Tuesday August 16, 2:35 p.m.

Well, there was some major damage from that quake this morning. Up in Sendai, a ceiling over an indoor pool collapsed injuring about 80 people. Miraculously, there have been no fatalities so far.

That quake and the one that struck Tokyo a few weeks ago got me thinking about what several students have told me about "earthquake clouds". Known as "jishin gumo" over here, I kinda placed the phenomenon in the same well as the Loch Ness Monster and crop circles. However, after checking the Net, apparently there have been academic articles written on the subject so there could be some basis for it. There were even a few pictures of earthquake clouds. As one student put it, it looks like a white snake crawling up the sky. Well, now I know what to look for.

The sky has cleared considerably so I've got my washing machine back at work. I went out for an hour to send out that parcel and then succumb to lunch at the local Lotteria. Looks like dinner will be meat sauce and spaghetti with salad.

Tuesday August 16, 12:05 p.m.

Just 15 minutes ago, I was taking a shower when suddenly I felt the bathtub swerve around me. I initially thought that I had the shower on too hot and the heat was affecting me. Well, sure enough, it was one of them dang tremors bothering us again. It was a Shindo 3 here...a low-moderate shake but the epicenter was 3 hours away by train up in Miyagi Prefecture. That place got royally rocked with a Shindo 6 Minus or an M 7.0.

The tremor went on for several seconds so I turned off the water and waited before I deemed it safe to rinse myself off. Once I dried myself, I turned on NHK and found out indeed there was a major quake. There are even tsunami warnings out for the area. Most of the stations are now broadcasting, except for Fuji-TV and TV Tokyo. Fuji's "Waratte Ii Tomo" still trumps major earthquake coverage although it was generous of the host, the powerful Tamori, to laughingly mention it at the start. Nice of you sir. The show must still go on. But seriously speaking, it looks like it was a pretty widespread tremor. The entire Tohoku region is reading Shindo 4.

I gotta admit that the Japanese are very well heeled when it comes to quakes. As is always the case, the stations have been broadcasting what it was like when the tremor hit the local TV affiliate in Miyagi. No panic...just some guys standing up and trying to keep the shelves standing up. However, Junior from The Company related to me a different angle. He was living in the Kansai area when the Great Hanshin Earthquake wreaked major havoc a decade ago. Now, even if he feels a little tremor, he starts freezing up since that was how the 1995 quake had started.

Ooh, well, look at this. I spoke too soon concerning the power of Tamori. Fuji-TV has broken into live coverage. I'm looking at live coverage from a chopper over Sendai, south of the epicentre. Doesn't look like there has been much damage.

Tuesday August 16, 9:17 a.m.

Well, the rains did come pouring down overnight which may decrease or increase the humidity depending on how the rest of the day goes. It's gonna be a stay-at-home day today just to let my body rest after the workout yesterday. I do have a package to send home to the parentals.

Ah, found out from the Net that one of the key things to losing weight is lots of sleep...at least 7 hours' worth. Then, I'm in the wrong land and society. My bedroom, even with a fan going on all night, is not cool, and in this country, 6 hours is considered a luxury.

Kinda wondering what I'm gonna be doing for the rest of the day since both the juku and The Beehive are on hiatus. When I start thinking about that, it's time to get back to work. Luckily, I do have that one lesson with 001 tomorrow night.

Monday August 15, 5:50 p.m.

You could've written the word "fountain" on a sign and hung it over my head. It wouldn't have looked out of place at all. I was sweating all over the place at the gym today. Happily, I dumped quite a bit since my last unpleasant surprise. I started at 92 kg and ended up a good kilo down after my exertions. Not too many people there today. I gather that most of the folks are out of town.

It's clouded up a lot since I left this afternoon. Looks like those downpours could be on their way. Nice to have had the day off today.

Earlier this morning, I was listening to one of my J-Pop compilation tapes all the way from '96, the year of the Atlanta Olympics. It was interesting to hear these oldies by these then-hot singers who have pretty much disappeared from the pop culture radar now. But then again, that's true anywhere. It's a very rare thing for any singer or band to have any relevance beyond 5 years, let alone a decade. I think The Rolling Stones and U2 are the winners in that lottery over in the West while perhaps The Southern All Stars and TUBE would be the Japanese representatives.

Anyways, it was interesting to hear artists such as Maki Oguro, TRF and Dreams Come True in their heyday. DCT is still around but isn't the tour de force it once was. And back in 1996, SMAP was only sprouting into the pop cultural conglomerate it now is, most of the Morning Musume were toddling around in elementary school and J-R&B was just represented by one man, Toshinobu Kubota. Back then, Japanese pop music was under the thrall of another guy with the same initials as Kubota: Tetsuya Komuro. His only blip in the West was as the composer of the amped-up theme to "Speed 2". Talk about going down with a sinking ship.

Even before I had come here back in 1994, Tetsuya Komuro was already a prolific songwriter having penned Misato Watanabe's best hit, "My Revolution" some 10 years previously and going on from there. And of course, he had his old job as bouffant-haired keyboardist for 80s techno/rock band, TM Network. But then his big streak in the 90s came when he put together the techno song-and-dance act, TRF, back in 1993. After that, he got Namie Amuro's career off the ground with a similar techno beat. Then, there was Tomomi Kahala, H Jungle with T, Globe and DOS. The Komuro Family was born. In fact, one New Year's Eve, Komuro had his own concert to bring in the New Year with his harem. At that time, NHK's "Kohaku Utagassen" had been usually under siege by a Southern All Stars concert. I wonder how the starched suits in Shibuya HQ must have reacted when Komuro's brand of techno was charging into the battle with SAS' brand of summery rock n' roll.

NHK needn't have worried as The Komuro Family pretty much petered out by the turn of the millenium. TRF petered out, Amuro went on maternity leave, Kahala, a shaky singer at best only helped out by the fact that she'd been Komuro's paramour, went on her own sabbatical to New York and H Jungle with T was just a temporary side project responsible for what I consider to be the worst song ever to make it to No. 1 in that year, "Wow War Tonight" (as an analogy, think about Marisa Tomei's win for Best Supporting Actress in "My Cousin Vinnie"). Globe has actually come back with a single this week but does anyone really think it'll mean a resurgence? Interestingly enough, the lead singer of Globe, Keiko, is now Mrs. Komuro.

Nope, Komuro had his moment in the sun during the mid-to-late 90s. R&B finally made its way into Japan en masse, and on the other end of the spectrum, SMAP exploded all over the place and Sharan-Q's lead singer, Tsunku, became the new Svengali to the unit that would become Morning Musume. The last report I heard was that Komuro was now affiliated as just another employee of Yoshimoto Kogyo, the famed Osaka managment company which churns out all those comedian duos. I never thought humour was one of Komuro's strong points. However, Namie Amuro is back as a dancing hip-pop performer, seemingly perpetually entrenched as a J-diva who'll always spring into the Top 10 with any new single. And as for Tomomi Kahala, she's now a frequent presence on all those variety shows...kinda like dinner show theatre.

Monday August 15, 10:36 a.m.

Another late wake-up call...for those looking up at the time and doing double-takes: yes, 10:30 IS late for me on a weekday. For one thing, I fell prey to the Helsinki bug again. Watched it right to the final event at 3 a.m. live here. Let's see the last three events were the Men's High Jump (enh...although it was nice to see Canada place 2nd) and the Men's/Women's 400 m relay. At least the Men's team won gold for the USA; I saw the other Men's kerfuffle in screwing up the baton pass in the prelims and then I heard about how the women's team destroyed its chances by one member running in the wrong lane.

Currently, I've got this thing called Star Digio on right now on the Sky Perfect. Star Digio is this haphazardly named (digital radio) service having 100 channels playing different kinds of music. I've been rotating amongst the channels for 80s & 90s J-Pop and 80s music. Yesterday may have been another "open house" day for Sky Perfect since the service "unlocked" the weather channels and Star Digio for viewing. However, Star Digio is still on today which makes me wonder if Sky Perfect has decided to make it part of the regular service; it would be a nice addition. Back in Toronto, Rogers has the same thing as part of its basic package.

It looks like another hot one out there although they're forecasting downpours for tonight. The rest of Asia is commemorating the surrender of their former lord and master, Japan, today. Hmmm...I would feel rather sorry for any O-Bon travelers who decided to book tickets to Korea, Shanghai and Singapore right now.

Sunday August 14, 11:57 p.m.

Finally found out that name of that new Russian love child for the Japanese media. Her name is Yelena Isinbayeva (try saying that three times fast after a couple of glasses of vodka...rather, don't), the new world record holder for pole vault at the Helsinki Championships. Seeing the highlights of her run to glory, the announcer for TBS was coughing up his lungs screaming when she got the new record of 5.01 m. One would think that the TBS announcer thought that he was extolling the virtues of a Japanese athlete.

It's been quiet tonight...just how I like it. Cooked up dinner and ironed some clothes. I've been switching between the Helsinki highlights and the news about that airplane that had crashed in Greece.

Will probably head out to the gym tomorrow afternoon. Not quite sure whether the place will be packed with holidaying salarymen or will be completely empty. Still, my O-bon holiday continues...

Sunday August 14, 2:28 p.m.

It was another late night last night watching the Helsinki Championships. From the two events featuring the Japanese, we were kept off the scoreboard but I heard this morning that one guy managed to get the bronze in the Men's Marathon.

It's a gorgeous day outside. Mind you, I haven't gotten out there yet. I only had breakfast at 12:30 this afternoon. It was the usual Sunday fare: bacon & eggs with a couple of pancakes. Added a little Latin to the atmosphere by putting on my Lisa Ono CD.

Just gonna clean around the apartment today before getting some groceries. The lazy days of summer continue...

Saturday August 13, 12:27 p.m.

Well, I've been up for a couple of hours now and I've yet to eat breakfast. I'm getting pretty hungry. Although I've got the fan on, it's just to drive away the humidity; it's not all that hot inside so the AC is getting a bit of a respite. Although things look pretty gloomy outside, the weather may not garner all that much rain. We did get quite the bucketful last night. May do some washing since the machine looks pretty loaded to bear.

The reason for the late rising this morning is that I was up late last night watching those Helsinki games. I got my money's worth. The Japanese media has a new Russian beauty to gawk its cameras over. I can't remember, pronounce or spell her name but she is the winner of the women's pole vault with a world record to boot. But Maria Sharapova doesn't have anything to worry about. She's still No. 1 in many viewers' eyes although those viewers may be rather disappointed to find out that she's had to pull out of the next tennis tournament due to a pulled chest muscle (ahem...). Also, I saw the prelims for the men's 400 m relay to see the much-expected-to-win US team lose out completely by screwing up the baton switch. Ouch! That must've been embarrassing. Good news for the Japanese team, though. They came in 3rd. No way that could've happened if the US team had won.

I got word from The Madame. Looks like we'll be catching that dinner on the rooftop of some building on the 18th. She was just worried about if restaurants will be open on that day during the O-Bon holiday. Judging from the masses at Namjatown yesterday, she may not have to worry. For me, it'll be the prices. Speaking of O-Bon, the mass exodus out of Tokyo started last night and should be continuing till later today. I could only imagine the hell that everyone here would have to endure if the idiocy at Heathrow had happened at Narita.

Looks like that little misunderstanding between me and Shard was just that. Everything's back to normal.

Well, I'm pretty much on holiday for the next number of days. My next class won't be til 001's lesson on Wednesday. Looks like I've got a few video tapes to catch up on and try to keep expenditures low at least until the 18th.

Friday August 12, 11:02 p.m.

We've been getting intermittent downpours all night and when I took the trash out down to the fetid dumping area downstairs, I saw a few soundless flashes. Since I haven't heard any rumbles, I can assume that they're too far away. Still, as I was going down the stairs with the metal railings, I was thinking a little bit.

Of course, the Japanese media, notably TBS, has been focusing on the World Track And Field Championships in Helsinki for the past week. Once again, the show's been inexplicably hosted by Yuji Oda, the actor from the famed police drama series "Odoru Dai Sosasen" (Bayside Shakedown) and for those guys who were into trendy dramas of way back, "Tokyo Love Story". It's kinda like asking Brad Pitt to do ABC's "Wide World of Sports". Mind you, the Japanese have always gone to celebs to go on their game shows instead of the regular folks for excitement value, so why not sports specials? Uh...maybe because actors aren't necessarily qualified? And I don't think the TBS sportscasters are slouches at their craft.

But there is one quiz show on local airwaves which actually invites the masses. It's called "Attack 25" and is shown on TV Asahi on Sundays at 1:25 p.m. It's probably the oldest of all the game shows on TV, and it's hosted by a venerable actor and the usual female announcer sidekick. Basically, "Attack 25" is a mix of "Jeopardy" and a game of I-Go. Four folks have to answer trivia questions to gain the most territory on a grid of 25 squares. My Japanese ability is good enough so that I can try to answer at least half of the questions. The player with the most territory at the end of regular play gets to try for the grand prize, which is usually a trip to Europe. The only two things I don't like about the program is the mugging that the players have to do when they're introduced to the camera (now, maybe there is a reason that celebs are usually shown on these shows) and the times when one player basically is heads and shoulders above the competition.

Friday August 12, 6:22 p.m.

The OL was in better spirits today. She's at least accustomed to the vagaries of her job although she's trying to escape it eventually by studying for a test which could get her back onto the university track early next year.

Afterwards, I went up to the Ginza HMV to check for any magazines or CDs which would induce me to waive my austerity program and buy them, but alas, there was nothing worth getting that would have had me part with my yen. Then I went up to Ikebukuro to the Sunshine City Building. There, I checked out Namjatown where all those food museums were located, but it wasn't those places that I was interested in. I wanted to see this permanent exhibit called "Riraku no Mori" which specialized in massage clinics...an inspired idea if a bit overdue considering the mania for massage in this country. I'm not sure where the word "Riraku" derives from. Maybe it's a warped version of "relax" or it's the Japanese version of "lilac". In any case, that mania was certainly illustrated today. The O-bon holiday must have started early for thousands of people since a good chunk of them was at Namjatown.

"Riraku no Mori" (Relaxation/Lilac Forest) is built up as a forest in which several massage places could be found. There is a clinic which specializes in Indian head massage (which I wanted to try), another one for reflexology, and yet another on the more strenuous Thai massage. All of them had long lineups to punctuate their popularity and the fact that it was the summer holiday. There were tons of kids infesting the forest as well as the other exhibits. Ice Cream City was packed to the gills. Basically, my time there was just to observe as I waded through the masses.

I ended up having a filling lunch at a ramen place just around the edge of the Sunshine City complex. For 840 yen, it was a pretty good deal: a bowl of salt-broth ramen with a plate of fried pork, a bowl of rice with pickled greens and a small plate of pickles. I won't be having a very large dinner at all tonight since I still feel bloated. Just a salad and oolong tea. I'm glad I didn't go to the gym today; I could only imagine how much my weight ballooned after that lunch.

With this week being devoted to the people who had died in the two atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it's also rather poignant to see that another tragic anniversary is being observed today. For it was 20 years ago today that JAL Flight 30 to Osaka crashed into the mountains of Gunma Prefecture killing all 520 passengers aboard. It is the worst single-plane crash in history. Although the survivors from the atomic bombings are becoming fewer and fewer, the airplane crash is still fresh in many people's minds. In fact, the usual TBS newscast finished early tonight so that a drama based on that sad day could be played right now. It's starring the comic actor, Naoto Takenaka, from "Shall We Dance?" fame as one of the JAL pilots. There was a ceremony also held (as has been the case every year since the tragedy) at the crash site up in the mountains.

Whenever I'm reminded of the crash, I remember the song "Sukiyaki" or as it's originally known "Ue o Muite Arukoo" ("Let's Walk With Our Heads Held Up High"). A very strange song to hear considering the nature of the tragedy but one of the passengers on Flight 30 was the singer of that song, Kyu Sakamoto. The "Sukiyaki" song has taken on an even more bittersweet tone.

Well, the O-Bon vacation season has finally started in earnest with the highways gradually filling up with cars making the exodus to their passengers' hometowns. It'll probably be another relatively empty megalopolis to look forward to next week...just like Golden Week.

Friday August 12, 7:56 a.m.

Pretty gloomy outside. There is supposed to be some rain later today but it looks like Chiba at least will be getting the precipitation a little early.

Well, Shard has replied back after that suddenly tense end to our last exchange. He didn't refer to the matter after my somewhat glib response. However, I did...ostensibly to apologize if I caused any offense.

Thursday August 11, 10:06 p.m.

Had my third gym outing this week. Again, the guy who I first talked to about my missing file was there but didn't say a word to me about whether something was done about it. Well, the only thing I do with it anyways is just record my weight, heart rate and blood pressure. So I figure why should I care? I've got my access card and that's all I need.

On my way back to the station, I ran into The Songbird and The Den Mother by great coincidence. The Den Mother had just left a message on the machine for me. Looks like she wants to have another outing sometime in the Fall.

Went to the Tea Room for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was completely deserted for the 2.5 hours I was there. It certainly made my teaching a whole lot easier for The Carolinan. Tomorrow, I've got my only lesson with The OL in the morning.

Thursday August 11, 2:01 p.m.

Rather unstable right now. It's clouded over but no sign of rain so far. Still plenty warm and humid, though.

Just had some hearty fare in the form of some Korean miso pork, or metcho, that I whipped up on the stove today. It was a good batch along with the supermarket-bought salad to compensate for the relative lack of veggies yesterday. Well, I'm gonna head for the gym in less than an hour and then it's The Carolinan's lesson at the cafe tonight.

I think today also seems to be the day for misunderstandings. I had a chat with one of my ex-students who's now living in the States. She gave an opinion for which I uttered the word "Absolutely". Suddenly, the next few lines of text had her gasping for an apology. Luckily, I was able to rectify the situation so the chat didn't end badly. However, I just exchanged one of my usual longer e-mails with Shard. Everything went well for the vast part of it but then he seemed to have taken one of my quips a little too seriously and gave me a rather negative emoticon. I just gave him back a "Just jokin'" with happy sign. Gad...you'd think a guy who you've known for well over a decade would understand you a bit better... Enh, then again...I've got a bit of a misanthrope churning inside of me from time to time anyways.

Wednesday August 10, 10:32 p.m.

The weather was diametrically opposed to yesterday's relative pleasantness. It was cooler but a lot more humid. It was like walking through a sea of sweat. Luckily, I got a break through my food spending. I finished off my point card at the kaiten sushi place under my station so I got 500 yen slashed off my bill. I only paid a mere 480 yen for a large platter of sushi. My kaiten sushi really isn't a kaiten anymore...at least, it seems so. The conveyor belt has been stilled during lunch and every time I get home at night and pass by the restaurant, the belt is also unmoving. However, the dinner hour may have it seeing some action. And the place is still open, so I'm happy.

My two lessons at Speedy's worked out pretty well: practice and a lot of laughter...just how I, and hopefully 001 and 002, like them.

My second financial break at a restaurant was at the Golden Arches. I know, I know...I'm only supposed to be hitting the place just once a month. But I am under austerity rules and I got those coupons for the Big M. Only paid 400 yen for a chicken burger, medium fries, a Coke and an apple pie. That really can't be beat. However, I'll try and cook something tomorrow for lunch just to get back to the healthy side.

Tuesday August 9, 10:27 p.m.

I'm sure there were a lot of bitten nails all over the world, especially in this country, but after a couple of delays, the Discovery has come back to Earth safely albeit at an alternate site. I'd been wondering how the shuttle fared while I was at the juku. When I got back, I switched on the TV and saw NHK nonchalantly giving a report on the past 2 weeks that Discovery was up in orbit, so I figured everything was A-OK.

Well, I made it to the gym for the second consecutive day. I don't think it was a huge mistake but I think I should've just passed on the outing today. I couldn't really do all that much on the machines since my extremities were still pretty sore. I'd thought about not going but I just didn't want to end up procrastinating as I usually do. But I will take a day off tomorrow.

It was just the two hours at the juku today since The New Kid and The Siberian were off. The Beauty Pair and I once again used some of the hour to discuss our next outing. As I mentioned before, we'll be heading to Namjatown in Ikebukuro in September. It'll be my third annual outing to the various food emporiums but also we'll be taking a look and hopefully partaking in that Massage Forest that's become part of the exhibit. Instead of food, there are various salons specializing in their own little massage techniques. After checking out the website, I'm pretty confident that this will be a permanent area.

The Milds and McGirl did quite well today since instead of splitting us into two practice pairs, I just held a round-robin drill session. We also humourously illustrated the generation gap between the three of us adults and McGirl.

To finish off, there may be some fallout from that failure to pass The Postal Privatization Bill and subsequent dissolution of Parliament here. A number of LDP lawmakers also voted against the Bill which is quite verboten in discipline-crazy Japanese politics. So there is a good possibility that those so-called Benedict Arnolds will receive their punishment in the form of non-support when it comes to the election seats. I'm sure that those lawmakers had been well aware of the consequences so there is probably little regret from them. I'd say they should go Independent and make the election slightly more interesting.

Tuesday August 9, 1:50 p.m.

Just for the record...it is the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It's not my intention to be flip about this somber occasion, but I rather think that the second city to be attacked by a nuclear weapon must feel like a forgotten younger brother. I was only reminded of the event by seeing a brief clip on CNN. Didn't see anything on the local channels here although to be fair, I think there had to have been some coverage.

The tributes to the late Peter Jennings continue. It was rather amazing to see that all top 3 networks in America started off with the passing of Jennings. I only thought that would happen when Walter Cronkite dies. Looks like the media community has been very sentimental about the death. I saw Diane Sawyer choke up at one point, and I swear that the usually snarky Aaron Brown got a bit misty-eyed.

My Tuesday morning and early afternoon have been pretty relaxing so far. I went outside to get some groceries. The heat was there but it was unusually dry and there was a breeze constantly wafting through so the walk wasn't uncomfortable at all. In fact, I'd say it was a pleasant walk to and back from the supermarket. Mind you, I had the fashion bias in that I was just wearng a T-shirt and my gym shorts instead of the restrictive shirt and tie. Although I naturally couldn't live this kind of lifestyle for long, it's rather nice not to have to worry about grammar lessons and students all that much. At least when I go to the gym, I can see...or more accurately, feel...the results of my workout while the satisfaction in teaching is more elusive and longer-term. As it is, I just have The Beauty Pair and The Milds today. The New Kid can't make it out which doesn't faze me too much considering the lame no-show he pulled last week.

Monday August 8, 11:13 p.m.

Well, it's been quite the news night: a delay, a death and a defeat. The delay was hearing about the space shuttle Discovery being told to stay up there an extra day due to weather concerns. I guess that Air France crash in Toronto last week must've given NASA some pause.

The death was the not-so-surprising news that ABC anchor Peter Jennings had passed away from cancer. During my high school and university days in the 80s, I would usually see the unflappable Jennings instead of going to the CBC or his fellow anchormen, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. His mellifluous tones did make the news go down all that much better. When I saw his haggard face earlier this year as he made his announcement about his cancer, I knew it was just a matter of time.

The other not-so-surprising thing was the defeat of Koizumi's Postal Privatization Bill in Parliament today. In a way, I was rather glad that it was defeated since I had some reservations on hearing that there probably would've been some cutbacks in services if Japan Post had gone private due to the high upkeep. It wasn't soon after the announcement that the Bill had been defeated that Koizumi played his trump card and dissolved Parliament. Now we're officially in General Election season until the ultimate vote next month. The media has been all over this one today. When I was at the gym, a couple of the television monitors were showing the vote on the Bill live in the Lower House. And then as I was passing the newspaper kiosks in the subway stations later on in the day, I just saw the kanji for "dissolution". Right now, NHK has been going on for almost 90 minutes exclusively on the rejection of the Bill. Just wondering who can follow Koizumi. Ah...the date for the election: September 11.

As I said, I did make it to the gym today. Looks like the minders there have decided to change the format on the user files. Usually, there is a series of files of all of the gym users in the changerooms. I pick it up and take out the record sheet on which I put down my weight, blood pressure and heart rate. Well, I noticed that the file area looked very sparse today, and sure enough, my file wasn't there. I checked with one of the trainers and found out that indeed there was some sort of overhauling going on last week. In any case I got complimented by him on how low, or healthy, my blood pressure was. And I was quite surprised, too. I had heard from CNN that the danger mark was 180/90. Well, I'm happy to say that it was 102/66....too low? I did put my all out..used almost all of the machines and jogged a full half-hour on the treadmill. I do feel a bit achy right now which means that I'll probably be feeling a lot more pain in the morning. Luckily, I have another full day of nothing before the juku.

It was another sloggy session at The Company. It was just a skeleton crew at the office since The Prez and Junior along with a few others were off on business trips. I just had Junior's classmate. He was OK with the early review but hit a brick wall in the next chapter thanks to some new vocab and grammatical structures. I really I wish I could've done a better job prepping up but frankly my motivation is not all that high when I think that all my teaching for a student seems to go down a black hole. Fortunately, I had a better time with The Poppy.

My attrition rate continues...SR called up to say that she wanted to cancel her session this Friday due to morning sickness. Yes, she's entered that phase of life.

Sunday August 7, 8:34 p.m.

It's been a fairly quiet afternoon and evening. Hopefully, on a meterological level, it stays that way.

However for the country's top politician, tonight is the eve before what will probably be his biggest career battle. For tomorrow will be the day that the vote will be held on the Postal Privatization Bill, PM Koizumi's raison d'etre for his prime ministership. I'm sure the airwaves will be focused on Nagatacho like a laser beam all throughout the day. And even if the bill doesn't pass, which could very well happen, he can simply snap his fingers and the Lower House will come crashing down. And then we'll be entering elections. Nothing like good political intrigue.

At the same time, Dr. Noguchi and the rest of the Discovery team will be flying down back to Earth. And perhaps all eyes in Japan (except for mine and those of the Company's since I'll be teaching class then) will be watching for the shuttle's safe return to Earth in what could be a climactic denouement after the bill vote.

Looks like we've got another psycho making the news here. Another one of those typically "quiet..a bit of a loner" types has been nabbed for possibly being a serial killer. He was roving through suicide websites looking for victims to suffocate and kill. He managed to at least off three people so far, including a junior high school kid.

Well, I've got the prelims planned for tomorrow's lessons. It'll be a very late start since The Class Act and SIL are on summer hiatus. I've got The Company and then The Poppy in Shinjuku. Once I finish this, I'll probably do a bit more translation for the latter.

Sunday August 7, 3:42 p.m.

Well, it's fascinating how people react differently to the same movie. I've now seen "Revenge of the Sith" three times (and no, I don't particularly say that with a great amount of pride). Last night's final viewing was at the same place as my first viewing...at Roppongi Hills. I met Frodo and Movie Buddy and we all settled in to see George Lucas' magnum opus reach its end.

I enjoyed it easily enough when I'd caught it at the Premier Theatre in RH back on July 9th almost a month ago. And a couple of weeks ago, when I'd seen it with The Satyr, his girlfriend and The Madame, we enjoyed it pretty much. However, things turn a mighty turn to the Dark Side when it came to that third viewing with the Aussies.

Things started hinting at a bad end when I noticed MB and Frodo doing a lot of restless moving in their seats, and then I knew things were taking a turn for the worse when the two were openly snickering and laughing at the lines spouted on screen. I knew beforehand of course about the writing "prowess" of George Lucas. But when the lights came up, Frodo just uttered the word "terrible". And then, Movie Buddy, who just couldn't wait to get outside, openly wished he could have gotten his money back.

The three of us then just walked over to the local Tony Romas' in Roppongi to analyze why they hated it so. Naturally, the usual reasons of lousy acting, rotten script and special effects taking over the story were stated. I guess for me, being the quintessential Libra, I find myself once again straddling the fence (you can take the expression for ill or good...ah, once again, my Libran tendencies are showing). I think fanboys will take Star Wars and just love it no matter what. But on the other hand, those who want good, well-scripted and well-acted movies should look elsewhere. Frodo and MB are very much the latter. The Stick is in the former category for sure, although, she is somewhat "hampered" by the fact that she often relies on the Japanese subtitles so she's rather immune to the "stylized" delivery by the actors. As I said, I'm solidly in the middle. Yes, I did clench my butt mightily whenever a Hayden Christensen/Natalie Portman scene came about especially during that third viewing since the special effects were now old hat to me, and the lapses in logic started to bubble into view. On the other hand, I did look forward to seeing ROTS...warts, Jar Jar Binks and all. And seeing it for what it was, I accepted that it is just a special effects extravaganza with characters that I've grown up and lived with. Again, I'm not one of those people who is especially attuned to the quality of acting or writing; I wouldn't know the difference between a great performance or script to that of a mediocre one. I can only detect the terrible ones...and yes, Star Wars is in that category. I can only gather that true movie buffs will probably leave partway through ROTS while those who just want to get away from reality for a couple of hours will go along for the ride.

Enough of that. It had been a while since I had anything to do with the original seedy strip of Roppongi. One tout came up to us and invited us to a T&A bar. We just passed him by and had our dinner at Tony Romas. We noticed how intense the gaijin quotient was in this branch. Fortunately, the rest of the conversation didn't continue on the commiseration of ROTS but went onto other movies and music. All in all, my financial austerity program kinda hit a hiccup with the money I shucked out for the movie and dinner. Still, despite the lateness of the hour, the three of us went up the street to have a bit of coffee at the local Excelsiors. There, we were visually entertained by the sight of some of the female wildlife which inhabits the jungle of Roppongi. A couple of barely-in-their-twenties women sat down at the next table wearing very little and wondering how those patches of fabric managed to stay up. The one girl was wearing translucent pants and pretty much just a green pasta noodle as an undergarment.

In any case, the witching hour was approaching so Frodo made his way home while MB and I took the long subway back to my place. Luckily, the timer on the AC was working like a charm so it was very frosty in my living room when we got back. We used some of the late time to watch the "Doctor Who" two-parter and then gab some more on ROTS before finally retiring. The AC got a very long workout from us so I'm expecting a rather enlarged bill from TEPCO later this month. We did get a slight jolt from Mother Earth in the form of a Shindo 3 tremor. Movie Buddy didn't even flinch though he acknowledged the presence of the earthquake.

Finally got up around 11 this morning and after a bit of thought, we just ended up having lunch at the nearby Skylark for a few hours. We were basically playing "You Be The Production Team" on a number of movies including ROTS. It was a very good conversation. At this point, the only other person I could talk this long and deeply with is The Madame.

Now that I'm back home after seeing off MB, I've just done some washing. Well, I figure that I'll just be taking it easy for a few hours and then get started on my usual lesson planning later tonight.

Saturday August 6, 11:45 a.m.

Now that I've gotten that rather serious topic off my chest, now for something completely different. I went off for my haircut. It was the good ol' shampoo/cut/rinse/massage/blow dry routine interspersed with the usual exchanged banalities between customer and stylist.

The shampoo was very cleansing but as soon as I got outside, the sweat started pouring off my scalp again. Will definitely need that shower before I take off for Kiba today.

Saturday August 6, 8:26 a.m.

As I write this, the 60th-anniversary ceremonies of the Hiroshima bombing is under way. Despite the special milestone reached this year, everything still seems the same: the usual declaration of no more nuclear weapons by the mayor of Hiroshima, the usual commitment by two junior high school students to peace, the usual replies of scheduling conflicts by the nuclear powers when rejecting the invitations by Japan, and the usual address by the Prime Minister.

If my words sound cynical, let me reassure you...they are. One of my professors in International Relations many years ago stated that there can be no such thing as true peace despite all the protests, declarations and commitments. His statement didn't particularly surprise me at the time although I couldn't really put my reasons into words or thoughts. Time and various events have finally helped me formulate them.

I don't remember the explanation my prof gave behind his statement. However, I think I can come up with some of the reasoning. Not to say that all humans are all latent sociopaths ready to unleash hell but all humans have dark sides. And in a world that has brought forward people ranging from Mother Teresa to Jack the Ripper to Adolf Hitler to Winston Churchill, there is infinite possibility in terms of humans tapping into that dark side to varying degrees. This tapping into the dark side could include thoughts of envy about that kid next door owning the iPod or the actions of shooting the kid to death to get that iPod. The same could be said about campaigning against nukes, rationalizing the need to own nukes to....heaven forbid, the actual usage of nukes again (although I think they will be used in the future). Many kinds of people out there.

At the risk of further sounding like a certain Muppet Jedi, fear has been the most powerful emotion to motivate the masses; neither sadness nor happiness...not even righteous anger comes close to what fear can do. That's why the nuclear powers have nukes in the first place: to let their enemies know that if push comes to shove to pushing red buttons, they will threaten or promise to wreak annihilation. That's why most of the nuclear powers will never send representatives to Hiroshima or Nagasaki...it would be the most public display of hypocrisy from people who regularly wallow in it. And even politicians are only willing to say so much without throwing up in their mouths.

The other human failing involved here is forgetfulness. The expression "Never Forget" has been a mantra yelled and intoned over and over again since 1945. However as I watch the coverage of the ceremonies, only BBC and CNN are now showing them. All of the local commercial stations have gone back to their regular sugar-coated programming. Even NHK, after showing 15 minutes of live coverage including the tolling of the bell at 8:15, had gone back to normal programming several minutes ago. So much for a very auspicious day. Also, I'm rather concerned that despite all the exhortations, there is the potential to finally wash all of this away as the hibakusha slowly fade away. The survivors of the nuclear blasts are on average in their mid-70s. Most likely, they'll all be gone within 20 years. What will happen then? I think once all of the survivors finally do pass away, there will be a slow fading of collective memory. It will be difficult to imagine or feel the horror of nuclear holocaust without the presence of the survivors even if the survivors have passed on their stories to later generations. Words, like photocopying copies of copies, will lose strength over the ages. I'm sure Marco Polo and George Washington must have had amazing lives but to most of us, their exploits will remain dates and events in history.

Sad to say, and perhaps these next words will be the most damning ones I've ever committed to this blog, but I think the only way humanity right now will truly know the horror of nuclear war is if multiple blasts, not just one blast, occurred somewhere on the planet whether by national design or terrorist attack. And even then, most likely the higher echelons in the nuclear governments will rationalize them as the ultimate necessary evil. No, to achieve total peace would require no less than the ultimate fear of global armageddon and a very serious paradigm shift in what it means to be human. Some years ago, a journalist had written in an article about the nature of racial hatred that it may not be humane but it is human. Well, I think the only way things such as nuclear abolishment can become real is if those two words, "human" and "humane" become synonyms. At present, I rather wonder if the two are just antonyms.

Friday August 5, 10:47 p.m.

Almost six hours to defrag my hard drive. Man, I must've screwed up it pretty badly. Maybe I ought to consider defragging it quarterly instead of semi-annually. While the computer was rearranging its insides, I was kinda doing the same by ingesting a large daikon salad with a bit of popcorn chicken. That oughta clean my pipes overnight.

Well, I've managed to clean up the apartment so it looks cluttered but presentable. Just hope the cockroaches don't decide to visit...especially that mutant giant that was seen in my bedroom. I'm not sure that even Movie Buddy, as laid back as he is, would be too thrilled on seeing an insect that could fly fish with its antennae.

On that "Doctor Who" tape I got from The Entrepreneur, he was also kind enough to throw in a couple of episodes from the new "Battlestar Galactica". Here I was thinking that DW was updated considerably to reflect the times...BG is even more grittier. I had seen the original pilot which was also quite a switch from the old 70s series but the episodes I saw today ensured that the new show is a very different animal than its predecessor. I saw a lot of different levels of political power plays; violence, implied and real, amongst the protagonists; and some simulated sex between Starbuck and Baltar. Quite a long ways from the "we're-all-in-this-together" atmosphere with do-gooder Richard "Apollo" Hatch and the male Starbuck. Power to both series.

Well, got that appointment with my hairstylist tomorrow morning and then it's off to teach JJ at the Starbucks. I hope she's out of that funk of hers that she showed me a couple of weeks ago. Otherwise, I might be seeing a lot of free time on my Saturdays. Then, it's off to Roppongi Hills to see "Revenge of the Sith" for the third and definitely final time.

Friday August 5, 2:47 p.m.

I had been wondering what was up with the digital display going out at Kiba and the sudden scrunching of trains last night. Well, I found out on the news today that there was a major power outage just east of here in Chiba City which basically meant all the trains there were out of service. Thousands of commuters were stranded. And I count my lucky stars.

Friday August 5, 2:16 p.m.

Feels literally hotter than a sauna out there. There was an NHK report recently in which the concrete in Tokyo raises the reported temps in the big city by 5-10 degrees...which ought to mean that it's really 45 C out there. In any case, I'm back home now in air conditioned comfort.

I met The Teacher for the only time this month since she has to help out her younger son on Fridays in August with his swimming lessons. Our article du jour was on Al Roker's stomach-stapling operation...I kid you not. To be perfectly frank, neither of us are particularly lightweight folks so perhaps the article did have some meaning to us but mostly in the vein that we are lucky not to be as obese as some of these other behemoths. Ironically, The Teacher gave me her stamp card since it's now full so I can get a nice discount on my meal there although I only go there just for her. It expires at the end of the month so I'll have to go there solo since I won't be seeing her until the first week of September.

Speaking of discounts, I actually went to McDonalds today to take advantage of my series of coupons that I'd received from The OL last Saturday. I got a Double Beef Pepper Burger with small fries and small Chicken McNuggets and a medium Coke...all for 550 yen. Definitely a bargain...and a great example of culinarily weaponized paper. The DBPB was, as its name would suggest, appropriately beefy and peppery. I'm gonna have to be very careful about these coupons since I could get back into my mid-90s mode of heading out every other day to the Golden Arches and that can't be good for my weight. Maybe I'll hand it off to Movie Buddy tomorrow.

And speaking of The OL, I just got a call from her (lucky her) saying that she has to cancel class tonight due to her much hated job. I re-scheduled her for next Friday morning in The Teacher's time slot. I basically wasted an excess 310 yen for the all-day pass in anticipation of heading out to see both The Teacher and her but on the other hand, I now have plenty of time to fix up the place for Movie Buddy's sleepover tomorrow night. He'll definitely need the AC on all night.

I'll have to keep any cleaning down to some lighter stuff, though. My living room is nice and cool but the rest of the place is still in sauna territory. It wouldn't do to suffer heatstroke before meeting Movie Buddy for the weekend.

Thursday August 4, 10:40 p.m.

Just found out on the NHK sports news that a famous high school baseball team has decided to pull out of the national championships, a competition that actually has more audience clout than the professional Japan Series, since it was brought to light yesterday that team members were smoking in their dorms and hazing juniors. Uhhhh...wait a minute...doesn't that happen regularly anyways in many high schools? I think something else is up here.

Skippy finally replied after disappearing for a few weeks. Looks like she got the rug pulled out from her when she'd found out that her apartment lease had lapsed. Well after several days of frantic searching through the real estate agencies, she finally got a new place.

I finally got the times down for Episode 3 at Roppongi Hills on Saturday. It'll be an early evening call so when we include dinner, it's most likely that Movie Buddy and I will be getting home rather late.

Thursday August 4, 9:36 p.m.

Well, took me over two and a half years but I finally passed the 1000-entry mark. From some pretty humble beginnings, I assure you.

Made my way over to Kiba for the first time since the earthquake which almost stranded me there two weeks ago. Nope, I didn't get any flashbacks from Nam or any anxiety attacks. Just got very sweaty. Business didn't seem as hectic as usual at the Starbucks. I had a good lesson with The Manager but MK got a bit moody at the end, presumably because I kinda pushed her a little hard in her superlatives. Well, at least she won't have to deal with me for over 3 weeks.

As I waiting on the platform of Kiba Station, the digital display of which trains were coming and when suddenly winked out. My first thought was one of "Not again..." in that perhaps there was another delay on the line. But it did show up but I bypassed it and the next one since there was hardly room for a sardine let alone an overweight human on either one. And they were locals, bad ones to get on at that station and at that time of night. I usually get on the semi-express since I can stay on the side of the train that doesn't open until I reach Urayasu Station where I get off and wait for the next local, which by that time is considerably less populated with commuters.

Thursday August 4, 1:05 p.m.

It isn't a summer in Japan without seeing a dead lizard on one's stairway. Well, it is now officially summer. I saw another my second tiny legs-and-tail up reptile slowly dessicating in the heat on my way to the local convenience store to pick up lunch.

Saw the last two eps of the first season of this resurrected "Doctor Who". The show's got me hooked although it's a pity that Chris Eccleston has decided to leave the series 2 years below the average length of time for an actor's turn through the good Doctor. On seeing the new guy, David Tennant for those last 10 seconds, it looks like a new direction. The Entrepreneur was kind enough to insert the pilot episode before the final two-parter. It gave me a chance to compare the character arc. Eccleston's angle on one of TV sci-fi's most enduring characters came off as certainly one of the most human despite the instances peppered throughout the season of him showing himself to be most definitely not.

Well, should be getting ready to get out to the gym although I'm not sure if I should even be doing so considering the heat outside. Mind you, I'm supposed to be inside a gym but the weather forecasters keep saying that any sort of physical activity anywhere isn't highly recommended during these dog days of summer. I gather that a lot of couples wouldn't be too "busy" in August.

Wednesday August 3, 10:46 p.m.

It was a straight in-and-out at Speedy's today. My first lesson with 002 went well. She said that the 90 minutes just flew like that...just how I like to hear it. And 001 was as dependable as usual. Speedy and I were riding each other about how that Air France crash in Toronto would finish off our chances of ever getting 002 over there on her homestay. However, 002 took it well.

Speaking of the Air France non-disaster, it was rather interesting watching the latest "Doctor Who" episode called "The Doctor Dances". Strangely enough for a BBC show that used to cater to kids in its earlier regeneration (a DW inside joke), there was almost always some form of death being dished out to the innocent as well as the guilty. Well in this ep, when things looked at its darkest, the good Doctor won out with nary a person losing his/her life. "Everybody lives!" he proclaimed joyfully and for once in his nine lives, he and his companion just tripped the light fantastic in the TARDIS. Well, there is certainly a parallel to be had with this ep and what had happened on the tarmac at Pearson International. One would hope that that would be the case with all air crashes.

Feeling pretty zapped right now after another steamy day. And I've got my weekly stint at the gym "to look forward to" tomorrow before meeting with The Manager and MK. I'm not gonna touch anything related to English teaching tonight. Gonna leave everything for tomorrow morning since I won't be leaving til mid-afternoon.

Wednesday August 3, 8:10 a.m.

I always seem to find out about these disasters when I wake up and turn on the TV. I got up an hour ago and saw that there had been an Air France crash at Pearson International. It is indeed a miracle that nobody was killed or even seriously injured. I was made quite aware about the difference in accents between Canadians and Americans as I was watching this news conference by one of the top guys at the airport on CNN. It rather reminded me of South Park: The Movie.

Tuesday August 2, 10:51 p.m.

Once again, the meterologists hinted at some lightning and downpours but nothing came of it.

I met up with The Madame at Shibuya for lunch. She found an inexpensive place just across from Bunkamura called Uwajima. It was another one of those hidden diamonds in the rough of Shibuya. It was in a rather non-descript building across from the huge Outback Grill on the 2nd floor. We were rather pleasantly delighted to enter a surprisingly spacious Japanese-style restaurant. The food and prices certainly couldn't be beat. The two of us had the tai meshi, a do-it-yourself type of dish in which you place slices of raw sea bream on a bowl of rice. Then you add some seasonings and pour a mixture of raw egg and soy sauce over the whole thing. We also got a bit of cold udon and some pickled vegetables. Not bad for a flat 1000 yen.

We continued the conversation in the next building at Soho's for their cake set. While we had our cake and coffee, our streak of talking about somewhat racy stuff and gossip was yet to be broken. We traded some rather interesting stories. By the time we got back to Shibuya Station, we rather flimsily stated that we would go for that night view from a tall building next. I've already started to look at some places but I'm not quite sure when we'll next meet.

The juku was rather entertaining tonight. The juku boss was wringing her hands over what had happened to The New Kid. As for me, I've had some doubts about his motivation recently. He'd been coming to class almost a half-hour late, and tonight he didn't show up at all. The juku boss called up his mother, her friend, and managed to have her blow up. It ended up that the sheepish kid had just slept the afternoon away at home. All I can say is that I hope the mother left some DNA of her son for posterity. I received some very heartfelt apologies from the mother but I just replied that it was OK. And it was...I would rather have someone who really wanted to be there instead of some kid going through the motions.

Looks like The Beauty Pair started another project for an outing with me. This time, we will head out to Namjatown for the Gyoza Museum, Ice Cream City and whatever food is being exhibited in late September. This outing to this Ikebukuro emporium seems to be becoming an annual affair. Also, we may try out this supposed new massage exhibition as well...if it exists.

The Milds came back from their trip to Switzerland. The McKid wasn't there today which helped me help The Milds catch up. One thing I love about students who love to travel is that I always get a nice souvenir. I received a box of assorted Lindt chocolates....mmmmmmm, creamy.

So, with The Siberian off in Oz and The New Kid going further down on my respect scale, I only taught 2 hours. And I found out from the sleepyhead New Kid himself over the phone that he won't be coming out next week either. But I do have to make up that cancelled last Tuesday round of classes. So I'll probably be teaching The Beauty Pair on the last Friday of the month while I'll have to figure out what to do with The Milds.

I received a postcard from The Hawaiian last night. Looks like she's been having a good time in Australia. And she will definitely be staying until well into the Fall.

Tuesday August 2, 10:02 a.m.

First Tuesday without the Beehive whilst they're on summer hiatus. It's still pretty steamy out there but it has been clouding over. We even got a brief spritzer earlier in the morning. It kinda reminds me of all that foreboding weather before the typhoon that wasn't last week. Although there isn't one forecast for much of this week, we may be due for some sudden downpours and even lightning. There have even been a few strikes on some poor people not too far away from here. Miraculously, they've all survived.

Koizumi is facing a mighty battle this week. Supposedly either this Thursday or early next week, the bill for the privatization bill for the post office gets the big vote. The PM's very reason for his election was very much based on this bill. I was talking with SIL about it yesterday during her lesson. She's of two minds. On the one hand, she feels that if the Japanese Postal Service were privatized, there may be better service from better staff (apparently, the JPS seems to be staffed by a whole bunch of inexperienced part-timers). But on the other hand, privatization could mean reduction of post office branches in the name of efficiency; a lot of rural folks, especialy the retired ones, could face a lot of problems trying to reach their local branches.

On a totally different note, I've been greatly enjoying the latest eps of "Doctor Who". Some really snappy writing there. This new bisexual character, Jack Harkness, looks to be a Tom Cruise clone right down to the million-watt smile.

Well, gotta take yet another shower and then head out to meet The Madame for lunch.

Monday August 1, 9:14 p.m.

True to the time of year, August has started with blazing heat and humidity. I'm telling myself that in 4 short months, it'll be December.

Looks like the middle week of the month will be the "holiday" week. O-Bon has even affected The Company. The guys will be off that Monday. Well, it'll be the first free and clear non-statutory holiday Monday for me in a number of years. I'll have to check with some of the other folks on the schedule about whether or not they'll be taking off for the hometowns. I was jamming with The Company guys today about this whole exodus back which always brings about the worst traffic jams and other transportation tieups. Junior replied that there is a very strong traditional pull for the family to head back home...kinda reminds me of the salmon. Well, unless my uncle starts tugging on my leash, I'll be very happy to stay within the borders, thank you very much.

I'm still seeing quite a few women decked out in their kimono finest on the trains. Of course, in reflection of the times, the kimono have somewhat wilder colours and the women are still sporting their tans and purple toenail polish.

I've started my financial austerity. I kept my food purchases under 2000 yen (that's pretty much the minimum for me) and restrained mightily from heading over to Tower Records or HMV in Shibuya to look for magazines or CDs. Instead, I just headed over to RECOFan, the discount disc place. I didn't think I would really find anything which is why I went there. Sure enough, there was nothing of note.

Monday August 1, 8:25 a.m.

Grumble, grumble...got the first cancellation of the week from The Poppy. Well, I was warned by her mother that cancellations will be a common part of my schedule with her. I guess I shouldn't mind too much since that'll mean I get to go home early but seeing that I made another loss last month, I wouldn't mind a little more income this month. The problem is that this is a key vacation month for the Japanese.

I got e-mail from Movie Buddy. He confirmed for this Saturday night. Looks like Frodo has gotten parole from his newly-enlarged family and will be joining us. I sent off a missive to Skippy to invite her, but also to see what she's been up to. I haven't heard from her in some weeks now. I also sent off mail to The Teacher to see if she's still up for this Friday. I should find out what her future with me will be.

Hmm...let's see. I think it'll be quite a slow month businesswise. The Beehive and The Class Act will be on their usual hiatus and the juku will take one Tuesday off this month for O-Bon. And the kids won't be seen til September. I may have to go into a more ascetic mode.

Sunday July 31, 9:04 p.m.

And what did I do on this last day of the month? Just went over to Speedy's on a rare trip to witness one of the other teachers pull off a "Cooking in English" lesson with 001, 002 and a couple of other ladies. I actually ended up using most of the time before eating to start prelim plans for 002's first lesson on Wednesday.

The lunch consisted of Sesame Curry, salad, Coconut and Cashew Rice and Ice Cream with Sauteed Bananas. Quite a spread for 4 students to tackle in a second tongue but they pulled it off with aplomb. I think the school is quite lucky that it has a teacher who has a great love for cooking. I initially aimed just to spend a few pleasant hours there but I ended up staying for a good 7 hours thanks to a leisurely lunch and an inadvertent nap time.

Earlier in the morning, I got a call from Mom. Looks like she, Dad and their friends had a good time vacationing in Eastern Canada. I told her about my visa situation. I was pleasantly surprised that she took it quite well; in fact, she related to me that she has the original copy of her family register...and that I managed to screw up the kanji of both her and Dad's names. Ah, well. However, maybe now I can just bypass all that work with the town hall and just reach the scrivener directly.

Well, got myself some lesson planning to do. Luckily, I don't have to iron anything tonight.

Saturday July 30, 11:19 p.m.

Had a rare sunshower as I stepped out today. No rainbows seen though. There was also the sight of young women decked out in their finest kimono and even a few men in their yukata as they made their way to the Sumida River Fireworks Festival. It used to be a yearly destination for me until a couple of years ago. The former student who used to hold the fireworks parties at her apartment sadly passed away last year.

Instead, I met up with The OL and Betty Boop in Akabanebashi for what was supposed to be a broiled eel dinner. Unfortunately, though Eel Day was officially on Thursday, the eel restaurants were all packed so no reservations there. Therefore, we walked down to the trendy area of Azabu-Juban to try out some Korean restaurant. I hadn't realized that Akabanebashi was so close to Tokyo Tower. It will make for a good alternative to the usual Shiba Park Station that I used to take...not that I go to that area all that much.

Usually over here when people mention Korean food, the image that pops to mind is yakiniku or Korean BBQ. The BBQ places probably number as much as McDonalds branches. However, the restaurant we frequented didn't specialize...or generalize, if you wish...in the usual beef on iron plate cuisine. It was called Grace, a rather unusual name for a Korean restaurant, and it specializes in Sangetan, a Korean equivalent of Mom's chicken soup with all of the health benefits implied. It comes in a bowl in which the broth is absolutely bubbling like crazy. Sangetan includes half a boiled chicken which the waitress cuts up for you along with rice and special vegetables. It is consider to be a healthy dish but I did put some salt and pepper since it was initially a bit bland. Quite good, though. We also had some other dishes such as Chige Nabe and Bibimbap. All very good. I would definitely come back for another round.

The conversation, as I had expected, was a steam-venting session. Both ladies have been having some tough times at work to the extent that both are now seriously thinking of ditching their respective companies in the near future. BB was certainly a different person than the usual bubbly presence of yore. She looked and sounded tired and more hard-bitten; barely used any English tonight, something that she used to do with a passion. And it was the first time to see The OL's snarly side. I can now imagine what her home life must be like. I just told them that if they really disliked their jobs, they should just leave as soon as possible. Perhaps my Western bias is showing since it's easier said than done to just quit a company in one's thirties but from personal experience, one can only get angrier and sicker by just staying in a toxic environment. The OL and BB are already showing the symptoms.

After Grace, we went around the corner to the Azabu Starbucks. As would befit the area, this Starbucks was a bit more classier with its sofas and multiple washrooms. The talk was more relaxed there thankfully. Looks like our next gourmet stop will be Mexican.

I see that I got a thank-you postcard from Speedy for my small contribution to his school (I may have to rely on his good graces in terms of my visa if Plan A doesn't work out) and I got a set of photos and postcards from my friend up in Karuizawa. Plus, The Jazz Singer has actually contacted me and left her new e-mail address. Seems like the hatchet, if there had been one, has been buried.

Saturday July 30, 8:45 a.m.

Went off to that welcome back party for the Beach Girl. It was a stylish place called Wanosho (trust me, the name looks better in Kanji). It was one of those neo-izakaya...a Japanese pub done up in dark wood and dim lighting with jazz playing in the background. The waitress took me up to the second floor. I was surprisingly the first one there although I'd arrived there just at 7:30, supposedly the official start time. It would be another 5 minutes before another soul came. It was The Carolinan. She told me that her sister would be a scratch since she got saddled with a sudden shift change.

Then, it would be another 10 minutes before the actual organizer of the party arrived. And finally everyone else came around 8. At least with this crowd, being fashionably late was taken to heart. The guest of honour herself, The Beach Girl, has done well in her 2-year life in California. She was just bubbly and babbling in English and Japanese...she'd be great on a bilingual gossip show. SR also showed up along with a lot of familiar faces from BG's wedding a couple of years ago including one American who had wowed everyone at the karaoke party immediately after the wedding. But I was surprised to see Jazz Singer appear as well. I thought she was still sore at me for comparing her rendition of "Lollipop" to a Puffy Amiyumi tune. Well, if she still was, she hid it pretty well last night. She's now working at a jazz bar in Tokyo looking for that big break. Hope she gets it.

Overall, I enjoyed the party more than I did the Quarterback's birthday party in the same area a couple of weeks earlier. Still, I have to admit that eating in groups still doesn't hold a lot of appeal to me anymore. I guess it's the selfish part of me but I seem to prefer being in the situation where I have control...such as a classroom. I guess that makes me a bit of a control freak although I don't go out of my way to take over the festivities in a party. Schmoozing was never one of my strong points.

The food at Wanosho was quite good and the price reflected that and the ambience and the location. I shucked out 4000 yen for my dinner. The folks were just about to go to the final stage of the meal with the zosui, or rice soup mixed in the broth of the chicken hot pot, but it was approaching 11:15 and I really didn't want to face the same situation as last Saturday and take an equally pricey taxi ride home again. So I had to take off. As it turned out, I was fairly lucky. I caught the 2nd-last train on the Hanzomon Line and its equivalent number on the Tozai. The Tozai got very packed around Nihombashi. As would be the case, I made sure that I was smack dab in the middle between the doors so I didn't have to face the accordion of people. As I stepped out of the train and walked home through the cooler but still humid air, I looked out for the inevitable Friday examples of vomit puddles or street monja as I like to call them. There was only one small puddle near the supermarket. It was pretty darn hot in my apartment. Tokyo is definitely one of the places where you can wear a shirt for just a few hours without any sort of major physical activity and then have to wash it again.

I finally got that message from BB and The OL. Looks like we are a go for tonight for eel. I'll be meeting those two at Akebononbashi Station in the afternoon.

Friday July 29, 1:34 p.m.

I'm happy at the quickness of the response albeit not with the response itself. I got a call just now from the town hall of my mother's hometown concerning her presence on the family register. I was quietly tickled by the cute Kansai intonation the woman had while she was speaking with me. I wasn't all that optimistic that I would initially make any headway on a first contact, and sure enough, the lady told me that I would need further proof of my connection with my mother. That will definitely mean I won't be seeing that scrivener on the 3rd unless she has a new plan. I've sent a letter to her cancelling the appointment.

Friday July 29, 11:27 a.m.

Another hot one out there but there could be some rain later on in the evening. Well, hopefully I can get some laundry done and dried before I take off for dinner tonight.

Just got the usual biweekly rubdown. I was the only one in the clinic for most of the session. I finally got the clinic head but this time he actually laid a bit of pain on me in the form of a squeezing of my shoulder blades. Not too bad, though.

In sports, Japan must be feeling mighty good about itself. Not only did their expats, Ichiro and Matsui, do their country proud over in the Bigs, but a couple of swimmers got Silver and Bronze at the World Championships in Montreal last night. And even a couple of J-League soccer teams managed to embarrass Real Madrid and Manchester United in a couple of friendlies here. Mind you, in that case, the European teams probably had their third-stringers on the pitch...but so was Becks. He didn't look too happy out there....but then again, if I were a superstar who had just been laid low in a country where I had been treated like a god, I wouldn't be skipping around either.

I guess it would be time for one of my cultural observations. People everywhere often talk about the generation gap. Y'know...the old fogy admonishing his grandkids with "In my day and age, I didn't need a blasted cellphone to amuse myself", and the kids coming back "My old man just DOESN'T understand me!" Well, I think things have come or are getting to a head over here. I wouldn't call it a generation gap, or even chasm. Nope, instead of using geological terminology, I'd rather use geopolitical. It's more of a generational cold war, unfortunately leading to some small hot ones along the border.

Ms. Tee of the Beehive was witness to a heated exchange on the train a few days ago between a gyaru (Shibuya gal) and an older woman over the usage of a cellphone. Of course, the young lady was punching away at the tiny keyboard like a pro sending and receiving messages like a post office while the older woman was huffing and puffing away at the girl's antics. Now, it is technically illegal for anyone to communicate via voice on a cellphone (although I've seen boors of all ages and genders flaunt the rule occasionally) so the girl really wasn't breaking the law. However, the older one, who was sitting beside her, finally confronted the younger and told her that it was rude of her to use the phone. The younger one just laughed back with a sneer and ignored her. But the older one wasn't one to give up without a fight; she then sternly told her that she had a pacemaker inside of her which could be affected by said use of cellphone (Ms. Tee wasn't sure whether or not the older woman was bluffing). The girl again just ignored her. Well, Ms. Tee didn't go any further than that although I can assume that the exchange probably got a bit more lively. My student's conclusion was that both women could have used some slapping upside their heads.

The above incident is just one little case of this generational cold war. I read in an article a few years ago about how much some of these young folks despise the older generation. One young tough...maybe a yakuza wannabe...spat out how much he wanted to beat up some of these smelly old sots who regularly hit the bars and hostess clubs on a Friday night in Shimbashi. And in fact, there have been cases in which a few of these thugs have fulfilled their wishes and pummeled some hapless salaryman...for being older. A recent survey illustrated that most people would not admonish a group of kids (or even one kid) sitting on the subway or using their cellphones for fear of retribution; and I'm assuming that the retribution wouldn't be in the form of making faces or having the accuser's house covered in toilet paper.

Mind you, a number of the older side don't make it any easier for the kids either. Yup, I've often come across on a crowded subway some besotted salarymen reeking of cigarettes, beer and sweat. I'm sure that I haven't smelled like a bed of roses either after a dinner in Shibuya or Shinjuku. But that is not all. A number of these old guys have also come across as belligerent bullies...the ugly Japanese, if you will...using that traditional corporate tactic of berating the younglings to toughen them up. And of course, there are some of the lecherous types who believe that sekuhara (sexual harrassment) was just a buzzword from the early 90s. Then, there is the ganko papa who seems to always yell at the kids or the wife during his rare moments at home with the family. And older mothers and housewives just have this genetic ability to nag kids to an early grave. No, not much to endear here either.

As for the blowups along the border...well, there have been the cases of boys knifing or bludgeoning their parents to death and on the other side, parents doing the same to kids while dirty old men pay up the funds to teenage prostitutes in Shibuya. We've certainly come a long way since those quaint old "Sazae-san" cartoons of the perfect Japanese family. If the adventures of Sazae-san were transferred to the realities of the 21st-century, Sazae-san and her hubby would probably be involved in their own affairs and the grandparents would either be crated off to a nursing home sullenly resenting their kids. Sazae's brother, a high school kid, would probably be part of some gang roving around the highways on a motorcycle, while Sazae's sister would be turning tricks at a love hotel for good money to fund her Chanel/Hermes habit, and Sazae's cute son would be the victim of bullies.

No, I'm not painting a very happy picture here and perhaps...just perhaps...most families are well-adjusted with the occasional differences of opinion endemic in every household on a generational level. The family whose daughters I teach, the Beehive and The Teacher all seem to be on the good side of things. But I think the generational cold war is still quite real. Maybe Japanese society is at a crossroads. The first postwar generation who worked hard to get Japan to its current economic level now consists of grandparents so their immediate descendants are the immediate benefactors of the "Economic Miracle" (what a quaint expression that is now). While this generation was the first one not to have experienced a war and gained a lot of affluence, the people here were still given the education of being hard-working and well-mannered folks. That's not to say that everyone took that education to heart, though. By the same token, not all of the kids who go to Harajuku or Shibuya or Odaiba are these brats who tan their bodies into leather and brazenly mouth off at anyone who even hints at being authority. Still, there's enough turmoil here that I think future generations will have set into a new social paradigm that will be quite different from the first two postwar generations. To finish off, I just want to wonder aloud how these Shibuya kids (some who do have babies: yan-mama, or Yankee Mothers) will look at their offspring in 10 or 15 years. Will they be a lot more relaxed in their upbringing or will they somehow revert to the ways of their parents and unleash the discipline?

Thursday July 28, 9:51 p.m.

The new iron worked out quite well with the pile of crumpled clothing I had on the couch. I'm sure it'll do just as well with the new pile waiting out on the line.

Yes, it was plenty hot out there as I went to the gym. When I entered the training room, a guy hawking some new energy pills greeted me. Before I could avoid him, he plied me with six of his tablets carping about the wonders of this medicine. I realize I should have known better than take any strange drugs but he was a bit too fast for me and I figure that if he could pass muster with the gym staff, then it couldn't really be too bad. As it turned out, it had zero effect on my performance.

Then it was off to The Tea Room. Just as The Carolinan was launching into her speech about last weekend's earthquake, another tremor, not as strong, jolted us a bit. There was a slow gentle jostling of the tables for a minute or so before things got back to normal. The Carolinan, like her sister The New Yorker, took the major temblor on Saturday in stride; she was at a friend's house when it hit but she didn't really panic or anything. She kept me informed about the plans for The Beach Girl tomorrow night. Looks like it'll be a good-sized crowd for her welcome back dinner...about 9 or 10 including me, SR, and the two sisters. I still have yet to know the time and the place, though, but The Carolinan assured me that I will find out soon enough. Speaking of which, I have yet to find out about what's happening with this Eel Day thing I have with The OL and Betty Boop. I'll have to give them another reminder. In any case, there's a good chance that tomorrow night's festivities will include a karaoke stint so I'll have to get my vocal cords prepped for that. I don't think I've been out to karaoke since that time with The Beauty Pair and Mr. Eccentric a few months ago.

The garbage area outside my apartment is becoming a dangerous spot for festering sewage. Once again, there is a whole bunch of wrongly bagged trash presumably with rotting stuff just reeking outside in the heat. I think some of the stuff is from some very unneighbourly types from the other buildings who want to dump their bags in our area before their regularly scheduled pick-up day. I don't think my real estate agency's notice did any good. It may have to be forced to put up security cams.

Also, I got a slightly annoying letter from the Canadian Embassy telling me that they don't know whether or not I've left Japan and whether I can let them know. Well, I sent them a cordial letter reassuring that I'm still here.

There's been quite a bit of attention on the current, and now only, shuttle mission this year. Not only for the fact that it's the first since the Columbia disaster but also because there is a Japanese mission specialist on board. Considering that another one of those tiles chipped off again during blast-off, there is some cause for concern.

Well, knock on wood, it's a July Thursday but no more bombs in London. Let's hope it stays that way.

Wednesday July 27, 11:05 p.m.

Well, I went off on my shopping spree to find that iron to purchase with those gift certificates. I stopped off at Nihombashi since there is a Mitsukoshi department store there. Looks like their irons were of the premium kind; they were selling for close to 10,000 yen. A little rich for my blood since that was how much I had in certificates.

Abandoning that idea for a while, I went off to Otemachi to get that letter off to that town hall in Wakayama Prefecture. That was done in a relative jiffy. Then I scooted back down to subway level to have lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express again. And once again, I got seated at the same place by the counter in front of the plasma TV. The waitress who sat me down had passed me twice initially before getting to me; I thought Puck trained them in American attitude as well. I ordered the same thing in the form of a Classic Puck Burger with Fries. I was lucky in that I could watch some of the Mariners-Tigers game live on the NHK Satellite channel. I was even luckier in that I could see Ichiro pull off another masterful batting display and some fine defensive work in front of the adoring Seattle crowds.

I found myself with an extra ninety minutes before meeting The New Yorker at The Tea Room. So I re-engaged myself to the task of finding that iron. This time, I hopped on the Marunouchi Line and went down to Ginza. I checked out the Mitsukoshi branch there but only found kitchenware in the appliances section so I went down the street to Matsuya. Finally, I found something that could satisfy...a simple steam iron for 4,700 yen. It was sure nice to get an appliance for free.

Since the Yamano Music store was just across the street, I decided to take a little poke in. As usual, there was the staff hawking a new CD at the front of the store in the blistering heat. This time, it was the latest "hit" (the quotation marks signify "I term it loosely") by SMAP. They've kinda gone back to their happy, happy style after a few years of ballads. There was nothing on the J-Pop floor so I went up to the 2nd floor which sells the Western stuff. A Huey Lewis & The News medley was playing on the speakers so the wistfullness bubbled up inside of me. Of course, I went straight to the old 80s compilation discs. I was darn tempted to get this 3-disc set but there were just too many songs that I did cotton to from the late 80s so I saved my money.

The New Yorker was her usual shy self although she has opened up considerably in the times we speak Japanese. I can only hope that her English will eventually get better sometime down the line. At the end of the lesson, both she and I were wondering about what had become of The Beach Girl. Knowing us, The Carolinan and SR, she came back from California for a short visit to the home country but she had yet to contact us.

Well, speak of the devil, when I got over to Speedy's and checked e-mail, I received word from The Carolinan that she had made contact with BG and asked if I were available for dinner with them on Friday. Looks like my dance card is now filled. In fact, I had an unusual amount of e-mail for a Wednesday afternoon. Amongst the messages was one from The Madame who offered to meet me on Tuesday afternoon. Now, that the Beehive is on hiatus, I was able to agree. It's just the matter of finding out where to eat.

I've picked up another student albeit temporarily thanks to Speedy. Looks like I'll be teaching 002 just before 001 from next week. They're buddies and 002 is planning to do a homestay in the Great White North in the Fall. So she needs work on Travel English. Well, the extra money will always be welcome. Speaking of 001, the lesson was another good affair but the hilarity started when The Secretary came in after the lesson. Looks like my weekly conversational theme of that dead mouse found at the izakaya on Sunday has been rolling them over in the aisles. As has been the case with the other ladies this week, 001 and S crumpled in disgust on hearing about the rodential incursion. Then the talk shifted over to cockroaches which meant all bets were off as far as I was concerned. For a full 45 minutes, I just gave them an equivalent of an Indiana Jones ride about my past encounters with Japan's most dreaded insect.

Tomorrow, I've just got The Carolinan in the evening but I still have to wake up at the usual time since I've got that O-chugen gift from The Matron coming in the morning. I'll probably use that time to clean things up and put that iron to use. Then after lunch, it'll be the gym before heading out to Tokyo.

Wednesday July 27, 8:41 a.m.

I'm currently watching Heidi Collins 360 (sorry, Anderson, but you seem to be taking too many vacations). Some guy my height is only 120 lb (I'm somewhat larger) and ingesting only 1800 calories a day...in the hopes he can live to 90 and beyond. My retort is with the world as it is and probably will be, who wants to live THAT long?

My mild rant aside, Typhoon 7 (or Banyan, for you weather forecasting otaku) was the equivalent of a pre-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger bedding down some young lady only to find out there's one "muscle" he can't get up. In other words, this monster storm wasn't. It's now nice and sunny and blisteringly hot out there. I've got the mattress airing out hoping the sun will miraculously destroy any freeloading dust mites. Most likely, the buggers will just pop out, put on sunglasses and bask.

I got a letter from an old colleague at the school last night offering me a possible opening at the high school he's been teaching at. At a student's wedding a couple of years ago, he was also telling me about the wonderful job and benefits at this school. Well, as soon as I saw the word "high school", the position had as much appeal as eating weaponized anthrax...I have enough problems motivating my two kids and The New Kid (part of me was rather happy that the juku classes had been canned last night) without having to tackle a whole horde of boys everyday. And I've heard rumours from others that that old colleague just slums it in class. If the students act up, he doesn't care...just lets them rant and rave while he brings in the money. Well, I'm just not that way. Also, I know that The Songbird had once worked there for a time, often to melt into a puddle of tears at her frustration.

GC was also doing a bit of a hawk job on me, but about the wonders of a Mac computer. Well, I told him that with all of the money that I have pay out in the next number of months, I would be hard pressed to shuck out for a 2nd-tier desktop, let alone a great laptop.

Well, gotta plan for those lessons before heading out to buy a new iron using those gift certificates that the two parents of the kids had given me. Also, The Matron did it again. I already got that wooden bed (useless right now, but the intent was laudable), now she's sent me her usual O-chugen gift. Actually, it's on the way. I got the Failure of Delivery slip again.

Tuesday July 26, 8:48 p.m.

Well, that much dreaded typhoon may end up to be just a close shave instead. We got a lot of rain today and some whistling threats of gale-force winds but it all really didn't amount to much. I could have gone to the juku tonight without much of a problem. Ah, well...that's life. In any case, it would've just been too risky to chance having them tonight anyways. Besides, I could have a rare relaxing Tuesday night at home. Mind you, it's still technically not too far away; something could still happen between now and midnight.

The Den Mother got in touch with me tonight about this reunion some of her old classmates will be having this Saturday. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go since I've already got that eel dinner on the 30th with The OL and Betty Boop. However, I've sent word on the pertinent data to Movie Buddy who has also been invited. I have doubts that he'll go though.

It will be a scorcher in every conceivable way tomorrow. It's heading up to at least 32 C. Well, at least it'll be sunny.

Tuesday July 26, 2:31 p.m.

Well, the typhoon is on its way apparently. Almost all of the stations are broadcasting up-to-the-minute news on it with the typical intrepid reporter (read: short end of the stick) braving the stiff winds and driving rains at key locations throughout the Pacific coast. It's certainly looking ominous from my window and the rains are steadily coming down.

We had the last of the Beehive classes before the summer holidays. Again, we were on a skeleton crew with half of the group out on various things. The talk was on the two natural disasters naturally: last week's earthquake and today's typhoon. At the time, it was just oppressively humid with no wind...the virtual calm before the storm. Four of us just went to a nearby pasta place for lunch before we all decided to break up and head home.

I did my part of preparation by getting a bottle of fresh water for internal use and filing up the tub with water just in case the water supply cuts out. I bought some dry food although I still have a ton of chocolate in the fridge. I've got my radio on standby in case the electricity dies. The only thing I haven't done is reinforce my windows. I figure if it gets that strong, it won't matter a whit anyways.

The juku boss gave the call to cancel classes for tonight. That's a good pocket of change I let go but I would rather not have a repeat performance of that huge drenching I got last year on my way to the juku...and that wasn't even from a typhoon.

Well, seeing that I got a lot of time now. I will probably get started on some major ironing, start that letter to check out the family register and prep for 001.

Monday July 25, 10:56 p.m.

With all due respect to the weather forecasters, it sure didn't feel like 27 C today. More like over 30, not including the humidex. It was quite oppressive out there. And the spritzers have been coming on and off during the evening.

Not surprisingly, the theme of the day in the classes was the earthquake on Saturday. It seems as if I was the unlucky guy amongst the folks in my circle. Both The Lady and SIL were in their cars going home when it struck, The Matron was comfortably at home, and Junior and his wife were out in Shibuya and got the shake but they had planned to stay out until late there so everything was free and clear for them by the time they decided to head out. As for the Poppy, she was actually out in a beauty parlour but with a call home, her parents came and picked her up.

I was actually able to shave my food budget considerably lower since I literaly got a free lunch and dinner thanks to The Lady and Poppy. The Chef made me a galette and an Okinawan noodle soup while The Poppy treated me at Dennys. Also, the Lady gave me a package consisting of a bottle of red wine and a box of pickled plums, probably for Dad. Very nice of her...although I had quite the load to bring home tonight. Also, The Matron was kind enough to drive me after The Poppy's lesson to the nearest station on the Tozai. Next Monday will probably be as busy as today but it's nice to know that I can conceivably not have to pay a yen AND get a ride to a convenient station.

Uncle sent me that phone number and address of that town hall in my mother's hometown, so I'll have to make contact somehow with them. I think I'll play safe and write a letter to them. The folks there probably never get any contact from foreigners unless the JET Programme has infiltrated even that remote area.

I sent The Madame a letter. Seeing that Friday is all open for me, I thought maybe she might want to do something. Shot in the dark.

Well, Typhoon No. 7 is on its way up here. As I said before, the rains have been spitting a bit on us. Looks like we may get as much as 350 mm tomorrow so it could be quite a mess heading to the juku in the evening. I guess I'll be packing the heavy artillery then by using a real umbrella instead of the collapsible one.

Monday July 25, 7:28 a.m.

Cooler but still humid, so I think I'll still be sweating up a storm. Speaking of which, we've got a couple of typhoons on our doorstep. The first one won't be due til Wednesday but it's already clouded over considerably. We've got some possible rain coming in. GC mentioned that he's noticed a lot of strange weather phenomena recently. The typhoons are in that category. Ten years ago, they were strictly an early Fall thing and most of them just aimed for Okinawa. But since last year, the Kanto has been getting targeted as well and much earlier. This could wreak havoce with the agricultural industry.

It'll be a busy day today. If noone bails out suddenly, I'll have my usual four classes including The Poppy tonight. Plus, I've got bills to pay. And seeing it is the 25th, there'll probably be tons of people at the bank ATMs.

The Ballerina contacted me. Looks like she'll be in town a bit longer than usual this weekend so she's invited me out with a bunch of her old classmates including The Madame. However, I do have that cooking session at Speedy's at noon on the 31st so I could only promise that I could meet them later.

Sunday July 24, 11:52 p.m.

It looks like Hotmail is screwing up yet again. It freezes on me whenever I want to log out.

I met up with the gang at Hachiko today. The Satryr, Movie Buddy and I were the only teachers to make it out. It was another large group of students including The Barmaiden, The Coffeemaker and The Doll, and of course, the guest of honour. From my brief talk with her on the way to the restaurant, it sounded like she picked up a Californian/Sheryl Crow accent. She's definitely a lot more fluent now.

Our restaurant du jour was just a dozen metres down from the French cafe that The Madame and I had gone to last Sunday. It was interesting right from the doorway which was only up to my chest in height so quite a few of us had to duck pretty low to get in. And then we were treated to an ant colony type of decor inside with us going down a long series of shallow steps with different levels of dining areas. We made it down to the very lowest level to one of the larger areas, the typical tatami mat area with pits under the tables to dangle our legs. But the entertainment didn't stop there. No sirree! Scully put her bare feet (we had a lot of sandaled women in our group) and touched something furry. Since the pits are usually made of wood or stone, there was something not right about this, and sure enough, it wasn't. Poor Scully had stepped on the carcass of a dead rat! Oooh! Did we have women jumping from their seats! I don't think I've seen this woman/rat dynamic since my Mom were setting traps for the rodents back in my childhood days in downtown Toronto. The manager of the restaurant hurriedly came down, armed with a tissue and took out the offending offal. I could see the hairy tail and backside of Mickey...man, I thought it would make a great mount on some guy's wall. I was just surprised that a dead animal could be found in a Japanese establishment (cleanliness is next to godliness, even in this secular country), and even more surprised that some of the group didn't raise a large hue and cry and stomp out. But our group is young and laid back. The manager gave us a good discount on our bill later on for the embarrassment.

The food and drinks were good which made us forget about the rodential intrusion. The Doll was back to her usual verbal non-sequiturs although she didn't get potty-mouthed like the last time. I found out that The Barmaiden will be heading out herself on a 3-month homestay in my hometown from the Fall. A few of us are wondering who will spearhead the parties. But I don't foresee much happening during the Autumn months anyways, and The Barmaiden will be back by year-end party season.

Also, Movie Buddy and I have tentatively set up another session at my place on the 6th. We'll finally be catching Star Wars together near my home and then catching a bunch of DVDs. I just hope that it won't be too, too hot by that time.

Well, it's back to work later today.