Saturday January 7, 8:31 a.m.

Before the scouring of my apartment began in earnest, on Sunday December11, the Movie Gang became the Hooters Gang for one night. Yup, MB, The Sylph, The Satyr (without Miss Ivory...the two did indeed break up), Skippy, The Wedding Planner and I made our last trip together not to a movie but to the lone transplanted version of one of America's pop cultural institutions. Strangely enough, the Tokyo branch of Hooters was placed in the somewhat tonier and less skankier area of Akasaka-Mitsuke.


But then again, Japanese pop cultural customs dictate that any importation of foreign culture be given that Japanese twist. So, Tokyo Hooters was more sexy/cute than skanky. The waitresses were far less voluptuous though attractive. It was like being served by AKB 48 in less clothing....that's not exactly an insult, by the way. And I'm not sure if the original American Hooters branches also have the same rule, but the Tokyo branch requires that permission be granted to take pics of the girls. Mind you, I couldn't really see the locals in the States going on a major photographing spree in a Hooters.

The other thing that made this Hooters quintessentially Japanese is the walled booth that we got. It seems that a lot of manga artists have visited the place, so there were pictures of saucer-eyed manga girls and Gundam robots drawn all over. That's about as raunchy as it got.

I guess because of the toned-down nature of the women there, we could focus a bit more on the food which was typically diner fare. I was OK with the deep-fried pickles although I was far in the minority. Although I very much doubt that the Movie Gang will make a 2nd visit in the near future, at least I can say that I was finally able to visit a Hooters before I left Japan.

Friday January 6, 8:19 p.m.

Almost a month ago...December 13, to be exact...Operation Exodus had its most tumultuous stage when the boys from Dustman descended on my 17-year-old home and scoured it clean.

Dustman is the Kanto-wide recycling and disposal firm I'd hired to do a lot of the heavy lifting of things such as my furnishings, appliances and my air conditioner. Two friendly fellows arrived...at first, I'd thought that with just two of them, it would take the better part of the afternoon to get rid of everything. However, Dustman got everything done within 90 minutes. They were more ruthless than the Borg. Considering how quickly they literally scoured through nearly 2 decades of stuff, I had to ensure that they wouldn't throw away stuff I actually wanted to keep...like my passport, remaining clothing, etc. They didn't come cheap either, although I was grateful for their help. Cost me about 100,000 yen. That included dis-installation of the air conditioner and an extra charge for going down 2 flights of stairs. Just goes to show how much moving can cost.