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

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

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

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

September 3, 9:06 p.m.

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

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

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

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

Tuesday September 2, 11:16 p.m.

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

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

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

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

September 1, 9:11 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday August 31, 11:34 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 30, 5:44 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 29, 10:28 p.m.

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

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

August 28, 8:30 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

Original Title Title for Japan

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

August 27, 10:03 p.m.

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

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

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

August 26, 9:57 p.m.

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

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

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

August 26, 12:27 a.m.

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

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

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

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

August 25, 12:27 a.m.

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

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

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

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

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

August 23, 11:50 p.m.

The summer is definitely back....regrettably. It was over 30 by 9 a.m. this morning, and we hit a good 34.2 degrees by the afternoon. Those unbelievable days of coolness are just increasingly fading memories now. Maybe the only good thing was that I may have lost a kilogram or so through sweat.

After my kids today, I went over to Nakano to meet my newest student. But since I had a couple of hours before the meeting, I decided to take a look at the malls. One of the oldest ones in Tokyo also carries a great deal of anime stores run by the huge Mandarake group. However, I was a bit disappointed that there was only one staffperson in a costume. But the otakus were there in full force. I was surprised to see a number of Star Trek starship models on display.

At about 4, I met Movie Buddy's friend at the station. By that point, I was feeling pretty drenched. We went over to the shop where she worked, a dive shop with a cafe on the second floor. Looks like unlike the others, she has set a time limit on her time with me: about 3 to 6 months, which suits me fine. And also unlike the others, I will probably be doing a lot of picking and choosing from various texts to concoct my materials for her.

After about 90 minutes, I made it back to the station; the temps cooled down to a relatively chilly 30. Happily, the train went in a straight line back to my home, so I could actually get some shuteye on the way. If there is one thing I'll miss about this country if I do decide to leave it, it will be the ability to sleep on the subway. I find myself doing it without hesitation on the long hauls home. It might be age creeping up with me, but I don't really care. Considering I don't get that much sleep overnight anyways, I consider that time on the subway as quality.

Well, I've been able to relax for a number of hours now, but I will have to catch shuteye once more since I've got another Movie Buddy day tomorrow. This second outing will be a larger group with two more teachers and an extra person to add. I made reservations at a Polynesian restaurant in Shinjuku to ensure that we have a place that can hold all of us.

August 22

Today was one of those lazy days of summer. After a regular class with the oil company, I had 7 hours of nothing before my English circle with a lone person. So, after lunch, I caught up with that lady who had been in New York when the blackout hit. She took it in stride, staying at her friend's house in New Jersey at the time.

Then, it was just a number of hours with one of the ancient computers in the school playing Hearts and Solitaire, a most appropriate game. I even had time to give it a bit of a maintenance check. Afterwards, I decided to indulge at the nearby Chinese restaurant and had a champon, that Nagasaki noodle delicacy with pork bone stock. It was interesting being the lone eater in the restaurant with ol' 80s music playing in the background while I slurped down the soup.

Finally, I spent an hour at the cafe waiting for my student, doing my crosswords, before she came. Luckily, we were able to gab animatedly on musicals and movies before calling it a night. Tomorrow will be another round with the doctor's kids and then....hopefully....I will finally meet up with Movie Buddy's friend after a couple of aborted attempts.

August 21

Well, the summer is back. I had to put on the air con right now. By Saturday, I should be praying for cooler weather once more.

Feeling pretty tired after doing just one 3-hour class, a leisurely lunch, a shopping trip for textbooks, and then the class with my force-of-nature student. I think most of myfatigue came from dealing with her. I was able to get some shuteye on the subway home, though.

Looks like I'm appreciating my new work life more and more as I hear more of the gripes from the remaining full-timers. Two of the milder teachers were even getting riled up over the various scheduling errors. One of them was supposed to have had a powwow with the big boss this afternoon. I wonder if there could be repercussions. I remember my tete-a-tete with the big boss was fairly laughable.

August 19, 11:31 p.m.

I've just sent off an e-birthday card to my ex. She hasn't maintained any contact with me for a few weeks now, but I still just wanted to let her know I care. Also on the bittersweet side, that student whom I was having an almost nightly e-mail dialogue with, hasn't sent me any messages in the last couple of nights. I'm just kinda wondering if I scared her off. I mean, Idid give some examples of flirtations to her to see how much she was interested, but I guess I may have already gone overboard. SIGH! And just when I wanted to have a female friend, too....

My little plainitve wail doesn't compare to the current situation in Iraq. Now, the UN gets attacked. How far will this battle go?

August 19

The weather has started to resemble a bit more like August. Still not blazingly hot but warm enough to require my handkerchief for brow-wiping, and a mentholated handy-wipe to erase some of the sweat later in the evening.

It was one of those lazy Mondays. My rich clients aren't back online until next week, so I had nothing until 9 tonight. I just went over to the Grill for lunch...and might I say that it's starting to go into an increasingly downward spiral in terms of the lunch menu. The various meats were all either too greasy or bland, and the desserts were barely there. Looks like the owner is saving up the good stuff for the dinner crowd.

Then, after lunch, I spent the next hour or so looking through yet another monolithic commercial complex just a stone's throw away from the Grill, the Shiodome/NTV Center. This time, it isn't just one huge massive building like Roppongi Hills but three...count 'em three....behemoths of glass and steel: the Shiodome Centre, the new NTV complex and the HQ of the world's largest advertising firm, Dentsu. What used to be a decrepit bunch of buildings and empty lots has now become a very sleek and smooth futuristic nexus of activity. As it is, though, NTV looks to be a clone of Asahi-TV's HQ in Roppongi Hills. There's a lot of those stony winding corridors with lots of cul-de-sacs filled with trendy restaurants and cafes. As the new NTV has just opened, the station is celebrating a month-long opening festival, so there was a CHINDON band playing in the main plaza. A Chindon band consists of a saxophonist, a drummer, a trumpeter and a clarinetist and it originated several decades ago as an advertising medium for newly-opened stores in the Shitamachi area of Tokyo.

Afterwards, I slogged through a couple of CD stores before settling for a respite back on the roof of the Mitsukoshi department store while swilling a couple of cans of pop. That took up about 90 minutes but I still had several hours before my class, so I decided to go all the way down to Jiyugaoka. My Monday students often head out there since it is fairly close to their place of business. Well, when I arrived, I found it to be the usual hub around a small station: a couple of department stores nestled into a mass of small izakaya, restaurants, cafes and various shops. I ended up traipsing through it for almost two hours.

I did find some interesting places including a bookstore selling some pretty old books including songbooks from idol magazines dating back to the mid-70s. A lot of our middle-aged actors and actresses sure looked like Morning Musume back then. Also, there were a lot of interesting small bars and boutiques. Indeed, I think Jiyugaoka is a mix between your usual small Tokyo commercial district and Shimokitagawa, a trendy old neighbourhood for the young. There was even a side street called Hilo Street, named after the Hawaiian city. It even came complete with a speaker playing hula music. Only in Japan. And the neighbourhood also has a Dennys and an Anna Millers, which has a distinct reputation surrounding its short-skirted waitresses. But a Hooters, this ain't.

Well, I decided to go off down a couple of stations where my student lived, and went to the neighbourhood McDs for the next 70 minutes (yes, even after that marathon trek through Jiyugaoka, I still had plenty of time). When I finally came out to head over to the apartment, I came across one of the students just standing in front, apparently waiting for me to get out of the station. It just so happened that the other student's apartment was so messy that they decided to have the class out in Jiyugaoka of all things...the place that I had just spent exploring.

On the train heading for Jiyugaoka, the other student was coincidentally on as well, so it didn't take too long to find ourselves a temporary base of operations. He decided on Dennys, and was rather surprised that I knew how to get there. Good sense of direction, I told him.

The lesson was merely OK. One piece of advice when teaching students...well, actually two. The first one is don't bother trying to teach in a family restaurant....too loud. And don't order anything bigger than a cup of coffee when you're teaching. I ordered a peach sundae and it all turned to mush during my class. I would also suggest not teaching anyone past 9, but unfortunately, in my case, that can't be helped. My students only perked up when I could teach something they could use immediately.

Well, I'm home after my semi-odyssey. All I have to do is get some e-mail done and then get some sleep. Luckily, I'm just in the neighbourhood tomorrow with just a couple of classes in the evening.

August 17

Well, it was a fairly quiet weekend. August is still pretending to be April or November although I didn't really need the jacket. Saturday was a complete coccooning experience aside from a quick jaunt to the convenience store around the corner. Sunday was almost the same except for a call from Chip Guy who wanted to get a couple of the guys together for a bit of a drink out.

We (me, Chip Guy and CG's friend) ended up first going to a outdoor cafe in the trendy Daikanyama. Some very good BLTs to be had there; instead of the regular thin strips of bacon, I had a slab of what I think was Canadian back bacon with the usual tomato and lettuce between two English muffin halves. Very nice.

We also got some entertainment, albeit on the dark side. Just in front of us on the street, there was a comedy of errors going on with an inept driver and his car. For 5 minutes, we couldn't figure out whether he was trying to parallel park or drive out. Whatever he was doing, he was doing it badly, and he had enough space in front of the Benz parked behind him.

As it turned out, he was trying to get out, and at that moment, the driver of the Benz had the poor timing to come on out to drive away. We weren't sure whether it had been the frustration of the inept driver that fueled his next act, but he decided to reverse his car and bumped the Benz squarely on the fender. Then the fool decided to get into a one-sided screamfest with the hapless Benz driver who couldn't really hold his own against the guy. The yelling continued for a few more minutes while his pregnant wife stood mutely by with an umbrella, and the three of us were providing play-by-play commentary....mostly denigrating the fool. We almost hoped that Mr. Benz would punch his louder rival's lights out, but such was not to be. Finally, the fool stormed back to his car with his wife and drove off. Mr. Benz just muttered back to the cafe next to us and then he brought back out his family (!) and they drove off. As we saw the car go off, I imagined a tail tightly folded between the rear wheels.

We ended up talking about the incident for several minutes before we decided to go down the street to an Italian restaurant for the main event. The waiter had a bit of a laugh as we all ordered somewhat effeminate drinks in the form of two margaritas and a Bailey's Irish Cream, so not surprisingly, we all got into a round of gay jokes....followed by tech talk.

Tomorrow, back to another sparse week.

August 15, 10:30 p.m.

Well, shortly after my last entry, I find out that nearly a fifth of North America got blacked out. Toronto just can't buy itself a break. I'm hoping that I can get in contact with someone back home. I am happy though it wasn't a terrorist attack.

I can actually say this: I wore a black jacket...in August...in summer....in Tokyo. I am very confident that this is the first time and probably the last time that I will ever pull this off. It was just so cool today as well as rainy. Some deity is playing the shell game with our weather.

It was full-time with my part-time status as I taught the oil guys. Then I met up with a motley crew of a couple of teachers, and three current students for an impromptu lunch at the izakaya right beside the school. I never knew that I could get a pretty decent lunch there. We may have dodged a bullet (or not) during lunch though as we made mention of a recent grad who really didn't deserve her diploma; I think some of us forgot that she was a friend of some of the students there.

Afterward, we hit a cafe for some coffee. Ostensibly, one of the teachers was supposed to have come with me to meet up with a couple of recent grads (deserving ones), but she decided that she would stay with the lunch group. I didn't force the issue, but I thought it was pretty poor of her to make that quick switch like that.

Anyways, I met up with the two grads across the street at a Starbucks, and for th e next four hours we gabbed on just about anything and anyone in our sphere of influence. By around 5, I was getting mighty exhausted, so I was happy when we did break up, although I was happy to have seen them and to continue to see them.

Well, after that I went down to Yurakucho for a bit of CD shopping before meeting up with my Friday night circle for Chinese food, since our regular venue closed up early due to the O-Bon holiday. Very pleasant food and talk.

August 15

I wake up at 4 am to a very cool August morning. There is definitely some wackiness to this summer worldwide: people dying of heatstroke in Europe; we're shivering here in Japan. Toronto has our temps.

I checked over my finances last night before payday; surprisingly, even with this sparse working month, I was still able to save a bit of money. For me to actually stay above the red line is a miracle.

I've been kinda thinking about this possible thing between me and the former top student. I had asked her via e-mail subtly about going out for brunch on the coming Sunday. Unfortunately, she already has plans but I also noticed a certain brevity and coolness in her last dispatch. Perhaps she's giving me the signal, NO. I must admit that I'm starting to think that this was a flight of fantasy after all. We both may like jazz, speaking French and movies, but this is a woman who has professed her love for Ben Affleck and muscular fellows, and she has been going through the OMIAI route of matchmaking, so she's definitely interested in someone with a more lucrative career than an English teacher. Eck!

Well, after my lone class today with the oil guys, another teacher and I will be meeting up with two just-grads for coffee or lunch. Hmmm...if they decide to hang around long enough, I may just invite them to dinner with my Friday night circle. Our regular cafe is closing early tonight because of the current O-Bon holiday, so we've decided to head out for Chinese in Yurakucho. It could be a very nice meeting.