Thursday February 19, 1:55 p.m.

The lesson with Miss Sedona was fun and laugh-filled as always. She's now the 14th student on my White Day list after her belated gift of chocolates. She even got one for Speedy which got some quiet groans of "Not again" from him...of course, out of eyeshot of Miss Sedona. Well, I know the sources of chocolate; it's just a matter of how much money I have to get the stuff.

Ray and Bay (especially Bay) have been griping about some matter on the other side of the business...most likely about some unreasonable request from a client. Time for Speedy to work his diplomatic magic.

The emergency translations for Cozy have been proceeding slowly. I've even sent a small SOS on one word to Cozy himself. Hopefully, he'll have some time to respond before I head on out to meet The New Yorker in a couple of hours.

Looks like a few weeks after the new Doctor Who actor has been selected, some actress has won the Companion sweepstakes. Kinda closer to Donna Noble than Rose Tyler in the age category by the picture I saw.

Thursday February 19, 11:20 a.m.

Still back in the relative cold of the season. Gotten back into the routine of downing three pills and donning the surgery mask to keep hay fever at bay.

Pretty quiet Thursday...just have Miss Sedona and then The New Yorker later on.

Glad to say that The Diver passed her test on the level of an Obama over a McCain. Speedy had made a make-up test just in case, but it was pretty obvious as I was marking that she didn't need to do it. Of course, she was wincing each time I came across an error. So, now she's graduated to the next level. The Fashion Designer had to come in about 10 minutes late; ;no problem since I rarely leave the office on Wednesday before 11 p.m. (really gotta do something about that in the next year or so). Not surprisingly, having gone through another night of overtime, she was tired. Still, I gave the lady her own take-home test.

Speaking of the world's most popular Head of State (for now, that is), he's going over to the Great White North in several hours. I've been watching some of the coverage about his arrival in Ottawa. Man, I guess Canadians are gonna be Americans for one day, at least. And then I came across one of the most hilarious headlines on "The Onion" (and that is saying a lot) in which African-Americans are getting majorly creeped out by the tear-filled eyes and wide-as-the-Mississippi smiles they've been getting from white Americans since Obama's election. I can just imagine that from now on in any awkward multiracial conversation, Caucasians will no longer fall back on "I like hip-hop and Stevie"; instead, they'll just say things like "I voted for Obama" or "Yes, I can".

Wednesday February 18, 6:46 p.m.

Received some more Cozy translations, and this one is on Priority One...and much to my luck, it's got tons of arcane financial expressions. Well, at least I've got the one that Cozy had assigned me last week translated through its first pass. I'm all translated out right now, so just gonna enjoy some surfing before The Diver gets here in about 80 minutes. The Fashion Designer may or may not show up tonight depending on how much overtime she gets through. But Bay said that she'll be getting the call sometime during The Diver's lesson.

Looks like Facebook lost a bit of its first four letters in the past 24 hours when it came up with its rather unseemly and quiet changes to its Terms of Use. Well, people power was in session and Mr. Zuckerman has decided to revert back to the old ways...for now.

Wednesday February 18, 3:15 p.m.

Well, the big 2,800th entry. Am celebrating with an ice-cold peach nectar.

While I was making that earthquake analogy for the Nakagawa Incident, I did forget to mention that we did have a wake-up jolt of a Shindo 4 in Chiba yesterday morning. Tells you how jaded I've become when it comes to earthquakes. I wonder how Secretary Clinton reacted in her hotel room; she must've felt something in bed (insert your Bill Clinton joke here). There has been a rash of tremors recently, and I gather that if we do have a rash of them, it means that the earth has released enough energy so that there won't be a huge one in the Kanto for the next number of days, at least.

After The Admin's lesson, I decided to try out the curry buffet at the Indian place downstairs. Pretty good for 1,000 yen. I got my choice of three different curries (keema, vegetable and bean) along with saffron rice, salad, naan, and tandoori chicken. Got my money's worth of stuff and I'll probably not need any more food for the rest of the day.

I walked most of it off by walking through Shinjuku. Noticed that Takashimaya Times Square was all closed; still, took some pics of the area including the front of the very first Krispy Kreme branch in Japan. The lineup is now down to a miniscule 15-minute wait. Compare that with the near 2 hours of just a year ago. Ended up browsing through Tower Records across the street.

Tuesday February 17, 9:21 p.m.

Well, to noone's surprise, the Japanese Foster Brooks known as Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa decided to fall on his own sword and leave the Cabinet. I think when he got his 15 seconds of fame via CNN's "The Situation Room" this morning, that pretty much did it for him. That may have improved PM Aso's standing a bit but that's kinda like saying that Shindo 7 quake was really just a 6.9 after it had destroyed Kobe. Still, in the typically Japanese determination to make sure that still waters run deep, Nakagawa refused to acknowledge that alcohol was the culprit...instead blaming it on "...too much cold medicine...". Well, he can take all the Nyquil he wants now with that chaser of whiskey.

Of course, the Beehive ladies were grousing about him this morning and I made a little dig at him tonight in front of the Milds. Mrs. Mild was back after her spate of dizziness subsided. And Suzanne was back in the house after her 5 days of R&R in Australia. She was luckily nowhere close to those horrendous fires, and she had a very nice time just relaxing on the beach on The Gold Coast. She brought back a box of Black Forest Tim Tams which made for an especially decadent snack. She's really gotten the bug about possibly studying and working abroad sometime in the near future. I'm glad that she took my advice and got the Japanese version of "What Colour Is Your Parachute?" I'd like to think that my advice has some merit sometimes. The Traveler also came by...she's doing quite well wiht the numbers.

Finally got through all of the "Futurama" DVDs and commentaries. It kinda sounded like the guys on those discs had more fun than the "Family Guy" folks with their commentaries. It's hard to believe that over 5 years have passed since Billy West and Maurice LaMarche actually did them....tells you how much of a television Rip Van Winkle I've been. I definitely have a soft spot for HypnoToad. I did take a look at some of the surprising music clips the guys put in...such as the Pizzicato Five tune at the end of "Leela's Homeworld". Made sure I checked that out on YouTube. And then there was the theme tune itself done by The Beastie Boys.

Well, now it's Season One of the original "Mission: Impossible" and I almost forgot about all those Marvel movies that my brother had given me for Xmas. At this rate, I may not be finished til Golden Week.

It'll be another quiet Wednesday. I've got The Admin in the morning and then The Diver and The Fashion Designer tomorrow night. I just hope that The Diver was able to handle the test. It's been a quiet month which has gotten Speedy starting to chomp on his fingernails again. Well, I kinda figured that with this economic mess, things weren't going to get too crazy as time went by. However, I do have those Cozy translations to take care of.

And I picked up that expenditures sheet from the Tax Office today. Looks like I'm really into the season now...the tax season, that is. I've already started Hay Fever season. Had to ingest the pills and put on the mask this morning.

Monday February 16, 7:23 p.m.

More chocolate via The Full-Timer. Had to leave her Hershey's Kisses and SIL's Pierre Marcolini on the kitchen table, lest I really go into sugar shock. However, I am keeping The Matron's chocolate spoons for myself. Lots of choc to go around here, though.

The Full-Timer had a bit of gastrointestinal distress during yet another trip to Korea which would explain her absence last Monday. Had to cut short her travels. I also asked her about the trials and tribulations of Finance Minister Nakagawa, and she thought maybe he was having a stroke due to the slurring of his speech; in which case, I hope that he did just have a lapse in judgement and overdid it on the wine.

Feels like the bottom fell out on the temps. Feeling pretty cold out there.

Monday February 16, 5:27 p.m.

Continuing to get the chocolates after the fact. SIL gave me a small box via Pierre Marcolini, a chocolatier (now a word in the Japanese vocabulary) located in Ginza. I passed by the place once last year...tons of women were lined up for a taste of their wares which included ice cream cones. I think I'll be paying a lot come March 14. Actually, The Matron also gave me her contribution for Valentine's Day...in the form of pure chocolate spoons. That is to say, four spoons made of chocolate. They are designed to be stirred in coffee to impart a mocha flavour. Pretty nifty...surprisingly, they're not from Japan but from abroad.

Looks like hay fever season has started for me. I was sniffling a lot yesterday morning before I went to see The New Yorker but my wonder medicine kept me sane although I had a brief relapse for a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson. I took the trio of tablets just now since it looks like I'm coming down with it again, and the last thing I need is to be horking up snot in front of The Full-Timer in a place that's already unconducive to the nose.

Just wrote up a letter to my cable company. When I signed up with them last year, the bills were supposed to be deducted straight from my account, but for some reason, although the company has been sending me the account deduction notices, they haven't been deducting and my first bill has been in the form of one to be paid at a convenience store. Not a huge problem but I just want to make sure of the payment policy.

Monday February 16, 4:17 p.m.

I know one Japanese politician who is looking for a room at the Under-A-Rock Hilton. Apparently, the mass media here is abuzz about that bizarro press conference that Shoichi Nakagawa gave yesterday...or tried to give in Rome . The press wasn't sure whether he was drunk or high on something else but he certainly wasn't coherent. And photogs were also snapping shots of him sleeping at a meeting of the finance ministers. One thing for sure...the guy is gonna have one big hassle going through Narita when he gets back home, and it won't be the Customs and Immigration guys.

The Lady was the first to bring up the topic with me this morning. She said that she'd caught part of it on YouTube. I tried to look him up but couldn't really find it. I'm wondering if the authorities decided to do a sweep under the rug, so to speak. SIL also mentioned him as well. Nakagawa should count himself lucky, though. His antics could've had longer play if it weren't for the fact that Hillary Clinton wasn't coming into town. She should be coming in pretty soon tonight. SIL thinks she'll be staying at the Hotel Okura since it's one of Tokyo's most venerable hotels and it's just across from the US Embassy.

Nakagawa's cockup can't really help PM Aso's standing right now. According to one of the Canadian newspapers, his popularity rating is now in the single digits....just barely under 10%. I think PM Mori had a slightly higher rating and he got dethroned. Wouldn't be surprised if The Diet were dissolved in less than a month.

The Class Act has decided to have another day off next week...which makes me wonder if twice a month will become the new schedule for me when it comes to them. It's really just chatting in half-Japanese/half-English now so I can't be that surprised. SIL is still hanging in there. It'll be a regular day for me, though. I've got The Full-Timer today and then Medicine Man to wrap up tonight.

Yesterday was a disappointment, though. After The New Yorker, I headed out to Akihabara to see if the hokoten were running. It wasn't exactly beaming in sunshine but nowhere near gloomy; however, no whirling costumed women or grungy otaku with cellphone cameras to be found. Just a lot of cars zipping by on the main drag. Ah, well...will have to look elsewhere for scenery to be shot by my new camera. Speaking of the New Yorker, it looks like she may have an opportunity to gain in fluency. She told me that she may be heading to The Big Apple for a week or so to meet up with a nail artist there. If everything looks right, she might be looking forward to a 6-month stay there later this year. And speaking of students staying over in New York City, Speedy tells me that The Singer's fluency has shot up somewhat after her 2 months there; didn't say whether she sounds like Joan Rivers, though.

Ethereal actress Rie Miyazawa is apparently going to be tying the knot some 15 years after breaking off an engagement with yokozuna Takanohana. It's one of those shotgun weddings; she's 6 months into pregnancy. I'm not sure how her hubby feels about the fact that most every guy in Japan saw her naked (via her "Santa Fe" photobook) before he actually did.

Saturday February 14, 5:19 p.m.

Finished up with The Businesswoman about 20 minutes ago. Good student but I'm wondering now that she's almost finished with her current spate of lessons whether she'll re-sign. I don't think I'm exactly coasting with her but there seems to be a bit of a lull.

I finally read MB's response to my refusal of the position. Actually, he was short and gracious about it, but I still feel badly about turning down the offer although I made it clear that I wouldn't teach kids for a million bucks (just an exaggeration).

Just looking forward to going home now and getting some relaxation in. It'll be another busy Saturday next week and I've got The New Yorker tomorrow afternoon. The weather was actually fine today although I never got a chance to walk around in it. I didn't have to hang up the wash inside. I can only hope that it'll stay that way tomorrow since I do want to test out the camera on Akiba.

Saturday February 14, 3:37 p.m.

Well, I've been making a good killing today. The Bostonian and The PA got me some chocolates, the former getting me some cookies made up to resemble tiny hamburgers (she knows me all too well) and even Bay brought some dango for Speedy and myself, although the bossman has yet to show up which is atypical of him. Kinda wonder if The Businesswoman may continue the tradition.

Saturday February 14, 11:43 a.m.

I'm laying even odds that Mr. Pronounciation is gonna cancel today. I'm not wishing for it at all since I think he needs the practice but with his job as a CPA and being the tax season and all, I've got a strange feeling he's gonna call and make the dotakyan.

Well, finished off "The Starbucks Experience". And also some of the reviews of it on the Net; they and I kinda refer to the near-religious calling that the "partners" seem to be imbued with. Being as cynical as I am, I tried to find some anti-Starbucks sites to get a palate-cleanser, but strangely enough, my computer won't let me due to fear of virus attacks. Hmmm....conspiracy, I wonder.

Saturday February 14, 11:27 a.m.

One of those days that I would rather just stay under the covers. Nope, I'm not sick and the weather has improved markedly over the mini-typhoon of last night, but not feeling particularly loving or even amiable. I've got a pretty busy day considering the fairly easy week: The Bostonian is in the house, along with The PA, Mr. Pronounciation and The Businesswoman to wrap up. Not sure if I'm gonna have any time to continue with the latest Cozy translation since my first three classes are back-to-back-to-back and then I've got an hour for lunch before the final lesson. However, I'll see what I can do in the last half-hour.

Paddy's foray into Facebook has gotten him some old friends. He's even made contact with GC.

Friday February 13, 10:07 p.m.

It was just Mr. Mild doing his make-up class. Apparently, Mrs. Mild has caught a case of dizziness for some reason. Still, she wasn't dizzy enough to become the sixth woman to give me chocolates. She got me some Whiskey Bonbons...I bet Mr. Mild was pretty jealous. The Ace and The Restauranteur were fine, but the latter student has some sparks of orneriness in her...but it's the usual case of me just humouring her. Looks like I learned a bit from that "Starbucks Experience" book.

The winds are still blowing out there but the juku boss was kind enough to call up Urayasu Station to check up on the subway status. They're still working in fine order thankfully although it would've been interesting to walk the extra 20 minutes out in the gale.

In the shadow of that miracle plane landing by Sully in New York Harbour over the Holidays comes a very cold shot of reality in the same state. A small plane just crashed into a Buffalo neighbourhood killing all aboard and one person on the ground. Irony is looking pretty cruel.

Anyways, gonna make my way home now. Have a pretty full slate tomorrow at Speedy's.

Friday February 13, 6:20 p.m.

Well, it may not be too bad of a bad luck day....knock on wood...but it is windy. Apparently, the Haru Ichiban has made an early appearance. Translated as the "Spring's No. 1", it's similar to the Chinook Winds in Canada and perhaps the Scirocco. Waiting for the bus near Speedy's, the winds were gale-force since that area is often buffeted by high winds to begin with.

It also seems to be a day of chocolate-reaping. I got a couple of more boxes of the sweet stuff from Miss Prissy and the juku boss. Prissy and her hubby had just come back from a trip to Jeju Island near Korea, and she brought back some chocolate-covered nuts. I donated that box over to the rest of the Speedy gang since I'm gonna end up very diabetic. Then I got a small box from the boss just now. She'd just had another session at the hospital and was griping a bit about how long she had to hang around the place (6 hours)...welcome to the club. I don't think a tirp to the hospital really means a drop-in session anymore. Better bring that "War & Peace". She's also gotten pretty manic about visiting Niagara Falls in the near future. Apparently, she got turned onto some sights on the telly recently She especially wants to stay at the hotel overlooking the Falls; looked it up, it's the Marriott.

Ended up having dinner at the family restaurant by Urayasu Station. Looks like they included a new pasta and dessert buffet, but I decided to go for the burger & fried oyster set. Maybe next time. Also, the Pepper Lunch in my neighbourhood has gotten a face-lift of sorts. Pepper Lunch is a franchise of sizzling hamburg steaks on hotplates which leave you with the fresh smell of braziers when you leave. Before the renovation began, the place had a vending machine where customers bought their meal tickets and just handed them to the pimple-faced kitchen staff. The new version looks a bit spiffier with an additional picture window and it looks like the place is going for a more conventional fast food counter look.

Friday February 13, 9:43 a.m.

I just heard from Speedy that The Singer had come back from her homestay in the States. It sounds like she had a good time there. And perhaps there may be future lessons. I'm just worried that she picked up too much of either a Noo Yawk or Valley Girl accent.

And on a totally different topic, I heard that the Wachowski Brothers are considering doing a "Superman" reboot. Now, if they hadn't been the guys behind the last two "Matrix" movies and "Speed Racer", I would've been pretty giddy. But as it is...

Friday February 13, 8:35 a.m.

Was entertaining The Patent Attorney as I usually do whenever I come in early. Just spoke on Vancouver since the Olympics will be held there in exactly one year. He was also intrigued on the concept of Daylight Savings Time. I'm surprised that the Japanese government has never really thought about adopting that measure...it would mean more drinking time in the beer gardens. I also told him that any chance of getting accommodations in Vancouver during the Games was pretty close to zero at this point, unless he had some really generous friends or relatives in the city.

As I said, The Carolinan and I went to the new Excelsior's across the street from its erstwhile sister shop. It was pretty crowded even at 5 p.m. but then again, a lot of the working wretched often hit the cafes as one of their refuges. We had to go into the smoking section, but it seemed like that section was far better ventilated than the Tully's in Ichigaya or even the old Excelsior's. The Carolinan had seen "Mamma Mia" with Meryl Streep yesterday. She is an ABBA fan but didn't really like Meryl's take on her character. I wouldn't go anywhere near that movie. I like ABBA, just don't like bad ABBA karaoke in a movie that costs 1,800 yen.

Like the previous time with the Carolinan, I ended up having dinner by myself at Foo Foo nearby. It was kinda coincidental that while I'm reading "The Starbucks Experience", the guys at Foo Foo gave me a small survey about their new dinner set and gave me some free toppings (I chose spinach) for my tan tan men.

So here I am. Just have three lessons today. I've got Miss Prissy in less than 2 hours, and then it'll just be the regular juku crowd with The Ace and The Restauranteur later tonight. However, I've also got that make-up lesson with The Milds before those other two. Swank is off again today so I figure that I'll be busy starting on the latest translation from Cozy and then working on some further handouts for The Restauranteur. I did get a response from MB for that message I sent him yesterday; just not interested in reading it right now....got enough angst as it is.

Friday February 13, 8:06 a.m.

Ah, yes...the inevitable Friday the 13th. Wonder when that computer virus or terrorist attack will occur.

I took a look inside Shinjuku's new erection known as The Cocoon yesterday after taking a photo of it. Actually, it was just the two basements since they housed the newest branch of Book First. Not surprisingly for a structure that has an art school, the bookstore looked appropriately artsy. President Obama's voice was booming in one corner...it was his inaugural address, I believe. Certain English-language-learning journals have been touting his diction as the one to emulate. I could think of far worse candidates to copy.

However, I gather that for the young prez, Friday the 13th has come a few hours early. Just read that yet another Cabinet candidate has pulled out of the running, and it was his Republican choice for Commerce. As a bit of a twist, he didn't pull out because he cheated on his taxes but because he couldn't stand the stimulus bill. Well, I guess Press Secretary Gibbs will spin it by saying that at least his boss tried to extend his hand across the aisle.

Before I met The Carolinan, I crossed the street to the nearest electronics shop and checked out the washing machines up on the 6th floor. My 15-year-old washing machine on my balcony has been gushing out water from its bottom which rather indicates a change is in order. I was rather surprised to realize that the cheapest machine is only 5,000 yen more expensive than my digital camera. Well, let's see how much I make this month. I wouldn't be so eager to get a new washing machine if only that little leakage incident a few weeks ago hadn't occurred.

I met The Carolinan in front of the now-closed Excelsior Coffee branch. That old place was covered in white netting...kinda analogizes a chrysalis. She'd obviously been shopping for stuff with three large bags. One was actually for me...the Valentine's Day season has begun, although I think Grandma Enka's gift of Earl Grey Tea last week officially started things off. The Sisters of State gave me some nama choco (I really have to find out what the exact translation for that is) and some chocolate-covered Satsuma potatoes...yep, I also wonder how that one will taste. In front of the West Gate of JR Shinjuku, the Godiva kiosk was mobbed by women buying boxes of chocolate.

Thursday February 12, 2:46 p.m.

Had lunch...it was pretty pensive by myself in the kitchen. That was because I'd just sent off that letter of rejection of MB's offer for employment at his school. It basically took me the better part of an hour to concoct it since I pretty much bared my reasons for not being comfortable with kids. I didn't get too much into the psychological aspects of it but I did give him my history of teaching them and it's not a period of great success or happiness. In any case, I hope he gets my drift now; it could go either way, I suppose. He could take it gracefully or he could think I'm a self-absorbed sob story. But what I wrote was the truth, take it or leave it.

Speaking about the trials and tribulations of kids, on my half-kilometre walk from the Tozai Line to the Oedo Line, I came across a young mother putting her baby cart with kid on board on the down escalator. She was getting kinda cross with her child for getting a bit too rambunctious on the cart. I did a slow burn and came a bit close to giving her a piece of my mind about not being allowed to go on the escalator with a baby cart as per the sign, so who was she to chew out her kid. I held my tongue though and she went one way and I went the other. But in retrospect, I think I was glad I didn't say anything to her. I don't think any good would've come out of it aside from a screaming match between me and her with panicked subway officials to follow. And after giving some more thought to it, perhaps the mother really didn't have a choice since the staircase beside the escalators was in the midst of handling rush hour traffic. And in this burg, the slower amongst us aren't given too much of a break. I tried to imagine the harried lady taking down the cart with kid on board on a crowded staircase practically flowing with commuters, and then thought that she probably didn't need me scolding her.

I'll probably take off in the next half-hour and walk off lunch as I walk over to Shinjuku. I'll take a pic of The Cocoon, the newest building dotting the Shinjuku skyline. It's supposed to look like a cocoon (memories of Mothra come up), but with a couple of rather strange orb-like buildings or structures at the bottom, folks can be forgiven if they started giggling at a certain phallic resemblance.

Thursday February 12, 1:23 p.m.

Just had Miss Sedona, one of only two students I have today. I'm not sure if that cup of Tim Hortons I had for breakfast may have put my personality in overdrive, but I got the impression from her that I was going a little faster than usual. Ah, well.

Found out that Paddy is now a part of the Facebook family. I dutifully and happily invited him in. A bit surprised...never took him as particularly the social networking type.

Anyways, just gotta do some deskwork then I'm outta here to take some pics with the new camera before meeting up with The Carolinan.

Thursday February 12, 11:17 a.m.

It was a nice and rare Wednesday night off last night. Just spent it cooking up dinner and watching the last of the "Futurama" episodes. Groening and company really went out with a bang with some pretty fun shows...it's hard to believe that it's been basically 7 years since the series got canned (although I am aware that the specials have been popping up, including one just a couple of nights ago, I believe). Whereas "Family Guy" is raunchy and raucous fun set to a big band soundtrack, "Futurama" could almost qualify as a sweet dramedy.

Saw a slightly different version of the new "Star Trek" trailer on YouTube yesterday. It was almost identical but then I caught that scene of Nero the Romulan, which had been at the end of the original trailer, in the middle which got me wondering if there was something being cooked up at the end. And I was surprised to see old Leonard Nimoy giving the familiar split-fingered Vulcan salute and the old greetings of "Live long and prosper". Former Speedy assistant-current attorney-future judge The Trekkie would've teared awfully bad seeing that.

I got a quick reply back from The Satyr about what was basically a token courtesy inquiry about the position that MB has been bashing me over the head about. He said that he had a pretty good time at the school. I basically gave him the reply that I will give MB probably today or tomorrow that I won't be taking the position. MB will be sorely disappointed, I know, although he's been given ample signals from me. I hate disappointing friends...obvious thing to say, I know...but in this case, I know that it has to be the right thing to do.

Got word from The Carolinan that we can meet an hour earlier than usual for her lesson since she'll be having the afternoon off today. So, I can get that extra hour of rest before coming in tomorrow early.

I've been reading that book on the Starbucks Experience. Yep, I can see where they're getting at about customer satisfaction and all that, and I've been grateful whenever I've used the local branches as a teaching environment and simple coffee quaffing grounds. But sometimes I just can't help getting the feeling that there's something a bit creepily cultish about the literature. Ach, the cynic I am.

Wednesday February 11, 3:05 p.m.

Well, obviously, I never made it to Akihabara. It's been looking gloomy all day...kinda ironic considering that it's allegedly Japan's birthday today (being over 2,000...the collective memory just isn't what it used to be). And Akihabara gets skittish about cloudy weather so in all likelihood, hokoten isn't in session. So, I'm back at the I-cafe.

Nice and lazy today. Just woke up at a late hour, had my Canuck breakfast, and completed Phase 2 of going over the year's earnings and expenditures, along with a few more "Futurama" eps. "Futurama" actually includes a bit more drama and pathos than either "Family Guy" or "The Simpsons" in my estimation, pretty surprising for a show that includes a sociopathic robot and a Yiddish crustacean doctor.

MB doesn't give up, does he? I've pretty much shut the door on that so-called offer of employment at his school. But he's sent me an e-mail stating that I could get a reimbursed train pass from the school. I mean, the offer is actually quite good but just replace the kids with adults; then I would jump at it and say goodbye to Speedy.

Tuesday February 10, 9:35 p.m.

Well, the first mini-week is done. The Traveler came in; I wasn't too hard on her since she was coming back from an emergency hospital stay...wasn't going to inquire, so I just did Numbers with her to get some of that confidence back into her. Then, The Milds came in a half-hour later. Any lingering discomfort from last week was absolutely gone. Had a good time with the couple...even went 10 minutes past time for a chat. The nice, pleasant night her got me to thinking that even if I didn't have the problems toward children that I do now, it would be very difficult for me to leave this setup along with The Beehive and some of the privates. I feel badly for MB since it is obvious that he's rather desperate to find a good teacher with staying power. But frankly, unless the Mother of All Typhoons suddenly came along and destroyed everyone in Chiba Prefecture, there is pretty much no way I'll able to accommodate him.

Time to go home and decompress a bit. Gonna pick up some bacon, eggs and butter for a good ol' Sunday Canadian breakfast tomorrow on National Foundation Day. Then, I'll head on out to Akihabara with the new camera and see if I can take me some pics of potential hokoten hilarity.

Tuesday February 10, 4:38 p.m.

Well, made the trek all the way to the other end of the metropolis and did the visit to MB's school...his dog-and-pony show about the position that could await me there if I decided to take him up on his offer. But this isn'T really an offer since noone there has made it. It's a big private school with a lot of pluses to the position: guaranteed work and salary, days off that are paid, and very reasonable finish times. The only thing in the way....they're KIDS! I'm from the W.C Fields area....don't work with animals or kids. After the grand tour (sophisitcated computer setup...I was impressed with that), MB and I had another powwow and again I gave my reasons for probably not accepting the job. I could have the cushiest job in the world but if I'm not happy with the clientele...and I've gone through more than ample experience with kids to tell me that I'm just not gonna gel with them. I observed two of MB's junior high classes...I was given a brief intro and then he and his Japanese teacher of English got to work. All very efficient and amiable, but there was absolutely no spark which got me thinking "Hey, maybe I can do this!" It was just a plain observation. Still, I said that I would think about and even consult with The Satyr, the guy departing from this cushy position to an even better one before making the final decision, although in all honesty, I'm eady to say NO quite easily.

Made it back to the juku in plenty of time. The juku boss told me that The Traveler will be here for her lesson at 7. Should be interesting to hear what had happened to her but I'm not gonna probe. The interesting part will be with the Milds after that small exchange between the boss and Mr.Mild last week about the extra class.

Monday February 9, 9:47 p.m.

Well, my break is lasting longer than usual since Medicine Man is running late. At least, he was kind enough to keep the finish time to 10:30 p.m. Gotta rush on home to get some sleep to get back out again to MB's school. Just twiddling my thumbs, so to speak, via the Net and Wiki. Just read up on "Futurama".

Well, he's here now.

Monday February 9, 4:38 p.m.

The weekend was thankfully without incident. I had a good time with Tully & The Coffeemaker on Saturday...kinda too bad that I won't be seeing them again until the end of March since Tully will be off on his graduation holiday through Europe for the next month. However, The Coffeemaker said that she could be asking me to teach her solo but include some former schoolmates of hers from the ol' school who may want to get in on the action. I jokingly warned young Tully about perusing certain display windows in Amsterdam, but I don't think he got the joke. Ah, youth...

I did get that Exilim digital camera at Akiba Yodobashi after the lesson. It was the cheapest one there at 13,000 yen. I didn't even bother with the Japanese or the haggling. I just got the nearest staffer and rattled off my native language at him so that I could keep the advantage in any sort of communication. It certainly got his brain in overdrive to dig up that English vocabulary. I charged the lithium ion battery last night and put the thing on. I was going to give it a test run tomorrow at MB's school but MB warned me that that wouldn't be too kosher considering it's a girls' school and since this country is well-known for its plentiful population of hentai. So, I'll probably make the first clicks on the national holiday Wednesday...in Akiba itself. If I'm lucky, maybe the hokoten will be on.

Finally caught my first full program of Japanese TV in 2009 later that night. It was the "I.Q. Supplement" program on Fuji-TV. Only expended a couple of brain cells on that one. However, it did have a segment in which one of those B-class tarento tried to entertain visiting Hollywoodite Brad Pitt. Sure to be shown on a YouTube near you.

Also had my first haircut of the year on Sunday morning. They've got a new woman working there who gave me the shampoo and scalp massage. Yeah, she good...she pass. The manager cut my hair as usual. He spoke to me about the current figure skating competition in Vancouver. Looks like Mao Asada isn't doing too well. I'm sure the media has been wailing about what's wrong with her now.

I went further into that final season DVD of "Futurama". Caught the one where most of the Classic Trek crew guest-starred. It was one for the Trekkies, and Leonard Nimoy actually joked around (he was pretty stiff-lipped on his "Simpsons" appearance several years earlier). Did catch the jibe at James Doohan as well as the commentary's remarks when the show invited him to join the old crew. The "NO WAY!" answer was no surprise considering Doohan's prior complaints about Shatner, but I also thought Doohan was pretty much out of the picture anyways because of his battle with either Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

Started the annual tax return by summarizing the past year's earnings and expenditures. I'll probably be finished the accounting by this weekend, and then I can start filling out the return itself next week.

As I said before, I spoke with MB last night about heading over to his school tomorrow morning. I had told him that there's a 95% probability that I won't take the officially unoffered job of teaching there in place of the departing Satyr, and frankly having to make the trek from Chiba to pretty much Kanagawa Prefecture is not my idea of fun. But he did pull out the "personal favour" clause on me so I'm honour-bound to go to a place that I'm resolved not to go to. Since I didn't want to languish too much on that topic, I quickly finished things off with some James Bond talk. He did catch "Quantum of Solace" a second time and may even go for a third time. So it is obvious that he hasn't given the naysayers too much attention.

Also spoke with Mom after MB. The entire clan was supposed to go over to Mrs. Tulip's swanky condo to pick up a hinasama doll since she offered to give it to my niece. It'll be my brother's family's first time to meet one of my students. Oh, and apparently, the family cat has been pooping in the corner of the bathroom. Maybe Alzheimer's is falling on him.

Since The Class Act was off today, I re-scheduled The Admin for their slot since Wednesday is National Foundation Day...the holiday that noone remembers or cares, except for the fact that it is a holiday. I took some time to do some location scouting in the Shinjuku area for a new cafe for The Carolinan and myself since the nearby Excelsior's closed up shop nearly 2 weeks ago. There are a couple of Starbucks nearby and even another Excelsior's just a few dozen metres where the old one was. I've sent the news over to my student.

Had a good time with SIL since we got onto one of our favourite topics...music. Floored her when I told her that AOR isn't really a genre in North America. Here in Japan, AOR isn't only just thriving here, but Gilbert O'Sullivan and Bobby Caldwell are gods.

Back at Speedy's. The Full-Timer has cancelled her lesson due to nausea...job-induced, no doubt. So, I've got several hours to kill before Medicine Man comes in for the final slot of the day. No problems here...I've got quite a few things to do.

The juku boss called me up early Saturday to say that The Traveler actually called her up! Apparently (or should I say allegedly?), the lass was in hospital for some ailment and had no ability to make contact with us. Anyways, she should be in tomorrow night where I'll get some sort of sob story. We'll see...

Friday February 6, 7:17 p.m.

Got home, ate some dinner, did a bit more rearranging in my apartment and even started on the "Futurama" DVDs since I've started my weaning from Japanese TV. I saw that the final season had that episode where most of the Classic Trek crew showed up. Quite a few episodes away from that one. Not quite as outrageous as "Family Guy" but it has its moments.

Looks like the juku boss is very slowly easing her way back into her old job. I was expecting her to be teaching or yelling at some kid but all was still quiet. She told me that she's cutting down on the numbers and ages of her young charges so that she doesn't burn up so much energy now that she can't take in nearly as much as she used to. She was also expressing some concern about my classes but not just because The Traveler has flown the coop and Suzanne is away for the next week; things are looking pretty sparse in my area in her estimation. She asked me about how the other schools are faring. I couldn't give her an honest answer since I don't have my ear to the ground about the competition...just Speedy's place, and so far, it hasn't been too bad for us although my February is looking a bit patchy right now. Frankly, I'm not sure about what the Milds will do in the next few months. We're almost finished the current text and I'm not quite sure if they are gonna risk another year and another textbook, but I haven't told the boss yet about that.

To be brutally honest, I frankly wouldn't mind if Tuesdays suddenly found themselves open in the evening. I wouldn't mind a weeknight off although that would be financially stupid to say. Still, my classes are half of her business so she's gonna try to beat the bushes for new customers.

Friday February 6, 11:16 a.m.

I guess this has been a week of some misunderstandings. First there was that small kerfuffle between the juku boss and Mr. Mild over a still-owing lesson (the boss had actually caught me as I was going home on Tuesday to ask if she'd been a bit too direct with him...I just said diplomatically that both parties were very honest with each other) and then there was yesterday's class with Speedy's usual group. Speedy and I had been trying to collaborate on how to teach it over the past few days since he'd asked me to try it out. The class was interested in having a few teachers come in for variety's sake.

Well, as they say about best-laid plans. First, the group couldn't get the CD player from their office for listening practice which meant that Speedy had to grab the crappy old laptop which always breaks down from the school. I'd been told by the bossman that the group was a bit quiet but amiable...still I'd been assuming the good ol' days with the oil company guys who were keen as all out while I'd been planning. These guys were frankly church mice...tough crowd for a song-and-dance man like me. And then, I find out afterwards from Speedy that I didn't need to do 80% of the text since they had already done it before....thanks, boss...you could've told me that information beforehand. And finally, I just had a memory blank which almost led to a breakdown during the second hour of review. All in front of the bossman...who was in the room the whole time. Not that I really felt that I had anything to prove to him but I was reminded that I never really liked having a peer in a classroom while I'm teaching. Basically, this was a crash-n'-burn class. And the horribly ironic thing was that one of the students at the beginning had asked me how long I'd been a teacher, and I gave my honest answer of almost 22 years. Last night's class felt like it'd been taught by someone of 2 days' experience.

As usual, Speedy was infuriatingly cheerful about it all but we've known each other a long time. I was pretty quiet going back to the school with him and he probably knew that I was far from happy. However, I should consider myself lucky. I could've had one of those screamer bosses, although I most likely deserved to get my butt kicked several ways from Sunday.

And then while I was commiserating, I came across the now-infamous Christian Bale rant story. Haven't seen the video but did hear a bit of the audio during Jeannie Moos' dependably unfunny segment on CNN's "The Situation Room". And I did come across a ton of comments from both sides of the argument. The ones that I did take with more than a grain of salt were the ones from the folks who have worked in the industry and know the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a movie set. Christian Bale may have anger management issues but, y'know, I've had my regrettable moments in my life and I'm just glad that they have never made it onto YouTube; and it rather irks me that people are just making these snap judgements about Bale based on that one moment...situations like those have a past and future. If a video were made of me during one of my major blowups (thankfully very rare), then these same people would assume that I was a jerk by nature. I may feel like a loser right now, but I'm definitely not a jerk. The other point is that one of my students at Speedy's, The Publicity Assistant, has met and taken care of Bale during his time in Japan and found him to be a class act who loves his family...unlike some other Hollywood stars she's met in the past.

And so, after watching all that stuff on the Net, I didn't feel particularly any better but I did come away knowing that I wasn't alone. Still, I was up for a long time last night. Ended up downing an entire can of Pringles in 10 minutes while watching that episode of "The West Wing" where Donna Moss nearly dies in a terrorist explosion, and President Bartlet and Leo McGarry finally have that huge fight in the Oval Office over military options. Again, that helped me put things in some perspective...as silly as it may sound.

Feeling a bit better. The fact that I'm typing away here at the I-Cafe means that Swank has canned her lesson for today and will be away for the rest of February. No surprise there...I'd figured that with the fact she has put off her Eiken 1 test for another few months and that she is being stretched in all directions (not rare for a working Mom), she would be taking some time off from studying. So I may have some pretty open spaces free on Fridays for the next few weeks.

Tried to get that cheap digital camera at Yamada Denki just before I got here only to find out that it's now out of stock. Been a week. At least, it won't be too crazy for the next few days. Just have Tully & The Coffeemaker tomorrow and the usual Ace and The Restauranteur tonight.

Thursday February 5, 4:54 p.m.

Managed to finish off the latest translation but I won't be sending it off to Cozy just yet since it isn't due until Monday. I don't need to make myself appear too fast. Also had time to construct a rough outline for tonight's group lesson across the street and even make one more exercise for Swank tomorrow....provided that she will come. But she's been pretty good...she's nowhere near a Jolly. If she were to cancel, she would call the day before.

I'll probably tally up the fee for The Corner's translation tonight after I get through the rest of the workday.

Thursday February 5, 11:19 a.m.

Was reading the latest U of T Alumni Magazine and came across yet another article on an old acquaintance, Mark Roswell, or Da Shan as he's known in China as a comedian and TV host. Kinda amazing how this guy turned out over the years. I remember just having a few talks with him in the East Asian Studies Student Union at Robarts.

Thursday February 5, 10:54 a.m.

Hmmm....I realize it's only 3 weeks into his presidency but that recent "MAD Magazine" cover of Barack Obama clutching his head in The Oval Office while surrounded by every medicine that Surgeon-General Sanjay Gupta could possibly prescribe is looking pretty prescient right now. If things keep going the way they are, I wonder if that famous catchphrase "Yes, we can" may be altered to "Well, I tried".

That latter, defeatist catchphrase could sum up my class with The Fashion Designer last night. She always has the last slot as she's always finishing up things at her studio pretty late. As a result, she always looks fatigued although she's always given the best effort. Well, she was kinda flubbing up a lot in her answers last night so out of good conscience I couldn't give her the take-home. Gave her another couple of weeks to review stuff since next Wednesday is a national holiday. However, she brightened up at the end when I introduced her to The 100% Chocolate Cafe, that Meiji-produced gimmicky cafe in Kyobashi. The website is really slick and certainly she enjoyed watching the various chocolates. It's Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for the trendified.

On the other hand, The Diver put on the afterburners in her last lesson before she got the BIG test for the entire textbook and a year's worth of self-inflicted punishment getting through it. Lucky she's got the 2 weeks to prep for it before finally tackling the monster. Keeping my fingers crossed for her.

I've got the feeling that 001 is slowly drawing out the long goodbye to us. Her allotted number of lessons are starting to dwindle down to a precious few and she's been putting in a number of absences between classes. It wouldn't surprise me if she didn't renew again since she's been with us for a few years now and it might be time for the transition. She got her official transfer orders to go to another section in her hospital, although the physical shift is just a few metres across the hallway.

Finally got word from The Corner. He said that everything was OK with the translation and that I could now get him the invoice. In fact, he gave me the heads-up that he's got another web client with pages and pages for me to translate over the next month. Aye....it'll be good money. In a way, I hope that I don't have too many classes in March.

I've just got Grandma FON and then Miss Sedona for my regulars but some hours later I'll be heading over for a rare on-site at a company just a few minutes away. I haven't done one of those in several years, since my days at the ol' school, so I'm a bit nervous but I think it's good to get shaken up at times

Wednesday February 4, 5:30 p.m.

Speedy's busily selling a potential new student; we can always use new students in this economy. Speaking of whom, The Diver has apparently pulled out all the stops and managed to buy quite a few more lessons from us. So, she'll be hemming and hawing for at least another year. I gotta give her test tonight. I can only hope she's up to the challenge. We also got a call from The Nurse stating that she'll be away for the next little while...I believe the term was "shibaraku" which could mean anything from a few weeks to several months. I guess those Dare cookies I got her will now be donated to us.

The Admin was still as enthused as ever about learning English. Like Suzanne is, or was, she's a tonic. I can only hope that this will continue for the next little while.

Wednesday February 4, 1:04 p.m.

Barack Obama must be regretting having the "-elect" taken off President. I think he was having a much more successful time during the transition than actually having the power. Let's see, the Republicans have just whiffed him off over the stimulus plan and he's lost three of his Cabinet appointees over tax illegalities. And he thought he just had his hands full with Hillary.

Grandma Fado gave us some goodies, as she usually does, by saying "Well, these pies have passed the best-by date so you can have them". Ahhh, all heart she is. I had a good monthly chit-chat with Grandma Enka...mind you, she used 60% of the time to speak in Japanese. She gave me an early Valentine's Day present in the form of Dalloyau tea leaves...probably thinking of my health. She also gave us some beans from yesterday's Setsubun festivities. She had gone to her nearest temple where there were a ton of people squeezed in trying to grab the beans thrown from the temple. During Setsubun, not only are you supposed to throw them to drive the devil out but also you're supposed to eat the number of beans equal to your age. I think I've reached the age where I have to count one bean as one decade as compared with a single year. Kinda like making sure you don't set off the fire alarm when putting the candles on your cake.

Anyways, I gotta meet The Admin.

Tuesday February 3, 9:21 p.m.

Wasn't quite an argument, thankfully, but there was a small bone of contention between the juku boss, who ws back on active duty, and Mr.Mild over a make-up lesson due to my trip back home. Since they paid for four lessons a month, they were owed at least one more lesson. So I've got them slated in for Friday the 13th. I've got a feeling that Mr. Mild is far from mild where a financial discrepancy is seen. However, things worked out OK. Not sure about Mr. Mild tonight. He seemed a little bit ill at ease towards the end; we were doing a review of Present Perfect. Perhaps, he felt that it was too bad that he and his wife have to spend a lesson going over old ground. Well, not much I can do about that....except to get them back up to speed. I wonder if they'll still have the desire to go for one more year.

Yup, as it turned out, The Traveler has joined Jolly, Miss Disney and that woman who had been placed with The Milds earlier last year. Didn't show up and didn't reply to the boss' inquiries. So, basically with Suzanne out of the country, I just had The Milds and The Beehive bracketing an empty day, some of which mind you was spent tapping out the latest translation for Cozy at the I-cafe. Got that off to him. Still have yet to hear from The Corner about his translation assignment. I may send him a friendly letter of inquiry to him tomorrow.

The YouTube safari is always an interesting one. I started out by looking at that Advanced Thesis for Dance Class video from Beyonce for "Single Ladies"; some wag laughed at it by comparing it to a kindergarten presentation. I'm sure he got quite a few nasty replies wondering if he could actually pull it off. I know I certainly couldn't...not even do a wacky satire of it a la Justin Timberlake on SNL. Then, it was to go through a whole bunch of "Doctor Who" themes before watching an ol' Karen Carpenter video before seeing a J-Pop performance by Ruiko Kurahashi

Tomorrow should be back to normal. I've got the monthly with Grandmother Enka, followed by my second class with The Admin, and then I should have the regular Wednesday lineup with 001, The Diver and The Fashion Designer. I hope The Diver is ready to take her test finally. Just not sure whether she'll continue with us after getting that test.

Tuesday February 3, 2:53 p.m.

February 3...the day of Setsubun: throwing out the Devil with dried beans while bringing in good fortune. Kinda felt like throwing out MB this morning...well, not in too malicious a way. However, he somehow got my e-mail prepositions screwed up. I had told him last night to contact me before 8:45, not at 8:45...which he did. It was all about that school visit next Tuesday for which he was still trying to sell me on. Again, show me an apartment to be moved into and some really damn fine kids, then I'll conside it. Anyways, he just kept me on for a full 15 minutes before I had to cut in and politely cut out. As a result, I was rather harried in getting out, paying off those hefty City Tax and National Health Insurance premiums and mailing out Dad's birthday present before I could get over to Tsudanuma to see The Beehive. Luckily, most everyone there is pretty leisurely about getting to the cafe. It was still only Mrs. Travel there when I rushed in. The only other two to come in were Mrs. Alp and Mrs. Jade. Mrs. Tee was caught up in work. They related about Mrs. Perth's valiant project to create her very own snow sculpture of 15 m for the annual Snow Festival up in Hokkaido. Now that's one intrepid ex-student.

Like yesterday, I also got to tuck into another rather hi-calorie lunch. Yesterday it was The Class Act and me at that spicy nabe place in Shibuya. Today it was the Chinese restaurant chain Asta across from the station. Asta is one of those faux-high-class places that's actually pretty reasonable to most folks. And the food was pretty darn good on a higher level than the average Bamiyan. The three of my students were gabbing away about their latest travel plans. The one in the immediate future is a trip to Okinawa to see their old classmate, Mrs. Potter. But the big one seems to be a Meditteranean cruise. Mrs. Travel was the only one to have actually traveled on a ship so she was providing all of the advice.

I called up the juku boss to confirm that Suzanne would not be coming tonight. Yep, I had received a message from the boss last night that Suzanne would be taking the next couple of weeks off. I'd known about the 10th since she would be in Australia by that point...musing about her future. I also wondered aloud about The Traveler's lesson tonight since she completely AWOL'ed last Tuesday. We haven't heard a thing despite the boss trying to contact her last week. The boss gave her usual quizzical "Ah, so?" when I expressed my doubts about her future with us. Too much of an optimist, she is. In any case, she'll give her another try before I get there later.

Looks like my formerly free Thursday night has now been taken up by a business class that Speedy asked me to do. I agreed since it's turning out to be a relatively light week and I figure that I'll have to be meeting those guys from time to time. Plus, my Saturday is gonna be free aside from a session with Tully & The Coffeemaker.

Haven't heard so much as a peep from those two volcanoes which stirred up some alarm a couple of days ago. Hope it stays that way.

Monday February 2, 7:36 p.m.

Good m-o-o-o-r-ning, Mr. Phelps. Your mission, if you should choose to accept it, is to apologize to the world for your emission possible. Good luck, Mike. Yup, not a world-ending disaster for MP smoking MJ...just embarrassing. And he's not gonna lose any of his medals; if there had been any chance of that happening, the US media would've already launched one of the biggest spin doctoring blitzkriegs in history.

Over the last week, we've been getting some rumbles in the Kanto. Nothing too big...just Shindo 3 at most. But then over the past 48 hours, a couple of volcanoes up north started to make their cases known in the form of ash. Even certain wards here in The Big Sushi got dry snow. I'm wondering if something is in the offing. Back on Saturday morning, as I made the commute to Speedy's, I noticed outside that the clouds looked pretty ominous...I mean, these things looked like thunderheads, not formations I would see in the dead of winter. I wonder if these clouds are the granddaddys of jishin gumo (earthquake clouds). Apparently, there is a theory that jishin gumo form like jet vapor trails going straight up from the ground a few days before any fairly major seismic events. Checked out Fuji-TV news on the web...no breaking news items there.

Met up with The Full-Timer at Doutors...and yep, my sweater is fully funky. She has finally pulled the trigger and given in her 2 months' notice at the workplace that has steadily and inexorably turned into a small Hell on Earth. She was feeling like the proverbial suddenly umemployed Atlas...a great burden has been lifted off her shoulders. She could've given a month's notice but decided to cut things off neatly at the end of the fiscal year at the end of March. Good for her, I say. Mind you, she's quitting in the middle of a recession, so I'm not sure when she'll be able to secure a new position and whether she'll have to cut ties with me to save money.

Monday February 2, 4:39 p.m.

My gray sweater is gonna smell so funky by the time I get home that it'll gain sentience. Not only is it Groundhog Day back in Canada & the United States but it's also The Matron's birthday which meant The Lady took us to a spicy lamb hot pot place near her home in deepest Shibuya. Actually, I'd passed the restaurant several times over the months but never knew what it was all about except for a cute sheep's face logo. However, The Lady is sold on it and if she thinks it's good then that's more than good enough for me.

The hot pot was like a lot of the current craze of hot pots...a large pot with a steel divider separating chicken broth from a far more spicier soup. We were then given lots of veggies (lettuce, nappa, lotus root, etc) and a small pile of thinly sliced lamb and pork. Then we all went to work. The Class Act was definitely feeling the heat far more than me; they got full far earlier and were quite a bit more sweatier. I guess I've been weatherproofed from my years with folks such as The Anime King and his Court who used to take to similar places back in Toronto. Still, it was delish and the wrap-up, or shime, was putting two kinds of noodles into the thoroughly flavoured broths. The spicy broth did leave my palate needing some sort of asbestos lining but a bowl of tapioca cooled things off nicely. Of course, the experience did leave a certain aroma into the fibres of my sweater. Of course, I'll be seeing The Full-Timer later today which means a liberal infusion of cigarette smoke and coffee at Doutors, and with the usual perspiration that comes from a day's exertions, I'll probably be able to leave my sweater on the tatami tonight standing straight up. The place was good, though, so I'll probably bring MB and The Satyr if we're ever in the area, and perhaps even The Anime Court when they come over around Golden Week 1.

I gave my olfactory warnings to SIL when I came to see her afterwards but she was graceful enough to state that she could only sense a certain curry-like aroma.

Yesterday I met up with The Bohemian for the first time this year for dinner in Shibuya...yep, same neighbourhood as today. The one weird thing about standing in front of Hachiko this time around was that the area was far less than jam-packed on Sunday than a typical Friday or Saturday. I could actually see the other side of the plaza within my range of vision. Wasn't sure if the economic situation was a factor. The Bohemian took me to a small Chinese restaurant called Goku in that slightly sleazy alley with the S&M shop and the peeping parlour that tenuously links the two diverging streets away from JR Shibuya.

Like that nabe place today, The Bohemian's choice was also right on the money. I'm sure the 3,000-yen all-you-can-drink deal also influenced his decision. Like my old friend, The Iconoclast, The Bohemian tried to use his fractured Chinese to make contact with the Chinese waitress who was perfectly fluent in Japanese. Like The Iconoclast, the waitress couldn't make heads or tails of what he was talking about. Still, the man tried. Although I'm little more than a social drinker, I made sure I got my money's worth by alternating my booze (beer and plum wine on the rocks) with cola. The dishes themselves were great...gyoza and some stir-fry were there and there was a ma bo do fu dish which initially had me wondering....it was nearly black in colour and I had some rather painful times after a similarly coloured ma bo do fu years ago with Paddy in Akasaka...let's say the words bed, bowels, void would've been liberally used to describe that experience. However, to my relief, it was hot and tasty but without any of the Jackass-like results.

The Bohemian has been enjoying his social scene over the past several months. Considering that this is a guy who was one of the earliest folks in Tokyo to get laid off, he's pretty resilient. He's been using the Mixi communities to meet up with new friends. He's been having his greatest successes with the Chinese ones and he even invited me to some gig later this month. He invited me to something next weekend involving a young lady who may or may not become a girlfriend. She's from Manchuria and she's been waitressing at an izakaya while going through school. Not quite sure whether I'll go to either one since I've kinda soured on parties over the last little while. Not surprisingly, The Bohemian struck up the friendship with her while he was a customer at her restaurant. He's never been very shy to talk with the waitresses.

After the two of us split up, I just made a quick drop-in to Tower Records to see if I could pick up anything there. I just bought the latest issue of "Total Film". Did see some blasts from the past show some new releases. The store no longer stocks those 80s compilations since they were frankly languishing on the shelves for the last several months. Those old 80s bands, Go West and ABC, put out some new stuff which didn't sound too bad. I even saw a re-release of "P-Machinery" that that seemingly one-album wonder, Propaganda, from Germany had put out 20 years ago.

Should be a fairly quiet night since I've just got The Full-Timer and Medicine Man. I'll probably be apologizing again for my sweater, though.

Saturday January 31, 1:25 p.m.

Well, it's still pretty busy but it's turning out to be not as nuts. Mr. TOEIC kept it to a single since he was going out to meet his buds in Yokohama for lunch and stuff, and I found out that Mr. Pronounciation has dotakyaned. As for The Bostonian, she had the mask on and was suffering from a really froggy throat. I needled her that she was going through a second puberty (tastefully, of course). Instead of hitting the text, she picked my brain (what little there is) about some of her work stuff. At that point, I was grateful for the Cozy translation assignments since I was able to explain some of her stuff due to the vocabulary I picked up during translations. She also confided that she was nervous about her corporate future due to the massive layoffs that have been taking place. Her old company, NEC, is now giving its axes full reign to lop off 20,000 jobs over the next year.

Ironically, the sun has come out after that mini-typhoon wracked Tokyo this morning.

Saturday January 31, 8:51 a.m.

What am I doing? That was the question I asked myself a few minutes ago. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m., got dressed and battled a small typhoon to get here and teach Mr. TOEIC at 9:30 a.m. I got the impression from Bay yesterday that she probably wanted to ask me the same question since both of us had been under the impression that we would open at 11 a.m. Well, since Speedy himself will probably be teaching him next week since I'm off next week and he's asked that TOEIC be available for 11, not 9:30, in no uncertain terms, I'll make sure that TOEIC will be back at 11 and no earlier.

Feeling pretty tense right now...hope I can keep it together for the rest of my lessons today.

Friday January 30, 7:25 p.m.

Well, the question was floating about what could top the event of the first African-American to become the most powerful man in the world. It's apparently been answered...by Iceland. Just read that a woman is set to become the world'sfirst openly gay Premier. I would've said it was time to put on the ABBA CDs but that's back in Sweden, isn't it?

Friday January 30, 6:48 p.m.

Just returned from The Restauranteur's place where I had my dinner; it would seem that 1 or 2 of those Fridays will now be dedicated to Sauteed Garlic Chicken. The restaurant always seems to be empty or largely devoid of customers; it makes me wonder how The Restauranteur and her chef-husband manage to stay in business. Still, I can't complain about the service or the food.

Beforehand, I stopped off at the juku. The boss is still ailing from the flu; she even left a note on the whiteboard in her classroom for The Ace and The Restauranteur. The Restauranteur was asking about her at dinner tonight

I bought a couple of Kyotaro Nishimura novels for Dad since his birthday is coming up. I have to get cards for both him and for The Matron since her b-day is next week. Next Monday, The Lady is supposed to take her and me for lunch at some nabe place in the heart of Shibuya. Hard to imagine someone as polished as The Lady walking through the grunge of Teen Mecca but she was originally born as an Osakan.

It's gonna be a pretty intense session at Speedy's tomorrow with The Bostonian, Mr. Pronounciation, The Businesswoman and The Publicity Agent all smashed in a few hours. Luckily, Mr. TOEIC had decided to go with a single lesson instead of the doubles he's been pulling off recently. At least, I'll get a 90-minute respite before the tidal wave comes in, and I can get some stuff started for Cozy's next translation. I did get that last one in right at noon. I've got a feeling that Bay isn't too thrilled about coming in early in the morning for Mr. TOEIC; well, I can guarantee that I'm not all that excited about having to come out from Chiba on a weekend morning either but there you go.

Friday January 30, 8:16 a.m.

Well, I see that the Illinois lawmakers voted unanimously to oust their governor, Blagojevich. Not surprisingly, it's Breaking News on CNN. Everyone should have their day in court, but to be honest, this guy always struck me as being like Robert DeNiro's take on Al Capone from "The Untouchables": cocky, smarmy...and perhaps dangerous. And it didn't help that he and his wife were caught on tape stating some pretty "Godfather"-like stuff.

Friday January 30, 7:52 a.m.

It looks like the first month of this year will be ending on a depressing note. Experiencing Vancouver weather right now with the rains coming in today and tomorrow. So much for the customary tourist info about Tokyo Januarys being cold but clear and sunny.

My stint with The Carolinan at the Excelsior Caffe last night turned out to be the last one. Not that The Carolinan is leaving me or anything; it's just that the Caffe itself closed up its sliding doors for good at 8 p.m. That would explain the full crowd; I had to have my coffee al fresco at one of the outdoor tables. Luckily, I've been weatherproofed from my years in Toronto. The Carolinan came by a half-hour later, looking somewhat alarmed that I had been sitting outside. I reassured her that I was perfectly warm in my long coat. I'd spent that half-hour looking over the latest Cozy translation. Doesn't look great but today is the deadline. The Carolinan and I ended up going a few doors down to the Caffe Veloce...not the greatest place to have a lesson in her estimation because of the crowds, but I never thought that the late Excelsior Caffe branch was all that peaceful either. She seemed a bit moody at points in the lesson; I'm not sure if it had been the fact that her recommended coffee shop was going belly-up or the fact that she saw me supposedly freezing outside but she's gotten that way at times so I'm used to it.

For dinner, I ended up going to Foo Foo for the first time this year since it was only a 5-minute walk away. I can always get a seat there even if it's the height of rush hour and even if it's in JR Shinjuku. I had the regular tan tan men, and not the pai ko tan tan men (with the added slice of deep-fried pork). And actually, I appreciated the relatively lower-calorie ramen better. Maybe I'm getting older. But then again, I switched from rosu tonkatsu to the less fatty hire tonkatsu some years ago.

Managed to zip through all of the remaining eps from Season 2 of "Robot Chicken" before bedtime last night. It was fun to watch, or hear to be more accurate, Scarlett Johannsen and even Charlize Theron just swearing away with abandon.

I was back up with the cats and crows to head over here to teach Miss Prissy. I got the word from our newest staffer, Bay (goes well with Ray and AK), that Swank had cancelled her lesson. Well, I'm out a hunk of money then but I get to not panic about getting that Cozy translation handed in today, and I can also work on tonight's lesson with The Restauranteur.

Looks like that honeymoon for President Obama didn't even last as long as a real honeymoon. All of the Republicans rejected his economic stimulus plan, although it still passed the House due to the Democratic majority. I think that the slap in the face was a show that the Republican Party is trying to get its act together and to tell Obama that they aren't feeling cowed by the cult of Obamism...as well they shouldn't, although they may want to be careful about the electorate. And the journalists may also be starting to get on him a bit...as well they should. I saw CNN's Campbell Brown hammering at him for reneging on his pledge not to use lobbyists in any shape. Apparently the new Treasury Secretary has been clamoring to have a former lobbyist as his chief assistant. I think the problem for the new Prez is that all of the appropriate guys in the government probably have had to dip their hands into the pie at some time or other. Again, my biggest worry is that Obama may end up being like Jimmy Carter or some other form of paper tiger.

Anyways, Speedy's student should be coming in any second now.

Thursday January 29, 12:23 p.m.

Trying to get through a translation assignment while prepping for Miss Sedona's class in about 20 minutes. Then, there are those 3 high school essays that I have to comment on. I can't even touch the 2nd half of Swank's lesson until tomorrow since there's been a cap put on the number of hours put on a day.

Ray informed me that Mr TOEIC has decided to go with just a single instead of a double (this is lessons I'm talking about, not whiskey) on Saturday. Ahh...I see he's seen the light. Well, a bit of respite.

MB tried calling me last night but I was frankly too weary to pick up and insist that I come on out to his school for a look-see. So, instead he called me this morning...says that it would be a personal favour to him if I came out to the school and see what I was missing. I internally sighed and said that I would go in a couple of weeks. But the school had better offer me a darn good apartment if I were even to get slightly interested in teaching teens again. And the potential cost to the rest of my private business would be enormous. And I know that Speedy and the juku boss wouldn't be very happy.

Looks like The Bohemian and I will be getting together for a yakiniku dinner on Sunday in Shibuya.

Wednesday January 28, 7:17 p.m.

I made some good progress on the latest of the Cozy translations. Hopefully, I may be even able to have it ready to go just before I head on out to see The Carolinan tomorrow afternoon. I was even able to go through some more high school essays and plan for The Diver's lesson in an hour. She's on her very last paid lesson, by the way. Not sure which way she's gonna go...she was making noises about not having too much money to scatter about.

Grandma FON called up to state that she's cancelling her lesson tomorrow morning due to a cold...which means I'll have the rare situation of just two lessons and the ability to get home early. So, it'll just be Miss Sedona and The New Yorker.

Wednesday January 28, 1:38 p.m.

Well, met up with The Admin for the first time in over a year at the nearby restaurant at about 11. She was doing as chipper as usual although she admitted to some stress due to the rigours of her business. She may no longer be a colleague but she's now one of my students; she wanted to upgrade her vocabulary and general practice in English. Paid me in advance for the next several weeks, too. Not bad.

I got a rather terse reply from Movie Buddy about his "offer" of employment at his high school for which I'd declined. Just a thanks for my reply. I know he's disappointed but I hope he's not ticked off about it. Again, I would rather go back to the late, unlamented NOVA than teach a class of teenagers.

I'm here several hours early before my lone class at Speedy's with The Diver but I'll be busy not only preparing for her but also getting through some Cozy translations and prepping for another round with Swank. Hump Day is back.

Wednesday January 27, 9:28 p.m.

Finished another round at the juku tonight. The boss' husband did the honours of bringing over the night's coffee since the boss herself was conked out with the flu. Pretty good, may I add. The Traveler didn't show up at all and hasn't called in to say anything...which could mean anything at this point. The Milds did show up; their nephew had just had his wedding at Tokyo Disneyland of all places, which must've thrilled the women no end. They told me that Mickey, Donald and Goofy all showed up in an epic backpatting session. Mr. Mild's post-retirement education continues apace. He showed me photos of his brick and cinderblock walls from one of his DIY classes. He also has a kanji test coming up next Sunday. I showed him my 25-year-old kanji dictionary. He said that he could read the final, most difficult kanji in my book. His stuff, though, would put most professors to shame in its complexity. I asked him to bring that test in....I think this would be the environs for The Siberian...probably the King of Kanji in this country.

Heard that Heath Ledger got his posthumous awards for The Joker at the SAG and Golden Glober awards. Hmm...I think it's now possible that he could grab the Oscar; would be the first posthumous win in one of the major categories since Peter Finch in 1975 for "Network". This could be the year that superhero movies may finally get its legitimacy...Best Supporing Actor is probably gonna go to a supervillain while the show itself is being hosted by a superhero. If only Robert Downey, Jr. had been nommed for "Ironman".

Tuesday January 27, 7:08 p.m.

Well, The Traveler has yet to show up and it's now almost 10 minutes past the hour. She's only been with us for a few lessons but she's usually been on time or early. And the juku boss just called but couldn't reach her on her cellphone. Hmmm....not a good sign. Usually I would think that she's flown the coop like a number of others like Miss Disney or Seven, but I didn't get the impression that things weren't going well. She usually comes by motorcycle, so I'm a bit worried there.

Suzanne did come in for her 90 minutes. I almost put on the counselor's cap but it didn't quite that deep today. However, she will be heading for Australia once more in a couple of weeks to have another thinking time about her future. As for the juku boss, it ended up that she'd caught the flu from a kid yesterday which explains the visit to the hospital. She had the mask on and seemed rather frail today when she came in halfway through Suzanne's lesson . She's now sleeping downstairs although she was kind enough to try to make contact with The Traveler.

Well, I guess at this rate, it'll just be The Milds and then I'll be off for home.

Tuesday January 27, 4:17 p.m.

Took my shower last night and did the laundry this morning...no major cursing from downstairs, no emergency visits from Friday and Gannon. It looks like the new system is holding. The duct tape around the veranda tap has managed to keep the hose on, and the extension hose to the drain seems to be working well as well. It's just that the bottom of my washing machine is leaking...may have to get a huge sponge to lap that up.

At the Beehive session today, I told Mrs Travel and Mrs Alp of the mishap on Sunday. Mrs Travel, like the Full-Timer last night, also had a similar situation years ago. But unlike The Full-Timer, she and her family were lucky to have some very patient neighbours downstairs. We never got to the Obama Inaugural Speech; ended up just gabbing about Mrs. Tee's jewelry and how she doesn't show them to her husband.

Ended up coming home for lunch since I wanted to give Cozy's latest translation assignment the once-over. I also had a chance to take my first gander at the "Robot Chicken" DVD set that I'd bought last year. It had the gem of a "Dragonball Xmas" and the downright nasty "Unicorn and Nerd" sketch. Really haven't seen anything of regular Japanese TV since I got back here, with the exception of NHK news...after several years, I think I've finally weaned myself off of it, although I could always suffer a relapse.

The juku boss left me a message stating that she had to go to the hospital again, and so I let myself in. I hope it's just a regular check and not something of an emergency. It's been a bit eerie how some of the close people I know have ended up in the emergency ward over the past few months.

Monday January 26, 7:24 p.m.

Well, it was a Sunday to remember...although not because of the Bond movie and not for a good reason. I was just 30 minutes away from heading out for Shinjuku to meet with the guys there for "Quantum of Solace" when I got two phone calls...one was from my real estate agency asking whether there was some sort of water leak in my apartment. The only place I could think of was on the veranda where my washing machine is located since the hose connecting the water supply to the machine often tends to spurt loose. Then 5 minutes later comes a phone call from a home services company which is on retainer with the agency telling me they have to make an emergency check of my apartment for leaks.

Some minutes later, a couple of middle-aged guys in coveralls come up looking like Sgt. Friday and Sgt. Gannon from "Dragnet" and proceeded to tell me the horror story that my downstairs neighbour made a frantic call to the agency stating that his apartment was flooded due to some leak emanating from upstairs. Well, I probably did blanch at that thought since Joe Friday suddenly came out of his "Just the facts" pose and turned into everyone's favourite uncle and reassured me that this wasn't my fault. Still, I got a chill down my back as he was gabbing with the agency guy and quoted a 120,000-yen job. Friday and Gannon proceeded to look at the potential trouble spots. They checked out the veranda and quickly concluded that that wasn't the problem, although Gannon got to work at cleaning up the drain there. Friday took a look under my sink and after a bit of digging found the culprit there as a bad pipe. That bad pipe was apparently responsible for inadvertently turning my neighbour's place into a swamp.

Joe gave me a rather serious and sage look (I could almost hear the first few bars of the "Dragnet" theme) and said that they would have to pull apart the sink for a day's work to correct the problem. In the meantime, they would have to shut off the water supply for the rest of the day and night until they came back the next morning. Joe gave me his card; it turned out he was the president of his little home services company. And he was good about it...I had to go and meet MB. Other folks would've said that there was no time for that and that they would have to get to work on the double. But Joe said that they would be back the next morning; besides, the water was turned off...there could be no more damage.

The craziest thing though..and luckiest (so far)...was that the downstairs neighbour didn't come up to even talk about the situation. At one point, yesterday afternoon, Friday and Gannon and I had to step outside to check out the water line for my apartment, so the guy could've seen me and come out to eviscerate me (verbally or literally). Even though Friday told me I wasn't at fault, I wouldn't have blamed my neighbour if he wanted to use me as a punching bag for dousing his futon (and those are pretty much useless once they get very wet). But to be honest, I'm not even sure who my neighbour is. There was one meeting between me and a downstairs neighbour several years ago...all of one second...when one of my shirts accidentally flew down to his veranda. He was a salaryman who quickly came up to my place, handed me the shirt, mumbled something and then took off in his suit. There was another situation for the same reason but at that time, he just hung my clothing in a plastic bag on the doorknob after I'd left him a note in his mailbox. It's conceivably possible that this was the same guy although aside from me, most of the tenants tend to come and go with the seasons in my apartment block. But it would explain why he didn't bother to come out to talk. Maybe he knows that what happened wasn't my fault and I'm not the type to go around flooding neighbours out of their apartments. In any case, I am very grateful although for the next several days, I'll probably be walking up very quietly to my apartment and getting nervous whenever I do the dishes, use the toilet or shower, and wash my clothes. I still think I might get ambushed.

I was in a bit of a daze as I took the subway over to Shinjuku. I actually got to the theatre ten minutes into "Quantum of Solace"...just when James Bond started his chase of the MI6 turncoat. Surprisingly, I was able to find my seat at the Picadilly in the dark although I may have stepped on the toes of The Satyr, Miss Ivory and Frodo on the way. I now had an enhanced reason to watch the movie since I needed a good dose of escapism to drown (oops, bad choice of words) my sorrows. The movie pretty much succeeded at that...a balance of hard-hitting action and espionage exposition which made it feel even fuller than its length as the shortest 007 flick ever. I felt rather badly for MB since he waited for me down at the ticket booth level until the movie had already started...and he's the biggest Bond fan in the country.

The verdict on the movie was that it was an enjoyable romp although The Satyr pointed out that the herky-jerky editing that seems to be in vogue now for these action movies was plaguing this one as well. MB must've liked it since he said he would see it again...in full. And I may do the same. Amazingly, MB's wife, The Sylph, managed to pull off a nap in her seat.

Skippy was also there, and she had her own little tale of woe over the Holidays. Apparently, she'd collapsed in her apartment...luckily, while her boyfriend was there...due to internal bleeding (!!). Well, five days later, she was let out but with no clear explanation for the gusher inside...not a good sign. I noticed that she and the juku boss exhibited some similar signs. Both have outsized ebullience, both have had serious medical surprises and both have had their personalities magnify. Skippy was just bounding all over the place during dinner and dessert. I have a feeling that both ladies are just celebrating the fact that they're still alive.

We had dinner at a burger place in Hatsudai, near Opera City, called Base. The burgers there were pretty good although they still didn't quite hit the heights of Brozzers. We ended up going to Denny's for dessert...the annual strawberry festival was on. They talked about one of the trailers which happened to be for the Hollywood version of Hachiko...I'd seen the report of this a year ago on CNN. Richard Gere is supposed to be the kindly-but-soon-to-be-dead professor/master of Hachiko the faithful dog. Surprisingly, only The Satyr groaned.

I started my new life as a waterless person by brushing my teeth in the subway station washroom and then bought a couple of bottles of mineral water from the conbini. I tiptoed up the stairs to my apartment...ironically, my neighbour's lights were on. My slightly disheveled kitchen reminded me of what had to come pass earlier in the afternoon. And what continued to make my day a Sunday to remember was when MB called me up asking if I would consider taking a job teaching at his girls' high school. Apparently, The Satyr has found somewhat more fulfilling work elsewhere. MB and I bantered the discussion back and forth for half an hour, although I made my point clear in the first 5 minutes that I was allergic to teens; he really must need somebody. Along with the fact that I don't like kids, there was the fact that I don't look upon my JET days with any great pride and also the fact that his school is way beyond Speedy's area...and I had my share of commuting hell teaching my two of my first freelance students out where MB lives now. I was considerate to him, though...I said I would mull it over although I already knew I would say NO. I just have to decline it later tonight.

I took my MASH-like sponge bath with half a bottle of heated mineral water...prayed that I didn't need to go to the washroom in the middle of the night and hit bed while playing The Carpenters on the Discman...really needed Karen and Richard last night. "Rainy Days and Mondays" took on an even bigger significance.

Woke up this moring at 6:30 because I had that tingle. Put on the clothes, put the toothbrush and paste in my coat pocket and walked the 10 minutes to the closest public washroom by the station and ended up having McBreakfast. Just thought what the day would bring. 90 minutes later, I got my answer in the form of two new plumbers from the same company as Friday and Gannon. I think these guys were Adam-12. In any case, I was surprised to find out how easy it was to remove the sink from the kitchen wall. I was dreading some sledgehammer work, but all it was just a tug and the unit came out fine. However, there would be a few hours of hammering and drilling as they took out the errant pipe and put in a sparkling silvery one. Friday and Gannon actually also showed up near the end to take a look at the work which actually only took 3 hours instead of the whole-day experience that Friday had warned me about the day before. Perhaps, he was using the Scotty principle of overestimating the work time by a factor of 4. In any case, I just did some ironing and then read through several pages of "The DC Comics Encyclopedia" when at 11, Adam-12 proclaimed the work was done. When I went back into the kitchen, it looked like noone had even touched it. I asked about payment, but they said they didn't know anything about it...sounded ominous, although I've got a feeling that my real estate agency will be picking up the tab since Friday did say that it wasn't my fault. In any case, I've also got insurance so I'm still covered.

The Sunday craziness taken care of (although I'm still waiting for my neighbour to come at me with a Tomahawk), I took off for Daiei to pick up some stuff to add on the cleanup that Gannon had kindly done on the veranda yesterday. I got some electrical duct tape and an extension hose for the washing machine as Friday had advised me. Stuck the hose on and then wrapped the duct tape over the tap and tube leading to the machine.

I actually have classes today. I had The Full-Timer; told her about Sunday. She was surprised that I hadn't gotten a furious neighbour going for my blood. Apparently, her family had been the target of wrath from their downstairs neighbour when a similar thing had occurred years ago. I should be so lucky.

Now, it'll be Medicine Man in less than an hour. I've gotten some more proofreading and translation courtesy of Cozy. And I was surprised to get a lot more in my pay packet than I'd been expecting...since I was off a lot of the last month back home. Well, maybe some of that will be going for an extra futon for my downstairs neighbour if he threatens it. Still, the whole sordid tale will be one for my niece when she's old enough.