Thursday September 10, 11:26 a.m.

A little more than 15 minutes away from Miss Sedona's penultimate lesson...I made a slight error earlier about it being her last class. In any case, Speedy may be biting his nails about her future with us although since she'll be leaving next month, I don't think there would be much point in doing so.

Miss Sedona will be my only lesson here at Speedy's today. Afterwards, it'll just be the privates in the form of The Bow and The Carolinan at different cafes. And if I'm lucky, I'll be able to hit home early enough to make some supper instead of doing the usual bento. In between, I hope to hit Recomints at Nakano Broadway once more since I got a flyer with the latest releases yesterday...and one of them happens to be a re-master of Ruiko Kurahashi's very first album back in 1980 or 1981. Yep, on the way to the school, I stopped off at the discount disc place yesterday and managed to scrounge around the bins and picked up 5 discs for 500 yen.

MB seemed a bit snippy in his latest e-mail...told me he needed to get an exact time instead of "early evening" from me about when I could meet up with him in Shinjuku for "Wolverine" on Saturday. I did say that I would be finishing at 5 at Speedy's and he knows how long it would take for me to get to Shinjuku from here. I tried to be nice in my response but I just couldn't help but show a bit of sting back at his little bile.

Speaking of sting and bile, 002 asked me, via 001, if I would be interested in coming out to her place on October 11th for dinner. She could've just contacted me directly by e-mail. But in any case, since I've got Mr. Mild's concert on the 4th and The Jyuppies would like at least one of the first two Sundays for their class, I think the chances of me heading out to her place for dinner are pretty slim.

OK...got the annoyances out of the way. A lot of us...especially at Speedy's....may be singing the blues about the current economic crisis, but even the rich seem to have it bad. The most famous photographer in the world, Annie Leibowitz, seems to have found herself $24 million in debt for some reason. Maybe I shouldn't feel too sorry for myself.

Anyways, Miss Sedona is here...

Wednesday September 9, 8:29 p.m.

Interesting how about several months ago, Wednesdays were regularly called the Hump Day of the week...I had a mix of privates and regulars at Speedy's during the day and then the regular night lineup of 001, The Diver and The Fashion Designer. Back then, I think I openly wondered when all that would disappear considering the sinking economy.

Well, I'm now on the other side of that thought equation. No privates today since The Admin had to cancel today's lesson. The Diver quit several weeks ago and The Fashion Designer finished off her remaining lesson last week. It was just 001 tonight, and she's headed off for Australia on her annual overseas trip next Monday so there won't even be her next Wednesday. I may actually have a non-holiday totally free Wednesday next week. Does make me get a little wistful and philosophical.

In a way, though, I'm happy that The Admin did cancel this morning's meeting. The Tozai Line got hit by some sort of collision accident around 4 a.m. (didn't even realize that the trains ran that early), and the resulting chaos affected over a quarter of a million commuters; there was a helicopter shot of the crowds just milling around Nishi-Funabashi Station, a station that I have to go through whenever I see The Beehive or The Bass. It looked like an Obama campaign rally. I could imagine what it must've looked like at my station. Since The Admin cancelled, I didn't have to go in til mid-afternoon. By then, things were all cleared up.

Speaking of the Beehive, I saw them for the first time in about a couple of months. Mrs. Perth visited us from Sapporo; in fact, she headed off for Haneda Airport back home to Hokkaido right after the lesson and lunch. Because of the long summer vacation, the ladies were in an especially chatty mood. Just about everyone of the regular crowd was there: Mrs. Alp, Mrs. Tee, Mrs. Travel and Mrs. Jade along with the aforementioned Mrs. Perth. Mrs. Travel talked on her latest trip to Italy. She was crowing that she and her daughter had been able to grab a suite at a 5-star hotel by Lake Como (George Clooney's home away from home) after being double-booked at their scheduled 4-star hotel. I don't think even Japanese hotels are that generous. On the other side of the coin, Mrs. Tee related that she and her family had been involved in an auto accident; no injuries but the impression was that her husband may need to be retired from driving. Mrs. Alp got on her high horse and scolded Mr. Tee in absentia. Nag, nag, nag....

At my station, there is a branch of Pepper Lunch, a chain of restaurants specializing in hotplate-grilled beef. It had replaced the long-running Dosanko Ramen some years back, and in the last few months, received a makeover of sorts. Earlier this week, I noticed that the place was closed. Even when I got home at my latest...past midnight...Pepper Lunch was still running since it knocked off at 1 a.m. However, last night I read a sign reading that there had been an incident involving an ill customer who'd gotten O-157 virus from the restaurant food...probably the salad. Yikes! In any case, the restaurant did what any restaurant in Japan would do in such embarrassing circumstances: it has shut down for the next little while in penance.

My stint at the juku last night had me asking the boss how the big powwow went between the new teacher and the mothers of those kids on Saturday. The story went that the teacher was going to refuse to teach a trio of kids since one of them was just acting up all over the place which necessitated the intervention since the kids and the mothers wanted the group to stay intact. The boss was fretting a lot about it. Well, it looks like some sort of temporary truce was achieved, if not a detente. So things seem to be more The Two Koreas more than a reunified Germany. Still, the boss is thinking how much easier it would be if there were no Saturday classes.

I finally got to listen to Michael Jackson's pre-"Thriller" album, "Off The Wall" last night. It made for an interesting listening experience. It was kinda proto-"Thriller", actually. There were signs of the singing genius that Jackson would finally show on "Thriller" but "Off The Wall" was reminiscent of the last embers of the disco period. His voice back then was still trying to find its....voice, in a way. "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" was notable for the fact that he had sung the track totally in falsetto. However, "Rock With You" is the one tune that will be my favourite; just a great Rod Temperton composition. Aside from "She's Out of My Life", the others will probably have to grow on me over time. It was also interesting that I'd bought "Off The Wall" along with Mariya Takeuchi's "Miss M", since both were made at around the same time and both had used a lot of the same musicians. Still, this album can be considered to be a sister to Quincy Jones' classic "The Dude".

I also finally got to watch Disc 9 of Ken Burns' "Jazz" epic documentary. I haven't been buying the discs in order so there has been a lot of jumping amongst the decades and genres. Disc 9 dealt with basically the advent of West Coast Jazz, Hard Bop and Experimental Jazz in the 50s and 60s. The previous disc was Disc 5 which was about the apex of the Swing Era, so it was quite a jump to go from Benny, Duke and Louis in their prime to their slow fadeout, at least initially, and see names like Miles, Coltrane and Rollins popping up. Hearing and seeing the difficult and iconoclastic Miles Davis perform on the DVD has gotten me itching to pick up some of his CDs sometime in the near future.

Monday September 7, 10:43 p.m.

I promise...this is the last entry for today. Man, I am so beat. Only had two lessons with 8.5 hours between them, and yet I'm just so ready for bed after a round with The Medicine Man. He just especially sloggy tonight...he's never been the most ebullient responder, but tonight it seemed like every question asked him seemed to him to be the most in need of thought, no matter the topic. Ugh!

Just wanna go home now...

Monday September 7, 6:40 p.m.

I've got a lot of donut days coming up. In fact, I'd say that everyday except this Friday will be hole-y. I had The Nurse this morning and since then it's been nothing but blogging and working on that project from Speedy. We lost another staff member who'd been with us for about a year; she's gonna be heading over to meet her husband in jolly ol' London to start a new life there.

As usual, I've got The Medicine Man in the last slot tonight. Tomorrow, I see The Beehive for the first time in almost 2 months. It'll basically be catch-up day so I don't expect to use any new material. Mrs. Perth will be making her periodic visit from Sapporo so I'll be joining them for lunch.

There was a CNN online article which featured Patrick Stewart who had been at one of those sci-fi conventions. Of course, the lineup to see him was extremely long. Heck, if he'd been here in Tokyo, I would've been more than willing to line up. He said that "Star Trek" is now a fond memory, but a memory nevertheless. But he said that the Xavier-Magneto storyline can still be squeezed for some more mileage. I can certainly agree....that one scene at the beginning of the first "X-Men" nearly a decade ago was easily the highlight for me. They can take turns reading The Yellow Pages on stage, and the combo of Stewart & MacKellen could still ensure a full house. I had to chuckle when someone asked him about what it was like to work with the Shat. He just remarked that "...he is a piece of work, isn't he?" I don't quite think that it was a full endorsement.

Monday September 7, 5:30 p.m.

And even before all the MB weekend, I had found myself with a rather empty Friday since The Bass decided to cancel his class on the 4th. So I decided to take a recce and did a couple of walks in The Big Sushi hours before my stint at the juku. I started out in Shibuya since I hadn't been there in quite a while (my stints with The Class Act all seem like a faded memory now). Just started clicking away at the camera like a regular tourist before I walked up Route 246 Aoyama Dori towards Aoyama and Omotesando. Came across some funky architecture such as the Ami Hall in the left picture. Continued walking up 246 until I made it to Gaienmae. Then I hit the subway and took it up to Ginza.

After checking out Yamano Music as usual, I just walked it up all the way to the Imperial Palace. That's Nijubashi you see up on the right...Nijubashi is translated as "double bridge" since the real thing clearly reflects its image in the moat water. Of course, the usual tourist groups were there walking around the area since they couldn't go inside the compound itself.

Despite my large amount of faux-sightseeing, I did purchase some stuff. At Tower Records, I picked another couple of discs from Ken Burns' "Jazz" epic documentary, along with Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" album. Have yet to hear the whole disc though I did listen to "Rock With You". I also picked up a J-Pop album from Mariya Takeuchi from her early years: "Miss M". I can safely say that noone could ever mistake that album with any by The Divine Miss M, Bette Midler. I'd been getting the latter releases by Takeuchi from the 90s onwards which has shown her to be a serene middle-aged beauty just lounging about. "Miss M" was released in 1980, when she was all of 25 years of age and perhaps just before marrying her equally famous husband, Tatsuro Yamashita. Young Mariya looked like a prettier and classier type of pop aidoru back then...all twinkling eyes, teeth and bangs with that look of "Aw gosh...I really am in Hollywood!" expression, all wrapped up in a suit that a member of a barbershop quartet would just adore.

The early 80s, as far as Japanese New Music was concerned, was practically synonymous with American AOR. It seemed as if a lot of the Japanese singers at that time like Takeuchi, Hiromi Iwasaki, Anri and Naoko Kawai were just begging to be produced by the likes of David Foster who had been behind a lot of the hits for AOR/R&B legends like James Ingram and Bobby Caldwell. "Miss M" was Mariya's contribution to binational AOR diplomacy. Half of the songs were done in LA with the aforementioned Foster and a lot of the familiar names one would see in American AOR album liner notes. What got me to buy the album was the first track, "The Sweetest Music", which I'd seen via YouTube last week with Mariya and backup girls sashaying due to a disco beat....yup, she's been around that long. At that point, Mariya had already been giving her tribute to the Great American Songbook via the Connie Franklin chapter, but with "Miss M", she didn't just throw herself into AOR but also into a bit of disco, balladry and even cool jazz. Quite a revelation for an old kayo kyoku fan like me who's been accustomed to seeing 54-year-old Takeuchi being most notable recently for her annual Xmas jingle for KFC.

Monday September 7, 5:06 p.m.

Now that I've gotten the food reviews out of the way...

the non-culinary portion of my weekend at MB's consisted of movies and video games, the usual itinerary at my friend's home. Saturday evening was a double-bill of "The French Connection"...1 and 2. As a movie buff, I have to admit to some embarrassment at the fact that I'd never seen Gene Hackman's magnum opus of the early 70s. Of course, I'd heard of what had been cinema's greatest rendition of a car chase in the first "French Connection"...that is, until the car chase in "Ronin" eclipsed it.

The first "French Connection" gave a gloriously gritty depiction of New York jungle life. And Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle was one of its most dangerous beasts. I hadn't realized what an anti-hero Doyle was until finally watching it. This guy could give Vic Mackey of "The Shield" a case of cold sweats. Doyle is NOT a nice man. Even after getting kidnapped, forcibly hooked on drugs and going through withdrawal in the sequel, Popeye remains a jerk throughout. I could've imagined any other writer or producer showing that arc of redemption, but it would seem that the producers were hell-bent on ensuring that he never becomes a new good man....even to the point that the movie finishes off extremely abruptly half a second after he finally gets his man in Marseilles...no chance to see any tender moments (not that the character would probably ever show them) at the airport between him and his French hosts. It's kinda no wonder that Hackman seemed to get more villianous or morally conflicted roles ("Superman", "The Firm", "Unforgiven") later in his career.

However, it's with the first movie that Popeye is obviously in his element and that the story shines with Manhattan acting as a supporting character...it's fascinating to look at but I wouldn't ever want to step into it for real. I could see where the contemporary police procedural shows like "Law & Order", "Hill Street Blues" and "Third Watch" found their muse. Ironically, a TV version of the movie quickly went down in flames in the 80s.

Monday September 7, 4:58 p.m.

My weekend at MB's was definitely a gastronomically satisfying one. I had El Pescador on Sunday night, but the night before, MB, The Sylph and I had another fine dinner...this time, at a yakiniku shop.

It'd been a few months since our last trip to Korean BBQ...I think the restaurant was in Yoyogi and one of The Sylph's friends had introduced us to it. Grilled and marinated beef is one of those food items that, along with peanuts and chips, can never be stopped at just one slice. It turns us fans into devouring machines. For some reason, there seems to be a direct relationship between the number of slices of yakiniku eaten with the increase in capacity of the human gastrointestinal tract. Luckily though, MB and The Sylph are more gourmet than gourmand, so they helped me keep in culinary control. We had the de rigueur plates of salted beef tongue, kalbi, bulgogi and chicken with generous helpings of salad and kimchi, and MB & I drank it all down with Guinness (!) Of course, my way to end the feast is to always order kalbi kuppa, the hearty stew of marinated kalbi beef, rice and veggies. Despite the amount of cow that we all had, we were still able to take down the kuppa just fine.

Monday September 7, 4:43 p.m.

The restaurant so nice, its photos I put up twice. Yup, the Burger Tour Gang followed the clarion call of Movie Buddy about this place, El Pescador, in Jiyugaoka and amassed last night for what would become a symphony in culinary expertise. For days, MB and The Sylph raved about the fare there. Since they went there as a couple, their choice in dishes to enjoy was limited....unlike me, they don't have black holes where a G-I tract should be. So, they decided to call in the whole gang of me, Skippy, The Satyr and Miss Ivory and Frodo along with his wife.

We weren't disappointed at all. In fact, even the guys were raving throughout the dinner at the various dishes that came out one after the other. Usually, the squeals of "Oishii! Oishii!" are from the domain of the women, but this time the men were also more than happy to echo the sentiments. And for good reason....there wasn't a false note struck during the entire meal. From the above shown Lamb Chops to the two brands of paella to the salad to the bountiful dessert plate and others....this would go down as one of the best repasts I've had in the many years I've been here. Usually I'm not a lamb person since the rather pungent aroma and taste have turned me off in the past. But this tender and juicy dish pretty much destroyed that myth as completely as having that uni at that sushi restaurant that The Jyuppies had taken me to a couple of weeks before. There was the usual amount of chatter amongst us, and Skippy was getting giddy as she usually does, but there was also a lot of appreciative talk about the food. Heck, even Frodo was getting high on his espresso...even had a second cup, which would mean that sleep was probably non-existent for him that night.

During the evening, the chef and other staff had to turn away a number of folks who had erroneously thought they could get in sans reservations. No can do at this place....it's just too small and too good to pull that sort of thing off. Reservations are mandatory. Jiyugaoka has had a number of gastronomic pleasures for me each time I've visited the area with MB, but El Pescador comes down as one of those places I would go for a second trip the next time I head out that way.

Thursday September 3, 7:14 p.m.

Another one of those long, lazy days in the office chair since I've had the Mother of All Donut Days. To remind you folks, a Donut Day is one in which I've got a student at the beginning of the day and then have to wait several hours before the next one. Between Miss Sedona and The Music Man, I've got 8.5 hours. That's a lot of computer time.

Meterologically, the alternating hot and cold cycle that Tokyo's been getting finally got broken today...on the side of Fall. It went up to just 25 C yesterday and that's what it was today as well. I went out a half-hour ago to grab a bento from the local Lawson's and it just felt pleasantly cool. That might be de rigueur in Toronto, but over here that's about akin to an early frost.

During the long break, I took care of some odds and ends such as taking care of the Advance Information Form at Air Canada and finishing up on that project for Speedy. I've got all the bare bones for this potential course for study-abroad students who may be a bit nervous about their English ability, but I just gotta come up with some skin and tissue to put it all together. Sometimes, though, I wonder if the bossman just gave me the assignment so that he could have a reason to pay me since I've been scarce on students recently. He even said that most likely there would only be a few students who would want the service. Usually the students who sign up for studying abroad are already pretty lucid.

While both Ray and La Fille were here, the three of us got into the topic of natto, that love-hate Japanese food of rotten beans that seems to be the Manna of Heaven in the Kanto while it was until recently the universal culinary equivalent of wolfsbane in the Kansai. I'm definitely of the latter persuasion...as is Ray, which is a bit unique since she hails from the Tohoku area. La Fille is just in love with the stuff...a lot of the natives here eat it on rice with a bit of karashi mustard...but she goes for it au naturel; just the stuff itself. When I told the both of them, however, that I'd seen a variety show in which some enterprising fellow came up with the idea of natto chocolate cake, they both gagged. The conversation then sidled into my recent trip to Nakamizo, the sushi restaurant in Chuo-Rinkan that The Jyuppies had taken me to the other Sunday. They marveled at the photos of sushi I'd taken. They were also talking about the near-legendary Carrot...a restaurant near Nishi-Ogikubo (not too far away from here) that is famed for its large Japanese-style hanbaagu (hamburg steaks). I'd first heard about it from The Matron some years ago since her hefty son had been a regular customer (figures). The place also got onto some of the variety shows as well. Lineups at Carrot are an inevitability. Someday all of us here at Speedy's may get out there for lunch...provided we survive our current financial crisis.

Just a point about Speedy's financial crisis...it goes quite a ways to say that I'd earned more in the last month than the entire school did in the same amount of time...that's how bad it is now.

Also came across the Wiki entry for "Burn Notice", that whimsical spy series from FOX. The show's starting to be advertised here; there's the picture of the main character played by Jeffrey Donovan up next to his popularity predecessors, Jack Bauer and the guy from "Prison Break". I first caught it on the plane headed home last year and found the first two eps a hoot-and-a-half. Any show on a personal screen which can make me forget about the arduousness of air travel for 13 hours has my respect and enjoyment. And it looks like the show has been doing well...it's entered its 3rd season. If it gets popular here like "24", I figure Donovan will be next in line to do a silly Calorie Mate commercial here in Tokyo just like Kiefer Sutherland.

Speaking of foreign celebs who've come in recently, I caught Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman on the NTV morning wide show yesterday. Of course, he was in to promote his latest "X-Men" movie which is coming out in general release next Friday....yep, late as usual. I think he, along with Will Smith, is one of the few Hollywood types who actually relishes kidding around with the local tarento. Of course, the folks went wild at the rumour that the next "Wolverine" flick may be filmed partly in Japan....usually those rumors fly out like so much dust at any movie series such as Bond. But this time, there may be more than a kernel of truth since James "Logan" Howlett has had his connections with Japan over the years in the comics. I rather doubt that there will be anything here in The Big Sushi. Getting permission to film here in the largest city on Earth is harder to get than getting permission to get into Fort Knox.

Well, since tomorrow I've got nothing until the juku classes, I may just enjoy myself in the sunshine and go around Tokyo for at least part of the morning and early afternoon and give my digital camera a workout. I figure why not? Every time I start wondering whether I'll be financially solvent by the end of the year, I get rather whimsical and decide to do something for the heck of it.

Movie Buddy's big weekend is officially on. He sent me the e-mail asking what time I would be coming in on Saturday and then telling me how much he's looking forward to the big dinner at that much vaunted Spanish restaurant with me, The Satyr, Miss Ivory and The Sylph.

Got a lot down in 30 minutes...

Thursday August 3, 11:24 a.m.

Well, after the equivalent of a seasonal quarter, my odyssey with Japanese ceramics translation finally came to an end when the payment finally got transferred to my account this morning. I'm sure Ichikawa City was equally as happy to get my money.

However, Speedy is singing the blues. Apparently, the news didn't filter to him that The Fashion Designer had decided not to renew, although Ray was right there with the after-action survey. He had a rather blank look on his face for a couple of seconds before he sank into his recently customary moroseness about the situation. As for the a-a survey, I got top marks as her teacher but under the category of personal progress....she only rated herself at 3 out of 5. A bit of a kick in the pants...I really have to stop sidetracking. 001 even lamented the fact that she hasn't been progressing too far into the book.

I've only got two students today: Miss Sedona and The Music Man. Miss Sedona only has two more lessons to go, but we all know that she'll be heading for Canada to start a new life in less than 2 months so it would be no surprise if she decided not to re-up. As for The Music Man, he had just bought some more lessons so it will be several more weeks before the topic of renewal comes up again.

Wednesday September 2, 8:35 p.m.

Finished up with 001 a half-hour ago. Mostly another free-for-all gab session running the gamut from the names of the world's intelligence agencies to the karaoke stand at Mandarake in Shibuya. Yup, we really go far afield conversationally. The lass will be headed for a solo trip to Australia in a couple of weeks, so there's a very real possibility that the 16th may have me heading home very early, since I believe that The Fashion Designer will be no more as of tonight.

Just had a couple of rice balls for dinner. Not that I'm trying to prep especially for that checkup next month, but perhaps getting prepared for what I may be forced to eat if sales don't improve at either Speedy's or at the juku.

Wednesday September 2, 5:08 p.m.

To the left of me is the entrance to Nakano Plaza, home of everything that is otaku that isn't in Akihabara. I go there occasionally to see all the old-fashioned Japanese popular culture stores. One of them is...or was...Otokichi. It's actually located just some metres back from Broadway, the home of Mandarake and all other subculture shops.

Otokichi was the shop where all the old J-Pop CDs were sold...even before it was called J-Pop. Back then, it was just known as kayo kyoku, and featured singers from the immediate postwar era up to the 90s. I often went there to see if I could scavenge some gem from the 70s/80s or even the early 90s. I came across some of those unsung heroines that never really became superstars but I tend to love anyways such as Ruiko Kurahashi, Reimy or Kanako Wada. When I actually ordered a disc via Net, I even got a message from the owner asking how a Canuck like me could even hear of Ruiko Kurahashi.

Well, all good things must come to an end. And I got a blanket e-mail from the owner stating that the Tokyo branch has closed down for good, the reason being that he and his family are heading back to Hiroshima to be closer to the larger family since his father had died a few months ago. But I also noticed that Otokichi was never that full of customers although I realized that the shop was pretty small to begin with. However, the mail order service will still be online. Still, a Nakano Plaza institution has come to an end, and I'll have to try my luck with that shop I discovered in Jimbocho.

Wednesday September 2, 2:27 p.m.

Well, I did the deed. Purchased the air ticket from Air Canada...heading back home again for another 3 weeks of binging and guilt trips....oh, yes, and also the Holidays. Cost me an extra 23,000 yen now compared with the price, pre-potential strike call. So, on Mrs. Lens' call, I held back until we were sure that AC would survive. I guess the 23,000 yen can be considered my ghost legal fee.

So, I guess out of the payment from The Corner, the air ticket and the two premiums for City Tax and National Health will pretty much take a majority of that with about 50,000 yen left for savings.

Wednesday September 2, 1:17 p.m.

"Taught" Grandma Enka for her monthly...really, it was a gab session, and it is basically meant as one since Speedy has to do the dirty work with her in the other weeks. Enka keeps on complaining about how boring the text is, so to keep her happy, I'm the exhaust valve. Mind you, she seems to just want someone to talk to in Japanese although I respond in English.

Speaking about the grandmother students. we got a surprise package from Grandma FON who's been away all these weeks in the wilds of Nagano Prefecture in the form of various crackers and snacks. She'll be away for the rest of this month but may be coming back in October. As for Grandma Dynamite, Enka informed me that her sister is still ailing. She said that just when Dynamite feels up to coming back to the school, she suddenly gets those pains again. Uh-huh....

Got the response from The Corner lickety-split about the payment. It had been forgotten about but it should be in the account in the next 2 days. Well, the fact that he responded quickly enough is good, but the Dark Side in me is grumbling a bit.

I remember that poster for "Spiderman 2" in which we get a close-up of Spidey's face and reflected in his two eyespots is Doctor Octopus. Well, I'm sure some enterprising political cartoonist has already replaced Doc Ock with Mickey Mouse. Yep, I'm talking about The House That Mickey Built annexing The House That Stan Built. I can just see it now...the next time kids go to Tokyo Disneyland, they can shake hands with Goofy or get them torn off by Wolverine. Marvel Team-Ups may now actually include The X-Men and The Seven Dwarves joining forces: "Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to world domination we go..." Pluto, meet Hellcat. Doctor Doom, meet Doc. Donald, meet Howard. I hear that the synergistic forces have prompted a reboot of "Fantastic Four"; Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Minnie....your comeback vehicle is here. I guess you can insert your own drum rimshots after each of the last several sentences. I can only imagine how the comic book guys are responding to this news. I can imagine how Comic Book Guy is responding to this news: "Worst...Team...Up...Ever". We shall see.

Well, tonight I've just got 001 and The Fashion Designer....that is, if she doesn't dotakyan and thereby avoid saying goodbye.

Wednesday September 2, 11:23 a.m.

Well, I checked my account this morning again to see if The Corner had transferred payment. Nada. So, I finally decided to send him an e-mail about it. Strangely enough, he sent me an e-mail about a wholly different matter...which made me wonder if he actually did send it or completely forgot about it. In any case, I politely reminded him of it and hopefully he'll let me know in the next few hours.

In any case, Grandma Enka is here...

Tuesday September 1, 12:51 p.m.

That dreaded Typhoon 11 fortunately left us a lot sooner than expected last night. By around 9 p.m., things looked wet but significantly windless and no one was opening umbrellas. Best scenario possible. However, the war between man and nature left the corpses of umbrellas all along the way to the subway.

Not surprisingly, today is back to sunny and hot, as it usually is after a summer typhoon. Got some laundry done and did the lesson planning for the juku students. The cancellations keep on coming, though. The Admin is gone for this week along with The Bass, and even SIL has canned for this month since her mother had injured herself. And I'm still waiting for that payment from The Corner...I'm really hoping that that money is in the account right now; I tried to check but there was a long line at the ATM.

The LDP is still licking its wounds after the beating it'd gotten on Sunday night. A former Defense Minister, Ishiba, sounded a bit petty but basically repeated what everyone else has been thinking in saying that the DPJ won only because the people wanted to punish the LDP more than it thought that the DPJ was any good.

Quiet on the SNS front. Had a number of Mixi friends looking in but not commenting. Well, I guess I can do a lot of YouTube today then.

Monday August 31, 8:44 p.m.

Well, tomorrow is September 1st. For a lot of folks here, it's Earthquake Drill Day (just feel the excitement....or the artificially induced shakes in the quake simulator). However for me, it's time to play two songs with the same title, "September". One, of course, is the one made classic by the guys to the right of me here, Earth Wind & Fire. Just hearing the few beats of quiet intro followed by the racing horns brings out a few quakes in me. "Do you remember...?" I surely do.

The other is by one of the few J-Pop songstresses to last through 3 decades and still keep putting out the hits. This "September" was by Mariya Takeuchi, and it's a vastly different number. Kinda evoking the novelty teen idol sound of the American 50s, young Mariya released this nearly 30 years ago when she was harking back to the sounds of Annette Funicello and Connie Francis. Still, the two songs reflect the various aspects of Americana pop music. She's still releasing pop tunes even now in her mid-50s alongside her contemporary, Yumi Matsutoya. But she's probably famous recently for her KFC yearly Christmas jingle. If a J-Pop tune could sound like a Norman Rockwell painting, it would be this one.

Typhoon 11 has suddenly veered off a little ahead of schedule. As I look out the window, there isn't only not any rain (ouch the syntax) but I don't even see any umbrellas, living or dead. There may be hope yet for the commute home. But I'm still lucky that I don't have anything until the juku.

Monday August 31, 6:41 p.m.

Looks like that direct contact with Typhoon 11 has been delayed by 6 hours! AAUGH! I might have to run smack dab into it on the way home. That is, if the Tozai Line allows me...when I was heading to the office, I saw the announcment that Tokyo Metro will be cancelling all of the express trains (as is usually the case in emergencies) because of the typhoon. It might be rather dicey getting home...I may actually even have to grab a cab. La Fille had come back from lunch looking rather drenched. She reported that it took an Olympian effort to return to the school, and noticed that there were the carcasses of several umbrellas littering the sidewalk. So far, mine has held out for now. Speedy's regular student at this hour has dotakyan'ed, but then again, she tends to do that at the drop of a hat.

On Saturday night, I came across the rerun of "Star Wars: Episode 2" on Fuji-TV....I assume, as counter-programming against that 24-hour telethon on NTV. Fuji needn't have worried...as bad as the prequel trilogy is, I still won't get anywhere near something as maudlin as the NTV telethon. Having said that, hearing some of the horrible lines that Hayden Christensen had to vomit out in his scenes with Natalie Portman just had me rushing for the MUTE button. Still, I have hope that some enterprising young director/producer will decide to re-imagine the entire prequel in the near future....probably when George Lucas has gone to that Death Star in the sky. I figure if it could work for "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" (the latter having been inspired by the original "Star Wars"), it's gotta work for "Star Wars". Just a tragedy how the talent was wasted.

Monday August 31, 4:19 p.m.

It's gonna be another one-class night. Just The Medicine Man. I shouldn't expect any cancellations from him since Typhoon 11 will have gone north into Tohoku by that time. However, I did get one from The Admin due to a business trip this Wednesday. So, it'll just be Grandma Enka for her monthly with me followed by 001 and what I assume to be the very last lesson with The Fashion Designer.

Got word from Cozy thanking me for that quickie translation request on Saturday. It's nice to hear, especially after that arduous assignment from The Cornerette. I have yet to see the money although The Corner said that I would be paid at the end of the month. Well, I'll check the account later tonight or tomorrow. If I don't see anything there, I will probably need to think about our professional relationship.

Monday August 31, 3:41 p.m.

Back on the 11th during my mini-trip in Yokohama, I faced Typhoon 9 and a real earthquake. Today, I'm facing Typhoon 11 and a political earthquake. As for the former, the hurricane is making a beeline straight towards the Kanto and should be on our doorstep in the next few hours...the signs were right there from yesterday as I was heading off to my haircut...slight rain with a translucently white overcast sky and an eerie calm. Now, I had to do some fighting with the wind and rain between the subway station and Speedy's. As for the latter, Yukio Hatoyama of the DPJ is making a beeline straight towards the Prime Ministership and should be making his Cabinet choices in the next couple of weeks.

But enough of the comparisons...last night, all of Japanese TV went on red alert and their seemingly designed-by-Starfleet studios to provide coverage of what was basically a landslide for several hours. Even the English interpreters of NHK were making overtime up to 4 a.m. this morning. I can imagine that the 7 p.m. broadcast tonight will start off with one of those interpreters going "Good evening, and welcome to the.....YAWN....7 p.m. NHK news".

The landslide was not surprising (the media had been predicting for several days that the Democratic Party of Japan could get 300 seats in the Lower House...so much so that the blitz probably outdid the global one for "300" the movie), but not insignificant. Folks here generally despise change...it is (or was) very much "the Devil you know" type of society. So, it was not an inconsiderable feat that the DPJ managed to get the largest turnout of voters in 13 years to oust definitively the Liberal Democratic Party which had been in power for almost all of the last 54 years. There was a brief hiccup in 1993-1994 when Morohiro Hosokawa, not of the LDP, became PM but with a coalition government and a far less definitive margin. This time around, the DPJ did it all by themselves, getting 308 seats out of a possible 480, and in a truly O. Henryesque ending, with a leader whose grandfather was the first PM under the LDP banner in 1955. The feat was such that even Typhoon 11 has had to take a back seat behind the supposed winds of change.

Last week, I was hearing the tones of The Jazz Singer in Roppongi; well, last night I was hearing the opinions of far less pretty pundits throughout the media spectrum. NHK was putting up election results almost every second. And I just kept seeing the kanji for the DPJ, or "min"; it was just, "min, min, min" all night long....I figured I was seeing the graphic version of cicadas crying. Even though the final result was never in doubt, all of us were watching the benchmarks slowly being broken like multiple racetrack tape: the DPJ hitting the 200-seat mark, then the 241-seat mark signifying an absolute majority and finally the 300-seat mark, proving the media-inspired prediction of a landslide. Even the BBC and CNN got into the act and even had Yukio Hatoyama's victory (yawn) speech. Hatoyama may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but charisma is sorely lacking. He's about as glum as former PM Shinzo Abe, the human Cigarstore Indian. But then again, Japanese political victories aren't about balloons and cheering crowds and 70s/80s songs used as campaign themes as it is in the States. Over here, it's three yelps of "Banzai!" and perhaps the coloring in of the second eye of the giant daruma doll if we're lucky to see it.

Now, that the DPJ has won, what next? Well, perhaps, it may resemble President Obama and the Democratic Party of the United States. Tons of promises by the inarguably more charismatic and articulate Barack Obama but everyone has been asking about where the money is gonna come from to pay for all this. Everyone will be asking Hatoyama the same thing probably within the next several hours. DPJ folks have been saying that they think they know where they can get the money; they say that since the LDP has been so corrupt and loose with their projects, Hatoyama and the gang can just tap that supposedly existent giant slush fund like an overripe maple tree. As for me, I'll believe it when I see some actual reform and help for the average guy. Being the cynical type, I predict that the DPJ, having had no leadership experience will probably stumble around like the Keystone Kops, will end up losing 4 years later in the next election, and that the LDP, which will have been ruminating in the political wilderness for that time, may get their act together and win and perhaps even improve this country's fortunes. Nope, I don't have a whole lot of faith in this new regime.