April 24

Well, the WHO decided to declare Toronto a no-go zone because of SARS. Of course, the Canadian government blasted WHO calling it an overreaction....and besides, all that tourist money would be lost. Now I'm wondering if all those expected visits over here will also be curtailed.

Another long day in the salt mines. I finished off another one-day Intensive of very little necessity. Thanks to some good planning, I managed to pull one out of the fire although I had one smart ass who put a bit of spice into the pudding. I kinda wish that the manager hadn't scheduled me for that 2-hour night class; I may as well have telephoned in my performance there due to exhaustion. There's no respite tomorrow; I've got 6 hours of teaching to do, but at least the classes are good.

Tomorrow is also the big opening of this humoungous supercomplex in the foreigner's quarter of Roppongi. Called Roppongi Hills, this Tower of Babel is a glass and metal monolith overlooking the seedier establishments and contains 4 shopping malls and Wolfgang Puck's first restaurant this side of the Pacific. He may be on every Hollywood celeb's rolodex back Stateside, but he's an unknown over here; hopefully, his goat cheese pizzas strike a chord with the Japanese. Also, Virgin Cinemas have set up a mulitplex there. Branson himself showed up for the inaugural opening last night with the local showbiz types.

April 23

I've been searching for hotels for my brother and sister-in-law when they come over in mid-May. Anything under 12000 yen a night in Tokyo is about as rare as common sense in the Japanese government.

Well, McDonalds entered a new phase today by debuting its new hip and trendy menu which includes the Premium Mac. Tried it out and decided that the only premium thing about it is the price. Just a slightly bigger burger topped with a gooey wasabi mayonnaise sauce.Thanks, I'll stick with the Big Mac.

April 22

The week has been going by OK so far. The weather is still unusually cool for a Tokyo Spring.

My future relationship with my school is slowly starting to take shape. I just started my new course which will be the only company class that I will have once I go part-time in mid-May. Also, my manager wanted to talk with me about something but since I had to take off for the new class, he waved it off for another day; I caught a slight glower on his visage...if I've done something to offend him...GREAT!

It also looks like I'm having quite the reunion in May. A number of friends, a former student and my brother and sister-in-law will be haunting this side of the Pacific in the next few weeks. I gather that even SARS hasn't stopped them.

April 20

Looks like it was a flip-flop weatherwise this weekend. The rain came on Sunday instead of Saturday.

After a nice day with the girlfriend, I caught up with an old friend back from Canada and had dinner at an izakaya that we usually haunt. Basically, our appetites got the better of us as we devoured fried chikcen, sashimi, eel, custard and beer over 4.5 hours. At the same time, we managed to get into international politics, a topic that I like to let go on but rarely get the chance to due to my work. It was good to give my thoughts about the US and the war.

It also looks like I might face a small onslaught of guests in the coming month, just in time for my semi-retirement. Along with a couple of friends, I may be seeing my brother here on business; it would be the first time he's set foot in Japan in over 20 years.

April 18

Thank heavens this week is over! Man, not too bad today...just 4 hours of teaching but it was a heavy week. At least I can now have some attempts at a good weekend's sleep. I got some Z's in on the sofa in my school's lounge in advertently this afternoon. I guess even coffee and vitamin drinks couldn't do the trick.

Tokyo finally hit the big time in temperaure this year. Nice balmy 26 degrees. It won't be too long now before the mugginess creeps in.

Chicago blows into town this weekend. I will definitely have to catch that sometime in the next couple of weeks. I'm not quite sure how well it'll fare here. Musicals, or at least the Japanese-casted versions, have done OK but the only big face in the movie is Richard Gere. But I'm sure the PR folks will have the gang come in to do a bit of promotion.

I think all of us were amused by the North Koreans this week when they quietly rescinded their demand for only bilateral talks with the US over the nuclear problem. Now, after Gulf War 2, they seem only too happy to tackle multilateralism.

April 17

8 hours of teaching today. I was looking pretty ragged by 9 tonight. However, I'm happy to say that I'm over the hump and that I only have to face 4 hours tomorrow. So far, this new crew seems OK but the gelling factor is not quite kicking in yet. However, since I won't be seeing these guys past the middle of this month probably, I'm not too worried. I'm wondering if I will be kept on even as a part-timer.

April 16

Well, my first full day has passed, and it was full. After 7.5 hours of teaching yesterday, I was a tired little boy last night and I look forward to the same amount of hours today as well. It's still too early to say about how the dynamics are, but it is definitely an older and more staid crowd although I did meet a 20-year-old guy in the group. At least I have a few hours of time between my first and second classes today.

April 14

It's the eve before payday, and after doing the budget for this past month, I'm proud to say that I managed to save quite a bit in March/April.

The new kids are in the House now, and I've just done my first class with the low group today. Not a bad bunch so far, but I'm sure there will be a few "characters" to find. But I do hope that some of my classes will be passed onto other teachers; it's a monster of a schedule this week.

Caught CSI's pilot episode tonight on TV Tokyo. Pretty darn good...there's already quite a bit of tension and drama in it.

April 12

Well, my weeks of wine and roses are over. I had my schedule faxed over to me today and I found out that I've got the lion's share of classes for our new year-course students next week. I should be properly exhausted by next Friday. I figure my soon-to-be former employers are trying to squeeze me for every drop before I take off next month.

I caught Daredevil today with a few friends. Strangely enough, we found it quite entertaining despite the spite thrown at it. Perhaps it was the fact that I had such low expectations, but even with some of the glaring faults, it did keep me entertained for over 90 minutes. And I think if I can be entertained by a flick that was roundly panned, I can only imagine the time I will have when X2 and The Matrix Reloaded hit our shores.

April 8

Well, I saw some of the banner headlines boasting of the death of the Hussein family at the newspaper kiosks. And sure enough, I turn on CNN to find out that nothing's been confirmed yet. Just forlorn ol' General Brooks trying to keep his bratty press corps under control.

It's Intensive time. I've got another one of those all-day freshmen training seminars at a government bank tomorrow. I'll be so wiped out by dinner time. Happily, I don't have any classes after 5.

April 7

On the birthday roll today, Tetsuwan Atomu, otherwise known as Astroboy in the Americas, celebrated his birth. That's right...years ago, when creator Osamu Tezuka gave birth to his most famous character, he had Astroboy arrive on April 7, 2003 in the genuine neighbourhood of Takadanobaba, in Tokyo. Takadanobaba is an area of small cafes and shops popular with the university crowd since it is close to famed Waseda University. On Sunday, there was a parade to commemorate Astroboy, and in the morning, Fuji-TV premiered an updated version of the anime.

Also on a somewhat wistful note, I went down to the trendy area of Odaiba by Tokyo Bay for a class at Shell Chemicals. I related to my students that I had first set foot in the area back in early 1995 when the place was nothing but half-constructed buildings, huge expanses of sand and...nothing. Now, it's its own little world away from Tokyo where the young frolic every weekend.

April 6

Well, unlike the deluge of yesterday, it was a marvelous day today. I got together with a former student at her invitation to go for a walk in a city garden for a bit of cherry-blossom viewing. Surprisingly enough, not all of the blossoms got blown or rained off. In fact, there were quite enough of them so that a lot of groups were spreading out their blue tarps and having their picnics underneath the trees.. We saw a lot of submarine-sized carp in the ponds as well.

April 5

Wind, rain and cold are plaguing Tokyo once more this weekend. So much for cherry-blossom season. It looks like a lot of those delicate petals are going down the sewer today. If we are lucky, there may be some hope for Sunday although with the amounts pouring down today, it'll be some pretty soggy sitting.

Just caught a Biography of Carrie Fisher, a former target of puppy love back in the 70s. Man, she went through more hell than Princess Leia ever did as a Rebel leader. Can't believe she's now a portly 47.

April 4

Capped off another quiet week with dinner with some old students of mine in an Italian restaurant in Shinjuku. I hadn't seen one of them in several months due to her long stay in England. I thought she would have picked up an accent there but that wasn't the case. The food was quite good; Italian has become quite a mastered cuisine in this country, and the typical Italian eatery has become as ubiquitious as a sushi shop. Our maitre 'd seemed to take his job a bit too happily, though. He had a frozen smile and an annoying penchant for spouting Italian which creeped us out sometimes.

Well, I got a heads-up that next week, the busy days will be back. I'll be doing another one of those all-day intensives for the freshmen for one of our clients. Not one of my favourite assignments since a number of these Intensives are frankly of no immeidate use to them. Maybe I can feign SARS.

April 2

Just looking at one of the numerous specials that pop up on Japanese TV between seasons. This one is the CDTV countdown special celebrating the show's 10th anniversary. Boy, nothing dates you than seeing music videos from 10 years back. A lot of those bands have disappeared into nothing. Such is the fleeting nature of fame.

April 2

The black suits are comin'! With the arrival of April, the new fresh-faced addtions to the Japanese work force were out in full force yesterday all over the city. Boy and girls....erk, men and women...were hitting the streets in their new suits and ties and dresses with crisp black bags all against the backdrop of blossoming cherry trees. Oh, how Japanese!

Up and down in the temps department again. We've got some major rain here now and it's back to cold. And my cold is still haunting me.

One of my biggest Internet horrors has come to pass finally. I accidentally deleted all of the good mail instead of the spam mail through the screening software. Major frustration!

March 31

In this currently uncertain world, it is nice to know that there are some nice days to be had. It was the very first gloriously Spring Monday in Tokyo this year. And as I was walking toward the Hotel New Otani from Yotsuya Station, it was nice to see the cherry trees blossoming beautifully, and the temps balmy. Also, I had what was probably the best cocoa I've ever had in Japan in the hotel thanks to my students.

It also didn't hurt that I got to finish at 1 today, so just came back home, did a bit of shopping and then watched some Babylon 5 DVDs before cooking up some dinner. This week looks light as well, and I think I may be finishing even earlier on Wednesday. I'll be appreciating every minute of this week since things will get back to normal within a couple of weeks.

March 28

Ugh! Fighting Darth Throat. Thanks to a cold and a lot of talking in class over the last couple of days, I now have a voice which is a mix of James Earl Jones and a bullfrog. I could probably do a decent version of the famous Budweiser commercial from a few years back. Time to hit the tea and honey.

I see on CNN that the battle map is starting to look a bit crowded in Iraq; kind of like a RISK gameboard after the 7th hour of play. Georgie is getting a bit testy about being questioned on the length of this war but, hey, he and his Cabinet were implying that it would be a bit of a cakewalk before the 20th.

Over here in the Land of the Rising Sun, the (fiscal) year is coming to an end, and come April, everything reactivates from the companies to the TV schedules. University grads are spiffing up their new polyester suits and black bags to enter real society and copious amounts of drinking and abuse. As for me, I'm waiting for CSI to arrive on TV.

Bought a Yellow Magic Orchestra CD a couple of days back. For those not in the know, YMO just happens to be one of the big original bands for technopop which came into being just shortly after Germany's Kraftwerk. The band included Ryuichi Sakamoto, now better "known" to the world at large as the Oscar-winning composer for The Last Emperor. The album I got was "BGM", one of their most techno albums. Their earlier efforts mixed a lot of Oriental flavor and other genres, but this one was pretty pure techno, and it struck me that this was a bit of a precursor to the techno albums of today.

March 27

Thanks to a big hole in my schedule which swallowed my classes in the middle of this week, I find myself with a lot of time on my hands to write and watch TV. Two of my classes on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons got canned or given away to somebody else so I've been able to come home quite early and head out quite late. Not complaining too much, for now.

Spring has finally come to stay. My windows are way open and I'm feeling no pain.

After my lone 2-hour class tonight, I'll be heading out to see a fellow teacher off before he leaves the country permanently. When he first came in, I wondered about how popular he would be but it looks like I had nothing to worry about. He's getting a lot of students coming to his going away party tonight.

March 24

Well, Oscars don't really come out here very much, but it was gratifiying to know that Japanese anime, "Spirited Away" aced the Best Animation award.

Having watched this war in live progress for 5 days, I've gotten a very stark perspective of life. While I'm here grumbling sometimes about my job and my boss, there are people half my age half a world away literally fighting for their lives as well as for their country and political philosophy. Heck, five of those people are now in Iraqi custody going through who knows what. At the same time, there are also journalists out there who are risking their lives to get the truth out, two of whom have paid the ultimate price.

Finally after a very long winter, it became warmer; no need for the heater or blankets anymore. Amen.