Sunday October 28, 1:45 p.m.
Yesterday, Typhoon 20 made its presence known for several hours starting from the early afternoon to late evening. I had to send The Matron my regrets for not going to her daughter's orchestral event all the way up in Tsuchiura but considering the wind and rain plus the fact that the JR Joban Line is pretty dodgy in such weather, I just couldn't chance going up there and meeting up with MB and The Satyr for DVD night at my place.
As it was, bringing the guys back home was a small exercise in wind tunnel combat. Somehow, our umbrellas managed to stay intact. We did have to change into drier wear though when we got into my apartment, though.
It was the usual pizza-and-triple-DVD night. As a little shift, I went with the Domino's Deluxe instead of Giga Meat (I'll go back to Giga next time). As for the cinematic bill of fare, we started off with "Ghost Rider" with Nicholas Cage. Man, that was a lousy movie. It was basically Cage as Elvis again with a bit of Method tics such as Johnny Blaze's love for jellybeans and The Carpenters. The story and writing also seemed as if it'd been patterned after a badly-knitted quilt. And of course, Sam Elliott was there to provide his usual pitch as weathered cowboy. It's amazing to remember that he was a former "Mission: Impossible" spy.
Things got much better with "Sunshine". This was the sci-fi flick about a group of scientists on the way to re-start the sun. It had that "2001: A Space Odyssey"/"Alien" vibe about it; almost felt like calling "Hal" at some points. And I think that the lead guy, Cillian Murphy, can pretty much play anybody...may get an Oscar sometime in the future.
Finally, there was "Rocky Balboa". Just like the character, the movie was simple but wiser and good-hearted. There was no real attempt to put in some meaty irony into it...it was just the other bookend for the 1976 debut. And people can still root for the big lug.
As usual, The Satyr headed back for home while Movie Buddy crashed overnight. It was an early start to the day, though, since I had to teach The Younger in the morning. But we still had time to grab breakfast at the local Skylark. We made some preliminary plans to catch "The Bourne Ultimatum" when it hits these shores in a couple of weeks.
As for the Younger, her mother landed a professional bombshell when she told me that her daughter failed her English midterm last week. Urk! I was grateful that she didn't mop up the walls with my guts (that probably would've covered the entire interior)...she was very gracious, but I still took it personally. I've been pretty kid-gloves with The Younger since I'd assumed that she was doing pretty well in the subject like her haughty older sister. But I was wrong. Well, I'm gonna have to dig myself out of this hole.
It didn't help that I was feeling pretty rundown since I only got 5 hours of sleep so a bit of that depression was threatening to seep in. However, as Rocky said last night, "...it's about how much you get hit and still manage to keep going forward". And at least, I'm not affiliated with NOVA in any way.
Just a place to deposit my thoughts on life here in the Kanto and about anything else that sticks to my walls.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Sunday October 28, 1:17 p.m.
"Nope...it'll never close down...it's too big to close down."
Famous last words....or first words, actually, since those are the words I'd heard from an Area Manager on the first day of training for me at NOVA's Tokyo HQ in Harajuku almost 13 years ago. And at that time, it certainly seemed that Japan's largest English-language school chain could do no wrong: not only did it have its schools scattered and multiplying like rabbits, but it also had its tentacles in software, real estate, and travel. It was a conglomerate unto itself.
Man, how times change. I was heading down to Omotesando to pick up those pumpkins for carving with Chip N' Dale on Friday afternoon when I saw a headline on a red & white banner at a subway kiosk: in romaji and kanji, it read "NOVA...BANKRUPT". I'd had no doubts about the fate of my former employer but the end still registered surprise in me. After I bought the small gourds at the flower shop, I decided to go up to the 3rd floor of a building where Omotesando NOVA was located. Sure enough, there was a closed door and a closure notice pasted on it.
The NOVA implosion (much more accurate than the headline of "NOVA goes SUPERNOVA!") was the top news story on NHK that night. All of the branches have closed up shop, 400,000 students are now teacherless and 4,500 teachers are now without jobs. NOVA went into receivership and has court-appointed lawyers to handle its uncertain future. They have a month to find some sponsors. I'm not hopeful. The day before the Sword of Damocles came down on NOVA Usagi (the second-last and most popular mascot), the NOVA board of directors officially ousted the founder and president, Nozomu Sahashi. Students and teachers have been demanding an explanation from him, but hey, the board basically let him escape by firing him. Sahashi may have a moral obligation to face his accusers but not a legal one. And of course, as has been the case with many a disgraced CEO, he chose to flee. Even the lawyers can't seem to track him down.
My own thoughts as a former NOVA teacher? Well, it was indeed the McDonalds of English Teaching. Students came in and out of the small glass cubicles while teachers taught so many of the same lessons that they'd memorized the entire text within 3 months. I and a lot of the other teachers even back in the glory days of the 90s knew that NOVA management was up to some dodginess. It always seemed to straddle the line of legality when it came to things such as following national holidays (one of NOVA's mantras was that it would stay open virtually every day of the year, except for New Year's), and the revolving door system was just as true for the teachers as they were for students. NOVA was basically seen as a stepping stone for most of the foreigners who were employed until that next big thing came along.
The actual schools ranged in size greatly. I had it made because I'd been assigned to a small school...great to cultivate a feeling of camaraderie and continuity amongst students, staff and teachers. Whilst the feeling was that an assignment to one of the honko, the base schools, such as Shinjuku or Ikebukuro with tons of students and teachers was akin to being punished.
There was a lot to criticize NOVA on, but it did provide one good thing to me. The training did instill a basic structure on how to conduct a class. My 1 year of TESL education back home has largely been forgotten but the NOVA training is still in my noggin.
I guess I made it out a good decade before the fall happened. I feel really sorry for the teachers who didn't, though. They've got to bear the brunt of living on no income in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. However, I can imagine that Sahashi and the directors that pulled off the coup d'etat are still quite well esconced in their million-yen manshons.
"Nope...it'll never close down...it's too big to close down."
Famous last words....or first words, actually, since those are the words I'd heard from an Area Manager on the first day of training for me at NOVA's Tokyo HQ in Harajuku almost 13 years ago. And at that time, it certainly seemed that Japan's largest English-language school chain could do no wrong: not only did it have its schools scattered and multiplying like rabbits, but it also had its tentacles in software, real estate, and travel. It was a conglomerate unto itself.
Man, how times change. I was heading down to Omotesando to pick up those pumpkins for carving with Chip N' Dale on Friday afternoon when I saw a headline on a red & white banner at a subway kiosk: in romaji and kanji, it read "NOVA...BANKRUPT". I'd had no doubts about the fate of my former employer but the end still registered surprise in me. After I bought the small gourds at the flower shop, I decided to go up to the 3rd floor of a building where Omotesando NOVA was located. Sure enough, there was a closed door and a closure notice pasted on it.
The NOVA implosion (much more accurate than the headline of "NOVA goes SUPERNOVA!") was the top news story on NHK that night. All of the branches have closed up shop, 400,000 students are now teacherless and 4,500 teachers are now without jobs. NOVA went into receivership and has court-appointed lawyers to handle its uncertain future. They have a month to find some sponsors. I'm not hopeful. The day before the Sword of Damocles came down on NOVA Usagi (the second-last and most popular mascot), the NOVA board of directors officially ousted the founder and president, Nozomu Sahashi. Students and teachers have been demanding an explanation from him, but hey, the board basically let him escape by firing him. Sahashi may have a moral obligation to face his accusers but not a legal one. And of course, as has been the case with many a disgraced CEO, he chose to flee. Even the lawyers can't seem to track him down.
My own thoughts as a former NOVA teacher? Well, it was indeed the McDonalds of English Teaching. Students came in and out of the small glass cubicles while teachers taught so many of the same lessons that they'd memorized the entire text within 3 months. I and a lot of the other teachers even back in the glory days of the 90s knew that NOVA management was up to some dodginess. It always seemed to straddle the line of legality when it came to things such as following national holidays (one of NOVA's mantras was that it would stay open virtually every day of the year, except for New Year's), and the revolving door system was just as true for the teachers as they were for students. NOVA was basically seen as a stepping stone for most of the foreigners who were employed until that next big thing came along.
The actual schools ranged in size greatly. I had it made because I'd been assigned to a small school...great to cultivate a feeling of camaraderie and continuity amongst students, staff and teachers. Whilst the feeling was that an assignment to one of the honko, the base schools, such as Shinjuku or Ikebukuro with tons of students and teachers was akin to being punished.
There was a lot to criticize NOVA on, but it did provide one good thing to me. The training did instill a basic structure on how to conduct a class. My 1 year of TESL education back home has largely been forgotten but the NOVA training is still in my noggin.
I guess I made it out a good decade before the fall happened. I feel really sorry for the teachers who didn't, though. They've got to bear the brunt of living on no income in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. However, I can imagine that Sahashi and the directors that pulled off the coup d'etat are still quite well esconced in their million-yen manshons.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Friday October 26, 10:20 a.m.
Fairly gloomy, rainy day out there. Just the right kind of weather for an indirectly disgraced boxer to face the music. A little over an hour ago...Koki Kameda, the oldest brother of the battlin' Kameda family, was facing a barrage of camera flashes and some rather tough grilling/chewing out by one crusading journalist over that mauling his younger brother, Daiki, gave his opponent, champion Naito, a couple of weeks ago.
It was a fascinating image of Koki. His head was shaved, presumably in atonement, and he had a look that probably noone has ever seen before: shellshocked fear. A very different expression from the usual one he and his siblings always gave before the media: loud, brash and cocky. This new Koki was almost drowned out by the camera clicking during his apologies. He almost looked worthy of sympathy...but then a lot of us who never really cottoned on to his family's bling, bling antics are probably pumping that fist in triumph right now.
I also thought it was a good reminder about that although Japanese society may be emulating its Western counterparts in many ways...such as sports trash talk...over here, there are limits. In the United States, the mouthing off and cockiness are all a part of the game and all of the Muhammad Alis are very much celebrated as they are reviled. Over here, the Kamedas found out that they leapfrogged over that line and have now been whacked.
Now, as my sports commentary has now finished...
Yesterday, I had most of the day off so I enjoyed one of my lunches at the neighbourhood tonkatsu restaurant before heading off to Yurakucho in a bit of atonement of my own. I still felt rather guilty for giving those (so-called) jade bracelets with the wrong year-animals to the Sisters of State and BC, so I decided that I would take a chance and see if (ha, ha) Krispy Kreme No. 2 would be a bit more quicker in the lineups.
As Bugs Bunny would say..."What a maroon!" I got to the basement of the latest shopping mall to drop into Tokyo, Itocia, and saw the usual snake of people...1h40min wait to be exact...winding from the newest store. Uh-uh....not getting anywhere near there. However, I finally did get to see what the inside of a KK looks like. Not a whole lot of space there, but most of the customers don't hang around to enjoy their doughnuts anyways.
But I did look around the food floor. With a mix of an urban geography theory and the Krispy Kreme effect, a lot of the other eateries and shops were enjoying brisk business. There was a wine shop, a Vietnamese restaurant, a dim sum place and an traditional anmitsu shop for starters. I decided to get some cute little teas from a place called Kapek for the ladies in recompense.
Above, there was an opening ceremony for a pachinko parlour, complete with live trumpet and kodo drums. It was probably the first time in memory that it was noisier outside than inside a parlour. I took a quick look through the Marui department store which makes up the bulk of the aboveground part of Itocia. Meh....the usual stuff. Still, the neighbourhood looks a lot more modern now than before.
I did my usual trek through the CD shops, At HMV, I found the second part of Yuming's big opus for this year. Earlier, I'd bought a 2-disc compilation of her "Seasons, Colours" set which covered songs that hinted at Spring and Summer. Well, the Fall and Winter collection has now been released so there are a few Xmas tunes in there. I was kinda surprised that "Koibito wa Santa Claus" wasn't included, though.
I also came across the disc and DVD for Morning Musume's 10th-anniversary. Yep, strangely enough, they're still around although they've pretty much dropped off the pop culture radar. Well, that's not quite true...the former members have been popping up, but for some rather bad news. One of the earlier "graduates" has gotten divorced from the drummer of rock band Luna Sea; another one of the first members, Natsumi Abe, got herself involved in an auto accident; and the younger brother of breakout member Maki Goto, Yuki, has gotten himself in hot water by being the alleged ringleader of a group of cable thieves. Gotta admit, though, that the cover was inspired. The current members of the troupe have been photographed mimicking the poses of the original members from their first single and their most successful one, "Love Machine". Will just love to see how the online fans react to that.
I also visited Yamano Music and the other HMV in Yurakucho. Yep, quite a few discs I wanna get for Xmas. And sure enough, the Xmas music marketing machine has already gotten into full gear. Michael Buble has released his mini-album of Yuletide standards.
Headed back to Ichigaya to see The Carolinan and BC. I gave them their tea and mumbled again about how sorry I was for screwing up their ages, but they didn't pay any mind. Once again, as soon as we started gabbing in English, it was amazing to see how quickly the surrounding customers cleared out. I'm just hoping that there aren't any future consequences to this trend.
BC may not only be my student but she may even become my colleague at Speedy's. She's interested in using her English skills and helping out with study-abroad programmes, which is just up Speedy's alley. The interview may be in a couple of weeks.
I finally got through the Bond capers, "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Yep, "Goldfinger" was aptly named since it's become the gold standard for all of the Bond movies...and other spy flicks...to follow. "Dr. No" may have been a relatively quiet start to the franchise, and "From Russia With Love" was a somewhat more standard suspense flick, but "Goldfinger" was the one to put it all together. The intelligent but mad villain, the seemingly invincible henchman, the great theme song...they're all there.
To wrap up the day, I listened to my recent purchase of Hiromi Iwasaki's remastered re-release of a 1985 disc called "Diamant". It's not something that I would ever proudly play at home parties but the songs do bring back the memories about how J-Pop was back in the day. Speaking of which, I got Soul'D Out's latest dirrrty tune, "Tonguede Tongue" running around in my head.
Strangely enough, in this day and age of J-R&B and J-Rock, there has been a resurgence in Group Sounds, which was the in-thing to listen to back in the 60s. Basically, a ton of bands consisting of mop-topped boys a la pre-Sgt. Pepper's Beatles, played similarly written tunes. There were The Tigers (led by future Japanese David Bowie, Kenji Sawada), The Four Leaves and The Spiders. A lot of these guys are now aging variety show veterans.
Still gotta find out whether the latest DVD night is a go for tomorrow. The mother of the Younger told me I've got her kid's lessons this and next Sunday, so the wake-up call for MB and I will be early. But I did dangle the possibility of the 11th.
Anyways, gotta get those pumpkins for Chip N' Dale today.
Fairly gloomy, rainy day out there. Just the right kind of weather for an indirectly disgraced boxer to face the music. A little over an hour ago...Koki Kameda, the oldest brother of the battlin' Kameda family, was facing a barrage of camera flashes and some rather tough grilling/chewing out by one crusading journalist over that mauling his younger brother, Daiki, gave his opponent, champion Naito, a couple of weeks ago.
It was a fascinating image of Koki. His head was shaved, presumably in atonement, and he had a look that probably noone has ever seen before: shellshocked fear. A very different expression from the usual one he and his siblings always gave before the media: loud, brash and cocky. This new Koki was almost drowned out by the camera clicking during his apologies. He almost looked worthy of sympathy...but then a lot of us who never really cottoned on to his family's bling, bling antics are probably pumping that fist in triumph right now.
I also thought it was a good reminder about that although Japanese society may be emulating its Western counterparts in many ways...such as sports trash talk...over here, there are limits. In the United States, the mouthing off and cockiness are all a part of the game and all of the Muhammad Alis are very much celebrated as they are reviled. Over here, the Kamedas found out that they leapfrogged over that line and have now been whacked.
Now, as my sports commentary has now finished...
Yesterday, I had most of the day off so I enjoyed one of my lunches at the neighbourhood tonkatsu restaurant before heading off to Yurakucho in a bit of atonement of my own. I still felt rather guilty for giving those (so-called) jade bracelets with the wrong year-animals to the Sisters of State and BC, so I decided that I would take a chance and see if (ha, ha) Krispy Kreme No. 2 would be a bit more quicker in the lineups.
As Bugs Bunny would say..."What a maroon!" I got to the basement of the latest shopping mall to drop into Tokyo, Itocia, and saw the usual snake of people...1h40min wait to be exact...winding from the newest store. Uh-uh....not getting anywhere near there. However, I finally did get to see what the inside of a KK looks like. Not a whole lot of space there, but most of the customers don't hang around to enjoy their doughnuts anyways.
But I did look around the food floor. With a mix of an urban geography theory and the Krispy Kreme effect, a lot of the other eateries and shops were enjoying brisk business. There was a wine shop, a Vietnamese restaurant, a dim sum place and an traditional anmitsu shop for starters. I decided to get some cute little teas from a place called Kapek for the ladies in recompense.
Above, there was an opening ceremony for a pachinko parlour, complete with live trumpet and kodo drums. It was probably the first time in memory that it was noisier outside than inside a parlour. I took a quick look through the Marui department store which makes up the bulk of the aboveground part of Itocia. Meh....the usual stuff. Still, the neighbourhood looks a lot more modern now than before.
I did my usual trek through the CD shops, At HMV, I found the second part of Yuming's big opus for this year. Earlier, I'd bought a 2-disc compilation of her "Seasons, Colours" set which covered songs that hinted at Spring and Summer. Well, the Fall and Winter collection has now been released so there are a few Xmas tunes in there. I was kinda surprised that "Koibito wa Santa Claus" wasn't included, though.
I also came across the disc and DVD for Morning Musume's 10th-anniversary. Yep, strangely enough, they're still around although they've pretty much dropped off the pop culture radar. Well, that's not quite true...the former members have been popping up, but for some rather bad news. One of the earlier "graduates" has gotten divorced from the drummer of rock band Luna Sea; another one of the first members, Natsumi Abe, got herself involved in an auto accident; and the younger brother of breakout member Maki Goto, Yuki, has gotten himself in hot water by being the alleged ringleader of a group of cable thieves. Gotta admit, though, that the cover was inspired. The current members of the troupe have been photographed mimicking the poses of the original members from their first single and their most successful one, "Love Machine". Will just love to see how the online fans react to that.
I also visited Yamano Music and the other HMV in Yurakucho. Yep, quite a few discs I wanna get for Xmas. And sure enough, the Xmas music marketing machine has already gotten into full gear. Michael Buble has released his mini-album of Yuletide standards.
Headed back to Ichigaya to see The Carolinan and BC. I gave them their tea and mumbled again about how sorry I was for screwing up their ages, but they didn't pay any mind. Once again, as soon as we started gabbing in English, it was amazing to see how quickly the surrounding customers cleared out. I'm just hoping that there aren't any future consequences to this trend.
BC may not only be my student but she may even become my colleague at Speedy's. She's interested in using her English skills and helping out with study-abroad programmes, which is just up Speedy's alley. The interview may be in a couple of weeks.
I finally got through the Bond capers, "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Yep, "Goldfinger" was aptly named since it's become the gold standard for all of the Bond movies...and other spy flicks...to follow. "Dr. No" may have been a relatively quiet start to the franchise, and "From Russia With Love" was a somewhat more standard suspense flick, but "Goldfinger" was the one to put it all together. The intelligent but mad villain, the seemingly invincible henchman, the great theme song...they're all there.
To wrap up the day, I listened to my recent purchase of Hiromi Iwasaki's remastered re-release of a 1985 disc called "Diamant". It's not something that I would ever proudly play at home parties but the songs do bring back the memories about how J-Pop was back in the day. Speaking of which, I got Soul'D Out's latest dirrrty tune, "Tonguede Tongue" running around in my head.
Strangely enough, in this day and age of J-R&B and J-Rock, there has been a resurgence in Group Sounds, which was the in-thing to listen to back in the 60s. Basically, a ton of bands consisting of mop-topped boys a la pre-Sgt. Pepper's Beatles, played similarly written tunes. There were The Tigers (led by future Japanese David Bowie, Kenji Sawada), The Four Leaves and The Spiders. A lot of these guys are now aging variety show veterans.
Still gotta find out whether the latest DVD night is a go for tomorrow. The mother of the Younger told me I've got her kid's lessons this and next Sunday, so the wake-up call for MB and I will be early. But I did dangle the possibility of the 11th.
Anyways, gotta get those pumpkins for Chip N' Dale today.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday October 24, 8:29 p.m.
Another wild and woolly one with 001. Basically spent nearly the entire session fielding her questions on Hong Kong as she was scanning through the photos. It's always good coming back from trips. Looks like she's been hitting the makkori (Korean liquor) quite a bit. Much stronger liver than mine. She was also very envious when I told her that The Class Act and I had made a celebrity sighting at The Mandarin Oriental in the form of Lee Byeong Hong, that Korean actor.
Looks like the new beginning for "Star Trek" has got its cast altogether. The roles of Kirk and McCoy have been filled. Kinda interesting about seeing Karl Urban as the new Bones. Can't imagine the guy who fought the Orc horde in "The Two Towers" will be grousing at Spock in the new movie. But then again, I'm sure all eyes will be on Chris Pine (sounds awfully close to Chris Pike) to see what his rendition of Starfleet's hammiest captain will be like.
And then I see the picture of Doctor Who No. 5...otherwise known as the celery-pinning, cricket-playing, nice Doctor....up with current Doctor, David Tennant. Peter Davison isn't exactly fat but he probably needed to let out those cricket pants out a bit in the 2 decades since he left the role.
Not sure but I may just stop by at China Quick for a bite to eat before heading home. Then, it's time to get some sleep. Luckily, I just have The Carolinan and BC tomorrow night.
Another wild and woolly one with 001. Basically spent nearly the entire session fielding her questions on Hong Kong as she was scanning through the photos. It's always good coming back from trips. Looks like she's been hitting the makkori (Korean liquor) quite a bit. Much stronger liver than mine. She was also very envious when I told her that The Class Act and I had made a celebrity sighting at The Mandarin Oriental in the form of Lee Byeong Hong, that Korean actor.
Looks like the new beginning for "Star Trek" has got its cast altogether. The roles of Kirk and McCoy have been filled. Kinda interesting about seeing Karl Urban as the new Bones. Can't imagine the guy who fought the Orc horde in "The Two Towers" will be grousing at Spock in the new movie. But then again, I'm sure all eyes will be on Chris Pine (sounds awfully close to Chris Pike) to see what his rendition of Starfleet's hammiest captain will be like.
And then I see the picture of Doctor Who No. 5...otherwise known as the celery-pinning, cricket-playing, nice Doctor....up with current Doctor, David Tennant. Peter Davison isn't exactly fat but he probably needed to let out those cricket pants out a bit in the 2 decades since he left the role.
Not sure but I may just stop by at China Quick for a bite to eat before heading home. Then, it's time to get some sleep. Luckily, I just have The Carolinan and BC tomorrow night.
Wed. October 24, 4:45 p.m.
The waiting game continues. Since it is the boss' b-day, I treated him to a takeout McD's Big Mac Set. Yup, not exactly the most exquisite of presents but he appreciated the gesture. In any case, his wife will proably take him somewhere more fitting.
"Heroes" has been playing its first three eps on SuperDrama TV! on heavy rotation for the past few weeks now. I haven't particularly become rapt with the series but if I have some time, I try to catch it. As for the two characters, Hiro and Ando...man, they really gotta get some authentically speaking Japanese actors. I can take Masi Oka but the guy who plays Ando has a cringeworthy accent. Well, at least, they're bringing in a true aidoru from the late 80s to play a new addition...possibly Hiro's love interest. Her name is Eriko Tamura, and apparently she can not only speak her native language but does a pretty good job with English and German.
She's probably in her early 30s now but almost 20 years back, she caused quite a bit of "hot and bothered" in her calendar when one of her photos had her pose for a shot in a flimsy bathing suit which basically showed a bit too much of her butt....just a crack (ahem...pun). And this was a couple of years before Rie Miyazawa's "Santa Fe" came out, a pictorial that launched that whole craze of Japanese actresses/singers baring all for the camera in the 90s.
So, it looks like "Heroes" has become quite the pop cultural cauldron. We have a former J-Pop singer, a former Doctor Who and Mr. Sulu. Now, if Mark Hamill isn't too busy...
The waiting game continues. Since it is the boss' b-day, I treated him to a takeout McD's Big Mac Set. Yup, not exactly the most exquisite of presents but he appreciated the gesture. In any case, his wife will proably take him somewhere more fitting.
"Heroes" has been playing its first three eps on SuperDrama TV! on heavy rotation for the past few weeks now. I haven't particularly become rapt with the series but if I have some time, I try to catch it. As for the two characters, Hiro and Ando...man, they really gotta get some authentically speaking Japanese actors. I can take Masi Oka but the guy who plays Ando has a cringeworthy accent. Well, at least, they're bringing in a true aidoru from the late 80s to play a new addition...possibly Hiro's love interest. Her name is Eriko Tamura, and apparently she can not only speak her native language but does a pretty good job with English and German.
She's probably in her early 30s now but almost 20 years back, she caused quite a bit of "hot and bothered" in her calendar when one of her photos had her pose for a shot in a flimsy bathing suit which basically showed a bit too much of her butt....just a crack (ahem...pun). And this was a couple of years before Rie Miyazawa's "Santa Fe" came out, a pictorial that launched that whole craze of Japanese actresses/singers baring all for the camera in the 90s.
So, it looks like "Heroes" has become quite the pop cultural cauldron. We have a former J-Pop singer, a former Doctor Who and Mr. Sulu. Now, if Mark Hamill isn't too busy...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Wednesday October 22, 12:36 p.m.
It was another early start to my Wednesday since I had The Nurse for her usual 10 a.m. Despite the Hong Kong trip, my shoulders are still feeling mighty tight. I may have to consider hitting some sort of clinic to get them unwrenched. As for The Nurse, she introduced all of us to a website which featured fortune telling via the ingredients and utensils of custard pudding. Yep, you heard me. Your entire future can be mapped out for you through your identification with spoons, lids, sugar and eggs. Uh...yeah...well, I figure that any society which has wrapped itself up with fortune telling via animals, blood types and derivation of names would probably jump on the purin bandwagon sometime during its lifetime.
By inputting my name and age into the dedicated search engine, I found out I was a lid...with all of the mirth that's implied. There was some gibberish in Japanese about my personality which I didn't pay too much heed to. But if you can read the stuff, you can give it a try. It's at http://tabetoko.com/pudding. Through this, I found out that Speedy is celebrating his 38th today. He's an egg, by the way.
Yesterday, I met up with The Beehive for the first time since they all got back from their Canadian odyssey last Thursday. Looks like, kilo for kilo, they had a better time than I did on their respective tour. Not to say that I didn't like Hong Kong but I think they appreciated their time through The Great White North more. They said everyone was friendly and considerate...all except, tellingly, one member of the TTC in Toronto (no surprise there...staff on the Toronto Transit Commission basically have lived in a siege mentality for years and years now). Like me, they liked taking pictures of their meals. Yep, the Toronto fare is still bigger than the portions here. I got quite a few souvenirs from them, too.
Since this is the first round with the students since my return from vacation, it's been a fairly easy round with all of the souvenir giving and photo-showing. 002 basically just had a chat session about my trip and I marked her test. No problems...she was virtually perfect.
I also gave out magnets to Chip n' Dale at the juku last night, along with the deactivated key cards from The Mandarin Oriental. Next week will be the pumpking carving for Halloween which saves me a lot from prepping the usual stuff. I think they're getting a bit bored so I'll have to go back to the fun n' games from November.
Then, it was 2.5 hours of nothing between the kids and The Siberian. There were the 90 minutes vacated by Seven and then we got word that Mr. Mild was still stuck in the wilds of Chiba on business. Mrs. Mild was off on an excursion of her own so that was another hour shot. The juku boss noticed I looked rather tired by the time The Siberian ambled in. I went through 20 crossword puzzles in those 150 minutes. As usual, The Siberian was all about the gab; we got onto one of his favourite topics, name etymology. I'll have to research Icelandic Naming Conventions via Wikipedia for him....I remembered that Bjork and her fellow Icelandians have some rather different approaches to naming themselves. As for Jolly, we also spent half the hour on the Hong Kong trip.
Well, I finished with The Nurse. Now it's just only 001 tonight. The Judge cancelled once more so I won't have to lounge around until his usual slot of 9:30 p.m. I could use the extra sleep.
I actually received a letter from the General Manager of the Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental thanking me for my comments on the accomodations there last week. It was a textbook response addressing on each of my comments (good food and bed, not-so-good Internet) so I was quite impressed. Not that I'll be hitting that hotel anytime soon....unless I win the lottery or The Class Act decide to bring me again.
I also sent a thank-you e-mail to the Butler for all his help last week. It's kinda nice to keep connections although I know that The Cap and The Iconoclast are also there as well.
It was another early start to my Wednesday since I had The Nurse for her usual 10 a.m. Despite the Hong Kong trip, my shoulders are still feeling mighty tight. I may have to consider hitting some sort of clinic to get them unwrenched. As for The Nurse, she introduced all of us to a website which featured fortune telling via the ingredients and utensils of custard pudding. Yep, you heard me. Your entire future can be mapped out for you through your identification with spoons, lids, sugar and eggs. Uh...yeah...well, I figure that any society which has wrapped itself up with fortune telling via animals, blood types and derivation of names would probably jump on the purin bandwagon sometime during its lifetime.
By inputting my name and age into the dedicated search engine, I found out I was a lid...with all of the mirth that's implied. There was some gibberish in Japanese about my personality which I didn't pay too much heed to. But if you can read the stuff, you can give it a try. It's at http://tabetoko.com/pudding. Through this, I found out that Speedy is celebrating his 38th today. He's an egg, by the way.
Yesterday, I met up with The Beehive for the first time since they all got back from their Canadian odyssey last Thursday. Looks like, kilo for kilo, they had a better time than I did on their respective tour. Not to say that I didn't like Hong Kong but I think they appreciated their time through The Great White North more. They said everyone was friendly and considerate...all except, tellingly, one member of the TTC in Toronto (no surprise there...staff on the Toronto Transit Commission basically have lived in a siege mentality for years and years now). Like me, they liked taking pictures of their meals. Yep, the Toronto fare is still bigger than the portions here. I got quite a few souvenirs from them, too.
Since this is the first round with the students since my return from vacation, it's been a fairly easy round with all of the souvenir giving and photo-showing. 002 basically just had a chat session about my trip and I marked her test. No problems...she was virtually perfect.
I also gave out magnets to Chip n' Dale at the juku last night, along with the deactivated key cards from The Mandarin Oriental. Next week will be the pumpking carving for Halloween which saves me a lot from prepping the usual stuff. I think they're getting a bit bored so I'll have to go back to the fun n' games from November.
Then, it was 2.5 hours of nothing between the kids and The Siberian. There were the 90 minutes vacated by Seven and then we got word that Mr. Mild was still stuck in the wilds of Chiba on business. Mrs. Mild was off on an excursion of her own so that was another hour shot. The juku boss noticed I looked rather tired by the time The Siberian ambled in. I went through 20 crossword puzzles in those 150 minutes. As usual, The Siberian was all about the gab; we got onto one of his favourite topics, name etymology. I'll have to research Icelandic Naming Conventions via Wikipedia for him....I remembered that Bjork and her fellow Icelandians have some rather different approaches to naming themselves. As for Jolly, we also spent half the hour on the Hong Kong trip.
Well, I finished with The Nurse. Now it's just only 001 tonight. The Judge cancelled once more so I won't have to lounge around until his usual slot of 9:30 p.m. I could use the extra sleep.
I actually received a letter from the General Manager of the Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental thanking me for my comments on the accomodations there last week. It was a textbook response addressing on each of my comments (good food and bed, not-so-good Internet) so I was quite impressed. Not that I'll be hitting that hotel anytime soon....unless I win the lottery or The Class Act decide to bring me again.
I also sent a thank-you e-mail to the Butler for all his help last week. It's kinda nice to keep connections although I know that The Cap and The Iconoclast are also there as well.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday October 22, 4:57 p.m.
It's that time again...when I end up kicking myself repeatedly for some faux pas I've committed. Last night, I met up with The Sisters of State and BC in front of the police box nearest the West Gate of JR Shinjuku. I was giving them their souvenirs from Hong Kong; at first I asked them about their birth years since I got them the bracelets from the Jade Market in Kowloon. I took the chance back then of guessing their years so I could get the appropriate jade animal (e.g. 1965 was the year of the snake). I was so completely off the mark..I ended up giving them animal bracelets that were totally different; and the ladies looked rather nonplussed. Erk! It was only then that I realized how thoughtless I was.
Still, they did appreciate the trip to Mo-Yan. They were impressed at how much they could get in terms of salad and curry for such a cheap price. Plus, the coffee and the other condiments are free there. I played it very safe by ordering merely the large size of curry instead of the Megaton from the last visit. Of course, the trip home guaranteed me a good seat since my clothing smelled of spices and sweat.
Today, I met The Class Act for the first time since the return from Hong Kong. Not surprisingly, much of the talk was on our lasting impressions of the place. I definitely called for a return there; not immediately, since I would like to have some lead time before I get on a plane again.
Pretty busy day today. I also had SIL; I was sworn to silence by The Lady not to tell her sister-in-law about the trip there. But I still gave her a memo pad from Dynocks. I'm currently at Speedy's. I've got The Full-Timer and Mr. TOEIC tonight. But squeezed in between, I've got the latest English-in-Cooking student...an atypical customer since her TOEIC score in the 900s; basically, she could teach me English. But by joining the prep EIC, she saves some money when it comes to her debut this Saturday.
Well, I did put those HMV certificates to good use. I went to the local branch in Takashimaya Times Square yesterday and bought a couple of 007 DVDs: "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Of course, they are the Sean Connery Bonds. Accept no substitute. I used to remember ABC showing the latter movie almost once a season on Sunday nights but ironically, I haven't seen a scene of it in the last 20 years. It was a good time to get re-acquainted with it.
I've also been going through MB's present to me...the novel of "From Russia With Love". It has been a pageturner. I've been learning a lot more about the clockwork within all of the major characters such as Bond, Klebb, Red Grant, Tania and Kerim. But also the Bond depicted in the novel isn't quite the ultrasuave and cool-as-a-cucumber spy that Connery depicted. This Bond does get nervous and loses his temper on quite a few occasions. This is actually more reminiscent of the Daniel Craig Bond.
Well, a quick dinner...
It's that time again...when I end up kicking myself repeatedly for some faux pas I've committed. Last night, I met up with The Sisters of State and BC in front of the police box nearest the West Gate of JR Shinjuku. I was giving them their souvenirs from Hong Kong; at first I asked them about their birth years since I got them the bracelets from the Jade Market in Kowloon. I took the chance back then of guessing their years so I could get the appropriate jade animal (e.g. 1965 was the year of the snake). I was so completely off the mark..I ended up giving them animal bracelets that were totally different; and the ladies looked rather nonplussed. Erk! It was only then that I realized how thoughtless I was.
Still, they did appreciate the trip to Mo-Yan. They were impressed at how much they could get in terms of salad and curry for such a cheap price. Plus, the coffee and the other condiments are free there. I played it very safe by ordering merely the large size of curry instead of the Megaton from the last visit. Of course, the trip home guaranteed me a good seat since my clothing smelled of spices and sweat.
Today, I met The Class Act for the first time since the return from Hong Kong. Not surprisingly, much of the talk was on our lasting impressions of the place. I definitely called for a return there; not immediately, since I would like to have some lead time before I get on a plane again.
Pretty busy day today. I also had SIL; I was sworn to silence by The Lady not to tell her sister-in-law about the trip there. But I still gave her a memo pad from Dynocks. I'm currently at Speedy's. I've got The Full-Timer and Mr. TOEIC tonight. But squeezed in between, I've got the latest English-in-Cooking student...an atypical customer since her TOEIC score in the 900s; basically, she could teach me English. But by joining the prep EIC, she saves some money when it comes to her debut this Saturday.
Well, I did put those HMV certificates to good use. I went to the local branch in Takashimaya Times Square yesterday and bought a couple of 007 DVDs: "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Of course, they are the Sean Connery Bonds. Accept no substitute. I used to remember ABC showing the latter movie almost once a season on Sunday nights but ironically, I haven't seen a scene of it in the last 20 years. It was a good time to get re-acquainted with it.
I've also been going through MB's present to me...the novel of "From Russia With Love". It has been a pageturner. I've been learning a lot more about the clockwork within all of the major characters such as Bond, Klebb, Red Grant, Tania and Kerim. But also the Bond depicted in the novel isn't quite the ultrasuave and cool-as-a-cucumber spy that Connery depicted. This Bond does get nervous and loses his temper on quite a few occasions. This is actually more reminiscent of the Daniel Craig Bond.
Well, a quick dinner...
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Sunday October 21, 1:35 p.m.
It was an interesting day yesterday...had three types of social interaction. First, there was the biweekly lesson with Tully & The Coffeemaker. My occasional role as Souvenir Santa Claus continued (and will continue for another couple of weeks) as I handed out Mah Jongg memo pads to the kids. I've been lucky that the basement of the coffee shop, though musty, is plenty empty.
Then I raced back home to my station to meet The Anime Duke and his two traveling buddies from Canada. True to Canadian tourist form, they arrived wearing T-shirts and shorts while me and the natives wore jackets. I took them for lunch to the ramen shop downstairs; they really enjoyed the garlicky broth. The two friends were asking about a couple of products that I'd never seen before but we checked out the nearby 100-yen shop just in case, but nada...
Took them home. They'd never seen a typical 20-square-metre 2K apartment before and they were suitably surprised at how I have managed to survive in my glorified closet for the past 13 years. The Duke took one look at the massive box holding the three Idolmaster dolls for The Anime King and just dismissed any possibility of taking any of the boxes home outright, contradicting what the King had said.
I also heard the other side of the potential tiff between The Duke and The Anime Chamberlain. The latter warned me that The Duke was a bit too feckless and disorganized, and certainly The Duke won't be anyone I would consider traveling with since he likes to go wherever the winds take him that day. On the other hand, The Duke was getting a little miffy about The Chamberlain being too uptight and starchy about the whole thing. The Duke tried to call him up to no avail. It's a surprise to me how these two ever decided to go traveling together.
My third interaction was in Ebisu, one of the tonier areas of Tokyo just one stop away from Teen Mecca Shibuya on the JR Yamanote Line. The Satyr was celebrating his birthday, thanks to his girlfriend of several months, Miss Ivory. I got to Ebisu an hour early so I just walked through the Atre Mall, one of a chain of station malls (yes, there is actually a chain of station shopping centres here in The Big Sushi). The usual throng of people walking everywhere. I actually sat beside a Japanese woman and her gaijin beau having a quiet spat about something. I ended up going to one of the balconies overlooking the taxi pickup area. It was interesting how quickly cabs just go in and out picking up their fares. The Big Apple may have the largest number of taxis on the planet but The Big Sushi has the widest variety of taxi companies. I saw six cabs out there waiting for fares and each of them belonged to different firms.
At 6 p.m., I met Movie Buddy, The Sylph, The Satyr and Miss Ivory outside of the West Exit of JR Ebisu. Skippy would've come but she's busy nursing a cold and has therefore also cancelled her presence for Mo-Yan tonight. It's been a month since I saw MB but it's been close to 4 months since I last saw The Satyr. The five of us then waited near Garden Place for MB's Australian comrade-at-arms, Sam and his family. It took a while but he and his brood finally showed up and we walked over to the restaurant for the evening, China 8 Cafe.
The fare at China 8 was akin to what I'd had in Hong Kong just a few days ago. There was the Peking Duck, the gyoza and the sho ron po. A cute waitress just fell in love with Sam's 6-month-old son, which at one point got an admonishment from the chef carving up the duck for unprofessionalism. Being the chronic Libran, I could understand the chef's point of view since the waitress was getting rather sickly about her fawning but on the other hand, I thought that the chef doth protest too much.
Some more folks joined us at the already crowded table...all of whom were The Satyr's buddies. Then, Miss Ivory unleashed her surprise in the form of a birthday cake for both The Satyr and me...since mine came by on the day I'd left for HK. I did tell The Satyr that there shouldn't be anything done on my account. Good friends follow that request; close friends disregard it utterly. Plus, we both got presents. From MB, I got the original Ian Fleming novel of "From Russia With Love", which I'm using for my subway reading. Plus, I got some Godiva Chocolates. And from The Satyr and his lady love, I received HMV gift certificates. Guess where I'm going after I log off? After the dinner, most of the guys decided to go drinking but I demurred since I had The Younger this morning. But there has been talk for the seasonal DVD Night.
So, 3 different interactions. The first one had me in teacher mode so I was talking at 75% normal speed while I was just zipping along with The Anime Duke and his boys. The b-day party had me somewhere in the middle.
As I said, I had The Younger this morning. She was her usual sleepyheaded self. However, she brightened up considerably on seeing the latest arrival of Scrabble. We would've gone long with the game except that her parents offered to drive me over to Higashi-Nakano Station since the father was off to America for a conference for the next week.
True to my nature, I scouted for the meeting place tonight for the JR Shinjuku West Exit police box...found that straight away and then discovered that Mo-Yan was just at the end of the road where I used to teach at The Company years ago. Still three hours away from that meeting with The Sisters of State and BC. I had lunch at the nearby Excelsior Coffee near Mo-Yan. Pretty empty....which brings me to give a piece of advice when looking for someplace to eat on a busy Sunday in Tokyo. Always try out the commercial areas which are often deserted for lunch.
The novel "From Russia With Love" is somewhat different from the movie version in that it does go into very fine detail (as Ian Fleming always did) on everything. It's certainly different from the Mickey Spillane delivery of terse, bite-sized phrases. Fleming uses complete sentences with glorious description. James Bond doesn't even show up until nearly halfway through. A lot of the exposition in the first half is devoted to the characters of Rosa Klebb, Red Grant and the plan to assassinate 007 which I do appreciate.
Speedy contacted me yesterday about me trying to teach The Dentist and The Manhattanite on the next Saturday, although the 27th has been made an off day for me. He was offering me the classes probably since he felt I could've used the income due to my 3-day absence last week but I also think that he wants to get down to town on some of his other admin work that day. Well, The Matron mentioned some weeks ago about inviting me to some harp recital involving her daughter so I had to tell the bossman that it would be a wait-and-see until tomorrow afternoon...not sure what will become of that invitation. But if MB and The Satyr are coming over, then I may still decline even if nothing comes out of The Matron's plans.
Well, I'll probably be off to Takashimaya Times Square across the tracks. I'll check out HMV; I may even buy some Kinokuniya gift certificates for The Satyr as recompense for his kind gift last night. Krispy Kreme 1 supposedly says that there is merely a 40-minute wait for donuts today but I think it still looks like 90 minutes, at least.
It was an interesting day yesterday...had three types of social interaction. First, there was the biweekly lesson with Tully & The Coffeemaker. My occasional role as Souvenir Santa Claus continued (and will continue for another couple of weeks) as I handed out Mah Jongg memo pads to the kids. I've been lucky that the basement of the coffee shop, though musty, is plenty empty.
Then I raced back home to my station to meet The Anime Duke and his two traveling buddies from Canada. True to Canadian tourist form, they arrived wearing T-shirts and shorts while me and the natives wore jackets. I took them for lunch to the ramen shop downstairs; they really enjoyed the garlicky broth. The two friends were asking about a couple of products that I'd never seen before but we checked out the nearby 100-yen shop just in case, but nada...
Took them home. They'd never seen a typical 20-square-metre 2K apartment before and they were suitably surprised at how I have managed to survive in my glorified closet for the past 13 years. The Duke took one look at the massive box holding the three Idolmaster dolls for The Anime King and just dismissed any possibility of taking any of the boxes home outright, contradicting what the King had said.
I also heard the other side of the potential tiff between The Duke and The Anime Chamberlain. The latter warned me that The Duke was a bit too feckless and disorganized, and certainly The Duke won't be anyone I would consider traveling with since he likes to go wherever the winds take him that day. On the other hand, The Duke was getting a little miffy about The Chamberlain being too uptight and starchy about the whole thing. The Duke tried to call him up to no avail. It's a surprise to me how these two ever decided to go traveling together.
My third interaction was in Ebisu, one of the tonier areas of Tokyo just one stop away from Teen Mecca Shibuya on the JR Yamanote Line. The Satyr was celebrating his birthday, thanks to his girlfriend of several months, Miss Ivory. I got to Ebisu an hour early so I just walked through the Atre Mall, one of a chain of station malls (yes, there is actually a chain of station shopping centres here in The Big Sushi). The usual throng of people walking everywhere. I actually sat beside a Japanese woman and her gaijin beau having a quiet spat about something. I ended up going to one of the balconies overlooking the taxi pickup area. It was interesting how quickly cabs just go in and out picking up their fares. The Big Apple may have the largest number of taxis on the planet but The Big Sushi has the widest variety of taxi companies. I saw six cabs out there waiting for fares and each of them belonged to different firms.
At 6 p.m., I met Movie Buddy, The Sylph, The Satyr and Miss Ivory outside of the West Exit of JR Ebisu. Skippy would've come but she's busy nursing a cold and has therefore also cancelled her presence for Mo-Yan tonight. It's been a month since I saw MB but it's been close to 4 months since I last saw The Satyr. The five of us then waited near Garden Place for MB's Australian comrade-at-arms, Sam and his family. It took a while but he and his brood finally showed up and we walked over to the restaurant for the evening, China 8 Cafe.
The fare at China 8 was akin to what I'd had in Hong Kong just a few days ago. There was the Peking Duck, the gyoza and the sho ron po. A cute waitress just fell in love with Sam's 6-month-old son, which at one point got an admonishment from the chef carving up the duck for unprofessionalism. Being the chronic Libran, I could understand the chef's point of view since the waitress was getting rather sickly about her fawning but on the other hand, I thought that the chef doth protest too much.
Some more folks joined us at the already crowded table...all of whom were The Satyr's buddies. Then, Miss Ivory unleashed her surprise in the form of a birthday cake for both The Satyr and me...since mine came by on the day I'd left for HK. I did tell The Satyr that there shouldn't be anything done on my account. Good friends follow that request; close friends disregard it utterly. Plus, we both got presents. From MB, I got the original Ian Fleming novel of "From Russia With Love", which I'm using for my subway reading. Plus, I got some Godiva Chocolates. And from The Satyr and his lady love, I received HMV gift certificates. Guess where I'm going after I log off? After the dinner, most of the guys decided to go drinking but I demurred since I had The Younger this morning. But there has been talk for the seasonal DVD Night.
So, 3 different interactions. The first one had me in teacher mode so I was talking at 75% normal speed while I was just zipping along with The Anime Duke and his boys. The b-day party had me somewhere in the middle.
As I said, I had The Younger this morning. She was her usual sleepyheaded self. However, she brightened up considerably on seeing the latest arrival of Scrabble. We would've gone long with the game except that her parents offered to drive me over to Higashi-Nakano Station since the father was off to America for a conference for the next week.
True to my nature, I scouted for the meeting place tonight for the JR Shinjuku West Exit police box...found that straight away and then discovered that Mo-Yan was just at the end of the road where I used to teach at The Company years ago. Still three hours away from that meeting with The Sisters of State and BC. I had lunch at the nearby Excelsior Coffee near Mo-Yan. Pretty empty....which brings me to give a piece of advice when looking for someplace to eat on a busy Sunday in Tokyo. Always try out the commercial areas which are often deserted for lunch.
The novel "From Russia With Love" is somewhat different from the movie version in that it does go into very fine detail (as Ian Fleming always did) on everything. It's certainly different from the Mickey Spillane delivery of terse, bite-sized phrases. Fleming uses complete sentences with glorious description. James Bond doesn't even show up until nearly halfway through. A lot of the exposition in the first half is devoted to the characters of Rosa Klebb, Red Grant and the plan to assassinate 007 which I do appreciate.
Speedy contacted me yesterday about me trying to teach The Dentist and The Manhattanite on the next Saturday, although the 27th has been made an off day for me. He was offering me the classes probably since he felt I could've used the income due to my 3-day absence last week but I also think that he wants to get down to town on some of his other admin work that day. Well, The Matron mentioned some weeks ago about inviting me to some harp recital involving her daughter so I had to tell the bossman that it would be a wait-and-see until tomorrow afternoon...not sure what will become of that invitation. But if MB and The Satyr are coming over, then I may still decline even if nothing comes out of The Matron's plans.
Well, I'll probably be off to Takashimaya Times Square across the tracks. I'll check out HMV; I may even buy some Kinokuniya gift certificates for The Satyr as recompense for his kind gift last night. Krispy Kreme 1 supposedly says that there is merely a 40-minute wait for donuts today but I think it still looks like 90 minutes, at least.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Saturday October 20, 8:48 a.m.
Well, now that I've got Hong Kong off my chest, just some of the stuff that's happened over here.
The one news item that got my blood boiling was the news about that little girl who got stabbed to death right in front of her own house by some fiend...that's the only word I can use for this murderer. I really, really hope that the cops catch this guy. There have just been too many kid slashings and stabbings in this country.
And the other big news was the disciplinary bushwhacking that the notorious boxing family of Kamedas got from the national boxing association. I knew that Daiki Kameda needed to have a straitjacket wrapped around him when he decided to suddenly change his championship match with reigning champ Naito into a wrestling bout in the final round, but I was surprised that both the father and older brother Koki got nabbed as well. Daiki was given a 1 or 3-year suspension (I forgot which), Koki got censure and the dad has been ousted from the sport...just like that brutal oyakata Tokitsukaze.
To be honest, for all their bluster and bling bling, the Kameda antics didn't seem any different from the stuff that American boxers often pull in their press conferences. However, in a society that prefers to have the standing nail whacked down, the boys just went too far.
Getting back into the swing of things. I saw B2 on Thursday. She was fine. I've already started giving away the tons of souvenirs from HK. I gave her a pad...a writing one, silly. At the juku last night, Jolly was a cancellation but The Ace showed up. I gave him a kitchen magnet...hey, at least it was something. The juku boss got a calendar. Looks like The Ace may be doing the slow fade from me after more than a year of his Friday lessons. He's asked to cut down his time to 30 minutes.
The Anime Duke finally called me last night....almost 24 hours after his initial promise to do so. The Anime Chamberlain had contacted me the day before, and he warned me that his buddy is a bit on the feckless side. But it looks like it was just a matter of The Duke coming into town too late past the witching hour and losing his Internet connection. Anyways, he and his posse will be making a quick pass-through into my neighbourhood to see about those voluminous packages for The Anime King. So I'm gonna have to wrap up things quickly with Tully & The Coffeemaker this morning. And then, I've got The Satyr's birthday party to attend later in the evening. Skippy has to skip that and the Mo-Yan outing tomorrow with me, The Sisters of State and BC due to a cold.
Definitely back in the saddle again...
Well, now that I've got Hong Kong off my chest, just some of the stuff that's happened over here.
The one news item that got my blood boiling was the news about that little girl who got stabbed to death right in front of her own house by some fiend...that's the only word I can use for this murderer. I really, really hope that the cops catch this guy. There have just been too many kid slashings and stabbings in this country.
And the other big news was the disciplinary bushwhacking that the notorious boxing family of Kamedas got from the national boxing association. I knew that Daiki Kameda needed to have a straitjacket wrapped around him when he decided to suddenly change his championship match with reigning champ Naito into a wrestling bout in the final round, but I was surprised that both the father and older brother Koki got nabbed as well. Daiki was given a 1 or 3-year suspension (I forgot which), Koki got censure and the dad has been ousted from the sport...just like that brutal oyakata Tokitsukaze.
To be honest, for all their bluster and bling bling, the Kameda antics didn't seem any different from the stuff that American boxers often pull in their press conferences. However, in a society that prefers to have the standing nail whacked down, the boys just went too far.
Getting back into the swing of things. I saw B2 on Thursday. She was fine. I've already started giving away the tons of souvenirs from HK. I gave her a pad...a writing one, silly. At the juku last night, Jolly was a cancellation but The Ace showed up. I gave him a kitchen magnet...hey, at least it was something. The juku boss got a calendar. Looks like The Ace may be doing the slow fade from me after more than a year of his Friday lessons. He's asked to cut down his time to 30 minutes.
The Anime Duke finally called me last night....almost 24 hours after his initial promise to do so. The Anime Chamberlain had contacted me the day before, and he warned me that his buddy is a bit on the feckless side. But it looks like it was just a matter of The Duke coming into town too late past the witching hour and losing his Internet connection. Anyways, he and his posse will be making a quick pass-through into my neighbourhood to see about those voluminous packages for The Anime King. So I'm gonna have to wrap up things quickly with Tully & The Coffeemaker this morning. And then, I've got The Satyr's birthday party to attend later in the evening. Skippy has to skip that and the Mo-Yan outing tomorrow with me, The Sisters of State and BC due to a cold.
Definitely back in the saddle again...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Thursday October 18, 5:33 p.m.
DAY 3
The final day of the tour through Hong Kong started with yet another round of breakfast at the buffet restaurant. However, I decided to rein myself in a bit at the tables. True to The Lady's whirlwind nature, we quickly hit the subways once more and headed off to Wah Tai Sin back in Kowloon to visit a temple. The incense there was quite overpowering. The Class Act did their praying while I politely demurred at any attempts to recognize religion.
Then, it was back on the train again so that all of us could get some final items for souvenir shopping. So it was back to IFC and Dynocks again while the ladies went upstairs to get some stuff from a tea shop. And then it was some more walking until we hit a dim sum place called Lok Fu. We were on a clock by that point so it was a quick run-through of the platters before we got back to the hotel to get checked out.
Once again, a chauffered van got us back to the airport on Lantau. And The Class Act and I made our goodbyes at check-in since they were on a JAL flight (Business Class, of course) and I on an ANA flight (cattle car...I mean Economy Class, of course). Managed to get a few more souvenirs for Speedy and The Beehive before boarding.
Hong Kong was indeed a revelation. In fact, the culinary journey worked a little too well...it made the crud served on the flight home all the more egregious. That was the worst saikyo-yaki (maybe saitei-yaki would've been a better description) of salmon I'd ever had. I really gotta work on getting to like planes again.
DAY 3
The final day of the tour through Hong Kong started with yet another round of breakfast at the buffet restaurant. However, I decided to rein myself in a bit at the tables. True to The Lady's whirlwind nature, we quickly hit the subways once more and headed off to Wah Tai Sin back in Kowloon to visit a temple. The incense there was quite overpowering. The Class Act did their praying while I politely demurred at any attempts to recognize religion.
Then, it was back on the train again so that all of us could get some final items for souvenir shopping. So it was back to IFC and Dynocks again while the ladies went upstairs to get some stuff from a tea shop. And then it was some more walking until we hit a dim sum place called Lok Fu. We were on a clock by that point so it was a quick run-through of the platters before we got back to the hotel to get checked out.
Once again, a chauffered van got us back to the airport on Lantau. And The Class Act and I made our goodbyes at check-in since they were on a JAL flight (Business Class, of course) and I on an ANA flight (cattle car...I mean Economy Class, of course). Managed to get a few more souvenirs for Speedy and The Beehive before boarding.
Hong Kong was indeed a revelation. In fact, the culinary journey worked a little too well...it made the crud served on the flight home all the more egregious. That was the worst saikyo-yaki (maybe saitei-yaki would've been a better description) of salmon I'd ever had. I really gotta work on getting to like planes again.
Thursday October 18, 4:46 p.m.
DAY 2
Got up at 6. Still good. No aftereffects from the previous night's horrors. I turned on the TV. One of the strange things about CNN showing on at the hotel was that all of the voices were pitched one octave lower. So, everyone sounded like Sith Lords. We had Darth Larry, Darth Anderson and Darth John King. Also, unlike in the other countries' hotels, it didn't seem like I could get any of the local HK channels...just variations on CCTV. It was pretty laughable watching the propaganda on that station. It resembled that classic SCTV sketch about accidentally getting Soviet television.
Met the ladies down in the lobby. One thing about staying at the Mandarin was that it was a busy place. Staffers always seemed to be talking with guests about something. And it was certainly a magnet for the foreigners. I saw many more Westerners than local Chinese which may say something about how much the rooms were. Actually, the night before, we did make a celeb sighting. Korean actor, Lee Byon Hung, was entering one of the bars with his entourage. I had been told that the hotel attracted its fair share of famous faces.
The Lady took us to a congee place nearby (well, actually we took the double-decker bus a couple of blocks) that she often frequents. I could see and taste why. The congee was probably one of the best I'd ever had. In the rice soup, there were chunks of meaty chicken and other veggies. Plus, we had the complementary plate of deep-fried bread to add to the hearty stew. It's one of the regrets of Japanese culinary culture that there were none of these breakfast restaurants in my adopted country...unless you count McDonalds.
Then it was off by taxi to the Peak Tram station where we hopped on the tram all the way to the top of Victoria Peak. This garnered the first major Wow moment of the whole trip. It was truly amazing to see all thse huge architectural stalagmites amassed together and going so high. I could only imagine how it must be to live in the penthouse apartments of some of those towers.
After getting back down, we headed back to the Mandarin...and surprisingly enough, The Lady suggested a brunch at the restaurant on the mezzanine. Didn't realize that The Lady had quite the appetite. However, both she and The Matron could observe that I had fully recovered from my brush with death the night before as I plowed into my dishes of bacon, scrambled eggs, danish and other stuff from the tables. Yup, I was back.
It was another brief return to the rooms before we headed out once more...this time, by subway to Tsim Sha Shui. Actually, we went quite a bit north to the Jade Market. There, I saw the ladies' true talent in haggling for all sorts of jade accessories (whether they were really jade remains to be seen). The market was located in this rather non-descript factory building where the fans were going on full blast to keep the heat out. I also noticed that a lot of the surrounding buildings had that decrepit look....quite a far cry from the techno-architecture of Central. The ladies' enthusiasm for their art got me drawn into the mix...and ended up buying a few trinkets myself for The Sisters of State and BC...yep, souvenirs had to be bought.
Once all of us got our business done in the Jade Market, we made our way down to the main street via a wet market. Yup, the odours of the place reminded me of old Chinatown in downtown Toronto in the summer. We walked down a few blocks when The Lady saw a tiny eatery serving Turtle Jelly...yep, you heard me right...gelatin made from the blood of the cute little reptile. The Lady swears by it, so I tried a bowl of the stuff; actually, it wasn't half-bad. It tasted of herbal medicine, strangely enough, but with a generous dollop of honey, I could down it easily.
It was a long walk down Nathan Road to Tsim Sha Tsui. I'd had earlier impressions of the area being a wider version of the tackier parts of Shimbashi in Tokyo but actually it looked more like Omotesando. By the time, we got to that side of Victoria Harbour, we could see a lot of the brand name goods stores. However, we went instead into the Peninsula Hotel, and the lobby was actually more opulent than the one in The Mandarin. Huge ceilings with huge chandeliers and a string quartet playing on the mezzanine. The reason we were there was that The Matron wanted to buy some very expensive chops at this store which had photos of some fairly famous clientele, including the half-carbon, half-silicone Kanno Sisters.
It was then time for lunch so we made our way up again north to a shopping/financial centre. There was some noodle place which The Lady had seen in the guide book. And it was another hit. We shared two bowls of pretty spicy noodle soup and a round of sho ron po dumplings. The gourmet tour was working to plan.
We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island. The way the ferry was rocking, I was afraid that both my brain and stomach would be taken back to the previous night's events, but it turned out to be OK...although since the ride was a mere 5 minutes, there wasn't much time for me to get sick on the rolling waters.
From that point onwards, The Class Act and I split up for the rest of the afternoon. They had to get some more souvenir shopping done and I decided to crash for about a couple of hours. At about 4, I also went out souvenir hunting and ended up scouring most of Central for the next two hours. There were just too many expensive department stores to find anything affordable. And I'm not sure what Chip N' Dale would've done with Manolo Blahnik shoes. However, near the end of my odyssey through the literal hills and valleys of Central, I managed to pick up a lot of stuff at this W.H. Smith-like bookstore called Dynock. The interesting thing about it was that it was wholly English in content....not a Chinese book to be found. Which reminded me how literate in their second language a lot of the folk here were (well, the ladies in the turtle jelly eatery couldn't speak it). The bank tellers, the taxi drivers, the building receptionists could all speak English fluently...not surprising since HK was an English colony until a decade ago. Here in Japan, you would feel that you had won the lottery if you could find a similar person who could even speak a few words.
Got back and freshened up before heading back down to the lobby at 7 to meet The Class Act and The Butler. I apologized to The Butler profusely for what nearly happened the night before. True to his profession, he smilingly laughed it off. Then it was off to Wu Kong, the Shanghai restaurant in Causeway Bay that would bring us the culinary highlight of the entire trip. The ride there by taxi also brought the second Wow moment...seeing Central in lights. It was truly a Blade Runner moment.
We went up to the 13th floor of this building in HK's version of Times Square where there was a huge queue waiting for taxis. The manager of Wu Kong graciously greeted us at the door and escorted us to the table. Some minutes later, my old university buddy, The Cap arrived and I did the intros. Then, the feast began. It was a 2-hour-long blur of culinary ecstasy including such delights as Shark's-Fin Soup, Mandarin Fish and Peking Duck. The masterpiece, though, was Steamed Crab in some sort of liquor. The manager brought us the still-alive but trussed-up crabs on a plate...some minutes later, they were brought back to us fully cooked into an orange glow. Now, I'm not a huge fan of crab since I don't like having to work for my food by trying to crack open shells but the taste of this crab was such that it was truly worth the time of hammering and cracking and sucking to get every morsel of this succulent arthropod into my digestive tract.
It was also good seeing The Cap after so many years. He was looking a little paunchier from his wiry days at U of T and had a few more laugh lines around the mouth and eyes but it was the same ol' guy. The Lady later remarked that the two of us were obviously bantering about like old buddies. Yup, it's been a long time since I could talk that easily with anyone.
We were all pretty stuffed by the end, and The Cap politely declined the offer, but the rest of us had one more stop at a dessert place called Moon Kee before retiring for the night. It was a very brief stop...just 15 minutes...but we had to try some of their sweet bean soups. Worked wonders for the digestion. We hopped into our taxi one last time, and gave our goodbyes to The Butler one last time since he couldn't see us off home the next day. He's a good guy to know.
DAY 2
Got up at 6. Still good. No aftereffects from the previous night's horrors. I turned on the TV. One of the strange things about CNN showing on at the hotel was that all of the voices were pitched one octave lower. So, everyone sounded like Sith Lords. We had Darth Larry, Darth Anderson and Darth John King. Also, unlike in the other countries' hotels, it didn't seem like I could get any of the local HK channels...just variations on CCTV. It was pretty laughable watching the propaganda on that station. It resembled that classic SCTV sketch about accidentally getting Soviet television.
Met the ladies down in the lobby. One thing about staying at the Mandarin was that it was a busy place. Staffers always seemed to be talking with guests about something. And it was certainly a magnet for the foreigners. I saw many more Westerners than local Chinese which may say something about how much the rooms were. Actually, the night before, we did make a celeb sighting. Korean actor, Lee Byon Hung, was entering one of the bars with his entourage. I had been told that the hotel attracted its fair share of famous faces.
The Lady took us to a congee place nearby (well, actually we took the double-decker bus a couple of blocks) that she often frequents. I could see and taste why. The congee was probably one of the best I'd ever had. In the rice soup, there were chunks of meaty chicken and other veggies. Plus, we had the complementary plate of deep-fried bread to add to the hearty stew. It's one of the regrets of Japanese culinary culture that there were none of these breakfast restaurants in my adopted country...unless you count McDonalds.
Then it was off by taxi to the Peak Tram station where we hopped on the tram all the way to the top of Victoria Peak. This garnered the first major Wow moment of the whole trip. It was truly amazing to see all thse huge architectural stalagmites amassed together and going so high. I could only imagine how it must be to live in the penthouse apartments of some of those towers.
After getting back down, we headed back to the Mandarin...and surprisingly enough, The Lady suggested a brunch at the restaurant on the mezzanine. Didn't realize that The Lady had quite the appetite. However, both she and The Matron could observe that I had fully recovered from my brush with death the night before as I plowed into my dishes of bacon, scrambled eggs, danish and other stuff from the tables. Yup, I was back.
It was another brief return to the rooms before we headed out once more...this time, by subway to Tsim Sha Shui. Actually, we went quite a bit north to the Jade Market. There, I saw the ladies' true talent in haggling for all sorts of jade accessories (whether they were really jade remains to be seen). The market was located in this rather non-descript factory building where the fans were going on full blast to keep the heat out. I also noticed that a lot of the surrounding buildings had that decrepit look....quite a far cry from the techno-architecture of Central. The ladies' enthusiasm for their art got me drawn into the mix...and ended up buying a few trinkets myself for The Sisters of State and BC...yep, souvenirs had to be bought.
Once all of us got our business done in the Jade Market, we made our way down to the main street via a wet market. Yup, the odours of the place reminded me of old Chinatown in downtown Toronto in the summer. We walked down a few blocks when The Lady saw a tiny eatery serving Turtle Jelly...yep, you heard me right...gelatin made from the blood of the cute little reptile. The Lady swears by it, so I tried a bowl of the stuff; actually, it wasn't half-bad. It tasted of herbal medicine, strangely enough, but with a generous dollop of honey, I could down it easily.
It was a long walk down Nathan Road to Tsim Sha Tsui. I'd had earlier impressions of the area being a wider version of the tackier parts of Shimbashi in Tokyo but actually it looked more like Omotesando. By the time, we got to that side of Victoria Harbour, we could see a lot of the brand name goods stores. However, we went instead into the Peninsula Hotel, and the lobby was actually more opulent than the one in The Mandarin. Huge ceilings with huge chandeliers and a string quartet playing on the mezzanine. The reason we were there was that The Matron wanted to buy some very expensive chops at this store which had photos of some fairly famous clientele, including the half-carbon, half-silicone Kanno Sisters.
It was then time for lunch so we made our way up again north to a shopping/financial centre. There was some noodle place which The Lady had seen in the guide book. And it was another hit. We shared two bowls of pretty spicy noodle soup and a round of sho ron po dumplings. The gourmet tour was working to plan.
We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island. The way the ferry was rocking, I was afraid that both my brain and stomach would be taken back to the previous night's events, but it turned out to be OK...although since the ride was a mere 5 minutes, there wasn't much time for me to get sick on the rolling waters.
From that point onwards, The Class Act and I split up for the rest of the afternoon. They had to get some more souvenir shopping done and I decided to crash for about a couple of hours. At about 4, I also went out souvenir hunting and ended up scouring most of Central for the next two hours. There were just too many expensive department stores to find anything affordable. And I'm not sure what Chip N' Dale would've done with Manolo Blahnik shoes. However, near the end of my odyssey through the literal hills and valleys of Central, I managed to pick up a lot of stuff at this W.H. Smith-like bookstore called Dynock. The interesting thing about it was that it was wholly English in content....not a Chinese book to be found. Which reminded me how literate in their second language a lot of the folk here were (well, the ladies in the turtle jelly eatery couldn't speak it). The bank tellers, the taxi drivers, the building receptionists could all speak English fluently...not surprising since HK was an English colony until a decade ago. Here in Japan, you would feel that you had won the lottery if you could find a similar person who could even speak a few words.
Got back and freshened up before heading back down to the lobby at 7 to meet The Class Act and The Butler. I apologized to The Butler profusely for what nearly happened the night before. True to his profession, he smilingly laughed it off. Then it was off to Wu Kong, the Shanghai restaurant in Causeway Bay that would bring us the culinary highlight of the entire trip. The ride there by taxi also brought the second Wow moment...seeing Central in lights. It was truly a Blade Runner moment.
We went up to the 13th floor of this building in HK's version of Times Square where there was a huge queue waiting for taxis. The manager of Wu Kong graciously greeted us at the door and escorted us to the table. Some minutes later, my old university buddy, The Cap arrived and I did the intros. Then, the feast began. It was a 2-hour-long blur of culinary ecstasy including such delights as Shark's-Fin Soup, Mandarin Fish and Peking Duck. The masterpiece, though, was Steamed Crab in some sort of liquor. The manager brought us the still-alive but trussed-up crabs on a plate...some minutes later, they were brought back to us fully cooked into an orange glow. Now, I'm not a huge fan of crab since I don't like having to work for my food by trying to crack open shells but the taste of this crab was such that it was truly worth the time of hammering and cracking and sucking to get every morsel of this succulent arthropod into my digestive tract.
It was also good seeing The Cap after so many years. He was looking a little paunchier from his wiry days at U of T and had a few more laugh lines around the mouth and eyes but it was the same ol' guy. The Lady later remarked that the two of us were obviously bantering about like old buddies. Yup, it's been a long time since I could talk that easily with anyone.
We were all pretty stuffed by the end, and The Cap politely declined the offer, but the rest of us had one more stop at a dessert place called Moon Kee before retiring for the night. It was a very brief stop...just 15 minutes...but we had to try some of their sweet bean soups. Worked wonders for the digestion. We hopped into our taxi one last time, and gave our goodbyes to The Butler one last time since he couldn't see us off home the next day. He's a good guy to know.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Thursday October 18, 3:43 p.m.
Well, it was like an Indiana Jones movie....a lot of exploration and excitement, a bit of pain and even more awe, a few laughs and some trip-ups along the way. That is the short story for my trip to Hong Kong between the 15th and 17th.
DAY 1
Woke up at the horribly early hour of 3 a.m. in the morning to pack and then head on out to Narita Airport. This action would trigger a rather unfortunate payback later on in the day as you'll find out.
Arrived in Narita to see that even at the bright and early hour of 7, there were plenty of tour groups lined up to invade the rest of the world. I found my desk at HIS, the nationwide discount travel ticket agency in Japan and got mine for my ANA flight.
Just like Indiana Jones' phobia for snakes, I have developed a new one for planes...especially the economy section. I was stuck in the middle for both going and coming back. I could only imagine how the two of us would react to the overrated "Snakes on a Plane"...thank the heavens that it quickly fizzled. Not sure what it is that triggered it. Perhaps it was the flight from Toronto to Tokyo early this year via Hell...otherwise known as the airspace over Vancouver. There was a rather turbulent air mass which made me very prone to seeing what I'd had for the inflight meal...again. Even with an ANA flight, I was just itching to get off the plane for all of those 4 hours squeezed between two other passengers...even with VOB (video-on-backseat) display. Mind you, I did see Robin Williams' "License to Wed" as the in-flight feature....some of that maniacal Williams humour was back but I can see why it would make an ideal plane movie. As for the in-flight meal, the menu called for steak, but it was really just gloppy beef...stuff you may see at the end of a Yoshinoya serving day.
Got to Hong Kong weary but alive. It was warmer than Tokyo but nowhere near the blazing heat that it's notorious for. I met The Class Act at the carousels of this huge airport and then we met The Lady's butler in Hong Kong...The Butler. But the Butler wasn't in uniform...he was having a couple of days off just for us, so he was in Polo shirt and jeans. Really nice and accomodating guy.
True to service from a 5-star hotel, there was a van with chauffeur (yup, black suit and cap) which took us and the luggage to The Mandarin Oriental down in Central. It was a 30-minute trip from the airport...during which I got a taste of the amazing architecture that HK is renowned for. I saw a lot of nosebleedingly tall apartment buildings jutting out of the ground like stalagmites in a cavern. And there was that familiar haze which usually envelops the city; however, none of us suffered any asthma attacks during our time there.
From Lantau Island to Kowloon and through the under-Victoria Harbour tunnel over to Hong Kong Island....I just had to gape at the grandeur and size of some of those skyscrapers. Skyscrapers wouldn't be the appropriate word...these were skystabbers. There was the HKBC Building competing with the behemoth for The Bank of China and the International Financial Centre (IFC) for mastery of the skies. And it wasn't just height but breadth as well. Some of these buildings were simply massive...certainly would put some of big buildings, such as Tokyo City Hall and Sunshine 60, to shame.
We finally got into The Mandarin Oriental Hotel...as I said, a place with 5 stars and a long reputation, only to find out that our rooms were still not ready from one of three Japanese staffers. Not a great start. In fact, I'd have to say that perhaps the hotel may need a bit of a wake-up call itself by getting one of its stars knocked off. On the plus side, the hospitality and the rooms were indeed top-notch...there was also a very large plasma screen TV, newspapers and fresh fruit ready for the taking. And the breakfast buffet on the mezzanine was just wonderful to behold.
However, I'd have to say that there were minuses as well. The Internet connection with the wireless keyboard was a bit of a disappointment...especially since one had to pay $16 HK for the day's privilege. There was no mouse but one of those rubber trackball-like these stuck into the keyboard...not the fastest maneuverability. Plus, the keyboard had limited range...I couldn't really use it from the bed. It was either bring the chair right dead centre or type on it standing up in front of the screen like Geordi LaForge does in TNG. And often the keystrokes wouldn't register onto the screen, so blogging would've been too much of a pain in the neck.
But it wasn't just me...The Class Act also had a bit of a problem. For some reason, the hotel charged them for spa usage when in fact, the ladies never went anywhere near the place. And the staff also screwed up on the pickup time to head back to the airport. Nope, not exactly 5-star level service.
During that one hour reprieve we gave the staff to get the rooms ready, The Class Act, The Butler and I wound our way through Des Voeux Ave to find a bank to change our money from yen to Hong Kong dollars. We found a large one in which we made our way to the massive basement level for currency exchange. I discovered that the banking services are set up like the banks in North America. There were none of the cute tellers in bright uniforms or the benches to sit on while waiting. It was the snake-like queues with all of the staff looking very smart in sharp suits. Still, it was a wait for more than half-an-hour but when we finally reached out tellers, we were out within a few minutes.
Then, we decided to give the hotel another extra few minutes while The Class Act searched for that famous place which makes those very special 1000-year-old eggs. We found this very non-descript place with an open front, and a seemingly crabby old woman who sold them. The Butler's wife, an accountant, worked in the next building, so she cameoed and husband and wife managed to negotiate for some boxes of the stuff to be sold to The Class Act. We finally got ourselves checked in. However, the ladies decided to head on out to Kowloon by Star Ferry for some early souvenir shopping while I decided to chill out in my very air-conditioned room.
A couple of hours later, I was summoned down by The Class Act for dinner. The Butler took us on foot a couple of blocks to the aforementioned IFC. As we negotiated the human traffic in the overpasses, I noticed that there were far more Westerners in suits in HK than there are in Tokyo's Marunouchi district. We finally got into the IFC mall and up to the 4th floor where our first dining experience in HK would take place...a trendy restaurant called Cuisine Cuisine.
And this is where some of the pain part would come in. As I'd said earlier, I had awakened at the ungodly hour of 3 in the morning with not a lot of sleep prior. Plus, I was getting some major neck stress from sitting in the plane. Well, that and some champagne that I shouldn't have had in the first place helped to launch a major headache at the restaurant...which then led to my stomach. Too bad, too...the fare there was Szechuan but of a surprisingly mild and fusion sort. I was able to politely ingest some of the stuff there but I finally had to head over to a washroom to try to clear my brain. No explosions occured but no relief did, either. The ladies knew something was up when I got back...The Matron remarked that I looked an awful shade of cerulean blue...didn't really match the orange curtains. She gave me a couple of Bufferin but I knew that it wouldn't help much now that the migraine was in full rage mode. And sadly, I had to leave a lot of the main course behind since I didn't want to add any more ammunition, so to speak, to the gun.
We all hopped into the taxi. By that point, I was pretty much mute just trying to hold things together. The next stop in the journey, pre-planned, was Happy Foot, a reflexology place. I would've been just happy to get back to the hotel to pray to the porcelain god but for some reason, I decided to go with them to this place. By the time we made it up the 11th floor where Happy Foot was located, I was standing but that was about all I could do. Everyone there just stared at me and wondered when I would erupt although the staff was classy enough not to bring the bucket over. I replied in kind and didn't vomit.
After another trip to the washroom to try to clear my head, I staggered to my armchair in the dimly lounge where The Class Act had already dunked their feet into bowls of brown water. I was more than happy to collapse into one of them....a chair not the ladies. For the next 50 minutes, a masseur went to work on my tootsies. And since this was the Asian variety of reflexology, there was more pain involved. The guy squeezed, pounded, kneaded, pinched and just about used every technique on my soles, toes and heels to get some sort of violent reaction from me. Aside from some sudden groans, I was dead to the world. But it worked...by the end of the session, I was feeling like a regenerated Time Lord. A lot of the pain was missing from my head...nothing like an even more painful experience to expunge pain. And I got the bonus head massage as a coda, although by that time I didn't need it. I was one grateful tourist.
Now that I was back to normal again, the three of us (The Butler had already left at the beginning of our session...felt badly about that but I had another chance to give him my gratitude the next night) walked back to the hotel. My senses were back on observation mode once more so I noticed how more brighter and bigger the neon signs were in HK. We passed by the famous Yung Kee restaurant...which actually served those 1,000-year-old eggs that the ladies had bought earlier in the day.
Got back to my room, took a shower, and got into bed...just relieved that I didn't need to yawn in Technicolour.
Well, it was like an Indiana Jones movie....a lot of exploration and excitement, a bit of pain and even more awe, a few laughs and some trip-ups along the way. That is the short story for my trip to Hong Kong between the 15th and 17th.
DAY 1
Woke up at the horribly early hour of 3 a.m. in the morning to pack and then head on out to Narita Airport. This action would trigger a rather unfortunate payback later on in the day as you'll find out.
Arrived in Narita to see that even at the bright and early hour of 7, there were plenty of tour groups lined up to invade the rest of the world. I found my desk at HIS, the nationwide discount travel ticket agency in Japan and got mine for my ANA flight.
Just like Indiana Jones' phobia for snakes, I have developed a new one for planes...especially the economy section. I was stuck in the middle for both going and coming back. I could only imagine how the two of us would react to the overrated "Snakes on a Plane"...thank the heavens that it quickly fizzled. Not sure what it is that triggered it. Perhaps it was the flight from Toronto to Tokyo early this year via Hell...otherwise known as the airspace over Vancouver. There was a rather turbulent air mass which made me very prone to seeing what I'd had for the inflight meal...again. Even with an ANA flight, I was just itching to get off the plane for all of those 4 hours squeezed between two other passengers...even with VOB (video-on-backseat) display. Mind you, I did see Robin Williams' "License to Wed" as the in-flight feature....some of that maniacal Williams humour was back but I can see why it would make an ideal plane movie. As for the in-flight meal, the menu called for steak, but it was really just gloppy beef...stuff you may see at the end of a Yoshinoya serving day.
Got to Hong Kong weary but alive. It was warmer than Tokyo but nowhere near the blazing heat that it's notorious for. I met The Class Act at the carousels of this huge airport and then we met The Lady's butler in Hong Kong...The Butler. But the Butler wasn't in uniform...he was having a couple of days off just for us, so he was in Polo shirt and jeans. Really nice and accomodating guy.
True to service from a 5-star hotel, there was a van with chauffeur (yup, black suit and cap) which took us and the luggage to The Mandarin Oriental down in Central. It was a 30-minute trip from the airport...during which I got a taste of the amazing architecture that HK is renowned for. I saw a lot of nosebleedingly tall apartment buildings jutting out of the ground like stalagmites in a cavern. And there was that familiar haze which usually envelops the city; however, none of us suffered any asthma attacks during our time there.
From Lantau Island to Kowloon and through the under-Victoria Harbour tunnel over to Hong Kong Island....I just had to gape at the grandeur and size of some of those skyscrapers. Skyscrapers wouldn't be the appropriate word...these were skystabbers. There was the HKBC Building competing with the behemoth for The Bank of China and the International Financial Centre (IFC) for mastery of the skies. And it wasn't just height but breadth as well. Some of these buildings were simply massive...certainly would put some of big buildings, such as Tokyo City Hall and Sunshine 60, to shame.
We finally got into The Mandarin Oriental Hotel...as I said, a place with 5 stars and a long reputation, only to find out that our rooms were still not ready from one of three Japanese staffers. Not a great start. In fact, I'd have to say that perhaps the hotel may need a bit of a wake-up call itself by getting one of its stars knocked off. On the plus side, the hospitality and the rooms were indeed top-notch...there was also a very large plasma screen TV, newspapers and fresh fruit ready for the taking. And the breakfast buffet on the mezzanine was just wonderful to behold.
However, I'd have to say that there were minuses as well. The Internet connection with the wireless keyboard was a bit of a disappointment...especially since one had to pay $16 HK for the day's privilege. There was no mouse but one of those rubber trackball-like these stuck into the keyboard...not the fastest maneuverability. Plus, the keyboard had limited range...I couldn't really use it from the bed. It was either bring the chair right dead centre or type on it standing up in front of the screen like Geordi LaForge does in TNG. And often the keystrokes wouldn't register onto the screen, so blogging would've been too much of a pain in the neck.
But it wasn't just me...The Class Act also had a bit of a problem. For some reason, the hotel charged them for spa usage when in fact, the ladies never went anywhere near the place. And the staff also screwed up on the pickup time to head back to the airport. Nope, not exactly 5-star level service.
During that one hour reprieve we gave the staff to get the rooms ready, The Class Act, The Butler and I wound our way through Des Voeux Ave to find a bank to change our money from yen to Hong Kong dollars. We found a large one in which we made our way to the massive basement level for currency exchange. I discovered that the banking services are set up like the banks in North America. There were none of the cute tellers in bright uniforms or the benches to sit on while waiting. It was the snake-like queues with all of the staff looking very smart in sharp suits. Still, it was a wait for more than half-an-hour but when we finally reached out tellers, we were out within a few minutes.
Then, we decided to give the hotel another extra few minutes while The Class Act searched for that famous place which makes those very special 1000-year-old eggs. We found this very non-descript place with an open front, and a seemingly crabby old woman who sold them. The Butler's wife, an accountant, worked in the next building, so she cameoed and husband and wife managed to negotiate for some boxes of the stuff to be sold to The Class Act. We finally got ourselves checked in. However, the ladies decided to head on out to Kowloon by Star Ferry for some early souvenir shopping while I decided to chill out in my very air-conditioned room.
A couple of hours later, I was summoned down by The Class Act for dinner. The Butler took us on foot a couple of blocks to the aforementioned IFC. As we negotiated the human traffic in the overpasses, I noticed that there were far more Westerners in suits in HK than there are in Tokyo's Marunouchi district. We finally got into the IFC mall and up to the 4th floor where our first dining experience in HK would take place...a trendy restaurant called Cuisine Cuisine.
And this is where some of the pain part would come in. As I'd said earlier, I had awakened at the ungodly hour of 3 in the morning with not a lot of sleep prior. Plus, I was getting some major neck stress from sitting in the plane. Well, that and some champagne that I shouldn't have had in the first place helped to launch a major headache at the restaurant...which then led to my stomach. Too bad, too...the fare there was Szechuan but of a surprisingly mild and fusion sort. I was able to politely ingest some of the stuff there but I finally had to head over to a washroom to try to clear my brain. No explosions occured but no relief did, either. The ladies knew something was up when I got back...The Matron remarked that I looked an awful shade of cerulean blue...didn't really match the orange curtains. She gave me a couple of Bufferin but I knew that it wouldn't help much now that the migraine was in full rage mode. And sadly, I had to leave a lot of the main course behind since I didn't want to add any more ammunition, so to speak, to the gun.
We all hopped into the taxi. By that point, I was pretty much mute just trying to hold things together. The next stop in the journey, pre-planned, was Happy Foot, a reflexology place. I would've been just happy to get back to the hotel to pray to the porcelain god but for some reason, I decided to go with them to this place. By the time we made it up the 11th floor where Happy Foot was located, I was standing but that was about all I could do. Everyone there just stared at me and wondered when I would erupt although the staff was classy enough not to bring the bucket over. I replied in kind and didn't vomit.
After another trip to the washroom to try to clear my head, I staggered to my armchair in the dimly lounge where The Class Act had already dunked their feet into bowls of brown water. I was more than happy to collapse into one of them....a chair not the ladies. For the next 50 minutes, a masseur went to work on my tootsies. And since this was the Asian variety of reflexology, there was more pain involved. The guy squeezed, pounded, kneaded, pinched and just about used every technique on my soles, toes and heels to get some sort of violent reaction from me. Aside from some sudden groans, I was dead to the world. But it worked...by the end of the session, I was feeling like a regenerated Time Lord. A lot of the pain was missing from my head...nothing like an even more painful experience to expunge pain. And I got the bonus head massage as a coda, although by that time I didn't need it. I was one grateful tourist.
Now that I was back to normal again, the three of us (The Butler had already left at the beginning of our session...felt badly about that but I had another chance to give him my gratitude the next night) walked back to the hotel. My senses were back on observation mode once more so I noticed how more brighter and bigger the neon signs were in HK. We passed by the famous Yung Kee restaurant...which actually served those 1,000-year-old eggs that the ladies had bought earlier in the day.
Got back to my room, took a shower, and got into bed...just relieved that I didn't need to yawn in Technicolour.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Sunday October 14, 2:55 p.m.
Managed to survive Saturday intact. The Dentist and The Manhattanite were in fine fettle. Just spent dinner at McDonalds before hitting home and catching "Odoru Dai Sosasen--Rainbow Bridge wo Fusaseyo!", otherwise known as "Bayside Shakedown 2" elsewhere. Fuji-TV, being the originating network for the successful series of TV eps, specials and movies was more than happy to harp the fact that it's been a decade since the series first aired. So, the series has been airing in reruns for the past several days in the afternoon, the two movies have aired over the past couple of nights, and then next Friday and Saturday, the sequel movies based on two of the supporting characters will also get their TV debut.
Much was made throughout the original series about how the Bayside Precinct was this do-nothing station out in the middle of nowhere in Odaiba, the development by Tokyo Bay. And at that time, that was true...it was basically hectares of reclaimed land surrounding a few buildings such as the Fuji-TV studios, a Meccano-like structure. I remember walking there way back in 1995 when it was even more desolate...there was absolutely nothing. Now, it's one of the bustling places-to-be for the young folk in Tokyo. And "Bayside Shakedown 2" reflected how much things have changed.
Speaking of the series, I have often surprised some of the students when I speak of one of the actresses in the Bayside series, the lovely Eri Fukatsu. Everyone assumes she was always an actress, and even Wikipedia says just that. However, she started out as a fresh-faced aidoru singer in the late 80s...and I finally found the proof, thanks to YouTube. Some fellow uploaded an old video of hers performing live at some shopping mall. So, that pretty much means that almost all of the main cast have put out some sort of music.
Managed to survive Saturday intact. The Dentist and The Manhattanite were in fine fettle. Just spent dinner at McDonalds before hitting home and catching "Odoru Dai Sosasen--Rainbow Bridge wo Fusaseyo!", otherwise known as "Bayside Shakedown 2" elsewhere. Fuji-TV, being the originating network for the successful series of TV eps, specials and movies was more than happy to harp the fact that it's been a decade since the series first aired. So, the series has been airing in reruns for the past several days in the afternoon, the two movies have aired over the past couple of nights, and then next Friday and Saturday, the sequel movies based on two of the supporting characters will also get their TV debut.
Much was made throughout the original series about how the Bayside Precinct was this do-nothing station out in the middle of nowhere in Odaiba, the development by Tokyo Bay. And at that time, that was true...it was basically hectares of reclaimed land surrounding a few buildings such as the Fuji-TV studios, a Meccano-like structure. I remember walking there way back in 1995 when it was even more desolate...there was absolutely nothing. Now, it's one of the bustling places-to-be for the young folk in Tokyo. And "Bayside Shakedown 2" reflected how much things have changed.
Speaking of the series, I have often surprised some of the students when I speak of one of the actresses in the Bayside series, the lovely Eri Fukatsu. Everyone assumes she was always an actress, and even Wikipedia says just that. However, she started out as a fresh-faced aidoru singer in the late 80s...and I finally found the proof, thanks to YouTube. Some fellow uploaded an old video of hers performing live at some shopping mall. So, that pretty much means that almost all of the main cast have put out some sort of music.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Saturday October 13, 2:46 p.m.
Some of the more interesting things hitting The Big Sushi in the last 24 hours:
I seem to be pretty lucky these days when it comes to commuting mishaps. Yesterday, I was indeed lucky enough to not have needed to go into Tokyo. The reason being that at 600 stations throughout the metropolis, all of the computerized ticket gates decided to stop functioning. Apparently, it caused quite a bit of chaos for the commuters despite the fact that between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m., the folks could go the gates free of charge. The cause of the problem was some sort of computer glitch between the gates and the sole server controlling them. Sole server? Talk about asking for it. And the big thing is that it wasn't just JR but some of the other private companies such as Tokyo Metro and the Keisei Lines.
Then there was the boxing match which turned into a K-1/wrestling hybrid, involving one of the Kameda boys...the family of flamboyantly cocky, trash-talking Osakan boxers who would make Muhammad Ali in his prime swoon. The youngest, Daiki, had his big match against the defending champion...a downright bookworm compared to the Kamedas who had to endure the bombast from an older Kameda brother during the press conference. Well, things went downhill from there in the match when Daiki suffered some sort of psychotic episode during the 12th round and just proceeded to hug and maul the guy onto the mat. It was a foregone conclusion that the champ kept his belt and Daiki suffered the indignities of being booed by his own fans (well, most of them...there were a few gyaru who were resolutely behind him in an interview only to be shouted down by some fans of the champ) and now he has a faces some pretty stiff penalties for unprofessional conduct. Not everyday you see a Kameda getting a black eye, physically or otherwise. Daiki boasted at the conference that he would commit seppuku if he lost...well, he won't need to now.
The latest shopping mall opened up behind Yurakucho Mullion yesterday. Called Itocia (where they get these names, I'll never know), it's basically a new Marui Department Store surrounded by all sorts of eateries, including the 2nd Krispy Kreme outlet in Japan (the other major cities in the country must be wondering if Tokyo is the only city allowed to have supersweet donuts). Not surprisingly, the new KK had a 3-hour wait. And I guess the effect was to have another huge lineup form outside KK 1 in Shinjuku as I passed by it today. So much for finally getting a chance to get into the place at last. There was an article in yesterday's Asahi Shimbun about the opening of KK 2, stating that it was the latest arrival of the popular US chain. I have to correct them on that....it ain't anything in America...it's all about Japanese popularity.
As for little ol' me, I just had The Coffeemaker for her lesson. Tully pulled another disappearing act. And now I've got The Dentist and The Manhattanite coming up.
Some of the more interesting things hitting The Big Sushi in the last 24 hours:
I seem to be pretty lucky these days when it comes to commuting mishaps. Yesterday, I was indeed lucky enough to not have needed to go into Tokyo. The reason being that at 600 stations throughout the metropolis, all of the computerized ticket gates decided to stop functioning. Apparently, it caused quite a bit of chaos for the commuters despite the fact that between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m., the folks could go the gates free of charge. The cause of the problem was some sort of computer glitch between the gates and the sole server controlling them. Sole server? Talk about asking for it. And the big thing is that it wasn't just JR but some of the other private companies such as Tokyo Metro and the Keisei Lines.
Then there was the boxing match which turned into a K-1/wrestling hybrid, involving one of the Kameda boys...the family of flamboyantly cocky, trash-talking Osakan boxers who would make Muhammad Ali in his prime swoon. The youngest, Daiki, had his big match against the defending champion...a downright bookworm compared to the Kamedas who had to endure the bombast from an older Kameda brother during the press conference. Well, things went downhill from there in the match when Daiki suffered some sort of psychotic episode during the 12th round and just proceeded to hug and maul the guy onto the mat. It was a foregone conclusion that the champ kept his belt and Daiki suffered the indignities of being booed by his own fans (well, most of them...there were a few gyaru who were resolutely behind him in an interview only to be shouted down by some fans of the champ) and now he has a faces some pretty stiff penalties for unprofessional conduct. Not everyday you see a Kameda getting a black eye, physically or otherwise. Daiki boasted at the conference that he would commit seppuku if he lost...well, he won't need to now.
The latest shopping mall opened up behind Yurakucho Mullion yesterday. Called Itocia (where they get these names, I'll never know), it's basically a new Marui Department Store surrounded by all sorts of eateries, including the 2nd Krispy Kreme outlet in Japan (the other major cities in the country must be wondering if Tokyo is the only city allowed to have supersweet donuts). Not surprisingly, the new KK had a 3-hour wait. And I guess the effect was to have another huge lineup form outside KK 1 in Shinjuku as I passed by it today. So much for finally getting a chance to get into the place at last. There was an article in yesterday's Asahi Shimbun about the opening of KK 2, stating that it was the latest arrival of the popular US chain. I have to correct them on that....it ain't anything in America...it's all about Japanese popularity.
As for little ol' me, I just had The Coffeemaker for her lesson. Tully pulled another disappearing act. And now I've got The Dentist and The Manhattanite coming up.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Friday October 12, 11:40 a.m.
Did forget to mention during my talk with Mom that we spoke on the issue of New Year's cards this year. Since my grandfather had passed away earlier in May, according to Japanese custom, I am forbidden to send out any nengajo and I'm not supposed to receive any. My mother pressed the point home that I must not get any of the cards...I guess there must be some bad luck involved. So I have to send out official notices to all those folks that I had received cards from last year. Usually the traditional way is to send out a special postcard informing them via kanji of the sad news...an obituary notice, if you will. I will have to do that for some of the folks, but for most of them I've just sent them an e-mail just now. Mother gave her blessing and it certainly saves me the wear and tear of my arm, plus several hundred yen.
On a totally different note, Jamie Foxx, doing his part for his latest movie, "The Kingdom", dropped by Fuji-TV studios to do his promotion. He had his cellphone, which he used to take pictures of the giddy hosts. I'm sure he also got the usual questions of what he thought of Japan and if he liked Japanese women...yadda, yadda, yadda. I'll just ya-da.
Did forget to mention during my talk with Mom that we spoke on the issue of New Year's cards this year. Since my grandfather had passed away earlier in May, according to Japanese custom, I am forbidden to send out any nengajo and I'm not supposed to receive any. My mother pressed the point home that I must not get any of the cards...I guess there must be some bad luck involved. So I have to send out official notices to all those folks that I had received cards from last year. Usually the traditional way is to send out a special postcard informing them via kanji of the sad news...an obituary notice, if you will. I will have to do that for some of the folks, but for most of them I've just sent them an e-mail just now. Mother gave her blessing and it certainly saves me the wear and tear of my arm, plus several hundred yen.
On a totally different note, Jamie Foxx, doing his part for his latest movie, "The Kingdom", dropped by Fuji-TV studios to do his promotion. He had his cellphone, which he used to take pictures of the giddy hosts. I'm sure he also got the usual questions of what he thought of Japan and if he liked Japanese women...yadda, yadda, yadda. I'll just ya-da.
Friday October 12, 11:12 a.m.
Well, it looks like Speedy will be getting that house visit from BC and her friend who helps run some sort of English-language school out in Vancouver next Wednesday. In fact, Speedy and her friend have actually crossed paths before since they've both been in the industry for a while. So, it'll be a case of a reunion...will make things go much more smoothly.
As for BC, I was afraid she was gonna start going into another depressive funk last night, but she managed to keep the brine in. However, I was surprised that she was the first person to acknowledge my upcoming B-day with a card. I guess we must've talked about our common Libran heritage.
Spoke with Mom this morning since I thought she was trying to contact me all this week. It turns out that she wasn't, but it was a good chance for her to inform me that she'd already sent my present a couple of days ago...probably clothes as usual. She doesn't know if my b-day gift of a Doraemon doll to my niece has gotten through yet. Mom, as she usually does, flew off the handle a bit when I gave her the heads-up about Mrs. Tee having a gift for her via Mrs. Tulip. Probably part of the reason that she emigrated to Canada all those years ago was so that she could escape all that gift-giving nonsense that is entrenched in Japanese society. I calmed her down within a few minutes but was reminded that I've also developed a similar hair-trigger temper in the last few years. The parentals are pretty private folks...they tend to shun large gatherings like the plague...again another trait I've inherited over the years since I now get away from those things, so don't particularly expect me to ever attend school reunions. My father also isn't the most polished speaker in the world which gives further impetus for him to avoid meeting new people.
I've also hinted to her that I may not be heading back to The Great White North due to the rotten exchange rates right now. She didn't seem too nonplussed.
As for the rest of the day, I'm gonna see about polishing off the rest of that herb butter via some more homemade Chicken Kiev later this afternoon. The juku boss contacted me to say that Jolly will be coming in tonight. Good...more money.
In my latest foray into YouTube, I came across this old 80s video by this unit called Wax called "Bridge to Your Heart". Man, what a whacked-out video. The animation just about tops the video for "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel. There should be a warning about watching it in a dark room lest it cause seizures in children. The song itself is pretty fun as well...very 80s with heavy synths. As far as I know, it never really hit the big times but that's not too surprising since it doesn't really sound all that novel, especially when compared to the stuff that was coming out at the time; in fact, I think there are some echoes of "Tarzan Boy" in it. However, with all the hip-hop, rap and metal out today, "Bridge to Your Heart" has a nice nostalgic touch.
In the comments for the video, one poster asked where the "Questionnaire" video by Chaz Jankel went off to. I'd like to know the answer to that one myself.
Well, it looks like Speedy will be getting that house visit from BC and her friend who helps run some sort of English-language school out in Vancouver next Wednesday. In fact, Speedy and her friend have actually crossed paths before since they've both been in the industry for a while. So, it'll be a case of a reunion...will make things go much more smoothly.
As for BC, I was afraid she was gonna start going into another depressive funk last night, but she managed to keep the brine in. However, I was surprised that she was the first person to acknowledge my upcoming B-day with a card. I guess we must've talked about our common Libran heritage.
Spoke with Mom this morning since I thought she was trying to contact me all this week. It turns out that she wasn't, but it was a good chance for her to inform me that she'd already sent my present a couple of days ago...probably clothes as usual. She doesn't know if my b-day gift of a Doraemon doll to my niece has gotten through yet. Mom, as she usually does, flew off the handle a bit when I gave her the heads-up about Mrs. Tee having a gift for her via Mrs. Tulip. Probably part of the reason that she emigrated to Canada all those years ago was so that she could escape all that gift-giving nonsense that is entrenched in Japanese society. I calmed her down within a few minutes but was reminded that I've also developed a similar hair-trigger temper in the last few years. The parentals are pretty private folks...they tend to shun large gatherings like the plague...again another trait I've inherited over the years since I now get away from those things, so don't particularly expect me to ever attend school reunions. My father also isn't the most polished speaker in the world which gives further impetus for him to avoid meeting new people.
I've also hinted to her that I may not be heading back to The Great White North due to the rotten exchange rates right now. She didn't seem too nonplussed.
As for the rest of the day, I'm gonna see about polishing off the rest of that herb butter via some more homemade Chicken Kiev later this afternoon. The juku boss contacted me to say that Jolly will be coming in tonight. Good...more money.
In my latest foray into YouTube, I came across this old 80s video by this unit called Wax called "Bridge to Your Heart". Man, what a whacked-out video. The animation just about tops the video for "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel. There should be a warning about watching it in a dark room lest it cause seizures in children. The song itself is pretty fun as well...very 80s with heavy synths. As far as I know, it never really hit the big times but that's not too surprising since it doesn't really sound all that novel, especially when compared to the stuff that was coming out at the time; in fact, I think there are some echoes of "Tarzan Boy" in it. However, with all the hip-hop, rap and metal out today, "Bridge to Your Heart" has a nice nostalgic touch.
In the comments for the video, one poster asked where the "Questionnaire" video by Chaz Jankel went off to. I'd like to know the answer to that one myself.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Thursday October 11, 2:38 p.m.
Came out of the longest workday of the year not too badly. I had The Nurse in the morning yesterday, then it was The New Yorker a few hours afterward, followed by 001, Mr. TOEIC and The Judge in quick succession. As for The Judge, Speedy told me that his last class before a possible renewal is coming up in a couple of weeks and so the two of them had a short powwow before my lesson. The Judge told him about how busy his schedule is...which set off yellow alerts in my mind. When that word "busy" starts getting uttered by students, that usually means "not coming back here"...since I'm a glass-is-half-empty type of guy.
Luckily, I had the morning off so I could be a bit more leisurely today. So instead of last week's healthy tofu lunch with The Madame at Ume no Hana, I ended up at a Chinese buffet just across the street in the INZ plaza in Yurakucho. For 1,880 yen I could indulge myself in all the noodles and deep-fried things I wanted...and I did. I think I can pretty much survive for the rest of the day on just coffee.
Just three classes today...I'm wrapping up that phone intensive with that woman here today, and then it's The Carolinan and BC. I've printed out an article on the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau to feed BC's Canuck-o-phile imagination. Ol' PET makes the flamboyant Junichiro Koizumi look like a wallflower with some of his own antics. I don't think even Lionhead would dare do a pirouette behind the Emperor...that's what the Canadian PM did behind Queen Elizabeth's back.
I see that Lou Dobbs is back with a vengeance. His tonsillitis did nothing to damage those vocal cords of his. When I saw him back on Monday, he just mauled the Democratic panelist Zimmerman (as he usually does) like a Dobermann on a stuffed toy and called Senator Harry Reid a moron. That probably brought a lot of standing O's in the living rooms of CNN viewers.
Anyways, I'm back at work. The student should be coming in any minute now.
Came out of the longest workday of the year not too badly. I had The Nurse in the morning yesterday, then it was The New Yorker a few hours afterward, followed by 001, Mr. TOEIC and The Judge in quick succession. As for The Judge, Speedy told me that his last class before a possible renewal is coming up in a couple of weeks and so the two of them had a short powwow before my lesson. The Judge told him about how busy his schedule is...which set off yellow alerts in my mind. When that word "busy" starts getting uttered by students, that usually means "not coming back here"...since I'm a glass-is-half-empty type of guy.
Luckily, I had the morning off so I could be a bit more leisurely today. So instead of last week's healthy tofu lunch with The Madame at Ume no Hana, I ended up at a Chinese buffet just across the street in the INZ plaza in Yurakucho. For 1,880 yen I could indulge myself in all the noodles and deep-fried things I wanted...and I did. I think I can pretty much survive for the rest of the day on just coffee.
Just three classes today...I'm wrapping up that phone intensive with that woman here today, and then it's The Carolinan and BC. I've printed out an article on the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau to feed BC's Canuck-o-phile imagination. Ol' PET makes the flamboyant Junichiro Koizumi look like a wallflower with some of his own antics. I don't think even Lionhead would dare do a pirouette behind the Emperor...that's what the Canadian PM did behind Queen Elizabeth's back.
I see that Lou Dobbs is back with a vengeance. His tonsillitis did nothing to damage those vocal cords of his. When I saw him back on Monday, he just mauled the Democratic panelist Zimmerman (as he usually does) like a Dobermann on a stuffed toy and called Senator Harry Reid a moron. That probably brought a lot of standing O's in the living rooms of CNN viewers.
Anyways, I'm back at work. The student should be coming in any minute now.
Wednesday October 10, 5:44 p.m.
Man, this has been the busiest day I've had in years. I have 5...count 'em...5 lessons here at Speedy's today and in that scrum I had The New Yorker for her latest. The day started out a bit crankily today, though, as the bossman once again failed to inform me that his usual morning student wasn't coming out so I had to wait 40 minutes outside the school door before The Admin came to open up. But once that little trial was decided upon, I got down to town with The Nurse before rushing out to Ichigaya to teach The New Yorker. Then it was back here to take care of a new student for 1 lesson of a 4-lesson Intensive. Now, it'll be back to the regulars of 001, Mr. TOEIC and The Judge.
On the other hand, yesterday was fairly quiet with just 002 and then the usual juku folks. Actually, Jolly dotakyaned again yesterday so I could get home at a decent hour for some sleep before today's behemoth of a schedule. However, I found out that The Milds' son may be interested (or being pushed) in for some lessons. The model lesson was supposed to have been last night but it looks like he'll be too busy for the rest of this month.
And on the holiday Monday, I went to that koto concert with the juku boss' troupe in Kayabacho. It was actually not that bad...I was kinda thinking that I would snore through another exhibition of Japanese traditional art like I did a few years ago at the National Theatre when I had the "privilege" of watching kabuki with Arwen. Instead, the 2.5-hour performance actually kept my eyes open...although I did let my mind wander at times...and there was even a highlight during a rendition of the whole orchestra of koto and shamisen of "The Grass of Autumn". The boss was decked out in a kimono as were the other performers, all of whom were wearing kimono of very individual design. However, I heard last night from the boss that one of the performers who had been very lax in her practice got a tongue-lashing from the teacher and was told only to play "air koto"...basically just pretend to play so that her rusty sounds wouldn't ruin the other's performances. OUCH!
I had to run out in the last half of the concert so that I could meet Skippy for that dinner near Tokyo Station. I met her in front of Nihombashi's Takashimaya Department Store at about 7. She informed me that the gyoza shop that she was supposed to have taken me to was closed on holidays so instead we walked over to the Tokiya Building near the Maru Building for some good ol' Osakan okonomiyaki. The restaurant was in the basement and when we finally got in, the atmosphere was very Kansai. A lot of loud voices from the staff and very friendly, too. Plus, the main dish and yakisoba had a very distinctive flavour in comparison to the Kanto variety. Skippy always manages to find the gourmet gems. We ended up having some coffee inside one of those trendoid cafes right by Maru Biru. We even had a quick look inside Shin Maru Biru and rather gawked at the prices for Godiva Chocolate Parfaits.
Looks like things are getting into place for that next little restaurant hopping trip with The Sisters of State and BC. Skippy (maybe) will be taking us to that Mo-Yan curry/manga shop on the 21st.
Man, this has been the busiest day I've had in years. I have 5...count 'em...5 lessons here at Speedy's today and in that scrum I had The New Yorker for her latest. The day started out a bit crankily today, though, as the bossman once again failed to inform me that his usual morning student wasn't coming out so I had to wait 40 minutes outside the school door before The Admin came to open up. But once that little trial was decided upon, I got down to town with The Nurse before rushing out to Ichigaya to teach The New Yorker. Then it was back here to take care of a new student for 1 lesson of a 4-lesson Intensive. Now, it'll be back to the regulars of 001, Mr. TOEIC and The Judge.
On the other hand, yesterday was fairly quiet with just 002 and then the usual juku folks. Actually, Jolly dotakyaned again yesterday so I could get home at a decent hour for some sleep before today's behemoth of a schedule. However, I found out that The Milds' son may be interested (or being pushed) in for some lessons. The model lesson was supposed to have been last night but it looks like he'll be too busy for the rest of this month.
And on the holiday Monday, I went to that koto concert with the juku boss' troupe in Kayabacho. It was actually not that bad...I was kinda thinking that I would snore through another exhibition of Japanese traditional art like I did a few years ago at the National Theatre when I had the "privilege" of watching kabuki with Arwen. Instead, the 2.5-hour performance actually kept my eyes open...although I did let my mind wander at times...and there was even a highlight during a rendition of the whole orchestra of koto and shamisen of "The Grass of Autumn". The boss was decked out in a kimono as were the other performers, all of whom were wearing kimono of very individual design. However, I heard last night from the boss that one of the performers who had been very lax in her practice got a tongue-lashing from the teacher and was told only to play "air koto"...basically just pretend to play so that her rusty sounds wouldn't ruin the other's performances. OUCH!
I had to run out in the last half of the concert so that I could meet Skippy for that dinner near Tokyo Station. I met her in front of Nihombashi's Takashimaya Department Store at about 7. She informed me that the gyoza shop that she was supposed to have taken me to was closed on holidays so instead we walked over to the Tokiya Building near the Maru Building for some good ol' Osakan okonomiyaki. The restaurant was in the basement and when we finally got in, the atmosphere was very Kansai. A lot of loud voices from the staff and very friendly, too. Plus, the main dish and yakisoba had a very distinctive flavour in comparison to the Kanto variety. Skippy always manages to find the gourmet gems. We ended up having some coffee inside one of those trendoid cafes right by Maru Biru. We even had a quick look inside Shin Maru Biru and rather gawked at the prices for Godiva Chocolate Parfaits.
Looks like things are getting into place for that next little restaurant hopping trip with The Sisters of State and BC. Skippy (maybe) will be taking us to that Mo-Yan curry/manga shop on the 21st.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Monday October 8, 12:42 p.m.
Well, it's yet another holiday Monday here in Japan...this time, it's Sports Day. However, the weather is far from suitable for sports. Pretty gloomy and rainy right now. And pretty gloomy for the sumo world. Yep, that brutal sumo stablemaster, Tokitsukaze, has attained in infamy what no one else has in 2,000 years of the sport...he's been banished by unanimous decision. The coverage of the guy reached Watergate proportions with media scrums surrounding the fallen oyakata and the stable itself. No idea what's gonna happen with it and the sumo rikishi inside.
My weekend was pretty good, though. I had a couple of classes at Speedy's on Saturday. I saw The Manhattanite for the first time in a while. She gave me back the CD I'd loaned her weeks ago and she lent me a CD in return...somebody called RAD, a funk princess of some sort. The Dentist was her usual giggly self. She said she would be helping out in a friend's restaurant up in the resort area of Karuizawa today...she would actually be waiting tables. I bet her smile would be worth a lot more than the ones sold at McDonalds.
On Sunday, I just had The Younger. Apparently she'd had her Sports Day event at her school in which she and a fellow competitor had a major crash and rollover during the 100-m dash. She only suffered a couple of scratches. Later on that evening, I met up The Wild Thing...and finally, his wife, The Enigma...the lady of my friend's dreams...and frankly a woman whom most people had thought was just a dream in his head since she was very reticent to be seen.
Actually, she was a pretty nice lady...kinda reminds me of Mrs. Egg. She even gave me yet another present in thanks for putting her new hubby up in my apartment for several days. It was a box of cookies from the Takarazuka acting troupe's gift shop. Yep, that Takarazuka...the one known for the all-female troupe whose plays are all variations on "The Rose of Versailles" theme. She's quite the fan, apparently.
Interesting dinner...the three of us went to an Indian place called Masala near Shinjuku Station only to see a ton of people inside. The maitre d' put us at ease by telling us that there was a smaller branch that had just opened at the northern end of Kabukicho. He even took us to the street, hailed a cab, and even paid the 660 yen. Now that's service. It was a 5-minute ride (there was a bit of traffic) and we got off across from the smaller...and empty branch. The staff inside came out to greet us and we had our dinner of curry and naan. We were basically the first and last customers there for the night. There were a few groups which came in, including one with one of those punch-permed, loudmouthed yahoos who may/may not be yakuza-connected. I mentally wished him fingerless and went on with my meal. Having been the first to actually meet the missus at last, I am dying to post that fact to the rest of the gang but I'll leave that to The Wild Thing. The Enigma has definitely had a mellowing influence on him...he only got close to sermonizing just twice that whole night.
Well, today, it was just lesson planning and some cleaning. In a couple of hours, I head off to that koto concert in Kayabacho and then it's dinner with Skippy. Wednesday should be a barnburner of a lesson schedule. I've got no less than 5 lessons there that day...the most I've ever had there since I started with Speedy over 2 years ago, and I even have to squeeze The New Yorker between The Nurse and this new student.
Saw a new music video by techno/pop outfit M-Flo this morning on MTV Japan. I like the song "Lotta Love" (definitely not to be mistaken for the old 70s song by Neil Young) but the imagery kinda creeps me out a bit as well since they've got a whole bunch of elementary school children decked out in nightclub clothing and gyrating to the music.
Well, it's yet another holiday Monday here in Japan...this time, it's Sports Day. However, the weather is far from suitable for sports. Pretty gloomy and rainy right now. And pretty gloomy for the sumo world. Yep, that brutal sumo stablemaster, Tokitsukaze, has attained in infamy what no one else has in 2,000 years of the sport...he's been banished by unanimous decision. The coverage of the guy reached Watergate proportions with media scrums surrounding the fallen oyakata and the stable itself. No idea what's gonna happen with it and the sumo rikishi inside.
My weekend was pretty good, though. I had a couple of classes at Speedy's on Saturday. I saw The Manhattanite for the first time in a while. She gave me back the CD I'd loaned her weeks ago and she lent me a CD in return...somebody called RAD, a funk princess of some sort. The Dentist was her usual giggly self. She said she would be helping out in a friend's restaurant up in the resort area of Karuizawa today...she would actually be waiting tables. I bet her smile would be worth a lot more than the ones sold at McDonalds.
On Sunday, I just had The Younger. Apparently she'd had her Sports Day event at her school in which she and a fellow competitor had a major crash and rollover during the 100-m dash. She only suffered a couple of scratches. Later on that evening, I met up The Wild Thing...and finally, his wife, The Enigma...the lady of my friend's dreams...and frankly a woman whom most people had thought was just a dream in his head since she was very reticent to be seen.
Actually, she was a pretty nice lady...kinda reminds me of Mrs. Egg. She even gave me yet another present in thanks for putting her new hubby up in my apartment for several days. It was a box of cookies from the Takarazuka acting troupe's gift shop. Yep, that Takarazuka...the one known for the all-female troupe whose plays are all variations on "The Rose of Versailles" theme. She's quite the fan, apparently.
Interesting dinner...the three of us went to an Indian place called Masala near Shinjuku Station only to see a ton of people inside. The maitre d' put us at ease by telling us that there was a smaller branch that had just opened at the northern end of Kabukicho. He even took us to the street, hailed a cab, and even paid the 660 yen. Now that's service. It was a 5-minute ride (there was a bit of traffic) and we got off across from the smaller...and empty branch. The staff inside came out to greet us and we had our dinner of curry and naan. We were basically the first and last customers there for the night. There were a few groups which came in, including one with one of those punch-permed, loudmouthed yahoos who may/may not be yakuza-connected. I mentally wished him fingerless and went on with my meal. Having been the first to actually meet the missus at last, I am dying to post that fact to the rest of the gang but I'll leave that to The Wild Thing. The Enigma has definitely had a mellowing influence on him...he only got close to sermonizing just twice that whole night.
Well, today, it was just lesson planning and some cleaning. In a couple of hours, I head off to that koto concert in Kayabacho and then it's dinner with Skippy. Wednesday should be a barnburner of a lesson schedule. I've got no less than 5 lessons there that day...the most I've ever had there since I started with Speedy over 2 years ago, and I even have to squeeze The New Yorker between The Nurse and this new student.
Saw a new music video by techno/pop outfit M-Flo this morning on MTV Japan. I like the song "Lotta Love" (definitely not to be mistaken for the old 70s song by Neil Young) but the imagery kinda creeps me out a bit as well since they've got a whole bunch of elementary school children decked out in nightclub clothing and gyrating to the music.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Thursday October 4, 9:49 a.m.
It's turning out to be a pretty decent day out there. I was able to finally hang out the laundry. I've got a free day today so I'm just here taking care of some I-stuff before I meet The Madame for one of our lunches. It's Ume no Hana so there will be a lot of veggie protein being ingested. It should match The Madame's exacting palate. However, I also have to devote some time to get my niece's B-day present since that's coming up in less than 2 weeks.
It was another pleasant night with 001 at Speedy's. However, the bossman didn't return from home; instead his wife came by to close things up. Man, that was a long day there. Ironically, I won't need to get back there until next Wednesday since The Dentist canned her lesson on Saturday, and it's another holiday Monday next week. I've got that koto concert with the juku boss (I'll try not to yawn too loudly...the Japanese cultural arts have never been a hit with me...well, aside from I-go, I guess). However, I'll be meeting Skippy for dinner near Tokyo Station afterwards.
The Wild One sent me word on that proposition he'd told me about yesterday. Apparently, a company is looking to hire someone who can help proofread notes before presentations. One of the requirements: knowledge of PowerPoint. I told my friend that though I've helped a lot of business students giving presentations with PP, I only helped them with the English and have zilch ability with the Microsoft program. He said that that could be an issue... Still, I'll be meeting him and perhaps...finally...The Enigma for dinner on Sunday night.
It's turning out to be a pretty decent day out there. I was able to finally hang out the laundry. I've got a free day today so I'm just here taking care of some I-stuff before I meet The Madame for one of our lunches. It's Ume no Hana so there will be a lot of veggie protein being ingested. It should match The Madame's exacting palate. However, I also have to devote some time to get my niece's B-day present since that's coming up in less than 2 weeks.
It was another pleasant night with 001 at Speedy's. However, the bossman didn't return from home; instead his wife came by to close things up. Man, that was a long day there. Ironically, I won't need to get back there until next Wednesday since The Dentist canned her lesson on Saturday, and it's another holiday Monday next week. I've got that koto concert with the juku boss (I'll try not to yawn too loudly...the Japanese cultural arts have never been a hit with me...well, aside from I-go, I guess). However, I'll be meeting Skippy for dinner near Tokyo Station afterwards.
The Wild One sent me word on that proposition he'd told me about yesterday. Apparently, a company is looking to hire someone who can help proofread notes before presentations. One of the requirements: knowledge of PowerPoint. I told my friend that though I've helped a lot of business students giving presentations with PP, I only helped them with the English and have zilch ability with the Microsoft program. He said that that could be an issue... Still, I'll be meeting him and perhaps...finally...The Enigma for dinner on Sunday night.