Wednesday March 7, 8:22 p.m.

Another hump day gone by. The winter temps have started to creep back into the metropolis after a few days of early Spring. Only had 001 today. Looks like she's off on another one of her frequent ski weekends up in Hokkaido. Amazing the frequent flyer points she must be racking up.

Started getting my income tax papers in order before Friday's trip to the tax office to pay my cash. I found out much to my chagrin that I miscalculated somewhere and now I owe 5,000 yen more than originally thought. Just can't win.

Last night at the juku was pretty normal. The kids were fine along with Seven. Jolly dotakyan'ed as usual but both Milds showed up. I hadn't seen Mrs. Mild in nearly a month due to work. She was surprisingly quite stable despite the long absence. Of course, The Siberian is off in Korea for the rest of the month.

Another wrinkle in the celeb ethos. The Empress has been diagnosed with bleeding in her intestinal tract. Not sure how serious it is.

It'll be a busy one tomorrow. I've got a model lesson here at Speedy's with a cooking teacher asking me to take a look at her English delivery for her foreign students. If all works out, it'll become a regular gig. Then, I've got the battery of The New Yorker, The Carolinan and BC in Ichigaya.

Monday March 5, 4:39 p.m.

Well, unlike the near-summer conditions of yesterday, we've got clouds just whipping by and the threat of some heavy rain tonight, so I invested in a new collapsible umbrella to replace the one I'd left at the Tully's cafe a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday saw The Polynesian showing some of her former loopiness in class. She couldn't string two sentences together and this was for a couple of Japanese folk tales, Momotaro and Urashimataro, stories that are as famous as Cinderella and The Tortoise and the Hare back home. Well, she did say that she had just gotten up before meeting me. I managed not to throw my pen at her in frustration.

And then I met The Wild Thing at Shinjuku Station. He and his wife were over by the escalators within the ticket gates. Wild Thing met me while his wife did an abrupt turn and quickly escaped up the escalators, off to see her friend. He did tell me once before that his wife wasn't the most open of folks but I just thought that it was somewhat rude of her not to even give a rudimentary greeting.

Anyways, I gave Wild Thing a couple of choices for eats: Saboten, the tonkatsu joint, or the old favourite of Foo Foo, the pai ko tan tan men place. We went for the latter, and of course, I introduced him to the wonder of artery-clogging deep-fried pork cutlet swimming in a spicy broth and noodles. To top off our all-cholesterol, all-the-time meal, we drank down a couple of beers. He was quite satisfied.

Wild Thing was his usual manically jovial and profane self and we did our usual swing through the talking points, going from French recipes to his wife to me bumping into our mutual friend the other night. He did belch a couple of times which I'm gonna have to warn him about.

Then, we did a walking tour through South Shinjuku since we had to attempt to walk off some of that dinner. Of course, I showed him the circus surrounding Krispy Kreme. And of course, he went into a little tirade about how this evil of business models was now sinking its teeth into the Japanese public. I've known for decades so it was all water down a duck's back to me although I couldn't really say how the folks walking around us reacted...probably just the usual: henna gaijin (strange foreigner).

After going up and down Kinokuniya and Takashimaya Times Square, we finally set down at a branch of Afternoon Tea in the Southern Tower Building. He kinda complained about the prices of an apple pie and coffee but if he's gonna be living here, he'll have to get used to it. We made a joint proposal about meeting next Sunday for a round at Akiba; I'll see if Skippy might be interested, although I'm kinda wondering how having two manic folks will be like for my sanity.

Well, the entertainment rags and morning wide shows are having a banner day today. Pop diva Hikaru Utada has decided to divorce her hubby of 4.5 years at the tender age of 24....geez, who saw that one coming? And what's more, her parents had apparently divorced last year for the 5th or 6th time; talk about your manic-depressive relationships.

Then, there is the return of Wacko Jacko to Tokyo. Michael Jackson hit the tarmac at Narita this past weekend to a wild crowd of 500 to make up for his sudden cancellation of a Xmas concert last year. He'll have another relatively long stay in the Big Sushi...the events are supposed to happen on the 8th and 9th...a lot of lounging time for a celeb. The nurseries and elementary schools are taking the necessary precautions.

And finally, a famed tarento is retiring rather suddenly at a young age. Ai Ijima has decided to pack it all in at the end of the month due to some health issues (something to do with her kidneys, I think). Ijima, 34, has stood out amongst the galaxy of TV personalities that always populate the airwaves (some would say pollute) since some 15 years ago, she wasn't Ai-chan the tarento but Ai-chan the Queen of Hard Porn. So far, she's the only one from that part of entertainment to make the full trip into mainstream TV land; kinda like if Marilyn Chambers had become a co-host on "Good Morning America". She also wrote an ingeniously titled autobiography, "Platonic Sex", several years back which became a bestseller which then became a movie and TV miniseries. Although a lot of her fellow tarento have been stating that she's a kind warm-hearted lady, she's known to the public as one of the more acid-tongued celebs out there. In fact, as late as last night (before the news broke), she apparently lashed out at Dave Spector, foreign tarento, on a TV show that both were on for being a little too gabby (yep, I would agree).

I'm sure that all three stories will be rolling through the media zeitgeist in the week to come.

Sunday March 4, 11:57 a.m.

Balmy-with-a-capital-B day. Up to 17 degrees C in the sunshine today...I'm sure all you East Coasters must be cursing with a passion on reading this. New word for today: danto. It means warm winter...and yes, Tokyo has been having one summer of a winter. It's gotten so bad that the weathercasters have been pathetically predicting that the first snow here may be sometime this month. As if people really want snow here... Anyways, the surprising news is that the Japan Meterological Agency is reporting that this may be the first year in several years that Tokyo will be completely snow-free. I say it is surprising because I'd always thought that Tokyo was mostly snow-free...I only see a few flakes once every few years in any case. I guess they must be referring to the Mount Takao area, the small corner of Tokyo that actually looks rural.

Back on Friday night, my juku boss reminded me of that semi-deal about killing two birds with one stone....getting a new residence for me and a new site for her juku. Apparently, her friend told her that she (the friend) owns a house on the verge of getting remodeled and is offering to rent it to her for a ridiculously low price. As usual, she was pretty breathless about it; as usual, I was much more sanguine about it in the too-good-to-be-true vein. Still, having my rent slashed to less than half is nothing to turn my nose at.

Saturday was another light day. I had The Coffeemaker and Tully at the usual place. The class went pretty well. Then I headed off to Shinjuku to see if I could find some writing material for my newest student, BC, for this Thursday. Couldn't find anything but I saw that Krispy Kreme is still attracting the long lineups. Just surprised I haven't heard of any staffers snapping and dousing customers in hot oil from the donut machine.

Then, it was off to 002's place in what is becoming a bimonthly ritual of home parties. It was a slightly smaller group than January's gig with The Baker and her vegetarian teacher. It was very meaty this time around. Last night's meal was chankonabe...yep, the legendary stew that the sumo wrestlers always have to fatten themselves up. Well, actually to be fair, the stew is quite healthy. It's just that the sumotori feast on tons of it along with a ton of carb-heavy rice. In my long history of ingesting Japanese hot pot, I've usually gone with yosenabe, the most conventional version or mizutaki, the family favourite with Chinese cabbage, chicken and tofu in boiling water. This was the first time for me to have the sumo hot pot, though looking at me, you may be quite surprised that this was the case (actually, I've had lots of gaping mouths when I've revealed that I hardly drink despite the presence of a beer belly).

Chankonabe consists of veggies such as Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, tofu and the meat portion is fish chunks and minced chicken balls stewed in a dashi broth. No rice but the hot pot was delish. Afterwards, 002 followed tradition and made some zosui with the remaining flavourful broth. She threw in some cooked rice, beaten eggs and chopped leeks for a great shime (end) of a meal. I also contributed to the culinary satisfaction by bringing in some snacks, including a Pringle-style canister of corn chips with a little pot of salsa. Love those Japan Nabisco folks. Apparently, noone else in the party had ever had corn chips before. I really miss those things. The closest we can get to corn chips in this country is Dorito Nachos.

It was just 002, 001, 002's hubby and myself. The Baker was supposed to have come with her mother's prized apple pies but she got mired in sudden work thanks to an incompetent assistant there. The ladies remarked that, though they've never seen her in that mood, they could imagine that The Baker could be as frightening as Medusa when angered. Apparently, the lass during her aggrieved cancellation call stated that she was appropriately punishing her young charge. Still, it was another fine dinner out.

I got a call from The Wild Thing yesterday morning. He and his wife have now settled in their new neighbourhood of Shinagawa. I'm supposed to be meeting my old friend after my lesson with The Polynesian. Since I'm meeting him in Shinjuku, I'll either take him to Foo Foo or the nearby tonkatsu restaurant. In one of the weirdest coincidences, I was heading home from 002's through the plaza connecting JR Funabashi and Keisei Funabashi Stations when I ran into a mutual friend of The Wild Thing and me. I hadn't seen him in a few years since The Quarterback's wedding. The mutual friend hadn't been aware of The Wild Thing's plans so he was doubly surprised. Apparently, both him and The Wild Thing are at a crossroads...so it was appropriate that we met in a connecting walkway. The Wild Thing and his mate are trying to make a new life here while the mutual friend and his significant other are considering heading back the other way. In any case, my latest call from The Wild Thing this morning revealed that the mutual friend beat me to him about our coincidental encounter.

On the geino front, this year has seen the arrival of another "It" girl here. I spoke to you about Anna Tsuchiya, who apparently is half-American/half-Japanese according to the sites, instead of the half-Russian label I'd stated before. Well, the newest arrival is this young lady by the name of Leah Dizon from Las Vegas, Nevada. She's all of 20 and is the offspring of a French-American mother and a Chinese-Filipino father. Well, she was discovered online via her own website by a Japanese talent scout and invited late last year to come on over. Since then, her life hasn't been the same. She's been hitting the shows and fashion magazines like Matsui with an easy pitch, and she's even released her first Japanese-language single. Her ability with the Japanese language has come along quite swimmingly. I think it won't be too long before she hits her first drama role.

And I finally found out that last year's "It" girl, Rie Kaela Kimura, is half-British....just like that Becky girl.

Anyways, time to hit the road.

Thursday March 1, 2:43 p.m.

One of those blank Thursdays...nothing going on. Just slept in late, got a Wendy's set and I'm now doing the 3-hour gig at the neighbourhood Internet cafe. As it turned out last night, Speedy took his now-former admin assistant, me and his wife to one of his usual haunts near the school, this rustic family-operated Japanese equivalent of Ye Olde Tavern...a nomiya, in other words. The place looked like something lived in from decades past. In fact, there were only two customers at the counter when we came in. The two tatami rooms were dark until the mama-san turned on the lights. Like any Mom-&-Pop operation, the food was homecooking at its finest but I think the best dish was the final one of rice cooked with flavoured chicken and burdock root (gobo). Still, I was a bit dismayed at the 4,000 yen price tag, but then again, we were also treating the assistant.

Once upon a time in Tokyo, it was the usual thing for nighttime commuters to race for their subways and trains at midnight, heels clacking away on the hard floor like crazed castanets. I could imagine Cinderella doing the same thing after her ball. However, unlike the fairy tale, Tokyo Metro didn't turn into pumpkins...they just disappeared after the strike of 12. Kinda weird that in the world's largest city with all of the nightlife on display, mass transit died after midnight.

Well, not anymore. Over the past several months, Tokyo Metro has subtly extended operations for an extra half-hour. The partygoers can rest easy and enjoy that final nightcap in Shibuya or Shimbashi. Still, old habits die hard. My fellow commuters were walking nonchalantly at 11:50 last night for the Tozai Line while I huffed and puffed up 3 flights of escalators...almost earned myself a coronary. Having crowed about TM's light of insight about the dynamics of nighttime Tokyo, the Tozai is still majorly crowded at midnight.

Got back home...well, most of the laundry actually hung on. My only casualties were an undershirt and a dress shirt.

My last entry last night before Speedy told us to pack up for dinner was about how this Tommy Tomita of Harlem was able to get so-called J-R&B king, Ken Hirai, into the Apollo Theatre, only to see him nearly get booed offstage. Again, I reiterate...I'm not surprised although I felt sorry that a popular-in-Japan singer could get so humbled like a reject from a Simon Cowell thrashing. For one thing, I never thought Hirai was that good a singer...let alone one in the R&B genre. As one of his hit songs here goes, ..."I wanna be a popstar". And for another, I think his best hit was that rendition of "Grandfather's Clock". "Grandfather's Clock"? That's a song that only junior high school bands play. Basically, Hirai is a pop singer. Apollo only entertains the best in black music. And if you think I'm harping on the inadequacies of Japanese musicians, I can mention that in that same article on Tomita, the writer mentioned that an 11-year-old boy brought down the house at the Apollo with his rendition of a Whitney Houston song. Man, talk about Hirai getting hoist on his own petard.

The terms "Made in Japan" and "Big in Japan" seem to have particular relevance when it comes to J-Pop. Perhaps for the first expression, the words "only for" ought to be thrust in place of "in". The great majority of hit-making Japanese bands and singers would probably never get past the receptionist in an American talent agency. SMAP? No way! Kumi Koda? Nah. Ayumi Hamasaki? Can't see it. Even Hikaru Utada, the turn-of-the-century wunderkind with her R&B-tinged hit, "Automatic", was diffidently referred to in a TIME magazine article a few years back as just a pop starlet. As for Puffy Amiyumi, they had that "Sukiyaki"-like unexpected stardom in the States a couple of years ago but now they're just known for a couple of theme tunes on The Cartoon Network as well as their own little anime for kids. The news isn't all bad, though. I think there are a few acts which may get some sort of legitimacy on the Western hit charts and with the critics (the fans are there, though, as the J-Pop forums will attest to). Kanye West seems to see something in the special unit known as The Teriyaki Boyz, a collective of J-R&B artists from other bands. The female singer who broke out a couple of years ago, AI, could make it Stateside if she wanted to. And perhaps there are a few others out there who could find binational success overseas, but for the most part, I think the musical barrier between Oricon and the American charts will remain far more solid than anything the Department of Homeland Security can come up with between the US and Mexico.

Wednesday February 28, 8:32 p.m.

Yeah, I'm still at it but that's only because the three of us are waiting for Mrs. Speedy to show up so that we can all go out for dinner; probably be another 20 minutes.

I got word from The Wild Guy. He and his mysterious missus will be heading to Japan to perhaps start a new life. I hope Japan is ready for him.

Well, how about that? Just started typing and Mrs. Speedy shows up.

I was reading an article in The Japan Times about this fellow by the name of Tommy Tomita, a Japanese resident of Harlem who took up residence in his adopted home in Manhattan since he fell in love with the neighbourhood a couple of decades ago. He claims it is safe despite being shot twice in the torso and being held up at knifepoint 10 times...yeah, I think it's kinda delusional, too. In any case, he's been helping out the Japanese tourist trade by providing tours of the area including setting up gospel-singing workshops and trips for some soul food. He has also brought none other than singer Ken Hirai to try his chops at the legendary Apollo Theater...almost to disaster. Apparently, the ever-demanding crowd nearly booed the man off the stage. But as sad as it is, I'm not too surprised...but I'll continue this line later since Speedy has given the all-clear to clear out.

Wednesday February 28, 8:22 p.m.

Well, 001 finally came after a 3-week absence. She was none the worse for wear; I'd think she'd be quite refreshed after a nice little vacation in Hokkaido. In any case, I'll be seeing her, 002 and The Baker for another round of hilarity on Saturday when we do the nabe thing.

I thought I would be doing some more curricula planning but it's one of our assistants' last day here and since there are no more classes tonight, the boss has decided to take the lass out for a drink in the next half-hour. And since I have no classes tomorrow, I may as well indulge myself with the folks.

I won't be making any income but at least I can get my income tax done before taking it to the tax office...and pay my pound of flesh.

Wednesday February 28, 4:35 p.m.

Fairly breezy day today which probably means most of my laundry is now flying somewhere in the stratosphere over Kamchatka...

In any case, my Tuesday was fairly draining. For one thing, I was sporting a full suit and long coat for my interview and for another it was 15 C and sunny yesterday. Luckily, The Beehive was as happy-go-lucky as usual. In face, we had a surprise visit by the lady that had introduced me to the ladies almost a decade ago, Mrs. London. She's quite the vivacious one despite her age and wears an air of regality; I'd say that in a past life, she was probably British royalty. Although a lot of the ladies were happy to see her, I had a bit of an impression that Mrs. Jade and Mrs. Tee weren't as enthused. They were a bit quieter than usual. I'm not sure if it were due to some past animosity or if they were intimidated by the perceived English ability. As it were, Mrs. London was a bit rusty in her English. I think Mrs. Perth and Mrs. Alp rather ranked above my benefactor. In any case, next week will be a scratch with them since Mrs. Travel and Mrs. Perth are off to Morocco today for about a week. Their long trip will include stopovers in Osaka, Oman and even Tripoli before the final destination of Casablanca....a grand total of 24 hours up in the air. They should be properly ragged by the end. I did ask them not to end up being on some sort of NHK emergency report on abducted tourists.

My interview took me to Chiba City, some 20 minutes away from Tsudanuma on the Sobu Line. I hadn't been to the place in over a year when the juku boss took me to a museum showing there and before that, it had been several more years. I used to be a regular commuter there during the early years of my time at the ol' school since I was teaching at one of the major manufacturing firms for a few years. I was glad to see that it hadn't changed all that much.

I hopped on the Chiba Monorail for just one stop...in front of Chiba City Hall. The monorail was one of those where the rail was over, not under, the train so I did get a bit of vertigo looking outside and seeing nothing but air under me. As for the area around City Hall, it was located in the port area so there was a mix of salty types and regular polyestered salaryment mingling about, and not much else. There were the bland government buildings but nary a McDonalds or a department store to be see...well, there was a Yamada Denki appliance store but since I wasn't buying anything electrical or electronic, I gave that a pass. Of course, I got to the school, a full half-hour before interview time so I was doing a bit of walking...not great under a suit and coat.

The school was really just a narrow little one-room office in one of the bland buildings. And there were only two people: the Japanese fellow who I'd spoken to over e-mail and phone, and the co-founder, a former JET like myself. The Japanese fellow looked and sounded a bit like a younger version of the manager of the ol' school. I gather that he was the young Anakin Skywalker to the evil Darth Vader at the ol' school. Still, the interview went pretty pleasantly. Basically, there is no school to talk about. The pair there instead just act like matchmakers of sorts, pairing up teachers and students at cafes for lessons. Most of the business, though, seems to revolve around home tutoring with kids. Anakin was nice enough to pick up on the fact that I didn't want to have anything to do with the children so after some talk, signing and information, I became an employee of sorts. Now, I just have to wait for some potential students to hover into my neighbourhood.

Although the interview was pleasant, I was still pretty sloggy and famished by the end so I hopped back on the monorail to Chiba Station. After a bit of a search, I did find a fairly cheap kaiten sushi place. As it was cheap, so was the quality...no half-frozen or cardboard sashimi, to be sure but I think the old conveyor belt sushi restaurant in my station could handily beat it. I hung about Chiba for about an hour or so, even going up the station's Sogo Department Store, one of those old commercial behemoths of yesteryear. Then, I got back onto the JR and headed back toward the juku.

My ex is a card-carrying nutritionist so she would've had me flayed alive if she'd found out that I ended up having an additional Big Mac set at the station's Golden Arches after getting out. My excuse or rationalization (let's not beat around the bush about that) was that by the time I got out of the juku, it would've been way too late for dinner so I might as well load up on the carbs and empty calories. As it turned out, there were two factors which rendered my excuse null and void. For one thing, The Siberian did his usual sudden cancellation so I only had to work until 9 and then the boss offered me some meat sauce spaghetti (I learned early on not to refuse any of her dishes). In an O.Henryesque irony, with all of the calories that I'd ingested within the 6 hours, the boss had one of those balance balls rolling about in my room. When I decided to sit on it, I would've sworn that the boss ducked and put her fingers into her ears. Going back to the House of Ronald, it's been a real surprise how successful the Mega Mac campaign has been. Branches all over the Kanto have put up notices apologizing that due to the popularity of the Double Big Mac, supplies have basically dried up by mid-morning. Oh, yes, but of course....what says healthy living than a mid-morning Mega Mac? It's a wonder that we all don't end up like Americans by mid-century.

I got the impression that the honeymoon period for Chip N' Dale, especially Chip, was now waning. The lass was looking slightly piqued. Well, they are kids but I'll see what I can do to rectify the situation although I think I already am pulling out all the stops for the kids. I was doing quite a bit of cutting, pasting and copying before their class. Seven showed up for her lesson; I'm thinking that I may have to rev things up with her as well. Jolly is definitely on the TOEIC Listening track. He's having problems catching the questions so my job is cut out for me. And once again, it was Mr. Mild for his 3rd solo lesson in a row. He assured me that his wife would be back next week although considering her sieve-like memory, I wonder if I'm gonna have to start from the beginning of the text.

Luckily, I didn't have 002 until the early afternoon so I could sleep in somewhat. In her class, she stated that 001 was a bit nervous about her lesson with me in less than an hour since she'd been away for most of February. I reassured her that I would just merely bite her on the ankles. She's getting revved up for her latest dinner party this Saturday. The theme for that party will be nabe.

Newswise, the only scandal in town right now involves, appropriately enough, The Kano Sisters. The Japanese equivalent of Hilton/Richie (only in terms of both pairs' unique ability to gain celebrity on almost no perceivable talent at all...actually, not that difficult in this country), the pneumatic "sisters" are crying foul at one of their own, yet another mystery sister, who has apparently absconded with some valuables. The mystery sister defiantly stated through her lawyer that all of the stuff was hers. The only other thing of note is about a veteran enka singer, Shinichi Mori, who apparently extended the lyrics of his theme song, "O-Fukuro" (Mom); the problem is that he failed to tell the songwriter, some old fogey who has ear hair the size of harvestable wheat. Well, that started a bit of a war with the fart quietly banning in a press conference that Mori no longer has his permission to sing the song. Mori has tried to visit the writer's hotel suite in Tokyo and even the old guy's home in Aomori Prefecture to apologize or at least explain himself but the writer has refused to deign him an audience.

Two superstars of their genres met in an unlikely conversation on Friday night. Sheena Ringo, the Queen of Shibuya-kei pop/rock, and Ichiro, the King of all that's Japanese in the Major Leagues (although he may have a usurper in the form of Dice-K) met on "Bokura no ongaku" (Our Music). The show has been one of those programs wrapped up in urban class as singers and non-singing celebs get together for 25 minutes of gab on the big picture. I'd seen Ringo in a past episode with a kabuki great. Then, she was the one definitely handling the S&M whip...she had the master panting and ducking like a schoolboy in his very first crush. Last Friday, it looked like Ichiro had her on the ropes instead. I think it's safe to say that fans saw a fairly different heroine. I thought that she was about to break into tears when the master batter alternately slammed and complimented her. Of course, Ringo gave her performances of her latest singles...liberally sprinkled with jazz tones thanks to a huge swing orchestra. I couldn't really decipher her English but it sounded good enough that I would break my CD fast for her.

It's been getting more and more nostalgic on the satellite channels. One of the karaoke stations has been televising episodes of this ancient NHK show called "Let's Go Young" which figured prominently for the youth of 25 years ago (that would include me). I got to see a very young Seiko Matsuda, the Queen of Idols, singing along with other idols of yesteryear such as Yoshie Kashiwabara and Hideki Saijo (yup, I know...you don't know any of these names..just look them up on the J-Music forums). It was weird watching all of the cutesiness, big hair and nearly unwatchable choreography of 80's idol pop on this show and then switch to MTV Japan and see the current hip-hop of 21st-century J-Pop such as Dragon Ash, Kumi Koda or Soulhead. But I'll say it again....the new stuff is arguably better sung and danced but the old stuff was more uniquely Japanese. On another channel which specializes in oldie TV shows, I got to see some of the variety stuff of veteran comedian Ken Shimura. His stuff came in the era of the early 90s...the age of Juliana's (a popular disco in Tokyo during that time notable for huge feathery fans and bodycon tight dresses), and long straight hair on the ladies and short square hairstyles on the guys.

Anyways, time to get prepped for 001...

Monday February 26, 7:49 p.m.

Well, it was a nice try but Rinko Kikuchi didn't quite get her Oscar. But despite all the (minor) hoopla about the actress (Daisuke...or should that be Dice-K [as if he were a new hip-hop star]...Matsuzaka still beat her soundly in the media sweepstakes), she lost out to Jennifer Hudson from "Dreamgirls", the more relatable role to the Academy folks. The morning news show hounds ambushed her outside of her hotel...the lass took things with aplomb although when one of the Fuji-TV folks pelted her with some fractured English, I swore that Kikuchi gave a slight "F*** off" look; I guess that all that filming in Shibuya rubbed some of the attitude onto her.

Still, despite the loss on the Japanese side ("Letters from Iwo Jima" didn't score either), I was happy to see Martin Scorsese finally get his Oscar for "The Departed", a movie that I'm proud to say that I actually did catch a few weeks previously. I bet that was one huge elephant that got off his back.

More mundanely, I had my usual slate of Monday students including The Class Act after a 2-week absence. The Part-Timer did pretty well at the Doutor Cafe by the station although my sweater now smells of Camels due to the useless regulation of no-smoking & smoking sections in an unpartitioned coffee house. However, she'll be away next week since she and a buddy are doing the Hawaii thing again. Now, that I'm back at Speedy's, I'll be doing some more curricula stuff for the next couple of hours.

One thing that I kept forgetting to mention is how quiet my floor in my apartment block is now. For the last third or quarter of last year, I had that Filipino "family" two doors down (though I suspect it was just the crew of one of the hostess clubs near the station) plus the weirdo next door who seemed to insist on moving anything not nailed to the floor all over the place, and slam doors entering and leaving. However, since I got back from Canada, it's been all quiet on the southern front. I've been noticing that flyers squeezed into the cracks of the doorways have yet to be plucked out and the mailboxes are getting stuffed with junk mail. I'm wondering if the folks there just decided to do a yo-nige (escape under darkness). If so, I feel sorry for my management company but I'm not complaining myself. More than likely when Spring comes around, there will be some new residents...I'm hoping for some quiet unassuming transferred salarymen.

Sunday February 25, 12:11 p.m.

It all started last week when I woke up. My eyes started getting that sandpaper-gritty feeling. Then over the next couple of days, my nose started twitching like Samantha Stevens's cute little button. I realized that it was back...hay fever season.

So, I've loaded up on the meds and I picked up some tissue and that mask at the conbini today. As a result, I'm feeling slightly loopy now although the good thing is that my nose isn't running like a faucet. I think the guys would rather have a slightly loopy fellow than a friend covered in mucous.

Speaking of the guys, I'll be meeting up with Skippy, MB (and I assume The Sylph), The Satyr and even Sylph's buddy, Porcelain, for the latest stop in the massive Burger Tour in Ningyocho. I'm kinda wondering if Sylph's little matchmaking has borne fruit between Satyr and Porcelain. In any case, I've held off on the heavy carbs for breakfast today in anticipation of ingesting mass quantities.

I finally got to meet The Carolinan's friend for that initial meet-&-greet on Thursday night for lessons. I took her to the same Tully's shop that the Carolinan and I meet for our sessions. The lass quickly positioned herself into the high rankings of student ability...despite her wrongfully placed insecurities. She'd certainly give Mrs. Perth of the Beehive a run for her money. Unlike most of my students, though, she'd rather go into academic writing than conversation...no surprise there. So, I'll be looking at some other stuff for her. As for her code name, well, since she's a huge Vancouver fan, she'll be heretofore known as BC.

Though I'm atheist, I would like to say "What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away". I got the BC contract but I've lost The UL. Looks like she's been having a bit of a breakdown because of difficulties at work (interpersonal as well as the usual stuff) and illness; plus, she admitted that she was lazy. I asked her point blank if it had anything to do with any dissatisfaction with the lessons but she was quick to deny that; in fact, she added that she would've enjoyed having me twice a week but the current situation won't let her. I'd had a feeling some weeks back that something was up with her. So, the last class with her on Friday in Toranomon Starbucks was one of those counselling affairs. Luckily, though, her sister, The OL, has been kind enough to step in. The OL also said that her older sister had been a bit cranky recently.

Earlier on Friday, I called up that CEO of the school in Chiba about the part-time position I'd applied for. He said that he would call me but after waiting until 11:30 with no ring, I decided to get proactive. Hmmm... well, I've got an interview with him between The Beehive and the juku on Tuesday afternoon. I hope everything goes well although when I heard that most of the classes were kids' home tutoring, I kinda got a bit wary. He also asked me if I would teach a TOEIC class from Wednesday morning in the wee hours between 7 and 8. Of course, I had some hesitation about that but the CEO was kind enough to give me an out and suggested I think about it. I have and I will refuse it.

The Saturday classes were pretty steady on. The Elder behaved herself and the Younger did quite well on the review. The Polynesian also did well. Then I raced over to Ichigaya where I met that one M. I hadn't seen her since late November and her friend, the other M, was still busy studying for a major exam. Since our old haunt, The Tea Room, was dead and buried (a new restaurant has popped up in its place), we looked for a cafe that she'd found out about not too far away. As it turned out, that place only opened for lunch (no surprise since Ichigaya is a pretty dead place on weekends) so we ended up going to a health food restaurant on the 2nd floor of a building just few dozen metres away from the ol' Tea Room.

The set was pretty good as health food goes. I had the minced sardine-ball soup with veggies, unpolished boiled rice with sesame salt...and natto. Yes, you heard it. I finally came face-to-face with my culinary nemesis, my fermented bugbear. I didn't have much of a choice; the menu didn't have much else to recommend. I informed M about the moment in history she was about to witness, and she helped me out. When I dunked my chopsticks into the wet, sticky mass of undead beans and tried to pick some out, the lass immediately jumped in and suggested I actually pour a little soy and mix it about with the dab of mustard that traditionally came with it. I wasn't feeling too good as I was mixing this horror which was getting increasingly gelatinous. Then, M instructed me to pour the natto onto the rice which I dutifully did.

When I finally took that first historic mouthful of natto and rice, I was slightly surprised that it didn't have that taste of month-old socks I'd dreaded for so long. It was actually quite mild though the pungent smell lingered like a green assassin after his first kill. Natto didn't do anything to make me like it but I can finally say that I have eaten it. M continued her tutorial when she noticed that there was a mass of strings emanating from my mouth like web from a spider with leaky spinnerets so she showed me that little winding motion that all natto eaters do with their chopstick hands to cut the ito. That definitely cut down on the embarrassment factor.

As for M herself, she may finally have gotten a foot into the door for some employment opportunity. I had been wondering how she was able to stay solvent all these months without a job...especially in this city...when she admitted to me that she was living in sin with her very employed boyfriend. Ah, well, that does help. Living in a nice, spacious condo rent-free can also cut down on the unemployment blues.

Well, looks like my nose has dried up rather well. However, one lousy bit of trivia concerning hay fever...the rain of the last couple of days washed down a lot of the cedar pollen but unfortunately I found out that the first good day after a rain is a godsend for all that flower-sperm from Hell. Things just bloom all over. And I just happen to live in Gonad Central in Japan.

Thursday February 22, 5:26 p.m.

I'm just less than a couple of hours away from meeting my potential new student in Ichigaya. Since I tend to blend in quite well with the native population...and at Ichigaya Station, there are tons of salarymen flooding the gates at night, I told my prospect that I'd be wearing a long black trenchcoat, holding a black bag and carrying an English-language newspaper under my arm. Sounds rather Mickey Spillane, doesn't it?

As for that company that contacted me the other day, one of the folks there will call me tomorrow morning. I checked out their website. Seems OK...they even have pics of themselves posted. It seems to focus on home tutoring but they also have cafe-based adult lessons along with small adult group classes as well. Kinda up my alley although I will discreetly ask not to have the kids. I tried to look beyond the propaganda and searched other sites which talk about the various schools. Of course, NOVA is the easy whipping boy. I found one guy's site which said that he really didn't have any problems with it; he even admitted that he's working at my ol' school with little dissension. As he said, there are all sorts of opinions...and a lot of crybabies. Well, I will agree with him part way. I really didn't have much of a problem with NOVA; it really depends on where you're posted....if you're at a new small school, there's a much better chance of a happier environment, but if you're at one of the base schools (base...as in Cylon basestar), it's a horrible zoo. As for the ol' school...I can only gather that the lad is usually far away from the HQ or he's a very new guy.

Since I've had the day off today, I did a dry run of doing my taxes. UGH! Even with the lower gross income last year and all of the deductions I could squeeze out (legally, of course), I still have to pay more than 20,000 yen. Gah...you just can't win.

I've got another virtual day off tomorrow (hopefully that'll change if this new school pans out) but I've got The OL. Since The Ace is away, that'll be it for me. However, the weekend will be a little busier since I've got my kids, The Polynesian (who hopefully won't be screwing up her attendance again) and the one M. Sunday might be another stop on The Burger Tour...back at Brozzers in Ningyocho. Skippy, The Kid and I went there some months ago but this time, we wanna bring over MB and The Satyr.

Wednesday February 21, 5:16 p.m.

Made my kilo's worth of curricula money right now...ready to hit home. Actually, during my plow through the texts, I got a reply (surprisingly) from this outfit in Chiba which would be interested in speaking with me about a position as a private English instructor...it's basically the same I'm doing (or so they say)...teach in cafes or something. Well, I'm expecting a call on Friday morning. Every time that I get an offer, though, I can't help but remind myself of Groucho Marx's quote: "Any club which would accept me as a member isn't worth joining." Before you label me as a self-pitier, though, I would remind you that I have worked for beleaguered NOVA and the corrupt ol' school.

Just going through the front page of "The Japan Times"...looks like the government folks will be investigating instances of patient abuse at an old folks' home in my relative neighbourhood of Urayasu. It seems that the staff there have been accused of such cruelties as locking up one patient in a cage. As horrible as that sounds, I also have to say that on a recent NHK report, there have been instances of abuse heaped on the nurses and other care workers by very naughty old people.

Still on the page, I see that VP Dick Cheney is (or was) in town with a little talk with the humble government here. Things didn't quite get up to the level of the riots in Tokyo against Eisenhower's visit in 1960, but there were a few unhappy locals more than happy to welcome Darth Vader in their own special way.

One of the smaller news items here has been about that damaged whaler ship, the Nissin Maru, trapped in Antarctican waters. Greenpeace had offered to tow the ship away (which I'm sure had the whaler crew steaming and the Greenpeace folks giggling) but of course, the whaler would have none of that. And then New Zealand starting barking about the possibility of environmental damage caused by the leaky trawler. It looks like in a few days, though, there will be a resolution. Either the Nissin Maru will be able to get out of there under its own power or it will be towed out by one of its sister ships in the whaling fleet. Part of me is snickering at the whalers (although one engineer lost his life on the vessel) since I've never considered whale as a part of my food regimen and I've always been a bit irked at the transparent-as-glass rationalization of whaling-for-scientific-research that the Japanese have used to get out of anti-whaling legislation.

I guess the one other reason that I'm gonna miss LAST is that the buffet restaurant's BGM included a lot of oldie hits from the 70s and 80s. The place even played Anne Murray! Anne Murray...the Canadian singer? "Snowbird"? "You Believed In Me?" Ah...never mind...we'll now return you to Avril Lavigne and Alanis Morrisette.

Wednesday February 21, 2:21 p.m.

Well, that little strange ability I have has struck again. For about a couple of days, I had this urge to visit LAST (outside of the usual urges to go buffet) today for lunch. Then, as I was going through the basement of the Shiodome City Centre where the restaurant was located, I had this strange feeling that my main buffet joint's days were numbered. Sure enough, as soon as I paid my 1,000 yen to engorge myself and truly pay ode to The Year of The Pig, I saw the sign stating that the place was gonna shutter its doors on the 23rd. If the Force hadn't warned me, I would've come here the next week and been bitterly disappointed. Still, I didn't go hog wild with the stuff that was on the tables; just had the usual deep-fried chicken, fajitas, jambalaya, salad (had to eat something healthy) and little cakes. So, LAST has had its last. The place doesn't have the same stellar legendary quality that The Farm Grill did but it did its part in filling up the businessfolk population with ample, if not high-quality, grub.

I'm not shedding any major tears over the departure of LAST from my internal rolodex of restaurants to hit in Tokyo. There are quite a few choices in the Ginza, not too far away. I have the Thai place near the main strip and there is still the UN place just around the corner from LAST. 200 yen extra but hey, it's good food.

An interesting thing about buffets and something that should be food for though for any of those entrepreneurs who are thinking of setting up an all-you-can-eat eatery in the near future in The Big Sushi. Cheap American buffets are dead. There are buffets in the hotels that offer the same stuff along with roast beef or steak but they're tons more expensive and the quality is probably quite a bit better. The buffets that have lasting quality have been the ethnic stuff...Indian, Chinese and Thai, for example. That Thai place in the Ginza has been around for years and at least a good couple longer than LAST. The thing about American is that the food is generic. Considering that the good ol' US of A is responsible for the concept of fast food, that shouldn't be too surprising.

Speaking of entrepreneurs, I got the official announcement from The Entrepreneur that he and his girlfriend have gotten engaged. The Doctor and The Dancer have all chimed in with their congratulations as have I. Not sure if I'll be able to make the wedding, though.

Today is just curriculum day for me. Gonna be burning out some more lesson plans in the next couple of hours for dough. I'm starting to think my career is less a career than "I'll teach or make lesson plans for food". The money will not be in hand immediately but at least I know I'll get it eventually...good to know since The Siberian and Seven canned out last night.

Monday February 19, 10:10 p.m.

Just about ready to call it a night here. I taught The Part-Timer for her hour at Doutor's. It's always one of the advantages of teaching in cafes that people tend to vacate their tables soon after they discover their neighbours doing a lesson. Will never complain about that. Got back and have just been writing up lesson plans for one of the books while Speedy trained yet another new assistant. One of the running gags here has been that we seem to go through assistants like Doctor Who goes through assistants. However, this one seems like a keeper...she's my age, is a lot more seasoned than the assistants we've had, and lives close to the school.

I haven't quite finished the first text since Speedy went on one of his usual little talks with me but I'll come in on Wednesday for a few hours to make some more curriculum income. I'm fairly busy tomorrow with The Beehive, 002 (will be looking forward to her report on The Tokyo Marathon as a literal insider) and then all of the students at the juku. Gonna need the extra joe.

I was talking about that new riot grrrl/media sensation, Anna Tsuchiya, the half-Russian/half-Japanese model/singer/actress some time ago. Well, 2007's It Girl of Japan is currently providing the rock background music for Camellia Diamonds with an assist from "Kill Bill"'s Tomoyasu Hotei, has the starring role in "Sakuran"...a flick that seems to be the geisha equivalent of "Women In Chains"...of course, Anna plays the nihilistic maiko who kicks royal ketsu...and therefore she's, as we speak, popping up as a guest in Bistro SMAP, the segment on the long-running SMAP X SMAP variety show starring the SMAP boys themselves. Kinda wonder how far she will push her star...last year's It Girl seemed to be indie pixie Kaela Kimura but I would better compare Anna with Rie Miyazawa in terms of media sensation. Miyazawa, who seems to be cornering the niche market role of frail wives of samurai, used to be the fresh-faced, fresh-mouthed hellion of almost 2 decades ago with her cheeky "Fuzakkenayo!" (Don't give me that crap!)...not exactly the scariest exclamation these days; she was also the one who wore a sumo thong and not much else in an advertisement, and then she set the publishing world ablaze when she released her "Santa Fe" pictorial of nude shots back in 1991. I'm not saying that Anna will necessarily mellow out like Rie (who, incidentally, is also half-Japanese...the other half being Dutch) but it should be an interesting career to watch.

Well, I'm outta here...

Monday February 19, 5:31 p.m.

A better day than the past weekend's deluge and drear. I had all of the morning off so I was able to lounge a bit. Caught some of the post-event report on The Tokyo Marathon on TV. Looks like it was a success but they'll need to boost a couple of things next year: food and porta-potties. A bit of a circular logic about that. The lineup for the toilets was especially daunting...could have even rivaled that for Krispy Kreme.

So, after lunch at The Golden Arches, I just went up to see SIL for the first time in a couple of weeks. I brought her something a bit more academic than the usual newspaper articles since she had said that she had been wondering if she were improving in her English. The idioms and expressions did help. Now, I'm just biding some time before I meet The Part-Timer at the station again to have our lesson at the neighbourhood Doutor's. Speedy actually said that the school is empty tonight but I decided to just go ahead with the original plan since this would be the norm and not the exception.

I'm coming back to the school though afterwards since I'm helping out on making the curriculum. Since The Class Act was a scratch, I would like to make up for the shortfall. Luckily, I may be getting a new student, thanks to The Carolinan's referral. I'll be meeting her on Thursday for a prelim talk.

For SIL's lesson, I usually bring over a copy of METROPOLIS, that free weekly English-language magazine on all the goings-on in Tokyo. We don't actually do any articles in the lesson; it's really just for her own edification. However, the main article of the week was pretty interesting. It dealt with the current comatose state that Japanese radio is in. Yup, J-radio is dead. To be honest, I lost interest in North American radio years ago but at least the format over there is still thriving. When I was listening to stations like CFTR, CHUM and CKNY back in Toronto during the 80s of my high-school and university years, I had to be very strategic with my dial turns since if I had even breathed on the knob, I would've gotten two or three stations fighting for my ears. It's quite the opposite over here. If the North American airwaves are a traffic jam, Japanese airwaves are like driving through the Sahara....after Armageddon.
Even in the world's largest city, I often have to make three full turns of the knob before I hit the next station. And basically, stations like BAY FM and J-WAVE just play very similar stuff. But the big rub is that even when they play songs, they don't play the whole thing....just snippets up to and including the first chorus and then it's back to talk. I guess local producers want us to buy the CD. I don't know about the locals, but that would and has turned me off pretty quickly. There is InterFM, the multicultural station that launched a decade ago, but Ichikawa happens to be that cursed area of areas in which radio reception is absolutely the pits...at least for my stereo. I'm hoping that this vaunted re-birth of aural media actually does come true as the DJs in the article are claiming. In this era of IPods and freely downloadable tunes, I'm not all that optimistic.

Sunday February 18, 4:56 p.m.

Did forget to mention one thing. I was in Maruzen during my walkabout from Ichigaya to Mitsukoshimae when I came across a J-Pop cultural book whose time has come. Titled "Love Hotels", the coffeetable tome has lots of interesting and often hilarious pics of what the conventional pleasure palaces of Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku have to offer those horny couples who really can't knock boots in the smallness of their homes. There are even translations of the opinion cards that were left by the supposedly satisfied pairs...data includes body measurements and stuff that I really can't go into here, although I did laugh out when I came across one response of "cod roe".

Sunday February 18, 4:10 p.m.

Well, kung hei fat choi...a Happy Chinese New Year! Year of the Pig, eh? Fits me to a T.

Meanwhile, in the Big Sushi, Governor Ishihara's pet project, The Tokyo Marathon, went off without a hitch...aside from the weather, that is. It was a dreary inaugural...lots of rain and cold temps. I can only imagine what 002 and her hubby went through while it took 20 minutes for all 30,000 runners to get started at Tokyo City Hall. As marathons go, it was the usual bunch of lean and lanky folk sprinting or trotting through city streets, but it was nice to see that I could recognize the various locations as neighbourhoods that I regularly pass through. In fact, between lessons for The New Yorker and B2 on Thursday, I even walked a segment of the route from Ichigaya (the location of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine) through the famous Chidorigafuchi (a popular cherry tree-lined path...although right now, it's pretty barren of blossoms) to the Imperial Palace (a lot of joggers running around The Emperor's home...I wonder if Lucas used that as inspiration for all those TIE fighters orbiting The Death Star in "Return of the Jedi") and then after a pit stop at my favourite Vietnamese eatery, Com Pho, in Otemachi, I made it all the way to Mitsukoshimae after about 3 hours of walking. Glad that I did all the walking...I was able to get a little time capsule of the metropolis' architectural history from the Tokugawa Era through to the early postwar period and to the 21st-century samples of steel and glass.

Getting back to the Marathon, the winner was a Kenyan in his mid-30s who has been living in Japan for 15 years...man, he could speak Nihongo well enough to put me to shame. I'm sure Governor Ishihara, despite his perceived xenophobia, would probably consider him an honourary native son since the next four runners to place were Japanese. Actually, the 6th-place guy was that Brazilian fellow who had been sadly assaulted by that mad monk back in the Athens Games in 2004. No matter what ruthlessness Ishihara displayed to get his marathon on the world stage, you still gotta hand it to him that he not only made sure to see all 30,000 runners off in the miserable weather, but he was there at Tokyo Big Sight to welcome the champion 2 hours later. Now, I don't think the marathon did anything for tourism but the governor's got something to show the IOC.

Still, sticking with the feisty daimyo of the world's largest city, apparently there's supposedly a gubernatorial election this week...ahhh...now I know why Ishihara was so insistent on getting his marathon on this day. Nothing like a successful inaugural event on the world level to ensure re-election. Strange thing, though...I even heard that a former governor of Miyagi Prefecture who's now a professor here may be running for the post. I didn't know politicians could do that here...although there could be parallels made with the fact that Hillary Clinton could be a junior senator for New York despite the fact that she was neither born nor raised in The Empire State.

So, we have Chinese New Year and The Tokyo Marathon...ahhh...there was yet another big event yesterday. Model/actress Norika Fujiwara and comedian Tomo-something Jinnai tied the knot in Kyoto. Of course, there was the usual media scrum and wedding news conference for the happy couple...both groom and bride decked out in traditional Japanese regalia. However, I'd sworn the wedding was scheduled for today instead of on Saturday. Man, that Ishihara has a lot of pull.

Back into my own little world...B2 finally 'fessed up that she and B2B have gone splitsville. She's moved into her own digs not too far from her old boyfriend's place. I guess she must be going through Post-Breakup Depression...she was rather out of it during the lesson. But then again, when one realizes that rent and utilities now become part of mandatory expenses, one will need adjustment time. So I put out my counselor's shingle again and gave her a little pep talk on life as a completely unattached person in the big city. Not surprisingly, because of her newly restricted budget, she can only see me once a month.

To add insult to injury, The UL once again cancelled her class...her excuse this time was a cold. But her younger sister, The OL, came to the rescue and it looks like she may be filling in for her for at least a couple of times before The UL is back on her feet.

Saturday was fairly busy, though. I was doing a bit of back-&-forth shuttling between Ichigaya and Ochiai Minami-Nagasaki teaching the kids, Tully and the Coffeemaker, and finally The Polynesian. The Coffeemaker got me some belated Valentine's Day chocolates so gotta chalk up another customer for White Day. The Polynesian kinda screwed up the schedule again. Luckily, I reminded her about the lesson by phone so she did show up an hour later than expected.

Monday will see some poorer returns financially. I got the call from The Matron this morning that the lesson for her and The Lady will have to be cancelled since The Lady is still in London, presumably seeing her daughter and son-in-law. So, it'll just be SIL and The Part-Timer tomorrow. Plus, I got an out with that offer from Speedy to write up some curriculum for the school texts so I plan to get some cash tomorrow from that. Happy to finally get that e-mail from The Carolinan's friend...she may become my next new student. Sounds pretty genki...she even PS'ed me with her revelation that she missed Tim Horton doughnuts since she came back from her Canadian trip. Me? I'm still waiting to get into Krispy Kreme. I figure that the lineups there are still ridiculously long even with the lousy weather.

Got some news from old friend, DTE. Looks like she'll be making a visit to her old stomping grounds here in Tokyo in April.

Finally, I gotta say that the Boston Red Sox are feeling the treatment that a Major League team gets whenever a much-lauded Japanese player arrives on its doorstep. Tons of Japanese media are covering Daisuke Matsuzaka and his supposedly legendary gyroball...but the 26-year-old millionaire hasn't shown this Loch Ness Monster of pitches so the J-media is settling for covering the lad doing everything, including him picking his nose. Matsuzaka has said that he would sincerely apologize to any of his irked teammates. I'm sure if he wins some games, the Bosox would be more than happy to take the increased crowds in the locker room.

Anyways, I'm done here...time to cook up some grub.

Wednesday February 14, 3:16 p.m.

Well, Valentine's Day is here...one of the myriad Western holidays that has taken hold of Japan like a bear to honey. Despite the sudden exit of one of the major players, Fujiya, all of the other outlets..from the tiniest confectionary store to the huge chains like Godiva...have ensured that there have been female scrums in their branches. I was in Takashimaya Times Square on Sunday, and as I was coming down the elevator there, it stopped on the 10th floor to reveal a ton of women just piling on top of each other in the Valentine's Day special section selling its tons of chocolates.

Over here, the romantic season is split into two. Valentine's Day is for the women to get their gifts to the guys while March 14th is saved for the reciprocation by the guys...a holiday known as White Day (although considering what some of those guys hope to score by giving some chocolate, it's a rather ironic colour to choose).

I've also not been immune to the culinary charms. Last Thursday, I got some macaroons from The Sisters of State, and yesterday, I got some chocolates from the Beehive ladies (although Mrs. Tee gave me some rather spicy rice crackers...she said that they would burn up the calories...uh-huh...) and then at the juku last night, Seven gave me some fairly expensive chocolate truffles. I unfortunately found out though with The Bohemian that fairly expensive chocolate truffles have a lower melting point than the usual stuff bought at the convenience stores. Within a few hours in my toasty room, the cocoa-powdered little lumps were reduced to sludge...albeit silkily delicious piles of sludge.

Earlier during the Beehive session, the ladies found out about my recent pricey visit to Casa Dos Fado in Yotsuya with Speedy's gang and decided that it was worth a visit. Not that I'm particularly worried since the ladies always pay my way during our lunches out but I was relieved to see that the lunch menu is considerably cheaper at just 1,200 yen a person.

Well, I'm doing a 3-hour session here at the neighbourhood Internet cafe since I got word last night from Speedy's assistant that 001 cancelled today's and next week's classes. Ouch! That'll hurt. Ack...at least I stay in my neck of the woods. I'll be doing much of the same on Sunday since that Tokyo Marathon will be tying up traffic systems all across the big city. Being the first of its kind, I'm sure that despite all of the safeguards, there will be some sort of screwup somewhere. I got quite an earful from the Beehive yesterday about some of the sordid side leading up to this huge race. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has continued keeping his reign as controversial as ever. In his push for this marathon to take place, he basically steamrollered over the schedule of a much more established marathon in Ome...a smaller, more rural area of Tokyo without any due process which could basically mean that the Ome Marathon will have to find a new date to squeeze itself into amongst all of the other marathons that take place throughout the nation. Marathons aren't events that easily share...why would an athlete risk killing himself/herself with back-to-back runs a week or so apart? Also, due to the race on Sunday, streets will be closed off all over the metropolis for as much as 7 hours, so a lot of the commercial concerns on those streets are lamenting that they'll make bupkiss. So, why has Grand Shogun Ishihara risked inciting such wrath from his own vassals? Simple...one of his very vocal wishes since he became Governor has been to bring the Summer Olympics here in 2016. What better way than to show off an inaugural marathon open to the media of the world? I just hope that he's treating this show as a National Security Event like the States do with The Super Bowl nowadays in this post-9/11 era. It wouldn't do for thousands of runners and spectators to get blown up or fall ill due to an Aum Shinrikyo sarin bomb or an Al Qaeda attack (although the latter crime is far less likely than the former).

The big non-news over the past few days has been the dogged tracking down by the Japanese media of Kim Jong Nam, the rather bloated son of Kim Jong Il, Grand Dictator of North Korea in Beijing and Macao. The media has been careful to say "a person who may be" Kim Jong Nam; I gather that the journalists figure that North Korea would be more than happy to send out a lot of decoys to get some laughs. Plus, the guy looks like me after a few too many pizzas and a bad visit to the barber. In fact, reporters can get alleged Nam sightings by just hanging around Akihabara for a few minutes...he looks like your garden variety otaku. It's ironic that Kim Jong Il, supposedly a big Elvis fan, now has a son who's gotten the sighting treatment. On related news, those 6-nation talks to beg North Korea to give up nukes have apparently borne some "fruit". Kim will give them up in return for food, supplies and delisting from the Axis of Evil (I'm saying this in a sing-song voice, by the way). Wait a minute...didn't this exact thing happen years ago? And guess what? North Korea stabbed everyone in the back.

But that hasn't been the only news...evidently, the Anna Nicole Smith sordidness has made its way over here onto the morning wide shows. And one of the hosts even spoke at some length about The Dixie Chicks sweeping some major Grammys. Although I think the Chicks got some revenge, I think the folks who burned the CDs and the DJs who refused to play them will probably be buying some of their discs...just to burn them again. Not sure if Michael Buble was still pouting away outside. I read that "American Idol" champ Carrie Underwood got "Best New Artist of the Year" honours...the only award for a once-unknown singer and a future-unknown singer at the same time.

Sunday February 11, 3:24 p.m.

Well, Happy Birthday Japan! You don't look a year older than 2,355 (guessing that number, of course). Probably all of the folks under 40 don't even realize what the significance of the holiday is, either.

I met up with everyone at Nishiguchi of JR Shinjuku at about 5:00 for our foray into Foo Foo. Along with the usual eating members of myself, MB, The Satyr and Skippy, The Sylph and our companion from our foray to JAMS, The Alabaster, even decided to join us (never thought of those two as being the ramen-gulping types...although they don't really fit the hambaagu niche either and yet they were there at JAMS). The six of got the back table to seat 6. Because of the numbers and the co-ed mix, we were at our favourite ramen haunt much longer than the usual half-hour max stay there. The pai ko tan tan men has changed a bit...the soup was a bit less creamier but still it was its usual satisfying stew.

After our dinner, The Sylph and The Alabaster went off for their little girls' night out while Skippy went off for home which left us guys to head back to my place for the ritual DVD night. Buying enough chocolates to kill a moose (or mousse), we settled back into the sofas and caught our double feature, "Inside Man" and "Team America: World Police".

"Inside Man" wasn't a bad piece by Spike Lee. It was his most mainstream movie but it still had the Lee touches: not just one but two African-American protagonists, fast-talking Noo Yawk profanity-laced banter and jazz. Still, I thought Lee kinda fell into the trap that a lot of directors fall into when they try to do a film noir piece...throw in one too many red herrings and too many characters. MB thought that the characters portrayed by Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer could've been made into a stronger supporting character instead of the two cameos. I thought that Lee was kinda following what a number of folks have been doing for the last few years: make that big movie which is stuffed with A-listers doing supporting turns. I don't think I'd ever seen Willem DaFoe do a straight supporting turn before.

As for "Team America", it was a howler of a piece. I don't mean that in a bad way...just that, MB was just howling in laughter for most of it. If there were a university-level course on satire, this and "South Park: The Movie" should be required viewing. I could understand why Sean Penn sent that nasty letter to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but frankly, Penn didn't do himself any favours by doing so. For me, the big highlight was finally getting to see what puppet sex was like.

It was another late wake-up call but MB and I did our usual pilgrimage to the neighbourhood Skylark for lunch. We managed to cover a wide range of topics during our two hours there while we noshed on Mixed Grill, Tatsuta Chicken and Saikyo-style Salmon. One was quite an interesting talk on the need for Tokyoites to own cars.

Here we are...living in not only the world's largest city but also the world's most convenient one with kilos and kilos of public transportation lines criss-crossing the megalopolis like a Cat's Cradle gone crazy and yet the folks here crave cars. And not just your de rigueur Toyotas and Nissans, either. People here will give their firstborns for Aston-Martins, Bentleys and SUV's. These are big-ass cars for Tokyo. And MB and I were just wondering aloud about why anyone would ever want to own them. For one thing, I can't even imagine the horrors of trying to negotiate an SUV in one of those residential side streets in the Big Sushi. Having even one car and one pedestrian in the same area almost violates a certain law of physics...then imagine having an SUV or Caddy try to turn a corner in one of those mazes, let alone it trying to parallel park. It's a wonder that Japanese manage to live so long...I can only guess that Tokyoites actually can live to 140 with ease...it's just that driving there just chops the decades off. The world's-oldest living people (often from this country) must never have been behind the wheel. Then, there are folks who bizarrely need to own a sports car in Tokyo. Where could one even cut loose with a Ferrari in a city where expressways sport 20-km traffic jams almost daily? It's kinda like keeping a tiger in a 2K apartment...it may be possible but at what cost to the tiger?

This and the continuing queues at Krispy Kreme are things that make me go hmmm...

Saturday February 10, 3:26 p.m.

I was looking through HMV on the 12th floor of Takashimaya Times Square (it seems like the top few floors of the place are going through some major renovations....after 10 years, I think it's a good time). A new MISIA CD has been released along with Michael Buble's latest...sigh...I hope I do get a rebate from the tax office. As for the J-songstress, I did listen to some of the tracks on one of the store's listening posts and it sound like MISIA has started to bring back some more uptempo stuff to her repertoire..about time....I thought she was permanently stuck in ballad mode.

Saturday February 10, 3:04 p.m.

Back at the Shinjuku Kinko's...across the street, there is the usual 2-hour wait for donuts. I kinda wish that one of the guys from "Jackass" or even David Letterman himself would just pass by the trend-smitten crowd and yell from a megaphone: "YOU F#$&'N MORONS!! IT'S JUST A M#$%#%' F#$&'"# DOUGHNUT! NOTHING TASTES THAT GOOD!" But I digress...

I would have been talking with the one M at this time but I received a cancellation call last night from her citing a cold, so after dealing with the kids, I went straight to Shinjuku and had my Hansen's hot dog with fries...at least, I didn't have to wait eons for that. I spoke with the mother of the two sisters this morning; apparently, she was rather smitten with Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" and was wondering about one word that she'd heard repeatedly during the flick. The Japanese word was subtitled as o-taishi; there is the word ko-taishi which is Crown Prince. Since the movie dealt with Marie and the French court, I rather assumed that the word she was looking for was "dauphin". She was surprised and grateful at my discovery. I knew all those years of watching the second year of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would finally reap benefits. "Marie Antoinette", by the way, is doing quite well here; when the movie seems to revolve around cakes and shoes in this country, it ought to be the highest-earning movie this year.

Basically the only reason I'm puttering away at this machine and spending almost 1,000 yen is that I had to print out a worksheet for those new kids, Chip n' Dale. Otherwise, I would just be walking around Shinjuku until 4:30 when I'm to meet MB and the gang for some Foo Foo ramen. Again, I don't think we need to wait...

Yesterday, I had my date of sorts with The Madame. We first went to this little soup kitchen down in the basement of Yurakucho's Printemps department store; it was called in the usual bizarre Japlish way, "Dear Soup". Actually, the meal was quite good. I had this spicy kimchi soup sharing space with rice...made for a great stew. As the two of us have been able to do for the past several months, we did our share of venting. I asked her opinion about The Bohemian's behaviour back on Sunday; she was, of course, not there but she did side with me that The Bohemian was being rather inconsiderate. Our second stop was another strangely named cafe in the Kotsu Kaikan building across from JR Yurakucho Station. For some reason, the cafe was named Arnie Palmer, after the legendary American golf player. Aside from that, there was no other hint of a golf theme inside the hoary old place. It was run by a trio of oldtimers with the square booths, pink platform phone and simple dishes that are reminiscent of 60s and 70s kissaten. There, we had a discussion on religion. Being a delver in all things spiritual, she was somewhat disappointed to hear that I was not just an atheist but an evolutionist. However, I did make my point clear that if there were indeed a god up there, he/she was not a noble one considering some of the atrocities that have been committed in the last century.

Friday February 9, 9:41 p.m.

Well, got a bit of a surprise to hear that Anna Nicole Smith died this morning. The Carolinan and I were just talking about her but couldn't recall her name last night while we were also talking about that Chilean golddigger, Anita, and her Japanese sugar daddy. I guess with Smith out of the way, that long-lasting lawsuit is now dead and buried...or is it? There's the case of Smith's newborn daughter...was she written into the will? Did Smith even write a will? Still, although there were some rather Monroe-esque circumstances in her death, I don't think Smith still holds a candle to the original. I got the impression that her TV show was just daring folks to label her insane.

Anyways, one of the fringe benefits of being a freelancer started its season. The Carolinan (and her sister, the New Yorker) gave me some macaroons as an early Valentine's Day gift. So, I've got two gifts to give back on White Day in little more than a month. Let's see how many more boxes I can get for breakfast. Man, how Fujiya must be hurting...now that one of their most important selling seasons is in full swing.

As for The Carolinan herself, it looks like I won't be seeing her for about a month since she's got that accounting exam to study for. She's been getting fairly stressed out about that...and she's also been hitting the drinking parties as well...not a good combo.

Today, I'm meeting up with The Madame for one of those frequent lunches and coffee things in Yurakucho instead of the usual Ikebukuro. I would've thought that those gang wars in her neck of the woods was the reason for the site change, but she made the request before the first bullets were fired. On that sordid episode, apparently, the Yamaguchi-gumi and its rival, the Sumiyoshi-kai are brokering a peace deal. The police won't believe it til things stay quiet for a long time.

Afterwards, I've got The Ace for his Friday regular but Jolly got in a lesson just before The Ace's since he AWOL'ed again on Tuesday....which means I have to lug the TOEIC stuff for most of the day...ugh.

We've got a long weekend coming up since Japan's birthday is up on Sunday so we gotta have a compensatory Monday off. Skippy has signed off on the ramen deal on Saturday night but eschewed DVD night...not surprised there.

Wednesday February 7, 4:30 p.m.

Well, it turned out to be an abortive attempt to get the donuts at Krispy Kreme on Monday night. That 10-minute wait that The New Yorker had experienced looked more like a 1-hour marathon standing session. Looks like I'm gonna have to come back in, say, 6 months. It's just amazing how the Japanese just jump on the trendy bandwagon like a hungry cat in a mousecage. I don't think The Doughnut Plant ever got this crazy when it debuted a couple of years ago. Mind you, it has a number of branches around Tokyo whilst KK only has the one in all of Japan. Plus, The Doughnut Plant didn't have the ready-made marketing campaign of lots of Japanese tourists coming back from Hawaii toting their Krispy Kreme donut boxes along with their Macadamia Chocolates and Godiva Cocoa. This feeding frenzy must be quite amusing to folks back in North America where KK has become somewhat forlorn thanks to overexpansion and shoddy accounting practices. Shoddy accounting practices do seem to be rather common over here so I guess KK may have a home in Japan after all.

Looks like the yakuza have come back into the news after several months of nothing. Over the past few days, there have been some reprisal shootings...or shots across the bow, to be more accurate in the safest city in the world. Apparently, some capo got assassinated so various gangsters have decided to shoot out some windows of local chapters in the usual entertainment districts of Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Azabu-Juban (for you Sailor Moon fans, a lot of Usagi-chan's haunts are based in that last tony neighbourhood). I'm not sure if it was a matter of honour among thieves or if the thugs just wanted to avoid being clamped down by the cops, but all of the shootings took place in the wee hours. So, here's a safety tip for you tourists...don't do any early morning jogging around those areas for the next little while unless you wanna risk a bit of extra lead.

On the happier end of things, everyone is getting excited about Tokyo finally entering the marathon cities. On February 18th, The Big Sushi joins Boston, NYC and London with its own 42-km run of endurance. It starts from City Hall in West Shinjuku down to the hotel district of Shinagawa up to the trad quarter of Asakusa before finally winding its way down to Odaiba, in front of the Tokyo Big Sight convention centre. I just hope that there isn't a major earthquake since Odaiba will basically liquefy....could be somewhat embarrassing. 002 and her hubby, being the marathon enthusiasts will be in the thick of things.

Yesterday, I had my newest students, Chip n' Dale, the 10-year-old guy/gal buddies. The boy, Chip, looks to be 5 years younger while Dale could probably flip him across the room with one arm. The inaugural class went well. Actually, along with 002's lesson earlier in the afternoon (her last one before the Tokyo Marathon...she should have lots of stories to tell me in 2 weeks), I had four classes at the juku last night. Man, that was a long day....the first time I went through one of those in a long time. By the time, I finished up with The Siberian with our talk on the etymology of names, I was pretty much ready to be buttered and eaten with a cup of coffee.

Looks like Saturday will be a good one...at least from the afternoon. I've got the Elder and the Younger earlier in the morning. Even though we're in February, I've yet to see the Elder for the first time this year and I kinda sent a shot across the mother's bow by suggesting that maybe the Elder can just focus more on her volleyball and other stuff. Her reply was not all that noncommittal. However, I do have the one M for our first chitchat session of the year at our new haunt since our old Tea Room closed down. Then, I'm meeting with MB, The Satyr and Skippy for some of that hearty pai ko tan tan men at Foo Foo in Shinjuku Station. After that, it'll probably be a guys' night at my place for DVDs. I don't think Skippy would join us since she's got her kid to teach the next day...and besides, three guys with a girl? Not even someone as up-with-people as Skippy would feel too comfy.

That astronaut love triangle thing in the States is the stuff that a scriptwriter's dreams are made of. Noone could have ever seen that one coming. I kinda wonder if those former producers of "JAG" are just slapping upside their heads.

Monday February 5, 6:01 p.m.

Sunday was a rather awkward day...at least to me. I was to meet MB, The Satyr and his Aussie buddy for a round of burgers at The Maple Leaf, the Canadian pub in Shibuya. I had also posted an invitation to The Bohemian since I hadn't seen him in months and since he also had an abortive attempt to invite me to dinner back in early January when I was still back in Canada. Well, MB was going to be late but the other four of us met up in front of the Shibuya police box at about 4 yesterday.

Things started getting awkward with the pub itself. The fact that on a Sunday afternoon that a pub that supposedly opens up at 11:30 was absolutely devoid of customers at 4:10 wasn't a good sign but The Maple Leaf has always seemed pretty schizoid in that sense. Sometimes, you needed a crowbar to get in and then there was yesterday. Perhaps the price of the beers could be part of the problem. Selling beers for 1,000 yen a pop doesn't exactly bring in the izakaya crowd....especially if one of those beers is a Molsons...it's kinda like selling Bud Light for 1,000. Plus, any ambience for a nice casual drink was ruined by the bigscreen blaring out some unknown movie called "The Musketeer". After the first round, The Satyr and his houseguest decided to go manga-shopping before MB arrived (I also didn't take that as a good sign). So, it was just The Bohemian and me for the better part of an hour...and then two ladies came in.

The Bohemian, as his call name would indicate, has always been a mypace type of guy (in natural English, that would mean he goes by the beat of his own drum...in his case, that would be a bongo played by Tito Puente). Sometimes that mypace-ness would lead to some rather off-colour remarks and actions. Well, during that hour, Bo told me about his latest job failure; for a couple of months, he'd been working at some securities company for a couple of months but found his professional relationship with his boss to be anything but happy, so he pulled out. He was somewhat depressed. I told him about my latest tension with my parents..."Why don't you come home and get a real job?" Well, actually I vented....fueled by my bitter Guinness and my even more bitter resentment.

Then, the Bohemian did the one thing that I get peeved about...he always has this annoying penchant of trying to pick up the ladies...badly. His latest victims were in the next booth. Previous victims included waitresses at our usual izakaya, En. Usually, I would have just grated my teeth and borne it (sorry I'm such a prude but I think there's a time and place for this sort of nampa...Sunday afternoon at The Maple Leaf ain't it...I think the girls would probably have agreed). Unfortunately, with the dark stuff inside me (literally and figuratively), I ended up telling him straight that I would appreciate him cooling off that sort of thing in front of me. I don't think it's so much that he does what a lot of younger folk do in front of Shibuya on a Friday night but that he performs like such an Earl Camembert. I mean, this is a guy who had just confessed a few minutes earlier to being warned by the staff at his local gym about not approaching any more women...I guess the words "stalker" and "sexual harrassment" haven't embedded themselves too well into his psyche. Again, it's just me but I frankly think that his sort of flirting is just embarrassing for everyone. After my little snap, he quietened down a bit.

Of course, all this happened without the knowledge of MB, The Satyr or his friend. When they all showed up some minutes later, The Bohemian started making motions about moving over to a cheaper izakaya...after having glugged down some beers already. MB very amiably asked if he could just have the burger first before moving on. From then on, I kinda realized that perhaps the addition of The Bohemian wasn't exactly the best thing. His world and the world of The Satyr and MB were two different animals. So what did Bo do? Just continued to glug down more brewskis. As for MB's burger, he said it was good..could beat a Big Mac anyday but he still preferred the burgers at Village Vanguard (I really gotta take him to Brozzers in Ningyocho).

We finally did make our move closer to the station to a bar that served 157-yen beers...more to Bo's tastes. I think I know the reason for the low cost...the labour cost is probably close to rock bottom...the waitresses were all non-Japanese Asians. Still, the beer was good and the food was fine. However, it was quickly evident that Bo was winding down fast. All that beer shut his systems down so I was wondering if he were going to be OK. I did mention that he could sleep it off at the sauna hotels that he often uses. Somehow, he heard my suggestion but said that he would be OK. At least he wasn't like The Ballerina in her worst binges...now she's a bad drunk.

So, after we said our goodbyes, I'm left wondering how The Bohemian is doing. I'm not sure if there has been any lasting strain on our friendship but he knows now without a doubt about his attempts at flirting. Still, it looks like our first DVD night of the year is gonna happen again amongst The Satyr, MB and myself this coming Saturday....all this after a round of ramen at Foo Foo. I've asked Skippy to see if she would be game...I kinda doubt it though. Strangely enough, even though Skip wasn't around yesterday, she was very much with us in spirit...mostly when it came to talk about her pendulous breasts! Apparently, women over here don't hesitate to openly talk about each other's sizes or even to cop a feel. MB told me that at that somewhat disastrous reunion party with the alumni the other Friday, The Coffeemaker was trying to squeeze the Charmins of her good buddy.

Well, looks like this week is gonna be another one of those cancellation-prone ones. The Part-Timer just canned hers due to a cold and then I got a message from The UL that she would have to bow out of her Friday due to a funeral. I actually got a contrite fax from The Polynesian about her standing me up on Saturday. As I thought, she overslept after her latest 18-hour day at work.

And I'm actually gonna try to see if I can actually buy a box of Krispy Kreme donuts in under 10 minutes in Shinjuku. But it looks like despite The Part-Timer's cancellation, I'll be hanging about here for another couple of hours to do so since The New Yorker's successful attempt came about at 9 p.m. Not promising anything but since I don't start teaching 'til 3:30 tomorrow, I think I can afford the risk.

Saturday February 3, 4:16 p.m.

Came across a rather funny editing piece via YouTube. For all you Trekkies, check out "Captain Janeway's Mission: Impossible". All I'll say is that all that stylized acting and expression on the various Treks have finally found an even better use. Also, YouTube has come out as a great treasure vault for old and musty 80s music videos. Go West (the band, not the Pet Shop Boys song)? Wang Chung? I found them.

I'm typing this as Speedy is interviewing a potential new teacher. So far, he's been having problems trying to get any good ones for the interview stage. We've got a number of bittersweet running gags at this school. One is the fact that we have a revolving door when it comes to admin staff...as soon as one comes in, the other goes out the door. By the time April rolls around, we'll be losing all three of our assistants to full-time jobs. The other is the seeming impossibility for interviewees to show up on time or even show up at all. Kinda reminds me of what someone at university once told me; at the time, I thought it was prototypically arrogant of him. He said that he, more often than not, had to come down to the level of standards of his peers instead of the other way around. Considering some of the folks we've had come through the door over the months, I'm now wondering if that guy were somewhat prescient.

Looks like another one of our stores underneath my subway station has gone the way of the dodo. Our revolving sushi store died a couple of years back with no replacement even now, the Fujiya branch is undergoing self-reflective closure due to its scandal, and now a longtime book store has closed its doors for good. I could make out from the sign that it was a rather hasty exit. Not sure if there were problems with the rent.

Saturday February 3, 3:40 p.m.

Got through my EIC class again in good fashion. Yup, she's a keeper, so it was with some surprise to hear from Speedy that the bonny lass has a bit of Englishphobia...or at least, she had it...doesn't like learning the language but according to her, it is this year's mission to start liking English. Well, I can say that she's started off on the right foot.

Unfortunately, I didn't have as much success with The Polynesian this morning. She basically stood me up at the family restaurant. It's unusual for her since she's been very steady and reliable since we started lessons last year. I'm not sure if her new job has finally gotten the best of her and she subsequently needed sleep badly. I've sent a message to her cellphone but have yet to get a response. I was somewhat put out at the time but the damage wasn't too bad. In fact, I'd say this no-show was in the best of circumstances since I was supposed to be at Speedy's just a few blocks away anyways for the EIC.

Looks like we are on for Wings N' Burgers at The Maple Leaf tomorrow with The Satyr, Movie Buddy and The Sylph along with at least one more Aussie. Unfortunately, Skippy had to bail. Maybe I'll ask The Bohemian and see if he's game since I haven't seen him in a number of months.

Well, I'll be getting some stuff done for my new kids at the juku on Tuesday before heading home for dinner...

Saturday February 3, 1:37 p.m.

"Global warming caused by humans."

And now, a commentary by this blogger...

Well....DUH!

And in other news, today happens to include those hours in which America's Groundhog Day and Japan's Setsubun coincide. I think most of you know about the former (big rodent comes out of his hole...sees shadow...6 more weeks of winter...goes back to bed...just like any Sunday bachelor); as for the latter, February 3 is known here as the day of throwing hard dry beans at the devil. Everybody from mothers to sumo wrestlers throw the stuff at the folks who've pulled the short straw and ended up as the devils (ever get hit with those beans?...not exactly the greatest feeling).

I say that like those teens on "The O.C." did with Chrismakkuh, we ought to blend our two holidays to make "Setsuhog Day". That way, instead of pelting beans at people in devil masks, we can actually start chasing rats on the Tozai Line. I think that with that comment, I should be getting hate mail from PETA shortly.