Tuesday April 7, 7:07 p.m.

Well, Suzanne certainly likes to punch above her weight...she's very unique amongst my students for that reason. Since she has been reading James Allen's "As A Man Thinketh" (translated into Japanese as "Cause and Effect"...a theme that is stated from the very first page) and I got my own original copy from Shard, we decided to tackle the first chapter. It was from easy for her with all of the dated English and concepts and by the end she was feeling distinctly exhausted. Apparently the Japanese translation doesn't have quite the religious slant that the source material has. In any case, we switched over to Margaret Atwood's "In The Secular Night"...which strangely enough seemed to be a philosophical rebuttal to Allen. This was easier but not easy. However, we did enjoy analyzing the poem. Maybe we have something there. I printed out an Allen Ginsberg piece for next week. But I'm now thinking if we could even do a song....let's say Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y."

Automan is back in town with his fiancee for the next couple of weeks. Looks like there may be something over at Shrek's on the 18th. The Bohemian sent me word about some sort of get-together with those Mixi buddies of his whom I met last month in Shinjuku. Not quite sure if I'll say yes to that one considering how obnoxious he was under the influence.

Apparently, there was someone planning President Obama's demise in Turkey. However, it was quickly defused. Not particularly alarmed...all US Presidents are targeted for assassination and sadly, Obama, has an even bigger bullseye on his back due to the fact that he is the first African-American president. But he's been getting the rock star's welcome everywhere he's gone in Europe. I could only imagine what it would be like if and when he lands in Japan.

Tuesday April 7, 4:11 p.m.

I think Spring has finally come. Last night, we all probably had the first pleasant night to walk home. No need to bundle up at all. And today has been a glorious day. Didn't bother to put on the tie. I met The Beehive at the usual place. They'd had a good time in Okinawa last week with Mrs. Perth and Mrs. Pottery who's now living there. I got the usual chinsuko cookies (crammed with pig lard) and a decorative binder as souvenirs. The session was a bit dominated by Mrs. Travel who was crowing about the fact that she and her husband had fought the morning after she got back. I'm not sure about relationships but I don't think boasting about her fighting techniques is particularly the most conducive to English conversation.

Did the usual I-Cafe gig in the afternoon. Seems like Joanna Wang, like Barack Obama, was using the Net to promote herself throughout last year. She had posted a number of her songs throughout her inaugural year on YouTube from the comfort of her room. She looks rather mature on her CD but on video, she comes across as the usual latter-day teen in her delivery. Nothing too profound in her statements...just straight intros.

Just spoke with the juku boss about that model lesson student. She never called back despite the boss' call to her about her interest in the lessons. So I'm assuming that she will be a no-go.

Monday April 6, 9:09 p.m.

Yeah, me again. Got a message from the juku boss. May or may not have a brief model lesson tomorrow with this young lady who apparently speaks in decibels according to a rather loud phone call she had sent the boss a couple of weeks ago. May be a gyaru. I cringe but then again, I'd thought as much about Seven and then Suzanne, and they both ended up to be decent ladies.

Speaking of Suzanne, she told me she's been reading the Japanese translation of "As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen, the same book that Shard had given me over Xmas. Small world. I'll be lending my version to her and maybe we can analyze that one.

Got the Beehive back tomorrow in Tsudanuma. I think most of the 90 minutes will be spent on their trip to Okinawa last week and my trip to Quintessence yesterday. I'll be bringing over the Exilim. Perhaps I'll bring some sort of article but most likely I won't be needing it in class.

I've gotta think about that big model lesson with The Sylph's friend and his wife whose house we all had visited a week ago last Saturday after O-hanami in Komazawa Park. Could be a big one but they still have to hear my price quote and they've been interviewing other teachers. I may be doing some more text purchasing on Friday.

I also gotta say that maybe I've passed the peak of my annual hay fever. I did take the meds but I've managed to survive the outside without donning a mask.

Monday April 6, 8:41 p.m.

Yes, I guess it's a pretty slow night but I should be getting ready for Medicine Man in the next 15 minutes.

Anyways, you can enjoy a little bit of Shinjuku skyscraper-dom. I took this on the main street between Nakano and Shinjuku. Actually, during my night out last night in Yoyogi, I took a few dusk pics which might look pretty good in future entries.

Well, in my free time, I got a chance to read some reviews on the restaurant I'd dined at earlier this afternoon, the Michelin 3-star Quintessence. Not surprisingly, the professional critics weren't as generous in their praise as The Class Act and I were. One wag even remarked that the ambience, service, and food were somewhat cold and robotic in tone so that he would more likely head out to a cheap ramen place instead of a 2nd trip to Quintessence. OUCH! However, the ones that I did read did agree that that goat's cheese with the macadamia nuts and olive oil was the hit dish. It was called bavarois. Finally, I can make sense of what the Japanese for years have been calling this dollop of slightly firm creaminess. All I could make out was the katakana pronounciation, babaroa. At first, I was wondering if this was something that the late Desi Arnaz would say to Lucy. Well, the linguistic mystery has been solved.

Also an update on that singer I've gotten interested in: Joanna Wang. It looks like a lot of folks in cyberspace have been calling her the Chinese-American Norah Jones and that she's more categorized as a folk singer. Well, I did see that YouTube entry by the woman herself armed with a guitar and singing "Dream A Little Dream of Me". Yep, she's good. Her album was just released earlier in Japan this year, while she had become quite the rising star in the rest of Asia the year before. Hmmmm....I wonder if she'll be discovered in the notoriously fickle world of Japanese music. She mentioned a singer by the name of Yoeko Kurahashi as one of her inspirations. In any case, I'll have to give my respects to The Admin for lending the CDs to me.

Monday April 6, 8:14 p.m.

Looks like The No-Timer has been enjoying her nearly one week of freedom. And it also looks like she'll be the next of a few students who will be flying the coop sometime later this year. She's been considering doing a tour of duty on Working Holiday in Singapore for about 6 months. But it is going to be a temporary deal compared to Miss Sedona who's hoping for a permanent stay in Canada, and perhaps even The New Yorker who should be back from her namesake city by now. I wonder how she got along in The Big Apple.

As I've said, I've got Mega Hump Days coming up on Wednesday and Thursday. So it was with some relief (knocking on wood) that Mr. Pronounciation decided to have his comeback lesson tomorrow with Speedy instead of me on Wednesday. With 6 lessons already, even if all of my students are great folks, I don't think I would've survived having 7 on my plate. I don't think Speedy looked too happy though.

Monday April 6, 4:23 p.m.

Had a terrific lunch at Quintessence. Made my way over to tony Shiroganedai via the Namboku Line. It was just a brisk 10-minute walk from the station to the restaurant itself. I knew I was in for something other than the usual "Is that for here or to go?" speech at Wendy's as soon as I entered the air lock and a young lady with a beaming smile in a smart suit greeted me. She looked faintly familiar as if she had been a model in the mags or on TV, but I had just enough class not to ask.

I waited in the front lounge for a few minutes. Another couple came on in and sat down but I didn't make any eye contact; I had the impression that such a place reeked of discretion. The Matron came in dressed in a kimono she'd designed herself. It had a sakura motif...I really gotta get her and Mrs. Tee together since she's also often decked out in traditional dress. The noon hour passed by but The Lady was yet to show up...very unusual for her. A phone call from The Matron quickly revealed that The Lady had completely forgotten the lunch and was now rushing to get over. On that note, the impeccably suited waiter showed us to our little chamber for lunch.

I'm not sure about the dinner part but the lunch menu is all up to the owner/chef...a genius who only uses the freshest local ingredients. Nothing frozen or artificially preserved. Of course there were the drinks....The Matron went for sparkling mineral water since she had driven over and I was gently persuaded to try some champagne (for which I downed two fluted glasses...a personal best). While we waited for The Lady, The Matron caught up on life over the past 6 weeks. She'd been busy with various parties including one graduation and one for her grandson.

We'd just finished the first course...an interesting digestif consisting of tomato-based soup seasoned with spices like paprika and some carbonation; tasty although I don't know if I'll ever across its like again....when The Lady rushed on in being absolutely contrite for having forgotten. Of course, we were just happy that she could make it at all.

The rest of our dejeuner de France was consisted of dishes that I'd never eaten and probably won't eat for the rest of my life...I told the ladies that I was getting goose bumps (not an overexaggeration) at the food I was trying. The second course was creamy goat's cheese topped with salted macadamias and drizzled with olive oil. Then came the main course of grilled swordfish steak and rare Iberian pork. Finally, we got two desserts...a tiny crepe that was made from the best sugar, butter and flour...the quality was so high that there was no need to add any filling. The second dessert was another interesting creation of layers of bitter chocolate mousse, crackling caramel and a foam made of espresso coffee. All throughout we were given the play-by-play by our waiter. Yep, he knew his stuff...and we had to have it explained since the dishes were so new to us. Not sure if some people would appreciate the commentary, though; I think there would be folks who would rather have their meal in peace, but then again I don't think such people would come to Quintessence in the first place.

As I'd been told before, we spent about 3 hours in the restaurant but the time just seemed to fly by because the pacing of the wait staff was so immaculate. The two glasses of champagne had me flushing into two shades of scarlet but I was able to hold onto my alcohol until the end. Of course, The Matron paid for everything although I tried to at least make the pretense of pulling out my wallet. The owner/chef and our waiter showed us out the door. Yep, he's a young dude...was surprised to see him own and operate his own 3-star restaurant. Would love to come here again for lunch but the reservation process is extremely strict. You can only reserve exactly 2 months in advance...nothing sooner, nothing later. The Matron was jokingly complaining aloud about that restriction while the wait staff smilingly bowed their apologies.

While The Lady had gone back to her car, The Matron and I walked up to hers. She confided that she'd been worried about her over the past month since the news came out about her husband's financial downturn. There had been some worry that her wonderful house and staff would have to be let go, but it looks like that hurdle has been cleared, thankfully. Not sure if there will be any Xmas party this year, though.

Still, it looks like I won't be resuming any Class Act lessons with them for another 5 weeks; they've requested me to wait until after Golden Week. I don't mind too much since I appreciate the late Monday sleep-ins.

Now that I'm back at Speedy's...it's back to normalcy. I've got The Full-Timer...or perhaps I should say No-Timer since she should have finished her time with her now-former company last week. And then I've got Medicine Man in the last slot.

Monday April 6, 9:33 a.m.

Well, I guess we're in post-launch Japan now. Yup, Kim Jong-Il launched his newest plaything over Japan yesterday at 11:30 a.m. local time. I just managed to turn on the telly just when the news flash came in...and this time, all of the stations chimed in breathlessly from the first reports of the launch to the Chief Cabinet Secretary's press conference at noon. TV Tokyo remained resolutely nonchalant about it, though. As usual, they provided alternate programming for those folks who preferred travelogues over breaking news.

The weekend was pretty quiet. TV-wise, we're in the Spring Specials week between trendy drama seasons, so being Saturday night, TBS put on its quarterly 4.5-hour All-Star Quiz and Marathon show. Hosted by longtime veteran comedian/commentator Shinsuke Shimada and former aidoru-turned-tarento Wakako Shimazaki, the show has 200 tarento and actors (the former vastly in the majority) answering various trivia questions for prizes while chosen celebs have to run a mini-marathon around TBS Studios in Akasaka. Of course, the governor of Miyazaki Prefecture, former comedian Sonomamma Higashi ran in it since he's a big marathon fan, and there was the throw-in of a veteran Olympic marathon runner; not surprisingly he passed through the tape first. The new things about this version is that now because my TV is part of the digital revolution, I could also play along with the other tarento through the interface. Alas, didn't do too well...I ended up in 151st place out of 201. The other thing is that they actually had some of the pretty female tarento getting down and dirty in some of the crazy races. For example, there was one race in which selected tarento had to get across a short track all slicked down in gooey lotion (guess we can thank the porn industry for that novelty). They actually had some of the prettier ladies have their own race; usually if women took part, they were the homely (to say the least) goofball comediennes. Well, this time, new half-American/half-Japanese SHELLEY got into the finals alongside two other men, one of the local Japanese comedians and transplanted gaijin tarento Bobby Ologun from Africa. Shimada astutely pointed out it was the first time that any of the special's races had a totally multicultural look. In any case, despite all the mess, Shelley won the championship but only after she got a bit of a spurt via Ologun "accidentally" poking her in the butt with his fingers.

On Sunday, it was a nice, quiet one but I did go out to Yoyogi to meet up with MB and The Sylph for dinner at a yakiniku restauarant called "Yakiniku no Ganko-chan". It wasn't the usual group of The Satyr, Miss Ivory and Skippy; this time, it was just one other person, a former co-worker of The Sylph's. I wasn't sure if MB was trying to set me up with her, but although she was a nice sociable type, I didn't get any particular chemistry between us. The yakiniku was good, though.

I'd been wondering about what the schedule was gonna be like today. I was supposed to meet up with The Class Act for the first time in a month but never got any calls. Fortunately, the call came in just as I was about to head on here from The Matron. Yep, I'm off to that Michelin 3-star restaurant, Quintessence, so I'm in my dress blues. I'm probably gonna to have take some money out of the account, though...lunch over there costs over 7,000 yen. No, not too bad for a 3-star but then I'm the type of guy who only gets to see stars in his menu when they denote spice level. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to take some pics of the fare.

Not quite sure what my fate with The Class Act is gonna be. The Matron told me over the phone that The Lady was doing quite well when she had spoken to her last week. However, since I haven't seen them and have gotten accustomed to having Monday mornings off now, the lunch may be my goodbye meal with them. We'll see.

As for new privates, I was not only surprised to hear from The Bass that he was OK with the lesson (considering how unimpressed I was with myself last Friday) but he had already recommended me to a young acquaintance of his. Yow! At this point, I'm wondering whether I should think about making moves to leave Speedy's. Nah...

Musically, I may have come across an epiphany in the form of a very young Chinese-American chanteuse by the name of Joanna Wang. In return for borrowing that Miki Imai CD from me last week, The Admin lent me a couple of her CDs. When I first put on the headphones last Saturday night, I had been expecting to just listen to the first track and then hit bed, but her voice just sounded so different and appealing that I ended up listening to the entire album without getting the least bit drowsy. The way the Admin described her, it sounded like Wang was one of those singers getting into the jazz vein but she does a wide range, including a nice cover of that old Paul Anka tune which had been used for all those Kodak commercials decades ago. Her voice has got a certain smokiness and lilt...a mix of Lisa Ono and Sheryl Crow, if you can imagine that fusion. Tried to look her up at HMV yesterday before I met up with MB and company...couldn't find her in the jazz section but found her in the World Music section. The album I'm borrowing is just her second release and discovered that she's perhaps all of 20 years of age! She looks and sounds quite a bit older (and that is a compliment, by the way). May be thinking of getting my own copy.

Saturday April 4, 2:30 p.m.

Finished all of the classes today. The Intellectual was once again dripping sweat all over the place; he seems to be one of those fellows who doesn't take to heat very well. I wonder how he survives the summers here. As for The Bostonian, she told me about what had happened at the big presentation; yep, there were the technical glitches but she said that because she'd gone over the words several times, she could get through that hurdle smoothly. The one surprise was that on her way here, she came across a former First Couple of Japan in Yoyogi Park this morning. Shinzo and Akie Abe were just walking their dog sans bodyguards of any sort; I know that Tokyo is still a safe city but for a former PM to be doing something like that would evoke a lot of envy from ex-Presidents Carter, Clinton and the two generations of Bush. But it could also be that Shinzo Abe was pretty rightwing to begin with so there wouldn't be any danger of attacks from the lunatic far right. Some high schoolers even nonchalantly asked them for a picture which they very happily granted.

The Publicity Assistant did fine on her test. The movie she's promoting, "Frost Vs. Nixon" happens to be a big hit here....strange for a movie whose topic matter wouldn't really attract much attention unless there were a lot of Japanese Watergate fetishists.

It's looking pretty gorgeous out there...for now. I'll probably be taking off in about another 15 minutes or so.

Saturday April 4, 10:25 a.m.

Yep, that is indeed a very tasty Bacon Cheeseburger in one of our great Tokyo burger joints, Brozers, in Ningyocho. I usually get a few surprised exclamations at the location since Ningyocho is one of the more traditional corners of this metropolis.

Speaking of which, the latest METROPOLIS has its annual Burger Pullout Guide Menu; there are the usual entries like ROTI and Homework's, but I also did see some new stores. Looks like MB, Skippy and I will be pulling out some more Burger Tours in the not-so-distant future.

Burgers have become the "in" food for the past few years now since the Japanese diet has become rather dependent on Western fast food. Ironically, McDonalds, arguably the first fast food place to introduce hamburgers to Japan, had to join the hamburger bandwagon last year and by so doing, finally brought over the Quarter-Pounder which is doing pretty good business out there. The American ex-pat no longer needs to head back home or go inside a US military base to get a real burger.

In that same issue of METROPOLIS, there was the cover story of Japanese Rock Girls...the J-version of Joan Jett and Chrissie Hynde. I think for all of those J-Pop fans, this issue should be a must-collect. It lists about 20 bands and chanteuses such as Aiha Higurashi, Afrirampo and Ringo Shiina.

Saturday April 4, 10:07 a.m.

Got some sleep last night but still feel tired. Going up to 18 C today with a chance of rain later tonight...maybe even a Taepaedong.

Last night, I was talking about that old lady in Shinjuku who had collapsed in front of The Bow and me. Well, The Restauranteur had her own little spill; the left side of her face was slightly bruised in places after she had slipped and fell in her eatery a few days ago. Not to say that she was anywhere near Two-Face but it was noticeable. She also tapped her head on the floor which rang alarm bells in me and the juku boss. For me, like that Shinjuku lady, I got reminded of Natasha Richardson and the two of us plus The Ace recommended that she go to the hospital. But The Restauranteur breezily but firmly said that she wouldn't go to any hospital since she hated them. I didn't press the issue since I'm also no lover of medical institutions.

Only have three today: The Intellectual, The Bostonian and The Publicity Assistant. I'll be seeing The Bostonian for the first time since she had that big presentation a couple of weeks ago. True to her luck (and mine), we did all those lessons on presentation only to find out that her computer and Microsoft Powerpoint went on the fritz at showtime thus rendering our carefully laid plans to ashes.

Since I have all three closely bunched together, I'll be able to get home pretty early. So far, I haven't heard anything from The Corner about those translations and since I won't be looking at my Hotmail, I will go home free. However, I'm gonna have two real Hump Days next week with Wednesday and Thursday containing 6 lessons each.

Friday April 3, 7:18 p.m.

It was a tale of two students today. I had The Bass this morning in Funabashi. We just went to the Doutors across the street from the station. He said that it was usually not that busy in the morning but I guess Fridays were an exception, but we were able to find a table. Hmmm...The Bass is a good guy but I also got the vibe that he wouldn't hesitate to dress me down if I got a bit lackadaiscal in the execution, not that I usually do and not that he shouldn't chew me out if I screw up majorly, but I wasn't sure if he were all that comfortable with the lesson today. He's probably one of my highest private students from the get-go, so it may be a case that I have to spin up my game. I certainly revved up my aftercare. He had asked me for a receipt, an audioscript and the next chapter....none of which I had on me (the first two I'd never been asked for before, and the third was a blunder on my part). So, even though we left on good terms, I felt like I was walking home after having been sent to the principal's office.

Got back to my neighbourhood and after I had my lunch at the tonkatsu place, I went over to the 100-Yen Shop and got a receipt book plus an envelope and then I headed straight on out to Maruzen. The Bass was only using a photocopy of the first chapter so part of my aftercare was to get him his own textbook and the audioscript. The text was no problem but I had to order the script which I'll have to pick up next Friday. I mailed the book and the receipt for today's class a few hours later.

The second student was The Bow who had to be subjected to semi-arctic temperatures from sitting outside at another filled-to-the-gills Starbucks last week since I couldn't get a table at the Maynds Tower Starbucks last week. I made sure that wouldn't happen today by getting there about a half-hour early. She showed up at 3 and we had a pretty good inaugural official class. Yup, she's low-intermediate which is more along who I usually teach so it was more comfortable from the get-go. I think she's gonna follow the pattern of The Sisters of State and go for biweekly sessions.

The Bow and I walked outside of The Maynds Tower...she was heading over to Takashimaya Times Square and I was heading over to the post office to mail The Bass' package when an old lady next to us suddenly collapsed and banged her head on the pavement. The two of us plus two other Good Samaritans helped her back up but she was feeling pretty woozy....and in fact, she was heading back to her room at a nearby hospital from doing a bit of shopping. I'm not sure if she had been allowed out since she was just wearing her hospital gown under a light jacket. We stayed with her for a few minutes as she just sat down on the steps in front of Maynds and insisted that we could go. We reluctantly left after lingering for another several seconds and then I told The Bow that I would check on her after I got out of the post office. Once I mailed the package off, I saw from across the street that another quartet of folks surrounded her, and one of them with a strong back decided to piggyback her to her hospital. Hopefully, she's OK now, but considering the Natasha Richardson tragedy, I hope she'll get her head examined.

I got over to Urayasu by around 6:30. I'd been thinking about having dinner at The Restauranteur's place tonight but I didn't want the juku boss to start panicking if I didn't show up at 7 so I just did KFC instead. When I got to the place, the boss told me about The Traveler's absence throughout April due to work. Still, she was in good spirits; she even gave me a mocha eclair for dessert...never could resist one of those. I have The Ace and The Restauranteur for their regular lengths of time....a half-hour each.

I've been reading my latest acquisition from Kinokuniya: Professor Michio Kaku's "Physics of the Impossible". It has been a good read, and the prof does explain things in a very layman style. But even on the subway home the last couple of nights, even his book couldn't stop me from nodding off. I was grateful for a bit more sleep today, and it'll be somewhat normal as well for the next day. I've just got The Intellectual, The Bostonian and The Publicity Assistant for Saturday.

Thursday April 2, 8:41 p.m.

Yup, I'm done for tonight...that model lesson zapped me. Not that it was bad or that the student was a problem. However, model lessons always take a lot out of student and teacher. But I still have Music Man...the last model lesson student; luckily, I got a conversion out of him. Not sure about this lady, though. Maybe, maybe not. However, I know that I gave it my best.

Now, I gotta get ready for my two new students tomorrow: The Bass and The Bow...both of them musicians in completely different genres.

Thursday April 2, 5:21 p.m.

It's been a lazy afternoon although I've got that model lesson in a little over an hour from now. Just had a late lunch or an early supper. La Fille, the new kid on the block, seems to be settling into her position. Ray and Day have been showing her the ropes over the past few days.

Ahhh...as for the scene on the left, that was one of my pics as I walked through Ginza. There was a bit of an Akiba performance art piece between two lacy-dressed women on Chuo Dori during the regular Sunday afternoon hokoten. A rather eager photographer was taking snaps of them while male pedestrians were shooting them with their cellphone cameras. Still not sure whether the Akiba hokoten has come back.

Got invitations from both MB and The Party Animal, an old university buddy from a couple of decades back. MB invited me to a yakiniku outing at a place near Yoyogi Station. I would've been quite content to spend my Sunday at home all day but the smell of searing beef got me reaching for the send button to MB in the positive. As for The Party Animal, she's invited me to her place for a BBQ out in her neck of the woods...presumably out in the west end of town on the 25th. Seeing that I have a day off on that day, I said that I would come on out. I have a feeling that it'll be an old U of T Alumni Night, although on a much more intimate scale which I prefer. I tend to avoid reunions like the plague.

Since Kim Jong Il announced that he was going to have a bit of fun with one of his more ballistic toys recently, the Japanese have been holding emergency drills just in case the big day happens during the weekend. So, NHK has been dutifully showing the men in their coveralls behind old machinery doing countdowns and sending out announcements. I'm not sure what more they can do. Trying to imagine an air raid warning in Tokyo on Saturday...don't think one of those has been sounded in over 60 years. I can't even imagine seeing a whole bunch of agejo trying to hit the dirt in those day-glo heels of theirs.

Thursday April 2, 12:56 p.m.

One of those nights where I had to dress up in my work clothes for today and sit-sleep on the sofa, lest I don't wake up in time to head back to work. Not my favourite environment since I usually end up quite tired. And I had the two Grandmas: Dynamite and FON. They sandwiched Miss Sedona. Since all three ladies were back-to-back-to-back, I now have several hours of downtime before I have that low model student and then the Music Man to finish up.

Grandma FON had just come back from a weeklong tour of places like Yakushima, a World Heritage Site and perhaps the inspiration for "Princess Mononoke". It's amazing how much energy she has, considering she's on a cane...perhaps I should've codenamed her Yoda instead; however, her syntax is better than the Jedi Master's.

I was able to get the remaining translations done and sent by Grandma Dynamite's arrival. Now I can just prep for the remaining two lessons and think about what I'll need to do for my two newest private students, The Bass and The Bow, whose first lessons are tomorrow.

Wednesday April 1, 5:21 p.m.

It might be April Fool's Day, but it's also the beginning of the new fiscal year here in Japan, a date of some import. So, it's rather appropriate that it's also my first day of real work this week after a couple of very sparse days. I had The Admin earlier this morning at the usual place; once again, she didn't really touch the text but she seems to be happy just recording every new vocab that pops up.

Again, I had another big donut of time so I just went over to that Chinese eatery in the Maynds Tower for lunch. Yep, crowded and this time there was also a sizable lineup in front. I had the chuukadon...basically chow mein but all of the toppings are on rice instead of noodles. There was also the usual miscue in orders although I got my dish OK.

Krispy Kreme #1 only had a 5-minute wait time during the rain but by the time I got out of Times Square, that wait increased to 15 minutes once the sun started coming out. Just did the usual tour of Kinokuniya and HMV. I actually got Michio Kaku's book, "Physics of the Impossible" since I was interested in what was the real deal on warp drive and teleportation. A bit heavy for subway commuting reading, especially round midnight but I trust Kaku to keep me entertained and informed.

I also decided to get the PASMO Commuter Pass to join that PASMO card that I'd gotten from MB for my birthday. I discovered that I was spending way too much money through the PASMO (over 20,000 yen) when I could just spend several thousand less through the commuter pass.

I enjoyed watching "Ironman" once again on DVD. Robert Downey Jr. certainly makes the part his own. There must be something about Oscar-winning stars who just want to slum through a superhero movie.

Going slowly through the latest Peanuts tome. This is the 1971-1972 book: Woodstock is now fully part of the family and Marcie has been introduced along with Joe Cool. Even back then, the strip has come a long way since its inception 20 years back.

Tuesday March 31, 7:05 p.m.



My second "weekend" day went off without any financial gouging thankfully. As I said I would, I went down to Ikspiari (yep, that's the real spelling of the shopping and dining complex at Maihama Station....I think someone just threw some Scrabble tiles on the floor to get the name; incredible that no "E"s ended up there). Actually, the bus ride down from Urayasu Station was pretty easy. It only took 15 minutes to reach Tokyo Disneyland...I think the Milds would only need a 20-minute walk from their house to get to The House of Mickey. The weather was still cool but at least there was a bit of sun poking through the clouds.



Ikspiari (it's like a mini-test for typing accuracy) fit in with the day-glo happy-happy-joy-joy architecture of Disneyland; all ice cream-coloured domes and walls. I'd thought for some reason that the complex was open since TDL was the same way, but it was actually enclosed like any other shopping mall. Ended up having lunch at Planet Hollywood, the first time I've ever been to the franchise that Bruce, Sylvester and Arnold built. Well, at about 11:30, it was pretty barren inside the huge circular restaurant. There were some displays of costumes that stars had worn; I was seated across from Jean-Claude Van Damme's outfit from "Street Fighter"...not that this is a recommendation to see the movie, mind you. I had one of the lunch specials: a pretty thick and hearty turkey sandwich with pieces of orange (!) squished inside, and a side order of mashed potatoes with bits of bacon and a huge melting glob of butter in the middle. Dessert was a very small pot of matcha pudding.Not too bad, I suppose.



I further explored Ikspiari which included the movie theatre, an avenue which looked like the bright lights of Broadway inside. It was pretty much what I'd expected...a shopping mall for the tourists: lots of restaurants, a few brand-name stores and other unknown ones. I walked outside along with the palm-lined avenue past the Disney Ambassador Hotel (looked like a giant blue-and-white supermarket birthday cake) and then I saw the huge white theatre that was the Japanese home of Cirque Du Soleil before I backtracked my way back to the other end of the mall. I went on ahead to where the main gates of TDL were and took some closer pictures of the humongous Tokyo Disneyland Hotel where Mild Jr. works. I wondered about taking a look inside but feeling like an interloper, I decided to head on back to the bus stop. There were announcements in English and Japanese stating TDL had to stop selling tickets since the place was at full capacity (kids are still on holiday...perhaps til tomorrow) and that maybe, just maybe, there may be tickets available from 4 p.m.



Headed on back to Urayasu by the same bus. Hmmm....I don't think I'll head back to Ikspiari anytime soon unless I got specific requests from either MB or Skippy. Still I'm glad that at least I could make the trip there. Since I had quite a bit of time before Suzanne, I hit the Starbucks for an hour. Still, I managed to surprise the juku boss when I came in at 3:30. Once again, she had forgotten that Suzanne was due to come in for a 2-hour session from 5. I was also told that The Traveler was supposed to come in for her half-hour. But it's now 7:25 and no sign of the lass so that's pretty much out the window. So I'm finished for theday.



The double-class with Suzanne was another one in which I felt like bringing out the psychiatrist's chaise lounge. We'd gone through the final part of "Desiderata" and then we spoke on her future, which included her fate with her current boyfriend. Yup, pretty deep. The lass is a good conversationalist, I gotta hand her that. We also covered Starbucks, US Presidential visits and the North Korean situation. Gotta try and hold onto this one as long as possible.



Speaking of The Hermit Kingdom, the rocket's on the launch pad, and the ships are in the waters. Ought to be an interesting piece of brinkmanship in a few days. Well, unfortunately, I'm due to be at Speedy's on the 4th...I can only hope that the missile decides to hit Odaiba instead...just joking.



I've gotten the first couple of pages of the latest Corner translations into Word but it's not quite ready for shipping over to my client just yet. Still, it'll help me come tomorrow...I've gotta get everything over to him before my Wednesday night gang starts up.



The Bass contacted me and it was lucky he did too since he'd mistakenly assumed that we were to meet next Tuesday. I corrected him on the right day. I'm wondering about bringing over the Discman and some clean headphones.



Well, I'm amazingly finished for the day, so I'll head on home and hopefully, I may even watch

Monday March 30, 7:51 p.m.

Well, there you see it. For some reason, my neighbourhood happens to have the only vending machines...perhaps in the entire Kanto...to sell Virgin Cola. Maybe Sir Richard Branson has some sort of kickback with the Ichikawa City government. Not sure, but MB was definitely surprised by this little piece of trivia. As it is, the cola doesn't taste quite as good as Coke or Dr. Pepper. However, as a collector's item, I'm keeping this can on top of some of the CD shelves. MB was also surprised to find out that Virgin Records had been kaput for some years. I rather enjoyed their huge store in Shinjuku back in my early years here. It was where that Marui Department Store extension is now. It occupied the entire basement floor beneath Marui...maybe the equivalent floor space of three of the Tower Records floors in Shibuya, arguably the biggest CD store on the planet in terms of area and sales. It was also where my interest in jazz started in earnest when I bought my first Bill Evans disc there. Some years later, the store moved down the street toward Takashimaya Times Square on the 1st and 2nd floors of another building, but it only lasted a couple of more years there before it disappeared for good.

Speaking about disappearing movies, "Watchmen" is probably gonna be headed for a quick box-office demise....ironic for a movie that was adapted from what has been called the "Citizen Kane" of comic books. But then again, "Citizen Kane" was far from being anointed a classic when it had been first released in 1941.

Yep, MB and I caught it at Roppongi Hills last night (with a prior mini-Burger Tour stop at Baker Bounce in Tokyo Midtown). The reviews haven't been too kind to it...I just saw the METROPOLIS review of it, and the oft-cantankerous critic slagged it off as being incoherent. Well, for folks who had never read the graphic novel, perhaps, but MB and I had read it over the years so we knew what was up; we just wanted to know how well the unfilmable could be filmed. And I think Zack Snyder did as good a job as could be hoped for. Nope, the acting wasn't the greatest so we won't be seeing any Heath Ledger moments in this one. But the film had some style throughout and even during the opening credits. And the characters...most of them...were likeable. Liked Rorschach and Nite Owl the best.

I think it was kismet that MB and I had caught "Rambo" and "Knocked Up" before catching "Watchmen". The two movies had been good preparation for what we saw in this movie, strangely enough. It contained plenty of gruesome violence (kids under 7 definitely shouldn't be catching this one...not that they would be able to understand it anyways) and the profanity, sex and relationship angst were in full bloom here. Certainly, this graphic novel became quite a graphic movie. Plus, the addition of music from the 60s, 70s and 80s was also a nice plus; it was certainly a surprise to hear "99 Luftballons" alongside Leonard Cohen. But all that aside, both MB and I had a good time with it. I don't think I'll catch it again at the theatre, but I would certainly put down the yen for the DVD. I found the "Watchmen" CD with those songs but it doesn't contain Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan" which I was disappointed about.

Today, I found myself feeling somewhat as foolish and as helpless as the remaining Watchmen after getting defeated by Ozymandias at the end of the movie. Seeing that I only had two lessons in two days, I had decided that I would visit the Lilac Forest in Sunshine City. Yes, you must be thinking that I must be off on some sort of drug-induced trip mentioning such names. Well, the two places actually do exist on this plane...Sunshine City is the large shopping complex in Ikebukuro and Lilac Forest is part of the Namjatown complex specializing in massage clinics. I hadn't had a massage in a couple of years...I think the last one was when I went over to Creambath Ebisu. I took a look at Dhora Villas, the clinic that specialized in Indian massage and decided to go for the 30-minute head session. It would only cost me 3,000 yen. However, I let the smooth-talking masseuse there talk me into getting what would be the reflexology treatment along with the head treatment and ended up paying 7,500 yen in total! I just barely avoided embarrassment in that I was able to pay for everything from the remaining 7 bills and one large coin in my wallet. I'm not sure if the lady there was trying to shake me down intentionally (can't see that happening in a place like that...that would be more the type of stuff that happens in Kabukicho) but I still felt somewhat fleeced, although she did a good job and that one hour just whipped by. I did ask for a quotation from her but she said something or other I couldn't quite catch, and unfortunately my mild-mannered self didn't push the subject. Still, a lesson was learned....I won't be going inside the Lilac Forest ever again. Didn't even have enough cash to enter The Gyoza Museum for a bit of lunch. It was just as well...the kids and their mothers were flooding the place and the upstairs Ice Cream City.

After that little financial lightening, I replenished my wallet at a nearby convenience store and headed down to Shinjuku. I figure that I could use a bit of cheering up and decided to treat myself to that buffet that Skippy had introduced me to a couple of weeks ago....The Platinum Buffet in Mylord. It was pretty much the same deal as the Sunday night dinner, except that there was no roast chicken so the cost was about 500 yen cheaper. A lot of young ladies, a number of them with their beaus. I think I was the only single guy in the place....fingers were probably pointed in my direction. And then an army of high school girls in full uniform entered looking properly mesmerized by the culinary possibilities...especially the chocolate fountain. Well, got my fill and left within 45 minutes.

As I said, I only have Medicine Man tonight and tomorrow, it's just Suzanne for 2 hours at the juku. Basically, it's a full weekend except for that couple of classes. Once I get some morning stuff done, I'll be taking a look at Expery, that shopping complex across from Tokyo Disneyland that has popped up in the juku students' conversations every now and then. I'm hoping that I won't be gouged there.

Our staff got increased by one starting from today. She will be La Fille...she spent a year in a small town in France. Ray introduced us and pointed out her Gallic connections. So there was a minute or so of La Fille and me spouting some limited Francais to each other. Basically, Ray and our just-returned staffer were showing her the ropes.

Earlier, I saw the DVD of "Get Smart". Yep, I did buy it. I caught a few of the extras, including a very unfunny short of Steve Carell espousing the benefits of the movie in mock languages; just glad that Japanese wasn't part of it. Still, it was nice watching the film again for the nostalgia value, and Terence Stamp had the best lines.

Sunday March 29, 3:30 p.m.

We've been lazing around the apartment for most of the day here at MB's apartment. Had a nice Sunday breakfast with sausages, bacon and toast with a couple of coffees.

Compared to the orgy of violence we got from "Rambo" last night, MB, The Sylph and myself watched the 2nd half of the double feature in the form of "Knocked Up", the Judd Apatow flick with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. This was an interesting one perhaps more for the reaction it got than for the actual movie itself. A lot of the critics put it up as one of the best comedies of 2007 but it cleaved opinion amongst the public; the naysayers called it stupid, condescending and sexist. For me, I found it funny and realistic in terms of what I thought a typical relationship between two essentially decent but flawed (i.e. human) people. The whole story is sparked by a condom misunderstanding but it's really just the usual culture shock that occurs in a long-term romance. It has the shy, giggling first approaches at romance tempered with the inevitable nagging and knockdown dragouts before a certain balance results. Some of those naysayers said that with the exception of a rotund Harold Ramis, everyone else in the movie was unlikeable. Well, yep, Ben and Allison had their jerk-off moments but I've yet to see anyone on this planet who hasn't acted like an ass anytime in their lives. I think the only truly unlikeable character was Allison's sister, Debbie, and even she showed a bit of niceness toward her sister. Nope, it wasn't always the most comfortable movie to watch but I'm starting to get the message that it is those movies which really get me to think. And at this point, I'd say that it just emphasized that marriage is definitely not my path.

In any case, we'll be heading out soon to catch another way-different movie..."Watchmen". However, it does share one thing in common with "Knocked Up" in that opinions for this flick have also been rather divided. If we're lucky, we may be able to grab a bite at Baker Bounce in Tokyo Midtown.

Sunday March 29, 2:25 a.m.

Yes, you saw correctly. That is an "a.m." for the time entry....which means I'm spending another night at MB's for DVD night. Actually, it's a somewhat shorter version since we only saw one movie tonight..."Rambo", the 4th in Sly Stallone's series about a misunderstood Green Beret. If this flick were food, it would be a very rare steak indeed. There was more blood in this one than in the first three combined plus an addition of "Friday the 13th". I mean, this would be an excellent primer for a medical student in Anatomy class. MB and I were just marveling at the lengths that John Rambo and his strike team went to prove that the enemy did indeed have such things as brains and viscera. Just one of those great Saturday night movies with the guys. We also got "Knocked Up"...no snickering, please; it's late....but that will be best viewed later this morning.

Earlier yesterday morning, I saw The Coffeemaker for the first time in 2 months. Tully didn't show up on account of some stuff he had to do concerning his move into his first company dormitory. According to The Coffeemaker, Tully never made it to Europe for some reason. I could only assume that there was a family emergency which is too bad. Now that he will become part of the regular workforce in a few days, it could be quite a few years before he can do anything approaching a continent-wide tour.

Afterward, I went out to Komazawa Park, one of the big areas of green in Tokyo...home of several Olympic facilities from the 1964 Games. MB and The Sylph were part of an O-Hanami party there. Once again, I felt a bit insecure about just bringing a bottle of tea and two canisters of Pringles considering that there was quite a spread of homemade food. However, I did remember that I'd brought The Ace's omiyage from his trip up to Kusatsu Hot Springs...a box of manju. The party consisted of The Sylph's former work compadres who've gone on to bigger and better things. The weather was pretty fair but the cold was still refusing to take its leave a week after Spring officially began. So, there were a few of us who were shivering on the blue tarp. All of us eventually ended up in the host's apartment for an hour or so while we played with the frenetic house dog.

MB nodded off several times since he had quite a lot of picnic food inside of him and a lot of the women were engaged in Japanese gossip. However, I may have gained another couple of private students in the form of the host and his wife. The only thing is that I would have to come out to Komazawa Park on alternating Sundays....ay ya. Well, I gave the host my e-mail address and asked to give me a contact sometime if he and his wife were really interested.

MB and I left the party at around 5, leaving The Sylph to do some further gossiping with her girlfriends. We caught the bus back to Jiyugaoka....not very far away...and crashed over at the apartment for a couple of hours while playing that hit game, "Little Big Planet". Man, I was already exhausted just going through the three training levels . However with MB's tutelage, I was able to not embarrass myself with Sackman. We later met up with MB's wife at the nearest video shop to get the two discs and then we had dinner at a new Italian restaurant that MB had discovered. It's called "Imola" and has some really good pizza and pasta. The crust on those pies were very tasteworthy and the smoked salmon cream pasta was so rich that we probably didn't need the cream for our after-dinner coffee.

MB has been able to secure the tickets for "Watchmen" later this afternoon at Roppongi Hills. Even here, the reaction seems to be mixed. Giovanni Fazio, the reviewer for "The Japan Times" wasn't too kind to the movie but he acknowledged Alan Moore's laudable deconstruction on comic superheroes. However, we've learned not to let the critics get us down. We'll take our own look-see.

Starting to feel the wooziness of sleep trying to break down my walls. Best think about retiring.

Friday March 27, 7:19 p.m.

Well, things kinda kicked into high gear after I met The Bow. We unfortunately had to spend the first 10 minutes of our time together searching for another venue to talk since the Maynds Building Starbucks was packed...coffee-swilling bastards. So we ended up at the other Starbucks closest to Krispy Kreme...outside. Nope, not the ideal location considering the weather. Felt badly for her since near the end she was shivering a bit and my legs felt creakier than an old door. I ended up paying for both our teas as an apology. As for The Bow, she's an intermediate lady...not quite as smooth as her old co-worker, The Carolinan, but has good potential. She's quite the musician...not only does she play the Chinese niko, but she also has experience on the flute, accordion and one other similar instrument which apparently can cost upwards to $7,000. Now, that's dedication. Well, despite the shivery first meet-&-greet, she's still willing to give me a shot so we're gonna try for Maynds Starbucks again, but this time, I'm getting there nice and early and grab a table and plant roots.

I must've burned quite a lot of calories keeping warm outside since I nearly conked out several times on the way back home. I had to pick up my scheduler since I had left it back in the apartment, and I'm pretty much blind without it. There was a message on the machine from the juku boss who threw in a sudden trial lesson; at first, I tried to think of ways of trying to duck it since I was pretty tired and had less than an hour to eat dinner before heading out to the juku. But I said what the heck since it would only be a half-hour thing anyways before The Ace comes in. Apparently, the lass works at Tokyo Disneyland and she needs the English to take care of the foreign customers. So my brain came up with approaches but when I arrived here, the boss dolefully told me that she cannot get a hold of her now to say everything was hunky dory. I figure that with my luck today, she'll probably pop up at the front door so I'm still ready to go.

With dinner and a Snickers in me now, I'm pretty juiced up although with the chocolate bar, I may end up crashing halfway into The Ace's one-hour lesson.

Just wondering how Tully & The Coffeemaker will be tomorrow morning. I haven't seen them in almost 2 months since Tully went on that European excursion.

Friday March 27, 8:15 a.m.

Kim Jong-Il (to Japan): Would you like a Sword of Damocles with your WBC win, sir?"

Yup, the Master of the Hermit Kingdom is once again gonna throw over one of his Taepodong missiles, under the guise of launching a satellite with an even longer, more unpronounceable name. Well, the US has stationed a couple of its cruisers off these shores just in case he decides to flip us. More to come, I'm sure.

Another early one...decided to go for the more expensive but probably healthier breakfast from La Vie De France. I've got a bit more lead time before the first student, Prissy, gets in. Still gotta hit those translations from The Corner, plus see if I can quickly concoct a handout for Prissy. Then, a few hours later, it'll be The Bow's first meeting with me, followed by the usual Friday night juku tandem.

Had just a bit of time before bed to read the forward for the latest "The Complete Peanuts" I got yesterday. It was by actress/singer/bon vivant Kristin Chenoweth who won over even the most antisocial critics with her performance as Sally Brown in the stage version of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown". The forward was in the form of an interview instead of the usual monologue by past celeb fans such as Diana Krall. Just to show that the publishers were updated on the current pop cultural calendar, they mention that her tour de force tune as Sally, "My New Philosophy" was on YouTube. So I just looked at it...pretty hummable and she does seem like she's got the patent on the character. She's slightly less than 150 cm tall, so I guess the best intro for her would be "Give a big hand to the little lady".

Thursday March 26, 10:33 p.m.

Our Music Man has been rather coy about his field of business, but I'm getting hints that this guy is in truly in the music industry...perhaps he may be a concert pianist. Not quite sure. However, he's said that he would be renewing for more, which is good news. Also, it looks like 001, my very first student here at Speedy's, is gonna put herself up for continued torture and renew for more lessons for me, although I'm not sure if she's gonna sign up for another huge package. I was rather surprised since she's been with us since the very beginning and one would think that she would've gotten pretty tired of us by now. There may be hope that The Fashion Designer and The Businesswoman may also re-sign instead of resign.

As for that big package on the right, that's the jaga buta from Hokkaido I was telling you about and the stuff that The Restauranteur was raving about. It's potato dumplings with a ground pork centre, kinda like Chinese soup dumplings or sho ron po. Yup, pretty tasty stuff as I remember it.

Anyways, gotta head on home to come back here.

Thursday March 26, 8:51 p.m.

Well, you heard about the Octomom. I'm the Octoteacher today. I had my fingers in quite a few pies over the past several hours which included a back-to-back-to-back with Miss Sedona, The Big Lug and The Carolinan. Then there was the new batch of translations from The Corner, making up some sheets for tomorrow's lesson with The Restauranteur, sending a confirmation e-mail to the Carolinan's friend, The Bow, and then uploading my pics into Facebook. And I find out that I've got a model lesson next Thursday.

Pretty tired but I still got The Music Man in about 30 minutes and I've gotta repeat the process again tomorrow since I've got Prissy first thing in the morning. At least, I've earned my money today.

The Carolinan was in better spirits today. We talked a bit about her sister, The New Yorker, who has just left for The Big Apple for a brief solo trip. I think we're both a little worried about the lass.

Thursday March 26, 2:10 p.m.

Pretty glorious day out there but still a lot colder than it usually would be. I think we could give Toronto a run for its money for coldest metropolis right now.

Up above is where I was last Friday...the 7th (I believe) Annual Tokyo International Anime Fair at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Again, pretty nice to have seen some of the old stuff like Macross and Yamato, but I wasn't really into the new stuff. Still, tried to get some photos of the affair. Would be interesting some of the more grittier stuff later in the year; I believe the manga fair should also be happening at the same place sometime in late Summer or early Fall. Most likely, the families would probably eschew that one.

Last night ended up pretty well. Usually The Fashion Designer and I would try to slog ourselves amiably through the lesson as we battled hay fever and fatigue. However, I amped up the humour level so we were able to cruise through things a bit more smoothly. However, it was one of those early wake-up calls for Grandma Dynamite and it was a double so it took some major muscular control to hold the yawning. However, I did get some nice homemade preserves from her.

Went out for a few hours since Miss Sedona decided to take a rare late afternoon class. Used that 10,000 yen to purchase some DVDs, a CD and the latest of "The Complete Peanuts" which just came into Kinokuniya. Then it was lunch at Foo Foo. I think I'll be all set until after the triumvirate of Miss Sedona, The Big Lug and The Carolinan; I've got a few hours between them and Music Man for a small dinner.

Team Samurai Japan came home to a heroes' welcome of 1,200 ravenous baseball fans last night. Strangely enough, formerly married Norika Fujiwara also came back to a gauntlet of reporters. Despite the barrage of questions, she looked quite happy, but then again, she would be after dumping the creep.

Wednesday March 25, 5:40 p.m.

One of our own has returned to the roost. After several months away in Romania, Kay came back and has started regaling Speedy and Ray about her adventures in Europe. I've just downed a carb-heavy dinner of a cheese dog, sesame chicken salad and iced marble bread. That should just about soak up any gastric juices.

The picture on the left is my completed recreation of a classic game between two I-Go masters. Still really can't play the game without consulting books.

More new apartments are popping up in my neighbourhood. The latest one has been set up beside a newspaper distribution facility. A decade ago, it used to be the only 7-11 in my area, but it has since moved to north of the station. Anyways, this new 3-story apartment building has taken on a Roman Column type of look. One wonders if the architect had been inspired by Barack Obama's backdrop when he accepted the nomination for President back last year.

Wednesday March 25, 3:58 p.m.

It's been a cold wet day. Still the news about Japan's win over the Koreans in yesterday's WBC Final has been keeping everyone warm. I have to admit that despite my snarky comment yesterday on the game, I did catch the rerun of the last few innings and found them pretty nailbiting. It actually was somewhat of a classic game. My only worry is that Kim Jong Il may use that as provocation enough to aim one of his Taepodong missiles at Tokyo.

The former Mr. Norika Fujiwara timed his mea culpa press conference perfectly so that it took place while the WBC buzz was going around. Still, he had some mighty crow to swallow from the press as he apologized for causing the divorce. If there is anything good to say about him is that at least he took sole responsibility for screwing up his short marriage. But he'll probably go back to the same things that were responsible for putting his union on the rocks since he's back to singledom.

Had The Admin this morning. I lent her the Miki Imai "Fiesta" CD since it contained two covers of Carpenters songs. It was another gab fest for the most part which is starting to make me wonder if she's already gotten tired of the text. I'm just wondering if she's already gotten tired of me. Just gabbing is a easy way to get money but it's also the short path to losing a student. She did tell me about the ski resort that she and her family had gone to the past weekend. They went to the New Otani NASPA hotel near Echigo-Yuzawa Station on the JR Joetsu Shikansen Line....just one station north of my old station in Gunma. I'm not a skier by any means and will not be hitting the boards anytime in the near or far future but I was thinking of taking some R&R after Golden Week, perhaps using all of that handout money. Just would like to hang out in some classy suite while reading and then take advantage of all that fine dining and massage.

It would seem that my Wednesday seems to have fallen into a new routine. Usually after The Admin, I head on out to that Chinese eatery in the Maynds Building for the 950 yen lunch before walking over to Kinokuniya. I was stunned to see that the Krispy Kreme lineup had gone down to just a few short metres outside the door. I realize that it was raining but even during the worst of weather, the KK lineups were always at least 30 minutes long. This lineup looked like it could get swallowed by the store in a few minutes. I guess the honeymoon may finally be over. After Kinokuniya, I went all the way up to HMV next door before making the 5-minute walk to Tower Records and then I head on back to Speedy's.

The next edition of the "Peanuts" tomes has come out. I'll see how my pay looks like before I make any decisions.

President Obama made yet another big appearance via press conference this morning. He gave CNN's Ed Henry some late frost for doing his job, which was to ask why it had taken Barack and his bumbling Treasury Secretary so long to react to the AIG Outrage. Well, I say good for Ed. No easy passes for Barack. Not that I have soured on the President but I think the love affair between him and America should cool down a bit. I'm frankly not sure about him being the Everywhere, Everytime chief of the US....especially if he's gonna put his sizable foot into his mouth each time as he did on Leno.

Anyways, I got the usual Hump Night lineup of 001, The Diver and The Fashion Designer.

Tuesday March 24, 7:02 p.m.

Well, pulled out either my Counselor's hat or my bartender's cloth out for Suzanne tonight. Just glossed over that part of "Desiderata" that we'd already done last week before we got into this deep discussion about her and her boyfriend, and the meaning of marriage. I started polishing the table top with my tissue....all this over the Meiji chocolates that I'd brought and the cake donuts she'd brought. To be honest, though, I've always found these psych one-on-one sessions one of the perqs of my strange little career. To be able to talk with various folks from various backgrounds on matters of life and death as they mean to them is definitely a bonus for me. Can hardly wait then for next week since she'll be the only show in town at the juku and it'll be a 2-hour session. Of course, I can only charge English teacher rates. I would love to have her talk with The Milds since they are a couple who are totally comfortable with each other and have been so for decades.

Now that The Traveler isnot coming, I can perhaps enjoy a bit of Net surfing and crossword solving before The Milds do show up. No chance of deep philosophy with them but they're still good folks to talk with.

Tuesday March 24, 4:31 p.m.

The juku boss got a new computer screen to replace the old one that had been damaged by leaking plasma. It had been like looking through a storm-drenched windshield all these months. Still, the computer needs an overhaul since I can't get into Hotmail or Facebook. Well, every little bit helps.

Had my last Beehive session for the month. Mrs. Travel got herself some funky new glasses, courtesy of a Ginza optician called Kamuro. I was kinda interested in seeking the place out myself until I heard the prices for getting a pair there. I think Megane Drug will be my ultimate destination. Mrs. Jade was back after a week away; apparently, last week she had suffered some internal bleeding in her hand(!); she's OK now but it does stress her fragile constitution. And speaking of the walking wounded, Mrs. Alp was more like her old self after suffering a bit of overextension in her exercises. The ladies will be away next Tuesday since all of them will be taking another big trip together. But it will be domestic this time; they'll be heading over to Okinawa where Mrs. Pottery now lives. Mrs. Perth will making her all the way from the other end of Japan as well.

So at this point, it looks like next Monday and Tuesday will share the unique trait of having just one lesson each. I've only got Medicine Man since The Class Act, SIL and The Full-Timer will be absent on Monday, and for Tuesday it'll just be a 2-hour session with Suzanne at the juku since The Beehive will be off, and the Traveler and The Milds won't be in for their regular lessons. I do have some plans though for those two days...still thinking, though.

As it is, I've only got two lessons tonight. Just Suzanne and The Milds. The Traveler called in sick. Suzanne has been on her poetry kick, so once we finish "Desiderata", I've got a Margaret Atwood piece called "In The Secular Light" for her to nosh on. Gotta keep some Canadian content in the lessons.

Once again, it must be that time of year when Speedy gets all frustrated about the school's fortunes. Our great benefactor and venture capitalist had lowered the boom on the bossman since our place seems to be still bleeding money after 4 years of operation. And so, Speedy was openly commiserating about what to do; he even thought of the idea of opening up a kids' wing near another station. Well as long as it's a wing and it stays away from me, I'll still be around. I'm no financial genius but, although...yes...having to follow deficit spending to survive for this long is not good, I don't think there are many new companies who've been around for 4 years that are particularly runaway successes. So, we are not alone, and perhaps our benefactor is protesting a doth too much.

Well, apparently Samurai Japan, the team in The World Baseball Classic, got to take home all the marbles once more after winning over the Korean team in the States. Excuse me, while I stifle a bit of yawning here. Still, the Korean team must be fuming about this.

The other big piece of gossip in the geino pages over the past few days has been the divorce of actress Norika Fujiwara and comedian Takanori Jinnai. Geez, who didn't see this coming? When they got hitched a couple of years ago to huge media attention and a rental of a major temple, even back then the oddsmakers were laying down some ratios about when, and not if, the big breakup would occur. Apparently, Jinnai has been doing a bit of Chris Brown on his now ex-wife along with seeing some other women. Hmmm....I think Jinnai's next gig will be at a suburban ramen shop near you. Odd, though...I had always thought that it would be Norika who would be beating up her hubby black-and-blue.

I've been reading that "Star Trek" novel about the proto-Kirk, Christopher Pike, in "Burning Dreams". It'd gotten some pretty short but not sweet reviews on Facebook. Kinda like MB whenever he sees flicks that critics have savaged, I don't think it's nearly that bad. Aside from one overly florid opening line and some atypical characterization of Sulu (a bit too flippant toward Ambassador Spock), it's been a good read.

Anyways, the juku boss' kid should be showing up in the next 5 minutes so I'll end it off here.

Monday March 23, 7:22 p.m.

Well, got the translations done and hopefully they'll pass muster with The Corner. In any case, I got them in within the deadline. 19 more pages to go. Grateful that The Full-Timer decided to cancel tonight, and it was just as well for another reason. The Doutors that we usually use is undergoing renovation this week to separate itself into smoking and non-smoking sections. We would've been homeless nonetheless.

So, I've got 2 hours to decompress before Medicine Man comes by. There must be a full moon out there waiting to rise. The winds today caused a Fedex plane to crash (tragically confirming my prediction that the two personnel aboard had died), and screwed up train systems. Plus, I saw CNN and NHK announcers making some rare screwups of their own. I almost lost one student, the New Yorker, due to the wind-ravaged JR schedule, and The Full-Timer canned. And Speedy's student has cancelled for the 4th week in a row.

I had The New Yorker's final class before she heads on out to the Big Apple this Thursday for a bit of recreation, a bit of research into a potential future out there. She's going there solo; she's not the best English student in my flock so I'm hoping that everything goes well for her. My own schedule was getting tight since The New Yorker cut it close and then I had to race out to see SIL. Luckily, I got there in a nick of time for another rousing talk on everything under the su n.

And now, about the long weekend. Friday the 20th was supposed to have been the official First Day of Spring but started out as one of Noah's 40 days of rain. It was miserable as I made my way out to Odaiba to see if I could catch one of the two Governor Ishihara projects that weekend. When I arrived at Tokyo Big Sight, the upturned pyramid had its huge mass of acolytes, consisting of men, women, children and otaku, waiting in the hundreds. There was no way I was gonna join that mass. But I didn't give up; I just decided to come back a few hours later.

So I made my way on foot from the Ariake area to the main mall area where Decks and Fuji-TV were situated. Took me 20 minutes on foot, a trek that I would be doing twice more during the course of the day. I know I must've gotten to Odaiba way too early when even the malls weren't open when I got there; had to wait about 10 minutes. There were also some crowds waiting for them to open, presumably to take advantage of the restaurants. I ended up having an early lunch at a place called ATU in the mall that wasn't Decks. It had a decent though not spectacular buffet which filled me up by noon. When I hit the first floor of the mall, I noticed...or didn't notice a once-familiar smell. The Cinnabons aroma would always assault me like Dino did to Fred anytime I came, but the smell was gone because the store was gone. Does that mean that this franchise has also gone like Nathan's? Maybe wornout American franchises also have a limited shelf life in Japan. Well, the cinnamon roll has established itself via other stores so at least the seed has been planted.

I went across the street to Fuji-TV, the Meccano-like building complex. Inside there was some sort of awards ceremony for some kids' artwork being emceed by a cute announcer that I've seen on Channel 8. I would've taken her picture but I didn't want to take a risk of being attacked by camera-averse staffers so I decided to save the shots for the quick walking tour of the 5th floor upstairs.

By the time I got out, the sun had actually come back and the day was looking very promising. Walked back toward Tokyo Big Sight but made a pit stop at VenusFort, the mall that's apparently strong enough for a man, but made for a woman (to quote an old deodorant). As usual, the Italian piazza 2nd floor was pretty enough for one shot on my Exilim but held little more appeal than that since I don't have a girlfriend or wife so I just dipped down to the 1st floor and visited that home of kitsch, Village Vanguard. Nothing like the legendary jazz joint in New York, this place is like Weird Al Yankovic's attic on steroids. Of the entire VenusFort, this is the only place that I would stop at.

Made my way back to Tokyo Big Sight and, lo and behold, it was simplicity itself to enter the convention hall and make my way to the Tokyo Anime Fair. Tokyo Big Sight should've been called the Hall of Shintaro Ishihara that day since it wasn't only hosting his legit anime festival but also the final meeting of all those running in the 3rd Annual Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, another one of his pet projects.

Just paid my 1,000 yen and entered into the world of anime and otaku. Actually, although there were plenty of the young, backpacked and geeky walking the aisles, the scene was also tempered by a lot of families as well. I caught exhibits in tribute to the works of Osamu Tezuka, the father of Astro Boy, as well as one devoted to my old favourite anime, Space Battlecruiser Yamato. There was even a young shapely lady dressed up in Yuki Mori's black-and-yellow skinsuit. She was pretty but I still think the only one who could approximate the same look as the animated woman is Gwyneth Paltrow. There were some other similarly attired women strewn all throughout the three auditoriums but they were officially there to look pretty and present the various exhibits. I did my duty and took their pictures (which I will show in a later entry).

Basically, I made my tour of the fair in little less than an hour which kinda made the point that I'm not really into the contemporary stuff. I don't think I'll be spending my hard-earned yen on any upcoming productions. Still, at least I can say that I was there.

I made my third walk across the man-made island to the nearest subway station since I didn't want to find myself stuffed onto the Yurikamome with tons of otaku. As it turned out, though, the subway station nearest the Big Sight wasn't all that crowded after all since it seems like folks were still lingering around.

Saturday was just a working day for me. I just had The Businesswoman, The Intellectual and The Big Lug. The Businesswoman will be heading out to Chicago later this week; she only has one lesson left on her current batch, a point that Speedy was sure to indicate to her as she was going out the door. Not sure if she's gonna renew, though. The Big Lug had a whale of a time in New York City, his first time there. He wants to go back for another trip sometime in the near future. He received another bonus in the form of a promotion and a transfer of sorts over to the Tamachi head office which, according to him, means that he will be able to come and see us more regularly.

Yesterday was the Tokyo Marathon as I'd mentioned before. This time, the race was scheduled a full month later to accommodate those who didn't want to end up freezing. It didn't mean too much, at least for this year, since the beginning of that windstorm was smacking the runners around. Another African won it, a fact that I'm sure chagrined Governor Ishihara no end as he shook the champion's hand.

So, I think I'm caught up now.

Monday March 23, 11:36 a.m.

Would be teaching The New Yorker at this moment but unfortunately she's been delayed on her train due to the high winds buffeting the Kanto since last night. I was afraid that I would be delayed as well since my station is on the outside part of the Tozai Line, and the line was indeed affected but nothing that destroyed my chances to get to Ichigaya. In fact, I got there a full half-hour ahead of schedule.

So, I'm cooling my heels in this Ichigaya I-cafe run by a guy who look like a clean-shaven Weird Al Yankovic, Japanese version. The New Yorker tried to leave her number on my message machine but I couldn't get all the numbers despite listening to it a number of times; hence, the emergency visit to the cafe. Luckily, her e-mail is still working. She'll be hitting here about 12:10...hopefully. That should still get me to Ueno for SIL's lesson, although lunch may be problematic. I may have to get something at Tully's although I don't really like eating and teaching at the same time...doesn't look too good.

The winds have disrupted more than subways. The morning news was suddenly hit with bulletins about a Fedex plane which crashed at Narita around 7 this morning. The crash looked pretty bad....the small jet bounced once off the runway before hitting the tarmac again and bursting into flame and flipping upside down. There wasn't any official word on casualties but I then saw emergency personnel with the big blue tarps escorting the stretcher to the ambulances, and that doesn't usually bode well for the chances of living people. I kinda thought that something bad would happen today after hearing some louder-than-usual airplane sounds last night during the windstorms.

The Full-Timer also contacted me to say that she would be cancelling this and next Monday due to overtime. Her soon-to-be former employers are apparently squeezing every little ounce of work out of her before she finishes up. Still, that means I have a good chance to get those translations for The Corner written up and sent off since I will now have 5 hours of computer time between SIL and Medicine Man.

Got a lot of catching up to do but I'll have to leave it here for now.

Thursday March 19, 10:34 p.m.

Well, the night went off without a hitch. And made what was probably the easiest 7,000 yen in recent memory. Speedy had me and the other teacher, The Avid (she's very keen on the profession), host a dinner party/dress rehearsal/special lesson at a nearby Chinese restaurant for his young charges of insurance company staffers before they on out for the real thing in the States later this year. It wasn't all just talking and eating, though. The Avid and myself had to supervise some exercises in socialization for the students. Still, I've had far more arduous classes to earn my money.

The Music Man was my last guy up. He's doing well and he was a good one to finish the week on.

Will be heading home pretty soon. Tomorrow is the national holiday known as the Vernal Equinox. For most people, it means that we have a long weekend. Ironically, I'll probably be waking up relatively early and heading on out to Odaiba to see if I can get into Tokyo Big Sight for the 7th Tokyo Anime Fair. I'm not huge into the art form anymore but I just wanna see if I can get some pics to show the home crowd and perhaps I may even see some old Reiji Matsumoto paraphernalia or stuff from Tatsunoko Productions. If I can't, I'll just be happy getting some shots of the neighbourhood. I'm pretty sure though that there will be some cosplay folks getting their kicks being exhibitionists, despite the rules against them.

Thursday March 19, 1:59 p.m.

Just finished with Miss Sedona. As it turned out, she was the first lesson of the day. As I was heading out the door last night after another semi-tortuous (self-inflicted, I assure you) session with The Diver, Speedy was reminded that Grandma Dynamite had to cancel the morning's lesson today, so there was no need for the early wake-up. I headed on home and ended up having a late dinner at McD's in my neck of the woods....no, not the wisest gastronomic action at my age but what use is a temptation if you're not going to act on it.

As a result, I could take my time this morning which included dropping off at Takashimaya Department Store in Nihombashi on the way to work to buy the final White Day present of the year for Miss Sedona. It was a bunch of Yoku Moku cigares...always dependable. As for the lass herself, she got the good news that she will get her working-holiday visa for Canada, so a major hurdle has been overcome, so her days with us are now officially numbered.

Now, it'll be a few hours of translation time for me as I tackle the latest website from The Corner.

Wednesday March 18, 9:34 p.m.

Finished for the day. 001 was fun as usual. We actually had a good gab on digital cameras. As for The Diver, we ended up spending nearly half the period trying to translate one story. That's one very focused lady.

Well, hope to be out of here within the next 5 minutes and get an extra amount of sleep before coming back here for Grandma Dynamite.

Tuesday March 17, 7:45 p.m.

Finished off two of my students tonight. Suzanne is on the poetry kick. We analyzed Max Ehrmann's "Desiderata"; it was a good workout for both of us. She prefers going through vocab via poems instead of the usual vocab books since she feels that the words come more alive in literature. She has a point there. Then I had The Traveler; the lesson was far simpler but still it was a good workout for her, too. Just have The Milds to go.

I heard from The Entrepreneur that he'd caught "Watchmen" with Chip Guy the other night. Not surprisingly, he didn't mention the wife. He gave it a thumbs-up but not a raving one, though. I'm still not deterred, though. I should enjoy it for what it is. I think the DVD of "Ironman" is coming out here tomorrow. After I saw part of it at The Anime King's house over the Holidays, I really need to pick it up.

Toonces The juku cat was doing his usual hijinks during my lesson. At one point, he was digging through my extra handouts on the covered piano. I was afraid that he was thinking of taking a dump on them. Hard to believe that he was such a tiny fellow 3 years ago. The juku boss was thinking of just giving it to someone else, but he's now part of the family.

Tuesday March 17, 1:10 p.m.

Just in time for Spring: Spring weather. It's supposed to be hitting 20 C today. The laundry should be bone dry by now...and covered in pollen. My washing machine, after 14 years of faithful service, is finally showing its age. For the past few months, it's been leaking in a couple of places and now I have to turn off the water supply once the wash and spin cycles begin, lest my 2nd-floor neighbour gets some very local showers.

It was an even smaller turnout at The Beehive session today; just Travel and Tee. Jade was a no-show and Alp is busy taking some relatives out somewhere. Travel was just raving about some rustic izakaya her friend had taken her out to Kanda. It's right up Tee's alley since one of her buildings is located in the area and she has a great love of drink.

I took a look at some more pages on the Tokyo Anime Fair which is supposed to start tomorrow, although the public won't be able to get inside Tokyo Big Sight until Friday. The pictures that Danny Choo took of last year's affair look pretty enticing. I can now understand why the cosplay otaku have never been allowed...it's sponsored by The Man...i.e. Governor Shintaro Ishihara. It's a legit event. Apparently, the controversial bigot used his creation to tongue-lash the folks there in its very first year for not being Japanese enough, and he majorly dissed Mickey Mouse. I think "His Honour" really isn't into anime but just wanted to get on the "Yokoso Japan" bandwagon.

Finally got the security info I needed from The Corner to get access to those web pages. They don't look too, too difficult. Still haven't heard from MB's friend about the venue for tomorrow's model lesson, although I'm to meet him at the same rendezvous point as last week.

Monday March 16, 9:06 p.m.

Now I know I'm getting old...probably one of the best gauges in this country is that now-12-year-old unit, Morning Musume. They were the subject of a Japan Times interview, and the two longest-serving members in MM history, Ai Takahashi and Risa Niigaki, had been two of the littlest munchkins when they first appeared. Now they're a couple of years into official adulthood. And then there is the so-called Fallen Musume, Ai Kago, who has now probably gotten a lot of middle-aged salarymen swooning (and I'm using the term very loosely), due to her contribution to a pictorial magazine series that features various pinup girls and even actresses in as little clothing as possible.

I kinda wonder how the original leader, Yuko Nakazawa, must be feeling. Mind you, she recently popped up in a TV Tokyo travelogue program...and TV Tokyo usually appeals to the middle-aged folks. Then again, the same channel used to have the Morning Musume Sunday show.