Saturday April 22, 9:36 p.m.

The kids were their usual selves today. However, I gotta admit that the Senior has gotten a lot more fluent in English. I'm not sure if she's finally seen the light or her mother finally yelled it into her. I actually did ask their mother about the Junior's comments about me smelling like fish. I probably shouldn't have asked her about it since I didn't want to get the girl into trouble but curiosity got the better of me. The mother and the Elder insisted that I didn't smell like anything piscine.

I had lunch at China Quick, part of a chain of cheap Chinese restaurants. The branch I went to was just a few dozen metres away from Speedy's place. The food's pretty decent...I had the hoi koro plus half-ramen set. The ramen tasted like anything that could be made from an instant cup but the hoi koro, Japan's equivalent of chop suey, was tasty. It just cost me 880 yen. China Quick's direct rival is probably the Bamiyan chain which is a more family-restaurant type of Chinese eatery. However, I think that someone should've told the owner of Bamiyan that China hasn't exactly invaded Afghanistan quite yet.

The second half of my day went pretty well. I had that low-level student for her second of three pre-cooking English lessons and then I started the inaugural lesson for the "Friends" video lesson. The student who showed for that one was a real aficionado of American TV: "Friends", "ER", "Full House"...she would probably be a Nielsen viewer if she lived in the States. And she didn't do too badly either with the pilot episode of "Friends"...she said she could pick up about 50% of what was going on without the need for Japanese subtitles or dubbing. Speedy and I are crossing our fingers that we've got a keeper here.

The important thing is that I've managed to pass the gauntlet of today. Celebrated with just a Lotteria meal, albeit it was the largest burger set on the menu. Tomorrow, I just have JJ for her first lesson since I got back from Korea so I've got her nori for her. And then I'm off to Shinjuku to see The Madame with Skippy and The Satyr for lunch and then "The Libertine". One of the M's of M+M contacted me to see if I were available for a session on the 29th. Well, if she's willing to come after the first lesson for The OL's sister, then I'm willling to talk with her. Otherwise, it'll have to be the week after.

My Friday will be completely open so I'm kinda wondering whether I should ask The Madame out for dinner or just spend a nice quiet start to Golden Week at home.

The reaction to that news of J.J. Abrams breathing life into the "Star Trek" movie franchise has been decidedly mixed. According to some of the Trek news forums, some of the folks are rolling out the champagne (Chateau Picard, of course) while others are just rolling their eyes. I say that it's too early to say.

Saturday April 22, 7:00 a.m.

First decent day for laundry in a while. Got a bit of the cloth to clean and put up on the line. There was another tremor off in the Izu Peninsula a couple of hours west of Tokyo about an hour ago. Nothing felt here but I think we may be in for another "season" of earthquakes.

Another girl got murdered yesterday. Some junior high school student was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in an abandoned pachinko parlour in Gifu Prefecture. The police later announced that it was her boyfriend, a 15-year-old boy, that had been behind the killing.

I see that Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 80 years on the planet (not on the throne, though folks can be forgiven for the thought). It's kinda mind-boggling that for my entire life, this lady of Windsor had been reigning for several years before my birth and continues to do so. She also happens to be Queen of Canada (calm down, you anti-Royalists). I remember the times that I had to sing "God Save The Queen" in class after the Canadian national anthem. The Britishers were certainly doing that today and last night in a huge festival; apparently, all that kerfuffle about Princess Diana has now been put solidly into the past...at least where the Queen is concerned. Japan also celebrates royal births. There is the current Emperor's birthday on December 23rd (awfully sporting of him to be born just a couple of days before Xmas) and then there is the previous Showa Emperor's birthday on April 29th, now known as Green Day (although I don't think the band has ever been invited to the Imperial Palace) which nicely starts off Golden Week.

All this celebrating in England mustn't be helping the mood of the increasingly besieged King of Nepal. Not that he nor the rest of his erstwhile subjects would be looking at the TV right now.

B2 turned down my offer to teach her and B2B next Friday night. It was my alternate date since we are going into Golden Week and therefore the couple won't be available on their regular day. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, the 28th is indeed the night before Green Day so folks in The Big Sushi will be whooping it up even more than usual. B2 and B2B will be two of those celebrants. She did ask me about the 11th but that's my night for The Carolinan so I'm afraid it'll have to be the 18th.

Friday April 21, 10:16 p.m.

Well this morning got off to a bit of a rocky start literally with a Shindo 4 tremor hitting the Kanto. No particular damage but it was pretty rare for a shaker that strong to hit in the middle of the night. I'm not saying that earthquakes punch a clock like regular humans but usually the bigger ones have hit during the early morning just when people are getting ready to head on out.

Speaking of heading on out, that's what I did this morning early when I went off all the way to Ikebukuro to meet up with The Madame for the tour in Yokohama. Since I hate rush hour, I left at the wee hour of 6:45 a.m. and got to Ikebukuro at 7:30, a full 2 hours before I was to meet her. I just decided to kill time while having a cuppa at Excelsior Coffee (the chief clone and rival to Starbucks in Tokyo).

When I met her at 9:30, she informed me that The Satyr, as expected, couldn't make it out due to work so it would be just the two of us. We headed out on the Shinjuku-Shonan Line to Yokohama at 9:53. It wasn't too full and we could actually get seats after departing Shibuya. The Madame was as giddy as a farm girl going on her first solo trip to the big city. Can't believe that a born-and-bred Tokyoite had never gone to this city, a mere 40 minutes away.

We switched over to the still spanking new Minato Mirai subway line from Yokohama Station and headed straight down to Chinatown. Unfortunately, April is the month for all sorts of junior high schools to send out their kids on school trips so we often came across noisy gaggles of uniformed brats in the area. As we entered through the East Gate, I saw that Chinese buffet restaurant I'd visited almost a couple of years ago when I'd spent a night in the port city at The Pan Pacific. But that was no dice with The Madame because of her bird appetite. After searchng through the various eateries, we settled on one place whose maitre d' had all the charm of a mortician but we didn't let that get in the way of having a good meal for a pretty inexpensive price. For 850 yen each, we had soup, salad, a variety of dim sum dishes and a mango pudding. It made me forget about that all-you-can-eat buffet and its 3,000 yen price since even I got pretty full on it. Not surprisingly, The Madame could only finish two-thirds of her stuff so I resuscitated my old university habit of finishing off my colleagues' dishes and scarfed down whatever she'd left. I also discovered that I did have some chivalry and just had her pay a fraction of that original price tag.

Afterwards, we walked down a few dozen metres to this tea shop which served bubble tea, a drink that The Madame hadn't forgotten from our Taiwan trip last year. She was even able to get the tapioca stuff hot while I settled for the cold version. We didn't stay too long since the actual cafe itself was tiny, and the lady managing the place was starting to give us the evil eye when more potential customers entered the place. So we took off and continued course our way through Chinatown for another half-hour before we made our way out via Yamashita Park and up the main street. Boy, can that woman talk a mile a minute. I had to tune out just before she made her washroom break halfway since I was in danger of going into a grand mal epileptic shock from trying to process all that she was gabbing about. The break calmed her down luckily.

We finally reached the Minato Mirai area in mid-afternoon and headed first to the World Porters Mall taking a break on the second floor deck outside for a while before heading down to the 1st floor supermarket area. I found out that she has a bit of a fetish for looking at all foods foreign; we took a good long scan at everything from that ol' Canadian breakfast classic of Weetabix to the cheeses in the refrigerated area. I told her that Weetabix not only looked like a scrub brush but it did much the same thing inside one's stomach. Then, it was up to the top floor to look at another one of The Madame's favourite things: living room furniture.

Leaving World Porters, we crossed the street into the amusement park area where one of the largest Ferris Wheels in the world was located. I guess being a weekday may have explained it, but the place was largely deserted. However, the Madame decided that we would go on that big wheel later in the evening. We then walked into the heart of Minato Mirai and into the triple building complex of Queen's Centre and searched for another place to dine at. We couldn't find anything there so we walked next door to the Landmark Mall and down a couple of floors into the garage area. We were surprised to find a few more restaurants abutting the gray concrete there. We went into a restaurant whose chain specializes in Asian food. Currently, The Madame has a major love for pho, the Vietnamese noodle dish. Being only 4:30, it wasn't too hard to get a table especially when we were the only ones in the place. We got ourselves a few dishes, and in fact, I repeated last week's Seoul food experience of dining on bibimbap. The Madame usually share our food but the bibimbap was off limits to her since she can't touch anything that's remotely spicy.

Double in fact, I think today's Yokohama trip was as much a gourmet tour as the trip to Seoul was with The Class Act. After the Asian dinner, we went upstairs to The Croissant Cafe for a bit of coffee and dessert. I was later to find out that I'd broke the bank today on the food budget.

Finally, night had fallen and so we returned to the big Ferris Wheel for that ride. I have to confess that I didn't show a very good side of myself. I rediscovered my fear of heights by going up that thing. The problem was that it was one of the largest Wheels in the world and that the most of the cabin was plexiglass. As we climbed higher and higher, I started getting the cold sweats in the feet and hands. Finally, I had just to close my eyes for most of the 15-minute ride; The Madame had to pep talk me in the latter half of the ride just so that she could take my mind off of the heights and the high winds. Nope, not a proud moment but at least I know that my second trip on a Ferris Wheel in a month will probably be my last one for a good long while.

The trip ended, The Madame and I made our way back to Minato Mirai Station and headed home. Just like the train back from Haneda Airport last week, the train home was another lustily packed affair. The increase in carbon dioxide in the car made it easy for me to get some shuteye. The Madame had a good time in Yokohama...that was the important point, though. And I'm gonna see her again in a couple of days with The Satyr and Skippy in tow for the "The Libertine".

Man, I gotta get some prelim work done for tomorrow's lessons. I've got the kids again first thing tomorrow morning and then I've got those special ones at Speedy's later in the afternoon.

I heard that J.J. Abrams, the guy behind "Alias" and "Mission: Impossible 3" will be giving, or trying to anyways, the comatose "Star Trek" franchise a booster shot for 2008. I kinda wonder if there were groans all around collectively when the announcement had been made, notably from LeVar Burton who commented that the franchise should either be buried forever or at least brought back from the dead no earlier than a decade later. Then again, I think how "Battlestar Galactica" and "Doctor Who" have been brought back to a miraculous success. Maybe Abrams might have something here although I have yet to find out how the new "Mission: Impossible" will fare. And I'm not too impressed about the initial idea of this new movie dealing with how the young James Kirk met Spock at Starfleet Academy. Just how is anyone gonna ever replace William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy?

Thursday April 20, 10:11 p.m.

Well, got through B2 and B2B. The latter was too pooped so he was strictly in listening/snoozing mode tonight. B2 was chattier today so she got a lot of talking time. Still not completely sure if it's working out but I think we may be coming to a happy medium here.

Gonna be hitting the hay in the next 20 or so minutes since I gotta head on out to Ikebukuro to meet The Madame, and perhaps The Satyr, for our adventures in Yokohama tomorrow. Since we're meeting at 9:30 a.m. there, I'd have to leave during the worst of rush hour, and I vowed I would not knowingly put myself in that sort of hell, so I'll leave just before 7. I'll need to find a cafe in the neighbourhood to spend an hour before meeting the lady.

I see that CNN's Jeanne Moos finally caught onto the fact about the reaction of TomKat's baby, Suri, in Japan (for the record, once again, suri means pickpocket in these here parts). Her feature talked about the strange lack of common sense that occurs in celebs when it comes to naming their kids. Apple Paltrow? Moon Unit Zappa? Suri Cruise? I guess Gwyneth (oh, there we go again) and Tom can afford those bodyguards for their kids when they get eventually bullied by their classmates.

Good night.

Thursday April 20, 1:33 p.m.

The juku boss was even loopier than usual today. She was getting into a couple of laughing fits over some misuse of vocab during her TOEIC practice. Not a bad way to earn 6000 yen. Mind you, I had to fight a mightly squall on the way home. The rain itself wasn't too bad but the winds were able to whip them up into something rather ferocious. My collapsible umbrella was DOA. Luckily, I have alternates to fall back on. Right now, though, it looks like everything has calmed back down.

Movie Buddy contacted me last night to compensate for that chocolate tour that he and The Sylph missed out on last Sunday. He threw in a suggestion for a hamburger tour. I can't really believe that he would suggest going out to multiple restaurants considering the slight frames of both him and his girl but I think he meant focusing on one non-Mcdonalds place. I forwarded his idea to some of the others; I'm not sure if I'm gonna get any nibbles on this one. Chocolate is a good food to go after with the ladies when it comes to buffets or cafes that specialize in it, but they seem to be rather skittish when it comes to any of the meats. However, The Madame didn't fare too badly with her Bucket O' Trash at Bubba Gump's.

Tsuyoshi Shinjo lived up to his name and fame as Japanese baseball's bona fide movie star a couple of days ago by announcing his retirement after this season in front of his homefield crowd in Sapporo without having told a soul beforehand...including his manager. The manager, an American, looked rather shellshocked in front of the media. I don't know if Shinjo did bupkiss as a New York Met but over here, he is the glamour god. He not only has been doing commericals for a travel agency dressed up in a airline company uniform seemingly designed by Sgt. Pepper's but now he's doing a series of underwear ads. He obviously is taking good care of himself. The problem is that he does the Hollywood thing too well...he looks like a living mannekin on screen with his shiny skin and teeth. He may just be a little too superficial, even for the day-glo world of Japanese tarento TV once he leaves the baseball field. This morning, in fact, the cameras shot him coming down initially soberly down a hallway in the arena (oh, is he reflecting sadly on the coming end to his career?). Suddenly, he flashes his pearly whites and does a little hop before yellng "Good morning!" to the media and going into a strut. As they would say over here, "Sasuga Shinjo." (That's Shinjo for you).

I'm waiting for that disc from Maruzen. I called up the automatic switchboard for deliveries at The Pelican Delivery Service asked them to send the disc over between 3 and 6 today. I would've done it earlier but since the earlier slot was between 12 and 3, I couldn't take the risk of having the guy bring it over at something like 12:05 since I was still coming home at that point. I hope he doesn't decide to wait until 5:59. I would like the chance to at least tape it for B2's sake tonight. Speaking of her, since I have so much nori left over, I'll give her and her beau a pack of the stuff. I'm still hoping that things continue to slowly improve between me and them. I still don't think we're quite out of the woods yet. It's a bit hard to believe that it was a week ago that I'd headed over to Seoul.

I just finished off watching an episode of "CSI: Miami". It seems like the CSI franchise has become part and parcel of TV Tokyo's noontime programming. I gather that the station can't live on travel and cooking shows alone. The ep was the paparazzi show with the suspect being this obvious Tom Cruise clone. I forget the actor's name but it looks he's trying to outdo the rest of the room in charisma through his character of Horatio Crane. He sounds like a combo of Jack Webb of "Dragnet" and Don Johnson of "Miami Vice".

Anyways, I guess I'll just keep the vigil for that textbook CD and plan for B2 and B2B.

Thursday April 20, 7:49 a.m.

Lou Dobbs is especially sarcastic and flippant today about everything from China to illegal immigration. Sometimes, I do kinda pine for those days when newscasters just reported the news without injecting any of their opinions.

The students at Speedy's last night were fine enough. I had my typical sessions with 001 and 006. 001 was her usual happy-go-lucky self...taking a few cute potshots at me, while I took a few snide swipes at her. 006 was her demure button-down self so I was a lot more serious in her situation but a few peeps of my humour did poke out from time to time.

It looks like I'm gonna be one busy guy on Saturday. Speedy informed me that the new student in EIC is coming for her 2nd session on the 22nd just before I start my inaugural video lesson involving "Friends".

Looks like my computer has been acting up again...this time, with Hotmail. It takes a good minute to send out each response. This has happened to me before. I think I will have to check some of my diagnostic programs such as Ad-Aware and see if they will clear up the problem.

Well, I'd continue but it looks like Blogger is gonna be shutting down for some maintenance so I'm outta here.

Wednesday April 19, 9:29 a.m.

Shard delivered his version of wake-up OJ in the form of a link showing Natalie Portman rapping as part of a Saturday Night Live sketch. I think Eminem may have to watch his back. I have forwarded it to some of the folks on this side of the Pacific who may still see her as dead Queen Amidala or Leon's little lover.

More on the celeb scene...CNN has brought up the news that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are now the proud parents of a baby girl named Suri. Zain Verjee breathlessly told the captive audience that the name Suri means princess in Hebrew and rose in some other language. Well, over here, it means pickpocket (snicker, snicker).

I've gotten some interesting responses from my e-mail forwarding the photos and commentary on my trip to Akihabara a week and a half ago. The Egg made a comment of some fear for my sanity and then told me that he and the missus would be delaying their trip here another number of months before going into some of the movies that he's looking forward to. The Doctor completely ignored the content and asked me a sage question about the employment situation in Japan...not that I minded. I've always enjoyed giving my angle on what's been happening in my part of the world.

Well, I'm just waiting here for that textbook CD to finally arrive on my doorstep...maybe. So I'm in a holding pattern until the early afternoon. Mind you, I do have a pile of ironing to do.

Tuesday April 18, 11:25 p.m.

Well, the Korean nori has been getting some good reviews from the students. Looks like its reputation precedes it. The juku boss quickly ingested her souvenir with her mother downstairs right after I'd given it to her. Hopefully, there will be some leftovers for me once I'm done with my Souvenir Santa Claus act. It was just the Milds tonight; I gather that McGirl is off being a groupie again for her favourite punk rock singer somewhere in Honshu. Then, it was another one of those near-esoteric talks with The Siberian.

I had to send a fax over to Maruzen to find out what was holding up delivery of that textbook CD for B2. I got a fast reply back apologizing and guaranteeing delivery within the next 48 hours.

Speedy is pretty happy with the new state of affairs concerning that video thing this Saturday. I'll have to give the plans the once over at work tomorrow. I'm kinda wondering if Student 006 is gonna be pulling out again.

I was just browsing through the local channels before heading off to the juku when I came across this entertainment piece on NTV. I found out that one of the grads from Morning Musume has gone into some rather serious thespianship. Natsumi Abe, one of the original members of the girl supergroup has taken on the role of a Japanese woman who ends up doing time in a penitentiary in the States for getting involved in some nasty drug business thanks to her Mob boyfriend. It was rather odd seeing this aidoru in scenes involving being shaken down by FBI agents, being stripped search in The Big House and basically ending up in this Japanese version of "Women In Chains" considering that the worst thing this Musume has ever done was just innocently plagiarize some other authors' works during her attempts to write her own book of poetry (although the media made it sound like she assassinated Kennedy). Well, good on her; it's probably about time that one of the Musume finally breaks out as a serious anybody instead of having to freak out on roller coasters in front of the camera or sample food in restaurants. I do wonder, though, if this will start a trend in former Musume taking on some meaty roles. The whole thing reminds me of former Brady Bunch actress Eve Plumb doing "Dawn: Diary of a Teenage Runaway" (after all, I don't the Abe special will quite hit the heights of something like the prison drama "Oz"). So, will we see fellow MM alumna Maki Goto play a lesbian serial killer a la Sharon Stone's Catherine Trammell? Or will lithe Kaori Iida play the newest raw recruit for the SDF's version of Special Forces? Or will the very first leader, Yuko Nakazawa, play a ciggy-smoking, hard-drinking gang leader...wait a minute, I think she actually was one of those before she joined the group.

After some more surfing, I came across one of these in-depth reports on one of the other channels on a much more serious topic. Apparently, according to the report, the notorious cult Aum Shinrikyo, which perpetrated the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo Metro 11 years back, may be on the move again to some prominence. The charismatic guy who took over the group (now called Aleph), when mammoth guru/psychopath Chizuo Matsumoto aka Shoko Asahara was arrested, may be trying to bring back the cult to its philosophy of the old days apparently. Fumihiro Joyu was this media-savvy and telegenic representative of the group in the days and months following the attacks who fended off the slings and arrows of the media in frequent press conferences. Then he went underground for several years. Well, it looks he may be popping up again, albeit on hidden cameras. The image of him was fuzzy at best but he seems to have gained quite a few kilos and lost some hair in the decade since. However, the report also said that there is a philosophical schism forming within the group with the line splitting between those who support the return of Joyu and those who don't. Meanwhile, you can bet that the media won't let this go. And the reluctant neighbours of Aleph HQ have been reminding the group of their past crimes in the form of a very big and long banner on the side of the building wall. It alarms me that Joyu may be trying to bring back the cult to its former glory. Does that mean he wants to bring back Aum as an apocalyptic fringe group?

Tuesday April 18, 3:55 p.m.

It's always a bit of a soap opera with the Beehive. No, not that there has been any recent catfights amongst the members. In fact, the only catfight that I've witnessed in my 7 years with the ladies was a few years ago with one lady who made the mistake of antagonizing Ms. Travel. Her ouster was quiet and immediate. Nope, the soap opera aspect in this case is one of cast rotation. Ms. Tulip will be heading with her family for Toronto in midsummer but it looks like one of the former students may be coming back into the fold...Ms. Potter. Hopefully, she'll be more talkative this time around since she was usually quite mute during her first time with us.

Ms. Perth gratefully took my crutches for her injured husband. I had to make a quick return trip back home just when I was about to enter the subway station because I'd left the verdamnt things in the apartment. Still, I managed to get to the classroom on time. Ms. Perth was the first and only one to arrive at that point. Ms. Travel has finally returned after a few weeks away taking care of her ailing brother. Not sure how he's doing but it looks like Ms. Travel herself is OK or at least hiding any sorrow very well.

Since I was due to meet The Teacher at Beckers inside of Tsudanuma Station at 1, I decided to hang out at the local Maruzen across from the station. I ended up just browsing through the mags for about a good part of an hour before heading over to the fast food outlet. Our new venue looked more stylish than the old cafe at Myoden Station, and the prices reflected that. Like at the Shinjuku outlet a few weeks ago, my lunch set cost me 700 yen and I had to pay for it since it was a fast food joint. Hm...The Teacher chose wisely. She took a look at the pictures from Korea with The Class Act. She laughingly pointed out that it was very evident from the fashion sense of The Lady and The Matron that these ladies occupied a higher tax bracket. I didn't particularly notice anything different about what they wore, but then again I'm just a Neanderthalic man, aren't I? It looks like Beckers will be our main venue for the next little while.

I picked up my suit from the cleaners and then sent my negatives from Seoul and Akiba to the photo shop for those reprints. I got the good news from JJ that she would be willing to change her lesson day and time to Sunday from Saturday. Last night, before I was to leave Speedy's, the boss man himself received a phone call from a lady who wanted to join our video class programme which had remained empty since its offiical inception at the beginning of March. Speedy wasn't too happy (although he covered it well) on hearing that I'd had JJ on Saturday afternoon considering that this was my project to begin with. However, I'm not willing to hold onto a whole bunch of empty Saturday afternoons open for the mere possibility of a student coming in when I could get my regular guaranteed private students during those 2 hours. In any case, I've sent the good news onto Speedy.

Well, gotta get ready for my juku lessons tonight. There'll be more Korean nori handed out and hopefully a lot of questions about my trip last week.

Monday April 17, 10:03 p.m.

Doing a rare entry from outside....Speedy's computer, in fact. I figured that by the time I got home, it would be too late to write something in considering that I'll probably have to go straight to bed. Tuesday will be another long one.

I'm somewhat troubled after my first stint with The Class Act since our Seoul trip. Although I think things are still OK, my raging paranoid Spidey Sense was tingling with some remarks from The Lady about how quiet I was during stretches of our time in Korea, notably during the rides on the subway, and wondering if I were having a good time. Well, when you have two middle-aged Japanese women gabbing away, I'm not exactly gonna be able to jump in...I made that point obliquely clear to them. Then, I recall having a slight talk with The Matron back at the hotel on the morning of our second day there, and asking about how their evening was. She giggled and gestured that the two of them were griping. I'm kinda wondering now if The Lady was griping about me and my seemingly noncommittal behaviour. I always had the feeling that I wasn't really helping the ladies out during our time there aside from asking the concierge at the hotel in English about directions. She may have been resentful about this since she was picking up my tab for the trip. I don't feel good about this although I may once again be making a huge Mt. Everest out of a molehill. But the fact is that I'm just not gonna be very talkative outside of class with a bunch who will only use Japanese at high speed. That, and the fact that The Matron's kids made a slightly snide remark about me ( good-naturedly or not), got me in a rather dark mood for my time at lunch and my commute up to Speedy's. Y'know, I try to be on my best behaviour at these things, but.... In any case, I'll be a bit more selective when it comes to these junkets from now on (not that I'll probably be invited to anything like this in the near future).

Well, at least the Part-Timer was in good form tonight. However, it was a bit of a juggling act with the EIC class. I had the one gabby young lady for the last of her 3 lessons but she was paired with someone new who hadn't even joined the regular Sunday cooking session. The new person wasn't exactly a tabula rasa when it came to English ability but there was an obvious gap between the two. And she didn't exactly look too beamingly by the end of my Wallenda class but I tried my best with all of the humour I could muster. Enh...I can only hope that the new one will be on her own next week so I can use a bit more TLC with her.

Skippy sent me a reply to my little apology about the raunchiness of yesterday's Subway sex chat. She reassured me that the reason behind her quiet mood had to do more with the velocity of The Madame's iterances (in a good way) more than the content. Well, all I can say is that she has brushed it aside so that's that. As for the Madame, she's gleefully sent out a blanket mail to all of us concerning what will be happening on Friday and Sunday.

Speedy told me that he and the missus went to L'Aqua yesterday for a bit of well-needed R&R. This would mean that we weren't all that distant from each other on Sunday since The Madame, The Satyr and I were just less than a kilometre away at Bubba Gump...the antithesis of all that's spa-related. However, we did share the fact that a good amount of money was parted from us. Speedy was a bit surprised at how much he had to shuck out for his time there after a couple of full-body massages. I tried to rationalize it by stating that if he just treats his time there as an annual thing instead of a weekly pilgrimage, then it wouldn't sound so expensive.

In any case, I'm just about ready to head on that long subway home. I'll probably hit Chiba by around midnight. And then it'll be time to get up and at 'em by early tomorrow morning for my first session with The Beehive in a couple of weeks. Ms. Perth has asked me if her hubby could borrow my "borrowed" crutches from my ankle accident several years ago. It would seem that he snapped his Achilles Tendon in a tennis match late last month.

Monday April 17, 7:27 a.m.

My time with the kids yesterday was pretty run-of-the-mill. We just exchanged...wait, that wouldn't be the right word...I pelted the sisters with questions about their ski odyssey in Italy and Switzerland while they just merely looked at my photos of Seoul. The Junior is definitely turning into the usual teenager. She even accused me of smelling like fish! Good heavens. I was reminded of my chemistry class of producing esters. I recall the bunch of us high school kids getting a lot of space on the bus home that day despite the fact that we didn't look anything like gangbangers.

The rest of my day was a mix of culinary excess and explicit folly. I met up with The Skippy, The Satyr and The Madame at Kyobashi Station in the early afternoon. We gave the 100% Chocolate Cafe a try. We were lucky to get a couple of tables there since seating is restricted to just 18 people. The Satyr and The Madame hadn't eaten any lunch and were wondering about getting something more savory before the sweets, but the waitress quickly cut them off at the pass, warning that we arrived just before things were to get busy. My cynicism immediately congratulated her on her sales tactics but another part of me did think that she was on the up-and-up with her kind consideration. We had to order things first before getting our seats. Almost all of the food and drink were chocolate-based. For the food, we could have things such as a nice little tarte or a long breadstick with chocolate cream inside but we had to specify which type of chocolate we wanted from a menu. The six choices were in large buckets in a refrigerated case, kinda like at an ice cream parlour. I chose the Chocolate Tarte with Chocolate Whip, and an iced tea. Each of us even got a complementary chocolate square of the day. Apparently, the place has devoted each day to a certain kind of chocolate. The 16th was devoted to Ecuador Hi-Chocolate. No idea what today will be. Behind the tables was a display case showing the various chocolates from all over the world. The cafe wasn't Willy Wonka's Choclate Factory by a longshot but it's proven to be a popular place with the resident Tokyoites for the past 18 months. I did get a much reception to my Seoul shots with my more sympatico adult colleagues.

Afterwards, we decided to hit the local Subways around the corner from The 100% Chocolate Cafe. Since Kyobashi is a business area, the sandwich shop was virtually empty when we came in which was grand for us. The Madame needed a bit of help ordering the sandwich for which I, a long veteran of all things submarine, provided able assistance. It would seem that she gets a bit nervous about the choices she has to make. However, she certainly wasn't lacking in the more raunchier aspects of gab. For the next couple of hours, a lot of our blue talk kinda centered on the nitty-gritty of previous mates' sexual congress for which The Satyr and I were perfect foils for The Madame's stream-of-consciousness thoughts. She even managed to render Skippy silent and even slightly embarrassed at points...which is saying a lot considering that Skippy is usually a very open young lady....see the entry for April 9th during our trip to Akihabara. Then again, Skippy was the only member of our menage-a-quatre who was in a relationship; it's awfully hard discussing the politics of taking baths with boyfriends when one currently has a boyfriend. However, some of the randiness was offset by another tangent of discussing some of the grislier angles of people getting sick on amusement park rides.

Skippy had to take off for another engagement for which I'm sure she had plenty of fodder for chat with her other friends. She said she would leave names out of it but I'm sure that The Madame wouldn't have minded either way. However, she, The Satyr and I headed out for Korakuen to fulfill a wish that The Madame had after our time at L'Aqua a week and a half ago.

The three of us had dinner at Bubba Gump's, the culinary emporium devoted to Forrest Gump, on the outer rim of the Korakuen complex. It was ironic that a lady with all the appetite of a hummingbird would want to have a second try at this very American of establishments. But then The Satyr pointed out correctly that The Madame is a mass of paradoxes....someone who seems prim, proper and nervous about ordering anything from Subways who can yet talk about sex with the Xmas glee of a little girl. I just welcomed him to the club and told him that we have jackets.

Our waitress was one of those ladies who believes that speaking in a high, whiny voice like one of those members of the endangered elevator girl speices was a virtue. Along with the rest of the ambient noise in the restaurant, we were just barely able to make out that she was asking whether it was the first time for us to come here and what we would like to order. The Madame, again most ironically, ordererd The Bucket of Trash whilst The Satyr had some sort of Mahi-Mahi dish over rice. I went for The Southern Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes. Very unironically, I ordered a Mama's Favourite....a concoction of Kahlua and other sweet stuff, a milkshake. The portions were certainly generous. It's been a long time since I had fried chicken on those dimensions.

Talk at Bubba Gump's, unlike the R-rated stuff at Subways, was all centered on The Madame's exploration of her spirituality. It was just as if one of those supernatural beings she often talked about got her brain and voice box set to automatic. For the next few hours, she proceeded to relate to The Satyr all of the stuff that she had been pelting me with for the past several months. The Satyr took it all in very liberally and also said that he was quite open. However, by the time she started talking about her past lives on various planets, The Satyr and I traded little "Are you kiddin' me?" looks. There was another party at anothe table whose members could speak Englsih...I did wonder if they had picked up any of the conversation.

By the time everything had been exhausted, it was close to 10 p.m., so the three of us made our way back to the nearest station. The Madame also invited The Satyr for our planned jaunt to Yokohama on Friday since he may be having a free day on the 21st. For dim sum, the more the merrier. Plus, there is "The Libertine" the next Sunday. It was evident that The Madame has become our resident social planner. When the girl went off to the other line, The Satyr and I made our way to The Tozai. He mentioned that he was able to renew his passport without too much hassle but that he deplored the conditions at The Tokyo Immigration Centre when it came to transferring the visa information to the new passport. I told him that I understood his feelings...the TIC will never be a favourite place of mine in The Big Sushi. I'm convinced that the seeming understaffing and the crowded conditions there are all part of a conspiracy based on security control. However, I informed that immigration facilities in any of the major US cities would probably make TIC a veritable paradise in comparison. For one thing, the staffers in Shinagawa have been unfailingily polite.

In any case, once I got my rumpled self back home, I sent off a letter of apology to Skippy lest she was unduly offended by the talk earlier in the afternoon.

Sunday April 16, 7:10 a.m.

Continuing on the Seoul trip...

After Myeondong, we took another taxi up to the other main area called Insadong, the more traditional quarter. I guess it would be the equivalent of Asakusa in Tokyo but Insadong is somewhat smaller and cleaner. It was there that I got caught up on my souvenir shopping for all the students. I picked up a lot of these sesame snaps and other confections. Again, it was obvious that the Japanese component of tourism was alive and well since a number of the shop owners were fairly OK in the Japanese language. After my foster sisters scoured the stores, we all took a bit of a breather in a small restaurant where we had some toppokki, a dish which is similar to chow mein except that instead of noodles, the carbs are represented by long cylindrical pieces of rice cake. It was all good.

We took another cab to Namdaemon. The actual Namdaemon is this ornate Korean temple-like structure but for most tourists, Namdaemon is the hurly-burly marketplace that abuts it. There is nothing like it in Tokyo, but the place reminded me of ol' Kensington Market back in the ol' hometown. It is just a labyrinth of small awninged shops hawking everything from nori to clothes to fresh (kinda) fish and chicken. The ladies were almost overwhelmed by the smells but I was very accustomed to the stench after years of walking through Kensington and nearby Chinatown, especially during the summer. The second part of my souvenir shopping occurred here when the three of us entered a nori shop owned by a very friendly, Japanese-speaking owner. We certainly got our money's worth of seaweed. I was now quite overstocked with stuff for the students back home.

After navigating our way back to the main street, we took yet another cab to the huge Lotte Department Store not too far away. After taking a short non-buying tour of the food floor in B1, we made our way all the way to the top of the store where we went to a restaurant which specialized in the dish of bibimbap, the mix of rice, veggies, meat and egg which is mixed in a hot stone bowl. It was a spicy mix which heated me up quite well, and I like to think that my tummy is fairly asbestos-lined. The Matron was creating a good sweat.

That was basically it for the gourmet tour. And what a tour it was. Looking at the photos, I definitely put on a bit of weight. After Lotte, it was back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then we were off to Gimpo Airport. Our taxi driver for the final leg was the friendliest of all of our drivers in that he was able to speak some Japanese. In fact, his daughter married a Chiba man and now live in my neck of the woods. He certainly charmed the Class Act; as for me, I took a nap for the hour's drive to Gimpo.

We got to the airport with a number of hours left before our flight. I thought it would be one of those long waits but after a short dip into the duty-free shop, The Class Act returned to the waiting lounge to inform that they had found a foot massage salon at the back of the shop and proceeded to make an appointment for all of us. Well, that will take some time. So the three of us got our rubdowns on our swollen tootsies after a long day of hoofing it (albeit with assistance from the Seoul taxi industry). The 30-minute session would have been perfect except for the fact that there was a little problem processing The Matron's credit card; it was the scanner's fault. The Lady, not one for infinite patience, wasn't pleased since the folks taking care of us didn't want to give up on the scanner if at all possible. Instead, we had to go downstairs to another shop to get the card processed. Still, it burned up some more of the time needed to wait for the flight home.

And so after a small wait at the airport lounge downing some unexpectedly tasty kiwi shakes, the three of us said our goodbyes at the gate since all of us would be flying in different seats. When I got back to Haneda at around 10:15 on Friday night, I got a refresher on what life in Tokyo is like before the weekend. I had to contend with the usual stuffed trains on the JR Yamanote and Tozai Lines. At least for the Tozai Line, I was able to get a seat of course at Takadanobaba Station. However, it was a revelation that even at midnight, the train was packed way beyond capacity. Luckily, my two bags provided a good barrier against the throng of standing folks whilst I read my magazine in relatively seated comfort. I don't think even a Seoul resident would have or could have given up his seat for anyone in those conditions.

And so my final thoughts on the whirlwind tour of Seoul? Well, it was certainly worth it for the food. And I am very indebted to my host, The Lady, for all she did for us since my Korean was obviously not up to the challenge. I could easily go back there again on a small tour with a person like The Madame since most likely that would entail a more cultural angle. But I could certainly hope that I can have a Korean friend who lives there to show me around. I guess the next target for me in Asia will be Hong Kong or Shanghai.

Gonna have a lot to talk about tomorrow when I see The Class Act for their regular.

Saturday April 15, 9:40 p.m.

The second day in Seoul started out early. I woke up before 7 and then by 8, I was headed down for breakfast at The Cornerstone restaurant on the 2nd floor of The Park Hyatt. As buffets go, it didn't have that huge quantity of everything but the kitchen sink as its American equivalent have but it was healthy enough. I just had granola cereal, an apple danish and two cups of coffee which was probably just as well after the feast of the night before. As it would turn out, the three of us would have further things to eat anyways.

We checked out early and I was allowed to keep the card key as a souvenir. We did leave our bags at the hotel while we did our culinary sightseeing. It was back onto the subway again...this time to go to Myeongdong, the equivalent of Shibuya. Sure enough, down the main road, we saw a camera crew filming a duo of young folk having a talk on what seemed to be a variety program. Being the equivalent of Japan's teen Mecca, there were plenty of posters of the young and beautiful including the idol of both Japan and Korea, Boa. There was also a McDonalds with its name written up in Hangeul (at the same time, there were also a couple of other American chains that have long deserted the Japanese shores: Dunkin Donuts and Burger King). The area though was rather empty since it was not only in the morning but a weekday morning. The Class Act continued their sock-buying spree from the day before. After that little escort to the backroom warehouse in Itaewon, the ladies had done a major search for brand name socks at a number of the stands along the main strip. Well, the search continued in Myeongdong; we stopped at one stand where the owner was quite enamoured with The Matron. I did manage to get one shot of the masher getting too close with her. There must be something about her and her daughter, The Tulip. The kid herself was mauled by some old guy when the two of them were traveling in Austria a couple of weeks ago.

Well, I would like to continue but it's getting kinda late and I do have the kids tomorrow after a few weeks. We'll be exchanging travel news since they had come back from Italy and the Alps.

Saturday April 15, 6:38 p.m.

I had my first student since my Korea trip. The Carolinan was quite happy to receive the omiyage of Korean nori and little pouch that I got from the kalbi restaurant in Seoul. I also gave her the same deal to be given to her sister.

Anyways, back to the Seoul trip. Once we got out of that backroom fake fashion emporium, The Class Act and I made our way back to the main strip of Itaewon and grabbed a taxi. We took the black one with the golden stripe since apparently those taxis are the most dependable in terms of the driver getting us to a destination without the unintended tour of the entire city. Our cab took us up a steep hill and as we made the final turn, our eyes were walloped by the sight of The Grand Hyatt, our hotel's monolithic sister. This Hyatt looked like a wall. When we got into the lobby, we decided on just having some drinks at the cafe. I tried my pathetic attempts at Korean, forgetting that all staffers working at a Hyatt are probably former beauty pageant contestants and are fully versed in Japanese and English. Again, The Lady saved my bacon and calmly asked for a table for three in English. The cafe had a spectacular panoramic view of the whole city since it was sitting on top of the highest hill. I had a Bailey's Coffee, the Irish cream version of an Irish Coffee. It didn't give me much of a buzz which was good since we did have dinner coming up.

Then it was another taxi ride down the hill and a subway ride across the Han back to the Park Hyatt. We had an hour of downtime so I used it to get into my room and take a well-needed shower. It was one of those glassed-in affairs. I was careful to bring down the shades on the glass wall lest I scare some poor office fellow in the building across the street. I had two choices for a shower. There was the rain shower type with this huge head basically spritzing me; didn't like that one too much since the stream was too diffuse and therefore couldn't really work up a satisfyingly hot temperature so I ended up with the handheld karaoke microphone type. After that shower, I got dressed and just lay out on the modern recliner and ate some of those fresh grapes that came with the room for several minutes before I got the call from The Lady to come on down for the taxi ride to dinner.

The restaurant we got driven to was called Podunam Chip, a place famous for its kalbi and other BBQ fare. The Lady had gone there a few times before and swears by its quality. Yep, she certainly didn't get any disagreeement from The Matron and me. The fare there was probably some of the best food I'd ever eaten in a Korean restaurant. We just devoured a ton of beef wrapped in lettuce and Korean miso and we drank it all down with a combination of soju (Korean vodka) and water. I was surprised with all of the cow we had been eating, barely 30 minutes had elapsed since our arrival. The staff was also well versed in Japanese and English. I would've been forgiven if I'd thought that there was none of that Japanese-Korean historical and diplomatic rancor. If I ever go back to the city again, Podunam Chip is on the priority list.

Another taxi ride later, we were back at the hotel again. It was another hour later and then The Lady called me down to head to down to the main lounge for some jazz. It was on my way down to The Timberhouse that I realized how eerily attentive the staff were. The frankly ridiculous layout of the elevators forced me to get off on the 1st floor to transfer to another lift. As soon as I got out, the bell captain at his post automatically identified by name and showed me how to get to the lounge without me saying so much as a single word. I would swear that another condition for these guys to get hired by the Hyatt along with beauty, efficiency and youth was ESP.

The Class Act had already arrived when I got there in my increasingly rumpled suit (note to self: if at all possible in future trips, go more casual). The Timberhouse was your prototypical jazz lounge: comfy chairs and dim lighting surrounding a stage with a combo of piano, drums and bass. There was a lead singer who was belting out jazz and Latin songs. The Lady had seen her in her first stay at the hotel and was quite impressed with her chops...quite a thing to hear knowing how particular The Lady is. The singer, whose name now escapes me, was indeed very accomplished vocally although there was a bit of that cheesiness in her rapport with the audience....there was that "I'm here til Friday...please drive safely...try the dessert table" vibe with her. Once again, the beautiful staff were there serving us. This was frankly making me wonder if the Hyatt had been inspired by "The Stepford Wives", but I'm just being nasty. While the ladies indulged in some good champagne, I was quite content to have some non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri. I didn't quite get the cute umbrella but the waitress smilingly placed a cute straw in my drink. I'm sure she and her bar colleagues were probably cracking wise at my expense about how this guy who looks like he imbibes too much booze was actually just downing women stuff.

After the singer's second set, the Class Act called it a night. The ladies went up first since I had to claim my jacket. Again, some of that eerie efficiency came to the fore. As soon as I had taken it off, a waitress quickly scooped it out of my hands and into the checkroom. Anyways, when I claimed it, I ended up sharing a short elevator ride with the singer herself. She was just as engaging in person as she was up on stage (although I didn't mention the cheesy element). I offered my compliments on her performance. She was very diplomatic in her response that the Koreans were still slowly coming to grips with jazz as a musical choice. I kinda felt sorry for her at that point....there was a large group of young folks who had sat right in front of her, most of whom just gabbed away without acknowledging her or the band. It must be just as hard for a singer to be ignored as to be booed at, but then again, it's called paying one's dues. The singer isn't there for a concert....she's there to add musical ambiance to the lounge. However, she did get enough of an applause.

It was pretty late in the night but I decided to try the bath. There was a vial of natural bubble bath so I indulged in a nice little round of bathing while looking at the video screen right in front of the bathtub. Thus, endeth my first night in Seoul.

Saturday April 15, 10:46 a.m.

Well, I'm back from my whirlwind tour of Seoul with The Class Act. For one night and two days, I was led around by my two foster mothers...I should really say foster elder sisters since they're just a little over a decade older than me...to all the shopping districts and culinary wonders of South Korea. I'll try and ensure that the following report will not sound too much like one of those Discovery Channel travelogues.

I got up pretty darn early on Thursday morning and headed out to Haneda Airport in downtown Tokyo. People here have always complained about heading out all the way to Narita Airport in the wilds of Chiba Prefecture. And here I was, living in Chiba itself, grumbling a bit about having to make three transfers to get to this smaller airport out by Tokyo Bay. Haneda used to be the international airport until the mid-70s when the more controversial Narita was built. Now, the international wing has been reduced to this small building servicing China and Korea. Actually, the commute wasn't too bad, timewise. I got there in about 90 minutes, the same amount of time it takes me to get to Narita. In fact, I was lucky to have gotten there when I did. The Lady got there some 15 minutes after my arrival and told me that the check-in lines were starting to lengthen a bit. And then The Matron had to endure some waiting-for-Star-Wars lines by the time she'd gotten to the airport.

Our JAL flight got to Gimpo Airport (another airport that has been whittled down to a fraction of its former significance by a larger facility in Incheon) in about 2 hours. I'd always heard about this place during my viewings of "MASH" but never thought I would actually go through it. Going through Immigration wasn't too painful and Customs was a breeze. The Lady was there waiting for The Matron and myself. It was plain from the outset that she was the boss of our little homemade tour. She'd already made the currency conversions from yen to won and gave us our little packages. None of us won in the currency rates, though.

We tackled the circuitous Seoul subway system whose stations kinda reminded me of those of New York City. They looked a little less bright and had a bit more grime on the walls. However, the dangerous aspect was non-existent. The Lady was quite excited about going through public transit since she rarely did that sort of thing anymore; she has been more of a private transport citizen for many years. We did our fair share of transfers and got a quick education in the Seoul subway culture. For one thing, salesmen rather frequently traveled through the cars to hawk something such as hay fever and pollution masks (I gather that Seoul is quite industrial) and then blind folk often did the same thing with metal cups extended to pick up some alms from the commuters; taped concertina music added to the sad ambiance. The one thing that did strike me though which kinda shamed me and the ladies is that people are a bit more respectful towards our elders when it came to letting go of our seated comfort for the elderly or infirm. Tokyo commuters have become rather cold-hearted of late (I'll have to admit that I'm no better) by pretending to sleep or just plain ignoring the older folks when it comes to giving up their seats. This is by no means an excuse but there's something about having to ride in overcapacity trains that brings out the "me or them" mentality in all of us in The Big Sushi. But obviously it hasn't totally consumed Seoul commuters yet. In fact, one rather large salaryman brusquely ordered The Lady in his native language to let go of her seat for an older man. It was quite a sight to see since The Lady isn't the type to be ordered around easily. But she quickly did.

We finally arrived at Samseong Station in the trendy area of Gungnam south of the Han River about the better part of an hour later. I was happy to know that the Park Hyatt was right there in front of us when we got out. It was the first time in a very long time that I've stayed in a hotel of its calibre. The Lady told me that it was still just barely 6 months old. The staff all spoke nigh-flawless English and that chiseled beauty (men and women) about them (I did kinda wonder if job interviews for positions at the hotel resembled more for those for a beauty pageant). We actually got checked in within The Class Act's room and were given our card keys. The rooms certainly had more of that art gallery sensibility. They were all done up in beige faux-wood and glass. In fact, one wall was all window overlooking the city. One could even conceivably take a bath and shower by that glass wall although Internet reviews by users on a travelsite warned that the curtains should be drawn lest one wanted to give a free show to some horny businessmen in the buildings across from the hotel. Of course, the curtains were also all automated.

After the quick check-in, the three of us decided to head on out to our first place of interest: Itaewon. It was another series of subway transfers leading us up to this neighbourhood which was the foreigner quarter of Seoul. Itaewon reminded me of Koreatown in Toronto. The side-by-side buildings were all old brick low-rise affairs consisting of small restaurants (a lot of US chains have obviously found new homes here) and shops. As soon as we reached street level, I saw a few Americans having a chat on the corner. Itaewon is also the area to find various brand name knockoffs. And not long after walking through the area, The Lady came across this rather shady character sitting in front of a clothing store. All it took was just some eye contact between him and her for the guy to start speaking in halting Japanese. Then we were led on a "merry" walk. We first went through the store and out the back entrance and then down some quiet side streets for about five minutes. While the guy was 10 metres out in front of the ladies, I was 10 m out in back feeling a bit nervous. I kinda wondered if this is how Eli Roth's goreflick, "Hostel" had started. As it turned out, Mr. Softspoken took us to the back of this house with a rather formidable iron gate with lock (keep the fashion police out or keep unsuspecting travelers in...forever? are the fabrics made from human skin?). Once I saw other women inside, though, I let down my guard. I had actually clutched my apartment key just in case I needed it for something other than opening my door although I hardly think anything with a Hello, Kitty keychain could be seriously taken as a weapon of choice.

The back of the house was this very crowded showroom of fake Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes stuff from shoes to bags. The ladies, including my two foster sisters, proceeded to pelt the guy and his fellow storemates with a lot of questions including ones for haggling. I was finally seeing The Lady in her element now. After about 15 minutes, both her and The Matron bought some token stuff and we all made our way back to the main strip of Itaewon. The Lady later stated that the stuff was somewhat inferior to those in other backroom showrooms she'd been to but after being led all the way there, she had felt that she needed to buy something...hmm, I thought, she ain't that tough.

I'll have to continue this travelogue later since I gotta head on out to teach The Carolinan. She'll be my first souvenir recipient of Korean nori.

Wednesday April 12, 9:18 a.m.

It's still wet and cold out there....regular dog's nose weather. Well, I still gotta do the laundry since my machine is starting to fill up. Hanging everything inside though will humidify my home greatly.

Movie Buddy's canned out of the Chocolate Cafe. He and The Sylph have another event to attend at about the same time. Took a look at the promotional video for the place. Well, it's really more cafe than museum but I think the food and drink there should keep The Madame and Skippy quite happy.

I watched "The Enemy Within" from Star Trek Classic this morning for the umpteenth time. It's the one where Kirk gets split into his good and evil sides. Seeing William Shatner giving his usual scenery-chewing all made me wonder how Patrick Stewart would have handled it. I'm sure the late James Doohan would have cheekily said that the evil Kirk was the one that cast and crew usually saw for those 3 years.

The only class I have is with 001 tonight. 006 is off to Guam for a friend's wedding. I'll probably put off any gym work this week since I've gotta keep up with my Korean. However, I'll be dropping by Maruzen on the way to Speedy's to pick up that handbook for the country.

Wednesday April 12, 12:03 a.m.

It was a miserable day. Just relentless rain and rain. I met The Teacher for the first time in a couple of weeks. She's been very busy with her new job as Japanese teacher and her new hobby as Chinese-language student. I kinda wonder if she's gonna end up like The OL. However, we are gonna meet next week but at a new venue...at the Becker's hamburger shop in the JR Tsudanuma Station. She figured that it was a time for a change in scenery. Personally, I still like our old cafe and since she gave me a filled point card from there, I'll probably make at least a few more visits.

I had those photos developed from my time at L'Aqua with The Madame on Friday and with Skippy and The Kid in Akihabara on Sunday. The Madame will kill me for one photo of her on the merry-go-round.

It looks like that Chocolate Cafe trip on Sunday is getting legs. Movie Buddy contacted me just now to say that his girl, The Sylph, is interested in going which probably means that her beau will tag along. I took a look at a promotional video on its website. Hmmm...the fare looks nice but there's not much in the way of seating. Just 18 chairs. Could be cramped. Not quite sure what we're gonna be doing afterwards either.

I've been reading stuff that the Idol Queen herself, Seiko Matsuda, has gotten herself married for the 3rd time. Gonna have to check her future ex-husband. And apparently, one of those NHK staffers has been dipping into the till again. And we are paying that bimonthly fee for what reason again...?

The rain is going on into later in the day. Man, this has gotta be the rainiest April on record.

Tuesday April 11, 1:33 a.m.

Not quite ready for bed. And I think I need to talk about what happened with my Monday after gabbing all about the hijinks in Akihabara and Asakusa on Sunday. Well, actually, even before the Monday, I received a call from GC for the first time in perhaps a year. He was testing out his Skype connection just like Old Sam did some months earlier. Our talk was almost as if there hadn't been this long absence in our formerly close relationship. It was one of those 2-hour marathon phone sessions. One reason that he probably hasn't been coming out to Tokyo all that often anymore is that his school has been on the financial skids of late. The kids haven't been signing up for his school. Therefore, the money has been scarce. However, he's hopeful that there will be a security blanket of sorts in terms of private students in his area. He's also told me that our mutual friend, The Angel, has gotten a job working at Studio Ghibli as of May. So now she has to set up shop in the Big Sushi. He said that he would pass on my number to her but I'm not carrying any expectations that she will even be following through on any calls to me.

My day started yesterday with sending a package of his pre-ordered video games to The Anime King. Wouldn't he be interested in how I had spent my day on Sunday? But he's not all that much into his raison d'etre anymore. Now that he's got himself a wife...he's just keeping himself to his games.

My time with The Class Act was spent just making the final talk about our Korea trip. The Lady wasn't too impressed by my adventure at the Maid Cafe, no matter my insistence that it wasn't as sordid as I'd previously thought. I was surprised that she had given The Matron and me a manga depicting her husband's rise through the ranks to become one of the country's biggest (and feared) corporate figures. I'm trying to imagine how a real person can turn into a manga. Of course, the 8-issue compilation depicted the man as this relentless can-do paragon of business virtue, a point that I'm sure a lot of people will take issue with. But there's no doubt that he's made his millions.

Afterwards, I had to race down to Immigration to get my re-entry stamp. Since I was heading to Korea and then back to Canada for Xmas, I had to go for the multiple re-entry which cost me 6,000 yen. Then, it was take a number and wait. There were 154 people ahead of me when I arrived. But much like my time at Shinagawa last time, the folks were processed fairly quickly so after about 80 minutes, I was able to get my permit stamped into my passport in less than 2. Something not right about that.

I had lunch at the Hansens hot dog emporium at the station before I made my way up to Speedy's. The Part-Timer was her usual diligent self and my second student in the English in Cooking program was also very enthused about her second of three lessons. Afterwards, Speedy and I had a talk about trying to increase the student and revenue flow for the school once more. Speedy is now toying with the idea of sending out teachers to more far-flung areas such as my neck of the woods. The particular target here is 002 who has steadfastly refused to return to the fold since the school is just too far away from her. But if I were to go to her area since she and I don't live too far away from each other, perhaps we can start something on that order.

Got home to get a few messages. The OL has kept her end of the bargain as my ex-student by setting up a time and day for her sister to become my newest student, ironically on the first day of Golden Week. The headquarters will be The Tea Room...something that the manager there will be quite happy to hear about since I haven't been too frequent a presence there of late. The Madame has also been sending her share of messages to me about the next two Sundays' activities. So something is definitely coming along on that front.

Well, since the Beehive will be off today (thus explaining my very late writing right here right now), I'll be sleeping a little later and then trying my darndest to cram in some more Korean. However, some TEPCO official will probably be dropping by for a bit of inspection of the electrical system. I'm debating whether to answer the door when he comes. I probably wouldn't understand what he's talking about and besides he'll naturally assume there won't be anyone at home during that time of the day. However, I do have The Teacher for her lesson and I'm sure she'll be wondering about all the fuss at the Maid Cafe. And then I have my usual guys at the juku.

Tuesday April 11, 12:39 a.m.

Ah...where was I? Oh, yes...the search for a Maid Cafe. After leaving all the hilarity of singing and dancing maid fanatics, Skippy, The Kid and I started making our half-hour trek seeking a Maid Cafe that wasn't gonna be too full. We had to do quite a bit of searching even with Skippy's handy map which started frustrating even the infectiously enthusiastic girl. We even had to skirt the outer edges of Akihabara to find one place. There was a lineup for the 2nd-floor Maid Cafe from the ground level so The Kid and I took our places in line while Skippy looked for another more accessible place. A young girl dressed up like Sailor Mars of "Sailor Moon" fame and who looked like a reject from a Morning Musume audition started going down the stairs taking down seating orders. She took ours down but just then Skippy contacted The Kid via his cell and relayed that the other cafe actually had openings. We were told that the place where we were waiting would take about an hour to get us seated. So the decision was quite easy to make.

From Skippy's directions, we made our way down back into the heart of Akihabara once more. We passed by a very large and prettified elementary school which was just kitty-corner away from a porn DVD shop. Just the perfect neighbour to have for an educational institution. I'm sure the tykes would quickly find out the perfect knots for an S&M tie-up or how large dildos can get. In any case, it was another minute before Skippy found us out and led us to Tiara, the Maid Cafe that she had found for us.

We couldn't get into the 2nd floor shop which looked like it was designed by a wedding cake manufacturer but we could get a table on the 3rd floor. There was something rather ad hoc about the deal on 3. It seemed like the owners got tables and chairs from a regular cafe and put them onto a deserted floor; there was a distinctly industrial vibe to the setting. However, we did get the "O-kaerinasai, go-shujin sama" greeting ("Welcome home, my master!") by a tribe of young ladies in maid outfits. We got seated, and then one maid took our order of a mocha cafe for Skippy, a chocolate float for The Kid and just some hot cocoa for me. I was rather struck by the ordinariness of the situation. Aside from the garb and age of the employees, Tiara was really just a regular cafe. The one thing I had been fearing....that the place would be populated by some extreme otaku...never materialized. In fact, I would say that any otaku was strictly in the minority. I only saw a number of heterosexual couples, a bunch of normal-looking guys and even one family. None of the waitresses acted like the typically lethally cute, helium-voiced anime characters. Our waitress had a very normal Shibuya girl voice, in fact. If I had closed my eyes, I would have thought I was in a family restaurant. I wasn't particularly disappointed, though. It was good cocoa. And frankly speaking, I wouldn't mind heading to Tiara, at least. I'm sure even The Madame wouldn't shy away from this place. I guess all that mewing excess is just at the At Home cafe. Still, the ladies sent us home with a "Itterasshai, go-shujin sama!" ("Farewell, my master!").

So that was basically our tour of Akihabara. I have a feeling we have yet to scratch the surface of this world of the otaku. However, as I said before, thanks to "Densha Otoko" and the somewhat controversial Disneyfication of the area, Akiba has now even received official approval by the national government via its "Yokoso Japan" (Welcome to Japan) campaign, complete with its own little pamphlet showing the recommended shops and even a glossary of Akiba-only terms such as "Moe" and "A-Boy". I can just imagine the deep otaku crying in their pink sundaes and fleeing for the refuge of east Ikebukuro.

The three of us took the Ginza Line all the way to the end of the line at Asakusa, my old stomping grounds in the 90s. There, of course, was much more different from the techno geekiness of Akihabara. It was back to some shitamachi traditional stuff in that wizened neighbourhood. We strolled down the shopping streets of Nakamise-dori and bought ourselves a snack in the form of 100-yen age-manju, deep-fried buns filled with sweet bean paste. Quite tasty if high-calorie. We made our way to the brazier at Sensoji Temple and wafted the incense smoke onto out bodies to purify ourselves.

Our next search was for this restaurant that Skippy had found on the Internet which has become famous of late for its okonomiyaki and monjayaki. Once again, it took several minutes of traversing the side streets of Asakusa, but we finally found the main restaurant for these traditional delights. I can't remember the name...I think it was Rokumon...something or other. However, we couldn't get into the main restaurant since it was already rather crowded but the lady there kindly told us of the second shop just around the corner and down a couple of blocks; she even called ahead there to let us know we were coming. The walk only took us a few minutes and we could get a table on some tatami.

Rokumon was getting its 15 minutes of fame, alright. The restaurant put up a billboard in front of the restaurant showing all of the magazines that had featured it. And just above our grill/table there was a handwritten sign pointing out that Masatoshi Hamada of the comedic duo "Downtown" had even brought his gang from one of his own TV shows to try out the fare there. Well, the three of us ordered an okonomiyaki, a monjayaki (the liquidy stuff that I had initially pooh-poohed due to its resemblance to barf only to get to like it in later years) and yakisoba. While The Kid got himself a beer, Skippy and I stayed traditional and ordered two Lamune...a Sprite-like drink which is notable for its bottle. The neck of the bottle has a glass ball in it which automatically stops up the hole once the bottle is inverted so that one doesn't overdrink the soda and get too much gas.

The fare was great eating and my two former students were more than happy to do the cooking chores while I just watched. Although Skippy finally bowed out after the yakisoba, The Kid and I decided to go for one more dish, the one which the Downtown gang had ordered which was okonomiyaki with beef chunks. Ooh, talk about decadent. We were being served by a number of staff, one of whom looked like one of those young boys who would have a future with that male idol troupe, Johnny's Jimusho. As we were leaving, he was getting a bit of the tongue-lashing from his superior for a bit of a slip. There's none of that taking him aside and chewing a guy out privately to save face in these places. You screw up, everybody hears about it. It's probably the way that the greenhorns learn to be be efficient fast.

Over the course of the several hours that I was with The Kid and Skippy, I had noticed a gradual change in Skippy's demeanor. I had always known her to be the ultra-enthused cheerleader amongst the alumni of her year at the ol' school. However, she was showing somewhat of a suffer-no-fools-gladly-Shibuya-gal-ish side by the end. She was getting on The Kid's case for something or other, mockingly or not. Not a side that I particularly liked but who am I to judge character? I can only imagine what fights must be like between her and her boyfriend. Our final stop was a very normal Jonathan's family restaurant near Asakusa Station for dessert and coffee before heading home.

Monday April 10, 7:45 a.m.

It was a day of revelations yesterday. I arrived at JR Akihabara Station where I met Skippy at the gates. She was definitely waiting for this day for a long time. Her hidden otaku came out to the fore, and coupled with her natural effervescence, she was, frankly, on fire. The Kid called her cell to say that he would be 30 minutes late and his friend pulled a dotakyan, so the two of us went ahead. There were already several maids in front of the station handing out flyers for their respective Maid Cafes. And of course, they were getting a lot of photo-snapping admirers. Skippy didn't waste anytime and had me take a shot of her and a couple of the maids with her digital camera.

Her inherent geekiness became further evident to me when she took me to the complex across from the station, Radio Kaikan, and up to the 4th floor where there was a character doll shop (she had a homemade map of all the places that she wanted to visit in Akiba...including the major Maid Cafes). The entire complex held several stores on about 4 or 5 floors which were all cramped if efficiently set up. There were huge lifesize dolls of anime characters from "Evangelion" and "Hokuto no Ken", next to which Skippy was very happy to take some shots. There were also representatives from the various other major anime and robot shows such as "Ultraman", "Masked Rider" and "Gundam". Of course, there were the figures of the saucer-eyed, gravity-challenged blimp-bosomed anime girls in various stages of dress and undress. But it wasn't all Japanese. There was representation from the United States as well. There was a display case of Star Wars characters and ships. And I even saw a couple of boxes of the ISS Enterprise, the mirror universe version of the "good" Enterprise, from "Star Trek: Enterprise". How's that for specific?

We went back down to the bustling pavement and joined the crowds on the main street where all the otakus and maids and regular folk in the long pedestrian paradise plaza were mingling like folks in the Rio Festival. Skippy would later remark that the crowds were even bigger in Akihabara than in glamourous Ginza, which is also closed off to vehicular traffic on Sundays. I wouldn't have disagreed with her. It also brought me to the realization that Akihabara has indeed changed. The whole neighbourhood has become Disneyfied. Having lived next to Tokyo for well over a decade, I knew the area as the semi-exclusive enclave of the slightly villified, often-ridiculed otaku. But now, it's become the place to be for everyone, the trendy place to visit along other trendy neighbourhoods like Harajuku and Omotesando. And otakus, in addition to the Maids, have come back in from the cold. In a way, it's kinda like what happened to Times Square (the real McCoy in Manhattan, not the shopping mall in Shinjuku)...once, it was one of the seedier and more dangerous parts of New York; now it's become this happy-happy area of Disney and Warner Bros. The sleazebuckets must've been crying in their beer.

Our next stop was Asobit, another store on the main strip. We were about to explore some of its heights when The Kid arrived. He looked even thinner than last we met, and he wasn't exactly portly to start with. The three of us then entered Asobit in earnest, up to the higher floors to be exact, and we came across the character goods once more. However, it was on the higher floor that we entered the cosplay zone. Skippy started bouncing around as if it were Xmas. The Kid, being much younger and therefore a little more sensitive about his self-image, was groaning in embarrassment as his sempai from the ol' school was checking out the various Maid dresses. I think I knew right then and there where those Maid Cafes got their supplies. In any case, there were a few frilly-frocked girls doing some window-shopping as well.

Getting back onto the street, crowds were starting to coagulate around certain Maids or other costumed girls. We took peeks at who they were. A couple of them were dressed like sexy future police officers while others had the more traditional Maid garb. It was then that I realized a change in Skippy. She'd always been the happy-go-lucky one but she started taking on a bit of a harder edge as the day wore on. She took a look at a few of the girls getting the attention and remarked openly that she could look a whole lot better than those dogs. I wouldn't doubt it and she did openly state that would be very happy wearing one of those frocks. It was almost as if the girl had secretly taken a swig from a little silver bottle.

The Kid, Skippy and I started searching for a Maid Cafe to invade. We had to somewhat grope (figuratively not physically) our way on the street to look for the most famous At Home cafe. We could finally find it in this huge emporium. There was the downright bizarre sight of a diminuitive Maid dancing to some Eurobeat on a stage in front of the complex. However, the really weird sight greeted us on the floor where the At Home cafe was located. There were a few more Maids singing and dancing in front of a bunch of hopped-up geeks, two of whom were just flailing away as if they were at a mosh pit. However, to add legitimacy to the proceedings, there were several normal-looking women present with their boyfriends although they were looking at the scene with a remarkable sense of bemusement. As it turned out, the At Home cafe was fully booked and would mean that we would have to wait for an hour at least to get in. So we decided to go back down.

When Akihabara was still the geeky enclave, restaurants were pretty hard to find outside of the local McDonalds. Now, with the Disneyfication of the area, they've started to pop out from the woodwork. The three of us got a small lunch in front of that complex housing the At Home cafe at a onigiri stand. For 310 yen, I got a tuna & mayo rice ball with a bottle of green tea. Quite good.

Well, I do have a regular day ahead of me including that stop off at Immigration. I'll have to continue our Maid Odyssey later on.