Monday August 17, 7:08 p.m.

Had a very full weekend. With only The Nurse on Friday and just Medicine Man here tonight, I felt like I had more than 3 days off. My weekend was spent at home, catching up on a lot of movies via cable. It was kind of the weekend for sequels....and not the greatest sequels, at that. I watched "Back to the Future II", "Matrix Reloaded", and "Ocean's 12" amongst others. Yes, they were pretty mediocre efforts. Well, perhaps I'm being a bit harsh with the first one. "BTTF 2" was OK, but the tone just seemed to be yanked a little too far from the swashbuckling & lighthearted one of the original to the heartcrashing darkness of this one. I finally figured out the plot of "Ocean's 12" and just concluded the execution was bad. For the rather intriguing reason that it's now 64 years since the end of WWII, Super Drama TV has been putting on several episodes of a show called "12 O'Clock High" starring blandly handsome Paul Burke and a very young Chris Robinson (he would later be known as not only one of the cast of "General Hospital", but also as the infamous "I'm not a real doctor, but I play one on TV" guy) as bomber pilots in the war. Always kinda liked the old school TV shows.

NorikoGate seems to have finally gone on to the back burner. But it seems like the former aidoru has started to fess up that her history with drugs goes back a bit further than originally reported...a good 4 years earlier. May explain not only that Farrah Fawcett-like interview last year but also her hyperactive dancing as a DJ back in 2006.

Although I've got the juku back from tomorrow, it's still gonna be just that. Way open week. Even my dependably busy Thursdays look mighty hole-y this Thursday. Just two classes before I get to home for dinner early.

Looks like I'll be having dinner with The Jyuppies this Sunday instead of the regular lessons. Last lesson, Mr. Jyuppie was telling me about this great sushi restaurant at the end of the Den'en Toshi Line...pretty much in Kanagawa Prefecture. And so, he threw me the proposal of meeting there for dinner. Hmmm....kinda wonder if the end is near when it comes to me and them. I'm having a purposeful time with Mrs. Jyuppie but Mr. Jyuppie, since his midlife crisis began last month, hasn't been as forthcoming. Usually when my time with a certain student is ending its half-life, I get the invitation-to-a-meal notice in lieu of a regular lesson. It was true with that couple in Jiyugaoka early in my freelance career (for that one, they showed interest in my bartender's guide and wanted to make cocktails in English...yup, that was a most interesting lesson). Soon after, it was bye-bye for me. While I was still at the ol' school, I had been assigned a corporate class at a company in Osaki for which every other class involved me and the few students who would show up having dinner at a buffet place in the JR station plaza. While I enjoyed the free food, I knew my days were numbered.

Speaking of The Jyuppies, they live near Komazawa Park. After that one lesson at the end of last month, I was walking back to the station when I saw a whole cadre of TV trucks and cops across from the park. I overheard some folks talking about a jiken, an incident in the university. It wasn't until just recently that I'd heard that some young psycho, feeling jilted from not being able to participate in the university festival, decided to take his frustration out on some folks via a knife...or attempted to, anyways, before he was handily subdued.

Today, since I had a lot of time, I stopped by Kinokuniya's annual discount English-language book sale on the 11th floor of Takashimaya at Times Square. It was the last day but there were still plenty of books of all genres and sizes. I actually got three of them: last year's edition of "What Color is Your Parachute?", "Living With Star Trek"....a dissertation on the American cultural implications of one of my favourite shows, and "The Official CTU Operations Manual"; that last one just seemed so over-the-top in its earnestness over the universe that houses "24" that I just had to get it. It comes in its own hardcover case, too.

Friday August 14, 12:21 p.m.

Pretty darn quiet. Only had The Nurse. She'd just come back from a bit of an O-Bon holiday in Ishikawa Prefecture with her mother. Ishikawa is a remote province on the other side, the Japan Sea side, of the country. I don't really know what happens out there, but the school did get a souvenir in the form of some soft rice cake covered in bean paste called ankoro. It is, despite the description, quite good.

This past week hasn't been quiet seismologically in Japan. There was the Shindo 4 on Sunday night, then the biggie on Tuesday morning which rocked me from my sleep in my Yokohama hotel room, and a couple of more last night. So talk of The Big One has come up once more in the media, although it still hasn't bested the darkening story of NorikoGate. But are we ready for either The Great Tokai Earthquake I or The Great Kanto Earthquake II? It would seem not. The Japan Times just wrote up an article that the government hasn't printed nearly enough evacuation maps for the citizens just in case The Big One does happen. I think frankly that the Japanese have a rather fatalistic view toward quakes....if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. People talk about home earthquake kits (canned bread, bottled water, flashlights, etc) but how good would such things be when everyone is out at school or work? Plus, luxury apartments keep getting higher and higher on reclaimed land in Tsukiji and Odaiba when there are signs on the street openly warning that in a major quake, the land will liquefy. Those apartments will certainly get lower and lower in mere seconds. So, perhaps the government is taking a rather lackadaiscal attitude....but it seems to do that with a number of issues....except, of course, for its own election later this month.

I'll probably be headed home in the next half hour or so. There's a discount book sale in Takashimaya Times Square. I may head on over there, but still waiting for that translation income from The Cornerette, I'm not sure it'll be worth going over if I'm just gonna watch.

Friday August 14, 8:28 a.m.

It's one of those in-and-out transitions today. Both Speedy and I had left the office at 11 last night and I was back in by before 8. The steamy Tokyo nights are back as well....I was peeling off my clothes to take a well-needed shower. To try and get some decent sleep despite the heat and humidity, I followed some methods that I'd seen on that TBS info show, "Hanamaru Market" yesterday morning; the theme was on just that....how to survive the night without sweating to death. I put my fan near my feet (I did take a shower so there wouldn't be any risk of death by foot odor) and had the flow bounce off the closet so that there would be forced air circulation, and I didn't bother to drink anything cold since that would effectively turn off the sweating mechanism. It worked pretty well; despite the fact that I only got 5 hours of sleep, I don't feel too badly.

However, Speedy may not be feeling too good right now. He all but conceded that perhaps our days are numbered here at our current location. The school has been suffering financially....a lot of it due to the current financial malaise. Students are simply not renewing. Although he hasn't officially started yet, he's now thinking about alternate locations such as on a major train line which would mean higher rents. It would be a pity, but frankly I can't see us staying in the Nakano area either. The neighbourhood is pretty much dead at night, and heck, we lost one of the cheapest and nicest Chinese restaurants a couple of years ago. The bossman is also considering drastically changing direction, including even becoming a kids' school (gulp). If so, adios.

Sad sign of the times....apparently, there was an actual mugging in my city of Ichikawa, and not too, too far away from my neck of the woods. Some psycho with a metal bat managed to break a kid's arm and run off with about 15,000 yen last night. Times are tough, and so the especially weak-minded will take the easy way out...on someone else's head. Back in Toronto, every time I came home at midnight, I always kept a good eye on my surroundings for anything bad. I may have to do that now here as well.

Despite my early arrival, I've only got The Nurse in about an hour and that will be all she wrote for me for the entire weekend. Yep, real quiet week.

Finally got through the "Verified by Visa" process. I kept getting rejected by the computer for some reason when it came to my information to the extent that I was wondering if the name should be "Harassed by Visa" instead. However, after three phone calls, last night's operator came through for me.

Thursday August 13, 8:51 p.m.

Nearly finished my lone busy day of the week. Got through Miss Sedona, The Bow, Mr. TOEIC and The Carolinan. Now it'll just be The Music Man in 20 minutes. We're approaching the end of Miss Sedona's time with us. She only has about 4 more lessons and she hasn't given any indication whether she'll bother hanging on for the next few months before she takes off for The Great White North. She has been with us for over a year...kinda hard to believe that this was the shy pharmacist who was itching to visit San Francisco and Sedona, Arizona.

The Bow has been doing OK at her new job although she's been complaining that there has been a war of sorts amongst staff who want and don't want the AC on. As for Mr. TOEIC, he had a nice time resting up in his home prefecture of Fukushima; definitely came in today looking all summery instead of his usual suit. And the good news with The Carolinan is that she's secured a position with the company that's gonna take over her old one...well, at least it's OK news for her. She has some second thoughts whether she wants to continue there for much longer.

The O-Bon holidays officially started today, and the highways look it. 54 km-long traffic jams have certainly contributed to the parking lot-like atmosphere of holiday commuting.

Thursday August 13, 12:26 p.m.

May not be too easy to see, but there are several small jellyfish swimming around in the waters surrounding the vessel "Nippon Maru" in the Minato Mirai harbour of Yokohama. Just caught them with my eye while I was taking a walk around the vessel. There was a bit of an ethereal beauty to them but I don't particularly want to find out if someone falls into the water.

We've been having a problem with jellyfish. There have been some humoungous ones playing havoc with fishermen's nets recently. These things look like Portuguese Man O' Wars...these jellies look like the Spacedock from the "Star Trek" movies and are probably a whole lot more lethal. I'm kinda wondering if the fishermen should just switch from catching plain bluefin tuna and go for the jellyfish...which make a fine appetizer at Chinese buffets and courses.

I've got Miss Sedona in about 15 minutes. She's had to do two tests before she goes onto the next text. I hope she did pretty well. Then, I gotta rush out to the Shinjuku Starbucks to see The Bow and then rush on back for back-to-back lessons with Mr. TOEIC and The Carolinan. The only real respite I'll have is after The Carolinan and before The Music Man.

Wednesday August 12, 8:37 p.m.

To the left of me is the quake report map from early Tuesday morning when that M6.6 came rumbling by. Honshu looked like it had a skin condition. I showed this to 001 during the break; she pointed out that the bottom right hand corner bunch of kanji was her city, Sagamihara. The other three are areas in Yokohama.

The person in charge of earthquakes for the government gave his press conference as he usually does after a major temblor. He insisted that yesterday's rumble was not a sign of the approaching Tokai Earthquake, the Big One that is supposed to be crashing into the area....which only makes one wonder: if the quake on Tuesday wasn't the sign, then how much stronger is the next one going to be?

Over the weekend, I actually caught an oldie of sorts: the original "Back to the Future". It still holds up remarkably aware despite the very 80s references to Huey Lewis & The News, the DeLorean time machine and Pepsi Free. It's just too bad that its 2 sequels didn't quite make the cut. In a way, it was a precursor of the fate for "The Matrix": great original, so-so sequels.

Wednesday August 12, 8:21 p.m.

Well, 001 has come and gone. And The Fashion Designer has cancelled her lesson for tonight. So, I'm basically done. I'll head on home in about an hour...just want to let those rush hour commuters go home ahead of me. But then I hear that the O-Bon holidays have started so there may not be too big a rush tonight.

Getting back to NorikoGate...I think the biggest image of the week concerning this sad story will be the one taken a few years ago in which Noriko Sakai was in natty dreads and other assorted DJ wear including the mandatory huge earphones around her neck, just dancing about like a reject from EXILE on speed. Then again, maybe she was. Or so the media would like to have us believe. The assorted talking heads on the wide shows have been building up their own case to indict the singer way before she ever sees a courtroom. No surprise there....gotta rake in the ratings, y'know. They've even gone into overdrive over the fact that she's had some tattoos emblazoned on her ankle and ring finger. To hear them describe it, it would sound that the tattoos automatically label her as a mass murderer. The New Yorker has far larger tattoos all over her person, and she's one of the mildest-mannered students I've ever known. Having said that, though, this is a country where, despite the slowly growing acceptance of tattoos as a fashion accessory, tattoos are still frequently seen as a bad news signal of yakuza and teen gangs. Still, I'd hardly mistake Nori-P as a thugette.

Wednesday August 12, 5:50 p.m.

Ahhh...the mess that is NorikoGate. There's been quite some movement since last week. Noriko Sakai, aidoru, actress....drug addict, has gone from poor missing person to crystal meth celeb gone haywire in just a few days.

The hyperactive mass media just went into warp drive late last week when the police suddenly threw out that arrest warrant for a person who had once been the top aidoru in J-Pop on a Hello, Kitty scale. Especially on Saturday night, when even the usually near-Vulcan-like newscasters of NHK, announced breathlessly...twice...about her turning herself in at a Tokyo police station. There was an even larger crowd in front of Shibuya Police Station, consisting of rubberneckers and journalists, than the usual hordes at JR Shinjuku at midnight. And of course, there was the de rigueur snapshot of the guilty party in the police van just looking straight down. I was just wondering about if this were the same Noriko Sakai who had come up with her own cute Nori-P diabetes-inducing dialect 20 years ago.

In the last few days, the J-Pop equivalent of "The Fugitive" has turned into a mix of "Kramer Vs. Kramer" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde". There has been a "he said/she said" quality injected into the ugliness between Sakai and her separated husband, Yuichi Takaso about when and how often she had started sniffing the weird stuff. And just as often as her old teen footage has been popping up on the screens, there has also been film footage of her in a totally different light, especially one 10-second shot of her at at disco, just going absolutely nuts as a guest DJ. Nope, kinda hard to believe that this was the same girl who had looked like a human character for "Hello, Kitty" but then again, she debuted over 20 years ago.

More analysis later....

Wednesday August 12, 5:21 p.m.

Well, I did make that mini-trip to Yokohama a couple of days ago. It was actually more of a day trip with a night stay at a hotel. My mini-trip became a mini mini-trip thanks to a couple of uninvited guests: Typhoon 9 and a M6.6 temblor just off the coast of Shizuoka.

When I got to JR Sakuragicho Station at about noon on Monday, the rains were pouring down like the 40 days, 40 nights Noah's Ark type of thing. Ended up spending about an hour at a Starbucks right under the Sakuragicho Washington Hotel before taking a recce around Minato Mirai for another hour. Then, I checked in...the Washington was as it had been advertised: small, but clean and convenient. No frills at all unlike the Pan Pacific where I'd stayed some years before. But after having stayed there, then the Hyatt in Seoul and the Mandarin in Hong Kong, I think I'm no longer in thrall toward high-end accomodations anymore. A businesss hotel suits me just fine.

Took a walk down the main street from Sakuragicho towards Chinatown about a couple of kilometres away. I'm not sure if it's because I've become totally accustomed to Tokyo, but I got the impression that the streets of Yokohama have a crisper feel in terms of urban planning...kinda like Sapporo. It made for a nice walk while gaining an appetite.

I ended up going to the same Chinese buffet restaurant that I'd gone to a few years ago. Strangely enough, I was once again the very first customer in the place when it opened at 5. It was eerie...and slightly pathetic...being the only one in the place for at least 15 minutes picking up dishes with the waitresses looking on ("OMG! It's that fat guy from 3 years ago....doesn't he know anything about being fashionably late!"). The food was fine with me, but it just strikes me as being a bit odd that during my 90 minutes there, there would only be a grand total of 10 customers including me. A bit sad....so I figured that the next time I'll try some other place.

I walked back up to my hotel from Chinatown via Yamashita Park in the evening. Took some good shots of Chinatown but for some reason, I just couldn't take any good ones of the nightscape of Minato Mirai. All of the pictures came out looking like all the buildings were heading off at warp speed.

Had a good night's sleep but then at 5:07 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I was "gently" awakened by a Shindo 4 quake. There was a Shindo 6 Minus (M6.6 in magnitude) temblor off of Shizuoka. So, Norikogate had competition with Shizuoka Quake for the rest of that day on the news channels. No particular damage to me or the surroundings in my hotel, but I remarked rather ruefully that that was probably the only time I'll ever experience any bed shaking in my hotel room...ahem. The breakfast buffet, by the way, was OK but not spectacular.

Because of the quake and Typhoon 9, I actually headed straight home after checking out. A bit premature about my decision, as it turned out, since when I reached back to Chiba, the sun was back out brilliantly. Ah, well. In any case, I'll just consider that mini mini-trip a Part 1 with Part 2 to follow in either the fall or early next year. I still have to visit Motomachi, the Ramen Museum and take one of those bay cruises.

Saturday August 8, 3:37 p.m.

Finished my Saturday rounds with The Intellectual, The Publicity Assistant and Mr. TOEIC. With the first two, I did broach the topic of NorikoGate with them. The PA, who is kinda sorta in the know about these sorts of things, started weaving a story of intrigue about the background of Ms. Sakai. It was all kinda hard to believe considering Noriko's public persona but I'm waiting to see if any of her claims can be verified. The PA's kinda hoping that there will be an O.J. Simpson-like car chase, although the thought of a former aidoru trying to race down the opposite lanes of the Kan-Etsu like in the final scenes of "Ronin" are rather hard to imagine.

Feeling pretty beat so I'll make my way home in about 20 minutes before the rains start coming down on my laundry.

Saturday August 8, 10:27 a.m.

WHAT?!

That was my initial reaction yesterday afternoon, after having returned from my lesson with The Bass, and catching the news on what used to be known as Noriko Watch Day 4 and what is now known as NorikoGate.

At about 11 a.m., the police announced that former aidoru-turned-actress Noriko "Nori-P" Sakai was no longer just a missing person but was now a suspect in the case involving her separated husband, Yuichi Takaso, who'd been nabbed on Sunday in Shibuya (where else?) for drug possession. Apparently Nori-P has been into the stuff as well, and police found paraphernalia in her condo in Minami-Aoyama. As the local media has been saying ad nauseum from yesterday, the poor wife has now become the target. And the newspapers haven't been shy in their headlines. I've seen tabloids like Tokyo Sports screaming "Nori-P! Fugitive!" I can just hear the theme song from the David Janssen show right now.

Pretty much every station, even NHK, has used the trials and tribulations of Noriko Sakai to lead off their news. As I was channel-switching at one point yesterday afternoon and early evening, just about everywhere I tuned in to had the image of the pretty young woman sashaying girlishly while the pundits were talking about drug abuse and escape from justice. As the media would put it, this story has the legs of a marathon runner. Sakai is obviously not the first J-celeb to have been caught smoking the weed, but the fact that she has cultivated an image of a squeaky clean and cute performer for over 20 years, only to be found that she's not only on the stuff but on the lam has gotten everyone in this country talking. And beyond, too. Sakai is also popular in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. As a typhoon was pummelling into Taiwan, the newscaster was breathlessly talking about NorikoGate. It'll definitely be a stop-the-presses moment if and when she's caught.

Could be quite the topic for discussion with the students today.

Thursday August 6, 5:14 p.m.

Very much an anti-Hump Day today since I've only got Music Man in the last slot tonight. Woke up late at 9 a.m. (and for me on a weekday, that is very late) and just lounged about. However, I did see half of "Basic Instinct"; strangely enough, I'd never seen Sharon Stone's magnum opus before. Paul Verhoeven certainly pulls in the violence of "Total Recall" and the sex from "Showgirls" into this one with tons of profanity.

Spent the interlude between 001 and The Fashion Designer last night to research and then finally book the hotel for Yokohama. I cruised through the Rakuten site and found the Yokohama Sakuragicho Washington Hotel for an inexpensive 8,000 yen. Compared to the last place in Yokohama I'd stayed at a few years ago, the Pan Pacific, the cost is just a fraction and the amenities are pretty slim (the Washington chain is basically a business hotel), but then again I'm close to all points that I would like to see again, such as Chinatown and Minato Mirai 21, and I don't really need all those frills. The reviews by foreign guests have been pretty praiseworthy of it: simple, clean and convenient....and with a decent breakfast buffet. All I need.

The Fashion Designer has signed up for another 4 lessons...for the past year she's been with us, she's always bought her lessons at 4 per. As Speedy would say, not the most economically sensible payment plan for someone who's been studying for several months. However, she did manage to intimate through her oft-garbled speech (she was especially sleepy last night) that this would be the last batch she does before she decides to finish with us. So, probably another student biting the dust in another month. However, as for me, the bossman has said that some of the students of that departing teacher may be put into my field.

Well, NHK was on the case on the very first trial done with lay judges. Looks like the verdict came in at 2:30, and the defendant got 15 years for murder.

Noriko Sakai and her son are still missing. Apparently, a cellphone signal had been picked up in Yamanashi Prefecture before the phone was turned off. In a somewhat ominous tone that the tabloids here haven't failed to notice is that the prefecture is also home to a group of woods infamous as an ideal haven for suicides.

Wednesday August 5, 4:55 p.m.

The photo on the left was taken in the plaza bracketed by JR Yurakucho Station and the new Itocia Mall. If you look at the centre of the picture, you may see some woman with a microphone trying to ask a gaggle of women a question. Yep, even in this country, there are always reporters trying to get some sort of opinion from the hoi polloi. However, unlike in the States or Canada, where such reporters risk being berated or worse by the approached, a lot of the folks here will just suddenly walk away at an increased rate of speed or immediately hide their faces...in an ostrich's head-in-the-sand sort of way...and spurt off. The lady nearest the female journo apparently was trying to use her paper fan in that manner.

Apparently, the missing Noriko Sakai has been tracked down...or up...in the wilds of Yamanashi Prefecture. Film at 11, no doubt...or if you're a TV Asahi watcher...at 10.

Amidst all this entertainment-based hoopla concerning the fates of Noriko Sakai and Manabu Oshio, there actually has been coverage of the first trial held in Japan with laymen judges. Yes, since Monday, six regular citizens have been bracketing the three professional judges with a few more behind as reservists to hear a murder case. Well, it's definitely interesting....unlike the jurors in the American justice system, the lay judges can actually pose questions to witness and defendant alike.

Well, I've popped the question to the bossman about possibly getting the night off on Monday for Yokohama. Medicine Man has decided to have his next lesson on the 17th, and The Full-Timer will probably won't be available for a few weeks at least, and since the juku is on holidays next week, I thought I would take advantage of the lull. And according to the Rakuten website, there are still quite a few rooms amongst the hotels in Yokohama.

Wednesday August 5, 12:44 p.m.

I've been getting a few compliments on this photo so I decided to post it up here as well. Kinda cheated on it by using the "sunset" option on my digital camera but taking some poetic license is never a bad thing. It's just a shot of the Cocoon and some other skyscrapers from in front of JR Shinjuku Station. I was heading back from The Bow's class when I saw the opportunity and took it. Maybe if I even sent it into METROPOLIS...

Looks like Slick Willie still has it...the former US President just flew into North Korea and got those journalists out of Kim Jong Il's labour camps faster than he could usher Monica Lewinsky out the back door of the White House. Supposedly this was done as a "private mission", but if anyone believed that, they would be eligible for all that wonderful land in the Everglades.

There may be an opportunity to get that one night in Yokohama sooner than expected. Next Tuesday, the juku is on O-Bon holidays and Medicine Man has decided to eschew his usual slot on Monday night, and with The Full-Timer burning the midnight oil at work, I may just have a very long weekend coming up. But I've gotta check my account. The Cornerette has said that the money is on the way, but...

Wednesday August 5, 10:11 a.m.

Well, even Noriko Sakai's family have said they don't know where she is. So now even I am a little worried.

Had a little trouble with the Internet for about several minutes.

Grandma Fado has come in with some more treats. This time, it's peaches.

Wednesday August 5, 8:16 a.m.

The somewhat different summer continues in The Big Sushi. Usually a Tokyo August day starts off with a lot of brilliant sun and me futilely plugging up the leaks in my pores with a drenched handkerchief. Not today...it's been the seemingly 2009 default of gloomy sky and no such attempt to take out my square of cloth. It's not exactly cool out there but neither is it hot. Just enough warmth to let us know that...yes, it is officially summer.

Last night at the juku, the boss told me that The Hungarian could pass muster in his debut on Saturday, and in fact, the mother of the kid he'd taught was quite enamored with him...or I should say...his ability. However, the boss also reported that she got internally aghast when he proclaimed in front of both mother and boss that he would be happy to just teach for free if need be. Ahhh...the idealism of the 20s. I reassured the boss that that would give way slowly to the practicality, realism and bitter cynicism of the 30s and 40s. Kinda ironic since I'd always thought that the juku boss was more of that up-with-people type of personality. However, since the operation last year, she's become a bit more down-to-earth.

My Hump Day isn't nearly as bad as was originally scheduled. Got word from The Admin that she has to cancel today's lesson due to a business trip. So, instead of the 2-cafe day, it'll just be the 1 cafe with The New Yorker. I still drank down a Ripobitan D just in case. BTW, I also received word from The Full-Timer that she would like to have my lessons but it looks like her search for work was rewarded a bit too well....she told me that she's had to work until 10:30 at night since she started last week. Join the club...we have jackets.

Ahhhh....those poor Nori-P fans must be praying right now. After the news broke yesterday that her surfer dude husband got nailed for drug possession, it was then revealed that Noriko Sakai, the former aidoru-turned-actress, has now gone missing. Her tarento agency has been trying to contact her without success. I don't get the feeling that anything bad has happened to her; she's probably just gone to ground at her family's place or with friends so that she can absorb what's happened and then come up with a plan of action...such as rolling up that really thick newspaper to whack her spouse with.

I finally got word from The Cornerette that everything in the invoice is now OK and that The Corner will send over the money. So, that's one hurdle overcome. I'm still thinking about whether I will actually spend a night in Yokohama as a bit of a break this month. Still, seeing that things at Speedy's could be a bit lean not just for this month but for the foreseeable future, it may be more financially prudent to keep everything in the account. Still, there's a lot to be said about taking that overnight trip, and thanks to agencies such as Rakuten and Expedia, it's quite a bit cheaper to get a room even at some of the more expensive hotels.

Tuesday August 4, 1:22 p.m.

Humid as usual but the temps are only up to 27 C today...about as usual as a blizzard in Tokyo in winter. Still, I've got that pervasive sheen of humidity all over my body as would be expected on a summer day here.

Just got some errands out of the way. Mailed off the birthday card and present to my brother. I sent him "The Otaku Encyclopedia". Not that he's a plaid shirt-wearing, bespectacled anime geek but he watches the stuff occasionally when he can get some time off...which is very occasionally. I also sent off a belated birthday wish and happy housewarming card to The Entrepreneur.

The big news here in Japan has been the arrest of a young handsome actor who I'd never heard of before, although he's been in the biz apparently for the past decade (tells you how miha I've been lately). Manabu Oshio was nabbed for drug possession; nothing too exciting about that since that sort of news pops up now and then. However, police found a discovery of a decomposing nude female body in the same apartment that they had nabbed Oshio. Now, that's Fatty Arbuckle territory. He's been married (probably soon to be not married) to former flavor-of-the-early-part-of-the-decade actress Akiko Yada who hasn't been seen all that much. I can only imagine what she's going through right now...."I was dumped for a rotting corpse?!"

Then, for all those old Nori-P fans....Noriko Sakai's surfer dude husband also got nailed for drugs. No corpse there, though.

Well, luckily, the only excitement I'll have (knock on wood) tonight is just my usual juku classes. I gotta find out from the boss how The Hungarian did last weekend.

Monday August 3, 8:45 p.m.

Just found out through conversation that our other nighttime teacher will be heading Stateside permanently next week. It's been quite like the TARDIS recently here at Speedy's and at the juku. That is, at the end of a season. People stay awhile and then they're gone off somewhere else. Bay herself will be heading over to the States in a few months once her visa comes through to join her husband. And then I'm sure Ray and La Fille will probably head off on their own tracks while Speedy, the juku boss and I stay to mind the store.

Monday August 3, 7:13 p.m.

Yup, I'm such a glutton for punishment. That's another pickled grasshopper ready to be devoured by yours truly. You can see what remains of its legs towards the upper right hand corner. Feel free to barf anytime! The package still remains quite full in my fridge. I still maintain that they're not difficult to eat but they just don't go with anything during dinner. I mean, have you ever tried eating the stuff with your favourite wine? Pretend to be that snooty French waiter..."Would Monsieur prefer to have his locust with Chateau Neuf De Pap or Beaujolais Nouveau?" I guess sake would be the closest thing since it seems to be sold as an o-tsumami (snack food). But the only sake I can afford or get easily is of the rotgut variety...i.e. One Cup Ozeki. Selling for about 150~200 yen from the vending machines, Japan's equivalent of Chez Thunderbird will either put hair on your chest or have it fall out altogether...and hit you with a massive hangover if you're not careful. And as a throwback to the 70s, instead of the screwcap of Chez Thunderbird, One Cup Ozeki has an old-fashioned pull tab cap...just so that you can have that extra feeling of pain in your hand to help dull the pain that you'll feel later on.

I've been reading those two books by the Ferguson Bros; I finished "How To Be A Canadian" last weekend which was co-written by the boys, and I'm on the one that came before, "Why I Hate Canadians" written by Will Ferguson. While the sequel definitely has that absurdist humour flair, Will's solo effort comes off as being more dryly-humoured. If I were to use a CNN feature analogy, "Why I Hate Canadians" is the Jeanne Moos feature before the boys' version of "The Daily Show" via "How To Be A Canadian". Interesting reading.

Bay just came in with the latest gimmicky product in soft drinks. It's shiso-flavoured Pepsi. Yep, that leaf which pops up in Japanese cuisine like a cameo appearance with that strangely minty scent and taste. In my 20-year-old English-language Japanese cookbook, shiso has been just as strangely translated as "beefsteak plant", I guess because the myriad lines on the leaves reminded the author of the various perforations on a typical piece of beef. Frankly, I could've just said "the back of my hand" as a better translation.

Monday August 3, 4:27 p.m.

Midsummer is here. It's warm and humid, and the cicadas are hissing on schedule. However, gosh darn it, it just doesn't feel like a typically fiery Tokyo summer. For one thing, although I still sweat up like a fountain, it's merely warm and humid, not hot and humid. For another, the nights are still quite pleasant to sleep in. And the rain has been coming every other day. Nope, definitely not the same ol' Tokyo summer.
Since I just have the one lesson tonight with Medicine Man (yep, my only lesson starts at 9:30 p.m.), I decided to give my feet a workout and went down to Ginza. I had to buy a couple of birthday cards for both my brother and The Entrepreneur at Ito-Ya. I had my first and last buffet lunch in a while at that Hong Kong place in Ginza INZS. Filled myself up nice and tight. The reason I decided to take the gastronomic plunge was that I'd gotten the annual warning from Ichikawa City Hall that my checkup would soon be arriving. Luckily, they recommended that I take it in the month of my birth and not in August...which means I have a chance of getting my weight down so that at least I could give some sort of semblance that I actually tried.

After I devoured my share of sho ron po and chow mein, I waddled out and made a first stop in the INZS branch of HMV. I guess for those guys, the Michael Jackson tribute is still continuing. "We Are The World" was playing on the speakers and video screens. Ray Charles still brings shivers up my spine but can you actually imagine having to listen to it all day if you were staff there? By the end of the shift, one would probably want to emigrate to Neptune.

Took a lot of photos of Ginza...very photogenic. The one above is from the Yurakucho and Marunouchi border. I thought it was one of the major hotels, but it was actually the HQ of The Tokyo-Mitsubishi MUFG Bank. I wonder how much of our accounts went into its construction.

It's gonna be a really lean week. As I said, I only have Medicine Man. The Full-Timer never got back to me about whether she would be showing up so I'm assuming that she won't and may never will again. However, just so that she doesn't completely disappear, I sent a missive asking for confirmation that that was indeed the fact. Of course, since The Beehive is off for the summer, I've got nothing until the evening juku classes tomorrow. Wednesday, however, is gonna be a real Hump Day since I've got no less than Miss Prissy, Grandma Enka, The Admin, The New Yorker, 001 and finally The Fashion Designer on tap. Then it's back to virtually nothing on Thursday with only The Music Man in the last slot, and finally Friday is gonna be just The Bass followed by the 90 minutes with the juku boss, The Ace and The Restauranteur. I was a bit surprised to see that there has been no e-mail from The Cornerette although an entire weekend has passed by. Still no money from that translation exercise. Considering that I've lost a number of students and that it'll be a low-paying month, any money I get from The Cornerette will have to go into savings. Too bad...I was hoping to spend at least a night in Yokohama.

Back on Friday, that big dinner party at The Restauranteur's place happened with the juku bunch. It basically wasn't really a celebration of my 5th year at the juku, and I'm glad that the onus wasn't on that. Instead, it was just a getting-to-know-you party. Before the dinner, I finally met The Hungarian, the newest hire by the juku boss. He's all of 25 and looks like he just got demobbed from the army with his short haircut. Pretty amiable guy and fluent in Japanese and has a major love for cats, so you can imagine he just loves Toonces the Juku Cat to death, despite being majorly bitten and clawed. I guess he's kinda into masochism then. Anyways, when the three of us got there, The Milds and Mr. White had already arrived. Strangely, the couple and Mr. White kept apart...but then again without formal introductions, they may have well as been at separate tables...'tis a Japanese thing. The Ace showed up some minutes later, and of course, The Restauranteur got busy with our group and two other parties. It was a mellow event...just what I wanted. The juku boss threatened to confuse it a bit with her usual scatterbrainedness, and she cheerfully pleaded with us to tell her straight about any nuttiness on her part. I just kept quiet...usually the confusion just manages to flow over us like a wave and then everything smooths out. I had told everyone beforehand that we would do this izakaya style....that is, everyone shares dishes. And after all was said and done, the price came out to just 1,600 per head...the same price I usually pay when I go there. The juku boss, The Hungarian and I had a brief cup of coffee over at the school before we all parted ways. The Hungarian was supposed to have had his first lessons on Saturday with some kids and an adult student who could only come on the weekends, so I'm hoping that he passed muster.

I had my first full weekend off in a few weeks. So, after finishing off with The Nurse and before the juku party, I'd stopped off, as I occasionally do, in Nakano to take a look for some old CDs. Nothing at Otokichi but I managed to scrounge up 5 CDs for a hundred yen per disc. I actually saw one of those discs at Yamano Music selling for 30 times more, so I'm glad that I could get the bargain. I did see a number of French nationals cruising through the dingy hallways...they're so big on anime. On Saturday, I went over to Akihabara. The maids were there...amazing how they could keep their composure in the heat. Had what has become the local food in Akiba...the doner kebab. Now, there's a corner on the main drag which has three trucks selling kebab. Had my usual Big Boy with can of pop.

On Sunday, since I didn't have The Jyuppies, I was at home all day. I actually caught that old movie, "Sphere" based on the Michael Crichton novel. I'd never seen it when it came out a decade ago, and I'm kinda glad I didn't. I think the advertising was wrong...it wasn't a sci-fi adventure but just a haunted house mystery several fathoms below. A lot of plot holes there, too.

Well, with no Full-Timer and no word from The Cornerette, I really don't have all that much to do until Medicine Man comes in 4 hours. May just work on that project to save our company.