Saturday July 30, 3:50 p.m.

It's approaching 5 months since the big quake and 4 since I came back from my escape to Toronto. Students have come and gone, and I've been keeping an eye on my finances. Not exactly sailing on Easy Street. Sometimes, I just shake my head at what I've come to since arriving in Japan nearly 17 years ago. Sometimes, I get shaken by that feeling of despair and depression that for all of my admittedly not supremely hard efforts over the past decade-and-a-half, I will most likely be heading home with less than what I started with financially. I see a lot of my friends and students over the years getting married and settling down with the kids and mortgages while I've basically stayed constant and I wonder was it all worth it. Certainly, I had never expected a quake as big as this one to hit us this way, and The Big One has been partially responsible for my change in thought about my future in this country. At this point, I still feel that my days are now numbered here in Japan, and I will be heading home with my tail between my legs. I'm not sure if I'll survive the next few months financially especially with the shortfall in income and all the expenses that I'm responsible for. It'll be fairly humiliating to have to be forced to ask my parents for money, especially since they're now both retired.
I'll be telling The Jyuppies tomorrow that I will be going home and most likely in the next few days I'll be telling Speedy himself as well. In a few minutes, I'll have to inform the juku boss that I couldn't find anyone even to be my emergency contact in my (half-hearted) efforts since the application form demands that I have to put down their annual income, and for just such a request, I think demanding to put down an annual income is heavy-handed. If you recall, she's been exhorting me to cut her guarantorship for the past few months since she's planning to get divorced. Again, I'm not keen on this especially since the very basis of being an apartment guarantor in this country is just in case the tenant decides to flee. I've told her that I don't plan on fleeing unless things get VERY bad here and I don't see that happening, but her latent paranoia won't let her agree with me. Well, it's been almost 3 weeks since our last meeting for that monjayaki dinner, and I don't think it's fair on her for me to hold back any longer. She won't like what I will say but I'm not going to ask anyone else for help. It looks like it's everyone for himself/herself now.

Saturday July 30, 11:45 a.m.

It was a bit of a surprise when the news came in yesterday about the untimely death of former Yankees pitcher, Hideki Irabu, despite some of the turmoil that had surrounded him.

His name was plastered in big letters on the tabloid papers such as "Tokyo Sports" all yesterday, and the television also covered his suicide to a certain extent. However, he didn't get the huge attention that perhaps some of his fellow Japanese players would've gotten if they had gone off the mortal coil. Ichiro Suzuki is the genius eccentric, Tsuyoshi Shinjo of The Mets was the cartoonish fop and Hideki Matsui was the jovial lovable slugger.

But unlike his far more popular namesake former teammate on the Yankees, Irabu really didn't amount to much in the biggies although he had made a good name for himself in Japan before making the crossover. Unfortunately, the nickname that I'll always associate with him is "the big fat pussy toad", given by the late and irate George Steinnbrenner when Irabu missed a tag out. My former student, The Lady, whose family had for some reason often consorted with baseball players (including Hideki Matsui), had also met Irabu and found him and his personal reputation riddled with arrogance. And there were some of those stories of him getting into fights and stuff. I also had to laugh somewhat at CNN's description of him "...helping the Yankees to 2 World Series championships". According to Wikipedia, he only pitched in one post-season game with little effect on the outcome. I never got the impression that he did much in his time overseas.

Saturday July 30, 11:36 a.m.

Allow me to show you my dinner from last night. The one on the left here is my famed Open Kim Chi Chicken Sandwich. It's an original...being a bachelor does bring out the culinary creativity in me. I've been concocting this one for years. And as bachelor food, it's a breeze to make. Get some chicken fillets, season them up, dredge them in some cornstarch and fry them in oil for a few minutes on one side. Once you flip them over, dunk the store-bought container of kim chi on them and cover the pan for a few more minutes. Just dump the stuff on two slices of bread. Can't be beat.

The other dish above is some takoyaki from the supermarket. Basically they're squid balls (OK, I sense you out there....stop snickering). Originating from Osaka, they're just orbs of fried dough containing a piece of squid at the centre. They're topped off with some savory-and-sweet sauce, mayo, dried seaweed, pickled ginger and bonito flakes. The fun thing about the flakes is that they take on a seeming sentience when they wave due to the heat emanating from the takoyaki. Nope, not exactly the healthiest dinner in the world (with the possible exception of the kim chi) but hey, it was a Friday night.

Saturday July 30, 11:23 a.m.

I guess this would count as just part of life in this country. This long winding crack is now part of the apartment building across from my place. When I get back home, perhaps I should check out my apartment's exterior, lest one day my building decides to hatch open like a maturing cicada.

In any case, speaking of cracked things, it seems that for the past week, the top 3 economic powers on the planet have been toiling very publicly on their own problems. The US is currently fighting within itself over this supposed debt crisis...D-day is apparently on August 2nd. And The People's Republic of China is battling an increasingly angry population (one doesn't piss off 1 billion people lightly...even in a Communist country) over its handling of the Bullet Train accident. If it weren't so tragic, it would be so laughable...the government was actually trying to literally bury the evidence in front of the mass media's eyes. Then, it went "Oops!" and dug the train back up. I'm just amazed that both the media and the public have been allowed to vent their anger so openly....but I am worried that there may be a Tiannemmen (can't be sure of the spelling) moment and the government will crack down on the dissent like it did in June 1989. Of course, here in Japan, we're still battling a lack of electricity, irradiated beef and petty political battles. Heck, I even saw a government minister cry last night on TV...either he will become a hero in front of the public's eyes or he will end up cast off like a piece of snakeskin.

Yesterday was a day of private students and cafes once again. Mind you, it was just The Godfather and The OL. I had my second lesson this week with The Godfather; it's ironic that he's been enjoying his lessons (he did indeed tell me) considering that after our first meet-and-greet all the way back in January, I'd been under the impression that he was a write-off. As for The OL, we were in a better vantage point for our lesson since we had our own booth, and luckily there was a pair of foreigners nattering away so I was not worried about our voices annoying anyone.

Thursday July 28, 7:41 p.m.

Still not in the heat wave range of things temperature-wise but still warm enough to make me reminisce about the gloriously cool days of last week during the reign of Typhoon Ma-On.
Pretty busy for a post-quake day. I've had three lessons nearly back-to-back and just have one more in about 15 minutes...that being the one for Mrs. Thursday. I had The Sisters of State and then a model lesson with a student who will become one of my flock starting officially from next Thursday. She'll be the Bossa Novan. She reminds me of my old student, The Businesswoman, in that she has an interest in bossa nova and plays the guitar. She definitely loves her music since she has frequented a couple of Brazilian places in Nishi-Ogikubo.
Lunch today was up at my favorite Chinese eatery in the basement of the Maynds Tower in Shinjuku.
I saw the Journo doing a spot on his wide show this morning on a murder case involving a young woman with anger issues who had killed another woman whom she had mistakenly assumed dissed her. Definitely haven't gotten any word from him about whether he'll ever come back for my lessons. But then again, the juku is dead and buried.

Wednesday July 27, 6:58 p.m.

Don't panic! That's not an infestatation of flatworms in my apartment. It's just a plate of store-bought yakiudon. A very simple concoction of udon noodles pan-fried with veggies and pork...I've been trying to save up on the cash by buying plastic boxes of stuff like this. I guess I could've arranged the dish a bit better, though.

It's another 001-less Wednesday night here at Speedy's although she'll be back next week. I've only got Kirk coming up in a little over an hour from now. The weather is back to warm again with some stickiness in the air but it still hasn't gotten back to the heat wave conditions of a couple of weeks ago. I can stand this stuff and if another typhoon comes up the Pacific coast, that's just plain gravy for me.

Yesterday was all private for me. I had Cozy for a rare Tuesday morning before I headed over to Tsudanuma for The Beehive session. For the first time in about a month, we were back at the community centre instead of Cafe Nard in Funabashi. And for the first time in a while, we had a pretty full turnout. Not only did Travel, Jade and Alp show up but Mrs. Perth dropped in from Hokkaido and Mrs. Tee finally came back after weeks away due to some personal difficulties, namely a battle between a stubborn husband and daughter. Tee indeed lost a good amount of weight from the stress. It was good to see Mrs. Perth as well since it was basically the final time I would see her here in Japan before my final flight home to Canada. So I went with the ladies for lunch and had a good chance to catch up with Perth.

Finally, I met up with The Godfather at our usual cafe in Tameike-Sanno. He's usually late on Fridays but since I had to teach The German at Speedy's last Friday, he got bumped to yesterday afternoon. His new company has gotten off to a promising start. Nothing too big to report but his company seems to one of consulting, and it's gotten itself into the recovery plan of the Tohoku after the March 11 earthquake.

Monday July 25, 8:21 p.m.

Well, I would like to take this time to thank all of the 34 Malaysians who have been reading this blog. I'm not sure if I can come out to your country to personally shake your hands but duly note that the feeling is there.

In any case, I wrapped up my day with Miss Genki. It was another one of those gab sessions in which we don't touch the text. Luckily, she also has quite a few conversational touchstones. We spoke on those old music shows, "The Best 10" and "The Top 10", a comparison between Japanese manzai comedy and North American sketch comedy, the revelation that famed movie composer Hans Zimmer was the keyboardist for The Buggles' lone hit "Video Killed The Radio Star" and finally her favorite show, "Glee". She, along with thousands of Japanese fans, are hoping that "Glee: The Concert" will make its way across the Pacific. Like me, she has also heard that the characters of Rachel, Finn and Kurt will be phased out after Season 3. I think the powers at Fox may be biting their nails especially at the fact that TV's most popular gay character will be leaving the roost.

Monday July 25, 6:33 p.m.

Well, the heat is starting to return to the Kanto. For about 5 days, thanks to the wonders of Typhoon Ma-On, we had swooningly cool temps but now that the typhoon has spun away, the temps have returned to the more seasonable boiler room levels of a Japanese summer. But although it was warm today and I was sweating a bit as I was making my way back to Speedy's from Mr. Swank's company in Shinjuku, it was a drier heat with not much of the usual humidity to negate our sweat glands' capabilities. We may have a bit of an extension of the good ol' days of last week tomorrow since the forecast calls for rain, but otherwise I believe I'll have to get a re-supply of the Gatsby wipes.

After months of television PSAs warning us about the change from analog to digital, D-Day finally came yesterday at noon. After over half a century of analog broadcasting, the service finally shut down, going totally to digital. Everything and everyone from anime characters to a member of SMAP exhorted all of us about the coming electronic Day of Reckoning and to prepare by having a digital system set up. Supposedly, once noon came, all of those old chassis-tube tellys would be showing just a screen message stating that analog broadcasts have ceased forever. Well, then, can someone tell me why my own 40-year-old TV which is thicker than a young sapling is still broadcasting in analog? I got back from teaching Yajima expecting to play Taps for my little set...but when I pulled the knob (yup, this set is REALLY old...no remote control), NHK was still coming bright and clear while the commercial channels were somewhat fuzzy and flippy. But that's the point, I'm still getting something. The only exceptions to the new regime are the 3 prefectures most affected by the March 11 earthquake: Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi. Apparently, my little apartment must have gotten upgraded to become the 53rd Japanese province.

Monday July 25, 6:07 p.m.

The last 72 hours since my last entry have had news to keep the pundits talking for several weeks. And here I thought last week with the Murdochs and Nadeshiko Japan was a banner time. We've had the massacre in Norway, the sad but not surprising Amy Winehouse death and that horrible crash in China between the two bullet trains.
On Friday night, I was just doing my couch potato thing in front of the television set when at about 10:30 p.m. JST, the CNN anchor started reporting on explosions in Oslo. At first, I was wondering if she meant Oslo, Iraq or Oslo, Afghanistan. But, nope, it was indeed Oslo, Norway. As the minutes passed, the information started getting more and more dire as the images of a blown-out government centre started getting fed into the network and eyewitness accounts started filtering in. Then, a couple of hours into the bulletin, the news of automatic weapons fire on Utoya Island, some 30 km away from the Norwegian capital, broke in and I started thinking whether Norway was undergoing its own 9-11.
But some 24 hours later, it had become clearer that the horrors in Oslo were less Twin Towers and more Oklahoma City. Obviously, this doesn't make the situation any less terrible, but the comparisons are inevitable between Anders Breivik and Timothy McVeigh. Both seem to be quiet polite men and both have this delusionary belief that society had to be taught a grave lesson. Breivik is supposed to be pleading in court sometime in the next several hours, and I can pretty much guarantee the viewership for this coverage will far outstrip the ratings for the Murdochs in Parliament last Tuesday.
But if I can add my own Japanese angle on this story, watching the hours of coverage of this tragedy in Norway, I was reminded of that March day in 1995 when the apocalyptic cult, Aum Shinrikyo, bombed the Tokyo subways with sarin gas, killing 12, injuring thousands and scaring millions. Again, it was a case of a group of like-minded psychopaths who had felt that society was too sick to survive and so decided to accelerate the process of its downfall.

But within this Venn Diagram of Norwegian horror, a very big circle started forming within. And that was the Amy Winehouse death. As I've said, her passing was sad but not surprising. It just seemed like her demons couldn't and wouldn't let her go and finally dragged her down. All that talent in her voice couldn't override that addiction in her brain. I was never a fan of hers since I'm just not into soul music but I could acknowledge that her singing was one of those one-in-a-million phenomena. Just seems like an utter waste. Apparently, there is a Club 27 out in Wikipedia whose members consist of celebs who left this world at the tender age of 27. I'm just wondering if Lindsay Lohan is gonna be petitioning for her own jacket in this club in the not too distant future.

As for that bullet train crash in China, the Japanese media were covering this accident in bigger detail than they did Oslo or Winehouse. I guess that the bullet train is considered to be a national treasure in this country and the Japanese get rather concerned when one of their own gets involved in something bad.

Friday July 22, 7:27 p.m.

Finished with The German about half an hour ago. It was the usual potpourri of talking about anything under the sun, including drinking, Japanese actors in Hollywood and all of the acts in Johnny's Jimusho. And strangely enough, we were actually able to get through one exercise in the text.
I'm done here for today so just heading home. I think the eel celebration will have to wait until tomorrow night since I'm getting out here rather late. By the time, I hit home all of the eel will be sold out.

I also have to mention the death of one famous, beloved local Canadian. Elwy Yost is probably not known to any of the Malaysians or Americans reading this blog, but he was the friendly, intelligent, and avuncular host of a Toronto show called "Saturday Night at the Movies" for about a quarter of a century. All of the big movies were screened and then analyzed afterwards by Yost and his interview subjects; it was basically the televised version of a very good university-level movie course. I learned more about Peter Sellers through him, and certainly I learned to appreciate the old movies such as "The Philadelphia Story" and "Casablanca". He will be missed. One of his kids ended up writing the screenplay for "Speed" with Keanu Reaves.

Anyways, I have to head off to the Golden Arches for dinner. Good weekend!

Friday July 22, 5:12 p.m.

The second food-based entry for today concerns the right picture. Yep, the end of July means Doyo-no-Ushi-no-Hi. Basically, it's time for eel! Known as unagi here, the day actually welcomes the ingesting of any food which begins with the Japanese hiragana letter of "u"(e.g. udon, uni, etc.), but eel has always been the go-to item. In these sultry days of summer (well, except for yesterday and today), eating eel-based dishes has been traditionally one way of getting that stamina to beat the heat, so to speak. And the wonderful dish of unaju (grilled and sauced eel on rice in a lacquered box) is one of the favorites.

Apparently, we have two of those days this year. One was yesterday and the other is August 2nd. I have no idea what determines the dating; all I know is that eel restaurants all over Japan must've been packed to the gills (no pun intended) with customers wanting to get their piece of eel in. I haven't had my unagi quite yet; I'm hoping to rectify that situation either tonight or tomorrow for dinner.

Friday July 22, 5:05 p.m.

Had one of these a few nights ago. It's called Dodekamin Cola (not too sure if this has any relationship with the polygonal dodecahedron but it must've sounded cool during marketing). Basically, it's the Japanese attempt of Red Bull or Jolt Cola. There is a Dodekamin Vitamin Drink that I've never tried but coming across the cola version in the neighbourhood vending machine, I decided to give it a shot.

Well, it was kinda like a combination of Virgin Cola with a shot of Geritol thrown in for good measure. I guess the old folks might like it if they wanted to stay up to the wee hour of....8 p.m., let's say. Still, it got me through the 2 hours of the Rupert Murdoch hearings which is saying something, especially with the attack of Wendi "The Tiger Wife" Deng.

Friday July 22, 2:43 p.m.

Well, The Shareholder is history. I'd gotten hints from the last lesson that he was not going to renew, and sure enough he informed me at the end of this lesson. To be honest, I'm not that unhappy about his departure since like Mrs Prissy he had a hard time getting his words out but unlike her he didn't show any particularly overt effort in getting them out. Nice guy to be sure but.... Still, we had an amiable final lesson before he gave the usual bow-out reason of getting busy and all. However, all is not lost in my income. Almost immediately after The Shareholder's lesson, the bossman asked me if I could teach some extra students over the next month at least. I didn't jump out of my seat with glee but I was quietly grateful that I can make up some of the shortfall.
Speaking of glee, I read the other day that 3 of the main cast from "Glee" were "graduating" from the show. However, I haven't read anything about it in the Mixi community, otherwise I would be seeing a sea of sad emoticons right now.

Friday July 22, 12:19 p.m.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

That was the sound of the day all yesterday....emanating from my mouth, of course. Typhoon Ma-On gave us in the Kanto a unique gift in the form of....temperature. The bottom dropped out of our usual boiler room temps, giving us a royal high of 22 degrees C. That sort of temp is about as rare at this time of year as someone eating a slice of Christmas cake. Usually, when referring to typhoons, we often say in Japanese "taifuu no sei de" (because of that [insert your swear word] typhoon)...however, I would like to say "taifuu no kage de" (thanks to that [insert your most praiseworthy adjective] typhoon).
However, all good things have to come to an end. And the heat wave will come back from vacation as of tomorrow. However, I was fortunate to have that good night's sleep and a respite for my electric fan. Strangely enough, my hometown of Toronto is going through literal Hell as it records 39 degrees C.

The OL contacted me today saying that she has to beg off today's lesson since she's got a cold. I think that sudden shift in temps may have been a factor. That suddenness started manifesting itself from late Wednesday night, probably, since I was getting a bit sniffly within Speedy's. At least, I won't have to make that mini-boomerang to Nihombashi since I've got The Shareholder's (possibly final) lesson in about an hour and then The German's lesson later tonight; I can just while away the time here at the school. And I'm pretty sure The OL may be paying me because of the perceived dotakyan. She's one of the few students who actually has paid me for sudden cancellations.

Yesterday was a day off for me since none of the Thursday regulars came privately or through Speedy's. I was lucky to have seen live the final touchdown for the Space Shuttle Atlantis and for the shuttle program in general. I remember seeing the very first successful shuttle launch of The Columbia over 30 years ago. It's hard to believe NASA not launching anything for the next several years (a number of the media commentators were being very polite by saying "it'll be a short while") but inevitably there will be some sort of probe going back to The Moon or to Mars. I only wonder if this will happen when I'm into early retirement. The only regret I have about the program is that The Enterprise never made it up into space....it was just used as the test case; I'm sure the Trekkies would've loved to have seen it hit the final frontier even once.

Wednesday July 20, 7:08 p.m.

It's been squally here over the past couple of days. Typhoon Ma-On, or as it's more dramatically known here in Japan, Typhoon No. 6 (a bit of "The Prisoner" vibe), has been making its way through the southern and Pacific coasts of the country. Yesterday, as I was making my way home after lunch with Mrs. Travel and Mrs. Jade of The Beehive, the clouds literally just opened up and the rains came down with the force of a monsoon. It looks like my area of Chiba, though, will miss the worst of it...although the squalls have been coming, we haven't had any gales or floods. I just kinda wonder if meterologists around the world have their facts straight. The weather folks over here had been warning that this would be a super-typhoon that would just meander its way across Japan thereby dumping tons of rain and woe; but the CNN's Italian weather guy verbally shrugged off Ma-On as something that would whip by the Pacific quickly. In any case, it will be finally out of our hair probably later tomorrow.

The other headline has been the continuing saga of the Japanese Women's Soccer Team as they go through the second phase of Being a Hero In Japan...interviews, news shows and variety programs, oh my. The team has now divided into smaller units to head over to various TV studios to give the same answers and watch the same highlights. Captain Sawa and a couple of her teammates even appeared on Tamori's noontime programme today, "Waratte Ii Tomo", to show off their medals. This will last for the next several days; I wouldn't be surprised if the ladies ended up doing a medley with SMAP or Arashi...will avoid.

And then the other big headline is beef, fortified with cesium. I'm just wondering when the government allows the news that other livestock have come up beeping on the Geiger Counters. And I'm sure it will happen. I kinda wonder if the soccer ladies had wondered themselves of declaring asylum in Germany.

For those regular readers of this blog, you must be wondering why I'm typing this when I should be chatting with 001 for her regular midweek lesson. Well, the lass is off today for some reason....probably the reason comes in a highball glass. I've only got Kirk today. And it looks like I've got a Thursday off as well since Mrs. Thursday has cancelled tomorrow's lesson.

Wednesday July 20, 6:33 p.m.

The much-advertised hearings with Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks by the UK government finally got on the air in the wee hours of this morning here in Tokyo. Not having any lessons until later tonight, I was able to stay up and watch the proceedings of how the pols took care of this modern-day Citizen Kane. It was all very very British...a lot of plummy accents and very tea-timey back-and-forth. And there was a bit of Japanese in it as well....and no, I'm not referring to Rupert's wife behind him since she is Chinese...I'm referring to Murdoch's repeated blunt responses of not knowing or not remembering. Whenever there is a Diet-level scandal involving one of the parliamentarians in Nagatacho, evasion is taken to a high art. And then there was son James' combination goofy Clark Kent and Hugh Grant act...a lot of hemming-and-hawing politeness from Murdoch Jr.

But there were a couple of things that got my eyes opened between 1 and 1:30 a.m. The more publicized event was, of course, Rupert Murdoch getting a face full of foam pie just when MP Mensch was starting to grill him. I think wife Wendy Murdoch showed that she was probably the most honourable of the family in that room when she went Jedi on the pieman, Johnny Marbles (sounds like a gangster on a Saturday morning kids' show).

I'm gonna sound a bit conspiratorial here but it just seemed a bit strange that even a comedian like Marbles was able to get into the room to launch his pie at point-blank range and then only have one London bobby saunter across the room to get him out. CNN's Richard Quest, no stranger to controversy himself (leave your S&M gear in Central Park, Richie?), seemed so nonchalant about the whole affair a few seconds after the camera had automatically whip-panned to the painted wall. And I'm kinda wondering if a couple of the MP's later got together at a pub near Westminster and laughed about it over a pint (MP 1: OK, you win, here's your 20 quid. BTW, how did you sneak him in?)

The second thing, though, was MP Louise Mensch herself. During her turn at questioning Rupert Murdoch, she namedropped CNN's own Piers Morgan and his alleged willingness to phone hack when he was an editor at The Daily Mirror according to a book he had written. Morgan, who's always had that rather cool-as-a-cucumber exterior on "Piers Morgan Tonight", went into a major froth on his sister show "The Situation Room", and proceeded to dress down the pol while struggling to not use any expletives (well, maybe with the exception of "balls" but that's been used so much anyways); meanwhile, Mensch took on Morgan's la-di-dah expression and perhaps a subliminal Cheshire Cat's smile and cited parliamentary privilege when refusing to repeat her allegations against Morgan. I have a feeling that there is more to this battle between Mensch and Morgan; most likely Mensch had it in for Morgan over some perceived insult that she had registered from him during his time as editor, and decided to throw a few shots across his bow.

In any case, although it looks like Rupert will still get to keep his job, the elder Murdoch probably wasn't kidding when he said that it was one of the most humbling days of his life. To have to put on a doddering old fogie show in front of the very people who used to court him and then to have a pie thrown into his mug....he was probably using more expletives than Morgan wished he could have used when he got home last night. And frankly after using all those "I don't remember" and "I don't know" responses and then brazenly shirking off any personal responsibility....I think a harmless foam pie is the least he deserved.

Monday July 18, 10:47 a.m.

This past weekend has seen me concoct another Smoothie. When you live in an air-conditionerless apartment, Smoothies are liquid lifelines. This one had me blending an apple, two bananas, maple syrup, some kale powder and a cup of yogurt. Had the big glass along with dinner last night, and one more cup for breakfast. It's very tasty when chilled overnight.

Also made some Taco Rice with some veggies and a box of Taco Rice Mix that The New Yorker had given me from her visit to Okinawa. This is where Japan excels...taking a famed foreign dish and giving its own Japanese twist. J-Tex-Mex. Kinda overdid it on the lettuce part so I had to dig deeper with the spoon to get at the rice and spicy meat sauce but I've learned. I've got one more set of the stuff to cook up tonight.

Now, to inform you, I'm back at the I-Cafe. If this had been to schedule, I would've been ready to head on out to Futako-Tamagawa to see The Jyuppies for their lessons. Instead, I got a call from Mr. Jyuppie stating that he had to cancel today. Apparently, one of his kids is sick, necessitating a visit to the hospital. Strangely enough, I'd had a premonition that he was gonna send the cancellation call...a bit of an Anakin Skywalker thing I have. And as soon as I heard the phone ring, I knew.

Referring back to the fact that I hadn't turned on my air conditioner at all during the weekend, I stayed home all day yesterday and still managed to survive. I had both my windows open (didn't help too much) and had the small electric fan going for much of the day. Plus, I used a couple of ice packs on my back and chest to get through the day. And I actually made it. Also, the fact that the plug to the air conditioner tends to heat up to the temperature of plasma when it's in the wall made my decision even easier. Still, I'm out here at the I-Cafe today to alleviate any more pressure to the electrical grid.

Just watched a lot of American TV and "Inception" on DVD. The latter movie is a classic in my books. A classic is something that one can watch over and over again without it getting old. My oldest classic is "Casablanca" of course, but my most recent one is this one. Everything and everyone just seemed to click in this DiCaprio flick. And the fight scene in the rotating hotel corridor will always go down as one of my most thrilling sights in cinema. As for the American stuff, "Hawaii Five-O" is, unsurprisingly, becoming quite the hit in Japan since it debuted on these shores several weeks ago. There are so many Japanese going to Hawaii on a regular basis that I've always made the joke that the islands should be called Hawaii Prefecture of Japan, and not the Aloha State of America. The new Japanese fans should go even more wild when they find out that Masi Oka is gonna become the 5th member of the team.

Monday July 18, 10:29 a.m.

In the wee hours of this sultry morning, I was awakened by some screaming outside my window. In my grogginess, I'd initially thought it was just another couple of cats fornicating down on the ground (I tend to hear that quite a bit...considering that I haven't had any in almost a decade, I've actually felt envious for a lower species). However, it turned out to be celebrating neighbours.

The reason was blue, white and female. Nadeshiko Japan pulled off a David-and-Goliath against the United States, and won the Women's World Cup Championship in a penalty shootout. Not surprisingly, the media was all over this one like gravy on roast beef. Every channel was covering the homely if cute mugs of Captain Homare Sawa and her team of giantbeaters, playing and replaying the winning goals on their morning wide shows. Sawa and company can now look forward to at least a few weeks of heroine worship and endless interviews on NHK, Fuji-TV, TBS, etc. Plus, all of us here in Japan can now look forward to future commercials of them hawking everything from vitamin drinks to security systems.

The unexpected victory couldn't have come at a better time for this battered country. March 11 2011 will probably overshadow July 18 2011 in Japanese history, and the victory by this team will not directly resolve the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis or the earthquake recovery difficulties. However, this championship has brought a good deal of happiness and inspiration and hope to the people here, and perhaps sending a message that the very difficult can be achieved. And certainly, it doesn't hurt Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Olympics; now Governor Ishihara has a weapon in Captain Sawa to wield.

I don't know what's gonna happen in the remaining months of this year. But for today, this Marine Day, we can walk around a bit more cheerfully than usual.

Saturday July 16, 10:33 a.m.

Now, as for today, in my desire to avoid oven-like temps in my own apartment and yet conserve energy, I have sought refuge in my local I-Cafe. So, I am currently in Hour 2 of 8 in relatively air-conditioned comfort, having my I-Cafe lunch of all-you-can-drink Pepsi and Chip Star. I think my aspirations to look like Comic Book Man from "The Simpsons" may be coming to fruition.

The big news here has been that cesium-tainted beef which actually made the rounds through the rest of the country. So, folks in Japan, if any of you really has that glow about you...well, my condolences.

Had a good jolt from a Shindo 4 tremor in Chiba last night. The epicentre was in Tochigi Prefecture where it registered a 5 Minus. Made the news for several minutes on NHK.

The final entry in the decade-long "Harry Potter" series hit our shores this morning. So I'm sure a lot of cape-and-glasses wearing faux-Hogwartians are currently descending on theatres in Roppongi and Shinjuku to wave a tearful goodbye to their hero. Skippy and The Wedding Planner had asked me if I wanted to see it with them either tomorrow or on the holiday Monday (Marine Day) but I declined since I will be catching it with Movie Buddy. The ladies want to catch it in 3D but MB has been far from impressed with the new technology stating that only "Avatar" had lived up to the hype. I'm wondering if Daniel Radcliffe or other cast members have made the trip out here or will be in the near future....I would advise them to try to get out of their contracts about that. Britishers would just melt into puddles in this weather. I'm also wondering how Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson will fare now that their bread-and-butter is officially part of cinematic history. I have no doubts about the supporting players of thespians such as Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith but the three leads? I can compare them with the trio of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher from that other legendary but far smaller trilogy of the original "Star Wars". Only Ford made it onto the A-List for decades; Hamill later got a measure of fame as a voice actor, notably for The Joker on one of the many "Batman" animated series, and after a few roles in some middling flicks in the early 80s, Fisher is now probably more famous as a recurring voice actor in "Family Guy" and as an author. Going back to that other famed escapist flick trio, Daniel Radcliffe has already made some inroads with stage roles in "Equus" and a musical but I'm not sure about what will happen with the other two. I'm just kinda wondering if Grint will end up years later hawking some cutting device on an infomercial. As for Radcliffe, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up as a future Doctor Who.

Saturday July 16, 10:13 a.m.

Well, I had my Cafe Day yesterday. It used to be that I had Hump Days during the week...those days in which my schedule was packed with lessons. Well, those days are gone now. Instead, I've got Fridays as Cafe Days. I had 4 students, all of whom I met at various cafes in Chiba and Tokyo.
First off was The Bass in our charmingly decrepit cafe in old suburban Funabashi. He gave his speech on his regular business trips to the Kansai...like the rest of us entrepreneurs, it hasn't been too easy over the past few months.
And then I hightailed it to tony Hiroo to the Starbucks to see Swank. The Arisugawa Chuo Library was closed again for its monthly dedication to energy conservation policy, thereby the need for an alternate site. It would end up being our last lesson for the next 6 weeks since she and her family will soon be heading over to Hawaii for their summer holidays. Geez, I sometimes feel like the Downstairs in "Upstairs, Downstairs" (yeah, you go look that one up...hint, it's from the UK).
Next, I went over to business centre Nihombashi to see The OL in the Ueshima Cafe in the Coredo complex. Not exactly cheap there but it does have some really good coffee and iced drinks. Had the Ginger Milk Latte....iced, of course. Still, the place isn't the best for teaching students. That was made abundantly clear while I was teaching The OL, admittedly the lowest of my four students that day. We were sitting in the back of the cafe where the coziest of the tables were. I'm always a bit nervous about teaching in close surroundings....there was one young lady beside who soon got out of Dodge after hearing our exchange, and then an incongruous teen couple schlumped in beside us and soon went into dormant mode. My cafe lessons seem to have that impact on neighbouring folks unless they're deep into their own chatter or they're holding English lessons themselves.
My final lesson was with The Godfather at a Tully's in Tameike-Sanno. By that point, I couldn't really take any more caffeine into my system so I bought a Mango Swirkle to flush out the jitters. The Godfather had officially launched his company earlier in the day, so he was on a bit of a Runner's High; the financing for his first big project came in which relieved him to no end. At the end of a Cafe Day, it was good to have someone who could talk fluently and at length about his aspirations. We had an absorbing conversation on comparative religions and the concept of epiphany.