Saturday November 20, 5:09 p.m.

The lessons with the girls went OK. Even the older girl was more on the ball. Decided to get a bit fancy with dinner tonight. I'm making my famous Sweet N' Sour Chicken for the first time in several months. May even take a look through those tapes of US TV although I'm not particularly all that interested in them outside of The Simpsons.

Will have to turn in a bit early since I've got that "business" trip up north to Chichibu, Saitama with the juku boss.

Friday November 19, 7:50 p.m.

The allergies were bothering today so I picked up some medicine along the way. Still, I had to reach for the Kleenex discreetly several times during The Teacher's class. And frankly, they never truly went away, probably due to the clammy weather.

I was able to pick up those books that Shard's wife had asked for. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. There was a distinct section at Maruzen for beadwork.

Ended up talking with SR for three hours today on such cheerful topics as the next terrorist attack and the inevitable Great Tokyo Earthquake. The Tea Room was uncharacteristically hopping today due to some sort of event nearby, but by the end of our chat, it was back to just us two.

The coordinator sent me a message asking if I could teach next Thursday. That day would probably be better for me, content-wise, since it's just a regular conversation class. However, I do have Jazz Buddy until 1:30 so that's impossible. I assume I still have the Friday assignment which is Speech class. Unforunately the topic is the wonderful world of Capital Punishment. I can only shudder if I have to take care of the lowest class.

Well, dunno if it's raining tomorrow too but I've got the kids in the morning. I'll have the elder sister for the first time in a month so I can only imagine what Miss Sullen will be like.

Thursday November 18, 9:38 p.m.

Well, Jazz Buddy was better today. I used another source of material which seemed to have worked better. I also found out that my e-mail just isn't getting through to her cellphone so I can only rely on phone or when I meet her. Then, I suggested to her that our last meeting before my vacation could be held at a deli in the Park Hyatt.

I kinda followed a hunch and went back to the school to have lunch. I was just wondering if the Coordinator had even relayed my proposal for a trip over to the Gyoza Museum tonight. Sure enough, she didn't say anything but my visit did give me the chance to start the ball rolling for that visit. It'll just be put to the 2nd instead. Looks I may have a couple of goers. I also heard from the coordinator that a newbie teacher had a major shouting match with one of the higher students due to some misinterpreted slight. Needless to say, he is no longer teaching the kids. Mind you, I think I was probably the same way when I first started teaching. At the same time, it was nice to see the kids and teachers such as Movie Buddy, The Jester, The DJ and The Veteran.

I did make it to the gym today. I even upped the weight for my machine training so I'm sure that I'll be in even more pain tomorrow. I'll have to let The Teacher know that I won't be able to teach her next week since I may be filling in at the school then.

The top story on the news today was the murder of a young girl by a sociopath-at-large. The nut even sent a message to the dead girl's mother via the girl's own cellphone stating that he had her. Hope the police hunt him down like a rabid fox.

Wednesday November 17, 8:11 p.m.

Well, in a feeble restaurant critic's attempt to be punny, LAST wasn't quite first. I got there around 11:30 just when it opened. It's a much smaller place than the Farm Grill and the variety and amounts of dishes were appropriately similar. The owners are gonna to have work a bit on their selection. The usual buffet favorites were out there such as Spaghetti Pepperoncino and Rice Curry, stuff that will fill you up fast and make you want to get that extra drink. However, the Chinese soup was laughingly just chicken consomme with green specks, and the fried chicken tasted fried but that's about it. Still, for a thousand yen, it was OK but I could imagine the food critics fainting in disgust. The decor was all in American Diner and the music was country and 70s music. Yup, definitely Californian. I'll probably tell Movie Buddy about it but I won't plan a group outing around it.

I met The Hawaiian and her aunt today. At first, I was a bit apprehensive when the Aunt came off as a bit quite and immediately leaned on her niece for translation but once she got more used to me, I realized that she's quite the enthusiast for English. Her listening was surprisingly high but her responses lacked any sort of proper syntax so I do have my work cut out for me. Still, she'd be a welcome asset at the school. The Hawaiian is starting to get a bit itchy about heading over to Oz for a few months at least next year, so I'll probably lose her again pretty soon. Still, I can't really teach her much since she's so high a student.

When I got back to the neighbourhood, I shopped for a fresh supply of undergarments since some of the stuff I have now is starting to resemble some of Brando's wardrobe in "A Streetcar Named Desire". Plus, I got a stack of cheap audio tapes...as rare as they are now in this age of MDs...to prep that pronounciation exercise for Jazz Buddy. Man, I wonder if I'm gonna have another round of psychoanalysis with her tomorrow.

And I actually picked a little something for dinner tonight despite my lunch at the buffet. But in fact, I didn't really eat all that much.

The top story on NHK News tonight was the various scenarios about if a Shindo 7 earthquake were to hit Tokyo straight on. The way it looked, I'm pretty much dead in my neighbourhood. I just hope that I'm not anywhere in the metropolis at all when it hits. Let's say that it doesn't bode well for the 12 million there.

Since it doesn't look like I'll be getting any takers for this immimently-to-be-aborted trip to the food cities in Ikebukuro tomorrow, I'll probably load up on lunch after JB before hitting the gym again. It's a step in the right direction anyways...loading up on gyoza and ice cream or loading up on the exercise.

Wednesday November 17, 8:53 a.m.

I think I am pretty achy this morning which has got me started in a bad mood. I got a bit snippy with The Hawaiian when she sent me a letter stating that there was a bit of confusion over today's meeting time. In retrospect, the language was pretty mild so I don't think she'll take offense but still, I know the intent was there on my part, so I still sent a second missive apologizing.

Well, I'm achy. So no trip to the gym today. Instead, I'll follow the Devil today and try out LAST for lunch just before heading out to see The Hawaiian and her aunt. I hope they have some very strong coffee there.

Plus, Shard gave me a request to find a book for his wife. Should be easy enough to do.

CNN has started showing teasers for Bill Hemmer coming over here to do his American Morning show next month. Interesting timing...I'll be leaving for home the same week.

Wednesday November 17, 12:01 a.m.

Had my lunch at the kaiten sushi today. There still wasn't too much running on the conveyor belt so I did order some of the stuff from the chef. I had my first workout at the gym for the first time in 8 days. Surprisingly, I was half a kilogram down from what I posted last time. I'm thinking about whether to go there tomorrow morning before I meet up with The Hawaiian. It'll depend on how achy I feel when I wake up. I've got a new student in the form of the Hawaiian's aunt so I'll have to be on my best behaviour.

Had quite a few letters in the inbox tonight. Had my usual long "chat" with Shard over the minutiae of popular culture. Always enjoy that.

The classes at the juku went well. The Beauty Pair came back after convalescing from their cold last week. I even got a present from Mr. Eccentric via them. They'll be heading off for Las Vegas from this weekend so they're pretty pumped about hitting the slots. Just hope that the slots don't pump them out of too much money. My boss was OK if a bit more scatterbrained than usual.

Listened to that Tom Jones CD. Yup, it was pretty good but I can't help but feel that he brings a certain sameness to everything he does, no matter all the accolades that have been written up about him in the liner notes. Then again, I've yet to hear all the tracks. It's also unbelievable that I can remember seeing his old ABC show when I was a mere baby back in the 60s.

The Hawaiian has taken up my invitation to catch The Incredibles on the 5th. So that's probably a 6th member now.

Monday November 15, 9:52 p.m.

Ready to kill my computer right now. Crashed 3 times last night and it did the same thing tonight. Not only that, but it managed to somehow screw up everything with my resume so spent the last 20 minutes fixing that.

Looks like I'm officially in charge of this party for DTE. She made my job easy and hard for me simultaneously when she told me that she had no preferences for restaurant. Well, I can always check out that LAST place in Shiodome although some of the group may ask why I'm picking out a distinctly American place for an American's goodbye dinner. Well, I figure that I can just always go DOMA DOMA, that upscale izakaya chain. Problem is that those places always require a set dinner for large numbers. In a way, I hope we don't make it too big although at this point, it looks like it'll be DTE, myself, MB, Skippy and Arwen. JB has yet to respond but she never does which irks me.

The rain came down pretty heavily this morning but by the afternoon, there was some sun filtering through. It amazes me that just a couple of months ago, we had been going through the Summer of Hell. Today, I wrapped myself up in my jacket and scarf. Tomorrow, blizzard? During the break between lessons, I hit HMV for three CDs. I couldn't find anything in the jazz category. But I did buy, believe it or not, the Best of Tom Jones. Well, I bought it for two tracks anyways...one being that collaborative cover of Prince's KISS (is he still going by that sign?) with The Art of Noise.

The other two were J-Pop. One is an interesting choice for me: a rap/pop/R&B song by a female duo called Bennie K. The single is known as Sunrise, which sounds something that the B-52s would sing. It's very catchy in a ROAM type of way. The girls themselves have taken on the mantle of J-Pop hit female duo which has been worn by pairs like Pink Lady and Wink. The two girls, though, like a mix of Stepford Wives and Shibuya gals. And my final purchase was the second single of new band Tokyo Jihen with formerly solo Shiina Ringo as the lead singer.

My lesson at The Company was pretty smooth. I just had the one best student of the class, and not surprisingly, he managed to catch up from his absence last week. In fact, he even exceeded his fellows by a page or so.

Well, I'm a month away from heading back home so I gather that it's time to throw on the Xmas music. Yee-hah!

Monday November 15, 7:52 a.m.

Gonna need an umbrella for most of the day. Drag. Kinda feel considerably older than 39 right now. Bring on the Geritol and Metamucil. I'm sending off the video of Japanaese TV shows and Seirogan. What's Seirogan? It's the local equivalent of the worst-smelling medicine you can think of...but it works. I think there was a cough syrup that had the same boast.

Last night, I caught a movie on Pay called Flowers and Snakes. Lest one assumes that it's a nature movie, it is an S&M flick. Now, let me say right from the start, I'm not a purveyor of whips-and-cream cinema. However, what got me to watch this was that it had been released last year to rather lurid fanfare in the magazines and talk shows. Not that S&M is a new deviant activity in the porn industry; I'd say that it's had much of a place in the underground as it's had in American porn. No, the reason that Flower and Snakes garnered such "acclaim" is the lead star/victim (I think I may have mentioned about this very briefly in an entry last year...not that I expect you to remember). Aya Sugimoto started out as a sports car model and then came out with a few songs on CD (virtually anyone who becomes a regular on TV here apparently has a clause in his/her contract that demands an attempt at singing despite the obvious lack of talent) with frequent appearances on variety shows. In other words, she was the run-of-the-millTV personality, albeit a gorgeous one. But somewhere down the line she got married, disappeared for several years, before popping out again after a divorce.

So it was with some shock and titillation that she came out with some nude pictorials and then this S&M flick. Think of Vanna White turning on a spit instead of turning letters herself, and that was the feeling going around here in its initial release. Mind you, the shock was tempered by the fact that Sugimoto has always had that Amazonian sex appeal so most people weren't downright scandalized in a way that they could have been if someone like, say, veteran pop idol Seiko Matsuda had starred in it. Still, the shock came from how far Sugimoto was willing to go to play the victim. Basically nothing was left to the imagination although certain "key" scenes were obviously simulated and of course, her private parts were pixillated as is the law in Japan.

According to some of the Net reports from the ordinary people that had seen it, they were frankly left cold by the experience. Nothing particularly arousing about it aside from the fact that a famous celeb was willing to be strung up. In fact, to me, it seemed like that the entire enterprise was a summer stock-like beginner's exercise in S&M film for trendy drama actors. Along with Sugimoto, there was a former idol singer playing her husband and an actor playing a very dirty, very old man (I swore it's the same actor who plays the lovably tetchy boss in those iced coffee commercials). Well, I can actually say that I saw it and for a good deal less than if I'd seen it at the theaters or paid the money for the DVD. As for Sugimoto, she can be seen occasionally on a celeb cooking show. I gather that she knows her way around pointed utensils...

Well, off to work I go...

Sunday November 14, 5:20 p.m.

Just came back from dinner. Thought I was going to tuck myself into some sushi. But as it turned out, there was hardly anyone in the place and the conveyor belt had very little of the stuff rotating. Since I don't particularly enjoy having to order dishes up every minute, I gave the restaurant a pass and did some window shopping of sorts before I settled on that new ramen restaurant just down the mall. I had a bowl of ramen loaded for bear with BBQ pork, garlic and miso. I also threw in an extra 200 yen for some garlic rice which had enough power to knock down a T-Rex. My pullover definitely smelled like I had a ton of garlic. That's why Febreeze is such a hit in Japan.

Earlier in the day, MB got back to me via chat. It looks like he and his girlfriend enjoyed themselves at Phantom last night.

Luckily, it didn't rain today although things were kept pretty overcast and cool.

Sunday November 14, 12:55 p.m.

Cool and overcast...typical weather. But I still threw out my futon on the ledge to air out, if only for a short while.

Finished taping for the parents; I was lucky enough to find a couple of enka shows to throw on. And I even had enough space to tape a mystery drama.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his new capacity as governor of California, made his 20-somethingth trip to Japan to promote the joys and wonders of the Golden State. Instead of his old leather-and-sunglasses getup, he was sporting some major shiny suits. But his hoary trademark line was still spouting from his lips. Now that he has political clout along with the Hollywood one, he got to meet with the government boys including the PM.

The big news today is that Princess Nori is engaged. I always wondered if she were going to fulfill her spinster status but that can finally be pitched out. The way the news announcer is putting it, it sounds like she's leaving the Imperial Family and becoming a commoner, though. It'd be a perfect premise for a reality show back in the States. How does a princess cope with mundane life?

And speaking of my life, I'll be doing some cleanup and ironing today along with the usual prep work for my lessons tomorrow. However, I intend to take advantage of the 20% off special at the sushi restaurant.

Saturday November 13, 1:56 p.m.

Lazy, lazy Saturday. Still, I managed to get up at around 8 this morning. I find out that Scott Peterson finally got his comeuppance. Nancy Grace was snarling like a banshee on Larry King. What else is new?

Had a long chat with Movie Buddy this morning. He's still nagging me to get that microphone for the computer. I still say that we have a telephone, and he doesn't know that I get pretty intractable when someone tries to push me into anything. Apparently, he and his girl are off to see "The Phantom of the Opera". Nothing says marriage is closer when a couple heads off to see a musical.

Just got a message from Arwen. Looks like she's also good to go for DTE's second farewell. I guess DTE isn't thinking of putting up stakes here after all.

Thought I was going to stay all weekend at home but I have to make one outing tomorrow to check books out for a new student, The Hawaiian's aunt, since I won't have any time between then and Wednesday.

Friday November 12, 10:48 p.m.

Man, was that some funeral for Arafat in Ramallah! Reminds me of the chaos that surrounded Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral years ago. Well, he got the sendoff he would've loved.

The day came off as expected with the students. Pretty rainy and chilly, though. It should be better tomorrow so I can do the wash. I find myself with two full days off so I hope to get a lot of relaxation in.

I got my first message from Shard for the first time in several weeks. I've always looked forward to his messages since our missives to each other are in the form of long pop cultural exchanges. And this one was no different. I think I spent a good 30-40 minutes responding to his one message.

Thursday November 11, 10:39 p.m.

Well, I gotta backtrack on my opinion about that mystery sub which infiltrated Japanese waters yesterday. Apparently, it could be a Chinese sub not a North Korean one. My bad.

It was another stint as counselor with Jazz Buddy this morning. She looked even more hangdog than last week. She's been getting down for various reasons such as work and her sister from Hell. But notably, she's just frustrated from her dinner with a friend and some Indonesian acquaintances since she had some trouble keeping up with the English side of the talk. I tried to reassure her that if she just keeps up with her practicing, there will be dividends. I'm just worried about how much she's been working; she has always looked somewhat tired...now, she just looks plain exhausted.

I had those several hours to kill between JB and The Carolinan so I used the first of those hours to have my occasional ramen lunch at Foo Foo. The spicy soup worked well today considering the coolness of the weather. Then, I headed down to the Ginza area for the first time in a few weeks via Shiodome. I'm pretty glad I did so. However, I saw that where the late lamented Farm Grill used to be, now stood a Don Quixote discount shop...oh, the sadness. But at the same time, I discovered a possible new replacement for the good ol' Grill. Out of curiosity, I went up to the third floor of the Shiodome City Center, that big green tower which also houses the Oregon Bar and Grill steakhouse all the way up on the 42nd floor. On that third floor, I saw a sign for a "Calfornian cuisine" restaurant called LAST. In this country, a "Californian cuisine" restaurant usually translates as all-you-can-eat buffet. So I just went down the corridor and saw the entrance to this place. There was also a large placard with photos of what they served. Hey, looks good to me. I'll have to do a recon trip sometime next week...maybe next Wednesday since my schedule will be pretty sparse. I obviously couldn't go today since I was still digesting my ramen. Then, up in Yurakucho where that large Fujiya tower is, I found out that a new dessert buffet restaurant has opened up. Gotta let the gang know.

I had some time to check out Yamano Music and HMV. I let go of my disicpline a bit and bought a couple of CDs there. Yamano Music seems to be the only major CD store to sell re-issues of J-Pop albums from the 70s and 80s, so I bought a Junko Yagami disc. Yagami was one of those artists who didn't fit into the bubblepop idol; instead, she fused in some Latin, disco, R&B and jazz influences into her pop. She now goes by the name of June Stanley and lives in the US and releases the odd album. The second album I got was from HMV in Yurakucho and it was that swing jazz disc I had mentioned a few days ago.

I checked out the nearby Bic Camera, ostensibly to find the new location of the Coca restaurant, that eatery which was well known for its dim sum and Thai hot pot options just behind the Mullion complex in a non-descript building. It doesn't seem to be a move, though; the original restaurant seems to be still up and running. The new place, though, looks rather sleek and urbane unlike the rather old Chinatown look to the original.

Finally, I made my way up to the Tea Room. It started raining a bit then but it wasn't enough for me to bring out the umbrella although every other sentient being did so but then again over here, if a drop even appears on a sleeve, the brolleys open up. I spent a good 2 hours there before The Carolinan showed up. It was a pleasant lesson and we had a brief chat with the owner about some of the celebs who've passed through the cafe over the years. She also remarked about how worried she gets when those big patches of no business hit the place. It would be a great pity if the place had to close down.

Well, tomorrow will be my usual lessons with The Teacher and SR. Then, it'll be trip to the gym. It'll be needed. I looked rather bloated in the mirror today.

Wednesday November 10, 9:06 p.m.

Looks like we had a little taste of invasion today. Some unknown sub entered Japanese territorial waters which put the SDF on full alert. Nice to know some country is considerate enough to test our defenses. We'll have to send Kim some extra rice in return.

Had an extra treat at the house where I usually teach The Class Act this morning. Since there wasn't too much time between their lesson and the one for SIL, the lady of the house was kind enough to have lunch made for me in the form of a bowl of hot soba. The lesson itself was notable for the fact that one of the two got a bit frustrated at the large amount of indecipherable slang in the article. I wasn't too depressed since she was the one who had supplied the material in any event. However, I defused things a bit by introducing the wonderful game of Solitaire with my deck of cards. Can't believe that neither of them had ever heard of the game before. Then when I mentioned about how my old junior high school kids back in my JET days used to play card games during field trips on the bus, they pointed out that those days are long gone. The kids nowadays are too involved with Game Boys and their cellphones. I remarked that I still had my Solitaire. The same lady told me about her family's dinner outing at the New York Grill in the Park Hyatt (that hotel where "Lost In Translation" was filmed). It seems as if they were all thrilled by the jazz trio playing dinner music there. She offered to put in a reservation if I were ever to go there. Very kind of her but I'd probably only go if I had a date and I think that's very unlikely considering my romantic disinclinations right now.

After SIL, I did my usual jaunt to Tower Records. I once again held off on my CD purchases though I did buy TIME and EW. TIME went into its post-election analysis about what happened with Kerry. I'm sure a lot of people worldwide are still thinking about that as well. I did take a listen to a bit of that soundtrack for The Polar Express. The first track had Tom Hanks doing his best Rawhide impression along side a bunch of kids. The CNN critics didn't seem too hot on the movie saying that the animation looks creepy; well, it is different but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Since I had that coupon for The Maple Leaf, I went there for dinner. I basically risked undoing any benefit that I got from my gym outings by ordering a Sloppy Joes and poutine, otherwise known as the Cholesterol Couple. However, I enjoyed every messy bite, heheheh.

Shibuya is already into Holiday mode. All of the Xmas trees are up and the displays are showing that festive spirit. Just like in the US.

Getting to the Starbucks where I teach the OL, I found the place initially packed for some reason. Quite a few gaijin in there as well. However, by the time I got back from the washroom, there was a major exodus of customers thankfully.

I've got the Jazz Buddy and the Carolinan tomorrow. Just hope that JB is in better form. Not quite sure what I'll do in the intervening 6 hours. Almost feels like an old full-timers day at the school.

Wednesday November 10, 7:38 a.m.

I was taking a look through Michael Moore's website to see whatever became of Moore after the election and I came across a link to the website, "Sorry Everybody". When I went over there, I found a whole bunch of photos with sad people and their written apologies to the world for how the election went. It's gotten coverage on CNN, and apparently when I told some of the guys back home about it, The Anime King sent word back that he couldn't get through. I figure that there was a sudden deluge of hits after the CNN feature went to air because I could access it again with no problem. Although I can understand the feelings of those who sent in the pictures, in retrospect, I think it can come off as a bit smarmy so I'm not surprised that there has been a huge amount of hate mail from the Bush voters.

Looks like another Tom is making multiple trips over here for a movie. Tom Hanks will be heading here tomorrow to campaign for The Polar Express after having come here VERY recently to plug The Terminal. I recollect that years before Bill Murray's trumpeted star turn in Tokyo last year, Hanks was in the Big Sushi to film scenes for Ron Howard's Gung Ho. Apparently, tne New York debut of The Polar Express took place last night with the stars coming out. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith greeted the Fuji TV rep in the Big Apple with a hearty "Konbanwa" and "Sumimasen"; his pronounciation wasn't too bad. I wonder if he'd picked some of his Japanese up from Liv. She's been doing commercials here for an iced coffee company for months.

Was lurking through a J-Pop website. Just can't believe how many people internationally are into the genre. Kinda scary at how relentless their search for information on Morning Musume can be. From the messages, I can assume that it's still not all that easy to get a lot of info from here outside of Japan. Every little episode from any show is fully dissected and fully appreciated like a drop of water in a desert.

Tuesday November 9, 10:03 p.m.

I got to the juku to find out that the Beauty Pair had suddenly canned their lesson due to cold. The boss was profusely apologetic but I didn't particularly mind. In their stead, the boss had her lesson before that nice couple came in. Speaking of them, they evidently had a very good time in Portugal last week, and it was heartening to hear that they were much more secure in hearing English.

Hope to hit the hay by 11 since I've got a slightly early start to the day tomorrow. I've got The Class Act and SIL and then the OL. In between SIL and OL, I've got a few hours so I will take advantage of a coupon and head to The Maple Leaf for dinner.

Tuesday November 9, 1:55 p.m.

After my lesson with the ladies this morning, I headed over to City Hall to pick up my new ARC. Took less than 5 minutes. Then I just headed back home and got a pretty large lunch from SUBWAY. That should tide me over past dinnertime.

Kinda glad that I'm not heading to the gym today. I'm still feeling pretty achy and I can also laze about a bit longer before heading to class. The couple that I usually teach in the second slot will be back from their short vacation in Portugal. Their story should be good practice of the Simple Past...I hope.

So I hear that Bob Geldof is finally having the legendary Live Aid concert released on DVD after almost 2 decades. Good golly...has it been that long? I remember catching it when I was in university that one fateful weekend in July. Should be worth buying to see some of my old favourite bands.

Monday November 8, 9:04 p.m.

Straight in and out from The Company today. Feeling exhausted; I hope it's just because of all the lactic acid from the workout today.

Watched some footage of the Emperor and Empress visiting the beleaguered evacuees in Niigata today. The majority of them seemed to be elderly folks so they were very appreciative of the visit...some were openly weeping. The symbols of state always visit disaster-ridden areas such as the 1991 Mt. Unzen volcano disaster, the 1993 Hokkaido quake and the 1995 Kobe quake.

That class at the school that I was supposed to teach got canned according to the call from the Scheduler. A bit disappointing but at least I can head out to City Hall tomorrow and pick up the gaijin card with plenty of time to spare.

Monday November 8, 1:36 p.m.

Had my outing at the gym. It was my first Monday morning stint there, and sure enough, not too many people which was great for me. I had lunch at the neighbourhood Pepper Lunch. Low quality beef and my clothing always smells like a brazier but I can't beat the price.

I just have the one lesson over at The Company tonight so I have a couple of hours before I head out the door again. Apparently there was another Shindo 5 aftershock off in Niigata.

The Doctor let me know that The Incredibles is one great movie. The CNN reviewer was even more glowing. Gotta see it.

Saturday November 6, 8:51 p.m.

Had an interesting lesson with the Mom of those two sisters. I gave her a major case of the willies when I told her that I had no fear of clasping one of those giant cockroaches that are endemic to this country. Man these guys are just terrified of the insects.

Then, I made it to the Tea Room to see M+M. No cockroarch talk there but we chatted a lot on food. It was a lot busier than usual there; the wait staff was just flying all over the place.

A lot of the comments from the folks back at home and the students here concerning Bush's win pretty much can be condensed into one question: "What the hell were they thinking?!"

Movie Buddy had a brief chat with me over the Messenger about having the dumb luck to get the first 3 discs of 24, Season 3. It's been so many months since I saw the last season that I didn't get particularly envious. But I know that MB will be largely missing this weekend if 24 is of the same calibre as the first 2 seasons. As for me, I'm just taping some travel shows for the parentals. They seem to be the only thing that I can tape for them since enka music has largely disappeared from the tube. For dinner, I just made up my usual pork kimchi and rice...also steamed half a gigantic sweet potato that one of the Beehive gave me. I feel gassy as hell right now. I'm gonna have to keep the windows open wide tonight.

I was checking the Cartoon Network website when I came across one of their new shows: Puffy Amiyumi. Good heavens! The Japanese kitschy pop duo merely did some stuff at a Texas music festival and suddenly they've achieved Shonen Knife fame. And now there's gonna be a cartoon on them. They've been around here in Japan for nearly a decade but their peak was a few years ago and they've largely been appearing solo in different variety shows now. Ami and Yumi have long past the "syndicated" point of their career so they will always be recognizable and liked figures on the tube but musically, they'll just be a late 90s phenomenon.

Tomorrow will be a major clean up here since I've got absolutely nothing. I figure that I'll be giving Mom the monthly call.