Monday May 1, 6:14 p.m.
One thing that did happen during the enforced silence is that Takafumi Horie, the Japanese version of Kenneth Lay, finally got out on bail last Wednesday night. I recall in one of my entries of last week that I'd wondered how the big guy was doing. Well, the the guy ain't that big anymore. Looks like 3 months in The Big House did wonders for his weight. The media quickly got the scoop that Horie had lost 8 kilos, or 16 pounds, in the pen. He did look somewhat sleeker when the media did their full court press outside of the prison gates. And apparently, he's somewhat humbler although he still believe that he hasn't done anything wrong. The reports say that he's now gonna think about trying to slow down the pace of his pre-prison life. He is appreciating the smaller things, that's for sure. He even relished the taste of good convenience store beer and sushi. That's a far cry from his days going to the most expensive, swankiest restaurants in town.
Just a place to deposit my thoughts on life here in the Kanto and about anything else that sticks to my walls.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Monday May 1, 4:47 p.m.
It's been a while. One thing about not being connected on a regular basis...I don't get withdrawal symptoms. I'm not envisioning cockroaches crawling up my arms nor do I break out in cold sweats (although I'm doing a bit of that right now...it's been the warmest day of the year so far). I can actually live without having to check my e-mail or blog everyday. Mind you, I still have to pay my KDD Internet bill monthly so I'll have to find some sort of resolution to my computer problem within the next 30 days.
Not much to report...not that nothing had happened in the last few days since my last entry but I just can't remember all of it. Ah well, if one of those stray memories manages to re-surface, I'll jot it down someday. I do remember that I met The OL and her elder sister, The UL, on Saturday afternoon at The Tea Room. It's hard to imagine that these sisters had been in a cold war of sorts a year or so ago. They were just backslapping each other and giggling away like close buddies; almost felt like whistling the "Sisters" tune from "White Christmas". The UL is at about the same level of linguistic prowess as her sibling so it shouldn't be too difficult teaching her.
Saturday was quite busy. I had the kids as usual in the morning. I think the parents are getting too comfy with me in the house. I was teaching the Junior when it sounded like the two folks were having a little lovers' spat in the kitchen. I know that it's their house but it's my class and sanity. After The OL and UL, the one M came for her occasional session with me. She's been out of work for close to 5 months after her seemingly dramatic departure from her company for "personal differences", but it looks like she's been doing OK for herself. I gave her the remaining Korean nori so at least if she's in need of food, all she'll need is some rice for that seaweed.
Yesterday was the usual session with JJ. And then I headed on out to Sangenjaya, just west of Shibuya. I met up with Movie Buddy, The Satyr, Skippy and Speedy and his wife for that lunch at Baker's Bounce, one of those unusually-named eateries. Considering that it's now Golden Week, someone apparently had forgotten to tell the residents in that neighbourhood that it was the time to get out of town for vacation. There was quite the crowd. The main street was closed off to vehicular traffic and so it took a bit of time to negotiate the pedestrian traffic to find this burger place. After about 10 minutes of walking, we came to this building with a mock-up of King Kong built into its structure and turned left onto a side street. Another couple of minutes later, we saw the lineup which quickly identified it as the destination.
Part of the reason for the lineup (along with the fact that it was so popular) was that Baker's Bounce was just the 1st floor of a small 2-storey building. Not too many people could fit in there; just not on a McDonalds scale of size. However, we were able to while away the half-hour of waiting with some lively conversation amongst the cinema cognoscenti within some of us.
I was impressed with the fact that there was a water cooler in front of the restaurant providing cups and spring water. There was even a hot water tap and tea bags in a plate on top of the cooler. Now that's service!
The waiter first told us that because of our large number of 6, we had to be separated into two groups of 3. However, after some further negotiation by Skippy, he was able to get all of 6 into the booth right by the door. And it wasn't even a matter of squeezing us in there. The waiter just needed to grab an extra chair for my wide girth and we were all set.
Well, we were there for burgers so we just ordered straight away. Whilst everyone chose some normal stuff, I decided to go for the big one, The Double Burger. Little did we know that the regular fare was big enough, but my order was a rather awesome creation of two homemade patties slathered in cheese and veggies with a soft-boiled egg on top. The groans came on cue when that baby was brought in for weighing. Mmm-mmmm...dem's good eatin'! I tried to eat it with my hands as all burgers should be eaten, but it proved to be a near-impossibility with all that those meat juices, melted cheese, and the other condiments just creating a river down my hands, so I had to do it Japanese style...knife and fork. Also, I think the ground meat needed to be ground just a little more. At certain points, I was wondering if I were eating a hamburger or a steak sandwich. But I'm merely quibbling like an anal food critic. Miraculously, we were all game for dessert and coffee. Skippy did a Madame and begged me to share her apple pie a la mode. As it turned out, the pie wasn't nearly as big as the burger so I was a bit disappointed. So I held my tongue (it was too busy). I can certainly say that Baker Bounce deserves a second visit. The menu held quite a few more items that I can go for. As for The Madame, she did that pullout last week. The Satyr was a bit bemused that she would pull out a good 5 days beforehand due to a fever. I think the little lady thought it would be a waste of time and money for her to put her hummingbird appetite on a burger even the normal size at the eatery. I'd have to agree. Before we even left, Skippy had already bounced off the walls talking about this great restaurant in Shimo-Kitazawa, the boho area for university students. Looks like we know where the next destination will be.
Our sextuplet didn't stay that way for long. At Shibuya Station, we lost 50% as Skippy had to go off to see a movie, and Speedy and his wife decided to head on home to digest. So it was just the three of us former teachers from the ol' school to traverse the side streets of Tokyo's Teen Mecca. It was its usual horrendously overcrowded self. We were looking for some theatres with some promising viewing fare. Nada...it was just the treacly Japanese and Korean stuff, and the other Western movies were stuff we'd already seen. MB stopped off at the Western comics shop just across from the Mandarake otaku manga store for some browsing, and then after another round of walking, we stopped off at the 7th floor of Tower Records for browsing. After the better part of an hour there, we decided to call it a day. Unfortunately, we had to contend with an annual MayDay parade snailing its way through the main intersection of Shibuya so the sidewalks were even more packed with pedestrians. Oh, if the pedestrian paradise could come back to that place.
Further miracles happened at home. I still had enough room in the ol' tummy to down a salad. I figured with all the carbs and protein, I needed the veg to keep me regular.
Well, with Golden Week in full force, I didn't have any of the Class Act or SIL. And even The Part-Timer was off so I just have the EIC class. But instead of the one woman, I may have as many as three students tonight so I had to get stuff ready accordingly. Surprisingly, Speedy told me that he actually got a bit hungry last night despite the feast at Baker's Bounce. Not quite that old yet.
I don't know my next time (b)logging in but hopefully, it'll be in a more relaxed state of mind. I'm feeling quite sweaty right now since the temps are up to 29 C today.
It's been a while. One thing about not being connected on a regular basis...I don't get withdrawal symptoms. I'm not envisioning cockroaches crawling up my arms nor do I break out in cold sweats (although I'm doing a bit of that right now...it's been the warmest day of the year so far). I can actually live without having to check my e-mail or blog everyday. Mind you, I still have to pay my KDD Internet bill monthly so I'll have to find some sort of resolution to my computer problem within the next 30 days.
Not much to report...not that nothing had happened in the last few days since my last entry but I just can't remember all of it. Ah well, if one of those stray memories manages to re-surface, I'll jot it down someday. I do remember that I met The OL and her elder sister, The UL, on Saturday afternoon at The Tea Room. It's hard to imagine that these sisters had been in a cold war of sorts a year or so ago. They were just backslapping each other and giggling away like close buddies; almost felt like whistling the "Sisters" tune from "White Christmas". The UL is at about the same level of linguistic prowess as her sibling so it shouldn't be too difficult teaching her.
Saturday was quite busy. I had the kids as usual in the morning. I think the parents are getting too comfy with me in the house. I was teaching the Junior when it sounded like the two folks were having a little lovers' spat in the kitchen. I know that it's their house but it's my class and sanity. After The OL and UL, the one M came for her occasional session with me. She's been out of work for close to 5 months after her seemingly dramatic departure from her company for "personal differences", but it looks like she's been doing OK for herself. I gave her the remaining Korean nori so at least if she's in need of food, all she'll need is some rice for that seaweed.
Yesterday was the usual session with JJ. And then I headed on out to Sangenjaya, just west of Shibuya. I met up with Movie Buddy, The Satyr, Skippy and Speedy and his wife for that lunch at Baker's Bounce, one of those unusually-named eateries. Considering that it's now Golden Week, someone apparently had forgotten to tell the residents in that neighbourhood that it was the time to get out of town for vacation. There was quite the crowd. The main street was closed off to vehicular traffic and so it took a bit of time to negotiate the pedestrian traffic to find this burger place. After about 10 minutes of walking, we came to this building with a mock-up of King Kong built into its structure and turned left onto a side street. Another couple of minutes later, we saw the lineup which quickly identified it as the destination.
Part of the reason for the lineup (along with the fact that it was so popular) was that Baker's Bounce was just the 1st floor of a small 2-storey building. Not too many people could fit in there; just not on a McDonalds scale of size. However, we were able to while away the half-hour of waiting with some lively conversation amongst the cinema cognoscenti within some of us.
I was impressed with the fact that there was a water cooler in front of the restaurant providing cups and spring water. There was even a hot water tap and tea bags in a plate on top of the cooler. Now that's service!
The waiter first told us that because of our large number of 6, we had to be separated into two groups of 3. However, after some further negotiation by Skippy, he was able to get all of 6 into the booth right by the door. And it wasn't even a matter of squeezing us in there. The waiter just needed to grab an extra chair for my wide girth and we were all set.
Well, we were there for burgers so we just ordered straight away. Whilst everyone chose some normal stuff, I decided to go for the big one, The Double Burger. Little did we know that the regular fare was big enough, but my order was a rather awesome creation of two homemade patties slathered in cheese and veggies with a soft-boiled egg on top. The groans came on cue when that baby was brought in for weighing. Mmm-mmmm...dem's good eatin'! I tried to eat it with my hands as all burgers should be eaten, but it proved to be a near-impossibility with all that those meat juices, melted cheese, and the other condiments just creating a river down my hands, so I had to do it Japanese style...knife and fork. Also, I think the ground meat needed to be ground just a little more. At certain points, I was wondering if I were eating a hamburger or a steak sandwich. But I'm merely quibbling like an anal food critic. Miraculously, we were all game for dessert and coffee. Skippy did a Madame and begged me to share her apple pie a la mode. As it turned out, the pie wasn't nearly as big as the burger so I was a bit disappointed. So I held my tongue (it was too busy). I can certainly say that Baker Bounce deserves a second visit. The menu held quite a few more items that I can go for. As for The Madame, she did that pullout last week. The Satyr was a bit bemused that she would pull out a good 5 days beforehand due to a fever. I think the little lady thought it would be a waste of time and money for her to put her hummingbird appetite on a burger even the normal size at the eatery. I'd have to agree. Before we even left, Skippy had already bounced off the walls talking about this great restaurant in Shimo-Kitazawa, the boho area for university students. Looks like we know where the next destination will be.
Our sextuplet didn't stay that way for long. At Shibuya Station, we lost 50% as Skippy had to go off to see a movie, and Speedy and his wife decided to head on home to digest. So it was just the three of us former teachers from the ol' school to traverse the side streets of Tokyo's Teen Mecca. It was its usual horrendously overcrowded self. We were looking for some theatres with some promising viewing fare. Nada...it was just the treacly Japanese and Korean stuff, and the other Western movies were stuff we'd already seen. MB stopped off at the Western comics shop just across from the Mandarake otaku manga store for some browsing, and then after another round of walking, we stopped off at the 7th floor of Tower Records for browsing. After the better part of an hour there, we decided to call it a day. Unfortunately, we had to contend with an annual MayDay parade snailing its way through the main intersection of Shibuya so the sidewalks were even more packed with pedestrians. Oh, if the pedestrian paradise could come back to that place.
Further miracles happened at home. I still had enough room in the ol' tummy to down a salad. I figured with all the carbs and protein, I needed the veg to keep me regular.
Well, with Golden Week in full force, I didn't have any of the Class Act or SIL. And even The Part-Timer was off so I just have the EIC class. But instead of the one woman, I may have as many as three students tonight so I had to get stuff ready accordingly. Surprisingly, Speedy told me that he actually got a bit hungry last night despite the feast at Baker's Bounce. Not quite that old yet.
I don't know my next time (b)logging in but hopefully, it'll be in a more relaxed state of mind. I'm feeling quite sweaty right now since the temps are up to 29 C today.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Wednesday April 26, 9:06 p.m.
Well, got finished with another class with 001. It was another rousing affair. I could sure use more students like her. Quite a bit different than my time with The New Yorker. It was her first time seeing me in about a month, and unfortunately, the absence didn't do her any good. She wasn't exactly a tabula rasa but her comprehension and accuracy have degraded to a good degree. Kinda too bad since she gave me a nice souvenir in the form of a 3-section notebook and some Reese's Pieces from Guam. Once again, she wasn't too impressed with the island; she was similarly unimpressed with Seoul. Nothing to do, she says. Pretty tough critic, but when you're called The New Yorker...
The Madame has cancelled our meeting for Friday due to a fever. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I won't have to go out for anything...just keep it to the neighbourhood. Plus, I figure that I have those essays to mark from BULATS. With the deadline and the way the weekend is shaping up, I'm just gonna have a day to mark all 40 of them.
It looks like Speedy and his wife are getting closer to signing on the burger tour to Baker Bounce on Sunday. We were all salivating at the pics on the website but Speedy discovered several Engrish.com-worthy spelling errors. Humburgers, anyone? I think that Ebenezer Scrooge would make one excellent spokesperson for the shop.
Well, it looks like I won't be logging on again for a few days unless my computer manages to come out of its coma.
Well, got finished with another class with 001. It was another rousing affair. I could sure use more students like her. Quite a bit different than my time with The New Yorker. It was her first time seeing me in about a month, and unfortunately, the absence didn't do her any good. She wasn't exactly a tabula rasa but her comprehension and accuracy have degraded to a good degree. Kinda too bad since she gave me a nice souvenir in the form of a 3-section notebook and some Reese's Pieces from Guam. Once again, she wasn't too impressed with the island; she was similarly unimpressed with Seoul. Nothing to do, she says. Pretty tough critic, but when you're called The New Yorker...
The Madame has cancelled our meeting for Friday due to a fever. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I won't have to go out for anything...just keep it to the neighbourhood. Plus, I figure that I have those essays to mark from BULATS. With the deadline and the way the weekend is shaping up, I'm just gonna have a day to mark all 40 of them.
It looks like Speedy and his wife are getting closer to signing on the burger tour to Baker Bounce on Sunday. We were all salivating at the pics on the website but Speedy discovered several Engrish.com-worthy spelling errors. Humburgers, anyone? I think that Ebenezer Scrooge would make one excellent spokesperson for the shop.
Well, it looks like I won't be logging on again for a few days unless my computer manages to come out of its coma.
Wednesday April 26, 4:41 p.m.
I may have to be writing my computer's elegy. My aging SOTEC is 4 years old (that would be 80 human years), and after several months of frequent crashes, it finally blurted out at me this morning that it couldn't get it up...that is, it couldn't get Windows up. It automatically sent me to Safe Mode which could allow me to access my budget but not to the Internet which cramps my social life a lot. It means that unless I sign up for a Kinko's membership, Speedy's will be the only free access I've got to e-mail & the blog, and I only come here a couple of times a week. I'm not exactly overflowing with money right now so a new computer is out of the question. Well, perhaps I need a bit of a vacation from cyberspace... The Satyr was the first to respond to my announcement of my computer woes. He remarked that it would be next to impossible to reach me since I now have neither a good computer or a cellphone. I thought that was a remarkable statement to make; a decade ago, almost noone would have sweated a drop in panic at the thought of not having those two devices for instant communication. Now, if someone is missing just one, he/she would probably go into techno-withdrawal. As for me, I could tell The Satyr that there are devices I have called a home phone and a message machine for him to initiate contact but I decided to hold my tongue.
The purge has begun. This morning at about 8:45 a.m., the police and media swept down on several company officials from at least 3 companies involved in the Aneha architectural scandal and promptly arrested them. There would've been a perp walk except that the media scrum was so dense that it just resembled an especially hostile commute on the Yamanote Line. Call it a perp crawl. In any case, in all the chaos was almost forgotten the fact that the central figure himself, disgraced architect Aneha, was thrown into the van on the way to jail.
Looks like the burger crawl may be picking up speed. I told Speedy and asked if he would like to join us. He may be bringing his wife and even our resident chef, Mr. Influence, since he wanted to do a bit of research before his slated-for-summer spate of burger recipes for cooking class. BTW, I made a slight error in the name of this place we're going to. It's called Baker's Bounce.
I may have to be writing my computer's elegy. My aging SOTEC is 4 years old (that would be 80 human years), and after several months of frequent crashes, it finally blurted out at me this morning that it couldn't get it up...that is, it couldn't get Windows up. It automatically sent me to Safe Mode which could allow me to access my budget but not to the Internet which cramps my social life a lot. It means that unless I sign up for a Kinko's membership, Speedy's will be the only free access I've got to e-mail & the blog, and I only come here a couple of times a week. I'm not exactly overflowing with money right now so a new computer is out of the question. Well, perhaps I need a bit of a vacation from cyberspace... The Satyr was the first to respond to my announcement of my computer woes. He remarked that it would be next to impossible to reach me since I now have neither a good computer or a cellphone. I thought that was a remarkable statement to make; a decade ago, almost noone would have sweated a drop in panic at the thought of not having those two devices for instant communication. Now, if someone is missing just one, he/she would probably go into techno-withdrawal. As for me, I could tell The Satyr that there are devices I have called a home phone and a message machine for him to initiate contact but I decided to hold my tongue.
The purge has begun. This morning at about 8:45 a.m., the police and media swept down on several company officials from at least 3 companies involved in the Aneha architectural scandal and promptly arrested them. There would've been a perp walk except that the media scrum was so dense that it just resembled an especially hostile commute on the Yamanote Line. Call it a perp crawl. In any case, in all the chaos was almost forgotten the fact that the central figure himself, disgraced architect Aneha, was thrown into the van on the way to jail.
Looks like the burger crawl may be picking up speed. I told Speedy and asked if he would like to join us. He may be bringing his wife and even our resident chef, Mr. Influence, since he wanted to do a bit of research before his slated-for-summer spate of burger recipes for cooking class. BTW, I made a slight error in the name of this place we're going to. It's called Baker's Bounce.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Tuesday April 25, 11:34 p.m.
Ach...my computer must be on its last legs. It was tearing up not only Hotmail but even my GMail account has been going through conniptions. I did see enough of a letter from Speedy to know that 006 has once again canned out. Well, at least it makes my lesson planning easier since I'm pretty much too pooped to plan.
I got a new student at the juku tonight. She's a real character as well. She's 23 going on 12 and was accompanied to the demo lesson by her mother....ooookay. Nice young lady and she could pick up the conversational point pretty quickly despite being a low-level student, but she just looks and talks like an anime character. She told me that she's a freeta or a part-timer; I kinda wondered if one of the Maid Cafes is employing her services. The juku boss and her student, McGirl's kid brother, did a double take on seeing this tousle-haired girl with the saucer eyes. The kid even referred to her as a burikko, an old slang term going back a quarter-century at least which refers to some girl who pretends to be a damsel in distress. You can just look at old videos of Seiko Matsuda to get the idea. Well, in any case, it'll be another hour's worth of income in the pot starting from next week.
Movie Buddy has gotten his plan for massive burger eating on Sunday. He's made his choice a joint called The Daily Bounce in Sangenjaya, a commercial district west of Shibuya. I've taken a look at the website; looks promising. My stomach growled in approval. Those a la mode desserts didn't look too bad either. I've sent the message to the others.
The Madame has nixed the plans for a trip to "Riraku no Mori", the massage emporium located at Sunshine 60 for Friday due to her tight schedule but she's still open for some coffee in her neck of the woods so I've gallantly taken her up on her offer.
Newswise, it's been a tale of more psychos and corrupt architectural officials. In the first case, an Osaka man was arrested for killing, dismembering and grilling his mother because she had kept nagging him about not getting a job (the guy is 57, by the way). Yup, those Kansai folk don't hold anything back. In the second case, the president of a company called E-Homes who had once emblazoned himself in glory as a whistleblower may be heading to the Big House for some of his own malfeasances with the accounting books. Mr. Horie, meet your new neighbour. Speaking of the defrocked Livedoor founder, I wonder how he's been doing all these weeks.
Well, I'll be waiting for those essays to be marked tomorrow.
Ach...my computer must be on its last legs. It was tearing up not only Hotmail but even my GMail account has been going through conniptions. I did see enough of a letter from Speedy to know that 006 has once again canned out. Well, at least it makes my lesson planning easier since I'm pretty much too pooped to plan.
I got a new student at the juku tonight. She's a real character as well. She's 23 going on 12 and was accompanied to the demo lesson by her mother....ooookay. Nice young lady and she could pick up the conversational point pretty quickly despite being a low-level student, but she just looks and talks like an anime character. She told me that she's a freeta or a part-timer; I kinda wondered if one of the Maid Cafes is employing her services. The juku boss and her student, McGirl's kid brother, did a double take on seeing this tousle-haired girl with the saucer eyes. The kid even referred to her as a burikko, an old slang term going back a quarter-century at least which refers to some girl who pretends to be a damsel in distress. You can just look at old videos of Seiko Matsuda to get the idea. Well, in any case, it'll be another hour's worth of income in the pot starting from next week.
Movie Buddy has gotten his plan for massive burger eating on Sunday. He's made his choice a joint called The Daily Bounce in Sangenjaya, a commercial district west of Shibuya. I've taken a look at the website; looks promising. My stomach growled in approval. Those a la mode desserts didn't look too bad either. I've sent the message to the others.
The Madame has nixed the plans for a trip to "Riraku no Mori", the massage emporium located at Sunshine 60 for Friday due to her tight schedule but she's still open for some coffee in her neck of the woods so I've gallantly taken her up on her offer.
Newswise, it's been a tale of more psychos and corrupt architectural officials. In the first case, an Osaka man was arrested for killing, dismembering and grilling his mother because she had kept nagging him about not getting a job (the guy is 57, by the way). Yup, those Kansai folk don't hold anything back. In the second case, the president of a company called E-Homes who had once emblazoned himself in glory as a whistleblower may be heading to the Big House for some of his own malfeasances with the accounting books. Mr. Horie, meet your new neighbour. Speaking of the defrocked Livedoor founder, I wonder how he's been doing all these weeks.
Well, I'll be waiting for those essays to be marked tomorrow.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Tuesday April 25, 3:45 p.m.
Hmm...it's been one of those up-and-down days meterologically again. Cloudy, cold and squally in the morning and now it's beaming sunshine if cool. Actually, I prefer this type of refreshing weather to the balminess we got yesterday. While I was walking in Shibuya, I saw that industrial haze which often pops up during the summer. Regardless of what I like, though, it's been a most unusual Winter and Spring.
The Beehive was only two-thirds full with Mrs. Alp and Mrs. Perth away. However the others plus the new old student in the form of Mrs. Potter were back. Mrs. Tulip certainly has a cheeky side to her which contrasts with her usual soft-spoken self. Had quite a bit of chocolate since both Potter and Tulip brought some German and Kahlua-based stuff respectively. Also, the Coffee Ladies made their monthly visit with their wares. Considering that they always bring two large baskets of products, it's difficult to not buy anything without a guilty conscience.
The Teacher and I were back in our new venue at Becker's. The second floor is pretty nicely apportioned but I still prefer our old place at Myoden. It just seems more comfy. But also those post-lunch discussion lessons are killers...I was trying my best to stifle yawns and keep the Sandman away while my stomach was draining all of my blood to digest my Chicken Sandwich set.
The Engineer contacted me for the first time in a while. He had gotten in touch with me during his last business trip but it was just an exchange of phone messages last time since he was too busy with the matter at hand. However, he's told that he'll be coming for some R&R this time in the steaminess of July.
I'm not sure how the reverie got started but I was reminded of the different stages in my professional life here in Japan. In the mid-90s, I had my usual cubby hole at NOVA teaching my max of 3 students while keeping with the program. Then for a period of several years, I taught several "generations" of students at the ol' school in true classrooms. The atmosphere there was most cordial and the interplay certainly helped everyone there. It was no surprise that those classes were amongst the favoured ones for most of the teachers who had passed through those hallowed halls. Students and teachers interacted very informally and frequently. Now and for the past few years, my touchstones have been the juku, Speedy's schools and the various cafes that I've taught in as a freelancer. There has been none of that controlled chaos in the classrooms and lounge at the ol' school. For the most part, I deal with students on a very individual basis so the collegial party atmosphere has been non-existent. Speedy's school is still trying to find its feet so the school has yet to achieve its reputation as a meeting place for many students. And of course, the juku is just so down-home and neighbourly...I couldn't imagine any sort of mayhem happening there...unless the juku cat gets naughty in front of us during the class transition from The Milds to The Siberian.
In any case, that's my meandering thoughtline for now. Gotta prep for the classes tonight.
Hmm...it's been one of those up-and-down days meterologically again. Cloudy, cold and squally in the morning and now it's beaming sunshine if cool. Actually, I prefer this type of refreshing weather to the balminess we got yesterday. While I was walking in Shibuya, I saw that industrial haze which often pops up during the summer. Regardless of what I like, though, it's been a most unusual Winter and Spring.
The Beehive was only two-thirds full with Mrs. Alp and Mrs. Perth away. However the others plus the new old student in the form of Mrs. Potter were back. Mrs. Tulip certainly has a cheeky side to her which contrasts with her usual soft-spoken self. Had quite a bit of chocolate since both Potter and Tulip brought some German and Kahlua-based stuff respectively. Also, the Coffee Ladies made their monthly visit with their wares. Considering that they always bring two large baskets of products, it's difficult to not buy anything without a guilty conscience.
The Teacher and I were back in our new venue at Becker's. The second floor is pretty nicely apportioned but I still prefer our old place at Myoden. It just seems more comfy. But also those post-lunch discussion lessons are killers...I was trying my best to stifle yawns and keep the Sandman away while my stomach was draining all of my blood to digest my Chicken Sandwich set.
The Engineer contacted me for the first time in a while. He had gotten in touch with me during his last business trip but it was just an exchange of phone messages last time since he was too busy with the matter at hand. However, he's told that he'll be coming for some R&R this time in the steaminess of July.
I'm not sure how the reverie got started but I was reminded of the different stages in my professional life here in Japan. In the mid-90s, I had my usual cubby hole at NOVA teaching my max of 3 students while keeping with the program. Then for a period of several years, I taught several "generations" of students at the ol' school in true classrooms. The atmosphere there was most cordial and the interplay certainly helped everyone there. It was no surprise that those classes were amongst the favoured ones for most of the teachers who had passed through those hallowed halls. Students and teachers interacted very informally and frequently. Now and for the past few years, my touchstones have been the juku, Speedy's schools and the various cafes that I've taught in as a freelancer. There has been none of that controlled chaos in the classrooms and lounge at the ol' school. For the most part, I deal with students on a very individual basis so the collegial party atmosphere has been non-existent. Speedy's school is still trying to find its feet so the school has yet to achieve its reputation as a meeting place for many students. And of course, the juku is just so down-home and neighbourly...I couldn't imagine any sort of mayhem happening there...unless the juku cat gets naughty in front of us during the class transition from The Milds to The Siberian.
In any case, that's my meandering thoughtline for now. Gotta prep for the classes tonight.
Tuesday April 25, 7:37 a.m.
Lou Dobbs is in a snarky mood. Must be Tuesday.
Got a line from Paddy for the first time in a while. Looks like he and his wife are doing fine in good ol' London town. I'm sure he's raking in the big bucks...he'd have to, considering the high rents over there.
The Anime King finally got that package I'd sent to him by air mail after 2 weeks in transit. It seems that Revenue Canada has been getting high on the annual tax collecting and decided to make an example of the package. They managed to squeeze a further $60 out of my friend.
JJ got back to me about the forgotten payment. She was her usual profusely apologetic self. No problems, I reassured her.
On the Japanese side of entertainment, the Svengali of Morning Musume, Tsunku, announced his betrothal through a casual omiai to a model, some 12 years his junior. Well, I gather that's gonna be one hell of a long line of bridesmaids at the wedding.
It's another damp day out there. It'll probably be cool but so far I haven't needed to put on the heater.
Lou Dobbs is in a snarky mood. Must be Tuesday.
Got a line from Paddy for the first time in a while. Looks like he and his wife are doing fine in good ol' London town. I'm sure he's raking in the big bucks...he'd have to, considering the high rents over there.
The Anime King finally got that package I'd sent to him by air mail after 2 weeks in transit. It seems that Revenue Canada has been getting high on the annual tax collecting and decided to make an example of the package. They managed to squeeze a further $60 out of my friend.
JJ got back to me about the forgotten payment. She was her usual profusely apologetic self. No problems, I reassured her.
On the Japanese side of entertainment, the Svengali of Morning Musume, Tsunku, announced his betrothal through a casual omiai to a model, some 12 years his junior. Well, I gather that's gonna be one hell of a long line of bridesmaids at the wedding.
It's another damp day out there. It'll probably be cool but so far I haven't needed to put on the heater.
Monday April 24, 10:16 p.m.
The rest of my evening at Speedy's was quiet. Speedy himself was taking a power nap while SB was typing away and I was just prepping for The Part-Timer's lesson. I'm gonna just have that 1-hour EIC lesson to show for my entire May Day next week. The Part-Timer is off on Golden Week vacation as will be The Class Act/SIL
Speaking of The Class Act, The Lady told me that she never watches television these days. She just finds most of the programming moronic and just overly chatty. I think that's probably why a lot of the younger folk like TV. I have to admit that my viewing habits have decreased to a few hours a week recently. A lot of it is due to my busy weeknights and the fact that I've been out on the weekends for the past couple of weeks now. But I also have to confess that there's not a lot that's grabbing me beyond the news and reruns of "Star Trek" on SkyPerfect.
And making another segue, this morning's episode was "Space Seed", the episode that gave us the immortal Khan Noonien Singh played by Mr. Roarke himself, Ricardo Montalban. I could always hear the Latin guitars and whispers of Corinthian Leather whenever he entered a scene. Of course, this ep paved the way 15 years later for what was arguably the best of the 10 Star Trek movies, "The Wrath of Khan". But the ep itself was notable for a lot of firsts: the first time that Khan appeared, the first time that the Enterprise gets taken over by an enemy (I'm sure the Borg, Sybok's followers and the Reman are in Khan's debt), the first time that Scotty punches someone out, the first time that Uhura gets slapped around, etc. Lots of fun to be had.
The juku boss contacted me to say that I've got another trial lesson coming up tomorrow night. One of the Beauty Pair, my now erstwhile students there, was kind enough to refer one of her buddies to us. Hmmm...judging from The Pair's level during their three years with me, I don't think she's gonna be any better. The friend wants to be put into a group, if possible, but I'll have to see during the trial lesson if she can be put with The Milds and McGirl. I kinda doubt it and I wouldn't mind having another hour of income coming in.
The rest of my evening at Speedy's was quiet. Speedy himself was taking a power nap while SB was typing away and I was just prepping for The Part-Timer's lesson. I'm gonna just have that 1-hour EIC lesson to show for my entire May Day next week. The Part-Timer is off on Golden Week vacation as will be The Class Act/SIL
Speaking of The Class Act, The Lady told me that she never watches television these days. She just finds most of the programming moronic and just overly chatty. I think that's probably why a lot of the younger folk like TV. I have to admit that my viewing habits have decreased to a few hours a week recently. A lot of it is due to my busy weeknights and the fact that I've been out on the weekends for the past couple of weeks now. But I also have to confess that there's not a lot that's grabbing me beyond the news and reruns of "Star Trek" on SkyPerfect.
And making another segue, this morning's episode was "Space Seed", the episode that gave us the immortal Khan Noonien Singh played by Mr. Roarke himself, Ricardo Montalban. I could always hear the Latin guitars and whispers of Corinthian Leather whenever he entered a scene. Of course, this ep paved the way 15 years later for what was arguably the best of the 10 Star Trek movies, "The Wrath of Khan". But the ep itself was notable for a lot of firsts: the first time that Khan appeared, the first time that the Enterprise gets taken over by an enemy (I'm sure the Borg, Sybok's followers and the Reman are in Khan's debt), the first time that Scotty punches someone out, the first time that Uhura gets slapped around, etc. Lots of fun to be had.
The juku boss contacted me to say that I've got another trial lesson coming up tomorrow night. One of the Beauty Pair, my now erstwhile students there, was kind enough to refer one of her buddies to us. Hmmm...judging from The Pair's level during their three years with me, I don't think she's gonna be any better. The friend wants to be put into a group, if possible, but I'll have to see during the trial lesson if she can be put with The Milds and McGirl. I kinda doubt it and I wouldn't mind having another hour of income coming in.
Monday April 24, 4:24 p.m.
About a month late but it really does feel like Spring for the first time this year. Sunny and quite warm. However, The Matron informed me today that from tomorrow, things will be going back to their pre-Spring temps. Man, this has been a long Winter.
The Class Act felt like its normal self after the Korea trip and last week's wrap-up chat. However, the ladies are going on holiday mode once more since Golden Week is around the corner. I've got nothing next Monday aside from that EIC student late next Monday night and perhaps The Part-Timer, if she hasn't caught the holidaying bug.
Movie Buddy got back to me about the burger trip. Looks like we are a go. His and our destination seems to be some place in the Sangenjaya area. Well, it's gonna be another long trip out for me but not too bad for the others.
I forgot to mention during my report on my Yokohama day trip with The Madame last Friday that the two of us had been walking up the main street of the city when we came across this vending machine. Now, vending machines are so numerous all over the country that they should be giving voting rights in my estimation. However, what made this one so special was that it was selling Kit Kat. At first viewing, I thought the bottle with the familiar red-and-white label was filled with a liquid version of the ol' chocolate-and-hazelnut bar. Eeesh...I like Kit Kat just fine but serving it in liquid form just didn't hit the ol' stomach just right. However, I needn't have worried since it was actually a glass bottle filled with 6 mini Kit Kat bars. And it was quite cold. Dang...just love Japanese pop culture.
Back to Monday, after my usual repast at Wendy's (I gather that the gravy train with The Chef is now completely over), I dropped by HMV to see if there were anything remotely interesting that I would be willing to fork over my hard-earned cash. Nada, but then again, today isn't the right day. I should do my major purchasing at the CD shop over the next few days though since it's double-point week from the 25th. Hopefully, I'll be able to pull off a last-minute flourish of scoring and fill up my card which expires next week.
It's been a quiet day at Speedy's. The ol' man is truly burnt out. He's currently taking a nap in the lounge next door. Before he went off to La-La Land, the two of us had talked about any other ways to generate some more income. It's tough being at the top.
About a month late but it really does feel like Spring for the first time this year. Sunny and quite warm. However, The Matron informed me today that from tomorrow, things will be going back to their pre-Spring temps. Man, this has been a long Winter.
The Class Act felt like its normal self after the Korea trip and last week's wrap-up chat. However, the ladies are going on holiday mode once more since Golden Week is around the corner. I've got nothing next Monday aside from that EIC student late next Monday night and perhaps The Part-Timer, if she hasn't caught the holidaying bug.
Movie Buddy got back to me about the burger trip. Looks like we are a go. His and our destination seems to be some place in the Sangenjaya area. Well, it's gonna be another long trip out for me but not too bad for the others.
I forgot to mention during my report on my Yokohama day trip with The Madame last Friday that the two of us had been walking up the main street of the city when we came across this vending machine. Now, vending machines are so numerous all over the country that they should be giving voting rights in my estimation. However, what made this one so special was that it was selling Kit Kat. At first viewing, I thought the bottle with the familiar red-and-white label was filled with a liquid version of the ol' chocolate-and-hazelnut bar. Eeesh...I like Kit Kat just fine but serving it in liquid form just didn't hit the ol' stomach just right. However, I needn't have worried since it was actually a glass bottle filled with 6 mini Kit Kat bars. And it was quite cold. Dang...just love Japanese pop culture.
Back to Monday, after my usual repast at Wendy's (I gather that the gravy train with The Chef is now completely over), I dropped by HMV to see if there were anything remotely interesting that I would be willing to fork over my hard-earned cash. Nada, but then again, today isn't the right day. I should do my major purchasing at the CD shop over the next few days though since it's double-point week from the 25th. Hopefully, I'll be able to pull off a last-minute flourish of scoring and fill up my card which expires next week.
It's been a quiet day at Speedy's. The ol' man is truly burnt out. He's currently taking a nap in the lounge next door. Before he went off to La-La Land, the two of us had talked about any other ways to generate some more income. It's tough being at the top.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Monday April 24, 7:32 a.m.
Fuji-TV's morning program is taking place live on the island of Yakushima. At first, I thought it was one of those contested islands between Korea and Japan which I'm sure would've set off some diplomatic fireworks...at the very least. However, Yakushima is just a sleepy little sea knoll of 14,000. On the same program, Mr. Karube of the entertainment segment talked about the new TomKat baby...oddly he didn't mention her name...probably because he didn't want to set the hosts snickering uncontrollably. Apparently, CNN has reported that a lot of folks in Israel are shaking and scratching their heads at the name choice of "Suri". Unlike the initial reports that Suri means "princess" in Hebrew, the current meaning is "get out of here". What a convenient moniker...a name and immediate reaction at the same time. As for me, I'm just waiting for Tom Cruise to start berating reporters from calling him and his wife, TomKat.
I still gotta send out more packages of Korean nori and candy to the family. Today won't be as busy as I'd thought. Not great on the income side but at least I'll be able to get a small breather. I'm sure things will be revving up here at the airports by the end of the week for Golden Week.
Fuji-TV's morning program is taking place live on the island of Yakushima. At first, I thought it was one of those contested islands between Korea and Japan which I'm sure would've set off some diplomatic fireworks...at the very least. However, Yakushima is just a sleepy little sea knoll of 14,000. On the same program, Mr. Karube of the entertainment segment talked about the new TomKat baby...oddly he didn't mention her name...probably because he didn't want to set the hosts snickering uncontrollably. Apparently, CNN has reported that a lot of folks in Israel are shaking and scratching their heads at the name choice of "Suri". Unlike the initial reports that Suri means "princess" in Hebrew, the current meaning is "get out of here". What a convenient moniker...a name and immediate reaction at the same time. As for me, I'm just waiting for Tom Cruise to start berating reporters from calling him and his wife, TomKat.
I still gotta send out more packages of Korean nori and candy to the family. Today won't be as busy as I'd thought. Not great on the income side but at least I'll be able to get a small breather. I'm sure things will be revving up here at the airports by the end of the week for Golden Week.
Sunday April 23, 11:33 p.m.
I love the smell of coffee, I like the taste of it but I can't stand coming home with it on me. It is as much of a factor in the formation of OMO (Old Man Odor) as alcohol is. And once again, OMO was lingering on me like a cheap suit on the ride home tonight. I had to scrub pretty hard in the shower to get it off.
My session with JJ went well but she forgot to pay me again. Not that I was in any danger of needing to withdraw anything from the bank. I make it a policy not to inform a student that she's forgotten to pay me since to me it seems so unseemly, even if I did render a service. I think that should be up to the student to remember. However, I did send a very polite reminder to her. In any case, I will be seeing her next week.
I raced up to Takashimaya Times Square in Shinjuku afterwards to meet The Satyr and The Madame. We first went to have a bit of a drink while we waited for Skippy to arrive. The Madame regaled The Satyr about my bout with the fear of heights on the Yokohama Ferris Wheel back on Friday. I winced a bit at her teasing me about how she had to calm me down but I figured she deserved a bit of payback on me for all my potshots at her about her spiritualism.
Skippy showed up a half-hour later and we got our tickets for "The Libertine" before heading off across the railway yards to The Southern Tower building where my favourite Mexican restaurant, El Torito, was located in the basement. I usually order fajitas or the Fiesta Platter but it looks like this time, the four of us went individual. The Satyr and I both had the rather interestingly named Macho Meal of one taco, two burritos and an enchilada. Once again, The Madame had me act as vacuum cleaner for the remaining half of her Vegetable Burrito. And as well, she told us of her latest adventures in the spirit world, including some rather carnal punishment she had suffered from her spirit guides thanks to our rather carnal discussion at Subway last week, although she was technically risking getting spanked again for announcing their way of punishment. While the ladies were out powedering their noses, I asked The Satyr his opinion about The Madame's long expositions last week and today. He was pretty much on the same wavelength as me: we both believe that she believes very fervently...and too much. However, The Madame may have picked up an acolyte in Skippy. I'm also worried about The Madame's health. She says that she's been suffering from a ringing in her ears for some time; she says that it's probably due to her spiritual communion so she hasn't bothered to see an Earthbound doctor. I've sent her a little friendly advice tonight about her trying out one of them just in case her tinnitus actually has a good cause based in the mundane world of medical science. I don't want her to needlessly go deaf on account of religious piety.
Well, it was time for Johnny Depp so we returned to the small theatre on the 12th floor of Times Square. The audience was solidly in the younger category with the majority being women; Depp fans, no doubt. Of course, one of the trailers was for "Pirates of the Caribbean II". There was also another trailer which was bizarre enough to get my attention (I usually sleep through those things); it was for a Japanese movie which seems to be filmed in a Monty Pythonesque style, the plot being about various stock Japanese historical characters ordering tons of hamburgers in a fast food restaurant. Sounds Pythonesque, to be sure. The theatre itself was quite nice. It was done up like any of those new cineplexes with stadium-style seating.
I was surprised to read on the IMdB just now that "The Libertine" had actually been released as early as late 2004...quite some months before Depp got his pop culture icon role as Captain Jack Sparrow and his weeper role as the creator of Peter Pan. I also read some of the rave reviews for the movie. It was the first time that I'd seen such florid praise on the usually down-to-earth website; one would think that the reviews were all written by The Earl of Rochester himself.
For the record, I didn't think it was really quite that good although I have to admit that I'm a Neanderthal when it comes to feeling real emotions from 2-D characters off a huge screen. I did not get weepy or awe-struck when Depp's repulsive John Wilmot gave his posthumous prologue, and neither did I swoon when Samantha Morton's Lizzie and Wilmot had their tete-a-tete tutorial. I guess I'm rather tone-deaf when it comes to fabulous performances. I know when I see a universally good movie, and "The Libertine" was a good movie. It was well-acted...I didn't pick up a false note from any of the performers that could've jarred the historical setting, and certainly the star of the piece grabbed the script and ran with it. Even through my thick hide, I could tell that his amorally complex character largely succeeded in attracting revulsion and pity. The plotting was well-paced...I was actually surprised that a corset-and-longstocking movie didn't have me looking at my watch despite that it was a full 2 hours. But did I leap out of my seat at the end of the movie and proclaim it as one of the most important films of the early 21st century? Nah... The Satyr liked it as did the Japanese female pair although the Canadian side had to do a bit of explaining of some of the more confusing parts.
I am hoping that the movie version of "Rent" comes out soon. I don't want to watch it but I'm getting tired of seeing that trailer of the cast singing "256,000 Minutes" or however many minutes make up a year.
Skippy had to take off so it was once again the three of us who ended up going to that old-fashioned cafe that The Madame and I have gone to twice near Shinjuku Station. It was there that I got that infusion of coffee odor. The three of us spent another 2 hours just gabbing away although the discussion did actually stray away from spiritualism.
I've sent off a missive to Movie Buddy about this visit to a burger joint he had first put out on the table. I asked him about the 30th for which I'm still awaiting a reply. Looks like my lunch-and-movie colleagues are interested although The Madame warned me that I will most likely be ingesting her purchases. Not complaining at all. I also asked The Madame if she would be piqued to try out "Riraku no Mori", that little area stuck amidst The Gyoza Museum, Ice Cream City and a seasonal food-themed exhibition, for a try at some of their relaxation therapies, since the two of us have the day off this Friday. Not sure if she'll bite since there is the burger Sunday to think about.
Speedy told me that the lady who has been taking the EIC classes will be scheduling her final third lesson for May Day so I'll be finishing off with The Part-Timer tomorrow. Also, SIL has cancelled her lesson again after the one for The Class Act. Apparently, her mother has injured herself again.
Once again, my Hotmail has been taking the time of blackstrap molasses sliding down a frozen window to send out mail. I have tried everything to get it working right but it looks like I'm stuck with slow service until something happens.
I love the smell of coffee, I like the taste of it but I can't stand coming home with it on me. It is as much of a factor in the formation of OMO (Old Man Odor) as alcohol is. And once again, OMO was lingering on me like a cheap suit on the ride home tonight. I had to scrub pretty hard in the shower to get it off.
My session with JJ went well but she forgot to pay me again. Not that I was in any danger of needing to withdraw anything from the bank. I make it a policy not to inform a student that she's forgotten to pay me since to me it seems so unseemly, even if I did render a service. I think that should be up to the student to remember. However, I did send a very polite reminder to her. In any case, I will be seeing her next week.
I raced up to Takashimaya Times Square in Shinjuku afterwards to meet The Satyr and The Madame. We first went to have a bit of a drink while we waited for Skippy to arrive. The Madame regaled The Satyr about my bout with the fear of heights on the Yokohama Ferris Wheel back on Friday. I winced a bit at her teasing me about how she had to calm me down but I figured she deserved a bit of payback on me for all my potshots at her about her spiritualism.
Skippy showed up a half-hour later and we got our tickets for "The Libertine" before heading off across the railway yards to The Southern Tower building where my favourite Mexican restaurant, El Torito, was located in the basement. I usually order fajitas or the Fiesta Platter but it looks like this time, the four of us went individual. The Satyr and I both had the rather interestingly named Macho Meal of one taco, two burritos and an enchilada. Once again, The Madame had me act as vacuum cleaner for the remaining half of her Vegetable Burrito. And as well, she told us of her latest adventures in the spirit world, including some rather carnal punishment she had suffered from her spirit guides thanks to our rather carnal discussion at Subway last week, although she was technically risking getting spanked again for announcing their way of punishment. While the ladies were out powedering their noses, I asked The Satyr his opinion about The Madame's long expositions last week and today. He was pretty much on the same wavelength as me: we both believe that she believes very fervently...and too much. However, The Madame may have picked up an acolyte in Skippy. I'm also worried about The Madame's health. She says that she's been suffering from a ringing in her ears for some time; she says that it's probably due to her spiritual communion so she hasn't bothered to see an Earthbound doctor. I've sent her a little friendly advice tonight about her trying out one of them just in case her tinnitus actually has a good cause based in the mundane world of medical science. I don't want her to needlessly go deaf on account of religious piety.
Well, it was time for Johnny Depp so we returned to the small theatre on the 12th floor of Times Square. The audience was solidly in the younger category with the majority being women; Depp fans, no doubt. Of course, one of the trailers was for "Pirates of the Caribbean II". There was also another trailer which was bizarre enough to get my attention (I usually sleep through those things); it was for a Japanese movie which seems to be filmed in a Monty Pythonesque style, the plot being about various stock Japanese historical characters ordering tons of hamburgers in a fast food restaurant. Sounds Pythonesque, to be sure. The theatre itself was quite nice. It was done up like any of those new cineplexes with stadium-style seating.
I was surprised to read on the IMdB just now that "The Libertine" had actually been released as early as late 2004...quite some months before Depp got his pop culture icon role as Captain Jack Sparrow and his weeper role as the creator of Peter Pan. I also read some of the rave reviews for the movie. It was the first time that I'd seen such florid praise on the usually down-to-earth website; one would think that the reviews were all written by The Earl of Rochester himself.
For the record, I didn't think it was really quite that good although I have to admit that I'm a Neanderthal when it comes to feeling real emotions from 2-D characters off a huge screen. I did not get weepy or awe-struck when Depp's repulsive John Wilmot gave his posthumous prologue, and neither did I swoon when Samantha Morton's Lizzie and Wilmot had their tete-a-tete tutorial. I guess I'm rather tone-deaf when it comes to fabulous performances. I know when I see a universally good movie, and "The Libertine" was a good movie. It was well-acted...I didn't pick up a false note from any of the performers that could've jarred the historical setting, and certainly the star of the piece grabbed the script and ran with it. Even through my thick hide, I could tell that his amorally complex character largely succeeded in attracting revulsion and pity. The plotting was well-paced...I was actually surprised that a corset-and-longstocking movie didn't have me looking at my watch despite that it was a full 2 hours. But did I leap out of my seat at the end of the movie and proclaim it as one of the most important films of the early 21st century? Nah... The Satyr liked it as did the Japanese female pair although the Canadian side had to do a bit of explaining of some of the more confusing parts.
I am hoping that the movie version of "Rent" comes out soon. I don't want to watch it but I'm getting tired of seeing that trailer of the cast singing "256,000 Minutes" or however many minutes make up a year.
Skippy had to take off so it was once again the three of us who ended up going to that old-fashioned cafe that The Madame and I have gone to twice near Shinjuku Station. It was there that I got that infusion of coffee odor. The three of us spent another 2 hours just gabbing away although the discussion did actually stray away from spiritualism.
I've sent off a missive to Movie Buddy about this visit to a burger joint he had first put out on the table. I asked him about the 30th for which I'm still awaiting a reply. Looks like my lunch-and-movie colleagues are interested although The Madame warned me that I will most likely be ingesting her purchases. Not complaining at all. I also asked The Madame if she would be piqued to try out "Riraku no Mori", that little area stuck amidst The Gyoza Museum, Ice Cream City and a seasonal food-themed exhibition, for a try at some of their relaxation therapies, since the two of us have the day off this Friday. Not sure if she'll bite since there is the burger Sunday to think about.
Speedy told me that the lady who has been taking the EIC classes will be scheduling her final third lesson for May Day so I'll be finishing off with The Part-Timer tomorrow. Also, SIL has cancelled her lesson again after the one for The Class Act. Apparently, her mother has injured herself again.
Once again, my Hotmail has been taking the time of blackstrap molasses sliding down a frozen window to send out mail. I have tried everything to get it working right but it looks like I'm stuck with slow service until something happens.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Saturday April 22, 9:36 p.m.
The kids were their usual selves today. However, I gotta admit that the Senior has gotten a lot more fluent in English. I'm not sure if she's finally seen the light or her mother finally yelled it into her. I actually did ask their mother about the Junior's comments about me smelling like fish. I probably shouldn't have asked her about it since I didn't want to get the girl into trouble but curiosity got the better of me. The mother and the Elder insisted that I didn't smell like anything piscine.
I had lunch at China Quick, part of a chain of cheap Chinese restaurants. The branch I went to was just a few dozen metres away from Speedy's place. The food's pretty decent...I had the hoi koro plus half-ramen set. The ramen tasted like anything that could be made from an instant cup but the hoi koro, Japan's equivalent of chop suey, was tasty. It just cost me 880 yen. China Quick's direct rival is probably the Bamiyan chain which is a more family-restaurant type of Chinese eatery. However, I think that someone should've told the owner of Bamiyan that China hasn't exactly invaded Afghanistan quite yet.
The second half of my day went pretty well. I had that low-level student for her second of three pre-cooking English lessons and then I started the inaugural lesson for the "Friends" video lesson. The student who showed for that one was a real aficionado of American TV: "Friends", "ER", "Full House"...she would probably be a Nielsen viewer if she lived in the States. And she didn't do too badly either with the pilot episode of "Friends"...she said she could pick up about 50% of what was going on without the need for Japanese subtitles or dubbing. Speedy and I are crossing our fingers that we've got a keeper here.
The important thing is that I've managed to pass the gauntlet of today. Celebrated with just a Lotteria meal, albeit it was the largest burger set on the menu. Tomorrow, I just have JJ for her first lesson since I got back from Korea so I've got her nori for her. And then I'm off to Shinjuku to see The Madame with Skippy and The Satyr for lunch and then "The Libertine". One of the M's of M+M contacted me to see if I were available for a session on the 29th. Well, if she's willing to come after the first lesson for The OL's sister, then I'm willling to talk with her. Otherwise, it'll have to be the week after.
My Friday will be completely open so I'm kinda wondering whether I should ask The Madame out for dinner or just spend a nice quiet start to Golden Week at home.
The reaction to that news of J.J. Abrams breathing life into the "Star Trek" movie franchise has been decidedly mixed. According to some of the Trek news forums, some of the folks are rolling out the champagne (Chateau Picard, of course) while others are just rolling their eyes. I say that it's too early to say.
The kids were their usual selves today. However, I gotta admit that the Senior has gotten a lot more fluent in English. I'm not sure if she's finally seen the light or her mother finally yelled it into her. I actually did ask their mother about the Junior's comments about me smelling like fish. I probably shouldn't have asked her about it since I didn't want to get the girl into trouble but curiosity got the better of me. The mother and the Elder insisted that I didn't smell like anything piscine.
I had lunch at China Quick, part of a chain of cheap Chinese restaurants. The branch I went to was just a few dozen metres away from Speedy's place. The food's pretty decent...I had the hoi koro plus half-ramen set. The ramen tasted like anything that could be made from an instant cup but the hoi koro, Japan's equivalent of chop suey, was tasty. It just cost me 880 yen. China Quick's direct rival is probably the Bamiyan chain which is a more family-restaurant type of Chinese eatery. However, I think that someone should've told the owner of Bamiyan that China hasn't exactly invaded Afghanistan quite yet.
The second half of my day went pretty well. I had that low-level student for her second of three pre-cooking English lessons and then I started the inaugural lesson for the "Friends" video lesson. The student who showed for that one was a real aficionado of American TV: "Friends", "ER", "Full House"...she would probably be a Nielsen viewer if she lived in the States. And she didn't do too badly either with the pilot episode of "Friends"...she said she could pick up about 50% of what was going on without the need for Japanese subtitles or dubbing. Speedy and I are crossing our fingers that we've got a keeper here.
The important thing is that I've managed to pass the gauntlet of today. Celebrated with just a Lotteria meal, albeit it was the largest burger set on the menu. Tomorrow, I just have JJ for her first lesson since I got back from Korea so I've got her nori for her. And then I'm off to Shinjuku to see The Madame with Skippy and The Satyr for lunch and then "The Libertine". One of the M's of M+M contacted me to see if I were available for a session on the 29th. Well, if she's willing to come after the first lesson for The OL's sister, then I'm willling to talk with her. Otherwise, it'll have to be the week after.
My Friday will be completely open so I'm kinda wondering whether I should ask The Madame out for dinner or just spend a nice quiet start to Golden Week at home.
The reaction to that news of J.J. Abrams breathing life into the "Star Trek" movie franchise has been decidedly mixed. According to some of the Trek news forums, some of the folks are rolling out the champagne (Chateau Picard, of course) while others are just rolling their eyes. I say that it's too early to say.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Saturday April 22, 7:00 a.m.
First decent day for laundry in a while. Got a bit of the cloth to clean and put up on the line. There was another tremor off in the Izu Peninsula a couple of hours west of Tokyo about an hour ago. Nothing felt here but I think we may be in for another "season" of earthquakes.
Another girl got murdered yesterday. Some junior high school student was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in an abandoned pachinko parlour in Gifu Prefecture. The police later announced that it was her boyfriend, a 15-year-old boy, that had been behind the killing.
I see that Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 80 years on the planet (not on the throne, though folks can be forgiven for the thought). It's kinda mind-boggling that for my entire life, this lady of Windsor had been reigning for several years before my birth and continues to do so. She also happens to be Queen of Canada (calm down, you anti-Royalists). I remember the times that I had to sing "God Save The Queen" in class after the Canadian national anthem. The Britishers were certainly doing that today and last night in a huge festival; apparently, all that kerfuffle about Princess Diana has now been put solidly into the past...at least where the Queen is concerned. Japan also celebrates royal births. There is the current Emperor's birthday on December 23rd (awfully sporting of him to be born just a couple of days before Xmas) and then there is the previous Showa Emperor's birthday on April 29th, now known as Green Day (although I don't think the band has ever been invited to the Imperial Palace) which nicely starts off Golden Week.
All this celebrating in England mustn't be helping the mood of the increasingly besieged King of Nepal. Not that he nor the rest of his erstwhile subjects would be looking at the TV right now.
B2 turned down my offer to teach her and B2B next Friday night. It was my alternate date since we are going into Golden Week and therefore the couple won't be available on their regular day. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, the 28th is indeed the night before Green Day so folks in The Big Sushi will be whooping it up even more than usual. B2 and B2B will be two of those celebrants. She did ask me about the 11th but that's my night for The Carolinan so I'm afraid it'll have to be the 18th.
First decent day for laundry in a while. Got a bit of the cloth to clean and put up on the line. There was another tremor off in the Izu Peninsula a couple of hours west of Tokyo about an hour ago. Nothing felt here but I think we may be in for another "season" of earthquakes.
Another girl got murdered yesterday. Some junior high school student was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in an abandoned pachinko parlour in Gifu Prefecture. The police later announced that it was her boyfriend, a 15-year-old boy, that had been behind the killing.
I see that Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 80 years on the planet (not on the throne, though folks can be forgiven for the thought). It's kinda mind-boggling that for my entire life, this lady of Windsor had been reigning for several years before my birth and continues to do so. She also happens to be Queen of Canada (calm down, you anti-Royalists). I remember the times that I had to sing "God Save The Queen" in class after the Canadian national anthem. The Britishers were certainly doing that today and last night in a huge festival; apparently, all that kerfuffle about Princess Diana has now been put solidly into the past...at least where the Queen is concerned. Japan also celebrates royal births. There is the current Emperor's birthday on December 23rd (awfully sporting of him to be born just a couple of days before Xmas) and then there is the previous Showa Emperor's birthday on April 29th, now known as Green Day (although I don't think the band has ever been invited to the Imperial Palace) which nicely starts off Golden Week.
All this celebrating in England mustn't be helping the mood of the increasingly besieged King of Nepal. Not that he nor the rest of his erstwhile subjects would be looking at the TV right now.
B2 turned down my offer to teach her and B2B next Friday night. It was my alternate date since we are going into Golden Week and therefore the couple won't be available on their regular day. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, the 28th is indeed the night before Green Day so folks in The Big Sushi will be whooping it up even more than usual. B2 and B2B will be two of those celebrants. She did ask me about the 11th but that's my night for The Carolinan so I'm afraid it'll have to be the 18th.
Friday April 21, 10:16 p.m.
Well this morning got off to a bit of a rocky start literally with a Shindo 4 tremor hitting the Kanto. No particular damage but it was pretty rare for a shaker that strong to hit in the middle of the night. I'm not saying that earthquakes punch a clock like regular humans but usually the bigger ones have hit during the early morning just when people are getting ready to head on out.
Speaking of heading on out, that's what I did this morning early when I went off all the way to Ikebukuro to meet up with The Madame for the tour in Yokohama. Since I hate rush hour, I left at the wee hour of 6:45 a.m. and got to Ikebukuro at 7:30, a full 2 hours before I was to meet her. I just decided to kill time while having a cuppa at Excelsior Coffee (the chief clone and rival to Starbucks in Tokyo).
When I met her at 9:30, she informed me that The Satyr, as expected, couldn't make it out due to work so it would be just the two of us. We headed out on the Shinjuku-Shonan Line to Yokohama at 9:53. It wasn't too full and we could actually get seats after departing Shibuya. The Madame was as giddy as a farm girl going on her first solo trip to the big city. Can't believe that a born-and-bred Tokyoite had never gone to this city, a mere 40 minutes away.
We switched over to the still spanking new Minato Mirai subway line from Yokohama Station and headed straight down to Chinatown. Unfortunately, April is the month for all sorts of junior high schools to send out their kids on school trips so we often came across noisy gaggles of uniformed brats in the area. As we entered through the East Gate, I saw that Chinese buffet restaurant I'd visited almost a couple of years ago when I'd spent a night in the port city at The Pan Pacific. But that was no dice with The Madame because of her bird appetite. After searchng through the various eateries, we settled on one place whose maitre d' had all the charm of a mortician but we didn't let that get in the way of having a good meal for a pretty inexpensive price. For 850 yen each, we had soup, salad, a variety of dim sum dishes and a mango pudding. It made me forget about that all-you-can-eat buffet and its 3,000 yen price since even I got pretty full on it. Not surprisingly, The Madame could only finish two-thirds of her stuff so I resuscitated my old university habit of finishing off my colleagues' dishes and scarfed down whatever she'd left. I also discovered that I did have some chivalry and just had her pay a fraction of that original price tag.
Afterwards, we walked down a few dozen metres to this tea shop which served bubble tea, a drink that The Madame hadn't forgotten from our Taiwan trip last year. She was even able to get the tapioca stuff hot while I settled for the cold version. We didn't stay too long since the actual cafe itself was tiny, and the lady managing the place was starting to give us the evil eye when more potential customers entered the place. So we took off and continued course our way through Chinatown for another half-hour before we made our way out via Yamashita Park and up the main street. Boy, can that woman talk a mile a minute. I had to tune out just before she made her washroom break halfway since I was in danger of going into a grand mal epileptic shock from trying to process all that she was gabbing about. The break calmed her down luckily.
We finally reached the Minato Mirai area in mid-afternoon and headed first to the World Porters Mall taking a break on the second floor deck outside for a while before heading down to the 1st floor supermarket area. I found out that she has a bit of a fetish for looking at all foods foreign; we took a good long scan at everything from that ol' Canadian breakfast classic of Weetabix to the cheeses in the refrigerated area. I told her that Weetabix not only looked like a scrub brush but it did much the same thing inside one's stomach. Then, it was up to the top floor to look at another one of The Madame's favourite things: living room furniture.
Leaving World Porters, we crossed the street into the amusement park area where one of the largest Ferris Wheels in the world was located. I guess being a weekday may have explained it, but the place was largely deserted. However, the Madame decided that we would go on that big wheel later in the evening. We then walked into the heart of Minato Mirai and into the triple building complex of Queen's Centre and searched for another place to dine at. We couldn't find anything there so we walked next door to the Landmark Mall and down a couple of floors into the garage area. We were surprised to find a few more restaurants abutting the gray concrete there. We went into a restaurant whose chain specializes in Asian food. Currently, The Madame has a major love for pho, the Vietnamese noodle dish. Being only 4:30, it wasn't too hard to get a table especially when we were the only ones in the place. We got ourselves a few dishes, and in fact, I repeated last week's Seoul food experience of dining on bibimbap. The Madame usually share our food but the bibimbap was off limits to her since she can't touch anything that's remotely spicy.
Double in fact, I think today's Yokohama trip was as much a gourmet tour as the trip to Seoul was with The Class Act. After the Asian dinner, we went upstairs to The Croissant Cafe for a bit of coffee and dessert. I was later to find out that I'd broke the bank today on the food budget.
Finally, night had fallen and so we returned to the big Ferris Wheel for that ride. I have to confess that I didn't show a very good side of myself. I rediscovered my fear of heights by going up that thing. The problem was that it was one of the largest Wheels in the world and that the most of the cabin was plexiglass. As we climbed higher and higher, I started getting the cold sweats in the feet and hands. Finally, I had just to close my eyes for most of the 15-minute ride; The Madame had to pep talk me in the latter half of the ride just so that she could take my mind off of the heights and the high winds. Nope, not a proud moment but at least I know that my second trip on a Ferris Wheel in a month will probably be my last one for a good long while.
The trip ended, The Madame and I made our way back to Minato Mirai Station and headed home. Just like the train back from Haneda Airport last week, the train home was another lustily packed affair. The increase in carbon dioxide in the car made it easy for me to get some shuteye. The Madame had a good time in Yokohama...that was the important point, though. And I'm gonna see her again in a couple of days with The Satyr and Skippy in tow for the "The Libertine".
Man, I gotta get some prelim work done for tomorrow's lessons. I've got the kids again first thing tomorrow morning and then I've got those special ones at Speedy's later in the afternoon.
I heard that J.J. Abrams, the guy behind "Alias" and "Mission: Impossible 3" will be giving, or trying to anyways, the comatose "Star Trek" franchise a booster shot for 2008. I kinda wonder if there were groans all around collectively when the announcement had been made, notably from LeVar Burton who commented that the franchise should either be buried forever or at least brought back from the dead no earlier than a decade later. Then again, I think how "Battlestar Galactica" and "Doctor Who" have been brought back to a miraculous success. Maybe Abrams might have something here although I have yet to find out how the new "Mission: Impossible" will fare. And I'm not too impressed about the initial idea of this new movie dealing with how the young James Kirk met Spock at Starfleet Academy. Just how is anyone gonna ever replace William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy?
Well this morning got off to a bit of a rocky start literally with a Shindo 4 tremor hitting the Kanto. No particular damage but it was pretty rare for a shaker that strong to hit in the middle of the night. I'm not saying that earthquakes punch a clock like regular humans but usually the bigger ones have hit during the early morning just when people are getting ready to head on out.
Speaking of heading on out, that's what I did this morning early when I went off all the way to Ikebukuro to meet up with The Madame for the tour in Yokohama. Since I hate rush hour, I left at the wee hour of 6:45 a.m. and got to Ikebukuro at 7:30, a full 2 hours before I was to meet her. I just decided to kill time while having a cuppa at Excelsior Coffee (the chief clone and rival to Starbucks in Tokyo).
When I met her at 9:30, she informed me that The Satyr, as expected, couldn't make it out due to work so it would be just the two of us. We headed out on the Shinjuku-Shonan Line to Yokohama at 9:53. It wasn't too full and we could actually get seats after departing Shibuya. The Madame was as giddy as a farm girl going on her first solo trip to the big city. Can't believe that a born-and-bred Tokyoite had never gone to this city, a mere 40 minutes away.
We switched over to the still spanking new Minato Mirai subway line from Yokohama Station and headed straight down to Chinatown. Unfortunately, April is the month for all sorts of junior high schools to send out their kids on school trips so we often came across noisy gaggles of uniformed brats in the area. As we entered through the East Gate, I saw that Chinese buffet restaurant I'd visited almost a couple of years ago when I'd spent a night in the port city at The Pan Pacific. But that was no dice with The Madame because of her bird appetite. After searchng through the various eateries, we settled on one place whose maitre d' had all the charm of a mortician but we didn't let that get in the way of having a good meal for a pretty inexpensive price. For 850 yen each, we had soup, salad, a variety of dim sum dishes and a mango pudding. It made me forget about that all-you-can-eat buffet and its 3,000 yen price since even I got pretty full on it. Not surprisingly, The Madame could only finish two-thirds of her stuff so I resuscitated my old university habit of finishing off my colleagues' dishes and scarfed down whatever she'd left. I also discovered that I did have some chivalry and just had her pay a fraction of that original price tag.
Afterwards, we walked down a few dozen metres to this tea shop which served bubble tea, a drink that The Madame hadn't forgotten from our Taiwan trip last year. She was even able to get the tapioca stuff hot while I settled for the cold version. We didn't stay too long since the actual cafe itself was tiny, and the lady managing the place was starting to give us the evil eye when more potential customers entered the place. So we took off and continued course our way through Chinatown for another half-hour before we made our way out via Yamashita Park and up the main street. Boy, can that woman talk a mile a minute. I had to tune out just before she made her washroom break halfway since I was in danger of going into a grand mal epileptic shock from trying to process all that she was gabbing about. The break calmed her down luckily.
We finally reached the Minato Mirai area in mid-afternoon and headed first to the World Porters Mall taking a break on the second floor deck outside for a while before heading down to the 1st floor supermarket area. I found out that she has a bit of a fetish for looking at all foods foreign; we took a good long scan at everything from that ol' Canadian breakfast classic of Weetabix to the cheeses in the refrigerated area. I told her that Weetabix not only looked like a scrub brush but it did much the same thing inside one's stomach. Then, it was up to the top floor to look at another one of The Madame's favourite things: living room furniture.
Leaving World Porters, we crossed the street into the amusement park area where one of the largest Ferris Wheels in the world was located. I guess being a weekday may have explained it, but the place was largely deserted. However, the Madame decided that we would go on that big wheel later in the evening. We then walked into the heart of Minato Mirai and into the triple building complex of Queen's Centre and searched for another place to dine at. We couldn't find anything there so we walked next door to the Landmark Mall and down a couple of floors into the garage area. We were surprised to find a few more restaurants abutting the gray concrete there. We went into a restaurant whose chain specializes in Asian food. Currently, The Madame has a major love for pho, the Vietnamese noodle dish. Being only 4:30, it wasn't too hard to get a table especially when we were the only ones in the place. We got ourselves a few dishes, and in fact, I repeated last week's Seoul food experience of dining on bibimbap. The Madame usually share our food but the bibimbap was off limits to her since she can't touch anything that's remotely spicy.
Double in fact, I think today's Yokohama trip was as much a gourmet tour as the trip to Seoul was with The Class Act. After the Asian dinner, we went upstairs to The Croissant Cafe for a bit of coffee and dessert. I was later to find out that I'd broke the bank today on the food budget.
Finally, night had fallen and so we returned to the big Ferris Wheel for that ride. I have to confess that I didn't show a very good side of myself. I rediscovered my fear of heights by going up that thing. The problem was that it was one of the largest Wheels in the world and that the most of the cabin was plexiglass. As we climbed higher and higher, I started getting the cold sweats in the feet and hands. Finally, I had just to close my eyes for most of the 15-minute ride; The Madame had to pep talk me in the latter half of the ride just so that she could take my mind off of the heights and the high winds. Nope, not a proud moment but at least I know that my second trip on a Ferris Wheel in a month will probably be my last one for a good long while.
The trip ended, The Madame and I made our way back to Minato Mirai Station and headed home. Just like the train back from Haneda Airport last week, the train home was another lustily packed affair. The increase in carbon dioxide in the car made it easy for me to get some shuteye. The Madame had a good time in Yokohama...that was the important point, though. And I'm gonna see her again in a couple of days with The Satyr and Skippy in tow for the "The Libertine".
Man, I gotta get some prelim work done for tomorrow's lessons. I've got the kids again first thing tomorrow morning and then I've got those special ones at Speedy's later in the afternoon.
I heard that J.J. Abrams, the guy behind "Alias" and "Mission: Impossible 3" will be giving, or trying to anyways, the comatose "Star Trek" franchise a booster shot for 2008. I kinda wonder if there were groans all around collectively when the announcement had been made, notably from LeVar Burton who commented that the franchise should either be buried forever or at least brought back from the dead no earlier than a decade later. Then again, I think how "Battlestar Galactica" and "Doctor Who" have been brought back to a miraculous success. Maybe Abrams might have something here although I have yet to find out how the new "Mission: Impossible" will fare. And I'm not too impressed about the initial idea of this new movie dealing with how the young James Kirk met Spock at Starfleet Academy. Just how is anyone gonna ever replace William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy?
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Thursday April 20, 10:11 p.m.
Well, got through B2 and B2B. The latter was too pooped so he was strictly in listening/snoozing mode tonight. B2 was chattier today so she got a lot of talking time. Still not completely sure if it's working out but I think we may be coming to a happy medium here.
Gonna be hitting the hay in the next 20 or so minutes since I gotta head on out to Ikebukuro to meet The Madame, and perhaps The Satyr, for our adventures in Yokohama tomorrow. Since we're meeting at 9:30 a.m. there, I'd have to leave during the worst of rush hour, and I vowed I would not knowingly put myself in that sort of hell, so I'll leave just before 7. I'll need to find a cafe in the neighbourhood to spend an hour before meeting the lady.
I see that CNN's Jeanne Moos finally caught onto the fact about the reaction of TomKat's baby, Suri, in Japan (for the record, once again, suri means pickpocket in these here parts). Her feature talked about the strange lack of common sense that occurs in celebs when it comes to naming their kids. Apple Paltrow? Moon Unit Zappa? Suri Cruise? I guess Gwyneth (oh, there we go again) and Tom can afford those bodyguards for their kids when they get eventually bullied by their classmates.
Good night.
Well, got through B2 and B2B. The latter was too pooped so he was strictly in listening/snoozing mode tonight. B2 was chattier today so she got a lot of talking time. Still not completely sure if it's working out but I think we may be coming to a happy medium here.
Gonna be hitting the hay in the next 20 or so minutes since I gotta head on out to Ikebukuro to meet The Madame, and perhaps The Satyr, for our adventures in Yokohama tomorrow. Since we're meeting at 9:30 a.m. there, I'd have to leave during the worst of rush hour, and I vowed I would not knowingly put myself in that sort of hell, so I'll leave just before 7. I'll need to find a cafe in the neighbourhood to spend an hour before meeting the lady.
I see that CNN's Jeanne Moos finally caught onto the fact about the reaction of TomKat's baby, Suri, in Japan (for the record, once again, suri means pickpocket in these here parts). Her feature talked about the strange lack of common sense that occurs in celebs when it comes to naming their kids. Apple Paltrow? Moon Unit Zappa? Suri Cruise? I guess Gwyneth (oh, there we go again) and Tom can afford those bodyguards for their kids when they get eventually bullied by their classmates.
Good night.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Thursday April 20, 1:33 p.m.
The juku boss was even loopier than usual today. She was getting into a couple of laughing fits over some misuse of vocab during her TOEIC practice. Not a bad way to earn 6000 yen. Mind you, I had to fight a mightly squall on the way home. The rain itself wasn't too bad but the winds were able to whip them up into something rather ferocious. My collapsible umbrella was DOA. Luckily, I have alternates to fall back on. Right now, though, it looks like everything has calmed back down.
Movie Buddy contacted me last night to compensate for that chocolate tour that he and The Sylph missed out on last Sunday. He threw in a suggestion for a hamburger tour. I can't really believe that he would suggest going out to multiple restaurants considering the slight frames of both him and his girl but I think he meant focusing on one non-Mcdonalds place. I forwarded his idea to some of the others; I'm not sure if I'm gonna get any nibbles on this one. Chocolate is a good food to go after with the ladies when it comes to buffets or cafes that specialize in it, but they seem to be rather skittish when it comes to any of the meats. However, The Madame didn't fare too badly with her Bucket O' Trash at Bubba Gump's.
Tsuyoshi Shinjo lived up to his name and fame as Japanese baseball's bona fide movie star a couple of days ago by announcing his retirement after this season in front of his homefield crowd in Sapporo without having told a soul beforehand...including his manager. The manager, an American, looked rather shellshocked in front of the media. I don't know if Shinjo did bupkiss as a New York Met but over here, he is the glamour god. He not only has been doing commericals for a travel agency dressed up in a airline company uniform seemingly designed by Sgt. Pepper's but now he's doing a series of underwear ads. He obviously is taking good care of himself. The problem is that he does the Hollywood thing too well...he looks like a living mannekin on screen with his shiny skin and teeth. He may just be a little too superficial, even for the day-glo world of Japanese tarento TV once he leaves the baseball field. This morning, in fact, the cameras shot him coming down initially soberly down a hallway in the arena (oh, is he reflecting sadly on the coming end to his career?). Suddenly, he flashes his pearly whites and does a little hop before yellng "Good morning!" to the media and going into a strut. As they would say over here, "Sasuga Shinjo." (That's Shinjo for you).
I'm waiting for that disc from Maruzen. I called up the automatic switchboard for deliveries at The Pelican Delivery Service asked them to send the disc over between 3 and 6 today. I would've done it earlier but since the earlier slot was between 12 and 3, I couldn't take the risk of having the guy bring it over at something like 12:05 since I was still coming home at that point. I hope he doesn't decide to wait until 5:59. I would like the chance to at least tape it for B2's sake tonight. Speaking of her, since I have so much nori left over, I'll give her and her beau a pack of the stuff. I'm still hoping that things continue to slowly improve between me and them. I still don't think we're quite out of the woods yet. It's a bit hard to believe that it was a week ago that I'd headed over to Seoul.
I just finished off watching an episode of "CSI: Miami". It seems like the CSI franchise has become part and parcel of TV Tokyo's noontime programming. I gather that the station can't live on travel and cooking shows alone. The ep was the paparazzi show with the suspect being this obvious Tom Cruise clone. I forget the actor's name but it looks he's trying to outdo the rest of the room in charisma through his character of Horatio Crane. He sounds like a combo of Jack Webb of "Dragnet" and Don Johnson of "Miami Vice".
Anyways, I guess I'll just keep the vigil for that textbook CD and plan for B2 and B2B.
The juku boss was even loopier than usual today. She was getting into a couple of laughing fits over some misuse of vocab during her TOEIC practice. Not a bad way to earn 6000 yen. Mind you, I had to fight a mightly squall on the way home. The rain itself wasn't too bad but the winds were able to whip them up into something rather ferocious. My collapsible umbrella was DOA. Luckily, I have alternates to fall back on. Right now, though, it looks like everything has calmed back down.
Movie Buddy contacted me last night to compensate for that chocolate tour that he and The Sylph missed out on last Sunday. He threw in a suggestion for a hamburger tour. I can't really believe that he would suggest going out to multiple restaurants considering the slight frames of both him and his girl but I think he meant focusing on one non-Mcdonalds place. I forwarded his idea to some of the others; I'm not sure if I'm gonna get any nibbles on this one. Chocolate is a good food to go after with the ladies when it comes to buffets or cafes that specialize in it, but they seem to be rather skittish when it comes to any of the meats. However, The Madame didn't fare too badly with her Bucket O' Trash at Bubba Gump's.
Tsuyoshi Shinjo lived up to his name and fame as Japanese baseball's bona fide movie star a couple of days ago by announcing his retirement after this season in front of his homefield crowd in Sapporo without having told a soul beforehand...including his manager. The manager, an American, looked rather shellshocked in front of the media. I don't know if Shinjo did bupkiss as a New York Met but over here, he is the glamour god. He not only has been doing commericals for a travel agency dressed up in a airline company uniform seemingly designed by Sgt. Pepper's but now he's doing a series of underwear ads. He obviously is taking good care of himself. The problem is that he does the Hollywood thing too well...he looks like a living mannekin on screen with his shiny skin and teeth. He may just be a little too superficial, even for the day-glo world of Japanese tarento TV once he leaves the baseball field. This morning, in fact, the cameras shot him coming down initially soberly down a hallway in the arena (oh, is he reflecting sadly on the coming end to his career?). Suddenly, he flashes his pearly whites and does a little hop before yellng "Good morning!" to the media and going into a strut. As they would say over here, "Sasuga Shinjo." (That's Shinjo for you).
I'm waiting for that disc from Maruzen. I called up the automatic switchboard for deliveries at The Pelican Delivery Service asked them to send the disc over between 3 and 6 today. I would've done it earlier but since the earlier slot was between 12 and 3, I couldn't take the risk of having the guy bring it over at something like 12:05 since I was still coming home at that point. I hope he doesn't decide to wait until 5:59. I would like the chance to at least tape it for B2's sake tonight. Speaking of her, since I have so much nori left over, I'll give her and her beau a pack of the stuff. I'm still hoping that things continue to slowly improve between me and them. I still don't think we're quite out of the woods yet. It's a bit hard to believe that it was a week ago that I'd headed over to Seoul.
I just finished off watching an episode of "CSI: Miami". It seems like the CSI franchise has become part and parcel of TV Tokyo's noontime programming. I gather that the station can't live on travel and cooking shows alone. The ep was the paparazzi show with the suspect being this obvious Tom Cruise clone. I forget the actor's name but it looks he's trying to outdo the rest of the room in charisma through his character of Horatio Crane. He sounds like a combo of Jack Webb of "Dragnet" and Don Johnson of "Miami Vice".
Anyways, I guess I'll just keep the vigil for that textbook CD and plan for B2 and B2B.
Thursday April 20, 7:49 a.m.
Lou Dobbs is especially sarcastic and flippant today about everything from China to illegal immigration. Sometimes, I do kinda pine for those days when newscasters just reported the news without injecting any of their opinions.
The students at Speedy's last night were fine enough. I had my typical sessions with 001 and 006. 001 was her usual happy-go-lucky self...taking a few cute potshots at me, while I took a few snide swipes at her. 006 was her demure button-down self so I was a lot more serious in her situation but a few peeps of my humour did poke out from time to time.
It looks like I'm gonna be one busy guy on Saturday. Speedy informed me that the new student in EIC is coming for her 2nd session on the 22nd just before I start my inaugural video lesson involving "Friends".
Looks like my computer has been acting up again...this time, with Hotmail. It takes a good minute to send out each response. This has happened to me before. I think I will have to check some of my diagnostic programs such as Ad-Aware and see if they will clear up the problem.
Well, I'd continue but it looks like Blogger is gonna be shutting down for some maintenance so I'm outta here.
Lou Dobbs is especially sarcastic and flippant today about everything from China to illegal immigration. Sometimes, I do kinda pine for those days when newscasters just reported the news without injecting any of their opinions.
The students at Speedy's last night were fine enough. I had my typical sessions with 001 and 006. 001 was her usual happy-go-lucky self...taking a few cute potshots at me, while I took a few snide swipes at her. 006 was her demure button-down self so I was a lot more serious in her situation but a few peeps of my humour did poke out from time to time.
It looks like I'm gonna be one busy guy on Saturday. Speedy informed me that the new student in EIC is coming for her 2nd session on the 22nd just before I start my inaugural video lesson involving "Friends".
Looks like my computer has been acting up again...this time, with Hotmail. It takes a good minute to send out each response. This has happened to me before. I think I will have to check some of my diagnostic programs such as Ad-Aware and see if they will clear up the problem.
Well, I'd continue but it looks like Blogger is gonna be shutting down for some maintenance so I'm outta here.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Wednesday April 19, 9:29 a.m.
Shard delivered his version of wake-up OJ in the form of a link showing Natalie Portman rapping as part of a Saturday Night Live sketch. I think Eminem may have to watch his back. I have forwarded it to some of the folks on this side of the Pacific who may still see her as dead Queen Amidala or Leon's little lover.
More on the celeb scene...CNN has brought up the news that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are now the proud parents of a baby girl named Suri. Zain Verjee breathlessly told the captive audience that the name Suri means princess in Hebrew and rose in some other language. Well, over here, it means pickpocket (snicker, snicker).
I've gotten some interesting responses from my e-mail forwarding the photos and commentary on my trip to Akihabara a week and a half ago. The Egg made a comment of some fear for my sanity and then told me that he and the missus would be delaying their trip here another number of months before going into some of the movies that he's looking forward to. The Doctor completely ignored the content and asked me a sage question about the employment situation in Japan...not that I minded. I've always enjoyed giving my angle on what's been happening in my part of the world.
Well, I'm just waiting here for that textbook CD to finally arrive on my doorstep...maybe. So I'm in a holding pattern until the early afternoon. Mind you, I do have a pile of ironing to do.
Shard delivered his version of wake-up OJ in the form of a link showing Natalie Portman rapping as part of a Saturday Night Live sketch. I think Eminem may have to watch his back. I have forwarded it to some of the folks on this side of the Pacific who may still see her as dead Queen Amidala or Leon's little lover.
More on the celeb scene...CNN has brought up the news that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are now the proud parents of a baby girl named Suri. Zain Verjee breathlessly told the captive audience that the name Suri means princess in Hebrew and rose in some other language. Well, over here, it means pickpocket (snicker, snicker).
I've gotten some interesting responses from my e-mail forwarding the photos and commentary on my trip to Akihabara a week and a half ago. The Egg made a comment of some fear for my sanity and then told me that he and the missus would be delaying their trip here another number of months before going into some of the movies that he's looking forward to. The Doctor completely ignored the content and asked me a sage question about the employment situation in Japan...not that I minded. I've always enjoyed giving my angle on what's been happening in my part of the world.
Well, I'm just waiting here for that textbook CD to finally arrive on my doorstep...maybe. So I'm in a holding pattern until the early afternoon. Mind you, I do have a pile of ironing to do.
Tuesday April 18, 11:25 p.m.
Well, the Korean nori has been getting some good reviews from the students. Looks like its reputation precedes it. The juku boss quickly ingested her souvenir with her mother downstairs right after I'd given it to her. Hopefully, there will be some leftovers for me once I'm done with my Souvenir Santa Claus act. It was just the Milds tonight; I gather that McGirl is off being a groupie again for her favourite punk rock singer somewhere in Honshu. Then, it was another one of those near-esoteric talks with The Siberian.
I had to send a fax over to Maruzen to find out what was holding up delivery of that textbook CD for B2. I got a fast reply back apologizing and guaranteeing delivery within the next 48 hours.
Speedy is pretty happy with the new state of affairs concerning that video thing this Saturday. I'll have to give the plans the once over at work tomorrow. I'm kinda wondering if Student 006 is gonna be pulling out again.
I was just browsing through the local channels before heading off to the juku when I came across this entertainment piece on NTV. I found out that one of the grads from Morning Musume has gone into some rather serious thespianship. Natsumi Abe, one of the original members of the girl supergroup has taken on the role of a Japanese woman who ends up doing time in a penitentiary in the States for getting involved in some nasty drug business thanks to her Mob boyfriend. It was rather odd seeing this aidoru in scenes involving being shaken down by FBI agents, being stripped search in The Big House and basically ending up in this Japanese version of "Women In Chains" considering that the worst thing this Musume has ever done was just innocently plagiarize some other authors' works during her attempts to write her own book of poetry (although the media made it sound like she assassinated Kennedy). Well, good on her; it's probably about time that one of the Musume finally breaks out as a serious anybody instead of having to freak out on roller coasters in front of the camera or sample food in restaurants. I do wonder, though, if this will start a trend in former Musume taking on some meaty roles. The whole thing reminds me of former Brady Bunch actress Eve Plumb doing "Dawn: Diary of a Teenage Runaway" (after all, I don't the Abe special will quite hit the heights of something like the prison drama "Oz"). So, will we see fellow MM alumna Maki Goto play a lesbian serial killer a la Sharon Stone's Catherine Trammell? Or will lithe Kaori Iida play the newest raw recruit for the SDF's version of Special Forces? Or will the very first leader, Yuko Nakazawa, play a ciggy-smoking, hard-drinking gang leader...wait a minute, I think she actually was one of those before she joined the group.
After some more surfing, I came across one of these in-depth reports on one of the other channels on a much more serious topic. Apparently, according to the report, the notorious cult Aum Shinrikyo, which perpetrated the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo Metro 11 years back, may be on the move again to some prominence. The charismatic guy who took over the group (now called Aleph), when mammoth guru/psychopath Chizuo Matsumoto aka Shoko Asahara was arrested, may be trying to bring back the cult to its philosophy of the old days apparently. Fumihiro Joyu was this media-savvy and telegenic representative of the group in the days and months following the attacks who fended off the slings and arrows of the media in frequent press conferences. Then he went underground for several years. Well, it looks he may be popping up again, albeit on hidden cameras. The image of him was fuzzy at best but he seems to have gained quite a few kilos and lost some hair in the decade since. However, the report also said that there is a philosophical schism forming within the group with the line splitting between those who support the return of Joyu and those who don't. Meanwhile, you can bet that the media won't let this go. And the reluctant neighbours of Aleph HQ have been reminding the group of their past crimes in the form of a very big and long banner on the side of the building wall. It alarms me that Joyu may be trying to bring back the cult to its former glory. Does that mean he wants to bring back Aum as an apocalyptic fringe group?
Well, the Korean nori has been getting some good reviews from the students. Looks like its reputation precedes it. The juku boss quickly ingested her souvenir with her mother downstairs right after I'd given it to her. Hopefully, there will be some leftovers for me once I'm done with my Souvenir Santa Claus act. It was just the Milds tonight; I gather that McGirl is off being a groupie again for her favourite punk rock singer somewhere in Honshu. Then, it was another one of those near-esoteric talks with The Siberian.
I had to send a fax over to Maruzen to find out what was holding up delivery of that textbook CD for B2. I got a fast reply back apologizing and guaranteeing delivery within the next 48 hours.
Speedy is pretty happy with the new state of affairs concerning that video thing this Saturday. I'll have to give the plans the once over at work tomorrow. I'm kinda wondering if Student 006 is gonna be pulling out again.
I was just browsing through the local channels before heading off to the juku when I came across this entertainment piece on NTV. I found out that one of the grads from Morning Musume has gone into some rather serious thespianship. Natsumi Abe, one of the original members of the girl supergroup has taken on the role of a Japanese woman who ends up doing time in a penitentiary in the States for getting involved in some nasty drug business thanks to her Mob boyfriend. It was rather odd seeing this aidoru in scenes involving being shaken down by FBI agents, being stripped search in The Big House and basically ending up in this Japanese version of "Women In Chains" considering that the worst thing this Musume has ever done was just innocently plagiarize some other authors' works during her attempts to write her own book of poetry (although the media made it sound like she assassinated Kennedy). Well, good on her; it's probably about time that one of the Musume finally breaks out as a serious anybody instead of having to freak out on roller coasters in front of the camera or sample food in restaurants. I do wonder, though, if this will start a trend in former Musume taking on some meaty roles. The whole thing reminds me of former Brady Bunch actress Eve Plumb doing "Dawn: Diary of a Teenage Runaway" (after all, I don't the Abe special will quite hit the heights of something like the prison drama "Oz"). So, will we see fellow MM alumna Maki Goto play a lesbian serial killer a la Sharon Stone's Catherine Trammell? Or will lithe Kaori Iida play the newest raw recruit for the SDF's version of Special Forces? Or will the very first leader, Yuko Nakazawa, play a ciggy-smoking, hard-drinking gang leader...wait a minute, I think she actually was one of those before she joined the group.
After some more surfing, I came across one of these in-depth reports on one of the other channels on a much more serious topic. Apparently, according to the report, the notorious cult Aum Shinrikyo, which perpetrated the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo Metro 11 years back, may be on the move again to some prominence. The charismatic guy who took over the group (now called Aleph), when mammoth guru/psychopath Chizuo Matsumoto aka Shoko Asahara was arrested, may be trying to bring back the cult to its philosophy of the old days apparently. Fumihiro Joyu was this media-savvy and telegenic representative of the group in the days and months following the attacks who fended off the slings and arrows of the media in frequent press conferences. Then he went underground for several years. Well, it looks he may be popping up again, albeit on hidden cameras. The image of him was fuzzy at best but he seems to have gained quite a few kilos and lost some hair in the decade since. However, the report also said that there is a philosophical schism forming within the group with the line splitting between those who support the return of Joyu and those who don't. Meanwhile, you can bet that the media won't let this go. And the reluctant neighbours of Aleph HQ have been reminding the group of their past crimes in the form of a very big and long banner on the side of the building wall. It alarms me that Joyu may be trying to bring back the cult to its former glory. Does that mean he wants to bring back Aum as an apocalyptic fringe group?
Monday, April 17, 2006
Tuesday April 18, 3:55 p.m.
It's always a bit of a soap opera with the Beehive. No, not that there has been any recent catfights amongst the members. In fact, the only catfight that I've witnessed in my 7 years with the ladies was a few years ago with one lady who made the mistake of antagonizing Ms. Travel. Her ouster was quiet and immediate. Nope, the soap opera aspect in this case is one of cast rotation. Ms. Tulip will be heading with her family for Toronto in midsummer but it looks like one of the former students may be coming back into the fold...Ms. Potter. Hopefully, she'll be more talkative this time around since she was usually quite mute during her first time with us.
Ms. Perth gratefully took my crutches for her injured husband. I had to make a quick return trip back home just when I was about to enter the subway station because I'd left the verdamnt things in the apartment. Still, I managed to get to the classroom on time. Ms. Perth was the first and only one to arrive at that point. Ms. Travel has finally returned after a few weeks away taking care of her ailing brother. Not sure how he's doing but it looks like Ms. Travel herself is OK or at least hiding any sorrow very well.
Since I was due to meet The Teacher at Beckers inside of Tsudanuma Station at 1, I decided to hang out at the local Maruzen across from the station. I ended up just browsing through the mags for about a good part of an hour before heading over to the fast food outlet. Our new venue looked more stylish than the old cafe at Myoden Station, and the prices reflected that. Like at the Shinjuku outlet a few weeks ago, my lunch set cost me 700 yen and I had to pay for it since it was a fast food joint. Hm...The Teacher chose wisely. She took a look at the pictures from Korea with The Class Act. She laughingly pointed out that it was very evident from the fashion sense of The Lady and The Matron that these ladies occupied a higher tax bracket. I didn't particularly notice anything different about what they wore, but then again I'm just a Neanderthalic man, aren't I? It looks like Beckers will be our main venue for the next little while.
I picked up my suit from the cleaners and then sent my negatives from Seoul and Akiba to the photo shop for those reprints. I got the good news from JJ that she would be willing to change her lesson day and time to Sunday from Saturday. Last night, before I was to leave Speedy's, the boss man himself received a phone call from a lady who wanted to join our video class programme which had remained empty since its offiical inception at the beginning of March. Speedy wasn't too happy (although he covered it well) on hearing that I'd had JJ on Saturday afternoon considering that this was my project to begin with. However, I'm not willing to hold onto a whole bunch of empty Saturday afternoons open for the mere possibility of a student coming in when I could get my regular guaranteed private students during those 2 hours. In any case, I've sent the good news onto Speedy.
Well, gotta get ready for my juku lessons tonight. There'll be more Korean nori handed out and hopefully a lot of questions about my trip last week.
It's always a bit of a soap opera with the Beehive. No, not that there has been any recent catfights amongst the members. In fact, the only catfight that I've witnessed in my 7 years with the ladies was a few years ago with one lady who made the mistake of antagonizing Ms. Travel. Her ouster was quiet and immediate. Nope, the soap opera aspect in this case is one of cast rotation. Ms. Tulip will be heading with her family for Toronto in midsummer but it looks like one of the former students may be coming back into the fold...Ms. Potter. Hopefully, she'll be more talkative this time around since she was usually quite mute during her first time with us.
Ms. Perth gratefully took my crutches for her injured husband. I had to make a quick return trip back home just when I was about to enter the subway station because I'd left the verdamnt things in the apartment. Still, I managed to get to the classroom on time. Ms. Perth was the first and only one to arrive at that point. Ms. Travel has finally returned after a few weeks away taking care of her ailing brother. Not sure how he's doing but it looks like Ms. Travel herself is OK or at least hiding any sorrow very well.
Since I was due to meet The Teacher at Beckers inside of Tsudanuma Station at 1, I decided to hang out at the local Maruzen across from the station. I ended up just browsing through the mags for about a good part of an hour before heading over to the fast food outlet. Our new venue looked more stylish than the old cafe at Myoden Station, and the prices reflected that. Like at the Shinjuku outlet a few weeks ago, my lunch set cost me 700 yen and I had to pay for it since it was a fast food joint. Hm...The Teacher chose wisely. She took a look at the pictures from Korea with The Class Act. She laughingly pointed out that it was very evident from the fashion sense of The Lady and The Matron that these ladies occupied a higher tax bracket. I didn't particularly notice anything different about what they wore, but then again I'm just a Neanderthalic man, aren't I? It looks like Beckers will be our main venue for the next little while.
I picked up my suit from the cleaners and then sent my negatives from Seoul and Akiba to the photo shop for those reprints. I got the good news from JJ that she would be willing to change her lesson day and time to Sunday from Saturday. Last night, before I was to leave Speedy's, the boss man himself received a phone call from a lady who wanted to join our video class programme which had remained empty since its offiical inception at the beginning of March. Speedy wasn't too happy (although he covered it well) on hearing that I'd had JJ on Saturday afternoon considering that this was my project to begin with. However, I'm not willing to hold onto a whole bunch of empty Saturday afternoons open for the mere possibility of a student coming in when I could get my regular guaranteed private students during those 2 hours. In any case, I've sent the good news onto Speedy.
Well, gotta get ready for my juku lessons tonight. There'll be more Korean nori handed out and hopefully a lot of questions about my trip last week.