Saturday July 25, 3:22 p.m.

Well, got a bit of a disappointment in that The Smile decided not to renew her contract with us. But she's one of those rare students who came up front and told me flat, which I do respect. I have a feeling that Suzanne from the juku will take the other tact and just not show up anymore. In The Smile's case, it's just that the money was a tad too much for her, although Speedy will insist that our school is the most inexpensive. Still, conversation schools by nature will never be known as being particularly cheap. The other disappointing thing is that she was a fun, hard-working student.

Just have The Intellectual in about 30 minutes, then I'm finished.

Saturday July 25, 11:30 a.m.

To your left, may I proudly introduce Kirin Cola? For those people who may be scratching their heads, yup, one of Japan's preeminent beer companies has decided to release their own version of Coke. I came across this one at a vending machine in Tokyo Station, and since it was a broiling day outside, I plunked in my 120 yen. As I guzzled it down like any mug of suds, it did seem to have that tinge of hops. Maybe it was a subliminal thing.

Got that party thing cleared up with both the juku boss and The Restauranteur. I even had dinner at The Restauranteur's place. I had my usual Chicken Saute. The only thing different was that it was a full house. Usually when I've dined there, I was the only one or one of two people; The Restauranteur figured that since we're officially on summer holiday time, the restaurant managed to haul in some holidaymakers from Tokyo Disneyland.

I had Mr. TOEIC for the first time in a couple of weeks. In the interim, he had gone with his family to Okinawa and so, as an omiyage, the school got some beni imo tarts. Beni imo happens to be red potatoes. Just imagine purple potato pie and you've got the right image.

It's a hot one out there...perfect beginning to the annual fireworks festival season. The Sumida River Fireworks Festival...arguably the biggest one in the country will be launching tonight...which means that close to a million guys and girls dressed in sloppily arranged yukata will be amassing in Asakusa from about 4 p.m. for a 7 p.m. start. There are also the Urayasu and Matsudo Festivals in Chiba at the same time. I've never been a huge purveyor of fireworks, despite the fact that the festivities here far outstrip anything we have back in Canada. Folks here ooh and aah over each explosion, but I'm kinda the opinion that once you've seen one festival, you've seen them all. I had my live viewings of the Sumida River Festival years ago and then had to contend with the worst commute home in my 15 years here. So, now I'm rather content to watch it on TV Tokyo in air-conditioned comfort. And since this is Eel Day No. 2, I may do it over an una-don.

Friday July 24, 9:05 a.m.

I was mugged by a squall this morning. When I was walking over to the subway station at the bleary-eyed time of 6:30, it was overcast but with nary a drop. However, I come out the other side, it looked like monsoon season. My umbrella was pretty much useless against the onslaught of wind and rain but I managed to get my McBreakfast.

Saw the Fuji-TV headlines that stated that President Obama may be making his first trip to Japan in November. Well, I can just imagine the media here having 3 months' worth of wet dreams before his arrival. Of course, the TV crews will be again heading toward the town of Obama in Western Japan where the mayor will be pleading with Nagatacho to put his town on the presidential schedule. The commercial networks, like the aforementioned Fuji-TV, will be breathlessly showing off his hotel suite and restaurants that he and perhaps Michelle and the kids will be going to in Tokyo. I suspect that Ten-Ichi, the famed and overpriced tempura restaurant, will be a must go-to

As for Speedy's, I just have Miss Prissy in about 90 minutes. And then a film crew will be doing a feature with the bossman. If I'm lucky, I'll avoid all that coverage and make my way home.

Thursday July 23, 10:46 p.m.

Just about to get out of here...only to come back here in about 8 hours. The Music Man was fine; found out that not only is he a big fan of Kylie Minogue, but he's also a follower of Formula 1. He gave out a lot of info about how the late Gilles Villeneuve was basically made a pariah in this country, but I'll explain all that tomorrow.

Apparently, one of the morning shows has taken an interest in Speedy. So, a film crew will be here in the morning after I'm done with Miss Prissy to do a small feature. I'll be hiding out in the kitchen but I'll make sure I get back home pretty soon since I've got laundry to do.

Thursday July 23, 8:58 p.m.

Well, there he is. The 11th Doctor Who by 26-year-old Matt Smith. The pressures the actor must be having...I bet even Peter Davison didn't face this level of minute analysis and criticism when he took over for Tom Baker 28 years ago. The folks online have already started squabbling over his new costume. However, I'm sure the tweed sellers must be celebrating their lot right now. Hmm...I guess he looks sufficiently different from David Tennant's geek chic...definitely more geek than chic. He's got more of the Ivy League professorial tonsorial mixed in with a floppy hairdo and cheekbones you could cut bread on. However, I'll be looking out for what kind of personality he will be exhibiting. Hopefully, it'll be a little less manic than that of his last two predecessors. We could use a bit more Obama-like calm from this new Time Lord. And hopefully, the powers-that-be won't have me killed for using this image.

Thursday July 23, 7:13 p.m.

I'm not sure what causes these psychedelic trip-ups in my photo uploads but sometimes the results aren't too bad. This is indeed a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts from about a month ago. Ray and La Fille were quite happy.

The Carolinan showed up as scheduled at 6 tonight. I had been initially worried about her after she got word of her company going out of business at the end of September. However, true to her O-type blood, she's taking things in stride. The sounds of Hello Work are now ringing once more. Hello Work happens to be the most famous employment placement agency in the country. Kinda like Manpower back in Canada.

Now that I've gotten that mammoth translation assignment out of the way, I've been getting back into Mixi again. I made my open diary entries concerning those tsukudani grasshoppers I've been munching on along with pictures. And I've already been getting comments. There's nothing like sensationalism to bring in the masses. Speaking of which, someone from Nagoya took a look at my profile and has struck up an e-mail friendship of sorts since we both have connections with studying in Canada and jazz.

Well, time for dinner...Chip Star and soumen.

Thursday July 23, 2:28 p.m.

I do hope wherever you are taking a look at this, you haven't just eaten a meal. If you look closely at this pic, you'll find that these are finely roasted grasshoppers in soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Mmm-mmmm....dem's good eatin'. Called inago in Japanese, they've been given the tsukudani technique which refers to the stewing in the above ingredients.

Actually, they aren't bad at all. Quite chewy and the sauce pretty much obliterates any authentic grasshopper taste that may have come through. I got the package from Grandma Fado a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, inago tsukudani are quite the delicacy in some of the more far-flung prefectures. And Mom has told me that eating locusts was quite the necessity in the war years since protein was rather hard to come by. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to munch on some antennae...

It's been a fairly quiet day so far. I've only had Miss Sedona. She's been getting pretty hyped over her trip to Canada in a few months. Speedy has been counselling her for the past few weeks now. I should be seeing The Carolinan later this evening, and then it'll be The Music Man to wrap things up. The Carolinan has fallen on some hard times...actually, she and the rest of her company staff have known for a while that the axe was gonna come down, but the unfortunate announcement came a couple of weeks ago that her company will be shutting its doors at the end of September. Not sure how the lesson's gonna be like today. May have to get the tissue ready.

I've done the accounting for that huge translation project for The Cornerette. Well, if she's still willing to pay the full amount, I may be in for a pretty winfall at the end of this month. But that's still a big if. And strangely enough, Paddy, the friend who had first introduced me to The Corner over a year ago, got back to me about another possible project involving 100 pages! I sent him the immediate caveat that I would need to find out what the material involved and what the deadline was. After having to deal with pages of ceramics, I'm not quite sure if I'm gonna be up for hundreds of pages.

I checked my machine and got a rather breathless message from the juku boss last night concerning this little dinner next Friday night I had first proposed a couple of months ago for all of my students at The Restauranteur's. Unfortunately, it seems like The Restauranteur and Mr. White called her up about a number of things involving the "party". I never gave too many details to the boss since, for one thing, I never intended this thing to be nothing bigger than a few students and me having a little din-din together. However, forgetting to realize that anything called a party in this country automatically demands planning on a NASA-like level, I had the juku boss talking my ear off about how she's arranged things. I couldn't really even get half of what the boss was babbling about. And at that time, The Fashion Designer was coming into Speedy's for her lesson. I told the boss that I had a student coming right up but she just kept nattering away like a jackhammer so I just finally had to tell her that the student was here and clicked off. I was annoyed that my little get-together got bumped up higher in social status and the fact that the scatterbrain wouldn't let go, regrettably made it easy for me to hang up on her. Hopefully, she won't be ticked off at me on Friday night.

Wednesday July 22, 8:55 p.m.

There was supposed to be one of the biggest solar eclipses in human history, and Tokyo was completely overcast. Bad, Tokyo, bad! Looks like we'll have to take it on the road for the next big one. 001 told me that it would be on Easter Island. I've got a feeling that the Moai Statues will not feel so lonely in the not-so-distant future.

I had just tallied up the cost of those 6 weeks of translation when The Cornerette came back with some corrections I had to do to the original drafts. So, it's not quite over yet.

Saw the new 11th Doctor Who in his new getup. Not too, too bad although I was kinda hoping for something a bit more different than the slight variation on the theme of geek chic that David Tennant had brought in. Still, the tweed and bow tie with folded trousers makes Matt Smith a Doctor.

Saturday July 18, 3:22 p.m.

Just on the verge of heading home. Ray is still here and may be for some time. I've only scratched the surface of figuring out what I'm gonna charge for those 6 weeks of translation. Yep, it's already looking like I might get a small winfall...provided that The Cornerette still wants to pay me after running behind by over a week.

Still have to teach The Jyuppies tomorrow. Not sure about the husband; he's been having that crisis of opportunity. I may have to seriously re-adjust how to teach him.

Saturday July 18, 1:20 p.m.

Well, just a couple of weeks after Michael Jackson's passing, another legend, this time in the broadcasting industry, has died. Good ol' Walter Cronkite has just gone to that anchorman's desk in the sky. He's been pretty much out of the spotlight for the past decade or so but I'm sure all of the news shows right now in the States are giving a full court tribute to Uncle Walter, The Most Trusted Man in America.

Some 6 weeks after I got onto this Japanese ceramics project, I finally got that last kanji translated and sent over to The Cornerette yesterday afternoon. Like with any relationship, there were some ups and downs, and The Cornerette was getting fidgety about when I would finally get everything in. Well, it's in now, and I just have to now tackle the arduous task of tallying up the cost.

Got a long weekend, although I did that one lesson today with The Publicity Agent and then I have two with The Jyuppies tomorrow afternoon. Found out that she'll be putting in her hours this weekend, too. Has to do some filming with the comedy team known as Kyaiin tomorrow. And I found out that her uncle got himself into the Guinness Book for being to fold a rice grain into an origami crane.

Thursday July 16, 12:39 p.m.

Just two more topics away from finally doing away with that mammoth translation, and I just couldn't have enough time to do it. Well, looks like there will be a Part C. However, I did send Part B to the Cornerette. She'll have to wait til tomorrow to get the whole thing.

Just a few minutes away from Miss Sedona's lesson. Speedy is counselling her on that trip to Canada.

My apartment agency has been leaving messages on my machine about something. They left two yesterday...didn't say what it was about so I wasn't particularly enthused about calling them back since I had that problem with them early last year. Finally, I got that third message this morning. Apparently, they want to put in a chain lock on my door and just wanted to confirm a day and time, the workman can come on over. Could be a bit dicey but it's looking like the holiday Monday will be the only one close by.

Wednesday July 15, 7:17 p.m.

Yup, plenty hot out there. I was crazy enough to walk down from Nakano-Sakaue to Shinjuku in blazing 30-degree-plus heat after meeting up with The Admin and then lunch. But the weather was kind to throw in some stiff winds to cool us down. I ended up browsing at the Book First branch in the Coccoon Tower for a while before I took off for Ichigaya to teach The New Yorker. Actually, had three different people come and leave beside us while we had our class; I think that's a personal best for me. Not many people can stand sipping coffee next to an English lesson.

Heading back home on Monday night strangely felt like a Friday night in that I witnessed a rather nasty set of fisticuffs in Iidabashi Station (one guy flipped the other a la judo) and there was a drunk salaryman splayed out on one seat on the Tozai Line home. Of course, the surrounding people didn't disturb him. If this had been in New York City, the poor fool would've been missing several things, including teeth and limbs.

I seem to be making good progress on this last article for The Cornerette. I don't think I'll finish the whole thing off by tonight but I can probably send half of it to The Cornerette to appease her further. But I still have The Music Man's lesson at 9:15.

Wednesday July 15, 8:51 a.m.

Still plowing away at the translations; I've just got one more article to do. Luckily, 001 has cancelled her lesson for today, so after The New Yorker, I've got several hours to bash that into shape.

Last night, the juku boss showed me some of that endearing scatterbraininess that she's often famed for. She had a talk over the weekend with a potential substitute English teacher for the kids whenever I head off for home. Apparently, he's just a 20-year-old greenhorn from Hungary who's pretty much into the Japanese language. The boss was so impressed with his Japanese abilities that she didn't even bother checking into the most important attribute...can the guy speak English?

Mr. White's second class went off without a hitch. As for The Milds, we kept it nice and light. They're still not masters of Past Continuous/Simple Past contrast but after two weeks and several exercises, I don't think they're gonna get any better. On to Present Perfect next week.

I don't have The Admin until 11 today but made the trek over to Speedy's as if I had an early lesson since those translations and The Cornerette have been breathing down my neck. Afterwards, I've got The New Yorker and then it'll be The Music Man for the last one tonight.

I actually have got another O-chugen package from The Matron (remember her?) coming to me. It's now been three months since I last saw The Class Act, but I still get the little cakes. Still not sure whether The Class Act will ever get together.

Monday July 13, 10:50 p.m.

Well, finished with Medicine Man...my sole student of the entire day. Still feeling a bit down about what all of those weeks of trying to translate the ceramics website have culminated to. I never had this much trouble with hot springs, contracts and even tax lingo. But ceramics has thrown me for a loop with all of that arcane language. I've sent the message out to her...didn't give any excuses to her. So the ball's in her court.

Time to head on home.

Monday July 13, 8:57 p.m.

Well, it took a while but it looks like I finally got that e-mail of exasperation from The Cornerette just now about how long it has taken me to get through those translations. At least, I think I got one...it's hard to tell since her English is not nearly as good as The Corner's. I sent over an apology letter. I don't think it's gonna get the translations done any faster. I informed her that I wasn't a professional translator and certainly wasn't a ceramicist; I just hope that Paddy didn't pad his recommendation of me when I was first introduced to The Corner over a year ago. Well, I figure that I'll probably be no longer contacted by The Cornerette or The Corner once this assignment is truly over...hopefully by the end of this week. Ach...it was a good gig while it lasted.

Monday July 13, 3:56 p.m.

The first truly summer day has arrived. I woke up sweating...a sure sign, and yet I'm holding off the first official usage of my dinosaur of an air conditioner until tomorrow. Yep, it was about 31 C in my living room but wasn't sweating too profusely...more like a skin-shield of sweat. I've certainly gotten accustomed to the infamous Tokyo summers over the years. Another sign of that was back on Friday when The Lens and I had met in Akiba. He's far more healthier than me, thanks to his long years of kendo training, and yet he said he was mightily wilting under the sun. And the last sign that the dog days of summer have arrived: my first of two showers of the day.

I went down to my branch of the bank to transfer some funds over to the parentals. The lady who's helped me ever since I first arrived in Japan was busy with another guy, so I got a native who had a fair-to-middling ability with the language. First, she told me that I didn't need to deal with her and that I could actually go to the ATMs and get it done there. Well, quite a change, I thought...only to find out I couldn't get access to any Canadian banks on the machines. I caught the lady's eye again and told her about my predicament, and after shooting up some question marks over her head, she realized that she hadn't told me enough information....about the special bank transfer booth across from the regular ATMS.

After going through the process, I kinda wondered what was actually easier....just getting the transfer done the old way with that American employee who's been at my branch longer than probably Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama combined or this newfangled way. I sat into the booth which reminded me of my regular visits to the I-Cafe and had that other lady looking over my shoulder while another bank employee showed up on cameraphone to take my order. As I took the receiver, the new lady instructed me to put that piece of paper on which I'd jotted down the info for my parents' bank account (and boy was I lucky I'd had the foresight to do that) and put into the scanner right in front of me. Then came about 10 minutes of digital data taking before the money was on its way. This lady's English was somewhat better than the first person, but I could hear a bit of tension underneath the professional voice of reason. Wasn't sure if she were nervous about handling my order in English or if she were terrified of my face. My default expression isn't very pretty and unless people get to know me well, they usually think I'm in a ticked-off mood....which I was, slightly. However, she assured me that the data is now a part of record, and that if I ever needed to do the same thing again, I just had to press one number and the whole structure would pop up again automatically so that I would just need to press "Confirm" and then how much I money I would send. I'm sure she was quite relieved.

Got out of there and walked up to Roppongi. Ended up having lunch at the local Wendy's. It was up to 32 C by that time and it had only passed 11 o'clock. Still, walking up the rebuilt area of Roppongi Hills, the presence of trees made a big difference in cooling things down, in contrast with the mostly concrete of Old Roppongi. Took some shots of the area.

Then, I took the Metro up to Ginza. Ginza is all concrete so the temperature was definitely closer to 40 C with all of the juicy air to boot. Took a look in both HMVs and Yamano Music for the better part of an hour there. All places were playing Michael Jackson on speakers. Next, I went inside the whale skeleton that made up the Tokyo International Forum; just aching for pictures. Then I went up to the Yaesu Book Centre across from Tokyo Station. Was surprised that I could survive all that walking in that heat. But I kept myself hydrated, thanks to the vending machines.

The week's looking pretty light for me. Just have Medicine Man tonight...yep, one 9:30 class will make up my entire work output for the day. Still, I've got translations to do. The Cornerette asked...politely...about when the last of those translations will get in. I answered...politely...that they'll be in by the end of the week (although I left out the word, "hopefully"). Basically, the only really busy day will be Wednesday...which I guess is appropriate since that was Hump Day, but even then, it's just 4 classes with plenty of space in between. Thursday (and I am keeping my fingers crossed here) may just have me having 2 classes in the afternoon: Miss Sedona and The Bow.

I got home from the latest stint at the I-Cafe last night and turned on NHK to see how those Tokyo Assembly Elections were going. And sure enough, the Liberal Democratic Party was getting trounced. I'd say it was like Hannibal Lecter sinking his teeth into those hapless guards in "Silence of the Lambs". The Democratic Party of Japan was just mauling Taro Aso's party all night, and by the end of the assault, the DPJ became the No. 1 party in Tokyo for the first time in 40 years and also got an outright majority for the first time in many years. I'm sure there was a party at DPJ headquarters. Meanwhile, the LDP could only start to lick its wounds. It took its national partner, the Komeito Party, to somehow make things from looking totally disastrous.

And the vulture was looking at Taro Aso, as it had for ex-PM Abe and Yasuo Fukuda before him. Sure enough, I saw the newspaper kiosks in the subways screaming out the headlines of the announcement of the dissolution of the Diet next week with a general election to be held in August. So, I think the country's highest manga lover will hang on and himself at the bitter end, since there is really noone there to take over. The media has apparently been doing the LDP's thinking for them and throwing out names such as Yoichi Masuzoe, the Minister of Labour, and Governor Higashikokubaru of Miyazaki Prefecture, since both have relative popularity. But Masuzoe has always gotten increasingly grayer over the months since he took over his post, thanks to that pension scandal, so I'm not sure if he could literally survive the top post, and as for current comedian-in-chief Higashikokubaru, I'm frankly not sure if CNN and the rest of the international media could survive pronouncing his name on a regular basis. Plus, Japan would wince mightily if Higashikokubaru actually got the top job and started telling President Obama to just call him Sonomama Higashi, his old comedian pseudonym. In any case, politically speaking, it's gonna be a blazing summer here.

Sunday July 12, 8:38 p.m.



Another weekend is coming to an end. Did another round at MB's place. And this time, The Satyr showed up as well and we got to see a DVD. We watched "Hot Fuzz", the latest movie with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the British Laurel and Hardy of the 21st century. It was chock filled with a lot of the latest Brit thesps (Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy, etc.) who've made their way across the ocean to Hollywood, and even one Aussie, a disguised cameo by Cate Blanchett. MB and I had been hoping to watch it for several months, and I guess we had our expectations ratcheted up a bit too high. After the first 15 minutes, there was nary a laugh out of the three of us, and I started to think whether we had picked up a dud. Things finally got going in the 2nd half so it wasn't a total loss, but I think "Shaun of the Dead" still wins out by a good margin. However, I think the big casting shocker was portly old Edward Woodward...yep, "The Equalizer" himself...playing a seemingly cordial Neighbourhood Watch commander.



MB did get that huge screen and has been enjoying his games online and off. I must admit that although I'm absolutely a putz when it comes to playing them, it's still pretty enjoyable. Still don't think I'll dust off my Playstation 1, though.



My session with Mrs Jyuppie was fine but Mr. Jyuppie basically put me into counselor mode once more. Apparently, he's gone into a mid-life crisis almost a decade too early. He's been wondering about how satisfied he's been with his career and the fact that he's gotten a couple of potentially good but risky opportunities. Hmmm....I listened and then referred him to "What Color is your Parachute?"



Today is the Tokyo City Council Elections...a bellweather vote in terms of the health of the governing party. It'll be interesting for me to look

Thursday July 9, 7:39 p.m.

Another pretty quiet night. Grandma FON and I had another good session. She'll be heading off to her dacha out in the wilds of Nagano Prefecture from next week so we may or may not see her again for about 6 weeks, at least. The Nurse came by...pretty lackadaiscal...I'm kinda wondering if she'll be taking off if things get anymore lax. And then, The Carolinan. She seemed slightly moody tonight....couldn't really tell why until she told me at the end that the president of her company, an alcoholic beverage retailer that's fallen on some hard times, had announced a big meeting with everyone at a major hotel tomorrow. She thinks, being somewhat pessimistic, that the big meeting will really be the excuse to bring down the axe on a lot of folks. Hopefully, everything will work out for her.

Just have The Music Man in about 90 minutes. Still slogging away at the remaining stubborn article to be translated. I got in touch with The Lens' wife just now to say that I'll meeting them for lunch in Akiba tomorrow.

The campaign trucks have once again been assaulting our ears since the Tokyo Assembly elections are on for this Sunday. I think we've had about 4 or 5 pols waving their white-gloved (oh, the irony) hands while using their megaphones like a secret weapon. The media will be keeping their eyes and ears peeled as to how the LDP fares. If the LDP bombs, as many expect they will, then PM Aso may just hold off on that call for a general election until more stable times come again.

Thursday July 9, 11:16 a.m.

Another one of those warm and humid days. Not quite the moushoubi, or torrid days, characteristic of summer in the Kanto, but we're making the transition. It'll be a somewhat middlingly busy day today. Not particularly a Hump Day but I have enough on my plate to keep things going. I've got Grandma FON in another 10 minutes, and then it'll be The Nurse a few hours, The Carolinan a few hours after that, followed by The Music Man in the last slot tonight.

I've been reading that somewhat forgotten sitcom stars from the 70s have been getting back into the limelight...but not in the most positive of ways. Eddie (Carmine) Mekka of "Laverne & Shirley" and Joyce (Janet) DeWitt from "Three's Company" have been busted for DUI in the last couple of days. I'd say that Conrad Janis, Pam Dawber and Donna Pescow better think twice about that last drink.

Well, I've yet to hear from The Lens about where we're supposed to be meeting for lunch tomorrow afternoon. I've got that day cleared for he and his wife before I have my sole classes at the juku on Friday night.

Wednesday July 8, 9:12 p.m.

Quiet ending to the night. Just waiting for The Fashion Designer to show up in about 15 minutes. 001 had one of those rollicking classes; I knew things were going to be fun when she pointed at her tummy and said in all seriousness, "I had a headache". Loved to whomp her on that one.

Well, I am quite impressed with Kinokuniya. Not less than a week after I'd ordered that CD for Mr. White's textbook, I got a call from them stating that the discs have arrived. Far better than those 2 months waiting for the DVD at Maruzen. Don't think I'll have a chance to pick it up tomorrow due to the schedule. If I'm lucky, it may be Friday before I meet up with The Lens for lunch. Most likely, it'll be Monday morning.