Friday July 11, 9:30 a.m.

Speedy's first student of the day (and just about everyday), The PA, just left. Since I now have de facto access to the school first thing in the morning, I'm usually letting him in since Speedy has been rushing in late recently due to very late nights. The PA is a patent attorney of some standing, and a very pleasant man to boot. Along with his day job, he's got teaching positions at some pretty prestigious universities. He set me right about the eccentric Dr. NakaMatsu, the so-called inventor of the floppy disk. I'd always believed the rumours about him, but The PA told me that though Japan's most flamboyant inventor had a hand in some of the components making up the disk, he could hardly be considered to be the father of the disk itself. Basically, it's like Al Gore's hootin' and hollerin' about the Internet.

Speedy is in one of his moods again. Not that Speedy is breathing flame or devouring unsuspecting staffers; he's not that way. He just rambles away at warp speed with periodic stops for giggling. Apparently, the pleasant problem of him being able to pick n' choose some new administrative staffers for the schools has emerged into the cold, hard light of reality. The two people he'd selected as the newbies sent in their rejections late last night. The bossman had forgotten that these people were also doing their own pickin' n' choosin' from the various companies they were interviewing at. When it comes to salary, our school will not be particularly competitive. So, Speedy has to start from scratch again. I do sympathize with him but when he gets that way, I usually nod and ignore him and do something else...such as write blogs.

I'd been thinking about taking a little R&R in Yokohama later this summer. Y'know...head into Chinatown, grab some good Sino-grub and maybe even stay overnight. I've checked out some of the cheap hotels over there...and they are indeed very reasonable. 5,000-6,000 yen is a godsend for this city. But then again, my cold, hard light of reality bursts into my head like an aneurysm and reminds me that earlier this year I had a rather nasty financial crisis, and the rationalization bubbles up about why I would even need to get accomodations in a city that is perhaps a couple of hours away from my home by train and whose nightlife doesn't really interest me....I haven't been a clubber in a couple of decades and I'm a teetotaler when I'm by myself which pretty much erases 95% of my options right there. I would just be lying in the hotel bed watching TV...which is what I would be doing at home for free.

Friday July 11, 8:53 a.m.

I was thinking that perhaps we had a chance to last through this month without really needing to access the air conditioner, but I saw the forecast for this weekend. It'll be another scorching one. However, it hasn't been too bad this week.

Another 5-hour sleep before heading back here for another round at Speedy's. But this time, I just have two classes with The Nurse and The Pessimist. Hopefully, The Nurse won't be having another emotional breakdown like last time. I seem to get that from time to time from various students.

Not sure what I'll do afterwards. I may just head over to Kinokuniya again and see if there might be something interesting for Tully and The Coffeemaker on Sunday. The two didn't seem all that enthused last time.

The Bohemian left a message on my machine while I was in the shower last night. Of course, he called late so I was grateful that I didn't pick up (I would've thought initially it was Speedy telling me of an addition or cancellation to the schedule); he's definitely true to his name when it comes to calling folks up at inconvenient times. And he's either got a tough skin or a dense brain...I'd thought that our last meeting together frankly cooled down our friendship. I've become less patient about his opinions than I used to be.

Thursday July 10, 9:54 p.m.

Incredibly enough, I'm still standing after teaching 7 lessons today...one being a 90. Actually, I had the best combination that I could get in a marathon session. Grandma Dynamite was probably the only tiring point since she's pretty much all over the place as befits her name. The Yogist, and that EIC student were just fine and dandy. Then came Miss Sedona's first lesson; she became only my second student here as a 90-minute. But that's only for the next four lessons before she takes off for the States on that voyage of self-discovery; if and when she returns for more, it'll be as a regular 60. Then, it was my private students in the form of The Carolinan and BC. BC was about as regular as she could be in the lesson. I'm not sure if that will be the very last time I have her as a student before she takes off for Canada.

Then, it was Slim to wrap up. He looked pretty exhausted but we managed to carry on a good conversation...on jet lag, of all things. The countdown has begun for him before his fateful flight to Germany next week. He's gotten a bit of envy and perhaps even some resentment from some of his compadres since he got a business-class seat to Munich...he's only an assistant manager; only the top execs get that much-dreamed-of full-flat. I'm thinking the powers-that-be may be sending a message about his future prospects.

Anyways, that friend of The UL's has taken a bite. We'll be meeting on the 27th for a preliminary meeting to see if we are compatible (sounds almost like an omiai).

Just about time to go...only to come back here again first thing in the morning for The Nurse and then The Pessimist....followed late by The Ace. Still, it'll be a lighter day than the past 2 days.

Thursday July 10, 9:34 a.m.

Grandma Dynamite has entered the building. The Carolinan is coming here thankfully for her lesson tonight, although I was pretty confident that she would. Makes all our lives easier. Got most of the paperwork done in preparation for today's mountain of lessons. I just have to wonder whether I'll have time to grab any sort of lunch today. I think the only sizable window is between Grandma Dynamite and The Yogist...which'll mean I'll be on water and rice crackers and any remnants of chocolate left in the kitchen between 1 and 9:30.

It's ironic that the new night staffer, TM, and I were talking about her old haunt in Christie Pits in Toronto. I just read on the Sympatico.ca site that some poor fellow got mugged there....by a million volts of lightning.

Thursday July 10, 8:37 a.m.

Same ol' same ol' Hump Day...the 2nd one in a row this week. Grab brekkie at McDonalds and then open up the school. The new tradition of gabbing with Speedy's student, The Patent Attorney, before the bossman rushes in is taking root.

The last couple of days have been reasonably warm though still kinda humid. But I have been able to sleep rather comfortably. Let us hope that things continue that way for a while longer.

That friend of The UL's contacted me last night about the lessons. I gave her the only bone I could which is Sunday afternoons.

The "Doctor Who" forum is still buzzing away about "Journey's End". This must truly be the best of times for the world's longest-running sci-fi drama. Ratings have gone through the roof, the cliffhanger managed to get onto the front pages of UK papers, and the fans have been debating and diatribing about everything and everyone from Donna to the entire episode. And perhaps this little piece of news hasn't quite arrived at the forum yet...I just saw on a major website that the ol' Brig is coming back...albeit not to the TARDIS, but to "The Sarah Jane Adventures".

It'll be a majorly busy day today. I think for the first time in recent memory, certainly the first time at this school, I'll be teaching 7 lessons over the day. I may have to apologize to Slim if I actually have that cardiac arrest mid-lesson.

Wednesday July 9, 5:32 p.m.

Well, got through the first half of Hump Day 1. It wasn't too painful. The Pessimist, true to his nature, was a bit dour since he had a bit of a row with the missus but we managed to get through the lesson. The EIC student was a pleasant revelation...pretty high-intermediate. As for the model lesson, I'm kinda wondering if I'm in some sort of slump...just not really grabbing these folks. Today's student was a nurse who had spent a week in Halifax; her comprehension and delivery are pretty good but has very little syntax or grammatical foundation. Really not sure if she's a keeper.

Got the 2nd half starting in about 25 minutes with 001. Hump Day 2 is gonna be even more busy with 7 lessons on the slate...including The Carolinan and...surprise, surprise...BC.

Wednesday July 9, 10:29 a.m.

Nice to be here at a more leisurely time than the usual early-morning rush into Tokyo. I should try to schedule more lessons from 11 a.m. I see that I don't see The Pessimist's textbook on my desk...I'll have to have a word with Speedy, although I know that won't get the text here any faster.

Looks like that logistical kerfuffle about the G-8 leaders having a supremely gourmet meal while talking about how the rest of the world seems to be running out of food has been gaining some very thick, hairy legs...even hairier than the Hairy Crab Bisque (it doesn't sound too appetizing, but Hairy Crab is a direct translation from the Japanese ke-gani, and is a known delicacy in these parts) that was on the menu. I think it was indeed a boner of planning; the organizers could've been a bit more sensitive about the dinner but the Japanese really do care about how they're seen in the eyes of the world in all areas...including on how to put on a spread for visitors, and perhaps the chef got a bit overzealous in trying to impress his guests.

The UL contacted me suddenly last night about referring her friend to me for lessons. Regrettably, I had to decline her offer since I'm pretty much plugged up most weeknights between the juku and Speedy's. I did offer Sunday afternoons, although I hope that she doesn't pick me up on that offer.

Well, I've got The Pessimist in 25 minutes, followed by a new EIC student, then yet another model lesson student. A 3-hour break follows and then I have the regular nighttime crowd of 001, The Diver and Medicine Man. It'll be a busy one.

Tuesday July 8, 9:11 p.m.

Well another night at the juku, another dotakyan by Jolly. Seems like the lad has been pretty busy of late. This time, the boss will be giving me half the rate since she's given up on having him make up lessons. Suzanne is currently living out her melodrama in terms of her potentially soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend and her perhaps long-distance romance with an Aussie. I could've just imagined putting a TV frame around her and calling it "The Perils of Suzanne".

Mild Jr. was off taking care of the opening night at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. But The Milds came by for their hour. Apparently, the Gyotoku Chuo Clinic, the place where I will probably go for my checkup next month, was one of Mr. Mild's clients when he was still working as a medical supplies sales rep. He didn't sound too negative about the place; apparently, it's a medium-sized facility. Strangely enough, Mrs. Mild had her physical last weekend at some facility in The New Otani in Akasaka, my old haunt with The Class Act all those years ago. She went through the battery of tests, including X-rays and ECGs, along with the mandatory gulp of barium. She said that she could get some strawberry-flavoured barium to ingest, although I would hardly call that an endorsement. The Milds are also heading for Germany in a couple of weeks for a bit of vacation, so that'll make it 3 students who'll be in Deutschland at the same time, Slim, of course, being the 3rd person.

Well, I'll be heading home early and get some shuteye for what will be the first of 2 Hump Days tomorrow. At least, I was able to schedule The Pessimist for 11 a.m., and therefore not need to take an early train into town.

I wonder how that G-22 is doing up in Hokkaido. I hear that they're talking about food shortages....over an 8-course meal supplied by the Japanese taxpayers.

Tuesday July 8, 4:20 p.m.

Rather incredible how fate works for one. About an hour ago after having my 3 hours at the I-cafe, I checked my messages. And I got this rather loud cheerful voice talking about some situation or somesuch thing...in any case, after listening to it twice, I still couldn't figure who it was and who she was representing. Then, all sorts of options came into my head: maybe it was my rental agency harassing me again or a new staffer at Speedys not having developed good phone skills or perhaps the Idolmaster company calling me up to say that I'd sent in the envelope too late or Air Canada contacting me about my ticket. In any case, I suddenly got this itch in my stomach that I don't like.

I went to the Urayasu branch of my bank to update my bankbook so that I could check that I did have a record of sending my rent. Then, I came across this item in which for some reason, Suruga Bank apparently had taken 64,000 yen out of my account for some reason at the end of last month. I didn't recall any business with that bank. That itch got a bit more fiery, and so that was another possibility added onto the Whodunit. I walked briskly over to the juku and tried to remember what business I ever had with Suruga Bank but couldn't come up with a thing. Finally, I had to ask the boss for some help. We tracked down the phone number for their call centre and tried to get down to the bottom of the matter. As it turned out, the 64,000 yen was the money that I'd withdrawn at a convenience store last week to pay off my bills; the ATM in the convenience store belonged to Suruga which then made its presence known in my bankbook.

As for the strange phone call, I accessed it again from the juku phone which seems to have a better handle on the tone and volume of the message. It turned out it was the cleaners; the lady there just wanted to inform me that she'd overcharged me for taking in the blankets. Man, amazing what life can throw at you to get something resolved.

Mild Jr. has his hands full today. He won't be coming to a lesson tonight for the very reason that his base du guerre, The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is having its grand opening. I saw the poster in the subway and it's a huge behemoth of a structure. I'm sure just patrolling inside the hotel would be a major expedition.

And then I came across another picture...this time of that Gherkin Building clone in West Shinjuku. It's actually known as the Cocoon Building because of its wrapped look outside. It's due to open in October. There is a smaller globular building being built next to it. The picture in the subway had the complex on it side. Frankly, from that view, the complex kinda looks like a twig and berries...if you know (cough, cough) what I mean.

Tuesday July 8,　1:43 p.m.

With most of the day off, I have been able to get some of the domestic stuff out of the way such as sending two of the winter blankets finally off to the cleaners. They were piled on top of the others to form a rather formidable obstacle into my bedroom. Well, the pile is now less formidable....and so is my wallet...goodbye 2800 yen.

My trip to Ichikawa City Hall was not in vain. There were two people at the Foreign Residents' Help Desk who looked for a decent clinic to have that checkup. Apparently, there is a place straight down from Gyotoku Station that will have me looked at. Now, all that needs to be done is go over and bend over.

Afterwards, I had an early lunch at the nearby KFC. They've been campaigning their newest concoction, their super hot chicken sandwich. Well, it didn't exactly have been begging for water, but it did have a bit of a sting to it.

I did succumb to my impulses and catch the last part of the finale from Season 4 of "Doctor Who" on YouTube. Again, I see that the good Doctor doesn't seem to get along with the mothers of companions. But it was tragic to see how Donna became a better person, only to revert back to her self-absorbed mensch. Still, I'll have about a year before I actually do get to see Season 4 on tape. Although I think that some of the previous companions will probably show up again now and then, I think the show has reached a crossroads and should take off in a new direction without needing to lean on Rose or Captain Jack anymore. The changing of the guard between Russell Davies and Stephen Moffatt, plus the fact that 2009 will only have 3 specials should make the transition easier.

Monday July 7, 9:09 p.m.

Slim ended up having an easier time of it at that party with the Germans on Friday. I'm sure that must've boosted his confidence no end. He's gonna be bringing in some conversations that he'll have to use when he takes off to the land of sauerkraut and Steffi Graf next week. He's already booked another couple of lessons before he does take off. Still waiting to see what Miss Sedona wants to accomplish in the time before she takes for her namesake place.

Had a pleasant conversation with the new staffer, TM. She's done her time in Canada, which seems to be a pattern with our previous staffers with the exception of The Admin. She used to live on Christie for a couple of months, so probably had access to a lot of that fine Korean cooking.

Well, tomorrow I just have those juku classes but I'll probably be taking off a bit earlier to: 1) escape the heat in my home, and 2) talk with someone at City Hall concerning the physical checkup I'm due for; it'll probably be a pipe dream but perhaps there may be some clinic which has an English-speaking doc in Ichikawa. I did get my NHI premiums, by the way. Not too harmful to my health although I would prefer not paying them.

Monday July 7, 7:08 p.m.

I guess my Genki Rockets obsession continues. I checked out the conversation on one of the Japanese pop music forums. The string has been on since the 2007 Live Earth Concert Tokyo exactly a year ago. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thought that Genki Rockets opening the Tokyo leg at Makuhari Messe (the clip is on the DVD of the new album) wasn't the best strategic move...especially that cheesy speech by Lumi. Man, I had to take off the headphones to avoid getting diabetic. Not impressive. I think a speech given by Goofy at Tokyo Disneyland had more gravitas. For a concert that had Linkin Park and Rihanna as headliners, starting Genki Rockets that way must've been a bit of a laugher for the folks who did show up early. It may not be surprising that the songs in the clip had a sudden fade out before they were to end. Faint applause is as bad as faint praise.

Still, it must be wonderful to be so youthful...from what I gather from the conversation string, all of the folks are under 20; they are just gushing about "Heavenly Star". I'm gonna have to take a second listen to some of those new tracks. None of the new ones hit me like a brick but they have the kernels to grow on me.

Looks like we've got a new staffer; she's being given the basics by current staffer AK who usually works the Monday day shift. TM is who she'll be.

Monday July 7, 5:15 p.m.

Today's forecast: cloudy and warm with scattered policemen in the Tokyo area. It is the start of the G-8 (more accurate to say G-22) Summit up in Lake Toya, Hokkaido (or if I can be permitted to be a bit Jacksonian, LaToya). Although the meeting of the world leaders is taking place at a fortress-like hotel hundreds of kilometres away from the capital, The Big Sushi itself is on high alert. There are cops crawling everywhere in the stations and in the major sections. The officers are sporting those red vests that seem to have become part of their regular blue uniforms; I've seen solitary men in blue sporting a huge baton, standing on large blocks at strategic points in the stations and at intersections just looking like landlocked lifeguards. As I was walking through Shibuya towards The Lady's house, I saw a scrum of about 10 cops conferring; The Lady sardonically remarked that they were probably thinking about what to order for lunch.

That was one of the topics we covered during the chat with The Lady and The Matron. Another topic was on something that I'd never would've believed could happen to either woman...a form of snobbery. One time, The Matron and her hubby, a fine lawyer, went to a pretty exclusive French restaurant in Tokyo. Her husband doesn't really drink and normally that wouldn't have posed a problem, but apparently no less than the manager came out and "suggested for future places" other restaurants that would be "more accomodating to" teetotalers. In other words, they were being dissed for not opting for alcohol...always the product in fine restaurants which tend to inflate the bill...and therefore incomes. Well, hubby had a bit of a temper tantrum; not sure if the pair did stay for the dessert but they made sure they wouldn't go back again. And frankly, I couldn't blame them. Such a place dips into the level set aside for ramen shops whose tyrannical owners forbid speaking from the customers during ingestion of their noodles.

SIL was also another student I haven't seen in a couple of weeks. She was doing as fine as usual; we just gabbed on the latest news of the week. Apparently, the 2008 rankings for the first half of the year for "Fresh Faces" have been released. Pop cultural phenomena such as the cute techno unit Perfume, and late Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita's grandson, tarento DAIGO were up in the Top 10. However, topping off the men's side was Sekai no Nabe Atsu, the comedian who has given everyone a fun way to count to 40, and for the women was Edd Harumi with her "Goooooood" schtick. Will either of them be still popular this time next year? Maybe Edd can hang on since she's a trained stage actress (she's already slated as one of the main characters in a hospital drama this quarter) but I have a feeling that Nabe Atsu will end up on the pile of has-beens which include Razor Ramon HG, The Guitar Samurai and, I suspect, Yoshio Kojima.

It'll be a quiet Monday since I only have one more student at Speedy's. It'll be Slim at 7:30 since there are no other students slotted here and The Full-Timer has gone off to Singapore for some R&R. And for tomorrow, it'll be just the juku crew since the stars have conspired to have both The Beehive and 002 off this Tuesday. Not too bad for me since things get really nuts for me on Wednesday and Thursday.

Yesterday capped off the first truly hot weekend in the Kanto this year. I was literally sweating to the oldies in my oast of an apartment. It went to 31 degrees C in my humble abode but did I turn on my AC? Nope, I gaman'ed by just putting on my tiny electric fan and then taping on some of that load of dry ice packs that I've collected over the years from culinary presents needing refrigeration. Why the insanity? Well, I simply don't wanna pay the just-as-insane prices to TEPCO. I'll hold off as long as I can...I am lucky that I'm not home a lot of the time but I think I'll have to succumb in August.

Well, the cliffhanger that had all Whovians on the edge of their seats for a week was finally resolved on Saturday night. With all of the imaginative plot possibilities that had been bandied about amongst the "Doctor Who" fandom all week, the final episode finally had some of the fans (including that fellow in Sudbury, Ontario) saying "I told you so"....to a certain extent. There was still one little happening which probably did catch everyone off-guard. So, all of that talk on who'll be replacing David Tennant can be held off for at least another year.

I'm gonna have to be checking out some of those reviews for my recently acquired Genki Rockets disc. The Tower Records catalog classified it as an example of House music while HMV called it a Club album. I may be missing something but I just thought it was something descended from "The Archies"....as much as I did like it.

Saturday July 5, 5:55 p.m.

Just chilling after a round of McDs...

The "Doctor Who" forum on Facebook is just having a rousing ol' time about this season's finale which should be coming out in a few hours. One of the main fan sites for the show has been talking about the meltdown that the United Kingdom has been experiencing over the past 7 days since "Stolen Earth" managed to drop plenty of jaws across jolly ol' England. The Brits may have stiff upper lips but I can imagine millions of them were embarrassed to sponge up their saliva from the living room carpet last Saturday. All sorts of theories are being thrown about like a rugby ball: a new Doctor in the form of James Nesbitt, Robert Carlyle or David Morrissey, Donna Noble actually being Romana III, and David Tennant playing two Doctors. As the line in The Art of Noise's "Cut to the Edit" goes: "Oh, to be in England..." Well, Xmas should be here soon enough.

The legend of Joey Chestnut continues. One of the greatest names in American folklore has pulled off another win at the Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest by Nathan's by ingesting tons of furters in 10 minutes. The previous winner, Takeru Kobayashi, was looking pretty buff for an otaku but just couldn't bring back the title to Japan. Just as well...Joey Chestnut rolls off the tongue far more smoothly than Takeru Kobayashi.

I listened to the two CDs of the so-called virtual band Genki Rockets. Hmph...I don't particularly consider them a truly virtual, computer-concocted musical group. I found out from the liner notes...which got onto Wikipedia in short order...that this blend of voices that make up Lumi's pipes is actually a fusion of two....model/singer Rachel Rhodes and voice actress/singer Nami Miyahara. Rhodes is actually a real person, not something concocted in a hard drive...I knew those dance moves looked far too realistic to be anything CG. So, basically we're looking at a dramatized singer done up futuristically. We've seen plenty of those...from The Partridge Family to actress Miho Kanno's singing character from a TV drama years ago. Having said that, Genki Rockets' first release, "Heavenly Star", is a small gem of a pop song. I can probably see Miley Cyrus covering it someday...once she gets over her hate for her ex-boyfriend.

One of those three model lessons did convert into a sale...the middle one who's going off to San Francisco and Sedona, Arizona next month all by her lonesome. And she's going for the 90-minute classes...only 001 has had those. My Thursdays are now jam-packed...Speedy and I had to do some juggling to the sked. I guess then she'll be called Miss Sedona. Just imagine when Emperor Palpatine dubbed Anakin Skywalker as the new Darth. It's as lame as all that.

As expected, The Full-Timer has cancelled her Monday class which gives me a bit of breathing room between SIL and Slim. But that Wednesday and Thursday are looking pretty killer.

Gonna have to head on home and try to relax in my sauna of an apartment.

Saturday July 5, 4:13 p.m.

Man, am I baked! I finished up with that model lesson on pronounciation with a pretty fluent (I'd probably say near-native) speaker. I'd never done such a lesson before so I think it frankly showed, and I wasn't sure if the lass bought the package. Probably won't sign, although I've seen stranger things happening. I'm always reminded of The Yogist's model lesson as an example.

Met up with The New Yorker at the Tully's this morning. For a change, there was nobody there for most of the lesson. Nice to be able to hear The New Yorker once in a while...something that she also remarked upon. After 3 years, we finally finished the textbook and will make a course correction.

It's pretty darn hot out there. I think it's probably in the low 30s in Shinjuku if the heat island theory is in force. But so far, so good on the rain. I've got wash that couldn't wait on the line outside right now.

Before that exhausting model lesson, I had The Manhattanite. She was decked out in her finery since she was heading to see the performance of "Wicked" in Shiodome. She doesn't come out too often for lessons so her fluency is pretty low right now. I gave her the take-home test; I wonder if she may have to face doing a make-up. Still, Speedy will have to take care of her there since she'll be coming next time on a Friday night...the night that I'm at the juku.

Speedy is doing some phone counselling right now, but he should be getting off pretty soon. It'll be time for McDonalds. He made the proposal, and right now I don't particularly feel like finding my own food, let alone cooking it. He also helped me out in purchasing my tickets for Canada this Xmas...that's right, in this blazing heat, I've already reserved my flight home for the Holidays. Good thing, too....the seats were filling up. It's quite nice to be able to even reserve the seats online. I've already informed the family.

Friday July 4, 6:51 p.m.

At the juku computer...which is dying a slow, agonizing death, much like my own SOTEC a couple of years ago. I've got vertical streaks slashing down the screen and a lot of the sites are showing up skewed. I can't even correctly get Hotmail.

Of course, with my memory failing in dribs and drabs, I've forgotten to mail The Anime King's envelope for his Idolmaster CD. Well, I've been looking for a post office that is open on Saturdays but even without the "help" of this malfunctioning computer, Japan Post also seems to have a labyrinthian website which vaguely points out that some of its branches may be open to the public beyond regular hours or even on the weekends. I guess in the Land of Zen, it is rather appropriate that we have to figure out for ourselves which branches are open. However, I believe I still have the 7th to get that envelope into Roppongi.

Instead I walked over to Shinjuku in what I later found out was 32-degree C heat with corresponding humidity. I didn't do too badly, actually. I guess it wasn't too humid, then. There were a lot of young women walking about in various alien costumes which I suppose are the latest trends in fashion these days. Walking by Krispy Kreme #1, I saw that the lineup did increase to a 25-minute wait. Nothing like piping-hot donuts to entice people to wait in summer heat.

On the way, though, I stopped off at Burger King #1 which is located in an underground enclave in the Shinjuku I-Land complex. It kinda looks like it's located in Uncle Owen's and Aunt Beru's joint on Tatooine. Not too many people in there which was nice but I kinda wonder how that would be for business there. I had the usual Whopper Meal. It's quite satisfying if a bit messy.

The dog days of summer almost being upon us (no cicadas yet, though), I strategized about how to make my way from West Shinjuku to Takashimaya Times Square without melting further under the sun. It wasn't a complete success but I decided to scoot through the West-facing Odakyu Department Store over JR Shinjuku in air-conditioned comfort before having to come down the escalator from the overpass into the Century Tower area where KK#1 is. I managed to survive the walk over to Takashimaya and then it was just a matter of getting up to the 12th floor to get to HMV. Yes, I did buy the two Genki Rockets albums....my geekiness is assured.

Some more avoidance of the heat. I went down the elevator to B1 and made my way over to the underground passageway starting from the Kinokuniya Supermarket to the Fukutoshin Subway. I decided to go all the way from there for what was probably a good kilometre and a half underground to the Oedo Line. 75% of it wasn't too air-conditioned but it was at least cooler than above ground. From about under Studio Alta westward, the blowers were there to cool us off. Still, I'm feeling characteristically funky this month.

Almost a pity that I only have to teach 30 minutes to The Ace but again he's a good guy. Tomorrow, I've got a semi-full day with The New Yorker and then at Speedy's, The Manhattanite along with yet another model lesson.

Friday July 4, 3:07 p.m.

The way The Big Lug was mopping his brow, it must be scorching out there. It is sunny to be sure, which is contrary to what the weather forecasters had been saying for today. Not that I'm complaining although I'll probably be taking the train to Shinjuku instead of walking over there. Yep, I'll be hitting HMV or Tower Records to get that Genki Rockets CD.

As for the Lug himself, he did well on the test so we've finally gotten that out of the way. He also spoke on his regular visits to the manga kissa, or comics cafe. You might say that it is the precursor of the current I-cafes although both are in ample existence. Like the latter, folks often use the manga kissa as a really cheap alternative to hotels. And the foreign backpackers haven't been naive to that fact, either.

I've been doing a bit of a recon on Air Canada for tickets going back home during December. Man, the seats are already filling up so I gotta move on them. I'll probably make the final purchase tomorrow when I'm here yet again. As expected, the prices are sky-high.

Friday July 4, 11:55 a.m.

Looks like The Pessimist is settling pretty nicely into his role of student here at Speedy's. In terms of appearance and temperament, he reminds me of that teacher I used to work with on the JET Programme nearly 20 years ago...which probably means he's got a ferocious temper. My old days on that programme also came up in conversation, although it had nothing to do with my observations. He told me that he'd spent a year as a ronin. "Ronin" means masterless samurai. In the West, ronin refers to a famed comic book character and to that great spy movie with Robert DeNiro 10 years ago. In regular Japanese life, it refers to those high school graduates who couldn't pass the university exams and have to spend a year or more cramming to finally get into the hallowed institutions of higher academia. I kinda probed him about it since I hadn't really known all that much about the life of a ronin. The Pessimist told me that it felt a bit like limbo...between two different worlds, that of the cramming high school child and that of the free-as-a-bird guy on campus. He felt a little lonely and isolated although not to the level of a hikikomori or shut-in, but he knew four other fellow ronin from his school. It sounds as if cramming was a pseudo-job for him from day to night followed by meeting up with the guys for a drink.

After the lesson, Speedy got a call from one of our more unusual students. He's a government official assigned to one of the remote islands south of Tokyo. He comes up to the mainland once every few months on business, so it's during those times that he tries to come in for lessons. He's asked for a pretty late slot tomorrow night. Usually Speedy doesn't stay open on Saturday nights but the bossman has decided to make room for him since the last time he came over, there was a misunderstanding on the schedule and the poor man ended up coming all the way to a closed school.

Friday July 4, 8:59 a.m.

It's with some irony on this 4th of July that one of America's recently grand (or grande) commercial institutions is going through some economic doldrums right now. Starbucks apparently will be closing 600 of its shops from later this month and cutting a good chunk of its employees. Seattle is not having a good year. Starbucks is being ravaged, and the Mariners are just tanking...I think they're even mathematically out of the playoffs now. However, the Japanese media will always report that Ichiro managed to reach .301 at the plate the other day.

Well, Japan then continues to be the equivalent of The Land of Lost Toys (if you remember that scene from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Over here, various commercial enterprises and some people find a second act in this country after sputtering back in the home country. I have heard no particular worries from Starbucks Japan. People here are still lining up for their lattes and macchiatos. Krispy Kreme may have become virtually extinct in Canada after a brief heyday in the late 90s (I think the usual line at a branch in Canada now is "Would you like a litre of gas with your dozen, sir?"), but here, although the ridiculous lines seem to be finally getting a bit more flaccid after its first 18 months of Viagra-ism, the now-5 branches of KK Japan are doing fine business. 7-11 convenience stores which could just as well describe some of the prison time spent by some of its grungier customers back Stateside are thriving here. A number of singers from across the Pacific have often opted to hit the Oricon rankings in Japan rather than make it big in the States. Ever heard of The Nolans? Disco-era femme fatale singing group? "Feel the need for dancing, romancing?" Still beloved here. Jimmy Osmond and that kid from "Webster" have had hit songs here. It's kinda like David Hasselhoff being big in Germany.

Friday July 4, 8:16 a.m.

Another early start to the day. But neither Speedy nor his student are here. Not sure if ...check that, the student has just chimed in. But the bossman is probably hustling over here right now...and in fact, Speedy has entered the house (to give you the sense of time, during those dots at the beginning of the line, 5 minutes had elapsed since I was keeping his student company). The bossman doesn't look too well, though. Another long night, little sleep and an early wake-up call. Man, just don't know how he does it sometimes.

In any case, while Speedy and I aren't too relaxed right now, I know 300 million other folks across the Pacific who are about to have their annual Independence Day celebrations. Happy 232nd Birthday, America! You don't look a year over 231 (that age could best be put to the current top two folks in the administration).

Since this is my third early day in a row, I actually went to La Vie De France to pick up some brekkie, instead of either McDs or Jonathans. The baked goods there are good if a little expensive. I've got The Pessimist first thing today followed by The Big Lug in the afternoon. Then it's off to teach The Ace later tonight.

Thursday July 3, 9:41 p.m.

Finally the Mega-Hump Day is over. I'm pretty much intact for the most part but I'm looking forward to home with a side visit to McDonalds for a much-earned Big Mac set. The place should be open for another hour when I get there. I've just finished up with Slim tonight. He's got that big party tomorrow with a bunch of Germans, so we went over some of the potential questions and answers. He's pretty nervous about it but I'm sure he'll do well.

Speedy had put out the thought about going to Chianti next door since they're having the last of their 3-day half-price menu. But I have to let it go since I don't think I'm really up for it and I've gotta be back here again early. I have to make another choice between McDonalds or Jonathans. Besides, Speedy didn't sound too good physically and it looks like he'll be stuck behind his computer again for the next number of minutes or hours.

3 model lessons today...man, if I can pass through this, I can probably pass through anything this school can throw at me...as long as children aren't involved. But I've got another model lesson coming up this Saturday with a lady who wants to work on her pronounciation. Another challenge...

Thursday July 3, 6:43 p.m.

Man, I'm baked! Just finished off the last of the 3 model lessons, and then I even had to spell Speedy for a few minutes with his veteran student while he took care of the after-action with that model student. The first model student came in between Grandma Dynamite and The Yogist. She's the nurse buddy of Mrs. Speedy who's already signed up with us but was going through the model lesson motions, so in point of fact, she was having her official first lesson. She'd lived in Hawaii for about 18 months several years ago but she's pretty rusty. Let's call her The Lanai, shall we?

The second model lesson student is a pharmacist who's actually quite a bit better than might be the case. In one of those weird and wonderful coincidences, she'll be headed over to Sedona, Arizona at the end of August, the very place that Mrs. Travel of The Beehive had visited a couple of weeks earlier. Not sure if she's gonna join us yet so no code name.

And then there was the friend of The Dentist, a makeup artist and hair stylist who's had a lot of location work overseas. But of the three, she was by far the lowest student. Tried my best with her but not sure if I really sold her on me. The lass was pretty game right up until the final bell when she seemed to get depressed about something. Again, like the pharmacist, I won't tag her until I know she's signed, sealed and delivered.

Well, I'm gonna completely veg until 7:30 when I have to get prepped for Slim at 8:30. I've gotta help him out on his conversation skills before he debuts at that party tomorrow afternoon with that bunch from Germany.

Thursday July 3, 11:24 a.m.

Just finished with Grandma Dynamite. Speedy had quietly told me that she wasn't burning on all 4 cylinders today but she was pretty sprightly with me. Helped my energy reserves a bit, that's for sure. We spoke on her love for Yon-sama, the Korean heartthrob for millions of middle-aged Japanese women everywhere. She said that she has never been at Narita Airport with a good portion of that huge segment of the population whenever he makes his occasional appearances here in Tokyo, but she does make some pilgrimages to Shin-Okubo, the Korean quarter. Apparently she's also been learning some Korean. The hanryu boom is now several years old now so that it's really not a trend anymore but a fact of Japanese pop cultural life.

In about an hour, I've got the first of 3 model lessons. This first one happens to be a friend of Mrs. Speedy. She's the one I've said who's already bought the lessons but for propriety's sake would be taking the model lesson. In the meantime, I'm just gonna try to veg a bit. Despite Grandma Dynamite, I'm still feeling pretty worn out. 5-hour sleeptimes plus the humidity can do that to me.

Thursday July 3, 9:31 a.m.

Well, Grandma Dynamite is in the house gabbing away with Speedy. I hope she's like last week; otherwise, this could be a long leadup to my first model lesson.

I got the latest request from The Anime King last night via some stickers and a request slip. Looks like he's ordered another round of Idolmaster paraphernalia. Idolmaster is this computer game featuring these anime girls who dance in a creepily realistic way.

I've been reading this book called "Prisoner's Dilemma" by William Poundstone which has a bit of everything from game theory to a mini-bio of the guy who came up with it John Von Neumann to the early years of the Cold War. Considering the scientific angle of the book, it's been a pretty engaging read compared to the last couple of books that I'd given up on. That sequel to "Catch-22", "Closing Time" was way too Ionesco for me, and I have to admit that, try as I could, I just couldn't get into "Warped Passages", way too brane-y (and that ain't a spelling error...just being a little punny there).

The Sand Dollar sent over a rare e-mail asking some of us to listen to his brother's musical contribution to that contest back home for the new "Hockey Night In Canada" theme. Haven't listened to it yet but if it sounds anything like the "Wayne's World" song, count me in. But it'll be hard to top that original theme.

The Whovians are still gabbing away more rabidly than the guys at The Hot Stove Lounge during the Stanley Cup playoffs (how's that for an analogy?) about "The Stolen Earth", the penultimate episode in Season 4 of "Doctor Who". I've got a sneaking suspicion that that person from Sudbury, Ontario is probably close to the resolution but Robert Carlyle still has 2:1 odds to become the next Doctor. Still, I saw a picture on one of the British newspaper websites showing pics from the upcoming Xmas special with David Tennant still as the Doctor. And in that same round of photos, I saw actor David or John (?) Morrissey from "Basic Instinct 2" fame (or should that be infamy?) in what looked to be a pretty good new Doctor costume. Well, if the guy is willing...

That first official album by virtual band Genki Rockets got released yesterday. I'm considering purchasing it for posterity and for the music. Not that I think Carole King will need to worry about being usurped by a well-realized cartoon, but like one of the YouTubers remarked, the songs have just embedded themselves into my cranium. Virtual subliminal advertising...the time has come. Strange thing about the songs...again, folks like King and Madonna won't have to worry about their legacies since the tunes "Heavenly Star", "Breeze" and "Star Line" sound as if Hannah Montana could cover them; still, I guess the poppiness is rather catchy enough to have made some sort of buzz on the Net. Of course, it takes me a whole year to discover them. I'll never be accused of being a trendspotter.

Thursday July 3, 8:50 a.m.

Speedy owes me once more. I had been lounging around McDonalds after another Sausage McMuffin breakfast thinking I would come in about 9 a.m. when something told me that I should be getting there an hour earlier. Sure enough, I was the first one in and the first one to greet his first student. The bossman was once again running late. Can't say I blame him, though. He's been through the wringer battling a cold and a recently busy spate.

I don't usually talk about international politics or intrigue but I am happy that Ingrid Betancourt was finally rescued from FARC earlier today.

It'll be a long day today. Got those 3 model lessons; Speedy says that they're virtually a lock (in fact, one has already offiicially signed up and is therefore ready for regular lessons) but they're no less stressful. Also, BC is off on holiday in Korea for the next few days which will mean that Speedy or I will have to handle the phones.

Recently, I've heard that a number of the various Olympic teams will be coming here to do their final training before they make the jump to Beijing for the big event next month. Rather logical due to proximity and advanced training facilities. Plus, they can get themselves acclimatized to the hot and humid weather without having to deal with the air pollution that seems to plague China's capital. Not sure if that will be resolved by Games time.

Wednesday July 2, 8:17 p.m.

I'm officially off now that The Diver has cancelled her lesson tonight. Good thing, too...I'm bushed. 001 and I are kinda slowing down in our long educational relationship. A bit of a slog. The reading assignment didn't exactly enthrall her and the current text isn't all that much of a win for her, either. I'm kinda considering creating something on my own. She's a huge "Heroes" fan, so there may be an idea there.

I'll probably be taking off in about 45 minutes but I'll be back first thing tomorrow morning. Today may not have been much of a Hump Day, but Thursday will be more than compensating for it. I've got no less than 3 model lessons along with the three regular lessons of Grandma Dynamite, The Yogist and Slim. It'll be a fairly killer day although I'll be earning the yen.

GC and I have been having a running dialogue on this cliffhanger for Season 4 of "Doctor Who". My old friend was able to catch the ep and thought that surprise ending was the only thing going for it; otherwise, it was just a mediocre show with some old-style bad special effects. There has been a lot of commiserating on the Facebook "Doctor Who" fansite about what is to become of David Tennant. One woman from northern Ontario has told everyone to take a powder and just calmly told everyone what will happen...David will be back. Not quite sure how she knows this so well since BBC has been virtually crowing about how it was able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes in this Net-infested society and keeping an iron seal on letting any information out about what is to happen for the finale this Saturday. Obviously I'm merely speculating myself but I've got a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Tennant will be back healthy and unregenerated. But whatever the case may be, the cast and crew of the show must be reveling in the publicity.

Wednesday July 2, 3:42 p.m.

My first lesson with The Pessimist went as well as could be expected for a fairly low-key type of guy. He's currently on a leave of absence from his company to hone his accounting and English skills. Looks like my days are definitely gonna be filling up since he wants to come twice a week, and then I have those three model lessons tomorrow, and Speedy has been assuring me that they'll be locks.

I'll be trying to grab something for dinner before 001 shows up in a couple of hours.

Wednesday July 2, 11:51 a.m.

I should be getting a retainer for services rendered for psych counselling. The Nurse came in 10 minutes late...which is no problem with me, of course. However, as soon as I brought in the tea for her, she broke out in tears. She didn't really elaborate and I didn't pry but she said that she'd gone through a short crisis, so basically the waterworks were ones of relief. I dutifully pulled out the box of tissues. After that, we had the usual lesson.

Looks like "Doctor Who" has truly hit the pop culture zenith of its long history. The Internet has been abuzz about the penultimate episode of the 4th season which apparently has David Tennant's Doctor mortally wounded and regenerating once more in the final scene. So, the fans have been speculating like mad about what the Time Lord's fate will be. I gather that this episode is to Whovians as the TNG episode "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" was to all Trekkies. Everyone goes nuts whenever a regeneration takes place...who'll play the new Doctor? Probably the most high-profile name that's been bandied about so far is Robert Carlyle from "Trainspotting" and "28 Weeks Later" fame. Of course, all this is moot for me since I won't be seeing any tapes from The Entrepreneur for several months since CBC usually doesn't get the new season for almost a year after the BBC's initial showing.

Speaking of The Entrepreneur, he, me and The Dancer have been having a talk on Gmail about the wonders of Swiss Chalet Chicken Sauce. As I may have said previously, all Canadians can be split into two groups: those who think SCCS is a wonder garnish for the rotisserie chicken and those who think the sauce is little better than brown-coloured dishwater. Ah, to elaborate, Swiss Chalet is this Canadian chain restaurant serving BBQ chicken that is practically a culinary institution in our 141-year-old nation. The chicken comes with this sauce for dipping. The Entrepreneur and I are devoted fans while The Dancer and The Egg are definitely anti-sauce. For me, the tradition is whenever I get back home, the first thing on the dinner table is Swiss Chalet takeout for which I sloppingly dip all the chicken, fries and roll into the cup of heavenly sauce. The Dancer has also admitted that she cannot stand ramen, especially Sapporo Ichiban. If there were ever a reason to bring back CNN's "Crossfire"...

I now have an open window until 2 before The Pessimist has his very first official lesson with me. I'm hoping that despite his code name he'll be up for the class.

Wednesday July 2, 9:30 a.m.

As expected (and hoped for, though I like him), Jolly did dotakyan last night, so I could get home at a relatively decent hour. The Milds wrapped everything up for me. Mr. Mild is certainly earning his new label as a Renaissance Man. He'll be going up Mt. Fuji with a few of his friends next month...he has actually done the climb three times before, which means, according to local folklore, he's a bit of a baka for doing so. You only get the respect if you do it once.

However, I gave up my extra hour of sleep to catch that Tuesday night variety program, Pussuma, starring loudmouth tarento Yusuke Santamaria and SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. I've found it to be pretty fun watching with some of their little mind games. The surprising thing was seeing (former?) heartthrob Takashi Sorimachi on the program taking part in the hijinks. Usually there is a bit of a glass barrier when it comes to "real" thespians appearing on the oft-Keystone Koppish variety programs. In his case, he was trying to plug his new drama on TV Asahi...which is a bit of a sign that his star is starting to decline.

Since I've got The Nurse early today, it was breakfast out but this time it was at the nearby Jonathan's instead of McDonalds. Compared to the relatively raucous atmosphere at the Big M, Jonathan's is a bit of a church....barely anybody and no music piping over the airwaves.

Looks like I've gotten lucky tonight as well when it comes to early nights. Speedy got the call that The Diver has cancelled her lesson. I'm outta here as of 8:00 since the bossman is still under the weather.

Tuesday July 1, 4:22 p.m.

A Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canucks out there, although the only celebrating I've done so far is just to mention it to The Beehive this morning.

We finished up at Speedy's pretty early last night since the bossman was ailing due to a cold. Not sure what his situation is today, although the fact that I have yet to receive any sort of SOS on my answering machine bodes well for the schedule tomorrow. Can't say that he would have recovered...not the way he was feeling yesterday.

It was Mrs Travel, Mrs Jade and Mrs Alp in Tsudanuma for the weekly session this morning. We spoke on this book that Travel had just finished about this true-life bureaucrat spy in the Japanese government who ended up getting burned by the media and political enemies. Of course, Travel lent the book to Alp, who's a huge espionage fan.

For lunch, I just went by myself to this tonkatsu restaurant in Funabashi. I had been there once before and recalled that I wasn't too, too impressed with it. But the regular ten-don place was already uncharacteristically full (it was before noon) so I decided to try the tonkatsu again. Not a huge mistake but now I've convinced myself not to go there again. I ordered the cheapo chicken katsu set and got an overly fried piece of really webby chicken meat...it certainly wasn't breast and I wasn't even sure that it was thigh meat, either. The breading looked like it had soaked up a good deal of oil. Man, the tonkatsu joint at my station could teach these guys a thing or two. Afterwards, I just headed up to the rooftop garden in the department store and just vegged for an hour. It was warm and sunny but thankfully drier.

002 was her usual fun self. I mentioned to her 001's assertion that 002 looked like model/actress Saki Aibu, the current flavour of the month in commercials and dramas. She, of course, demurred. Ironically, she said that her hubby did like her.

So I believe I've got a full slate here at the juku tonight. Suzanne, Mild Jr, The Milds and Jolly. Again, Jolly is always a question mark up until the 8:30 mark.

The cops have started swarming all over Chiba as well in the run up to the G-8 Summit. Mrs. Alp mentioned that there were several of them patrolling Makuhari Messe, that convention centre complex in Chiba City, and I saw a few of them at JR Funabashi and even near Urayasu Station. I can't even imagine why anyone would try anything at that corner. Still, I think we'll feel very safe for the next couple of weeks at least.

Monday June 30, 8:56 p.m.

Looks like I kinda blew Slim out of the water again. We tried out a game which is your typical Snakes N' Ladders version of reviewing the main points of the textbook he's been using over the past few weeks. Man, I should've told him to review the chapters a bit more since he went into quiet panic mode. All that confidence just drained out of his face at warp speed. Ah, well. In any case, his next lesson will have training general getting-to-know-you conversation since he'll be meeting up with German clients on the 4th of July.

It also seems like California Girl, my old student, has been rubbing shoulders with some of the prestige in the music field. Just saw a pic of her with none other than Ms. "She's So Unusual" herself: Cyndi Lauper. Maybe they talked about Cyndi's old job in the Japanese restaurant.

Anyways, I got Medicine man in about half an hour.

Monday June 30, 7:13 p.m.

Just finished up with The Full-Timer. Speedy was kind enough to let me use the other room here to teach her instead of smoky ol' Doutors...I think part of the reason was that I spelled for him with that other student. He's still ailing which might explain the presence of Mrs. Speedy. In about 15 minutes, I've got Slim. He's finishing up with his text today so I gotta play the role of used car salesman and show him some of our other texts. Then, an hour after he finishes, it'll be Medicine Man to wrap up.

Looks like The Full-Timer and her section have been having trouble with the supervisor who's been this extremely high-strung type with pendulum-like mood swings. Apparently, the supervisor had a major meltdown on Friday due to some little conflict with the higher-ups. For that reason, my student may be escaping to Singapore for a bit of decompression next week.

Monday June 30, 5:06 p.m.

Before the movie, I'd had a couple of hours so I decided to head up to Tower Records by Shinjuku Station. My timing couldn't have been more perfect. I got there just as tarento/pin-up model Yuko Ogura popped up to do a little talk. There was a fairly sizable scrum of men, women and cross-dressers there to cheer her on. As for the woman herself, she was truly the sprite-like girl with the helium voice. Her makeup was fairly caked on...she looked like a porcelain doll given life. I only stayed for a few minutes. She was there to promote her song which had been playing on the speakers before her appearance. I just needed to see that she was a real live flesh-and-blood person.

After the movie, the bunch of us headed once more to Mo-Yan, that Japanese curry place in West Shinjuku. Surprisingly, all 7 of us managed to get in within a few minutes. I ended up having the extra-large The Works Curry. I almost made it, too. I had to leave the last couple of spoonfuls lest there was a major accident. Still, I seem to have been able to down a sugar doughnut and a latte at Starbucks later on.

I was back in Shinjuku today to see if I could pick up a new textbook for either Jolly or Suzanne. I ended up deciding that Suzanne may be able to make it through Communication Strategies, a text that I've had for several years and currently use with folks like The Ace and The Full-Timer. As for Jolly, I may try excerpts from some of the business texts we have here. I noticed that Krispy Kreme #1's lineup is getting ever smaller. Now it's just a 15-minute wait there. Still, that queue will need to go down another 10 minutes for me to line up there. Skippy told me that yet KK #5 opened up in Shibuya the other day, which means that the craziness may finally be disappearing.

I had to do an emergency lesson with one of Speedy's students just now since the bossman has been feeling under the weather today. Well, another 3,500 yen for me. I just paid my bills including that first premium for this year's Citizen's Tax so I'm gonna have to scrounge for every coin.

There's definitely been a bigger presence of the cops on the streets of Tokyo these past few days since The Lake Toya G-8 Summit up in Hokkaido is close approaching. It certainly gives some comfort for the citizens here although some psycho still managed to bite one cop on the arm the other day while he was trying to get away with some ill-gotten goods. Luckily, the man was finally arrested. Ironically, it happened in Akihabara.

Monday June 30, 3:44 p.m.

The end of the month but I can't really say it's all that summery out there. But it is humid..I've been through a few mentholated wipes already.

"Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"....hmmm, well we did catch it at The Shinjuku Plaza yesterday. It was a pretty good turnout: Movie Buddy, The Sylph, The Satyr, Miss Ivory, The Wedding Planner, me and of course, Skippy. Gotta say that Harrison's latest flick has guaranteed probably his first $100 million plus movie in several years. Just don't think it's worth all that much merit, though. It just struck me as being an extra-special episode of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles". In other words, this was probably good for television but as a motion-picture-worthy movie...nahh.

The basic premise behind Indiana Jones is that this was Steven Spielberg's tribute to the swashbuckling adventures of the 30s. Note that I did emphasize that decade there. This movie takes place in the late 50s. I thought ol' Professor (Colonel) Jones looked awfully out of place in the middle of a nuclear testing field right at the beginning of the movie. I could see where Spielberg was going with this, though...have Indy confront the famed dangers of that decade: atomic testing, UFOs, Commies, leather-bound punk kids.

There was a definite funereal feeling with this latest (and hopefully, last) entry in the Indiana Jones series. Indiana was feeling (and looking) his age and his mileage, and there were glimpses of the late Henry Jones Sr and Marcus Brody along with accompanying musical cues. Plus, Indiana spending several minutes with his son just going through endless exposition basically slowed the whole thing down for the first half. The movie just felt old. Not a good sign for a franchise that's supposed to be all about the action and smart banter....I was so glad that Karen Allen popped in, even though the dialogue between Marion and Indy became somewhat more domesticated.

Generally, I think "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" comes down with the rest of those recent unearthings of old 80s franchises such as "Die Hard" and "Rambo". It's one of those cinematic reactions to mid-life crisis.

Saturday June 28, 4:58 p.m.

Finished up with my three students today. But it looks like my schedule is gonna get pretty busy...and in the summer, too. I've got a few more model lessons to try out, including two back-to-back next Thursday.

And I just heard a collision outside of the building. Some motor scooter did a back-end collision with a van. From my vantage point, the poor kid riding the scooter looks to be in excruciating pain right now. I gather that getting thrown headfirst into a van at something over 10 km/h can do that to one. BC was able to hail an ambulance and the paramedics are taking care of him now.

Looks like I've got an eternal fan in the form of The Bostonian. She needed some help on some sort of announcement that has to be made for the foreign employees. Nothing too serious but she took it like I had just defused a nuclear bomb on her leg. She said she would show her PowerPoint printout to me next time in gratitude. I offered to sign it.

Then, I got that model student with that huge TOEIC score of 950...virtually perfect. He's quite a talker, too. Well, I guess I impressed him enough too. He's become another new addition to the flock. And henceforth, he'll be known...as The Talker.

I hadn't seen The Dentist in a few weeks. Still jolly as always. Her daughter apparently has an account on Facebook. I'll have to take a look.

I was briefly introduced to yet another model lesson student. She's a friend of The Dentist who handles makeup and hair for a lot of location shoots. So, she's pretty connected to show business. Speedy swooned half-jokingly about getting some of her celeb friends as potential students. I thought I would've been the miha one.

Well, it looks like the ambulance has gone, and now the police are interviewing the poor guy who was driving the van.

Tomorrow is Indy!

Saturday June 28, 11:47 a.m.

Back at Speedy's. I thought I would beat everyone to the punch and be the first one in, but BC had actually gotten in before me. When I remarked about it to her, she just gave a nonchalant "Ah, so?" Whatever...anyways, I shared a doughnut with her from La Vie Du France. Why even mention it? Well, since it was yeast-raised. Until the invasion of Krispy Kreme almost 2 years ago, doughnuts in Japan were all of the Mister Donuts variety: cake donuts. Not that I have anything against cake donuts: a sweet is a sweet, after all. But yeast-raised donuts have become one of the biggest culinary revelations in this pop-culture-obsessed country since the coming of tiramisu 17 years ago. Now, with KK firmly taking hold, at least in the Kanto area, some of the other bakeries are probably getting into the act. And hopefully that will mean somewhat saner lineups at the 4 branches of Krispy Kreme.

I've got The Bostonian in about 25 minutes and then things will go pretty quickly. I've got another model lesson about 15 minutes after The Bostonian's done, and then The Dentist comes in some 45 minutes after that lesson. Luckily, The Businesswoman and Slim did cancel. Otherwise, I would've been ready for that stretcher.

I tried to give the juku boss' line-ridden monitor a bit of a quick fix-it, thanks to GC's suggestions. But the active screensaver didn't do anything. I asked the boss to unplug everything for the night, including the connection between the monitor and the hard drive. Maybe that could do the trick, but I've got a feeling that it probably won't mean a thing. She did say that her computer is 8 years old. In human years, that would put it firmly in geriatric status..

Friday June 27, 8:32 p.m.

Pretty easy day today since I only have a couple of classes. I had The New Yorker up in Ichigaya. She had a great time in Okinawa. I got the usual chinsuko cookies as a souvenir. Her English is still pretty low, though. I've got The Ace in about 25 minutes. Over the past week, I've been showing the photos of my ordeal under the mikoshi from The Urayasu Festival almost a couple of weeks ago. Keep 'em laughing, I say.

Looks like that guy from the model lesson last week has decided to sign up after all. Hopefully, he'll be like The Yogist...pretty teeth-pulling model lesson, followed by some fine regular classes. He'll be labeled The Pessimist, since that is how he tagged himself last week. Not the best moniker for an English student but it's easy to remember. I don't know too many students who have admitted to being pessimistic. Anyways, he'll officially be starting with us from Wednesday. It looks like Hump Day will be back.

As I may have mentioned, the juku boss' computer has been getting annoying vertical lines cutting through the monitor. I sent out an SOS to GC who came back with some potential remedies which I'll try out as soon as I finish here.

We're approaching July now but the weather has been pretty comfortable, so far. Warm days and cool nights. Not sure how long that will last into the next month.

Thursday June 26, 10:04 p.m.

After a day that started 12 hours ago, I'm done like dinner. I finished up with Slim a half-hour ago. He'll be busy on Saturday presenting a new computer system so he won't be coming in.

I've just been going through the various Genkirockets videos on YouTube. I gotta admit that it's awfully hard for me to believe that Lumi is a virtual character. She's probably the most (photo)realistic person I've ever seen depicted on the screen. Even though her lone narration for one of the videos has some notes of artificiality, it's still pulled off jaw-droppingly well. If this is indeed the future, then we may see a real holodeck within the next few decades.

Thursday June 26, 8:01 p.m.

The lesson with The Carolinan was pretty laid back. Apparently, she and The New Yorker went to some Hawaiian festival at Roppongi Hills last week, and then off to an Okinawan place for dinner. The sisters do love their tropics.

BC's gone home, so it's just Speedy and myself. He's munching his own McMeal now since he didn't have time earlier in the day. Just waiting for Slim in about 30 minutes. It looks now like Saturday won't be the Hump Day of the week after all. The Businesswoman and Slim have canned their lessons for that day, so it'll just be The Bostonian, another model lesson, and The Dentist. Still, for a Saturday, it's pretty busy.

Skippy finally nailed down the time and place to catch the latest Indiana Jones movie. It won't be one of those newfangled theatres, although it'll still be in Shinjuku. I guess that she's gotten tired of playing concierge with us. Instead, it'll be one of the old-fashioned wait-in-line-to-buy-your-ticket places in Kabukicho. The review in METROPOLIS was pretty middling. He liked Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett but found the movie a case of over deja vu. I kinda figured that would have been the biggest slam against it...a Lucasfilm reaction to mid-life crisis. Just dipping for past glories from a couple of decades back. Well, I'll just have to check this line out.

Thursday June 26, 5:11 p.m.

Currently digesting my coupon-bought Mac Cheeseburger set with McNuggets. Yes, my lifetime can now be counted in mere years rather than decades.

The Yogist was uncharacteristically late by a good 45 minutes. Apparently, the lass lost track of time trying to find a dress for her friend's wedding party in Shinjuku. She didn't lose any of her usual effervescence, though. And her loyalty is commendable; she's booked for the next 5 Thursdays. Then, an hour later, The Nurse came in for her 60. Not surprisingly, the topics tended to weave around food.

Speedy was gonna join me in the Mac coupon spree but he got bogged down with a counseling session. And then, there was another sudden buzz from the 1st floor enterphone, but it wasn't from a potential client but from the superintendant. Usually, he's a pretty mild button-down sort but I guess he got fed up of being the doorman for our school; recently, a lot of clients have been coming to the school (great for our business) asking him for directions. I was only privy to Speedy's side of the conversation but he told me that he'd gotten a bit of a chewout from the super and was asked to give clearer directions to students in the future. I don't think that's quite fair; even if students are given maps, they still tend to confirm their bearings and the super is the best source.

Found out from BC that that Gherkin Building in the heart of West Shinjuku is gonna be the HQ of a design school. I'd say considering the futuristic look of the place, the design school got it right. Speaking of our depressed employee, she and her friend will be heading for Korea for a bit of R&R next week. Hopefully, the trip will help her spirits somewhat. Even when I mentioned the small fact that both The Carolinan and I were a bit concerned for her, she started welling up. Man...

Well, got The Carolinan coming up here within the next 30 minutes and then it'll be Slim to wrap up. Hopefully, The Carolinan won't be asking the super for instructions.

Thursday June 26, 11:54 a.m.

Luckily, Grandma Dynamite was full of her nickname today unlike last week. Speedy apparently warmed her up nicely by just gabbing with her...fine with me.

The bizarre crimes just keep popping up like a bad yen this year. A couple of days ago, a grandfather decided to pull off a first strike and exterminated his entire family up in Kashiwa, Chiba, just north of my little burg. It was incredible...this 77-year-old sociopath first hammered his wife to death, and then summoned his son and daughter-in-law separately to their deaths before taking care of his granddaughter. The media and police are pretty slow in giving out motives but Grandpa Psycho may have been triggered by his (late) wife's barb about him being a burden to the family.

And so it is with some surprise that I read that not only Fukuoka City got top marks as World's Most Livable City but Tokyo came up to 3rd place! And this is considering that 2008 will probably go down as the year of the spree killing in the world's biggest metropolis. I'll have to check the website for Fukuoka...but when I first read the news on The Japan Times website, I kinda blurted out the first three letters of the city.

Thursday June 26, 10:11 a.m.

Not very much time to write this entry so it'll be short. Grandma Dynamite is cackling away in the next room with Speedy, so I assume she's over her attack of head and gas from last week. However, I'm feeling pretty tired since I only got 5 hours of sleep due to the late-running model lesson last night to wrap up. I'm gonna have to be wary of taking model lessons on Wednesday nights after The Diver. Both lessons are energy-sapping. But the lesson student looked promising although she said that she was looking at other English schools. She's a fashion designer of some experience in Aoyama, and she looks the part: smart-looking, whip-thin, manicured nails with a wool beret to top it all off. Plus, she has a passing resemblance to that lead singer from Shibuya-kei unit Pizzicato Five. Pretty fluent but there are a lot of holes to patch up in that cool mosaic.

It's raining again....as that ol' Supertramp song goes. Ended up spending nearly 2 hours in McDonalds since I no longer have the extra keys to the school, so it's back absorbing tons of smoke into my clothes. I did Febreeze myself off but smoke is pretty stubborn stuff.

The Big Lug did cancel his lesson for today but it'll still be a fairly busy day with five. Grandma Dynamite, The Yogist, The Nurse, The Carolinan coming in and Slim to wrap up. I haven't had time to prep for any of the lessons but today's lineup is pretty easy to get ready for, so I'm not panicking quite yet.

Speedy seems to be going a bit of overtime with Grandma Dynamite...maybe she came in late this morning.

Wednesday June 25, 5:45 p.m.

Well, you can colour me shocked. Just found out that one of those bands I'd mentioned in the last entry, Genkirockets, is a CG concoction. The "lead singer", Lumi, whom I've seen in a video is an amalgam of a number of female singers. The names of these ladies have been kept more secret than a gold bar in Fort Knox.

I just read that some enterprising fellow in the States has cottoned on to the supposed insanity (or just plain inanity) of Japanese game shows and have brought his own take on them. The thing is that the contestants back Stateside are just regular folk while the victims in the original game shows are tarento....or professional pratfall targets. I have a bad feeling about this. So I guess "The Simpsons" won't have that Mexican bee guy to push around anymore.

Wednesday June 25, 4:21 p.m.

Well, 6 months before Xmas, and I've already started looking at Air Canada.com for tickets home in December. I was checking my Aeroplan points and was probably laughed at when I looked to see the chances of me getting some deduction in the inevitably huge cash outlay.

This morning, I finally got a chance to try out the newest and final subway line that Tokyo Metro will ever build, The Fukutoshin Line starting from Shibuya and ranging to Ikebukuro and beyond. It was set up to ease some of the burden on the local JR lines of Yamanote and Saikyo which are usually packed to the gills during rush hours. When I got off of the venerable Ginza Line, I made a long trek toward the west to get to this new line. I thought I was gonna end up in Daikanyama when I finally saw the lift heading deep underground for the Futokushin. Of course, there was a McDonalds sign just by the lift and I could catch a soupcon of the whiff of Le Mac Gros.

As I got to the Futokushin platform, I remembered last week's episode of Tamori Club, the late-night Friday program starring Japan's answer to Johnny Carson, Kazuyoshi "Tamori" Morita. He and a bunch of subway-loving comedians and members of an acapella group were given a tour of the line before it opened up on the 14th. Obviously back then, it was devoid of human activity. I could see that it was still pretty barren...surprising for anyplace in Shibuya. It had that new subway smell to it...the same went with the local train I got on. I got off a couple of stops later at Kitasando. The subway station there was virtually deserted...not surprising when I got topside. There was pretty much nothing except for Meiji Street between Shibuya and Shinjuku. I ended up just having lunch at the Subway across the street. The station looked brand-spanking new and untouched by human hands. Kitasando will probably remain devoid of life for the foreseeable future until the area itself gets more developed. METROPOLIS magazine did a feature on the line a few weeks ago and only noted for Kitasando that it was the location of the Japan Communist Party HQ. When that's the only remarkable landmark, you just know that the area won't be a real happening place.

I had much better luck when I got off a few stations later at Nishi-Waseda. It's ideally located by one of the campuses for Waseda University and is surrounded by the neighbourhoods of Korean-influenced Okubo and the student enclave of Takadanobaba. The "feel" of the area was neither traditional Japanese a la Asakusa or modern Japanese a la Odaiba. It seemed like an inner-city neighbourhood out of any Asian city such as Taipei or Hong Kong. There were blocky apartment buildings of varying heights and ages overlooking quite a plethora of Chinese and Indian restaurants, all selling various lunch specials for reasonable prices. Kinda regretted not having lunch there but I'll be back. There was even a Big Boy...maybe the only one in Japan. Of course, since it was around noon when I got there, I saw a lot of young'uns walking and sitting at the restaurants with Waseda University and Gakushuin Women's University situated nearby. I knew I wasn't too far away from Shinjuku since I could see the pearly green building that was Marui City off in the distance. I went as far south as Okubo before I made a U-turn and went off into the other direction toward Ikebukuro. Off in that direction, I could see the Sunshine 60 Building, one of that area's venerable landmarks.

Within about 10 minutes, I made my way to Takadanobaba. It was a very pleasant walk toward JR Takadanobaba and the Tozai Line. Again, a lot of restaurants suited for the poor student set, and I even went into a couple of secondhand CD stores. There were some full albums selling for just 700 yen...truly a bargain. I also noticed that there were a lot of real estate agencies renting 1K rooms for as little as 30,000 yen a month. Definitely student-oriented. If I weren't so poor and spoiled on 2K living, I would be very tempted to see about living there.

I popped back on the train after more than an hour of solid walking and ended up at Shinjuku San-chome station, deep in the heart of East Shinjuku. If there were true winners due to the construction of this line, they would be the folks working in this area. They can just hop onto the Fukutoshin and get into Shibuya within 4 minutes. Previously, they would've had to walk over to JR Shinjuku and fight the scrum that always populates the area around the ticket machines and gates to get onto the Yamanote Line. Other than that, it would've meant at least one transfer on the subways. Of course, walking through Tokyo Metro always means walking through long and wide corridors underground for several minutes. Such was the case at Shinjuku San-chome, although I could imagine that the underground corridors will be a cool refuge within a couple of months. I was pleasantly surprised that the corridors made it all the way to underneath Takashimaya Times Square. Ended up getting into Kinokuniya Supermarket in B1.

Takashimaya Times Square meant that I visited HMV on the 12th floor. Listened to a few of these new girl units that have fallen in love with the vocoder as a vital part of their performance. Of course, the biggest of these units is Perfume, a trio of vaguely Goth-Loli girls with the hit, "Polyrhythm". And then there were the other units known as Genkirockets and Plastic Love.

I continued my trek through Shinjuku by crossing the pedestrian bridge away from Times Square. I saw that Krispy Kreme #1 no longer had multi-hour wait times but there were still folks willing to wait 35 minutes for fried cholesterol. The last thing I wanted to see was that little brother to London's Gherkin Building. It turned out that it was still not completed. The main shell was done but there were still plenty of workmen and scaffolding at ground level.

Finally, I'm back here at Speedy's. I've got another model lesson later into July. Tonight, it's 001, The Diver and that model lesson. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Tuesday June 24, 7:25 p.m.

Well, Suzanne is back in the house, and boy, did she have some drama to tell me after her 2 weeks in Oz.

For one thing, her host family was not much of one...pretty irresponsible, really. The man and his pregnant wife only saw her twice during her whole time there. But, Suzanne, with a laid-back aplomb, basically made lemonade from lemons and managed to fend for herself in a foreign land quite well. In fact, she may have done the thing that a lot of boyfriends are terrified of....she matured. Suzanne said that she used to be the dependent one on her boyfriend for everything from dinner plans to other things that couples do. Well, not anymore, and the result is that her boo is crying boo-hoo, and now she's at a crossroads about their relationship. To add a further dimension, she apparently met this rather comely young Australian during her time there who may have the hots for her. She's not quite sure what to make of the situation. Apparently, I seem to be the only one she could tell all this to; she hasn't told any of her family, boyfriend and even her female friends. I was definitely wearing the therapist's cap with her tonight.

I guess it's a foregone conclusion that Suzanne will be coming back for more from next week.

At the other end of the city, at Speedy's, Mr. TOEIC suddenly decided to book a lesson tonight there which had the bossman frantically calling me about what needed to be taught. I did get the green light to bring over The Carolinan once more to the school. And The Big Lug has re-scheduled for the 4th of July.

Still in a holding pattern concerning that model lesson student...The Londoner...from last Friday. In any case, whether she does sign up for lessons now or in 3 months, the juku boss has told me that the earliest she will start is in July.

In other news, NOVA ex-President, Nozomu Saruhashi, may be getting slapped with some further charges of non-payment of wages to teachers. Not sure where he's hiding out but his lawyers are doing the talking for him.

Well, it looks like I got most of Wednesday free, so I'll be taking a look at that new subway line, The Fukutoshin which ranges from Shibuya to Ikebukuro...provided that there aren't any more accidents there. It seems to have undergone the lion's share of growing pains in the first week of its existence. I might take a look at Kitasando and Nishi-Waseda and see what's out there.

Tuesday June 24, 4:09 p.m.

A hot one today...about 28 C; quite a contrast with yesterday's squalls and cool temps. This is probably the first truly summery day of the season.

Met up with The Beehive. Mrs. Tee finally showed up so I was able to unload my mother's present unto her, more than a month after Mom had given it to me. Mrs. Tee looked lighter but it was more from her hectic schedule than any intentional diet or exercise. As for Mrs. Travel, she came back from Sedona, Arizona with some great shots of the mesa-filled desert. Unfortunately, considering her status as a veteran traveler, she's yet to master the niceties of tipping.

Looks like The Big Lug has canned for Thursday which leaves some breathing room between The Nurse and The Carolinan. BC picked up the phone which I was a bit surprised about. When I asked her how she was, she replied with no great joy, "Surviving".

Supposedly, Suzanne will be here tonight followed by The Milds and then Jolly. Again, I always gotta be on my toes whether or not Jolly actually shows up or does a dotyakan.

There has been a similar attack to The Akihabara Massacre in Osaka over the weekend. However, luckily, three women were only slightly injured. Some psychotic woman apparently used a knife to slash them on the platform of a train station. She managed to escape but was hunted down by police after someone recognized her on TV. So far, she's been spouting gibberish. Straitjacket for one, please. Still, this does bring up the thought about when and where the next attack will take place in a crowded area.

Monday June 23, 10:40 p.m.

And thus another programming day comes to an end. Just finished up with Medicine Man after his conference in Malaysia. Got a nice box of chocolate truffles as a souvenir...always better than, if not as healthy as, an apple. His mind is a bit sieve-like when it comes to movies; but I'm not one to lord it over him since my mind has definitely developed a few ozone holes in the past decade.

Looks like that new interview is a lock. But she'll just be covering a couple of nights. We still need that full-timer to take over for BC during the days...the major-domo to Speedy.

Gotta head home....

Monday June 23, 8:58 p.m.

Just had Slim for his lesson. Really nice guy, that Slim. Helped him with his small talk for an upcoming international party he has to attend next Saturday. Plus, he's had to cancel his lesson for this upcoming Saturday because he has to oversee the cutting in of a new system that he personally knows that won't need his supervision. It's something that George Carlin probably has made hay of, and so I segue into his life and times. I remember seeing him hosting the very first episode of "Saturday Night Live" and some of his routines although I've yet to see his most famous (or notorious) routine of those 7 words you can't say on TV. Again, like the late Tim Russert, he probably has a share of his naysayers who don't regret his passing too much. Interestingly, a lot of them probably hail from Las Vegas.

Monday June 23, 7:21 p.m.

Timing is everything...within and without an English lesson. About 10 minutes into The Full-Timer's lesson at the coffee shop, the clouds suddenly threw down buckets of precipitation in what was one of the most loaded squalls I'd ever seen. And as we were leaving, the rain had trickled into a more manageable steady sprinkle. Ordinarily, I would be worried about any other student heading this way, but since Slim is literally down the street, he'll be here in no time.

Looks like the era of BC is starting its close. The bossman is currently interviewing a potential young staffer. Sounds as if she's on the ball.

I'm not a huge Amy Winehouse fan...only know her from her ironically titled "Rehab". Why am I getting the feeling that she's heading the way of Janis Joplin and Elvis Presley? But then again, all of the media types were virtually reading obituaries for Britney Spears. And not only is she still alive, but she's just become an aunt...of a girl whose mother isn't even ready to vote.

Monday June 23, 5:27 p.m.

Kinda rushing through this since I see The Full-Timer in about half an hour...I've got everything prepped but the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup must be fueling the sugar rush.

In the past couple of days, I've been feasting on turtle jelly, that dessert delicacy from Hong Kong. I had been given it by The Lady last Monday after one of her frequent visits there. For a guy like me who won't get anywhere near natto (too slimy and smelly), tororo (looks and tastes like rabies spit) and uni (which planet is that from?), I'm oddly all right with this black jello created with powder from ground-up turtle shell that tastes like medicine. One reason is that I get a couple of small packs of liquid brown sugar to add to it which makes it quite tasty. No such luck with the noxious stuff I'd just mentioned.

The bossman is currently giving a model lesson to The Dentist's buddy...a person who, despite a fairly good comprehension, is still low on the level of the Grandmas. Speedy, of course, would like me to teach him. Oy vey!

GC sent me the latest excerpt from the 4th season of "Doctor Who" via Facebook. It pretty much ties up the Rose/Doctor love story in one big spoiler. Not miffed that I now know the ending since I'm not the type to get worked up about such things. But at least, I'm happy to know all that moping that David Tennant's Doctor will finally be rid of. I like my Doctors nice and asexual.

Just heard that George Carlin has passed on. He was one of the fathers of observational comedy.

Monday June 23, 4:35 p.m.

Well, the dreaded continuation of yesterday's meterological cats and dogs has yet to show up, thankfully. I have the collapsible umbrella with me but fortunately, it's just been cloudy and slightly humid.

Just had The Class Act and SIL for their regulars but next week, they'll all be off which will mean a very leisurely Monday. Speaking of which, at this point, Hump Day will be largely humpless since I don't have anything til 001 on Wednesday night. Tomorrow will be the usual schedule with The Beehive, 002 and then the juku crowd. Suzanne may or may not be back at the leadoff spot.

In tribute to Saturday's arrival of the new "Indiana Jones" movie, the networks have been showing the previous three from a couple of decades ago. Yesterday was the original, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which is, not surprisingly, the closest in tribute to the swashbuckling movies of the 30s.