Wednesday Sept. 17, 8:01 p.m.

I just read in the paper today that Mrs John Lennon still had a bit of the performance artist in her despite her age of 70. She basically had the audience snip pieces of her clothes until she was absolutely naked on the stage. Now if it had been Cameron Diaz, I would've been rather excited, but as it was, I can only say "Yoko, oh no!"

A long commute out to Yokohama again as my former Monday nighters started their new Wednesday afternoon slot. They decided to have their first class at the woman's apartment there. And I think there was a bit of a resurgence in energy so the class went well. Still, I was snoozing my way back home.

Seeing that my income will be pretty chintzy this month, I've started my diet of austerity. I managed to keep my food intake down to less than 1000 yen. For dinner, I'm having a 100 yen bag of rice crackers and peanuts. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I won't go too mad.

Tues Sept. 16, 10:15 p.m.

In the afterglow of the Hanshin Tigers' victory, there was a very sad sign of the times in Nagoya when a courier company driver went POSTAL this morning. He took several male staff members hostage for a couple of hours in the company HQ and calmly demanded that he get three months' back wages transferred to his account. Apparently, that was done and everyone except for the branch manager was let go. However, seven minutes later, the entire office exploded killing the hostage-taker, the manager and a police officer, along with injuring 41 people. Apparently, the disgruntled driver had poured gasoline all over the floor in the barricaded meeting room.

I checked my pay today which finally showed up in my bankbook. Apparently, I'll be on daily rations of bean sprouts and tofu for the next month.

I've got a couple of friends coming over on Thursday. It'll be nice to see them but I'll have to do some major cleaning before I take off for my Jiyugaoka class tomorrow.

Monday Sept. 15, 9:33 p.m.

I often like to think of my little blog as the written ID to my EGO, so I would like to say that I was somewhat pissed off when I found out that the Starbucks that I use as my classroom for my Wednesday nighter was closed due to the holiday. But I wasn't as miffed at The Coffeehouse That Seattle Built as I was at my student who, for some unfathomable reason, didn't answer her cellphone despite multiple attempts. This meant that I had to end up sitting on a ledge in front of a bush for an hour instead of either canceling the class or making better arrangements. When she did come, she gave profuse apologies that she hadn't noticed her phone. Maybe she was busy at work, but I thought those bloody things rang at a loud enough volume and vibrated hard enough to qualify as a sexual aid. She was lucky that I was able to hold it in and cool off by the time she came by.

Well, at least we could actually take a look at the Hotel Okura, one of Tokyo's premier hotels which just happened to be close by, right beside the US Embassy. I must admit that the decor had the ambience of modern Japan....circa 1960, but the staff is super polite and friendly. I can't damn them for that. After a mini-odyssey trying to get to the South Wing, we made it to a cafeteria inside the hotel which also had that 60s feel. Again, super polite service with a bunch of well-heeled old folks as customers. There was one old guy by our table who evidently thought that 200 decibels was the customary volume to speak, but since my student and I had become accustomed to working during the operation of the Starbucks coffee grinder, it was OK.

Practically speaking, we could really only comfortably afford the desserts, and I must admit that it was the first time that I had a dessert that looked like something that often pops up on TV on a gourmet show. My dish was some sort of American Pear soaked in red wine on top of a slab of vanilla mousse with an almond-shaped scoop of sorbet ("sherbet" sounds too mundane for this place) on the side and the whole thing was ringed by raspberry sauce. Not cheap by a long shot but delicious enough.

The two of us managed to chat on a number of things, including one on ugly Japanese in hotel restaurants. For some reason, she's had recent experiences in these establishments in which the person sitting at the next table always seemed to harangue the staff for some sort of faux pas. Of course, such a scene makes the dining experience a very poor one for the surrounding guests, but naturally the complainant doesn't really care at that point. I surmised that exemplary service is such a thing to be taken for granted that when there is a mistake made by a waiter or waitress, the offended customer takes it that much more personally in a "Why me?" way that he basically loses it. Also those restaurants attract a client of a certain tax bracket which means more demanding folks which can include snooty celebs or even worse, members of the yakuza. My student remarked that the people who had sat next to their table had that somewhat organized crime feel to them, so she was relieved that her superior, despite her anger at them, held her tongue. The talk certainly made me reconsider whether I should dine in these fine restaurants or have a more peaceful time with room service.

After 18 years, the Hanshin Tigers of Osaka won the Central League championships. The Tigers are kinda like the perennial sad sacks of baseball with the loyal loving fan base. The Toronto Blue Jays certainly could sympathize during their first decade in the majors. However, the Tigers fans are a die hard, almost rabid, lot. Being Osakan, the fans are a lot more looser with their emotions and more loyal to their baseball team than, say, the more straitlaced Tokyo Giants fans. They drink hard, they cheer hard, and they sing their fight song, "Rokko no Oroshi" just as hard.

As I said, the Tigers have been the perennial doormats of the Central League so when they do win big such as they did tonight, Osaka and the Kansai area declare a mini-holiday. The manager of the team, Hoshino (a man who's often been called a thug for his very spartan tactics), go t the customary DO-AGE, or fling up into the air by the players on the pitcher's mound. No matter how he's seen, right now, he's the man of the hour.

Monday Sept. 15, 11:25 a.m.

BREAKING NEWS! Ben and Jen break up! Film at 11! Oh, the infamy, the tragedy....the stupidity! Well, I caught this one on CNN just now, and the talking heads were just barely rubbing their hands with glee. Apparently, there's no real love lost with Jennifer Lopez since she has exercised such diva-like behaviour. I don't what it is about these female celebs which makes them act so bratty. Lady Jen wants her tea stirred counter-clockwise every time?! Boot to the head!

Aside from that rant, I've had a pretty quiet weekend. Today is Respect-for-the-Aged Day in Japan, so it's a national holiday here. However, I still have one class to teach tonight, my regular Wednesday nighter who is actually one of the relatively few people who does have to work.

I took a call from...well, I can't really say friend, to be perfectly honest. He is a former student from a few years back, and although he doesn't intend to do it, he has managed to annoy a number of people. It can't be helped...he's a bit slow if earnest but he just doesn't know how and when to interact properly. Since his graduation, he's managed to keep in contact with me for the past few years. He had kept in contact with a couple of other teachers but those folks finally couldn't take him calling anymore so one changed her number, and the other escaped when he returned home.

He has a penchant for calling once in a while. I usually screen my calls so I know when he calls up since he never leaves a message. All I get is the three rings and then the busy tone on the machine when he hangs up. What is so bad about this guy? Well, he's not that bad but he just talks on some of the most insignificant stuff. Y'know, from his talks, I've realized that most callers have a reason to call or they want to know how I'm doing. I think part of it is because he wants to practice his English, and I can't damn him for that, but when he just prates on and on about stuff that really has no connection with anything. A couple of years ago, I had to read the riot act to him when he called me up close to midnight after I had gone to sleep; so he's better on timing now. Still, if I don't feel like picking up the phone, I just let him give his three-ring-and-a-busy-tone message. The problem is that he does this three times on that night.

Madonna? Author of children's books? French-kissing Britney Spears? Uh-uh...not near my non-existent kids.

Saturday Sept 13, 4:12 p.m.

It's been another sweltering day. Happily, I just had that one class before getting back home and cooling off.

Well, I thought I was going to get paid this weekend, but nothing has shown up in my bankbook. I wonder if there has been a change in the rules. Usually we get paid on the 15th of the month or the closest business day preceding the 15th, and since Monday is a national holiday, I logically assumed that it would be either Friday or Saturday. Well, nothing has shown up yet. I'm not putting up any red flags as of yet but I did send an inquiry to my colleague. And this is the first time that the school has not paid on the expected day. I'm sure that there is more to follow.

Two more celebs bit the dust, I see. One, Johnny Cash, was not a surprise. He'd been looking pretty ill for a long time. I was never a fan of his but I do remember catching his specials when I was a kid when my parents seemed to be on that country kick. The other death was a complete surprise. John "Three's Company" Ritter passed away suddenly due to something called an aortic separation. The way CNN described it, it sounds like an aneurysm. Man, I just remember him as the hapless but lovable Jack Tripper with the two bimbettes.

In one of our last meetings at the Friday night circle, my friend and I talked a lot on 9/11 and where we were, and by extension, all of the other major breaking news stories such as the attempted Reagan assassination, the Challenger disaster and Gulf War I. Very interesting.

Thursday, Sept 11, 4:24 a.m.

It's the 2nd anniversary of the WTC attacks, an event that will probably stand as one of the most seminal of this century. And personally, I also had a brush with it. For it was on that day, I had just come back from a summer trip to Toronto which included a brief stay in New York City a couple of weeks before 9/11. It was on that day that my flight originated from New Jersey Airport, 24 hours before one of the hijacked planes started its fateful final flight from the same place. It was on that day that my plane had to make three separate attempts to land at Narita just after a typhoon had plowed through the Kanto before aborting and head to Nagoya for 2 hours...something that left me wondering if we were going to be be victims ourselves. I also remember the plane making one more attempt which was successful which made all of us applaud in relief, not realizing that half a world away, several hundred other people on planes would not be so lucky.

I had been home for a few hours that night. I was exhausted. I didn't even bother to turn on the TV. Then, the phone rang....I didn't answer it; I figured that I would get back to him/her when I was feeling more energized. So the message machine activated, and the messenger just happened to be my friend from Toronto telling me to get onto CNN immediately; something had just happened in NYC.

Sure enough, when I turned it on, I saw one of the Twin Towers smoking, but the far more searing image was that of the second plane, looking almost like a paper equivalent, plow into the second tower. Aaron Brown had just started his first day at the network, and his voice was preternaturally calm but he gave the dreaded news that two planes had just become weapons of terrorism. Die Hard fantasy became hard reality. Then, the news came that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon, and yet another plane had crashed into a Pennsylvania. The US, and by extension, the world would never be quite the same again.

All of my exhaustion just left me as I kept my eyes glued on the TV well into the wee hours of the morning, Tokyo time. I sent a couple of frantic e-mail messages over to my two friends, one of whom lived in Brooklyn, just across the river from where the Twin Towers stood. He later sent me word that he and his girlfriend were OK. My brother and his wife were celebrating their honeymoon in Florida when they had to be evacuated to their hotel. The day after, I reluctantly went back to work and the feeling was somber since a number of the teachers were from America.

On the first anniversary of 9/11, I and two other teachers were doing the second Intensive of the annual series of training sessions for our oil company students. As usual, all of us, teachers and students, occupied the training center lobby lounge like a bunch of sophomores after a whole day of study. It was a bit awkward having the TV set to ABC's satellite service which was televising the solemn ceremony while the students were trying to relax, chat and drink beer while the teachers were looking at the coverage in all seriousness. The students were sometimes at a bit of a loss as to what to do. One of the teachers later on confided that he had been miffed at the usual frivolity in the lounge but he also realized that 9/11 affected people on different levels, one of the factors being that of nationality. Although 9/11 was a horror for almost all people, I couldn't expect the Japanese to share the same level of solemnity that the Americans and even the Canadians had.

And now the 2nd anniversary of 9/11 is here. I will have just one class today, and I don't expect any sort of meeting with a group of people to commiserate with. As I said before, the world has changed in some ways: the US is now fully dedicated to war against terrorism, the world has become a bit more polarized, and two countries have fallen in front of the US military might. And of course, CNN now has that perpetual red news strip at the bottom of its screen. But in some ways, the US didn't change or only had a temporary brief moment of change. The so-called rejection of irony didn't become a permanent part of pop culture: comedies are back to their snarky selves and action movies are once again part of the mainstream. Americans live under a rainbow-hued alert system and yet they have reverted, more or less, to their old lives. New Yorkers have reportedly returned to their in-one's-face, sarcastic selves but now with a subsurface undercurrent of sympathy and caring. All in all, though, I think the attitude toward the most tragic event of the 21st century so far in in line with some of the tragic events of the 20th century: we will never forget it but we will go on and thrive.

Tues Sept 9, 12:02 a.m.

Long Monday but it'll be the last one. First off, my Monday morning students too k me to the Oregon Bar and Grill up on the 42nd floor of the Shiodome City Centre. The social and financial gaps between me and them were quite evident according to some of the remarks that one of them said about the restaurant. She thought it was rather casual; however, I found it fancy if comfortable. I mean, it isn't everyday that I see true maitre d's in well-tailored suits and wait staff in crisp white uniforms. Also, she played the role of a food critic to a slight extent, stating that the Caesar salad was good but a bit too salty. I also agreed but I didn't mind it all.

The rest of the course, which cost just 3000 yen by the way (a real bargain in a place that regularly charges 6400 yen for the dinner courses), included warm bread and butter, minestrone and dessert with coffee. And of course, the piece de resistance, the steak. It certainly didn't match the size of my usual steak at the Outback, but the taste was certainly more refined and tastier. Plus, the view over Tokyo couldn't be beaten. I would definitely recommend the place to the Movie Buddies.

It looks like that bike victim from the previous night in Hiroo wasn't the only recent accident close to me. That same student had suffered one herself just last Tuesday when a car smashed into her BMW. Surprisingly, she came out of it relatively unscathed with just a sore head. However, the BMW will have to be sold.

After I had given my goodbyes to the ladies, I ended up splurging a bit on CDs. In rather disparate purchases, I bought the Best of Henry Mancini, the man who was responsible for a lot of the movie themes before John Williams took over. And then after an hour or so in my usual hangout on the roof of the Mitsukoshi Department Store, I ended up going to HMV, and bought Peter Gabriel's SO album from 1985.

I then popped down to my regular Monday night haunt all the way in western Tokyo before I had my class with the real estate students. One of them told me that he would like to move the class over to Wednesday afternoons instead of Monday nights, a shift that elates me no end. I do realize it's a bit of a sacrifice for them since Wednesday is their only day off, but to be honest, I was hoping that the late Monday nights would come to an end. And I think that in the long run, it will be much better for all of us if we were in higher energy mode for class. So no more of those midnight home arrivals. I can have pleasant Monday nights at home. However, I'll have to level with my juku employer since she was hoping to extend my hours into Wednesday afternoon.

Sun September 7, 10:59 p.m.

A very long day, and also a very revealing one. I had that get-together with the Movie Buddies for that breakfast outing at ROTI this morning. It turned out to be a very nice time for all of us. It just so happened the Madame sat right in front of me, but she didn't give any particular inclination about our e-mail messages to each other except for the somewhat jokey references to us as husband and wife, plus some of my own embarrassing French gaffes. I was also happy to see one of my Tea Room bunch mesh in very well with the new alumni. I managed to ingest a lot of food.

The da y saw a gradual attrition of our ranks. We lost a couple of them after breakfast. The remainder did some looking around Roppongi Hills since the Madame hadn't visited the supermall. I found that she has a good interest in interior design shops and jewelry stores. Those two types were perfectly up Roppongi Hills' alley.

Then we lost two more people so the four remaining people: myself, the Madame, my Tea Room buddy and one other teacher decided to take a view from the 20th floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel which is meshed in with Roppongi Hills before heading for a quiet tropical bar just a few hundred meters away from the complex. I certainly go t to know the Madame even more at that event, as well as get some more insight from the teacher about his travels through Europe and Africa.

Finally, the Madame and I were by ourselves...by luck or by design, I'm not sure. However, we ended up going to a favorite Chinese restaurant of mine, BEMI, in the Hiroo section of town, just one subway station away. Hiroo is known as a more casual hangout for the ex-patriate population than Roppongi. However, the two of us received a rather exciting greeting when we reached street level. We actually witnessed a motorcycle get majorly clipped by a van in the main intersection. Although the bike rider was injured in the crash, it was still heartening to see some of the people help out the situation by directing traffic and calling up on their cell phones for an ambulance. The ambulance came within a few minutes although the one cop on a regular bicycle took his sweet time arriving on the scene.

When it looked like everything was under control, the Madame and I headed for BEMI down the road and ordered more food. There, we spent the next 2.5 hours just talking about our lives and ourselves. We unburdened a lot about our pasts and our philosophies on life, but it still felt a bit like a cautious dance between the two of us; there is a mutual attraction between us but the fact is that neither of us is willing to whole hog into a relationship at the moment although we never said so directly; we were throwing so many 3rd-person tangential statements at each other. But the two of us had shared one thing in that individually, we had been in relationships that just took off at warp speed. We agreed that we wanted to see how our friendship went for the next few months before we make any moves into a deeper connection. Certainly, from our conversation tonight and our e-mails over the past few weeks, we have started a very close friendly relationship. And I think at this time, I would prefer to take it one word, one gesture, one day at a time.

Well, I managed to blow away close to 8000 yen and ingest several hundred calories today. And yet, I still have an engagement with my two rich students tomorrow at the Oregon Bar and Grill on the top of the Shiodome City Center.

Saturday Sept. 6, 12:11 a.m.

So, another work week has passed by without incident. Another full-time teacher has gone by the wayside. And it looks like I have at least one more dry week at the school before things start hopping again.

It'll be a quiet Saturday with just the kids to teach. Maybe I might go for a rubdown at the neighbourhood clinic provided I haven't sweated too much. Then, it's the big breakfast outing at Roppongi on Sunday.

Sad to say, but I found out yesterday that one of our previous students from a couple of years back passed away rather suddenly. She was a happy character; middle-aged chain smoker with a blonde bob, black-rimmed glasses and a big smile. Definitely not your typical Japanese woman.

September 3, 9:06 p.m.

One of those annoying days. Just when I was about to head out to start the renewing process for my passport, I found out that I needed to hand in my birth certificate. Only thing is that I didn't have one. So now I had to send out a letter to the Registrar General back home to get the APPLICATION FORM for the certificate which I have to fill out and then send back to Canada and then get the certificate to hand in with my other documents to renew the passport. Oh joy, oh bliss. I'm not particularly concerned since I'm not planning to go anywhere in the next 2 months but it's just that I don't have any love for bureaucracy. Then again, I could've been a bit more on the ball about the timing.

Also, Tokyo was entertained by a mammoth thunderstorm around 6 p.m. tonight. Usually, the storms in Toronto are louder than the relatively sedate ones here in Tokyo, but tonight, that fact was smashed by the natural fireworks and waterworks that inundated us. Luckily, I was already sipping my coffee in air-conditioned comfort at the Starbucks. However, I paid the price thanks to the delicate balance maintained by JR and the subway system going awry due to the storm. The power went out at one station which threw the schedules for all of the stations which meant that the trains were all superpacked for far longer. It was a claustrophobic's worst nightmare.

I swear that the so-called paradise of strict punctuality that the Tokyo transportation has is a brittle one. If there is any incident, ranging from an attempted suicide to light snow, that affects the train lines, the entire system suffers and therefore the entire commuting public does, too. I remember taking 4 hours one winter evening getting from Chiba City back to my city, a trip that would normally take just 30 minutes due to light steady snow. Some very unhappy people on that trip home.

However, despite tonight's hellish commute home, I'm grateful that the storm decreased the humidity a bit.

Tuesday September 2, 11:16 p.m.

It's been one of the few nights this summer which deserves to be called muggy. I can only hope that my fan will be able to help cool things off when I hit the hay.

Looks like my Thursday just got its hours doubled. I'll be teaching 6 hours then...it's been a while since I've had that many hours during the day. Hope I'm not too rusty.

Tomorrow, I head out to the embassy to get my passport renewed. I'll have to put on the shirt and tie (definitely not a blazer considering the temps) and get those forms and photos done. It was fairly smooth 5 years ago, so I hope it won't be too painful

Ah, another one bites the dust. This time, it's Charles "Death Wish" Bronson. Unless one is a diehard aficionado of "The Magnificent Seven" or the aforementioned "Death Wish" series, Bronson is pretty much unknown here except for the older crowd. He was one of the first foreign stars to make a Japanese commercial. The product was for Mandom Aftershave. Oddly enough, I relate more to his younger days as one of the M7 than as the avenging vigilante. In fact, I still remember his turn in a Twilight Zone episode with Elizabeth "Bewitched" Montgomery as two warriors from opposite sides of the front.

September 1, 9:11 p.m.

Not extremely hot, but the humidity still managed to coat me in a layer of sweat throughout the day. Pretty nice day, all told though. At my first class, it looks like that trip to the Oregon Bar and Grill is an official go for next Monday. The views and, hopefully, the steaks will be worth it.

I paid off my bills afterwards which managed to wipe my wallet and mylesson fee clean. I gotta admit, though, that the tellers at the bank are quick and efficient They mowed through 30 people before me within 15 minutes. I also faced a long line getting to the ATMs downstairs but the wait was a mere few minutes.

Took another jaunt through Tower Records to pick up a magazine before heading to Subway for lunch. Then I ended up going all the way up from Shibuya up to Shinjuku on foot. On the way, I helped an Israeli woman to locate Harajuku, and I realized that there are quite a few interesting side streets in Harajuku which bear further exploration in the future.

I hit the Shinjuku mall, Times Square, and took a gander through HMV before taking a 12-minute break for a free massage in the reclining chair one floor down. I then made the trek over to the hotel district in West Shinjuku where my friend's workplace was.

I had thought that the whole thing about my friend setting me up with his boss as a new English student was a bit of a lark, but when I entered the company, the whole thing initially took on a serious air almost as if I were starting a new company class when I was full-time at my school. So things were a bit nerve-wracking when I was introduced to the president of the software company. The president turned out to be a pretty cool guy although he fit the stereotype of the old-fashioned gruff salaryman from Osaka. It looks like my services may have been rendered because of some serious communication gaps between my buddy and the president; the prez can't really speak any English, and my friend's Japanese isn't too hot either despite 3 years in Tokyo, a fact which has frustrated his boss no end. I would say that a good two-thirds of the meeting in his office consisted of a lot of off-loading of frustration concerning the communication gaps and one particular employee who seems to be a sociopathic slacker. By the end, the tension had left the room and basically we're leaving it open how any classes will go. But basically, I'll have to start from square one with the prez.

Afterwards, all three of us went out to a Chinese restaurant, one of these tiny secret gems hidden in West Shinjuku. This powwow among my friend, his boss and me took on the flavor of the usual drink out that virtually all Tokyo salarymen partake in night after night. I had a beer while the other two shared three pots of some potent Chinese liquor. The real treat was that the prez gave the restaurant staff carte blanche to whip up anything for dinner which usually heralds very good food. And sure enough, the stuff that came out was exquisite including the final two dishes of garlic-fried rice and spicy beef ramen. The staff was very friendly as well. I was so impressed that I took the name card for future reference. There's no knowing when the Movie Buddies may want to try a new place.

Afterwards, we said out goodbye to the prez, and my buddy and I headed back to Shinjuku Station. My buddy was a bit tipsy with drink but otherwise he was OK. I'm pretty sure I was stinking of sweat, garlic and beer but then again, 90% of the commuters were probably in the same boat. And the lovely thing is that neither of us paid a yen; as is customary, the prez took care of the bill.

And yes, I am quite happy that I am back home so early. Usually at this time, I would be teaching out in Jiyugaoka.

Sunday August 31, 11:34 p.m.

Less than half an hour before September arrives, and I sit marveling at the fact that 2003 will soon be two-thirds over. Although I think we'll probably still get a chance to witness some more torrid days, this summer has pretty much more of an unusually warm spring. Looks like France stole most of the heat going to us.

Well, it looks like someone was smiling down on me tonight. Just as I was prepping my lesson for my late night Monday guys (the ones who nearly slept their way through last week), one of them called up to say that they had to cancel tomorrow's lesson. No problems here...I was thinking may be it was time for a timeout.

I actually took a glimpse at Notting Hill, that Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant rom-com. One of the things that I like about living here is that since the TV stations in Japan just provide a bilingual track for movies shown on the small screen, they have no need to bleep out any offending words. So I was a bit amused when I had a whole bunch of F-words come out. Never would I see that in Canada. However, one thing that I really don't like is how they cut and slash in their humourous attempts to edit movies so that they fit into the 2-hour format.

Ordinarily, I would look forward to September since we have two national holidays, Respect For The Aged Day on the 15th, and the First Day of Autumn on the 23rd (yep, they do actually celebrate equinoxes in this country). However, since I went onto a part-time status, they don't really strike me as all that significant anymore.

Back home, of course, it is the Labour Day weekend, the last summer weekend for all those holidaygoers. And being Labour Day, that means Jerry Lewis is back on with his telethon. I caught him on Larry King yesterday, and I know it's not kosher to do so considering his medical woes and how much he's been helping "his" kids, but man, he just strikes me as such a pathetic figure trying to hurl out his ol' dusty schtick. Maybe Bob Hope did the right thing by disappearing from view after the 80s, although his specials probably did last too long.

Japanese TV has two major telethons in the summer here, but they're far less glitzy than the Las Vegas floor show that Jerry Lewis' telethon puts on annually. The Japanese variety is more in the form of a community picnic writ large with lots of young celebs in T-shirts getting involved in community stuff and fun n' games. Nah, I don't watch them either.

August 30, 5:44 p.m.

OK day. My kids were pretty good and my monthly man-to-man with a former student went quite swimmingly throughout the 2 hours aside from the washroom breaks.

Fell asleep as usual on the subway home which brings about the trivial topic of subway sleepers. Think of it as the combination of overall lack of sleep, the comfortable sitting opportunities and the rocking motion of the subway which creates this temporary comfort zone for the overworked masses. I never did sleep on the subways back at home for some reason; I think the risk of ridicule was just too high there.

However, here, sleep is considered just part of the regular activity on a train. And types of sleepers appear. One, for example, is the LARGEMOUTH BASS, who conks out with his neck whipped back while his gaping mouth reveals all of his bridgework (if he's older than 50, then he probably has enough gold and silver to make a tray of rings), and in some unfortunate cases, the predilection to snore and share his halitosis. Unsurprisingly, the bass is almost exclusively a male.

Next is the DROOPER who sleeps with his/her head hanging like a bell over the chest. Unlike the bass, the drooper does have male and female cases, and there are even variations. There are crossed-arm droopers and those who lean on their umbrellas.

And finally, there is the DRAWBRIDGE. Usually these folks tend to sleep leaning to one side or the other, and a number of times, they can also end up coming down on an adjacent person's shoulder, thus the moniker. A drawbridge also takes some risks as well. Sometimes, the person may end up leaning on a fellow who doesn't particularly mind the sudden weight gain (especially if the drawbridge is a young woman), but other times, the leanee may suddenly jerk his shoulder violently out of the way, especially if the leaner is a drunken middle-aged salaryman, or even worse, he may even thrust his shoulder up giving the drawbridge a shock back to consciousness. Perhaps in rare cases, an epithet may be thrown out at the offending sleeper.

As for me, I've actually exhibited traits of all 3. How do I know this? Well, there are those first few seconds back from La-La Land when I realize where I am. So, I gather that sleepers aren't just locked into one category.

One other observation about sleeping on the subways. They are usually seen en masse in the mornings and the late evenings. The morning sleepers contribute to a serene feeling on the trains since everyone is basically just doing their own thing. However, the evening sleepers are often the result of overwork or drunkenness, and they are mixed in with the oft-garrulous commuters just coming from the various bars and izakayas, so the atmosphere is a bit more anarchic.

August 29, 10:28 p.m.

Spent another long day at the school today doing mostly nothing. Just had the oil class, then lunch, followed by a few hours of reading then once again playing solitaire and hearts on the computer. I really need to do something. However, today had a bit of excitement as I overheard a 30-minute argument/friendly debate between a female cop and a Portuguese teacher on a matter of teaching procedure. Yes, you heard correctly. For the past year or so, our school has had a group of cops destined to be transferred to overseas postings, and it seems like the language they need is Portuguese. The female cop just happened to be the coordinator of the program from the Metro Police side. Although things got heated at times, they soon realized that they both had a common enemy: our management (no surprise there) Once again, to quote a famous movie line: "What we have here is a failure to communicate." So I guess it just isn't the English side of things that gets shafted.

Well, as I start gaining students, it looks like I'll be losing a couple of them in a couple of months. My Friday night circle has basically hinted that it'll be dissolving in October due to time constraints at work. It could also very well be possible that the ladies just wanted to let me down easy that they were just getting tired of the same Friday routine, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. In any case, although the circle will be missed after 3 years' worth of Friday nights, I wouldn't particularly mind a Friday night off with occasional outings.

August 28, 8:30 p.m.

Had the lunch with my ex today. It was nice to see that she looked much happier. There was none of that awkwardness that would usually occur in the movies between exes. We went over to a good ramen shop near her company. 850 yen for a bowl of ramen wasn't exactly cheap but it was tasty. I found out that, as I had suspected, one of my former students in the oil company did try to make a go at her via e-mail. Unfortunately fo r him, he decided to choose career over potential romance as he has gone off to work for an auto company in Hiroshima a month ago.

Thanks to my current oil company students being off at the training center until tomorrow, and the fact that my business letter writing student will not be available for lessons until the end of September, I had a rare full day off. It was rather nice being able to walk through Tokyo and then head home early, and to even get a nap. However, it's back to reality as the oil company guys return to school early Friday morning. I'm interested in seeing how the Intensive turned out.

Speaking of potential romances, once again the Madame and I hav e had one of those Hanks/Ryan-type comical e-mail exchanges. Once again, she got a kick out of my lousy French. And once again, my innoucuous friendly statement in French turned out to have a much more embarrassing meaning. She took it in stride, though. However, this is the second time that this has happened, and since among the grads, she and I have been recently referred to as the husband and wife, I do wonder how the next few months will go in our "relationship".

Tonight, I saw another of the recent flood of "foreign" TV programs hitting our shores. This time, it is "Smallville", the revisionist version of Superman filtered through "Dawson's Creek". The teenage spin on it was refreshing to see, as one sees this Clark Kent not as the usual uberdweeb of Metropolis but as the morally upright but angst-ridden adolescent. I also enjoyed the relationship between him and the teenage Lex Luthor; there is a friendship with an undertone of differing philosophies which of course will manifest in their mutual enmity later in life.

Over here in Japan, "Smallville" is known as "Young Superman" which brings up the topic of how the Japanese authorities will change titles of Western movies and TV shows to make them more comprehensibly non-ironic. Here is a short list:

Original Title Title for Japan

Ally McBeal Ally, My Love (a pun on a title of a Japanese pop song)
The West Wing The White House
Beaches Forever Friends
Crouching Tiger.... Green Destiny (you got me on that one)
Suddenly Susan Hello, Susan

August 27, 10:03 p.m.

Well, after 60,000 years, Mars has come by for a close encounter with Earth. For the astronomers, this must be the equivalent (or one of them anyways) of a grand slam. For the rest of us, the very rare event must have been so difficult to fathom that it really didn't register much except as an interesting piece of trivia. However, I did get to see the Red Planet myself on myway home. I figured it must've been Mars since it was in the southeast sky, it glinted a red hue and it just hovered there. One of the news programs started off its broadcast with the "2001: A Space Odyssey" theme.

It's official. This year's rice crop will see a shortfall due to the cool summer. To comprehend the horror of this news in this country, imagine if CNN announced that there would be a beef and chicken shortage in the US. Not a pretty sight. It means that Japan may have to go hat in hand for handouts from the US or Thailand for the first time in a decade. However, NHK has just reported that there should be enough of a stored surplus of domestic rice to last the winter. Of course, the Japanese have developed a certain Russian-like fatalism so they're not looking too happy.

For the first time in a while, a TV show here has actually made some waves in the form of good ratings, and it isn't a trendy drama. It's called "Trivia no Izumi" or as it is translated, "The Fountain of Trivia". It's a miz of the American program "Jeopardy" and the usual celeb-laden quiz show here. The masses send in bits of trivia by mail or e-mail every week, and selected items are presented to a panel of celebs for judgement. Each member of the panel taps a button to register their interest; the button sounds like a castrato yelping the Japanese equivalent of a "Wow". Each "Wow" is worth 100 yen, so the lucky person could make as much as 10,000 yen and prize in the form of a golden brain. Not exactly "The Price is Right" but Japan has never had any of these enormous lottery prizes in America that retired folks usually seem to win. In any case, the show premiered last October on late-night TV but was just shifted to its prime-time slot on Wednesdays earlier this summer where it's raking in the ratings. Meanwhile, the former king of the airwaves, the trendy drama , is barely making any sort of dent anymore.

August 26, 9:57 p.m.

Hmmm...I'm kinda wondering if this is going to be one of those bad weeks that I usually have to drive out of my system. The private class with the BEEs went well enough. We had a frantic lesson about describing the recipes for some of the potluck stuff that everyone had brought in. However, along with last night's slug of a class, I may have been a bit too ambitious with my lesson tonight as one of the students, an underconfident one to begin with, fell down spiritually when I decided to start them on the vagaries of the Simple Present. Mind you, the other two were OK with it. Earlier in my career, I would've been kicking myself five ways from Sunday for the supposed blunder, but I know now that occasionally I will overstep my bound s to find out the students' limits, so I'm not particularly frazzled about it although I'm sorry that she had such a tough time with it.

Well, Larry King had a non-legal issue show today. In fact, he had a panel discussion about Alfred Hitchcock which was nice for an old movie buff like me. I was rather surprised by the revelations that he was actually a pretty nice fellow considering some of the earlier rumours about him as being a master manipulator.

Luckily, from tomorrow, I have a 2-day respite with just one class on Wednesday (hopefully, she won't come late again), and a free day on Thursday. Also, I'm wondering about the newest student; she cancelled out on me yesterday and she has yet to get back to me about re-scheduling. Movie Buddy did warn me, though, that she was a bit flighty.

August 26, 12:27 a.m.

Well, I had my regular Monday morning class after a month's hiatus. It was the usual talk about our vacations. However, one interesting development was that one of them, a huge steak fan, was rather intrigued by my talk on the Oregon Bar and Grill in the Shiodome City Centre. As a result, there is a possibility we may head out there for lunch. Whoopee!

On the other hand, my night class with my real estate agency folks was pretty much a zero. When I took on THIS gig, I had figured that there would be times when the pair would be rather tired from working and having a class at such a late time. Y'know, I'm pretty sympathetic to that fact, and I remember getting the theory on what makes an ideal student. Still, I couldn't help germinate a bit of irritation that I had to hang out in Shibuya for 7 hours to have a dud class. It almost seems as if everything were conspiring against them to NOT have a good lesson today: long hours, August heat and humidity, and a rather rich dinner beforehand which included shark's-fin on rice. The students were groggily chastened, and they said that they would try to hold on dinner until AFTER the lesson.

Well, at least I'll have another nice outing with the BEEs in the morning. The inaugural class of the fall season will entail a potluck lunch at one of the students' homes. Then I have my usual night class, and that will prove to be a relatively short one since the later student is currently on a business trip.

During my day in Shibuya, I went over to RECOFAN, a discount CD shop to see if I could dig up a cheap nugget, and sure enough, I found the first Swingout Sister album. They certainly were an eclectic group: two guys backing up a former fashion model with a really mellow voice. Their mix of jazz, Swinging 60s London and Bacharach-like arrangements really stood out against all of the then-current R&B/pop stuff from Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, and the synth sounds of the time. It always goes to show you that timing and a different sound can reap dividends. In a way, Swingout Sister kinda paved the way for people like Lisa Stansfield and Basia.

August 25, 12:27 a.m.

The second outing with the Movie Buddies turned out to be another long affair. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Actually with a couple of cancellations, we were actually at about the same number as last time. We had a couple of more teachers join us, though.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was an interesting movie, to be sure. But then again, its subject is no ordinary human, even for a Hollywood fellow like Chuck Barris. To the staff's credit, the movie didn't exactly go to plan. Chuck Barris' life, if it is to be believed, had a lot of highs and lows of a very bizarre nature, and the final scene of the real Chuck Barris, looking so haggard and worn, didn't particularly signify a clean end to his final years. I think, to fully appreciate it, one had to have lived through the Barris years of The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and his opus, The Gong Show. The students remarked that it was a bit difficult to follow at times.

Afterwards, we went for a bit of coffee before going for our next main event, which was dinner at a Polynesian restaurant around the corner. I'd been there before with Berkeley students from the past so I thought it would be a good fit for these guys as well. I was a bit disappointed with the selection of the food; as I remembered it, there used to be a lot more dishes on the menu. However, the kids liked it fine...plus the three floor shows of shimmering and sashaying hula dancers.

The conversation was also fairly spicy, thanks to the former lead student of the graduating class. The Madame was getting quite into the intimate details of one of the teachers, followed by some avid palm readings. She's apparently quite an expert; she had me figured out after she did a detailed look through mypalms. Once again, the others were ragging on us about our suitability for each other. To be honest, neither of us seemed to mind it so much, and the icing on the cake happened when one of the hula dancers came to our table during a Hawaiian love song, and gave a gesture indicating us being together. I can't really speak for her, but I still have some fundamental doubts about this; she's an uptown girl, while I'm definitely a more downtown guy.

We finally broke up around 11....a couple of hours later than expected, so I'm gonna have my work cut out for me later today as I teach 3 classes. Luckily, though, the bracketing classes are not much of a problem to plan for. But I'm gonna have to hit the hay pretty soon.