August 15, 10:30 p.m.

Well, shortly after my last entry, I find out that nearly a fifth of North America got blacked out. Toronto just can't buy itself a break. I'm hoping that I can get in contact with someone back home. I am happy though it wasn't a terrorist attack.

I can actually say this: I wore a black jacket...in August...in summer....in Tokyo. I am very confident that this is the first time and probably the last time that I will ever pull this off. It was just so cool today as well as rainy. Some deity is playing the shell game with our weather.

It was full-time with my part-time status as I taught the oil guys. Then I met up with a motley crew of a couple of teachers, and three current students for an impromptu lunch at the izakaya right beside the school. I never knew that I could get a pretty decent lunch there. We may have dodged a bullet (or not) during lunch though as we made mention of a recent grad who really didn't deserve her diploma; I think some of us forgot that she was a friend of some of the students there.

Afterward, we hit a cafe for some coffee. Ostensibly, one of the teachers was supposed to have come with me to meet up with a couple of recent grads (deserving ones), but she decided that she would stay with the lunch group. I didn't force the issue, but I thought it was pretty poor of her to make that quick switch like that.

Anyways, I met up with the two grads across the street at a Starbucks, and for th e next four hours we gabbed on just about anything and anyone in our sphere of influence. By around 5, I was getting mighty exhausted, so I was happy when we did break up, although I was happy to have seen them and to continue to see them.

Well, after that I went down to Yurakucho for a bit of CD shopping before meeting up with my Friday night circle for Chinese food, since our regular venue closed up early due to the O-Bon holiday. Very pleasant food and talk.

August 15

I wake up at 4 am to a very cool August morning. There is definitely some wackiness to this summer worldwide: people dying of heatstroke in Europe; we're shivering here in Japan. Toronto has our temps.

I checked over my finances last night before payday; surprisingly, even with this sparse working month, I was still able to save a bit of money. For me to actually stay above the red line is a miracle.

I've been kinda thinking about this possible thing between me and the former top student. I had asked her via e-mail subtly about going out for brunch on the coming Sunday. Unfortunately, she already has plans but I also noticed a certain brevity and coolness in her last dispatch. Perhaps she's giving me the signal, NO. I must admit that I'm starting to think that this was a flight of fantasy after all. We both may like jazz, speaking French and movies, but this is a woman who has professed her love for Ben Affleck and muscular fellows, and she has been going through the OMIAI route of matchmaking, so she's definitely interested in someone with a more lucrative career than an English teacher. Eck!

Well, after my lone class today with the oil guys, another teacher and I will be meeting up with two just-grads for coffee or lunch. Hmmm...if they decide to hang around long enough, I may just invite them to dinner with my Friday night circle. Our regular cafe is closing early tonight because of the current O-Bon holiday, so we've decided to head out for Chinese in Yurakucho. It could be a very nice meeting.

August 13

A relatively cool day today...man, this has been an unusual summer. It was a pretty normal day. Just had three hours worth of classes...all of which went fairly well

Looks like The Hulk got majorly pulped in the Japan Times today. The impression I got from the critic is that he must think comics are probably the lowest form of literature and that Stan Lee is the Antichrist. Well, Mr. Fazio, I respect your opinion about the movie...it was certainly no great shakes; on your other stuff, though, I heartily give you an extended finger in response.

August 12, 11:30 p.m.

I had a nice day today. It reminded me of the fact that I do have a very unusual, and perhaps even enviable, life now. I went back down to Roppongi to see Chip Guy for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, complete with very American sullen service. Then we caught The Hulk.

Once again this year, a superhero movie managed to do better than expected in my eyes, despite mixed reviews Stateside. Like its title character, The Hulk is well-meaning but flawed. On the up side, the story was fairly good, the CG was handled well, and the subtext between the two fathers of the piece was interesting. On the down side: a slow beginning, flat performances by Eric Bana (who must have assumed that repressed meant emotionless) and Jennifer Connelly (who needs to get advice from the Star Wars actors on how to react to CG), and a bit of a tacked-on battle sequence at the end which could've been much better developed in a sequel. I guess the producers wanted to take no chances. On the Marvel movie rankings, The Hulk rates somewhere between the inferior Daredevil and the far superior Spiderman.

Afterwards, I had my lone class at the Tuesday juku. My new boss is certainly a talkative one; I didn't have any time to prepare at the school itself, although I had things pretty much laid out this morning at home. She again brought up the issue of a new second base of operations with me as the new resident. I said that I would think about it, provided that certain conditions are met.

August 12

A very exhausting trip home from Yokohama, Tokyo's younger and hipper sister. I went over this afternoon to meet my usual Monday night students for a special afternoon "lesson" at the female student's swanky apartment overlooking the bay. They were quite up for this cocktail production; they bought up all the fixins for a B-52 and a martini...not too cheap. I offered to pay for some of the stuff but they refused.

Then it was off to the apartment where we spent several hours just mixing, eating and drinking. We ended up making that dry martini and the B-52 along with a few other drinks from my mixology guide. The B-52 was delicious but potent; instead of Kahlua, though, we used Godiva chocolate liqueur...very decadent.
Two more guests came by. Both were former co-workers of my female student. At one point, one of them went into a major harangue about her boyfriend; I just listened very patiently and answered where necessary.

What made this feel even more like a weekend was that we decided to do some karaoke in downtown Yokohama. The kicker for the entire night was that I was still paid my full fee despite the fact that I hadn't taught a thing and the fact that the two had also paid my way at the karaoke box. I don't feel particularly good about accepting the cash but since they insisted, there wasn't much I could do, and once again, I'm not going to look a gift uma in the mouth.

August 10, 11:03 p.m.

Ugh! It felt like the hottest day of the year so far this year. And yet, I decided to abandon the comfort (and high bill) of my air conditioner, and go down to Roppongi to try that breakfast at Roti's. According to the ad, it boasted the best breakfast in town.

I was surprised when I got there at about 11:30 a.m. that there weren't all that many people there, but the cashier told me that things usually got hairy past noon with the tourist crowd. The place had friendly service and I was surprised that I was spoken to in English right off the bat despite my stealth gaijin status. It took me a tenth of a second to hook up to native Canadian mode.

As for the food, it was good enough but I just didn't think it earned that best breakfast bit with me today. The pancakes were very good: two large and fluffy flapjacks with whipped butter on the side and real Canadian syrup. The side dish of hash browns was nice but the sausages came a bit mis-seasoned; not underseasoned nor overseasoned. They just tasted a bit off. The buffet table with fresh fruits, breads and cereal seemed a bit skimpy considering that the restaurant expected a lot of folks for an all-day breakfast. However, it was nice to get bottomless coffee.
I wasn't too happy with the surcharge they threw at me, though. Overall, it was good enough and I would bring someone there if they weren't too picky on the money per value aspect of it.

After breakie, I took a quick look through Roppongi Hills for no other reason except to just be part of the crowd. I did take another look at Wolfgang Puck's bistro. The menu did have a reasonably priced lunch at 3000 yen.

Then it was back up to Nihombashi to the Maruzen bookstore to do some prospective shopping for my newest student for a new TOEIC study manual. There was a pretty good practical one issued by Oxford Publishers at a reasonable price, but the CDs and tapes were another matter. I will have to check with her to get her OK.

Next, it was down to Shibuya to Tower Records. I found a good mixology book by Mr. Boston, the bastion of bartending. It ought to be quite good for tomorrow's "lesson" on martinis. I managed to get a juice break in the steam heat before making one last stop at Tokyu Hands to get a teddy bear for Chip Man's baby daughter.

Finally, I swam through the humidity to neighbouring Daikanyama where Chip Man lived. The heat just seemed to get worse, probably because of the reflective surfaces all over and the refractive nature of concrete. I just had enough energy to slog into the nearest convenience store to grab some snacks for Chip Man before making that last 7-minute trek to his house.

I got to meet the littlest member of my extended family. She was an adorable tyke with a good set of pipes as I was to hear sporadically through my visit. It had been several weeks since I'd seen them, so we caught up on a number of things while we watched a couple of episodes from his DS9 DVD collection. I greedily gulped down most of his cranberry juice; my colon should be squeaky clean by tomorrow.

Mommy came home so we ordered in a pizza and just relaxed in cool comfort before I headed out once more. Luckily, the temps had lowered quite a bit to make my trip home bearable.

Now, I just have to confirm that I'm still on for that trip to my student's apartment in Yokohama tomorrow for that class in English mixology. That guide I bought should be quite nice for some of that rum and cognac I have just lingering in my home.

August 9

The grad party went pretty much as expected despite some intense squalls from the typhoon. Lots of food and drink and talk, including some major griping from a few of the teachers about the schedule, which perhaps wasn't too appropriate in front of the grads.

Afterwards, there was a 90-minute waiting period back in the lounge before heading off to the izakaya downstairs for the next 4 hours. There was definitely a major rift between the louder junior grads and the quieter senior grads. However, I'd seen that in previous years so I wasn't too worried about it. However, a rather intriguing running gag started up as one of the students noticed that me and the top grad of the school looked like a married couple. Of course, that got everybody to razz on us big time. I must admit that I was pretty flattered, and the top grad played along very cheerfully with it, but I'm not sure how she truly feels. Plus, there is the fact that I had relatively recently ended my previous relationship. However, she not only likes movies but jazz as well....which perfectly chimes in with me. My ex never really got into the flicks and she had never really registered with any musical style. Overall, I'm just gonna have to take it nice and slowly. I think one reason that my last relationship broke up was that we just went too quickly.

After 8:30, we decided to go across the street and try that trendy bar that we have used for other grad parties and Xmas parties. There, we just continued our separate talks on relationships over ice cream (no other desserts) and tea. Finally, an hour later, all of us went home with the assurance that we will continue to get together once ina while for dinners and movies, and in my case, the possibility that I may get another better chance at happiness.

August 9

The pizza party went well. About 11 full pizzas were generously devoured by the student body. Beforehand, the senior class was feeling some post-grad blues or ennui, so I engaged them in the basics of poker and blackjack.

Today is the big grad party. No idea what's gonna happen this afternoon. It could just end up being a very quiet 2-party deal or it could end up becoming a fracas. In any case, aside from a bit of gale earlier this morning, it looks like the typhoon will just bypass us and leave just some steady rain in its path.

I've been watching the Mariners/Yankees games on one of the commercial channels. The rivalry between Ichiro and Matsui, mostly pumped up by the local media, has been a godsend for sports fans. Watching a game between them is like watching an old game between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens in hockey, when BOTH teams were worthy.

August 7, 8:30 p.m.

Today was an intriguing day as I spent my last class with the top classs at my school. As usual, the top student failed to disappoint us in leading the conversation to the down and dirty. We got into the topic of attending a men's strip show in Tokyo. I couldn't believe how enthusiastic she and one other girl was about going out to the Japanese equivalent of a Chippendales. At the same time, the coordinator of the year-course programme was showing a potential new student. I may have dodged a bullet; I just shifted to more ambiguous vocabulary, and luckily most of the students caught on. Boy, I am just gonna have to keep contact with this class.

Later that day, I had my first class with an alumnus at the Tea Room. She was also quite an interesting character in her day at our school. I hadn't seen her for a couple of years, and after meeting her for the first time tonight, I think she has developed a certain amount of gravitas although a certain Betty Boop still resides within her. It looks like it won't just be letter writing that I'll have to help her with but also her TOEIC score since she'll be taking the test at the end of September.

Well, tomorrow I may be catching The Hulk with new father Chip Guy if our schedules can be reconciled. Then, I head off to the celebratory Pizza Party back at school to herald the end of summer term. Finally, I do have my regular English circle. All that is tempered by the meterological possibility that a typhoon may plop onto our city on Friday. Mind you, I think it won't be too powerful since it will have gone over most of Honshu before reaching Tokyo.

August 7

Well, just heard from CNN's Breaking News that The Terminator will indeed try to become the Governator. Serenity NOW! At least, it was amusing to see the entire media caught flat-footed.

August 6

Fifty-eight years ago, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. As usual, NHK broadcast the annual comemmorative ceremony live this morning at Peace Park in downtown Hiroshima. However, for the other commercial stations, it was just business as usual which made me wonder if even most Japanese have started to forget about the importance of the day. Mind you, the mayor of Hiroshima shot one across President Bush's bow by accusing the US of helping to proliferate nuclear weapons.

However, apparently and perhaps all may not be lost. One old woman who had been there on August 6, 1945 as a young lady in her twenties has been visiting the graves of as many of the victims as she possibly could and offering water from a waterfall as a means of atonement. She admitted that back in 1945 she didn't help the seriously burned people around her because had been told not to. And since then, she has felt guilty enough to go on this annual mission to the tombs. But now that she is getting too old to keep on going, the task has now fallen to a 24-year-old man whose grandmother was an A-Bomb survivor. Perhaps the younger generation still has some gravitas about the first city to be attacked by a nuclear weapon.

But of course, we must return to hard gritty reality. Mind you, there is a sense of justice done. Recently, there had been a spate of serial stabbings by a nutball in Shibuya. Well, the police finally got their man, a disgruntled unemployed man in his thirties who wanted to REALLY let off steam. I say, a thousand paper cuts weekly.

Looks like I've got that temporary stint over in Nakano, thanks to Movie Buddy. My first meeting will be on Monday after my special "cocktail" English lesson with my real estate agent students earlier in the afternoon.

Tomorrow will be a 5-hour day with two classes at the school and my first lesson with an alumnus for letter writing.

August 5, 11:30 p.m.

Another scorcher to remind me how much I dislike summers in this country. I think I was downing a lot of canned drinks today just to replenish my sweat. Plus, I taught a good 7.5 hours which equally drained me. It also didn't help that there was an intense thunderstorm today which made walking home in the humidity an exquisitely unpleasant experience. I just had time to grab my books for the night classes before heading out again into the rain. At least, I was able to have some down time at the McDs and in my room at the juku before my first class.

Looks like I may have a short assignment coming up with one of my movie buddies' sister. I have to give her a call. Tomorrow should be a bit more pleasant at least in quantity. I teach my kids for 2 hours and then I've got my Toronomon student for 1 hour.

An update on that house that my juku owner was thinking of acquiring. It turned out to be too good to be true. It turned out that there were a lot of cracks and damage in the old hourse, including a toilet tank that was emulating a certain Italian landmark.

David Beckham was back in Japan this week for a demo game with his new team, Real Madrid. 1200 of his best friends roosted in Narita Airport to welcome him.

August 5

Well, that supposedly cancelled class today was put back on when the student called this morning to say that the overtime work itself was cancelled. It wasn't too bad and I did get paid, but I sometimes wonder about a class when the students get more excited about my talk on Ontario horseflies than anything on business.

Beforehand, I met up with those two students to head over to their classmate's restaurant for lunch. It was the same place that I had gone to a few weeks ago. We got there a bi t early so we ended up ordering from the lunch menu. However, it was all good; we were privy to a nice cheap meal of some dim sum, noodle and rice dishes and even some dessert thrown in. The three of us had a nice talk for a few hours and then another more at a coffee shop before I had to head out to that night class.

Tomorrow will be a grueling one. I've got 7.5 hours of teaching ahead of me. At least, I've managed to prep for them. It almost feels like my full-time days.

August 3, evening

Boy, showers feel so nice after getting in so gunky. Also, there was another dire reason for me to be so happy to be home but more on that later.

I started what turned out to be a long entertaining Sunday by heading out to Shinjuku and meet up with some students to catch Johnny Depp's "Pirates of the Caribbean". When I got there at about 11 am, it was already 31 degrees C. You know when a country is truly heading into the subtropical range when you go into a shop and the air conditioning is set to blizzard. The temperature differential was so enormous between the inside and the outside, it was a wonder that the entire population didn't get pneumonia.

In any case, I met my 6 young charges, all of them from the higher classes, in front of the Mizuho Bank. Then, we set off a block down to the theater and got our tickets before stepping into the Wendys next door to have a quick bite to eat. In what would turn out to be a later gastronomic mistake, I ordered a Classic Triple Meal which included fries, coke and a triple-patty burger. Part of the incentive for my insane choice was out of curiosity, the other part was to provide a conversation piece for the students. I'll have to learn not to do that in the future.

One of the ladies pointed out jokingly that I was the teacher and the only man in the group. The irony didn't escape from my notice, and certainly I was glad for the company. In what would be a running gag throughout the day, the school gossip was bandied about like hot potatoes among kids' hands about which teacher was trying to charm his way into the students' hearts and vice versa. But that was a familiar theme with this group. I didn't feel particularly uncomfortable about the talk; I'd been through this all before. However, this group, and the de facto ring leader in particular, was quite intense about it.

The gossip got really hot when we were waiting in line to get in. Never had I been more entertained in a lineup than with this group. I hope all future outings with them are like this.

Pirates of the Caribbean was a 2 hour, 20 minute flick which had garnered some good reviews from the States. This summer, the so-called blockbusters had to start begging for any sort of approval from the critics, and it seems that Pirates was one of the luckier flicks. However, I think I would have to consider myself one of the naysayers. The movie was OK for the length but it just seemed so lacking in energy. And I'm not saying for certain scenes but for the entire movie. It just didn't reach for the highest highs, or for the lowest lows for that matter. It stuck to a pretty dull narrow range. Depp certainly put ina lot of chutzpah into his Captain Jack Sparrow but it was all in a cinematic vacuum. I just wonder what it would've been like if there had been a dynamic cast and story surrounding him. It will be a minor feather in his cap of sorts, but Pirates won't signify the return of the pirate movie as a viable source of income for the studios.
Mind you, the ladies seemed to have enjoyed it...because of dreamboats Depp and Orlando Bloom.

In any case, the first run of the Movie Buddy outings came off successfully. We, or at least a few of us, may go for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind when it comes out in a couple of weeks.

Our next stop after the movie was a cafe called Veloce. It's just another small chain mixed in with the others that have made Tokyo a coffee town. As we were sipping our iced lattes, our ring leader once again regaled us with some of her adventures in Europe. It will be a pity that she will be graduating in a week, although I think I'll actually be hearing or seeing her a bit more often than I have at the school the last couple of months since we've struck a good friendship.

Then, it was time for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant just around the corner from Veloce. It was tucked into a side street on the 2nd floor; very non-descript. It was notable for the fact that the staff were actually Vietnamese and that the chairs were very heavy. The food itself was OK but not overwhelmingly impressive. In a way, just like the movie, it lacked something. However, once again, the students enjoyed it more than I did, and that's good enough for me. Even after several hours of chat at that point, the gossip was still flying. I landed a minor bombshell on them which threw all of them for a loop.

Finally, our last stop was at a Starbucks...not out of choice but for the fact that it was available and there were really weren't any other interesting places out there for a drink which didn't require a lot of money. In another stupid gastronomic endeavor, I decided to get the Mocha Latte with a Sugar Doughnut. Meanwhile, the ring leader started talking about her former roomie in Paris, a wild child with a long history of substance abuse, and how she had to drag her to the bathroom to help her throw up and then, in another incident, pull her from out of the bathtub since she was drowning. The others suggested that she write a book.

So, 10 hours and over 6000 yen later, the first Movie Buddy outing came to a close. I can't speak for my companions but I was feeling majorly sweaty and smelly in the humid and hot air. Shinjuku is definitely not a place to be if you want to stay feeling fresh. And all of my gastronomic foibles of the day decided to come back at me with a vengeance when I started getting a stomachache on the subway home. Since I was traveling with two women back into Chiba, I couldn't really show my pain so I had to exert a Vulcan control over my body....to stem the flow, if you catch my drift. On second thought, don't bother. Thank god for meditation; I just focused on one word and repeated it over and over to keep things at bay. All this and at the same time keeping a conversation with the students.

When I got out of the subway at last, it was the longest 10-minute walk this year as I mightily trudged my way home while keeping control. But when I got there, a safe resolution was reached and I was proud and relieved...literally. The only bad news is that I have another dinner tomorrow with one of the ladies who had come out today and two other students. However, I'll exercise some more discipline.

All in all, it was a good day despite the hair-raising ending. I think if this continues, it will probably be a monthly thing. I certainly couldn't financially afford to shuck out the yen as I did today on a weekly basis.

In what comes a s a potentially bad news/good news thing, my Monday night student left a message stating that because of overtime work, she would have to cancel the lesson. This will mean that I won't have to trudge out to the west end of town and teach until 10:30 pm and I could potentially spend a more leisurely time with the students at dinner tomorrow. However, of course, another source of income will be lost for the week. Then again, I will have a 3-day weekend. Such is the life of a bohemian teacher.

I probably won't be heading for bed for a while yet. I still have a lot to digest and since I won't be seeing anyone until the mid-afternoon, I can afford a bit of a late night.

August 3

I had my monthly call from Mom last night. Most of the calls are cordial but once in a while, she gets into ultra-mother mode and ends up annoying the hell outof me. Partially because part of what she says is true.

Once again, she got into her harangue about thinking about my future and marriage. She comes from the generation where marriage is a no-brainer; one gets married and that's it. She even said that my sister-in-law has offered to introduce me to one of her friends...which really steams me. After breaking up with my ex, getting into another relationship falls somewhere between eating raw liver and having a procotological exam. I'm starting to think that I really have no interest in having a "normal" life of wife and kids. But I kept my cool, though she knows that I have a bad temper.

The other thorn to stick into me was about my financial future. Here in Japan, as an alien, I probably would not get any access to an old age pension if I did stay that long, and since I'm not in Canada making any income, I'm not accruing any pension there either. Basically, there is no nest egg for me provided by the government. I am bothered by that...although I and most people both in Japan and Canada are of the opinion that old age pensions probably will not exist by the time I reach 65. However, my mother asked me whether it wouldn't be wiser to return to the Great White North and find a job with a computer company.

Once again, my blood started to boil. My parents just won't get it into their heads that I have very little interest in becoming a systems engineer or a doctor or a lawyer. And returning home would leave my career in tatters over there. I will not work for any Board of Education at home; I have no love for kids and most likely I would miss life here in Japan. I would end up wondering about how life would be like here. Maybe I'm being closed-minded but I know what I don't like.

So, I'm left at the proverbial fork in the road but a fork with roads leading possibly to dead ends. I stay here in an uncertain economy and future for Japan or head eventually back home permanently but have verylittle opportunity to pursue much of anything.

Why do I feel that my life seems to have more bitter than sweet? Great...I can go to bed grumpy.

Several hours later...

Well, I'm awake again. The grumpiness is largely gone although a lingering sense of UGH remains. Another sign that the typical Tokyo summer is here? I went straight to the air conditioner for relief, and sure enough, that sweat stain is on my futon.

Last night, I went through my increasingly neglected DVD collection (notable by the growing layer of dust) and found the South Park movie. Now that's a view into the pop culture looking glass. Back in the late 90s, the infamously crude Comedy Central series was the talk of the town. Wicked toilet humour, celebrity skewerings and quotable catchphrases ("Oh My God...they killed Kenny"; "Beefcake...BEEFCAKE!") were helping it become the latest challenger to The Simpsons.

The movie itself to me was the peak of the South Park phenomenon. Its "Jump The Shark" moment. And what a moment. The movie relentlessly went out of its way to shock and offend just about any group out there, and the result was a huge outpouring of laughter at the audacity of it all. And on top of that, its ode to musicals was unbelievably good. I could say that the movie was the last great musical of the 20th century (although I could imagine the Gershwins rolling in their graves).

I have a number of movies that I regret not having seen at the theater. Minority Report is one. The South Park movie is another. I would've loved to have been in the audience when all of the mayhem was being spewed. I heard that a number of people left the theatre in horror...with their kids, thinking that this would be a regular cartoon. I'm pretty sure that the kids were dragged kicking and screaming.

Since then, South Park is apparently still running but the glory days are over. The Simpsons are still unbeaten. I saw a recent episode of SP and found out that Kenny was PERMANENTLY dead, as non sequitur as that may sound. Now, the main challenger to Bart, Homer and the Springfield gang for respect is King of the Hill, a much less raunchy show but still very funny.

August 2

Another hot day and yet people are still wondering when the rainy season will officially close. Hello, McFly!

Decided to do a little Saturday enjoyment in the neighbourhood. Went over to thelocal massage clinic for a rubdown. I didn't get my favorite masseur, the chief, but his spunky second-in-command. She did a pretty good job.

Then it was off to McDs for a Big Mac set and Coke. I deserved it. After a bit of grocery shopping, I'm back home where I'll probably be sweating all of my Big Mac set over the next few hours while I clean the place. The wonderful thing about my apartment is that it retains heat in the summer and it loses it in the winter. Yes, you read that correctly.

More proof that there may be a god after all. The Ben-Jen vanity project, Gigli, is being slow-broiled by critics and rated a perfect 0% on the Rotten Tomatoes website. People that rich and beautiful should get some cloud with their silver lining.

August 1

A long hot Friday. The summer is definitely here...although it may be too late for the rice farmers to get a decent crop.

I had several hours of break time between my lone class and the dinner with my old students so I ended up heading for Ginza and getting a CD plus magazine. Then, I went up to the roof garden of the Mitsukoshi department store and just read my Entertainment Weekly outside for a couple of hours. It wasn't too hot there; the winds helped to cool things down.

Then, I walked over to Shimbashi Station to meet up with the four oil company students and the lone Friday night circle student (the other is in Switzerland, and my ex has pulled herself out). One of the oil company students found himself a new job with Mazda out in Hiroshima, so it was a goodbye party for him. As usual, we went to the Farm Grill. Of course, with the evening menu, we had access to the good stuff. And of course, I overindulged. Goodbye diet.

Tomorrow will be a rare Saturday off since my kids won't be available then. So I hope to wait for a package to be delivered and then do a bit of cleaning up at home since I probably won't be home on Sunday for most of the day.

July 30

Summer is just about on our doorstep. Now, the nights are starting to feel humid. Looks like I'll be burning up the yen overnight via my fan. It's that or end up with a huge sweat stain on my futon the shape and size of my body.

I made the easiest 3000 yen tonight when my student popped into the Starbucks at Toranomon to tell me that she wanted to cancel tonight's lesson because she wasn't feeling too hot. I tried to refuse the money since it wasn't earned but she insisted that I take it if only as an apology that I had to go downtown for nothing. After doing the culturally acceptable two refusals, I finally took the yen. I'm not gonna look a gift uma in the mouth.

Movie Buddy left a message on the machine today saying that he may have another group of students for me. Always nice.

Last night at my newest gig at that lady's English conversation school on the 2nd floor of her house, she first asked me how much rent I was paying for my apartment and then she shifted her attention to a potential house a couple of stations away that she was planning to get for a second school. She even mentioned that she was gonna try to bring the rent down to an unbelievable 50,000 yen a month; the original cost was 95000 yen for a 3-room, 2-floor place, still a good bargain. The catch is that it is located beside a cemetery, and the Japanese, despite all of their technological savvy, are still very superstitious, and so most people would rather eat cockroaches than move next to a final resting place. From what she was saying, I was wondering if she were thinking about me being the new resident.

I must admit that it would be tempting after nearly 9 years in my 2K. And my ex had always wanted me to get a house for us, but that's pretty much a moot deal now. However, I would wonder about having to be at home AND at work at the same time. The superstitious angle doesn't bother me, though. I'm the guy who can always find an empty spot on the subway platform where the label marked "4" (designating the area where the 4th car would be stopping) is located. Even on a crowded platform, it seems that noone native here will go to that spot since the Japanese pronounciation for 4 is a homonym for "death". However, as I write this, I'm knocking on my wooden table.

Well, I've got my early Thursday morning to look forward to

July 29

Back from another exhausting Monday. I feel very sticky all over, and it's just going to get worse once the rainy season ends officially on Friday.

Looks like August will indeed be a fairly lean month for me. My Monday morning class announced that they will be going on summer hiatus for the next 4 weeks. And along with the fact that my in-school classes and my Tuesday morning private class will be doing the same thing in the next couple of weeks, I may have to look forward to a lot of tofu meals.

After the morning class, I decided to catch a movie. Unlike most of my choices, this was a homegrown production called "Odoru Dai Sosasen 2" or as it is translated, "The Big Investigation". It and the first movie back in 1998 are the only Japanese movies I've ever caught in nearly 9 years of life in Japan. I never even bothered to catch the magical "Spirited Away" which I may regret.

Now what's so special about this flick? Well, to be honest, I first got hooked on the theme song, a kinetic techno number which has become as famous as the Hawaii Five-O theme song. And strangely enough, the movie is based on a cop show which ran for 12 weeks on the local Fuji-TV network back in 1997 before releasing the two movies.

"Odoru Dai Sosasen" will never really compare to American fare such as NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues. Our cultures are just too different. However, both countries share a love of police dramas and this show has become the recent standard to beat. It stars Yuji Oda (those of you who are into Japanese trendy dramas may remember him from the 1991 hit Tokyo Love Story, as Kanchi Nagao) as Detective Sgt. Aoshima, a salaryman-turned-cop who fights the good fight. The show is notable for its mix of Keystone Kops-type comedy or probably the same level of comedy allowed to exist on The Love Boat and drama based on the eternal rivalry between the local police grunts and the arrogant elite detectives in Tokyo.

This rivalry was what got me further hooked into the show. Apparently, the police hierarchy is separated into two parallel forces: the aforementioned elite cops on a national level, and the grunts occupying the small precincts and police boxes all over the country. Of course, the elite look down upon the grunts which is the heart of the story.

The sequel, whose story revolves around not only the main plot of murders committed by disgruntled laid off salarymen but also on the open battle of police procedure between Aoshima and a new witch-like elite police superintendant and three very small subplots, was entertaining enough although there was very little innovation in the story. It basically followed the same formula of the internecine rivalry, a serious injury to one of the main characters which sparks a closing of ranks and Aoshima's coming to the rescue. However, the Japanese prefer this formula; just take a look at the Tora-san series or the Mito Komon TV show. Formulas rule!

Several hours later, I had my usual late-night class with my real estate agency students. However, I wasn't too impressed with my performance. I felt like I slacked off today; mind you, the one woman was simply exhausted and not in any sort of shape to learn English. However, when I'm doing my own business, slacking off will just lead to being fired off. So I'll have to smarten up next week.

I'm just glad that I just have my new Tueday night class considering how late I've stayed up.

One thing to note, though. And this will fall into the life lesson category. I've known for a while now that my circle of friends is getting very small now. In some instances, it is due to a change in family circumstances; for example, my good friend, Chip Man, has just become a father. His interaction with me, and a lot of other friends for that matter, will understandably be curtailed for the next number of weeks while the new family unit coalesces.

In other instances, though, I've intentionally let go of large groups of "friends". You notice that I've put the last word of my last sentence in quotations. Well, the fact of the matter is that I've stopped considering them my friends. I let go of one group a number of years ago; the last straw was at a Xmas party. I just found that I simply didn't mesh in with those people anymore. I rarely spoke to them, I didn't feel particularly comfortable and I knew a few of them didn't particularly chime in with me either. So it was simply a matter of not answering any invitations. There may be one group right now that I might do the same to. In both groups, none of the people involved are really bad sorts but they and I are just on different wavelengths. Frankly, as I get older, I'm getting less and less patient with accepting being the quiet listener all night at someone's house or at a restaurant.

And strangely enough, I don't feel all that bad about it. I just appreciate the relatively few friends I have all the more, and I understand that as time passes, one's circle of friends does get smaller. Sorry, but I'm not buying George Bailey's final scene of the whole town of friends bit. I liked "It's A Wonderful Life" but it's just another case of Capra-corn fantasy. Finally, I think I'm just more content being alone or being with very close friends. The rest will be kept at arm's length. If this makes me a cold fish, so be it!


Nine hours later....

I woke up to CNN to find out that Ol' Ski Nose, Bob Hope, passed away. In the past few decades, he had largely been seen as a hoary old cornball relic or just a name barely remembered from the Golden Age of Hollywood or as part of a golf tournament. And no doubt to anyone, his TV specials had largely been reduced to barely naughty rimshot jokes and appearances by buxom women who were young enough to be Bob's great-granddaughters.

However, being born in the last few years of the Baby Boom era in the middle of the 20th century, I did remember catching some of his frequent NBC specials as a child, and though, I can't remember things in detail, I do remember the huge TV in front of me and laughing my lungs out at his quips. The man was a master of delivery and timing.

The specials were of course my first exposure to Bob. But then as I grew up, I discovered the Road pictures with him and Bing Crosby, and found out how manic he had been in his ad-libs and his willingness to break the 4th wall. Probably he could be called the Robin Williams of his time.

Being a bit of a comedian myself, I've had a number of influences. Bob Hope is one of them.

I gather that this year will definitely be the one for the passing of the Golden Age celeb. So many have left in the past few months: Kate Hepburn, Gregory Peck, and Buddy Ebsen.

July 28

Just woke up to painfully realize that my backache is back, no pun intended. At least, I know what my pain is like so I'm semi-accustomed to it. But I've taken the Blitzkrieg approach to it. I slapped on liniment, and then applied a mustard patch that I had received from my massage clinic. And I'll probably swallow a couple of aspirin for breakfast.

Japanese baseball set a dubious record thanks to the antics of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and the Ichiro-less Orix Blue Wave. The latter team must be really feeling the ghost pain of their best ever player 3 years after his departure, after it got shellacked for 32 hits and 26 runs. The Hawks "only" got killed for 7 runs. I guess someone forgot to tell them that the final score was more appropriate for a lopsided American football game. The game was pretty much over in the bottom of the first inning when the Hawks got 11 runs. Methinks that the Blue Wave will be doing extra jump-squats today.

And in the world of entertainment, another Musume bites the dust. Yet another original from the 1997 Group of Five, Natsumi Abe, will be "graduating" early next year. She will be the fourth girl...oops, sorry...I should say woman to leave which leaves current leader, Kaori Iida as the sole charter member. Right now, Morning Musume is at a hyper-inflated 16 females, including Abe. The announcement was made last night a t a concert via the MM's guru, Tsunku on video screen (no doubt to evade any flying bottles from the almost exclusively male audience). You could've heard a pin drop when Tsunku dropped the bombshell.

Hmmm....is it me or did President Arroyo of the Phillipines smiled very vindictively after defeating that mutiny of 296 of her soldiers in Manila?

Good golly, it's been a violent weekend. There have been a rash of these random stabbings in Japanese neighbourhoods. Crime may be low here but what few there are, they've been of the psycho variety.

Off to breakfast, I go...that is, if I can stand up.