Sunday Jan. 18, 1:12 a.m.

Well, the horrible storm that was supposed to hit us is so far a bit of a bust. We've been getting steady wisps of flakes coming down all day and night but nothing has accumulated. Methinks that this whole thing will quickly become a meterological memory by the morning. However, the pundits did forecast more white stuff for Monday. Now I'm really hoping that there will be a huge whiteout then so that I can avoid that interpreting session between the Iconoclast and his bosses. Quit, already!

The kids were OK today along with my lesson plans. I managed to keep things relatively fun but I made sure that they got a good grounding in past tense. At this point, I'm willing to sacrifice some fun for some solid work.

For the next 6 hours afterwards, I had free time so I made my semi-regular stop at that great ramen shop in Shinjuku Station that the Iconoclast had introduced me to months ago. It not only has a great ribsticking ramen with roast pork cutlet, but it's non-smoking and it even plays jazz in the background. Perfect! Then I went on a bit of a spree and picked up another movie mag along with the Diane Krall DVD of her concert in Paris and a CD of an old semi-successful 80s band, GO WEST. I popped on the subway and headed down to Omotesando to scope out the restaurant for that New Year's party later in the evening. It was just across from Aoyama Gakuin University. Intriguing name...SYDNEY BLUE. Sounds like a female detective.

I then spent a better part of an hour searching high and low through Omotesando, Harajuku and Shibuya for a cafe. But given that it was a Saturday and it was cold, there was no chance that I would get a seat. I ended up at Towers doing some browsing all over the floors before I made my way to the corner McDonalds. I ended up having a snack there. That particular branch had a bit of a fascinating schizo interior decor. The front half was decked out in an off-white Grecian decor while the back was decked out as a 60s pop art mondo lounge. I think some photographer ought to take a few shots.

Finally, I made my way up the road in the gently blowing snow back to Sydney Blue where I already found a few familiar faces...and some surprises. Within a few minutes, I found out that a couple of the folks sitting there had gotten engaged. One of the two, The Big Guy, was eliciting some shocked looks when he made his announcement. He had known his newly-minted fiancee for a few years but only dated her officially for a week before he decided to pop the question.

Over the next several minutes, more of the gang arrived. As I may have mentioned before, i was never a great fan of mingling in big parties, and things didn't really change to make me change my mind. However, the good thing was that they were willing to let me just listen in on the conversations with a few chances for me to insert some comments. It had been close to a year since I'd seen any of them. I met Spunky for the first time in ages. She was always the mother hen of the gang...making sure everybody was OK and holding annual Thanksgiving parties at her apartment. Although the name and some pamphlets on a table may have pointed to some vague reference to Australia, the food was most definitely Meditteranean. It was good and very plentiful; in fact, I rather gagged after munching on smoked salmon, pasta and stuffed shells to see platters of glazed fried pork come out as a last course.

The strange thing about the entire evening was that Chip Guy, the man who had told me about the party in the first place, was a no-show. Spunky alluded that it's possible that he and the missus may have had a spat. But I think that's unlikely since he was supposed to have brought two Canadian friends in tow. In any case, I sent him a query about his absence.

Well, I'm glad to be home after a long day, and if this snowy weather continues into Sunday, I'll be just as happy to stay here as well.

Friday Jan. 16, 11:05 p.m.

Enjoyed a highly unusual wakeup of 12 noon. Don't know how long it's been since I woke up that late. I think the last time I did that was back around Xmas 1987 after a major hangover. Nothing as painful as that today.

Since I had no classes today, I just focused on getting some ironing done and prepping for my kids' classes. I also started watching the second season of 24 on DVD. Still a visual pageturner. Unfortunately, my sinuses decided to clog up as well, which provided me with several hours of sneezing and other misery until I bought some medicine tonight along with the fixins for dinner.

Well, we may have some snow in the forecast tomorrow. I love snow but I hate the fact that it tends to screw up public transportation so badly in this city. And I have to head out fo r the kids' place tomorrow morning and then I've got a New Year's party in the evening. In a way, I hope that the alert is a false alarm.

Friday Jan. 16, 12:49 a.m.

Sure enough, when I checked my bankbook for my montly stipend from my school, I received just enough to pay for a fairly good dinner in Tokyo. Looks like I may suffer my first loss when I do the books next month. Well, I look at it in perspective. Back 6 years ago, I busted my ankle just a few months after having started my full-time gig, so I wasn't exactly filled with money at that time. In fact, because I was out of it for 3 weeks, I was in such dire need that I had to borrow money from a friend for a short while. Naturally I appreciated the help but still, it was an ego-bruiser. Right now, even with the risk of going minus next month, I will still have considerably more in my account than I did at that time. I guess optimism is still good for something.

However, on the good side, my regular Tuesday night gig got expanded to Thursday from tonight with theaddition of a student. And another old student of mine informed me of a friend of hers who wants to enlist for lessons. Well, this could be another potential boost to the income here.

My lone class at the school wasn't a great one, though a few of the students seemed OK and all of them laughed uproariously at times. I'm always rather tough on myself.

Looks like I've got another head start on the weekend. My lone Friday afternoon student cancelled out due to work. And I haven't heard from Chip Guy concerning a possible dinner date on Friday evening. So I assume that I'll just be catching up on some ironing and then working on the kids' classes for Saturday.

I met up with Movie Buddy this afternoon at the school for the first time since that rather foul row last Saturday. He didn't mention a thing about it but did mention about the fact that we had all disappeared in the huge crowd. I didn't bother telling him the real reason I escaped. I told him about the fact that I'm borrowing The Two Towers. An initial attempt to meet up has been dashed due to plans on both ends.

Then, the Iconoclast left a message on the machine, sniping about yet another little snit with a staff member he hates with a passion. So I'll have to interpret that on Monday afternoon. I'm not going to be looking forward to that, though I am mindful that the Iconoclast has given me some very nice food. All I can say is that I hope he will keep his promise to leave the company in 2 weeks.

Wednesday Jan. 14, 10:50 p.m.

I did my montly budget check. It looks like even with the lack of income and the heavy expenditures, I was able to still save a nice, if not great, amount. However, I am dreading my miniscule payday tomorrow.

My long day was curtailed a bit when my final student of the day called up to cancel due to extra work. I wasn't complaining too much since I am feeling rather rundown. Perhaps it is some lingering effect of last night's Hirohito's Revenge or the cold bug has finally hit me in earnest. It was pretty chilly out today and much of northern Japan got majorly walloped by a huge snowstorm.

Looks like my social calendar could be shaping up some more. Once again, I got the lion's share of good e-mail and a few former students have contacted me about getting together for New Year's parties in the next couple of weeks. And I thought that the Holidays were finally over.

I made a pickup at the Iconoclast's company today between classes to pick up that massive fruitcake he doesn't like. It ought to be good as a prize for tomorrow's class at the school. At the same time, I also got that Chinese fake meat made from tofu, ZAI, a hard block of maple sugar and even a bottle of Bit and Bites. The ZAI is definitely an acquired taste; I could take it though not exactly savor it. It was a matter of not quite approximating real meat in terms of taste and texture, but I was game enough to devour it with some hot rice for dinner.

Wednesday Jan. 14, 8:02 a.m.

Rather busy yesterday with classes spread throughout the day. My first Tsudanuma class of the year went quite well along with my first class at the old school. Some of the students had wondered if I had finally cut all ties. During my 4-hour break between that class and my regular night gig, I got into a nice conversation with a student I hadn't taught since Halloween. We share a common interest in jazz, especially Diana Krall, so we ended up deciding to swap some CDs on Thursda y since I'll be teaching then as well.

The night classes went pretty smoothly although my last class was one of those somnabulant affairs, and the past perfect tense is definitely not one of the more exciting lessons to teach. I also learned that there is a reason not to drink orange soda past its expiry date. To wit, I was very thirsty even after the first cup of coffee so I raided the fridge in my teaching room. My boss is not exactly the most conscientious person when it comes to maintaining what's in the fridge. There was a carton of Tropicana which had expired back on December 27th; there was no way that I would touch that, but I did go for the orange soda. Even the expiry date of Jan. 7th, I thought that with soda being soda, there would be no problem. However, I did get a tinge of Montezuma's Revenge later when I got home...or perhaps I should say Hirohito's Revenge.

After several days of very low real e-mail traffic, I rather hit the motherloda last night with a good 20% of my inbox consisting of true messages. One was even from my former girl; apparently, she's moved just a little east of me for some reason. I'm not sure if that means she's gotten her own little place or if she's moved in with her new beau. However, she has invited me for a bit of lunch next week.

I've been going over The Two Towers DVD little by little during my relatively brief periods of free time. It will take some time to get through the extras since there are so many of them. This morning was devoted to the making of Gollum. I think, in a way, it's good to go through the extras very gradually since the self-congratulatory tone can be awfully grating beyond a certain period of time.

Today should be another busy one with three different classes spread out over the day. Plus, I've got another pickup of food from The Iconoclast in between classes. Looks like it'll be another chilly one today.

Monday Jan. 12, 10:35 p.m.

Nice quiet day at home. I managed to get through nearly 4 hours of the special extended DVD of The Two Towers. Much better than the theatrical version. Just kinda wished that Jackson got off that "Longest Closing Credits Sequence in History" kick, though. Now, I've gotta get through the special features which should take just as long.

Well, tomorrow is back to work. Tuesday and Wednesday ought to be my busiest days since I'll have to be out of the apartment most of the time.

Monday Jan. 12, 12:31 p.m.

Well, sure enough, the news this mornng showed a few of those malcontents crashing Adulthood Day ceremonies in Okinawa and Miyagi Prefectures. Although those punks did steam me, I also realized that there are a whole lot more ceremonies going on around the country which were probably a lot more peaceful if boring, and perhaps in a few rare cases, even truly inspirational (oops...I caught a whiff of optimism there...gotta check that).

Forgot to mention that the Ballerina called all the way from London last night and left a greeting. She stated that she tried to reach Movie Buddy on his cell but he wasn't picking up. I recollected that he once said the Ballerina was just a bit too dependent on him (she's had a major crush on him) and that he would refrain from talking to her for a while. And especially with Saturday night's events, I don't think it would help matters having any mention of the Ballerina into their relationship.

I borrowed The Two Towers Special Edition DVDs and the second season of 24 from Chip Guy. Looks like I'll be busy today but I've got some housework to do. Plus, I've got to devour the Iconoclast's BBQ pork that he so kindly brought back from HK for me.

Monday Jan. 12, 12:55 a.m.

Well, another Adulthood Day is here..the time when the new 20-year-olds dress up in their kimonos and suits, drink LEGALLY for once and heckle the mayor during the usually boring speech that he makes to the so-called mature adults. As you might imagine, I take a dim view of any day that celebrates a set border between adolescence and adulthood. Plenty of immature adults well into their 20s and 30s out there.

Luckily, the past evening was a much more serene and pleasant experience than that logistical and emotional fiasco of Saturday night. I made my first pilgrimage to Chip Guy's house this year, and enjoyed his company along with that of his wife and kid. The only source of caterwauling just came from Chip Guy's daughter and THAT I could understand.

Over dessert, I watched one of those "Only In Japan" variety shows. I think this program belonged solidly more in the National Geographic channel than the Food Network. It was about a few celebs who dared to enter unknown lands and find out what some of the natives were eating. Among the "delicacies" were: mosquito patties stewed in cow urine, sauteed termite queens and deep-fried spiders. Chip's wife was marveling at how I could keep on munching chocolates while watching this program. Hmph...I can distinguish between the two things!

Sunday Jan. 11, 1:33 a.m.

Well, it was one for the entertainment books tonight. It certainly made me wonder whether I should have even bothered lingering around Shinjuku for 6 hours before meeting up with Movie Buddy and the bunch. First of all, our trip to Shidax, our first choice for karaoke, was short-circuited by one of those young hucksters hawking half-price karaoke around the corner in Kabukicho. I was pretty suspicious to begin with, but MB got hooked by the promise of all-you-can-drink.

As it turned out, the place we went to was no better than the really cheap karaoke box with the dingy walls and the torn-up seats. The karaoke system was slow in responding and had this weird gimmick of being in random selection mode so that we could never find out when we would be singing. Plus, the drinks and food (miniscule and mediocre) were late in coming and some of the orders were never processed. But the worst part of it was that it looked like MB and his girlfriend had been in the middle of a lovers' spat even before tonight's event, and it boiled over in the middle of the session. While some of us were singing, MB and his girl decided to continue their argument in the room itself until MB suddenly stormed out with his girl following. He came back all pouty for a little bit but it looked like the two had patched things up...initially. Finally, when we were on our way back to the station, I was walking beside them when the girlfriend decided that she would give him the cold shoulder with him trying to catch up and make up. I'd had enough and just left them alone...easy enough to do in the usual tumultuous crowd which always clogged the area around the ticket machines and gates. One thing I hate is getting into the middle of a crossfire, especially between two lovers. Mind you, the whole thing reminded me of some of the dicier moments between me and my ex, albeit it was in more private situations. However, I have blown up in the past in public places, so I can sympathize to a certain extent with MB.

As it is, though, I could've avoided all this and just stayed home with a good meal. Ah well, these things do happen from time to time. I just hope that my meeting with Chip Guy goes a lot better.

And as a further conclusion, witnessing all of this ugliness illustrated to me that I'm happier being single again.

Friday Jan. 9, 11:07 p.m.

Always nice to take a shower after a day of eating very spicy food. I went down to Roppongi as scheduled and went to First Kitchen, one of the local fast food restaurants, to meet that acquaintance of mine. I had a chili dog set which added the first aromas to my clothing. We shifted the venue over to the family restaurant, Janathans, across the street. It seems like there was a reason that he wanted to change places. He's a macrobiotic type of fellow so nothing on the First Kitchen menu would ever be chosen by him. He just uses the place as a study hall, much to the staff's chagrin.

Afterwards, I went up to the Iconoclast's company and met up with his boss' nephew. Unlike in my first report, his nephew turned out to be a pretty decent fellow. He asked me a lot of questions about living in Canada which I was happy to answer, and we continued our conversation over to dinner at a tiny yakitori place in East Shinjuku. Of course, the smells of the dishes there managed to permeate my clothing. I was broiling in my own juices with the extra layers on, but as it turned out, my decision was a good one. It was cold walking back home but the layers kept most of it out.

Well, gotta make the plans for the kids.

Friday Jan. 9, 11:14 a.m.

It may be -20 before the wind chill in Toronto but it was still plenty cold here in Tokyo despite it being 22 degrees warmer. I can thank the lack of central heating for that. Luckily, I've had a 10-year-old ceramic heater that's still working. The wonders of Japanese durability.

The salarymen are crying the blues here. Not because of the economy which is actually showing a rise, but because of the ban on beef imports from the US and probably Canada. We have a very popular restaurant among the salaried types here called Yoshinoya whose fare du guerre is GYUDON or beef on rice in a bowl. In fact, there are other similar chains as well but Yoshinoya is the representative restaurant. Salarymen love to go there during lunch or even dinner since the dish comes out hot, quick and cheap. With the restrictions on beef, Japan will deplete its American beef supplies by March which means that all of the gyudon restaurants will have to drastically change the menu. Substitutes include salmon roe, chicken or other stuff on the rice. Some of those salarymen when interviewed cited a lot of regret if that were to happen.

Well, today, I'll be headed out to meet a couple of folks. One is a guy who I only met once or twice back in Toronto several years ago. For some reason, he's tried to maintain contact with me over the years by e-mail, so we've finally decided to meet in Roppongi for a bit of tea. Then, I head back up to Shinjuku to meet The Iconoclast and his boss' nephew. It seems the nephew wants to head off to Canada to study something. His English is not too hot, and since The Iconoclast's Japanese is minimal, I'm being brought in again as intermediary. Oh, man...I just hope he's not one of these young punks with an attitude.

I may have another get-together in the works. One of the Tea Room girls contacted me for the first time in several weeks since our disbanding to see if we were up for a New Year's party. Then, another one of my school's alumni who actually has her current job thanks to that aforementioned Tea Room lady contacted me for pretty much the same thing. Hmmm...after that Xmas fiasco, I'm wondering if I should let one of them do the planning.

My weekend will be spent with my closest friends. I've got my first class with the kids tomorrow, but then I'll be meeting up with Movie Buddy and his friend from Oz for a goodbye dinner before Oz takes off for home. Then, I'll be meeting up with Chip Guy and the family on Sunday for dinner with him.

Wednesday Jan. 7, 11:17 p.m.

I felt pretty worn out and limp by the time I returned home tonight. I think one factor in that was my fashion overreaction. Again, I judged the weather outside by how cold it felt inside in my pyjamas, so I threw on the scarf, the gloves and the longjohns. Of course, the temperature today was 7 degrees...cold by Tokyo standards, but for a supposedly coldproofed Canadian like myself, I should've just laughed it off. Instead I lugged all of this stuff on my person like a portable sauna. Without getting into too fine detail, I resorted to peeling off my longjohns. My legs will probably be the envy of a lot of young ladies right now.

I ended up getting a 1000 yen pass since I had quite a few stops today which involved paying bills, doing some shopping and then teaching my two classes. The two of them went by fairly smoothly. But they will end up being the only two classes of my work week, aside from my kids on Saturday morning, since my new class on Thursday nights cancelled out and we've got that Adulthood Day on Monday.

That Starbucks card I got from my Wednesday nighter has been a godsend. No reaching for bills and change for my lattes and cinnamon rolls. Just a swipe and the staff person takes care of that aspect of manual labor.

I gave my afternoon student a bit of a scare when I admitted my past as a former otaku. I had to reassure that I no longer go nuts when it comes to purchases of music CDs and any anime purchases are a thing of the past.

The Iconoclast has returned from his vacation in HK with a nice slab of BBQ pork for me. Now all I have to do is try to secure it sometime this weekend.

Well, now that I have nothing tomorrow, I can just sleep in and just get a few errands done.

Tuesday Jan. 6, 11:55 p.m.

Another smooth night in front of the students, although that one student is once again making some groans about having to work with a less-advanced book. Well, I did offer that she could start a private class with me since I will be teaching 2 Thursdays a month from this week. However, my boss told me that the student had related to her that she is loathe to do that since it would be too expensive. Well, if she wants to paint herself into a corner with her own brush, that's her business.

I still received a few more New Year's cards today, one from a surprise source, The Joker. After a silence of several years, he, or his wife actually, sent over a card. Well, I tried to find some remaining New Year's cards at the convenience store but it looks like the season is now officially over; I couldn't find a single one. I think it's a bit chintzy, but I decided to send The Joker and the two other parties e-mail cards instead. The other ones came from that family whose kids I teach on Saturdays and a couple of former students who had become a married item a couple of years ago. They just opened up a flower shop of their own; it should look very nice since the husband is a former set designer. I must admit that the address of the place is intriguing. Although it was written in the katakana syllabary, I swear it reads as "Phil Collins Musashino". I wonder if the building itself is called "Genesis".

I also received a phone message from the Ballerina. It sounded rather final so I gather that I won't be meeting her at the school after all. I am a bit disappointed by that but at least it saves me an extra leg on my journey and I can get at least one more hour of sleep. Speaking of the school, I guess the staff is pretty desperate in trying to find teachers. I have told the folks there repeatedly that I cannot work on Fridays, and yet they sent me a fax asking if I would be willing to teach at the Funabashi City Hall on Thursdays and Fridays for the next several weeks. For one thing, I said that I would only teach the in-house classes at the school, and for the second thing, when I taught there last year, the organization and the materials for the class were so lame. Nice students, though, so I was rather ashamed about teaching that crap to them.

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 11:48 a.m.

Got a good 10 hours of sleep today. One thing about these holidays, I'm very happy for the down time. I also heard the garbage guys come by for the first time in over a week. Looking at the pile that was there last night, it looks like they are going to be needing the Ben-Gay tonight.

Well, that was indeed a computer worm which attacked me yesterday. But damage was minimal. It tried to make another attack today but luckily I was able to filter it out now that I knew what I was looking for.

I received a bit more traffic of real e-mail as well. Chip Guy is back in town so I'm looking forward to dinner with him this weekend. GC and another old friend got back in touch as well, so I was able to have somewhat mroe meaningful exchanges other than the usual one-line responses.

Well, I've gotta get prepped for my three classes tonight.

Mon. Jan. 5, 9:36 p.m.

Well, I know that the Holidays are truly over when regular civic services are back online. I had a couple of bags of burnable garbage just hanging around my kitchen for a week until I finally could dump them outside. No problems with smell, though, thanks to the fact that I have no central heating.

Heading out to Tokyo wasn't too bad. I made a stopover in Akihabara today to pick up one last calendar for the Anime King. I must admit that it felt rather weird being in the anime emporium, GAMERS, surrounded by folks who could become my surrogate children. But I was able to find a calendar which should keep the King happy. A lot of people milling through the electronics district.

The class tonight went by pretty smoothly. I got the impression on the way back to Shinjuku Station, though, that there was still a period of transition going on between the Holidays and the regular work week. Not too many people walking outside of the huge hotels in the West Shinjuku district.

The weather has gotten noticeably colder again after a balmy New Year's week. I wonder if there will be a repeat of that fateful Adulthood Day several years back when the kimonoed and suited 20-year-olds got socked by a major snowstorm in Tokyo.

Looks like the BBS traffic has been burning up a streak on the J-Pop forums about the Morning Musume graduations and the Kohaku Utagassen. If I were ten years younger, I probably would jump in instead of being a harmless lurker but considering that a lot of messages have the words "Mom" and "Dad" in them, I would feel somewhat sleazy doing so. I am impressed, though, at the origins of some of those messages: New York, Louisiana, Texas.

Monday Jan. 5, 9:14 a.m.

Well, the first work day of the new year is getting off to an unsurprisingly rocky start. For some reason, my eyes flicked open at 4:30 a.m. so that I only netted four hours of sleep. Plus, my coffee urn decided to vomit its hot contents all over me when I pushed down the plunger, and then some goof decided to send me a potential computer virus under the administration of my server. And now I find out that my application to get a birth certificate to get a new passport will take about 14 weeks MINIMUM. Good grief!

Looks like there have been idol bombshells on both sides of the Pacific. Britney gets married under alcohol, but she will get that annulled. Over here, the fans of the Morning Musume supergroup are reeling on hearing that two of the more popular members, Ai and Nozomi, will be "graduating" from the group in the summer. The otakus are probably crying in their Hello Kitty mugs of beer.

Well, when a day like today starts like it has, I'm just gonna get me a rubdown at my massage clinic, and then enjoy a nice lunch before prepping for my lesson tonight. Luckily, I already set the groundwork last night.

Sunday Jan. 4, 9:49 p.m.

The official New Year's holidays will be finishing as of tonight, although I'm sure that there will probably be New Year's parties all throughout the month. I think this country is the only one in the G-8 that has 2 different sets of major parties with just one week in between. I did my weekly budgetary calculations, and they illustrated how quiet my week was. My total weekly expenditures were a fair bit smaller than the previous week's expenditures on food alone. That certainly is a big relief for me considering that I didn't make any income over the past 2 weeks.

My e-mail traffic, the real stuff anyways, has been paltry. Basically, all I've been doing is sweeping out the spam aside from one or two letters.

But I'll be back at work from Monday. However, I just have that one night class so I guess my holidays will still be extended for a little bit longer. No complaints from this end.

The Ballerina contacted me by phone today asking me if I am available on Wednesday. A couple of old alumni are popping by the school just before she takes off for jolly ol' England later that day.

I actually caught a good portion of that French movie "Amelie" that was all the rage a couple of years ago on TV this morning. I decided to watch it in its original French; I was never a huge dubbing fan although I was able to endure it as a child when I watched those Godzilla movies back in Canada. What can I say? It's perky and typically off-kilter for a French comedy. Mind you, "Amelie" is the first French comedy I've ever seen.

Well, time to prepare for the lessons.

Saturday Jan. 3, 12:51 a.m.

I made my way down to Shibuya to meet up with my friend from Sendai. Even on the 2nd of January, Shibuya was still fully packed with people...it was more like a regular Sunday than a New Year's holiday. It was even more strange considering that a good number of stores were still closed. After a short visit to Towers we first checked out our first choice of Uoza no Itcho but it looks like they had decided to stay closed. So after a short respite at a Doutor coffee shop for 30 minutes, we were able to get into our second choice of En. We just spent the next five hours gabbing and eating fine food. As usual, we got into a couple of debates involving East Asian politics and the like but all in all, it went quite well

Well, I'm going to return to my cocooning for the weekend until I'm back on duty as of Monday.

Thurs. January 1, 2004, 11:14 p.m.

A Happy New Year! Although I think for me, it'll be an uncertain one.
The past 48 hours have been spent in my apartment. I only stepped out just to go down to the first floor to pick up my New Year's Cards today. Quite a difference from the nightly outings last week.

New Year's Eve was just spent at home watching the countdown to midnight and, of course, being in Japan, catching the Red and White Song Festival on NHK. I think it's the first time in a few years since I've seen the festival from beginning to end. As it was, it wasn't too bad although it was still a little grating listening to some of the contrived dialogue, especially since many of the younger acts talk very frankly usually. Then, just before the stroke of midnight, GC gave me a surprise phone call while I was making the toshikoshi noodles to commemorate the passing of the year. I should be getting a phone call from the parentals sometime tomorrow morning.

For today, it was another first for me. It was the first time in several years I didn't even bother to set one metre outside of my apartment building. I would have even stayed within the confines of my apartment itself if I hadn't decided to step out to pick up the cards. I just fed myself on the remaining noodles and leftovers from last night's dinner. Most families on New Year's Day feast on OSECHI which consists of lacquered platters filled with special New Year's foods. It's OK to eat but I don't particularly miss not having it. Basically, my day was spent just taping specials for the parents.

However, the streak of cocooning will be broken tomorrow since I'll be meeting up with a friend of mine for dinner. Well, at least, I did save money over these past three days.

The past year wasn't exactly an Annus Horribilis as certain members of royalty are prone to have but I can't really say that it's been a banner one for me either. I can say that it was one of transition and sobriety. I went from being a full-time teacher for a management that I couldn't really trust to a freer part-time teacher. I can't believe it's almost a year since I made the decision to cut most of my ties with my school. The new situation for me has had its ups and downs but generally it's been a good move for me since I've had to be more diligent on the finances. The big test will come in a couple of weeks when I go into City Hall to declare my income taxes. Also, I lost my girlfriend of 18 months; now that probably won't mean too much to the lot of you but for a guy my age who had never had a girlfriend before, it has a bit more significance for me. I've also seen my circle of friends grow smaller. Someone said that as one ages one's circle shrinks but gets tighter. That may be so, but I am going to lose a very good friend, Chip Man, and his family back to Canada. Plus, I'm rather wondering about how close I should be with my current and future students; frankly, from the events of this past year, I have pondered about the merits of showing too much of myself to clients. I might become more solitary this year but perhaps that might be more my style anyways.

I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions this year and I think I will stop that rather useless habit of navel-gazing since I really don't have faith in much of anything anymore. I'm just going to take things one day at a time. Perhaps this will reveal me as somewhat of a grumpy cynic but, hey, as I commemorate my 10th year in this country, I gotta be me.

Tuesday Dec. 30, 11:19 p.m.

I partially finished Stage 2 of the big cleanup today. This time, it was my bedroom. Nothing as strenuous as yesterday's mopdown of the living room. Basically, all it entailed was some vacuuming and dusting. However, I've got some finishing touches and then I can finish everything off by taking care of the bathroom and kitchen.

Well, I had actually flirted with the thought of heading onemore time to the Farm Grill for its penultimate night for dinner, but considering the work at hand here, I decided to let the idea go. I won't be going anywhere for New Year's Eve so that will be it for my relationship with the Grill. To make up for it, I bought a small roast chicken for dinner with some minestrone as a side dish.

I took a bit of a walk down memory lane tonight watching a special version of an old music program that has been off the air for over a decade. The Best 10 was my very first valued source for J-Pop, and it was interesting seeing these old singers come out one more time. It reflected a somewhat more innocent and perhaps even more quintessentially Japanese time in terms of pop music. The songs back then were cottony-soft puffy examples of formulaic pap but they certainly couldn't be said to resemble anything America had at the time. Nowadays, J-Pop is basically metamorphosing into clones of hip-hop, rap and soul.

Well, tomorrow, I finish off my apartment cleaning and then I will get some food. I should be giving my VCR a good workout since I'll be taping stuff for the parentals. At least, I don't have to tape the annual NHK Red and White Program since they now have a satellite link to the channel from Toronto. I've already started the taping tonight.