Monday March 15, 8:04 a.m.

Well, the Russian and Spanish general elections are now history. Guess which one got the bigger coverage by the world media? The Election of Inevitability got swept aside by the dramatic win by Spain's Socialist Party over the ironically named Popular Party.

From the mountain to the molehill. The local entertainment wags were clucking today over the hospitalization of one of the more popular members of the ubiquitious Morning Musume. I couldn't read the kanji clearly but the poor girl has some sort of intestinal disorder. Perhaps she ate too much of her own publicity.

I'm still stinging over that monthly budget assessment from last night. I'm thinking that it may have been better if I'd just not started that financial habit last year. Ignorance is bliss!

I did a bit of late-night middlemanning over phone and e-mail for the nephew of the president of the Iconoclast's former company. After a couple of failed tries to get through to the lad, he finally called me so we went over his flight schedule on the 29th to Toronto to start his new homestay life in the Great White North. Then, I sent off the info from him as well as his queries to the Iconoclast and the nephew's host.

Well, off to the salt mines.

Sunday March 14, 8:23 p.m.

As expected, it's been a quiet day here. Just stepped out to get the usual fixins for dinner. But I have gotten messages. Chip Guy sent me one concerning getting together on the 24th for some Korean BBQ (why midweek?), and Jazz Buddy sent me an e-mail further progressing next week's visit to that jazz bar in Shinjuku. We've decided to go for the more storied DUG since it's in an area with a lot more culinary possibilities before the performance.

I did the finances. Not surprisingly, I made another loss. Although I did make quite a bit of dough this month, that lease renewal fee took a chunk out of me. However, if I subtract that from the expenditures, then I only really lost just a few bills. But the bottom line is that I'm gonna have to make a concerted effort to rein in my spending. Well, thankfully, I've increased my number of students. The Hawaiian, though, has cancelled her class for this Wednesday due to a family matter.

Gotta get some domestic stuff out of the way before I hit the hay including writing up a letter to VISA to not have the bills come over to Japan. The last couple of statements arrived here probably because I either made that Amazon purchase back in February or I reactivated my Toronto account. In any case, I gotta get that done.

Sunday March 14, 1:22 a.m.

Well, the long day has now become part of my history. It all started with breakfast at McDonalds just across from my station. I was lucky to ply myself down with a generous helping of protein, carbs, sugars and caffeine to carry myself through the day since I would have little time to eat aside from a can of coffee.

I noticed that the refit to the station was nearing completion. Now, we've got escalators and elevators coming out of the wazoo, and there are new washrooms. I checked out the men's washroom; I saw that it didn't take too long for one of the stall s to get soiled.

My two pairs of sisters followed parallel patterns. The older sisters were either lazy or slow to speak while the younger kids were much more on the ball. Such is youth. I'd better appreciate their efforts while they're still in prepubescence.

After my last kid, I took a walk around the Tokyo Dome area. Boy, that area has really developed into some complex. There's an amusement park, a huge shopping complex and an impressive hotel surrounding the home of the Giants. I even saw a Bubba Gump restaurant beside the complex with a mockup of Forrest's bench and box of candies.

I had a couple of hours before I was to meet the Cop and his group for dinner at El Torito, so I browsed around Times Square. Ended up not buying anything although I was interested in trying to buy that Django album at HMV. HMV has a much smaller jazz section, so he didn't rate a mention there. Well, there is always Tower again on Monday.

I met the Cop, his girlfriend, one of the receptionists from the school and later the Jester in front of El Torito. We had quite a wait of about 40 minutes but we managed to keep ourselves entertained with the tale of the Cop having to take care of the receptionist (which included having to get his hand coated in her vomit) after she lost control of her faculties after a beer binge a few days back. It was hard to imagine this soft-spoken young woman pulling off a bender but then again, I've seen the Ballerina go from swan to ugly duckling.

The wait was long but the food was worth it. And certainly the talk was hilarious. Since we had the minimum number of teachers there to rant about our motley crew of dysfunctional staff, the Cop, Jester and I were just taking potshots at some of the weirdos who populate the upper echelons including Ms. Hip-Hop, one of the more colourful teachers. It looks like, according to the Cop and the Jester, that a few vents let off a lot of steam in the last couple of weeks. There was apparently a huge confrontation among the Songbird, the coordinator, the most senior teacher and one of the staff. The most senior teacher hasn't made himself a very popular man on campus. Some of his anal ways have rubbed the teachers the wrong way, and he had a screaming match against the assistant manager this past week when he found out that he would have to take some paid vacation days this week. For that matter, a number of full-timers are being told to take a vacation. What gives? The school is supposed to be having the full slate of high school kids to train for American universities, and a number of semi-privates to take care of. Nothing really surprises me about the machinations of the staff anymore.

After a long day in my roachkillers, I'm ready for bed. I'm just relieved to have another quiet Sunday to let my feet recover. Still, I enjoyed dinner tonight. We just don't have that many opportunities to cut loose without being worried about the students.

Saturday March 13, 7:24 a.m.

I've got a feeling of the fatigue and creakiness that usually comes with an early wake-up call. Luckily, it's gonna be a good day today. None of this SADS thing for me. I'm getting some of the domestic stuff done right now, and I've had the remaining cereal. However, I will be getting a heartier one at the Golden Arches on my way to work. My kids' classes are set up so that I won't get any time for a proper lunch. I do get snacks at both of my kids' houses but dessert does not a lunch make, and that dinner with the Cop won't be happening until 6:30.

I forgot to mention that Tokyo had a jewelry heist of sorts right out of The Thomas Crowne Affair about 10 days ago. One or two pairs of foreigners wearing bad wigs and armed with mace robbed 3 billion yen worth (probably $30 million US) of jewelry from a Ginza shop. To the shock of passersby, the folks got away on a scooter and apparently made it out of the country.

Friday March 12, 9:35 p.m.

It was a pretty easy lesson with 77 and Arwen. We kept a good balance between the text and chat. They were happy about their White Day presents; unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring up the topic of the Kabuki tickets. I didn't bother mentioning anything about dinner although none of us had any dinner plans; we did get together after all on Wednesday, and if the ladies had been that interested in going out together, one of them would have said so.

So, instead I had dinner at the neighbourhood kaiten. I'd forgotten the golden rule about going to the conveyor belt sushi place....go around 6 p.m.. I got there around 8:30, so the conveyor belt didn't hold all that much sushi, and the chef looked rather stressed out.

The Cop left me a message on the machine inviting me to the El Toritos across from Times Square tomorrow night. It looks like The Jester and DTE are coming a s well, so I may also make the splurge, too. I'll have to give him a call. Once I get all that done, I'll make myself a Chai and get hunkered down to smooth out the lesson plans for the kids.

Friday March 12, 12:35 p.m.

It's been a pretty quiet day here in Tokyo, so far. As the weather forecasters indicated last night, it's much colder and it's overcast. I'm still in my bathrobe and I spent the morning watching CNN and planning for my kids' lessons tomorrow.

What hasn't been happening here is a contrast to what's been erupting overseas. The terrorist attacks in Spain are still getting exclusive coverage, and I just saw that the South Korean parliament has just impeached the president. There was the usual brawl in the chambers.

I've also found out that my good friends up in Ibaraki that they will be moving up to the resort area of Karuizawa because the husband was able to get a job. I'm happy for them since he'd been looking for a number of months. I'm also happy now that I have a good reason to go up to the area. I guess if I were to analogize the situation, Karuizawa would be to Tokyo as Banff would be to Toronto.

It looks like the Anime King will be making his pilgrimage to Tokyo in a couple of weeks. He has made reservations at the Hotel Haruhiko for a week. Hm...it's been a while since I've had any overnight guests, let alone a long-term one. I may be able to unload some of the stuff that The Iconoclast left to me.

Thursday March 11, 10:39 p.m.

Seeing that massive bombing attack in Madrid just now makes me wonder about Tokyo's subways. The authorities feel that a similar attack over here is remote, and not unjustifiably so, but I'm also aware that Madrid has always been vigilant about terrorist attacks because of ETA and yet this morning happens.

My lesson with the Office Lady went smoothly although my so-called reciprocal White Day present for her wasn't one after all. She had never given me anything for Valentine's Day. However, she was pretty happy and I've apparently got a hole in my head. But since Ms. 77 reminded me last night that she had given me some chocolates a month ago, I won't be messing up tomorrow.

Watching it alternately with the Madrid bombing coverage, I caught a better-than-average Jean-Claude Van Damme movie called TIMECOP. The concept was quite good and it managed to carry the movie despite the thespian underachievements of the star.

The winds have died down to nothing so I was working up a sweat in my leather jacket coming home tonight. As it turned out, the high reached 22 degrees C. However, it doesn't mean that Spring has finally arrived. The temps will be plummeting tomorrow to a more seasonable 10. So, I'll still be seeing more of my breath for a little while longer.

Thursday March 11, 1:27 p.m.

It's been a fun day...meterologically and geologically. On the first part, we've been having some pretty gusty winds scouring through the Kanto. There were some mini-sandstorms being whipped up in my neighbourhood thanks to the dusty schoolyard down the road. Plus, Mother Earth decided to give the area a little kick at about 11:35 this morning. Nothing too serious...just some shaking.

Well, it looks like I may have yet another old student as a new student. The Teacher called me up after several months to see if I would be available to teach her. When I initially got into this freelancing gig almost a year ago, she got me in contact with that Japanese website, SenseiSagasu.com, which didn't yield any results for me. Now, her former teacher has decided to head back home to Canada, so she's calling for my services. I can fit her in on Friday mornings. She was an interesting one a few years back when she was one of the students at the school. A lot of the younger ladies despised her for some of the condescending comments she allegedly made in class, and she drove the coordinator crazy with her treatise-sized complaints about the school program. She was quite aware of her persona non grata status although I'm not sure how she actually felt about it. Perhaps, she has been inured to the slings and arrows from years as a high school teacher.

I'm not just slowly digesting a mammoth meal of spaghetti and salad. In previous years, I would have just said "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" and devoured the entire bowl, but being slightly wiser now, I'm just saving the still-sizable remainder for either a late dinner or breakfast.

Thursday March 11, 12:35 a.m.

I managed to win another round against the Scheduling Monster. No, I don't mean the lady who does our schedules at the school but just the usual rigmarole involving my Thursday night student at the juku. I never really got an answer from him by noon yesterday so I just decided to set him adrift and teach the Office Lady instead tonight since I had to defer her class last night due to the farewell party for that Chinese student.

Speaking of whom, I met Arwen and Ms. 77 in front of Studio Alta in Shinjuku at 6 tonight and then we walked down a few hundred metres to the front of the Isetan Department Store where we met the Chinese student along with fellow teacher, The Jester. This is a guy who just cannot turn off his goofy humour...which was fine for the dinner since it was supposed to be a happy affair. We waited there for another 10 minutes until DTE came by. Then, we headed off for the Chinese restaurant that had been recommended to us by another teacher who could not be with us tonight.

The place was literally just a few dozen metres down from the Aussie pub that Movie Buddy and I frequent and perhaps even just across the street from that Turkish restaurant that the Madam and I plus two others had gone to last year. The Chinese restaurant failed to disappoint. Even though Arwen had mentioned that the place was more of a pub than a full restaurant, the fare there was good enough to satisfy me. And the banter generated by the Jester kept us gabbing for a few hours. The climax, and I use the term quite specifically, came near the end when the Japanese word for "circumcision" came up, and Ms. 77 was struggling to explain it to us in English. It was certainly a classic moment culminating in 77's typically boisterous laughter....loud enough to wake up the dead. I think my regular lesson with her and Arwen will be made more interesting on Friday. I do wonder if we're gonna make the after-class dinner a regular thing. I can't think that they would want to do that every Friday night so I'll just let them decide what they want to do. Plus, I do have to get them some White Day chocolates since 77 made some for us a month ago.

Earlier in the afternoon, I had met the Hawaiian after an absence of about 3 weeks. She was as energetic as usual, and I received a nice souvenir of chocolate chip and macadamia cookies from the Islands. I would've devoured a few tonight but I just got home a bit too late. Afterwards I went off to Shinjuku to that branch of Tower Records. I took a look through the jazz section. I may decide to get another Bill Evans CD, but I think the first purchase will be one of Django Reinhardt, the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist. I'm not sure why, but he just stands out, and I think, although I've never heard any of his stuff, I have heard some of his influences on some soundtracks.

Well, I'll be heading to bed in a few minutes. When I wake up in 7 hours, I'll be facing a light day of just getting my usual rubdown, then planning for the Office Lady's lesson followed by some prelim work on the kids' lessons for Saturday (man, I hope I can survive 4 hours of them) before I head out the door.

Tuesday March 9, 11:06 p.m.

Well, the juku owner was back at the house, if not in perfect health. Her personality was as bubbly as ever but she cancelled all of her classes with her regular kids. Fortunately her mother came by from the country to help her although, according to the owner, she's actually helping her mother out on most chores.

I bought a couple of White Day pound cake for my first two students, the only ones to give me some chocolates back on Valentine's Day. They certainly got interested in that restaurant I had gone to today; one of them plans to make that reservation for next month. My second group was also in a pretty good mood. The middle-aged couple had just come back from a short trip to Shanghai a few hours ago, so they got me some candy as a souvenir. My third student was his usual churlish self thanks to a combination of fatigue and second-language induced stress.

I may have made some good choices on my jazz club choices. Jazz Veteran got back to me after she had gone to those websites herself to check out the performers. She said that the bands playing at the two clubs on the 21st are pretty top notch. Now, the only problem is just trying to make the decision of which club to select.

Well, tomorrow I get to see the Hawaiian after her trip over to her namesake islands. Her family had to make an earlier-than-expected return home after the father fell ill. Although the circumstances of seeing her again aren't exactly happy ones, it will be nice to see such an enthusiastic student. Then, I head off to Shinjuku to meet up with Arwen and Ms. 77 and a few other alumni to have a farewell party for that student heading back to China. It does mean that I'll have to re-schedule The Office Lady's class; I just hope that that Thursday night student at the juku does cancel out again.

I just found out from the CNN website that an old member of the extended Star Trek guest star family has passed away. Good ol' Paul Winfield, aka the ill-fated Captain Clark Terrell from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, passed on. I remember him popping up in a quietly acclaimed episode of TNG and also appearing as one of the main characters' father on Babylon 5.

Well, happy to say that I've got a late wake-up call tomorrow. It'll be nice to loll about in bed, then have a good student followed by a dinner party at a Chinese restaurant.

Tuesday March 9, 3:43 p.m.

Just got back home after having lunch with the Tsudanuma ladies. This time out, they took me to this very hidden restaurant in the area called TAKIMOTO. It's a Japanese place which has some very fine fare in the form of sashimi, broiled fish, and chawanmushi. For a place that is literally secretly esconced in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, the student who made the reservation told me that there is usually a 1-month wait to get a table. Now, that's good word-of-mouth. After the leisurely lunch, we made a brief stopover at that same student's house nearby to check out her Hina Doll display for the March 3rd festival. According to the folklore, the display should be stored away no later than the 4th or it would endanger one's daughter's chances of marriage. Apparently, the student doesn't seem too worried about that for her own daughter although she had confessed in class that she'd never go into a cemetery alone day or night.

I've got a slight waiting time until I head on out to the juku. I've still received no reply from the juku owner, so I'm not certain whether she's back from the hospital or not. I've got the spare key just in case to open things up. If she's isn't there, then I'll have to call up my Thursday night student at the juku to see if he's gonna pull off another cancellation since I'd like that time to teach The Office Lady.

Well, the new lease came in last night along with the insurance policy. So that chapter of bureaucracy is now over and done with for at least 2 years (provided if I'm still in J apan at that point). I still have yet to hear from the Canadian government concerning my birth certificate; it's been 4 months since I sent in the application.

Monday March 8, 11:18 p.m.

Another one of those subtly exhausting days today. I had a new student for her second class, which therefore meant that I was trying out the new material on her. And I had my regular company class which is a bit of a slog. In both cases today, the former forgot to pay me, and the president of the latter wasn't there to pay me for 5 weeks' work. I'm gonna be leaving him a nasty note if I don't see any moola next week.

In between classes, I managed to grab another couple of CDs from Tower. I got the latest by local jazz crooner, Kei Kobayashi. He's got potential but he's still a kid so his voice still sounds a bit on the altar boy side. And as a further tribute to my days of salad, I bought a compilation of old disco hits which include Chaka Khan, Earth Wind & Fire and Prince. They're mostly from the 80s but they're all good songs so who's to complain? Plus, I filled out my point card with the Kobayashi purchase so I was able to get the disco CD for just a measly 400 yen.

Speaking of jazz, I was once again on the search for a decent jazz club for that inaugural trip on the 21st. I found a couple of places that are open on Sunday. One is DUG up in Shinjuku, one of the older jazz places in Tokyo. I can't say the cover charge for either place is cheap but compared to the Blue Note, I think I can live with it. I just hope that the two ladies can as well, although I'm a bit worried about Jazz Buddy since she's living here by herself and just has a part-time job.

Well, tomorrow should be a regular Tuesday with my Tsudanuma class in the morning and then my juku classes tomorrow night. I also have to get some chocolates for the ladies since the upcoming Sunday is White Day, the second half of the Valentines Day celebrations. The men have gotta give stuff to the women this time. If I remember correctly, I may be going out with the morning folks for a bit of lunch afterwards. It should help alleviate my daily food budget since the ladies always insist on paying for the teacher, one of the few and treasured benefits of being a private educator in this nation.

For the past few weeks, the weekly rags have been featuring raunchy pictures of a TV personality who's due to appear in an S & M flick which would put Kim Basinger's tied-up role in "9.5 Weeks" to absolute shame. The TV personality started out as a swimsuit model back in the late 80s before coming out as a popular singer/TV personality. Then she ditched it all to get married for several years. She dropped off the pop culture radar during that time until she got divorced. Probably needing to pay the bills again on her own, she's come back in dribs and drabs on the variety show circuit but nowhere near her former stature. So, here comes this little movie with her in full frontal nudity, seemingly having all sorts of disgrace being heaped on her. If the pictures are correct, then this flick may just have everything short of the actual act. Usually these former idols find it next to impossible to come back but with this flick, maybe this lady will get all of our attention.

Sunday March 7, 8:20 p.m.

I've just been digesting a rather filling meal of four hamburgers, rice, broccoli soup and Pringles...and washing it all down with Tetley's Iced Tea. Yes, it might sound disgusting but give it a shot, then we'll talk.

It's been a very quiet day today. I've had no classes, no social contact with students or friends, and no reason to head down to Tokyo. I even got to partake in a nap. I just bought the fixins for dinner and cooked & ate everything up to the sounds of my jazz CD.

I did give a call to Mom as part of my monthly ritual, and I even got a call from my cousin in Osaka to thank me for sending over that bottle of maple syrup and chocolates over to her family.

Saturday March 6, 8:23 p.m.

I thought I would just have that one kid today but her mother asked me if I could also teach her older sister for an hour. Luckily, I didn't have any plans. The other sister is quite a bit more fluent and talkative. Since the class was a sudden one, I just made it more of an exploration session finding out what she wants to do. Being a teen, she was suitably vague about it all so I had to decide that she needed a bit more work on higher grammar. Perhaps, she could use that text that I had bought the other day but it seems rather similar to one other that she's using in her high school, so I'm not quite sure. But it looks like I'll be having a 2-hour session in their house for the next couple of weeks. Good golly...4 hours of kids for the next 2 weeks...I hope I survive.

Martha, Martha, Martha...it's amazing how much that somewhat archaic female name was thrown around on CNN this morning, after the Domestic Diva got nailed to the wall. It was wall-to-wall Ms. Stewart on Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn and Larry King. The first two shows handled the conviction fairly professionally, although I thought that legal analyst Jeff Toobin seemed uncharacteristically uncharitable when he blurted out in quick succession : 1) that Martha had lied to his face in an interview last year, and 2) that he was absolutely sure that she would get a good tough prison sentence. Talk about your vindictiveness. I would have thought that Toobin, being a former prosecutor, would have been able to sniff out any bull at that interview. I guess her souffle must have thrown him for a loop.

The Larry King show should've been called "The Sore Losers". Once again, the show was handled by frequent guest host, Nancy Grace, the most ironically named talking head on TV. There was no doubt on which side of the well-manicured fence she and most of the guests were standing on. They just sounded like the most embittered Martha Stewart fans anywhere. Jeffrey Toobin would have been flayed alive. I have no qualms about Grace and her opinions but her way of spitting them out like a rabid Schnauzer and showing very little consideration for her fellow panelists just galls me. The perpetual sneer and Robert De Niro lingo that she pitches out makes her ripe for a "Saturday Night Live" caricature. If only were she on Crossfire...

Well, things are a bit quieter now so I just cooked up a couple of thin steaks...from Australia, of course...and finished off the leftovers from last night. Drinking the stuff down with some sake has given me a bit of a buzz. Too bad I'm gonna have to call up that guy who's planning to head over to Toronto; hope I don't sound too soused.

With all of the news I've been watching on CNN and BBC recently, the local Japanese TV variety shows actually acted like a tonic. There's nothing like four grown TV personalities dancing around a microphone in a combination game of "Name That Tune" and "Musical Chairs" to make one forget about the more depressing things in life. And TV Tokyo has also been doing its part by showing its regular fare of travel and food shows.

I heard that the paper legend of Japanese baseball, Shigeo Nagashima, suffered a mild stroke a couple of days ago. That would definitely have been grounds for a special bulletin in the Japanese media.

Friday March 5, 9:15 p.m.

Pretty quiet day today. I just went over to the juku to pick up my suitcase. The owner is off in the hospital having an operation for her gallstones.

Then I met up with my Friday afternoon student for her regular class. No problems. I got home and cooked up a pretty starchy dinner consisting of macaroni & cheese, pizza and broccoli soup. I couldn't finish it all off...thank heavens, I've grown out of that need to finish everything at one meal. I probably would have exploded if I'd had.

The weekend looks pretty quiet. I just have the little kid for tomorrow and then the rest of the time should have nothing. I was thinking about looking for a text for that new lady on Monday, but I figure that perhaps the new text I just used on the Curry Master, Arwen and Ms. 77 may suffice.

Thursday March 4, 10:41 p.m.

Well, it's official...I've got a cold. albeit at this moment, I'm suffering chiefly from a sore throat. However, I'm also feeling some aches and pains in my upper body. I was planning to get some domestic stuff done but it looks like my priority is sleep after another dose of medicine.

My lesson with Arwen and Ms. 77 went quite well with the new book. Once again, though, we ended up talking about what's wrong with my school. I wonder if the staff has been having some sneezing fits recently (sorry...that's an inside Japanese cultural joke). It was also quite successful in that I have found takers for those tickets to the Kabuki. And as a further bonus, I've been invited to one of the recent grad's goodbye party next Wednesday. I'll have to see if I can re-schedule my class with The Office Lady.

My later class with the Curry Master went pretty swimmingly. We just extrapolated from the material that I used with the earlier couple. Then, I met my second student who's a systems engineer. He's pretty good but needs some fluency as well as some conversational practice.

Well, I just hope that I'll be OK to pick up the hotplate from the juku tomorrow morning. My voice is just about gone...not that it really matters on a blog.

Wednesday March 3, 10:46 p.m.

It was certainly a cold day for the annual Hina Matsuri, that time to celebrate the girls of this country. Basically, all it entails is setting up a multi-tiered stage with little dolls called hina. I felt even colder than usual despite the longjohns and the coat which probably means that I've come down with a bug. Certainly, the beginnings of a sore throat isn't a very positive harbinger.

The Stylist's lesson was pretty freewheeling. Just into our second formal lesson, we already started getting majorly sidetracked into topics that I was surprised to get into at such an early stage in our professional relationship. Well, I was able to get some English into her and I got paid and she had a smile on her face so I guess that it wasn't too bad. However, it'll be more than a month before I see her again since she'll be off on a vacation up in the wilds of Hokkaido in mid-March.

Seeing that I had almost 7 hours of nothing between classes, I just had lunch at SEI-AN up in the station building before heading up to Maruzen up in Nihonbashi to pick up another couple of texts, and then it was off to Ginza to check out what was selling in HMV and Yamano Music. I did see a number of CDs that I wanted to get but the only one I splurged for was an old J-Pop disc.

The Office Lady was the only one who recognized Hina Matsuri by telling me that she was heading out to a hot spring out in Odaiba with her friend. I'm sure she's appreciating soaking in the tub on such a frigid evening. To remedy my chills, I made some Sapporo Ichiban with some cheap fish cake. I'll also probably take a good hot shower tonight before hitting the hay. I hadn't been getting a lot of quality sleep these past few days so I'm looking forward to getting some tonight without having to set the alarm for an ungodly hour. To think, the weather forecaster on NHK has predicted some snow again for my area tomorrow morning.

Well, I've got Arwen and Ms. 77 in the early afternoon, and then the Curry Master and her old student in the evening. I may be picking up the printer from her then.

Tuesday March 2, 11:27 p.m.

There was none of that freak snowfall from yesterday but the gray and the cold were still there as I headed off to see the Tsudanuma group in Ryogoku. It was the fisrt time in a long time that the entire membership showed up. One of them, the most fluent of the group, stopped coming some months ago; she says it's because she's busy but I think it's because she just finds the class a bit too easy for her.

It was the first time ever for me to go to Ryogoku, that area which boasts the Sumo Arena. We didn't actually go to see that but instead we went to the Tokyo Edo Museum. It certainly was an intriguingly designed building with a main base propping up a large wedge which represented the upper floors by huge red pylons. We were there to see the Okyo Maruyama painting exhibit; he had lived in the 18th-century where he was revered for combining Eastern and Western techniques. I'm not a huge art fan but I did enjoy looking at his works painted on scrolls and sliding door panels, and I had a good running dialogue with the students about the exhibit. Then, we went up to the wedge to see the general museum. There was a large semi-representation of Edo Tokyo surrounding Nihombashi. The gigantic exhibit gave insights on what life was like in Edo from the Tokugawa Period into Meiji-era Tokyo. It was all quite impressive and may merit another closer look in the near future.

The entire tour took less than 2 hours which suited me fine. We then hopped into a couple of taxis and headed for the Asahi Beer Building in Asakusa. It is one of the more notable buildings in Tokyo, no slouch when it comes to architectural oddities, in that it was developed by Phillip Stark and that it does look like a mug of beer with most of the building gilded in gold and the rooftop coloured in white. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant with a good view of the city below. From the impeccable service and the quality of the food, I assume that the place is usually a pretty exclusive place but their lunches were very reasonably priced. We all drank our lunch down with Bellevue Cherry Beer from Belgium. It's a deceptively strong brew despite its sweetness. After the satisfying lunch, I accompanied some of the remaining members into Asakusa, my old haunt, into Shin-Nakamise Dori, the shopping arcade until we reached a famous shoe store known for its low, low prices despite the cachet of its wares. I took a brief look and though there were a few pairs my size, I wasn't really into purchasing anything so I took my leave of the ladies and headed back home. I did receive a pair of invitation tickets from the most fluent of the group for a Kabuki show at the National Theater for the 16th. I'll have to try and find someone to go with although I think it will be rather tough. I don't know too many young folks who still like Kabuki.

I managed to stay at home for a little under 2 hours before heading out again to the juku to start off my 2nd Pancake Day festivities. I had to do a lot of quick thinking and arranging since I was lugging a lot of stuff over there. I skimmed some equipment before leaving with one suitcase holding the hotplate and a bag of utensils, books and the fondue pot. Getting there, I had to make one more pit stop at a nearby convenience store before the gang got there. The juku owner also joined us. After a brief note on how maple syrup is produced, all of us hit the production of pancakes with great gusto. Ironically, the one young lady who would have really appreciated the pancakes couldn't make it because of overtime. It's even sadder to note since she had never missed a single class before tonight. Well, the rest of us even tried the fondue. We actually had to boil the mixture on the stove to warm it up quickly but it also turned out OK. My 9 o'clock guy couldn't make it for the main party but I still had enough fixins on the table so that I was able to cook up a couple of pancakes which he gobbled down with panache. My little seminar and Q & A on maple syrup helped to cut down the time considerably.

I'm happy to be back home although I'll have to get up relatively early again since I have the Stylist tomorrow morning for her biweekly class.

Monday March 1, 9:32 p.m.

I'm very happy to hear that "The Return of the King" not only got the Oscar for Best Picture but swept every category that it had been nominated in. Hearing the other major Oscar winners, I gather that it was a pretty dull affair ...no surprises at all. I often miss and dread watching the show at the same time. There's plenty of potential for some pop culture moments and moments of cringing. Seeing Sean Penn go up to the stage to collect his Oscar, I'm reminded that this was Jeff Spicoli 23 years ago.

I was meteorologically surprised today when I went off to work and was greeted by the sight of wet snow dropping out of the sky. Nothing punctuated the strangeness of this winter than the cold temps and snow after a fairly balmy weekend. Unfortunately, I had hung out my wash to dry, but the washing machine was pretty overloaded so I really had no choice in the matter.

I had another new student added onto the list this afternoon when my Monday morning student's sister-in-law asked me to help her with her English. Her ability is quite good but she's just a naturally shy person with not a whole lot of confidence. This could be a challenge. My Monday nighter was the first one without the company of The Iconoclast who had taken off for Hong Kong last Thursday. Therefore, I will probably not be having anymore Monday night dinners at Chinese restaurants and Foo Foo. It'll save me the money but I'll miss the conversation. I just had one student tonight, the weakest one of the bunch and it was a fair struggle to get through the wonderful world of preps. It didn't help that the President of the company was having a rather loud phone conversation for some of the class.

Well, I'm 70000 yen poorer after having paid my lease renewal fee, but that should take care of the drama behind the biannual rite. I'm sending off a thank-you gift to my uncle and his family for helping me out.

Although, officially I'll just be teaching one class tomorrow night, I've got quite a few miles to go before I lay my head down to sleep. I've gotta pack the aformentioned gift, do some ironing lest I really want to go outside without pants the next day and get the stuff ready for Pancake Day 2.

I got a message from Jazz Veteran. Hmmm...I hope that we can really get some sort of outing for a jazz place sometime in the next little while just to compensate for that downer by the Madam.

Monday March 1, 8:19 a.m.

Busy social calendar yesterday. I met up with Chip Guy and his family plus a couple of others for brunch in tony Omotesando. The place was called Fujimamas, a foreigner's enclave close by the landmark Kiddyland toy shop. The menu and portions were definitely akin to any place back home. My order, "The Plate" was an understatement; it was more of a platter laden down with scrambled eggs, sausages, pancakes, biscuits with gravy and hash browns. It was half the price of the ROTI version, but it was a bit uneven. The pancakes and hash browns were fine but the sausages tasted sweet and I didn't care much for the gravy. Amidst the conversation, I found out that Chip Guy will be pulling up stakes at the end of April.

I was frankly stuffed so I decided to walk up from Omotesando to Shinjuku. It didn't help too much in alleviating the bloated feeling but the exercise was good. I met up with Movie Buddy, Jazz Buddy and Jazz Veteran to catch "Master and Commander". The movie was good not great. There were some great battle scenes and Russell Crowe WAS Captain Jack. He really was convincing as a leader of men, and I wonder if his character could have been Captain Kirk's ancestor in terms of his command style and personality. The only thing that was missing was a predilection for women which only came up as a long stare at a pretty woman in a boat.

The movie had some slow points, though, and it was obvious from the pacing and episodic feel that the producers and writers were liberally borrowing from various chapters in the literary series. It felt like one season of a TV series pastiched together into a 2-hour movie. However, it was nice to see Billy Boyd use some of those swordsmanship skills from LOTR. All in all, though, I'm a bit surprised that it actually did get nominated for a Best Movie Oscar. I thought it would have been better if Crowe did get another Best Actor nomination.

Movie Buddy enjoyed it thoroughly but I think the two ladies were not nearly as enthralled. It did come off as more of a man's movie. Afterwards, we met up with Skippy and Sandra Dee in front of the theater for dinner. Movie Buddy took off for home while the rest of us headed for a nearby Asian fusion place nearby. We were later joined by Cutey. The food was quite good and we all ended up at the place for four hours, buoyed by the fare and the happy, and occasionally mildly raunchy, talk .

Perhaps the next time we meet, it will be to go with the Jazz ladies to a jazz club. So I'll have to search the Internet for a relatively cheap place (Jazz Buddy hinted a bit at the high price of the movie, despite the fact that we bought the tickets at the discount shop).