up today with The PA, The Artist, The Photog, The Carolinan and The Music Man. But the classes will be a bit more spread out which is a relief for me.

Just counting the days before my vacation begins.

Wednesday August 25, 5:53 p.m.

Feeling a bit tired right now after getting through The Photog and The Overachiever. For their own reasons, both guys are pretty challenging. The Businesswoman was fine as usual. I don't feel like doing much except for just getting through my remaining two classes which are 001 and Miss Sony.

I gather that it's not a good idea to travel overseas right now. Hong Kong tourists were murdered by a deranged police officer on a bus in Manila, there was a hostage-taking incident involving Brazilian drug gangs in an expensive hotel in Rio, and a Nepalese flight crash-landed in Nepal killing at least one Japanese national. And everyone here thought that bus crash last week in Utah was bad.

Just counting the days before my long weekend. At least I got paid today.

Wednesday August 25, 11:41 a.m.

I'm currently typing this while Speedy and Miss Efficiency are having a small argument about duties and expectations. Kinda like the immovable rock versus the unstoppable force. Ray wasn't quite the type to withstand the bossman's stubbornness, but Miss Efficiency looks like a good match. She has that usual brittleness in her delivery that denotes irritation.

Finally picked up those new glasses between The Beehive and the juku classes. They fit like a charm and I don't have to worry about slippage. My old pair is now officially retired on the coffee table.

I've got a long day today with 5 students: The Businesswoman, The Photog, The Overachiever, 001 and Miss Sony. With the exception of 001, everyone else has his or her own challenges. Anyways, I gotta get ready.

Monday August 23, 8:23 p.m.

Finished up with Miss Genki...she was as she is named. We had a nice talk about the days of black-and-white TVs and "Sesame Street". We are indeed in the age of nostalgia.

Speedy and I had a small talk on our newest employee, Miss Efficiency. I'm still not totally sold on her and I let the bossman know directly about that. She seems to have that latent streak of insecurity that I'm not sure about, but the bossman countered with the fact that she has brought in a lot of business since she started. I can't deny that...there has been a noticeable uptick in business since she's willing to do what Ray, LaFille and Miss London were never all that keen on, which is to make cold calls and follow them up by phone. I think what it is about my reluctance about her is that her weak points are made quite clear by her proximity to my desk. The bossman told me that she's not nearly as computer-literate as Ray was, which causes no end of frustration to her. And Miss Efficiency is more than willing to vent about it...not too loudly, thank the heavens. Anyways, both Speedy and I know where we stand concerning her.

Monday August 23, 6:05 p.m.

The lesson with The German was once again basically 80% gab followed by 20% textbook. Some of that gab was on the sultry weather out there. I think a lot of us are wondering when the crisp cool Autumn air is gonna finally descend upon us.

I listened to the fourth album from that Manhattan Transfer 5-pack last night. This time, it was "Swing", a 1997 album dedicated to the swing tunes from the 30s and 40s. I think by this time, the group had now settled into its permanent niche of jazz/Latin tunes, getting away from the 70s/80s AOR/pop biz. Fun but perhaps not as great as "Vocalese".

Definitely not feeling hungry right now. That curry buffet is still churning away in my stomach.

It's gonna be a busy middle of the week for me, but the good news is that I'll be finishing my Friday and beginning my holidays right after Mr. Swank's lesson. Yes, he'll be back from his month-long vacation in Hawaii.

Monday August 23, 3:42 p.m.

Well, after a few relative days of cooler weather, the steam jets came back on full power from yesterday. After my lesson with Cozy, I decided to head out to Odaiba for a bit of R&R since I had several hours before The German's lesson over at Speedy's. Ended up having a curry buffet at Khazana in the Decks mall on the island for which I may be paying dearly later on tonight. Luckily, I've got a doctor, The Medicine Man, in the final slot tonight. The buffet was pretty good but the service was fairly surly...not to me, but to a couple of young women next to me. But I guess that's part of the Indian ambience. As usual, I stuffed myself a little too much and had to sit it out for several minutes on the bench before I could risk moving myself. Made a tactical error by waiting several more minutes for the free shuttle bus around the island since I actually only had a few minutes at Palette Town before needing to grab the train for Speedy's.

Just read that a famous local entertainment reporter has gone to that word processor in the sky. His name was Nashimoto and he passed earlier this morning from liver cancer. I had taught his daughter for a few short months back in 1997 at their house in Yoyogi-Uehara, and just met the man for a few seconds. In a way, things were rather timely since I had been visiting the place just when Princess Diana had died in that car crash; things got pretty busy there since the man had to get his suitcases all packed to head on over to London for the funeral. I read in his obituary that the funeral will be strictly limited to close family; probably because he made a lot of enemies during his time as a reporter amongst the geinokai. His daughter once told me that the security had to be pretty tight around the house.

Saturday August 21, 2:00 p.m.

Finished up two-thirds of the students for today. The Intellectual rushed in 30 minutes late due to a work-related matter so we could take care of his speech. Then The Publicity Assistant and I had a talk on the nature of Japanese thespians, especially on Erika Sawajiri, the current enfant terrible.

Just Ms. Prissy in about 90 minutes. Then I'm off to the gig. The Intellectual is also off to a concert of his own. He'll be seeing Akiko Yano (the former Mrs. Ryuichi Sakamoto) at the Tokyo Blue Note tonight. I had my own experience at Tokyo's premier jazz facility when The Manhattan Transfer came into town earlier this year but although the quartet was great, I just found the seating to be a bit too close to cattle car.

Although Hikaru Utada may be done with singing for the foreseeable future, the media is apparently not done with her. I saw one of those banners at the newspaper kiosks yesterday, screaming in black and yellow: "UTADA IN LESBIAN BAR!" As if that's a hugely scandalous piece of news in this day and age. I've had students and fellow teachers go to gay bars just to enjoy the atmosphere and they're very much heterosexual.

Saturday August 21, 11:41 a.m.

Looks like The Intellectual got hung up with something work-related so he's only going to be able to make it for just the last half hour of his scheduled 60.

I've got the usual Saturday folks otherwise. The Publicity Assistant and Miss Prissy will be showing up later this afternoon. Afterwards, I'll be heading over to Otsuka for The Bass' gig at Welcome Back!

Miss Efficiency is definitely a lot more gabbier than Ray ever was during her 2 years here at Speedy's. Not that that is particularly a bad thing. Found out that the former had dinner with the latter last night, and apparently Ray seems to be a different person...much more stress-free. I hadn't realized that Ray was under such pressure but then again I was never all that involved in that side of the work here.

Saturday August 21, 11:21 a.m.

Well, met up with MB for the first time in several weeks in Roppongi Hills to catch "The A-Team". An interesting comparison can be made between it and "Inception". Both deal with expert outlaw teams. While "Inception" can be seen as slick and intellectual, "The A-Team" was definitely one of those films that can be termed as rock n' roll and something that doesn't require a brain. Just turn it off and then enjoy the ride like a roller coaster. Also the stars seemed to have a switch. Leo DiCaprio, who has often been seen as great eye candy for the ladies, ends up as a cooler-than-dry-ice team leader Dom Cobb, whereas Liam Neeson, who has gravitas coming out of all of his orifices, ends up being cartoony Hannibal Smith. Yep, "The A-Team" was fun and nonsensical, much like last year's "Star Trek", and I could easily see all the hints for a sequel.

Thursday August 19, 10:33 p.m.

And thus another long Thursday comes to a close after The Music Man's lesson. He scored well on his test and we managed to get through the lesson without either of us falling asleep. I'll be logging off shortly.

I just came off of Mixi. I was rather happy to get some comments via a couple of entries from Spice, my former student at the juku. But apparently, her status bar contained some rather nasty comments toward someone of her acquaintance. Spice has always been well named since she has a rather spiky personality...luckily, she never showed her dark side toward me during her and her sister's brief time as students. However, she didn't hesitate to fling some verbal crud toward a friend. Of course, I'm not about to interfere....kids are kids and they can be cruel.

Thursday August 19, 8:11 p.m.

Did the round trip walk to Shinjuku for about 3 hours earlier this afternoon since I didn't just want to be fiddling around on the Internet all day at Speedy's. Actually, it didn't feel too hot out there, but there was still that perpetual layer of sweat between my undershirt and my skin which reminded me of how hot this summer has been. Made it all the way to Times Square and Kinokuniya where I picked up that text for Yajima.

For dinner, I just had a little something over at Burger King in the middle of the office district of West Shinjuku. I had a couple of ne'er-do-well punks behind me acting like the jackasses that young people are allowed to be. While I was ordering, one of them had the temerity to use his finger to poke through my airspace to show something on the menu. I quickly swung my elbow to clear him out. Luckily for me, he was so self-absorbed that he didn't even care being brushed back and just went on jabbering with his buddy. The last thing the bossman needed to get was a call from the local police that one of his employees had been involved in a brawl at a burger joint.

It was buzzing with activity at Speedy's about a couple of hours ago with myself, the bossman, Miss Efficiency, Moe, La Fille, and yet another new assistant, Miss Nice Girl occupying the seats. But most of them cleared out: Moe and the bossman went out to teach classes on site, and Miss Efficiency and Miss Nice Girl finished their shifts, so it's just La Fille and me before The Music Man comes by in about an hour. We finished the last of the Parm chocolate ice cream bars.

Thursday August 19, 2:11 p.m.

Just finished with The Shareholder. He's getting steadily more talkative so the lessons are becoming a bit more fruitful. Meanwhile, one of our new teachers, Moe, is having the illustrious Photog. Moe seems to be a pretty laidback button-down sort so The Photog should be OK.

I've now got several hours before The Music Man comes in for the final slot of the day. I'll probably just go over to Times Square to pick up a text for Yajima. He sent me an e-mail this morning stating that he had just come back from Australia. He had a good time but he, as with a lot of other Japanese, had to struggle a bit with the accent.

Thursday August 19, 10:41 a.m.

Up above are a couple of photos from the time I was up in Akihabara on Sunday. As I'd mentioned, there was some sort of exhibition on an anime called "Black Rock Shooter" in the Crossfield Building, complete with pictures, film, cars and real live girls in costumes....everything that the average otaku needs for his viewing pleasure. One of the girls kinda had a passing resemblance to my ex...but if she had been indeed my old squeeze, she probably would've run screaming as soon as she saw me...the otaku would've just assumed it was part of the show.

I had The Patent Attorney as usual this morning. He and his wife had just come back from Vietnam just several hours before. He informed me that, much to his and my surprise, Ho Chi Minh City was a bit cooler and drier than expected. Quite the opposite meterological experience from Mr. Swank's odyssey down there earlier in the summer. Both he and his wife partook in the usual Vietnamese experiences of food, massage and surviving traffic.

Miss Efficiency has settled into her new duties as Speedy's new major domo. She's definitely a lot chattier than her predecessor, Ray. This morning, she was doing a fair bit of namedropping; apparently, she has the talent of being able to run into her fair share of celebrities. To wit, Huey Lewis, Madonna and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. She'd met the extended family of Ms. Ciccone in Harajuku some years back; hang around in Harajuku long enough and a celeb will bump into you. Yep, Miss Efficiency is definitely a lot more ebullient.

The weather was somewhat drier and cooler this morning than has been the case for the past several days...nice to feel although I'm not sure what it must be like outside right now. Probably back to steamy.

MB and I have set up a game plan to squeeze a viewing of "The A-Team" tomorrow after The Bass' lesson. It'll be another trip to Roppongi Hills.

Wednesday August 18, 5:22 p.m.

Well, it's been quite a contrast between two students. I had The Photog and The Overachiever for my first official lessons with them. The Photog is an extremely low student (he makes the juku boss sound like a Rhodes Scholar) who seemingly treats proper syntax as an option whether than a rule, but has a lot of heart. Basically he was able to carry the conversation despite the self-destructive tendencies of his linguistic ability. On the other hand, The Overachiever is a very thoughtful young man with a good handle on his English and has ideas on reform in the dentistry industry. Both were very good classes in their own way.

My stomach is getting the grumblies but I think the time is just a bit too short for me to run out and grab something from the conbini; I'll probably just grab something from the kitchen before 001.

MB has asked whether I would be available anytime during the day and night for a movie since he's still off school for at least another week. I think I can squeeze him in on Friday afternoon since I have nothing between The Bass and the juku classes.

Wednesday August 18, 12:49 p.m.

I went through the 3rd album of the 5-pack series of The Manhattan Transfer. It is as you can see on the right. If the inaugural "The Manhattan Transfer" was about taking those first baby steps into jazz standards, doo-wop and disco, while "Mecca for Moderns" was about embracing their inner AOR, "Vocalese" was about the Transfer grabbing their entire jazz stylings via Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. The standout tracks are of course "Ray's Rockhouse" and "Blee Blop Blues" (I've always loved the video for the latter song; it was just the perfect matchup having the transfer take on the roles of "I Love Lucy"). However, I was also interested in what didn't get onto the compilation best hits releases. "That's Killer Joe" is definitely one of them. Basically, if a non-Transfer fan were to imagine what the prototypical Manhattan Transfer album was, it would be this one. Of course, since "Vocalese" was released in the 80s, all that vocal styling came with some synth support.

Wednesday August 18, 12:31 p.m.

Well, finally got those glasses I needed. I went to the nearest opticians to my place, just a few minutes away from the subway station. It's called Megane Suupaa...basically, the Glasses Supermarket. The chain has been on a sales campaign touting a change of frames for the low, low price of 12,600 yen...they even have tarento Tsutomu Sekine sporting a pair. Of course, for me, I needed new lenses as well as new frames so I paid about twice as much. There were just a couple of fellows in the place; one of them dutifully and kindly gave me the eye test, which was surprisingly not that much different from the ones I've taken back home in Toronto. Of course, the big difference was there were much more hiragana and katakana in the eye chart. Still, it was good that I have the language skills; an off-the-boat gaijin would've been lost at sea. My new specs will be ready in about a week.

My first visit to the juku in over a week was pretty normal. I just had the usual gang of Mr. White, The Milds and Mr. Nice Guy. The boss told me that she might have a couple of new students waiting in the wings once Mr. Nice Guy finishes his time with me at the end of the month. As for Mr. White, he and his family had gone to Seoul last week since he's the huge Koreaphile; I got a nice box of chocolate cookies as a souvenir.

As for everyone, the overarching topic was the massive heat wave engulfing the Kanto. Apparently, according to one of my Mixi friends, Chiba hit the big 38 degrees yesterday. That's pretty much a red alert. Not sure what's it's gonna be like today, but I'm happy that I'll be in the school all day today.

Got a foursome today. I've got that photog that the bossman has been teaching so far; very little English but plenty of heart apparently. Then I have that dentist who came in for his model lesson last week. He's quite a bit of an overachiever. Of course, 001 will be in for one of her last lessons on her current contract; not sure if she will renew again after 5 years with us. And I have Miss Sony to wrap up.

Monday August 16, 6:38 p.m.

Managed to spend most of my day in air-conditioned comfort except for one run to the conbini to grab some dinner. Yep, it's steamy out there. Miss London looked like how I felt when she came in.

Movie Buddy is back from Australia so he's already gotten to me about catching any upcoming flicks. I'm thinking about "Salt" or "The A-Team", not exactly top-of-the-line especially after having caught "Inception" twice but hey, it'll be good to hook up with the lad again.

Miss Genki should be here in about 20 minutes.

Monday August 16, 12:36 p.m.

Well, got that shopping lesson done with The Artist. Kinda crammed a lot of stuff into her pretty little head...hopefully, she'll be able to sift through everything and get through a typical shopping binge in Manhattan in one piece. In any case, I'm already feeling rather zonked. Lucky that I've got several hours to recover before Miss Genki comes in.

Recently, I've heard that former teen J-Pop phenom Hikaru Utada had announced a hiatus in her singing activity. Not really sure how the media reacted to the announcement since I haven't been watching morning wide shows recently, but I could imagine it went overboard. In fact, Utada sent out a second annoyed dispatch to calm everyone down. For me, it was no surprise; several years earlier, she had hinted that she could retire from singing and do something totally mundane such as work in a lab. Not really sure how the population has taken the news. Back at the turn of the century, she was pretty much the word on everyone's lips but throughout the first decade of the new century, her influence has kinda gone down since other stars such as Kumi Koda and AI have gone on the ascendant.

My listening activity last night consisted of tuning into the 2nd of the 5 albums I got of The Manhattan Transfer. Last night was 1981's "Mecca for Moderns", and the experience made for an interesting comparison with the eponymous debut album made 6 years earlier. 1975's "The Manhattan Transfer" had a bit more jazz standard mixed in with a couple of electric guitar funk. But "Mecca for Moderns" had a lot of that AOR/David Foster arrangement which was very popular in the early to mid 80s. "Smile Again" is representative of that sound. But two of the songs on the album struck me as rather bizarre and unsurprisingly have never made it onto any hits compilations. "Wanted: Dead or Alive" was just a weird Jamaican-influenced ditty quoting the various dictators present at the time while "Spies In The Night" was probably trying to recreate the TV theme-based hit that was the earlier "Twilight Zone" but failed with James Bond. Still, considering that up to now I'd only been familiar with their very top hits, hearing these unknown songs has been a revelation.

Monday August 16, 11:01 a.m.

The Artist is gonna be 10 minutes late so I have a bit of time to get my thoughts out. She'll be having her final class before she takes off for New York the day after tomorrow so she wants to have a lesson on shopping in The Big Apple.

Yesterday, I just went up to Akiba to see if the authorities actually did bring back hokoten. I got there at about 2 p.m. and sure enough, the traffic was still flowing on Chuo Dori...so a broken promise there. But the Maids were out there in force and probably sweating a ton of saline in their uniforms. And there was some sort of anime event involving something called Black Rock Shooter. Had no idea what it was all about, but it apparently involves a bunch of women dressed in tight black outfits. There were a couple of real-life women dressed in costumes and sporting fake heavy military weaponry. As you do. In any case, I'll have photos later on.

My hunt for new glasses didn't end yesterday. I actually did go to that Washin opticians in Seiyu in Urayasu. Frankly speaking, I didn't get any sort of friendly greeting from the sales folks there although I was the only one browsing the frames; and the frames there struck me as being somewhat more expensive than I had been led to believe. So I decided to abort the mission until tomorrow. There is a Megane Mart near my station so I guess that discount shop will have to do.

It was nice to have a full weekend off. However, it is NOT nice to go through 36-degree weather like today. It is indeed a scorcher out there. As soon as I had walked my first steps outside of my apartment at the bleary-eyed time of 6:30 this morning, I was already feeling like a wet dishrag. It's a Donut Day here at Speedy's and ordinarily I would take advantage of the huge gap in time to enjoy The Big Sushi, but it would frankly be suicide to do anything more than breathe outside today. So I'll take advantage of the free air conditioning and Internet here at the school.

Anyways, The Artist has just arrived.

Saturday August 14, 12:39 p.m.

It feels nice having a full weekend off. Not much to worry about in terms of classes and such. I had a pork kimchi dinner with rice last night. I finished the last of that Bailey's Irish Creme that The Carolinan had given me a couple of weeks ago; that was the problem. I'd gotten so used to the sweetness of the liqueur that I underestimated how much alcohol was in the stuff. As a result, for about an hour or so, I looked like a massive sunburn victim and was pretty much out on the couch. I just stayed absolutely still since I didn't want any sudden movements to create a hangover situation...I just let metabolization take place at its own pace.

I also listened to that Miharu Koshi CD, "Father and Pistol". It was a bit disappointing in that she got really artsy with this 1991 album and threw in a lot of instrumental filler. But the ones that she did sing on were pretty good, and it was an indication of her old standards German period. For me, I think her intermediate techno period is my favorite so far....I listened to some of her tracks from "Boy Soprano"...really good stuff there.

I've been keeping tabs on the fate of the JET Program, the organization which got me my first teaching gig after graduating from U of T. JET stands for Japan Exchange and Teaching, and for over 20 years, the Ministries of Education, Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs have been spearheading this project via its administrative wing, CLAIR, by marshaling in thousands of Americans, Australians, Canadians and Brits to teach English within the educational system. For a kid just out of university, the salary is pretty sweet....3.6 million yen a year. It gets downright saccharine when one considers that oftentimes the "teacher" is basically there as a human tape recorder.

In the last few months, therefore, the government committee for getting rid of wasteful spending that has been hitting the headlines has now set its targeting scope on JET. And the newspapers have been debating whether it is time to bring it down or, at the very least, overhaul it. Some folks have said that JET needs to be cut since the costs far outweigh the benefits. Young arrogant 20-somethings coming over with little or no teaching experience, let alone teacher training, coming over to spout native English while earning a ton of money and often not needing to pay for a lot of rent and bills and enkai fees. Yep, I can see where the national beancounters may get rather tense. As a former JET myself back 20 years ago, I've seen a few folks that definitely should never have been allowed to set foot in this country. And the fact is, for even those people who were interested in teaching as a career, I'm not sure if JET is the ideal venue since the regular Japanese teachers of English were more than happy to hand the reins over to the native Assistant English Teacher (AET); and as veteran teachers come to realize, unless that AET is a genius, rookie teachers are always bad teachers....they haven't plumbed the tricks of the trade to handle students. Yep, I can see problems with JET.

But as for me, I'd like to see this turning point in JET as an opportunity for it to get leaner and more serious. I don't think the programme should be abolished per se; for all its weaknesses, having these young ambassadors come over to at least show kids how English is truly spoken and how life is in other countries is invaluable...at the very least, it can get adolescent minds thinking about what could be in their own futures.

Friday August 13, 3:51 p.m.

Some of the usual Shibuya summer scenes: high school girls enjoying some crepes and a guy with his yukata-sporting girl. But although it's been hot, I think there are signs that Autumn is, if not just around the corner, walking toward us. The nights have been slightly cooler and drier.

Had my only 2 classes of the day. I had The Bass for the first time in a few weeks; he was fine as always. I've got his next gig to attend next Saturday in Otsuka. Then I made the rush over here to teach The Stockholder. He was better today since I was able to grab him with some more hooks; not the type to gaff fish but the conversational ones.

Basically, I'm done for the week. I don't know how long it's been since I had a true weekend. But I don't have any Speedy classes tomorrow and neither Yajima nor The Jyuppies are up on Sunday. I may actually take a look at Akiba on Sunday to see if hokoten has indeed come back. I will definitely savor the next couple of days though I will be doing my share of cleaning and ironing.

Thursday August 12, 4:54 p.m.

I did go to Nakano Broadway's Recomints discount disc shop where I picked up that 1991 Miharu Koshi CD, translated as "Father and Pistol" (maybe had some daddy issues). But I also got another Mariya Takeuchi disc, "Morning Glory". Two very different artists, Koshi and Takeuchi. The former is very eclectic in her musical tastes swinging from minimalist techno to French chanson tunes while the latter is very comfy in the West Coast sounds of the United States. Just by looking at the cover of "Morning Glory", you can see that Takeuchi is going for some 50s lovelorn Sandra Dee image. Should be interesting listening to them tonight, although whether I'll be able to keep it together by the time I get home around midnight is another question. Feeling pretty peaked right now despite eating a little snack.

Afterwards, I had lunch at the Golden Arches in Nakano Broadway. The middle-aged female manager invited me to sit down just inside the doors but I decided to go al fresco and sit at the only table outside. Perhaps McDs could use with the free advertising but with my body, I could just as easily have repelled potential customers.

Afterwards, I headed out to South Shinjuku and just took a look around Times Square. Of course, a trip to Kinokuniya was in order. I didn't buy anything but I did find an interestingly shaped pizza cookbook. Then I just went up Times Square and ended up taking a nap in one of the comfy lounge seats on the 14th floor.

Got back about an hour ago. Looks like we've got another staffer, but this time it's for the kids' school.

Thursday August 12, 12:01 p.m.

Yep, that was my stomach-bursting meal on Friday night at The Restauranteur's establishment. I polished off that Spaghetti Napolitano and Green Salad like a pro. Took me about 30 minutes.

Came back early this morning after what was basically less than 6 hours of sleep at home to teach The Patent Attorney here. It ended up being a double lesson since he needed to get a major amount of proofreading work done before he and his wife headed off for Vietnam this weekend. It was a pretty hefty amount of scourging through technical specs for some kind of knee stabilizing thingamajig...had me getting rather drowsy at the midpoint; it didn't help that The PA's ability to read aloud was rather poor.

At this time, I don't have anything until a model lesson tonight at 8 so I'll be heading out for a few hours. I'll probably head over to Nakano Broadway to check out Recomints for any other old CDs that have managed to fall between the cracks. I like to think of myself as the Island of Lost Toys when it comes to discounted discs. Not sure what the crowds will be like there today since we are in the middle of O-Bon season.

Wednesday August 11, 10:09 p.m.

Sunrise over my apartment in Ichikawa back on the 8th. As you can tell from the time stamp on the lower right corner, I'd gotten up in the wee hours since I had a rather lousy stomachache from overinduling in a hunk of beef the night before. However, I still had the presence of mind to see a photo opp and to use the Sundown filter on my camera.

Finished my marathon session tonight. Helped The Artist with her directions for New York City; she's actually coming for one more lesson next week before she takes off for The Big Apple next Wednesday. Then I had my newest student, Mr. Perfect. He's a handsome dentist who reminds me of a younger Paddy back in U of T days. His English is pretty darn good, too. He should make for a fine addition to my flock. I've got a feeling that he may turn some female heads.

001 was her usual giddy self. She got her Arashi concert tickets last week. The only thing is that she and her friend will be sitting all the way in the back nosebleed seats. They'll need to bring binoculars if they are to see their heroes strutting across the stage, although I think the jumbo screens should alleviate any eyestrain. Finally, I finished with Miss Sony. Another good addition. However, I still have yet another model lesson tomorrow night...with someone who's far less proficient than Mr. Perfect. However, Speedy tells me that she's somewhat more talkative than Miss Prissy....which is absolutely fine with me since I think Miss Prissy is also aces.

I'd been trying to get access to Mixi only to be told that the server is down for some reason. It has apparently made news on the Yahoo site; rumours are already flying about that the Koreans may have taken it down with a virus. And the users are getting plenty impatient. As usual, I'm taking such talk with a grain of salt. It'll be up and running when it's up and running.

Wednesday August 11, 2:57 p.m.

Big Hump Day today after 2 days of easy scheduling. On Monday, I just had Cozy for his morning lesson and that was all she wrote for the rest of the day. I found out what was eating Cozy last Monday. Apparently, he and his wife have the Neighbours from Hell...notably a chinpira and his sleazoid wife. A chinpira, for those not in the know, is basically a lower-level yakuza thug or punk. For the past several months, poor Cozy has had to deal with these two; he didn't go into details about what they've done but obviously it wasn't enough to make it a crime. But Cozy did call the police, and like in the first act of any suspense movie, the cops did sympathize but said there wasn't anything they could do since the thug and thugette haven't committed anything wrong. As it stands, it's very possible that my student and his spouse may have to move...a real pity.

I caught "Inception" for a second time at Roppongi Hills after Cozy's lesson. It still stood up on a repeat viewing and I gleaned a bit more information from the mind-heisting gang. I really enjoy Hans Zimmer's score for this one and I was sorely interested in getting the soundtrack from Tower Records last night but I'm gonna hold off until the next payday.

Ah, yes, did forget to mention about the photos. The one on the left is a cicada, one of the living symbols of midsummer. The guys have finally started screeching and my neighbourhood is starting to show signs of their bodies piling up on the pavement, since after several years digging around underground as larvae, they pop up for a few days of mating before they expire.

The photo on the right is my lunch from yesterday. The Beehive and I met over at The Springs Hotel in Makuhari Messe for a special session since Ms. Tulip was back from Toronto for 3 weeks of vacation. Her daughter, whom I tried to help with her book report last Xmas, tagged along. Before everyone showed up, Mrs. Travel and Mrs. Alp spoke to me about the venue...I mentioned that perhaps it wouldn't be too bad if we could meet at the far emptier Spring Hotel cafe for our sessions since I'm always a bit tense at the crowded Beckers in Tsudanuma; it would cost me an extra 100 yen round-trip but I'm willing to pick up the cost if it means a more conducive atmosphere. However, my only worry is that the Springs is owned by a president of a pachinko parlor chain (which would explain the Vegas-like gaudiness of the lobby) which could also mean the odd appearance of unsavory types from time to time. We did have lunch at the 2nd floor sushi restaurant called Genkai. As the picture suggests, their lunch special is plenty large and tasty.

After lunch, I took the Keiyo and Chuo Rapid Lines to reach Shinjuku where I taught The New Yorker for Tuesday's lone lesson. It was the first time I tried that commuting combo to reach a venue in The Big Sushi. Rather nice ride to take a nap. The New Yorker was still struggling but kept things rather light as usual. She has her birthday on Thursday so her sister, The Carolinan will be taking her to a fancy beer garden called Meiji Kinenkaikan in Aoyama.

As I mentioned earlier, I hit Tower Records in Shinjuku since it was the 10th which meant Triple Points Day. I browsed a while on the jazz floor until I decided on getting an inexpensive 5-pack of Manhattan Transfer albums...no liner notes but the discs were fine with me. I listened to the inaugural "Manhattan Transfer" from 1975 when Laurel Masse was still part of the quartet. More than half of the album consisted of their hits but did listen to a few songs that I hadn't heard...surprisingly quite disco in flavor.

I also picked up Sophie Millman's latest since she seems to have become rather popular here of late. She had a gig over at Tokyo Blue Note earlier this year. She's also notable in that she was a University of Toronto Economics Major.

As I said, it's a busy one today. I just had The Businesswoman a few hours ago, and in a few minutes, The Artist will be coming in. She requested a special today since she'll be heading to see her brother over in The Big Apple and wanted some directions on....Directions. So I concocted some New York maps to help in that endeavor. Then, I've got some model lesson student before 001 and Miss Sony seal the deal.

The bossman informed me that tomorrow's Patent Attorney would like to go for a double session. However, it'll still be a sparse Thursday since it'll just be him and then The Music Man tomorrow night.

Saturday August 7, 3:13 p.m.

It was one of those really bizarre Friday juku sessions, and it all occurred in the afternoon, a rather atypical time for a Friday juku session. The juku boss once again brought up that little misunderstanding with the computer usage...y'know, I was willing to just forget about it, but she just had to bring it up once more with the consistency of cud-chewing. And this time, there was crying involved. She said after that rather tense departure on Tuesday, she'd gone into a bit of a depressive funk for a few days since the last thing she wanted was me to hate her...which I don't. Despite all of the names I've thrown at her...and frankly, which I'll probably continue to do since she often drives me up the wall with some of her antics...I'm still thankful to her for a number of things, least of which is the fact that she's the guarantor of my apartment. Still, I really didn't want to go through another venting with her, but she just felt so guilty about how she handled things on Tuesday that she started weeping. And if there's one thing I can't stand is to see a grown anything cry. I reassured her that I didn't hate her...it was just one of those little tiffs that even friends go through...and I promised her that I would start touching keys again. So, I'm hoping that is the end of that.

The second thing that made things rather intriguing at the juku was that that reporter who wanted lessons with me turned out to be a semi-celeb of sorts. Since I make it a policy to use code names for close friends and students, I'll have to daub him as The Reporter. The Reporter is a known face on the morning wide shows, so as soon as he came on up to the room, I pegged him immediately. The other surprising fact is that he actually lives not 5 minutes away from the juku....a celeb living in old Urayasu. The Reporter confided that he had started out as an actor, and he did have that rather Ricardo Montalban sort of delivery and stance, not in the Khan Noonien Singh way...but more in his old Hollywood days. His English is pretty good if not perfect but I can help him. But his outsized personality and rat-a-tat style of speaking (probably because of his journalistic career) made both me and the boss wonder if he's gonna last a month with us. We're pretty laid back in this corner of the universe. Although he set up a first class for September, I'm wondering if he'll just stand us up since we're too down-home for him. In any case, I'll probably still set up some sort of curriculum for him.

Afterwards, since I had several hours before the night group of the boss, Mr. Nice Guy and The Restauranteur, I made my way out to Otemachi and to Maruzen to pick up some reading material and then make a short pit stop at home before I made my monthly visit to The Restauranteur's diner. I had forgotten the portions served there so I ended up having the Meat Sauce Spaghetti and The Green Salad...both of them individually could've made a complete dinner for a carnivore and a vegetarian respectively. Somehow, I was able to grind my way through both...even The Restauranteur was impressed. My night group was fine and now the juku is off for about a week for the O-Bon holidays.

Yep, the O-Bon launched from this morning when NHK reported on the huge traffic jams on the highways. And next week is gonna look a bit sparse with the big exception of Wednesday since I've got The Businesswoman, The Artist, a model lesson student, 001 and Miss Sony. I would've raised a bit of a hue and cry, except that the rest of my days are going to have huge holes in the schedule.

I just had Miss Prissy and The Publicity Assistant. Both of them had some interesting stories for me. Miss Prissy came in suffering from a slight hangover. The lady has always come across as someone who would collapse if she even smelled beer fumes, but apparently she can almost hold her own in terms of alcohol, but she admitted that she had imbibed a little too much last night, and thus the tiny headache. With The PA, she came in without any sleep for over 24 hours due to the demands of her job. Somehow, she made it through the class without collapsing herself. And she even had the wherewithal to decide to renew with us again.

Almost time to go home...

Thursday August 5, 8:50 p.m.

Well, I've been long finished after The Carolinan's lesson. La Fille is just noodling around the keyboard while the bossman is doing the same in his office. Earlier this afternoon, some lady called in to say that she wanted to get some counseling for some classes and that she would arrive there by bicycle by 4 from some faraway location. The bossman was a bit leery whether she would be able to get here by 5, let alone by 4. Sure enough, she didn't even get here by 5; she didn't get here, period. Just as well...it was probably some dimwit woman...I've had some experience with them recently. Yup, there's still a part of me which is pissed off at the juku boss. My family can hold grudges.

The class with The German went well. We actually managed to get through 2 pages of the text although there was still a lot of gab. 001 may be the Queen of Banter when it comes to me, but The German comes a close second. The Carolinan was her usual quieter self but she was a bit more animated since we did get into some good talk about those missing centenarians. Apparently, the count is about 33 nationwide. That one mummified lady had been dead for over 3 decades...Reagan hadn't even become President when she passed on.

I've only got juku business tomorrow. There is that model lesson....30 minutes of it...with that so-called professional interviewer of the stars. I'm a bit leery though I have gotten my prep done for it. For one thing, he wants to come in anytime between noon and 6 on Fridays but that's an absolute no-no since I've usually got The Shareholder during that time. And for another, he's really going downscale for a guy who chats with folks like Leo, Will and Tom. Why would he want to go to our motley juku in a Urayasu neighbourhood to learn high-scale English? I'm wondering if he'll decide to turn tail once he sees we're in a somewhat dilapidated house. In any case, once that's done I've got 5.5 hours of nothing until the juku boss starts off Friday night. I can go to The Restauranteur's place but that doesn't open til 5.

Mr. Nice Guy has to do a make-up lesson between the boss and The Restauranteur. But his time with us has become numbered since, thanks to his wife, he's managed to secure a position in his dreamland of Hawaii. He won't be leaving until October but he's finishing up with us at the end of this month. To be frankly honest, he is indeed a nice guy but his structure is so wonky that I feel that I'll always have to shore up his stuff with sticks and baling wire so I won't be so sad to see him go, and besides he and his family will get a far better education over there in The Aloha State.

Had a brief misunderstanding with one of my translation clients. I got so eager to get a translation assignment that I hadn't read the fine print which states that it's SOP to find out whether the assignment hadn't already been given out to someone else. Sure enough, it was, and I got a frantic letter from to cease and desist. I gave my apologies and he gave his, and everything's fine now.

Gonna head home soon. But I'm happy that I can actually sleep in a bit tomorrow and can actually enjoy a bit of air-conditioned comfort in my apartment before I head on out.

Thursday August 5, 3:42 p.m.

Man, The Shareholder is gonna be one hard student to have during the summer days. A self-confessed humorless guy, he just has a molasses-like thought process which sucks all of the oxygen out of the room. Barely got out of the room with my wakefulness intact. Glad that I hadn't had lunch until after his lesson. Otherwise, I would've been pretending to be a narcoleptic.

I got those translations done, got something whipped up for that model lesson at the juku tomorrow afternoon, and prepped for The Restauranteur's lesson tomorrow night. I may be dropping by her place for dinner since it has been about a month.

001 was her usual genki self. Not surprisingly, we didn't even touch the text. We basically gabbed about getting those concert tickets for her fave band, Arashi, a hilarious episode of drunkenness involving her and some friends, plus various cocktails.

Thursday August 5, 11:32 a.m.

Just bought my lunch at the 500-yen place. Yep, it's another scorcher out there. Luckily, I'm here until after The Carolinan's lesson tonight. Then, I'm strangely done for the day since The Music Man is not coming tonight. However, before she comes I still have The Shareholder and The German.

The really weird news dominating the local airwaves has been the one about missing centenarians. Apparently, Tokyo's oldest citizen, a 113-year-old woman has gone AWOL for the past several weeks or months. Noone has seen or contacted her. When the media decided to check her daughter who's a relatively youthful 80, she gave the kicker that she hasn't had any contact with Mom in about 40 years. And she hasn't been the only one. Police found the mummified remains of one old fellow who had gone missing and several others are out there incommunicado. Just wonder if pictures of senior citizens will start getting emblazoned on the sides of milk cartons in Japan as pics of kids are on the American equivalent.

Thursday August 5, 9:45 a.m.

Sometime last week, I blogged about the singer Miharu Koshi, and her fascinating career from Japanese New Music idol to 80s technochanson pop tart to turn-of-the-century (20th-century, that is)Franco-German jazz chanteuse. I'd bought a CD of her New Music days and blogged about that. Back on Monday, I bought the CD on the right "Epoque de Techno" which is actually a re-release of her first two forays into New Wave YMO-influenced techno, "Tutu" and "Parallelisme".

To reiterate from last week, my opinion on her New Music stuff which includes songs like "Love Step" and "Snoopy" was that as a happy-go-lucky, tons-of-hair, jeans-wearing singer, she came across as a Junko Yagami or Taeko Onuki wannabe but not her own singer. She wrote up some pleasant enough songs but nothing that particularly stood out. In the liner notes for "Epoque de Techno", Koshi admitted that around the early 80s she had come upon a brick wall set up by a lot of producers who were no longer all interested in her work. Something needed to change, and the catalyst was the Haruomi "Harry" Hosono, one of the three masterminds behind the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

One of her final New Music albums was "On the Street" which had her old persona strutting in a 70s pantsuit. Well, she underwent a metamorphosis along the lines of a caterpillar to a butterfly so that the former glowing girl-next-door type turned into the heavily made-up coquettish gamine shown on 1983's "Tutu", her first New Wave album. Her voice was squeezed into a whispery, higher register with French pop sensibilities, and the music was technopop. Her new songs were definitely more interesting to listen, and although the chances of them hitting the top of the Oricon chart were somewhat lower, she had successfully become her own singer.

The Shibuya-kei sound wouldn't be recognized for another several years but it's interesting that Miharu Koshi came out with her new sound sometime before other artists such as Kahimi Karie, Pizzicato Five and PSY-S, acts that Koshi reminds me of. Now that I've got her middle period of New Wave represented on my CD shelves, I'll have to check her latter period of Franco-German delights.

Thursday August 5, 8:19 a.m.

It seems to be an annual event....once again on Tuesday at the juku, I had to take the boss to task for some idiocy. She's kind, generous and very loyal but at the same time, she's also a scatterbrain and a dumbass with her mouth.

It was about the computer at the juku. There has been that revolving door policy with it. At one point a couple of years back, she allowed me to use for some general Net surfing and e-mail but when it started getting cranky, she asked me not to use it so that it can last a bit longer. And I had no problems with that. Then she got a new computer late last year for which she developed a temporary phobia since for some mysterious reason she had decided to get a top-of-the-line machine although she has nearly zilch knowledge about computers in general. It was getting to be a regular thing for her to come begging to me every time I arrived for some little glitch that she couldn't understand.

However, when things finally settled down for her psychologically, I was apparently allowed to make documents for students and even got to access my e-mail. I did inform her that I would only access the Net just for e-mail purposes, and she was seemingly fine with that. Then, Tuesday happened. I was just checking my e-mail when the boss came in and told me that I would have to delete my cache of documents because the computer speed was slowing down; I hadn't realized that several documents of 11 KB each would cause that much of a slowdown but, yeah, I said I would delete them since they were only for Sugar N' Spice and they were now gone. But then, the boss had to put the boot in and told me that I would have to stop surfing the Net, and she said it in a way that made it sound like I was Netsurfing behind her back. Basically, I was back on the outs when it came to the computer.

Well, perhaps it was the heat, my general fatigue and the fact that she was flip-flopping like an errant senator, but I just went into battle mode and tried to assure her that I was only checking my e-mail...as I had promised her. But she just kept repeating that I couldn't use the computer anymore. Well, that kinda broke my back.

She realized that perhaps she had put my nose out of joint and got me some sort of chocolate thingy from the store as a bit of an apology...but all that did was just get me even more pissed off at her. She basically accused me of lying behind her back and thinks that a cake is gonna appease me? Well, when I left that night after my lessons, she did what she usually does in such a situation and kept on groveling and apologizing...which drives me up the wall with anyone. And finally, I quietly vented at her about what and how she said it. And I just said that if she can't handle the computer policy, then I would just simply not use it anymore. Of course, she said that she will give me access to the computer again...but frankly I'm fed up. I just shrugged my shoulders and just changed the topic to that model lesson student on Friday. But I'm just not get myself involved in that computer anymore.

Monday August 2, 6:20 p.m.

Quite a difference with the regime change in televisions. Out with the old chassis JVC, and in with the slim flatpanel Sharp AQUOS. I was able to hook up the latter pretty much within 45 minutes with cable and DVD. Now, I've got the predecessor just laying on the tatami; I have to give a call to the sodai gomi guys for pickup by Friday...and probably end up paying a good 5,000 yen.

I have Miss Genki in about an hour and then Medicine Man for the final slot. I haven't seen Medicine Man in about a month but I promise I'll have lots to do with him when he comes in.

Monday August 2, 6:04 p.m.

It was one of those lazy summer days for me. Not too many classes so that I had a lot of time to enjoy myself. I had Cozy for his usual lesson this morning bright and early...he apparently had a rather not-so-nice weekend but was reluctant to go into it and I reassured him that he was under no obligation to tell me at all. I could only speculate that there was a major screwup in his work or he and the missus had a tiff.

Then I decided to go watch "Toy Story 3" at Roppongi Hills. The first show didn't start until close to noon so I just had my coffee and dessert at Espresso Americano where I always teach Swank. It was a bit weird there just by myself for an hour and a half without having my student in front of me.

"Toy Story 3" is definitely the final chapter in the lives of Buzz, Woody and Jessie...at least, I hope so. As one critic put it, this series will probably go down as the most critically successful movie trilogy (although I think the guys behind The Bourne Trilogy may have something to rebut about that) in history...and as much as I love the characters, I really don't want Pixar to tempt fate by risking a mediocre 4th entry....as unlikely as that may be. It's hard to believe that a decade has passed since the 2nd movie so it is somewhat of a miracle that just about all of the actors from the first 2 entries could make it. Plotwise, the movie basically follows the same premise as that of No. 2 but what sets them apart is that there is a certain poignancy which permeates the flick throughout. Past characters have gone missing and Andy is now going away for good....the final scenes probably had even grown men grabbing for their handkerchiefs, and I did hear some sniffles from my audience. Still, there are some great comic moments including Buzz's Spanish Mode.

As strange as it may seem, I can compare "Toy Story 3" with the Japanese cop movie I saw a few weeks back "Odoru Dai Sosasen 3". Both were third entries, both had tons of old and new characters, and both had their themes of time passing by. However, I think the Pixar entry definitely succeeded far better in that category.