Tuesday December 25, 11:43 a.m.
In my ramblings about my few days, I had forgotten about a couple of news items: one sad and wistful but thankful, the other one downright sordid.
Let's get the latter one out of the way. Apparently, some guy was arrested in an Osaka suburb for revealing his fetish for wearing girls' panties and/or wrapping them around his front gates. Then, police find out that he may have been responsible for the unsolved robbery/murder of an office lady 14 years ago. Not sure if the perv will get anything from that since I think the Statute of Limitations has run out. The man seemed to be a classic psycho...nice and quiet, and didn't even attempt to hide his face in shame...just a blank straight-ahead look.
The other story is one that I'd heard just a few hours ago about Oscar Peterson's passing. Jazz piano virtuoso, teacher, university chancellor, Canadian cultural ambassador, and so far...the only musician to get his own face on a Canadian stamp.
Just a place to deposit my thoughts on life here in the Kanto and about anything else that sticks to my walls.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Tuesday December 25, 10:39 a.m.
Merry Xmas! Or as they would say over here, "Merry Tuesday December 25th!" Yep, just a regular day. Everyone's going back to work after a 3-day long weekend due to the fact that The Emperor's Birthday happened to fall on a Sunday this year...lucky merchants...Xmas Eve was therefore a statutory holiday which meant a ton of young folk heading for the restaurants and hotels. I'm sure that a lot of the newbie English teachers or other 1st-year ex-pats may be experiencing a form of depression since they will experience a working Xmas Day for the first time. As for me, tenure has its advantages in that I simply asked the juku boss for the night off.
It's been a while since the last entry so let us catch up...
After my final lesson at Speedy's on Saturday, the bossman suggested dinner together before we all took off for the Holidays. So we ended up at the nearby oden restaurant. Oden, for all those Japanese cuisine neophytes, is the usual winter stew of various boiled fish cakes, meat balls and eggs. A lot of times one can get the stuff at some sort of portable cart in the downtown area or at your local 7-11. However, there are also proper restaurants. The one near the school is this rather tiny affair with only counter seating for 10...pretty intimate, as you could guess. Basically, it ended up to be an unintentional Speedy party there since when the four of us got there, The Dentist (a regular there on a part with Norm of "Cheers") had already been partaking for an hour. And then, some of the Dentist's cadre, including her husband and son, joined the group.
Oden would never be my first choice for dinner, but the stuff there is good and was perfectly fitting for a night like that one which was cold and rainy. However, it set me back a good 4,000 yen...which reminded me that going out with Speedy usually ends up costing quite a bit.
The next day was even more expensive. I actually joined Movie Buddy and The Satyr in Shinjuku on Sunday to watch "Beowulf"....again, like the oden, not my first draft pick. The experience was intriguing, not so much for the fact that it was in both CG and 3-D, but because it was the first time that MB and The Satyr were so diametrically opposed in their opinions on the movie. It was like watching Siskel and Ebert on a really disagreeable night.
The Satyr (thumbs-down to the ground) castigated "Beowulf" as a pointless exercise in movie technology and cellphone-called-in performances. MB (thumbs-up to the stratosphere) lauded it on the other hand as a blow-me-away spectacle of surprising depth, sex and violence. I was securely in the middle, although I was kinda pulling towards The Satyr. On the one hand, I could see The Satyr's argument about CG-ing perfectly live actors (Angelina Jolie, Anthonly Hopkins, John Malkovich...and even the security chief from "Enterprise") in their own images...why bother spending all that time and money when the actual performers can do that? On the other hand, tubby Ray Winstone couldn't be Beowulf...at least, the young version anyways...and even if the actor had wanted to, he couldn't have done all of those crazy stunts such as slaying Grendel and dragons.
My own beefs against the movie are two. As spectacular as the movie was and as scarifyingly close to real people as the images were, I couldn't help but feel that there was still an element of "Shrek" to it. I was half-expecting Shrek, Donkey and Puss n' Boots to pop out any moment in a Pythonesque moment of levity. And as for 3-D, it's dead. No matter how improved it gets, it'll always seem to me as an excuse to have arrows and other objects to be thrown at the audience. Nothing less than the world's first holodeck will convince me that 3-D is a useless gimmick. That gimmick was costly, too. It cost me an extra 700 yen to put on some glasses.
After the movie...and a brief but intense discussion between my two comrades about it...we met up with their significant others, The Sylph and Miss Ivory, in front of The Gap at the southeastern corner of JR Shinjuku. Of course, the ladies had little interest in a blood n' guts epic like "Beowulf", preferring to use their tactical skills on clothes. The expensive part came when we decided to have dinner at Wolfgang Puck upstairs. Cost me 5,500 yen to experience not-so-Buffalo Wings (more Buffalo Calf), a steak that I'd ordered as well-done that actually came in medium-rare and more suited to be sliced up for shabu-shabu (folks, do yourself a favour and go to a proper steakhouse here boasting US or Aussie beef for your steaks...the one I had just had too much marbling in it), and slow & not particularly competent service.
Well, at least I did one good bargain on that Sunday. Thanks to a sale and my filled point card, I could get a couple of classics on DVD at HMV for the grand price of 284 yen. I bought "The Philadephia Story" and "North by Northwest" for my Holiday viewing pleasure. It had slipped my mind that both movie starred Cary Grant...almost 20 years apart.
And so, I started enjoying my 2 days of semi-coccooning by watching a number of Festive DVDs. Last night, I watched my annual viewings of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the special "SCTV" Xmas show (can't believe it's been over a quarter of a century since that thing first aired); the latter was fun and nostalgic to watch, but I don't think "Neil Simon's 'The Nutcracker Suite'" has dated all that well. I did watch "The Philadelphia Story" in the afternoon. I could see how it continued the tradition of screwball comedy banter from "Bringing Up Baby" and how it influenced various movies and even TV shows like "Moonlighting". As I said, Cary is in both movies, but after seeing this again yesterday, I thought Cary's role was more of a supporting one than an actual starring one. Everything revolved around Kate Hepburn's Tracy Lord (no surprise there) with James Stewart as the romantic foil. Considering that Hepburn had been considered as "box-office poison" at the time and that Stewart was still just coming into Hollywood being, it may have been very generous of Grant to give his two co-stars the spotlight. The DVD came with a special "Biography"-friendly one hour about Hepburn's life and career; of course, the lady herself narrated it and pointedly smashed some myths and answered some of the lingering questions about her quavering voice and head, and about her and Spencer Tracy.
I could imagine folks such as The Coen Brothers trying to remake "The Philadelphia Story" for the 21st century. In fact, it had already been remade once as "High Society" with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Gene Kelly in the 50s. And the original seemed remarkably hep even by today's standards...perhaps due to its overarching timeless theme involving the human condition. Well, if George Clooney and Julia Roberts would like to go once more unto the breach...
Well, no turkey today (although my supermarket is selling pre-roasted turkey for 5,800 yen). Instead, it'll be Sweet N' Sour Chicken and I've still gotta find a pie shell for that cheesecake. I'm continuing my round of taping shows for the parentals since we're into TV Special Season. It's gonna be the semi-annual marathon monomane show on Fuji-TV tonight. Monomane is that fave tactic for a lot of tarento to do impressions of other tarento...something that would be easy for a homogenous society such as the one in Japan.
Ahhhh....caught Michael Douglas' debut as the new announcer for "The NBC Nightly News" on YouTube. He can work a bit more on his cadence.
And to all a good day...
Merry Xmas! Or as they would say over here, "Merry Tuesday December 25th!" Yep, just a regular day. Everyone's going back to work after a 3-day long weekend due to the fact that The Emperor's Birthday happened to fall on a Sunday this year...lucky merchants...Xmas Eve was therefore a statutory holiday which meant a ton of young folk heading for the restaurants and hotels. I'm sure that a lot of the newbie English teachers or other 1st-year ex-pats may be experiencing a form of depression since they will experience a working Xmas Day for the first time. As for me, tenure has its advantages in that I simply asked the juku boss for the night off.
It's been a while since the last entry so let us catch up...
After my final lesson at Speedy's on Saturday, the bossman suggested dinner together before we all took off for the Holidays. So we ended up at the nearby oden restaurant. Oden, for all those Japanese cuisine neophytes, is the usual winter stew of various boiled fish cakes, meat balls and eggs. A lot of times one can get the stuff at some sort of portable cart in the downtown area or at your local 7-11. However, there are also proper restaurants. The one near the school is this rather tiny affair with only counter seating for 10...pretty intimate, as you could guess. Basically, it ended up to be an unintentional Speedy party there since when the four of us got there, The Dentist (a regular there on a part with Norm of "Cheers") had already been partaking for an hour. And then, some of the Dentist's cadre, including her husband and son, joined the group.
Oden would never be my first choice for dinner, but the stuff there is good and was perfectly fitting for a night like that one which was cold and rainy. However, it set me back a good 4,000 yen...which reminded me that going out with Speedy usually ends up costing quite a bit.
The next day was even more expensive. I actually joined Movie Buddy and The Satyr in Shinjuku on Sunday to watch "Beowulf"....again, like the oden, not my first draft pick. The experience was intriguing, not so much for the fact that it was in both CG and 3-D, but because it was the first time that MB and The Satyr were so diametrically opposed in their opinions on the movie. It was like watching Siskel and Ebert on a really disagreeable night.
The Satyr (thumbs-down to the ground) castigated "Beowulf" as a pointless exercise in movie technology and cellphone-called-in performances. MB (thumbs-up to the stratosphere) lauded it on the other hand as a blow-me-away spectacle of surprising depth, sex and violence. I was securely in the middle, although I was kinda pulling towards The Satyr. On the one hand, I could see The Satyr's argument about CG-ing perfectly live actors (Angelina Jolie, Anthonly Hopkins, John Malkovich...and even the security chief from "Enterprise") in their own images...why bother spending all that time and money when the actual performers can do that? On the other hand, tubby Ray Winstone couldn't be Beowulf...at least, the young version anyways...and even if the actor had wanted to, he couldn't have done all of those crazy stunts such as slaying Grendel and dragons.
My own beefs against the movie are two. As spectacular as the movie was and as scarifyingly close to real people as the images were, I couldn't help but feel that there was still an element of "Shrek" to it. I was half-expecting Shrek, Donkey and Puss n' Boots to pop out any moment in a Pythonesque moment of levity. And as for 3-D, it's dead. No matter how improved it gets, it'll always seem to me as an excuse to have arrows and other objects to be thrown at the audience. Nothing less than the world's first holodeck will convince me that 3-D is a useless gimmick. That gimmick was costly, too. It cost me an extra 700 yen to put on some glasses.
After the movie...and a brief but intense discussion between my two comrades about it...we met up with their significant others, The Sylph and Miss Ivory, in front of The Gap at the southeastern corner of JR Shinjuku. Of course, the ladies had little interest in a blood n' guts epic like "Beowulf", preferring to use their tactical skills on clothes. The expensive part came when we decided to have dinner at Wolfgang Puck upstairs. Cost me 5,500 yen to experience not-so-Buffalo Wings (more Buffalo Calf), a steak that I'd ordered as well-done that actually came in medium-rare and more suited to be sliced up for shabu-shabu (folks, do yourself a favour and go to a proper steakhouse here boasting US or Aussie beef for your steaks...the one I had just had too much marbling in it), and slow & not particularly competent service.
Well, at least I did one good bargain on that Sunday. Thanks to a sale and my filled point card, I could get a couple of classics on DVD at HMV for the grand price of 284 yen. I bought "The Philadephia Story" and "North by Northwest" for my Holiday viewing pleasure. It had slipped my mind that both movie starred Cary Grant...almost 20 years apart.
And so, I started enjoying my 2 days of semi-coccooning by watching a number of Festive DVDs. Last night, I watched my annual viewings of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the special "SCTV" Xmas show (can't believe it's been over a quarter of a century since that thing first aired); the latter was fun and nostalgic to watch, but I don't think "Neil Simon's 'The Nutcracker Suite'" has dated all that well. I did watch "The Philadelphia Story" in the afternoon. I could see how it continued the tradition of screwball comedy banter from "Bringing Up Baby" and how it influenced various movies and even TV shows like "Moonlighting". As I said, Cary is in both movies, but after seeing this again yesterday, I thought Cary's role was more of a supporting one than an actual starring one. Everything revolved around Kate Hepburn's Tracy Lord (no surprise there) with James Stewart as the romantic foil. Considering that Hepburn had been considered as "box-office poison" at the time and that Stewart was still just coming into Hollywood being, it may have been very generous of Grant to give his two co-stars the spotlight. The DVD came with a special "Biography"-friendly one hour about Hepburn's life and career; of course, the lady herself narrated it and pointedly smashed some myths and answered some of the lingering questions about her quavering voice and head, and about her and Spencer Tracy.
I could imagine folks such as The Coen Brothers trying to remake "The Philadelphia Story" for the 21st century. In fact, it had already been remade once as "High Society" with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Gene Kelly in the 50s. And the original seemed remarkably hep even by today's standards...perhaps due to its overarching timeless theme involving the human condition. Well, if George Clooney and Julia Roberts would like to go once more unto the breach...
Well, no turkey today (although my supermarket is selling pre-roasted turkey for 5,800 yen). Instead, it'll be Sweet N' Sour Chicken and I've still gotta find a pie shell for that cheesecake. I'm continuing my round of taping shows for the parentals since we're into TV Special Season. It's gonna be the semi-annual marathon monomane show on Fuji-TV tonight. Monomane is that fave tactic for a lot of tarento to do impressions of other tarento...something that would be easy for a homogenous society such as the one in Japan.
Ahhhh....caught Michael Douglas' debut as the new announcer for "The NBC Nightly News" on YouTube. He can work a bit more on his cadence.
And to all a good day...
Friday, December 21, 2007
Saturday December 22, 2:47 p.m.
The first day of Winter actually is looking like the first day of Winter. It's overcast, cold and there's an outside chance of snow in the Big Sushi....mind you, over here that usually means a few "blink-and-you'll-miss-them" flakes. It's the final long weekend of the year. Sunday is the current Emperor's birthday, so the 24th will be the compensatory day off. I'm sure a lot of the restaurants are celebrating their good fortune at having Xmas Eve as a semi-official holiday this year. It'll definitely be a party weekend.
Movie Buddy actually wondered yesterday if I would be up for "Beowulf" tonight but the time was cutting a little too close after my lesson with The Manhattanite, and since the last thing I really want to do is have a late dinner in Shinjuku with the good chance of rain and perhaps even some snow hanging over us, I politely declined. Most likely, our next movie outing will be in the New Year. Besides, despite the promise of a nude CG Angelina Jolie, "Beowulf" isn't really my cup of tea.
Just had The Ace for the lone lesson at the juku last night. He's good to go for that karaoke outing on the 27th. Shidax said on its website that it would call me back to confirm after I'd made the Internet reservations; didn't hear from them for 2 days so I called them back. Sure enough, everything is OK. The guy there said that he called me up but noone was home. I internally verbalized, "It's called a message machine. Use it!"
Today, it'll be The Dentist for her final prep lesson before she takes off for Boston to see her daughter there, and then The Manhattanite before heading home before the worst of the weather descends on Tokyo like Rodan.
The first day of Winter actually is looking like the first day of Winter. It's overcast, cold and there's an outside chance of snow in the Big Sushi....mind you, over here that usually means a few "blink-and-you'll-miss-them" flakes. It's the final long weekend of the year. Sunday is the current Emperor's birthday, so the 24th will be the compensatory day off. I'm sure a lot of the restaurants are celebrating their good fortune at having Xmas Eve as a semi-official holiday this year. It'll definitely be a party weekend.
Movie Buddy actually wondered yesterday if I would be up for "Beowulf" tonight but the time was cutting a little too close after my lesson with The Manhattanite, and since the last thing I really want to do is have a late dinner in Shinjuku with the good chance of rain and perhaps even some snow hanging over us, I politely declined. Most likely, our next movie outing will be in the New Year. Besides, despite the promise of a nude CG Angelina Jolie, "Beowulf" isn't really my cup of tea.
Just had The Ace for the lone lesson at the juku last night. He's good to go for that karaoke outing on the 27th. Shidax said on its website that it would call me back to confirm after I'd made the Internet reservations; didn't hear from them for 2 days so I called them back. Sure enough, everything is OK. The guy there said that he called me up but noone was home. I internally verbalized, "It's called a message machine. Use it!"
Today, it'll be The Dentist for her final prep lesson before she takes off for Boston to see her daughter there, and then The Manhattanite before heading home before the worst of the weather descends on Tokyo like Rodan.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Friday December 21, 9:25 a.m.
Went through HMV Sukibayashi yesterday to see if there was anything worth getting for free since I got all of my points on the ol' Silver card. Nada. I was actually looking for "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice but didn't luck out so I'll just be holding on a bit. But I did go over to Yamano Music in Ginza. Yamano is a bit more square in that it has a larger enka section but almost nothing for techno or dance music, unless you're into the 70s scene.
I did come across a one-off disc by this piano-playing duo called Futaba. Apparently, they enlisted Chikuzen Sato of J-AOR band Sing Like Talking and club chanteuse Bird to do a couple of covers. Sato filters one of the 80s' most notable songs, "Hatsukoi" (First Love) by the late Kozo Murashita through a Steely Dan-like arrangement. Kozo Murashita was one of those folkie-type singers with a somewhat more ethereal voice which was in vogue during the late 70s and early 80s (Off-Course's Kazumasa Oda is another similar figure), but it was "Hatsukoi", a very 80s pop song heavy on the analog synths that got him immortalized.
Then, Bird does her rendition of "You Can't Hurry Love" by Diana Ross & The Supremes and then covered most famously by Phil Collins. The interesting thing about this one is that Bird sings Japanese lyrics...a nod to the 50s & 60s when the singers of the day used to do the same thing with American hits.
Next, I found another CD which does the opposite...came across a disc in which various American artists, including The Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel, pay tribute to Yumi Matsutoya. I've always been a bit leery of these efforts...I actually have similar tribute albums for the aforementioned Kazumasa Oda, Mariya Takeuchi and band Every Little Thing; after one listen, they usually just languish on my shelves. I guess I just have this prejudice about established Western artists trying to take on J-Pop; my usual reaction to these efforts is "How badly did these guys need the money?" However, having said that, Bobby Caldwell's take on Kaz Oda's "Kimi ni Merry Xmas" is pretty good.
Had The Carolinan's final lesson of the year. Her listening was kinda out to lunch although we weren't exactly surrounded by tons of chatting coffee drinkers. It was kinda like the other night's session with 001. The two of us were just tired. However, she did give me some flyers to some sort of champagne event at Roppongi Hills. She also warned me that the cheapest glass of the bubbly will be about $20. Warning well received. However, I did find out that "The Simpsons Movie" is playing at the multiplex there, so who knows?
NHK is still pushing its annual Red & White Song Festival on New Year's Eve, I see. Talking about "Best By" scandals. The interpreter on the English track pointed out that uber-otaku goddess Shoko Nakamura will be debuting and the two female mega groups of Hello Project and AKB 48 will be sharing the stage (would love to see the mother of all catfights backstage...that would have the wide shows chattering for days...once they get through all the New Year's specials in the first week). Leah Dizon, the French/Filipino American who's made it big in Japan, will also be giving us her golden pipes (and I think she'll really "give" it to us). However, the one on the Red team that's gotten my attention is Ataru Nakamura. I'd heard about this singer although I'm not a fan of hers. But I found out last night that she's transgendered....doesn't mean I'm any more of a fan but I thought it was an interesting footnote. As for the Johnny's Jimusho....er, I should say White team...apparently actor Akira Terao will be breaking up things by returning to sing his bluesy hit from 1981 "Ruby no yubiwa".
Just have The Ace tonight for 90 minutes so happy to get a bit of relaxation in.
Went through HMV Sukibayashi yesterday to see if there was anything worth getting for free since I got all of my points on the ol' Silver card. Nada. I was actually looking for "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice but didn't luck out so I'll just be holding on a bit. But I did go over to Yamano Music in Ginza. Yamano is a bit more square in that it has a larger enka section but almost nothing for techno or dance music, unless you're into the 70s scene.
I did come across a one-off disc by this piano-playing duo called Futaba. Apparently, they enlisted Chikuzen Sato of J-AOR band Sing Like Talking and club chanteuse Bird to do a couple of covers. Sato filters one of the 80s' most notable songs, "Hatsukoi" (First Love) by the late Kozo Murashita through a Steely Dan-like arrangement. Kozo Murashita was one of those folkie-type singers with a somewhat more ethereal voice which was in vogue during the late 70s and early 80s (Off-Course's Kazumasa Oda is another similar figure), but it was "Hatsukoi", a very 80s pop song heavy on the analog synths that got him immortalized.
Then, Bird does her rendition of "You Can't Hurry Love" by Diana Ross & The Supremes and then covered most famously by Phil Collins. The interesting thing about this one is that Bird sings Japanese lyrics...a nod to the 50s & 60s when the singers of the day used to do the same thing with American hits.
Next, I found another CD which does the opposite...came across a disc in which various American artists, including The Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel, pay tribute to Yumi Matsutoya. I've always been a bit leery of these efforts...I actually have similar tribute albums for the aforementioned Kazumasa Oda, Mariya Takeuchi and band Every Little Thing; after one listen, they usually just languish on my shelves. I guess I just have this prejudice about established Western artists trying to take on J-Pop; my usual reaction to these efforts is "How badly did these guys need the money?" However, having said that, Bobby Caldwell's take on Kaz Oda's "Kimi ni Merry Xmas" is pretty good.
Had The Carolinan's final lesson of the year. Her listening was kinda out to lunch although we weren't exactly surrounded by tons of chatting coffee drinkers. It was kinda like the other night's session with 001. The two of us were just tired. However, she did give me some flyers to some sort of champagne event at Roppongi Hills. She also warned me that the cheapest glass of the bubbly will be about $20. Warning well received. However, I did find out that "The Simpsons Movie" is playing at the multiplex there, so who knows?
NHK is still pushing its annual Red & White Song Festival on New Year's Eve, I see. Talking about "Best By" scandals. The interpreter on the English track pointed out that uber-otaku goddess Shoko Nakamura will be debuting and the two female mega groups of Hello Project and AKB 48 will be sharing the stage (would love to see the mother of all catfights backstage...that would have the wide shows chattering for days...once they get through all the New Year's specials in the first week). Leah Dizon, the French/Filipino American who's made it big in Japan, will also be giving us her golden pipes (and I think she'll really "give" it to us). However, the one on the Red team that's gotten my attention is Ataru Nakamura. I'd heard about this singer although I'm not a fan of hers. But I found out last night that she's transgendered....doesn't mean I'm any more of a fan but I thought it was an interesting footnote. As for the Johnny's Jimusho....er, I should say White team...apparently actor Akira Terao will be breaking up things by returning to sing his bluesy hit from 1981 "Ruby no yubiwa".
Just have The Ace tonight for 90 minutes so happy to get a bit of relaxation in.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Thursday December 20, 12:31 p.m.
The Yogist is quite an interesting bird. The first 10 minutes of the lesson were spent just calming her down on the fact that she'd gotten accepted into The Tokyo Marathon next February. Entering is through raffle, so apparently she entered on a lark. Well, the lark has come back to roost. I'm not sure what she's so rattled about. This is a lady who's a yoga instructor, a competitor in surfing and swimming races and she's panicking about a little ol' marathon. It's not as if she has my body...now entering that in a 42-km race would be cause for a ten-bell alarm. I told her that if need be, I would refer her to 002, who is a veteran of many marathons including The Honolulu Marathon of last week.
Well, I'm off until 6:30 so gotta be thinking about things like lunch and using that used-up HMV card.
The Yogist is quite an interesting bird. The first 10 minutes of the lesson were spent just calming her down on the fact that she'd gotten accepted into The Tokyo Marathon next February. Entering is through raffle, so apparently she entered on a lark. Well, the lark has come back to roost. I'm not sure what she's so rattled about. This is a lady who's a yoga instructor, a competitor in surfing and swimming races and she's panicking about a little ol' marathon. It's not as if she has my body...now entering that in a 42-km race would be cause for a ten-bell alarm. I told her that if need be, I would refer her to 002, who is a veteran of many marathons including The Honolulu Marathon of last week.
Well, I'm off until 6:30 so gotta be thinking about things like lunch and using that used-up HMV card.
Thursday December 20, 9:33 a.m.
Well, back at the office some 11 hours after I'd left it. I did decide to take the earlier pre-rush train over here. The traffic was accordingly not too full although I still had to stand for the majority of the time on the Tozai Line. Didn't do the McBreakfast this time since I did that yesterday morning and thinking that having two Sausage Egg McMuffins in as many days may lead to gastrointestinal implosion, I went down a dozen metres down the road to do a Jonathan's Breakfast instead.
Jonathan's is one of the major family restaurant (or famiresu, in katakanaese) chains, known for its red-and-white striped awnings. I ended up having a plate of wet scrambled eggs, one strip of fatty bacon, a thin weiner, a hash brown and a small pile of lettuce given the oil-&-vinegar bath; that, plus a plate of typically thick slabs of toast. Not exactly the size of a Denny's Grand Slam in the States, but it did the trick. Also, I enjoyed a lot more space with my own booth than I do with my usual stool in The Golden Arches. The restaurant was generally devoid of people which was also refreshing.
Last night, I took a listen to David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album...arguably his most mainstream effort when compared to his days as either Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane. It was easy to identify the hits as I laid in my futon. I was lying/shimmying to the first three tracks of "Modern Love", "China Girl" and the long version of the title track. After that, I ended up getting groggy with the last half...I think I completely slept through "Cat People".
As I looked through the liner notes, I saw the glossy pictures of the man himself in various poses and 80s fashion. I think he could've made a fine Doctor Who...and a terrifying one, at that. But he decided to work with YMO's Ryuichi Sakamoto and then-mere comedian Beat Takeshi in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". Never saw that movie, but I could imagine that Sakamoto and Bowie must've been comparing cosmetics notes offscreen in what must've been a proto-metrosexual encounter. The theme song still gets heavy airplay around this time.
The Anime King gave me another heads-up for another package coming in. And sure enough, I got a Delivery Notice from Yamato about it. Well, it'll probably be a while before he gets it with all of the Xmas traffic and all. Speaking of Xmas cards, I did get one from a long, long ago student from the ol' school, Legs. We're kinda like what the locals call "nengatomo" or the New Year's equivalent of pen pals. She even sent a photo of her, her straitlaced hubby and her two growing kids.
Just have The Yogist in an hour and then The Carolinan for her last of the year tonight. Not sure what to do in the several hours in-between. Will probably take advantage of my 2,500-yen discount from HMV and get another disc. I heard that "The Simpsons-The Movie" has made a quiet splashdown on these shores so I'll probably catch that sometime in the next couple of weeks, although I can't really imagine too much laughter ringing in these theatres...the humour is just too topical for Japan. There is a dubbed version playing as well with some pretty big heavy-hitting tarento such as Osaka singer Akiko Wada as Marge and singer/comedian George Tokoro as Homer, but I'm obviously not going for that.
Some more gun stuff in the news. Looks like some police sergeant made his feelings known loud and clear yesterday morning in a very loud place. He offed himself with his gun in the police box near Tokyo Station while his two colleagues were either sleeping or making rounds outside. And then there is the increasing sordidness surrounding that Sasebo shooting spree last Friday night. Apparently, it's looking likely that the dead psycho, Magome, was intentionally aiming for the two dead victims: his old classmate from junior high, and a 26-year-old female swimming instructor at the sports club where he committed his rampage. He only used buckshot for the rest of the shootings but he saved some pretty ugly slugs just for those two...police have found out that Magome had the hots for the instructor.
Well, back at the office some 11 hours after I'd left it. I did decide to take the earlier pre-rush train over here. The traffic was accordingly not too full although I still had to stand for the majority of the time on the Tozai Line. Didn't do the McBreakfast this time since I did that yesterday morning and thinking that having two Sausage Egg McMuffins in as many days may lead to gastrointestinal implosion, I went down a dozen metres down the road to do a Jonathan's Breakfast instead.
Jonathan's is one of the major family restaurant (or famiresu, in katakanaese) chains, known for its red-and-white striped awnings. I ended up having a plate of wet scrambled eggs, one strip of fatty bacon, a thin weiner, a hash brown and a small pile of lettuce given the oil-&-vinegar bath; that, plus a plate of typically thick slabs of toast. Not exactly the size of a Denny's Grand Slam in the States, but it did the trick. Also, I enjoyed a lot more space with my own booth than I do with my usual stool in The Golden Arches. The restaurant was generally devoid of people which was also refreshing.
Last night, I took a listen to David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album...arguably his most mainstream effort when compared to his days as either Ziggy Stardust or Aladdin Sane. It was easy to identify the hits as I laid in my futon. I was lying/shimmying to the first three tracks of "Modern Love", "China Girl" and the long version of the title track. After that, I ended up getting groggy with the last half...I think I completely slept through "Cat People".
As I looked through the liner notes, I saw the glossy pictures of the man himself in various poses and 80s fashion. I think he could've made a fine Doctor Who...and a terrifying one, at that. But he decided to work with YMO's Ryuichi Sakamoto and then-mere comedian Beat Takeshi in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence". Never saw that movie, but I could imagine that Sakamoto and Bowie must've been comparing cosmetics notes offscreen in what must've been a proto-metrosexual encounter. The theme song still gets heavy airplay around this time.
The Anime King gave me another heads-up for another package coming in. And sure enough, I got a Delivery Notice from Yamato about it. Well, it'll probably be a while before he gets it with all of the Xmas traffic and all. Speaking of Xmas cards, I did get one from a long, long ago student from the ol' school, Legs. We're kinda like what the locals call "nengatomo" or the New Year's equivalent of pen pals. She even sent a photo of her, her straitlaced hubby and her two growing kids.
Just have The Yogist in an hour and then The Carolinan for her last of the year tonight. Not sure what to do in the several hours in-between. Will probably take advantage of my 2,500-yen discount from HMV and get another disc. I heard that "The Simpsons-The Movie" has made a quiet splashdown on these shores so I'll probably catch that sometime in the next couple of weeks, although I can't really imagine too much laughter ringing in these theatres...the humour is just too topical for Japan. There is a dubbed version playing as well with some pretty big heavy-hitting tarento such as Osaka singer Akiko Wada as Marge and singer/comedian George Tokoro as Homer, but I'm obviously not going for that.
Some more gun stuff in the news. Looks like some police sergeant made his feelings known loud and clear yesterday morning in a very loud place. He offed himself with his gun in the police box near Tokyo Station while his two colleagues were either sleeping or making rounds outside. And then there is the increasing sordidness surrounding that Sasebo shooting spree last Friday night. Apparently, it's looking likely that the dead psycho, Magome, was intentionally aiming for the two dead victims: his old classmate from junior high, and a 26-year-old female swimming instructor at the sports club where he committed his rampage. He only used buckshot for the rest of the shootings but he saved some pretty ugly slugs just for those two...police have found out that Magome had the hots for the instructor.
Wednesday December 19, 8:51 p.m.
Things are slowing to a crawl now here at Speedy's. 001 left here a little over half an hour ago. Our lesson was akin to a couple of punch-drunk boxers in the 12th round. The two of us were pretty exhausted; she because of work, me because of the year. So it was pretty much down to our default position of humourous banter and walking down Memory Lane...for her, that would be the late 80s and early 90s.
Since Mr. TOEIC isn't here tonight, it's just the bossman and myself in the office now. He's basically just waiting for his wife to show up, and then it'll be my cue to get going home. I'll probably have to be departing home the same time I did this morning...6:40. Although my class with The Yogist isn't til 11, the scrum on the Tozai Line will probably not cool down at the desired time of 9, and even after almost a decade and a half here, I'm still not willing to battle the crush that is morning rush hour.
At 002's yesterday, the lass showed me photos of her Honolulu Marathon trip; some of them actually had come from her friend's Mixi homepage. For those outside of Japan, Mixi is the Japanese equivalent of Facebook. Then, I showed her my own little page on the same Facebook. She was amazed at the content...although I have to admit that I've been a bit more...shall we say, otaku-ish about my contribution. I made a quick comparison myself, since I also have a languishing Mixi page that I haven't done anything with in the last several months. I think it's a cultural thing...it would seem rather Western that Facebook folks would be more than happy to supply just about all the information outside of favored sexual position whilst the Japanese are relatively more conservative and therefore applications are few and far between on Mixi. As far as I know, I haven't seen anything like an "X Me" app or an "Audiovisual Rack" on the Japanese version. I don't think people here would really want to take the chance of having everyone on the planet knowing that they actually still listen to Morning Musume. And that's fine.
Things are slowing to a crawl now here at Speedy's. 001 left here a little over half an hour ago. Our lesson was akin to a couple of punch-drunk boxers in the 12th round. The two of us were pretty exhausted; she because of work, me because of the year. So it was pretty much down to our default position of humourous banter and walking down Memory Lane...for her, that would be the late 80s and early 90s.
Since Mr. TOEIC isn't here tonight, it's just the bossman and myself in the office now. He's basically just waiting for his wife to show up, and then it'll be my cue to get going home. I'll probably have to be departing home the same time I did this morning...6:40. Although my class with The Yogist isn't til 11, the scrum on the Tozai Line will probably not cool down at the desired time of 9, and even after almost a decade and a half here, I'm still not willing to battle the crush that is morning rush hour.
At 002's yesterday, the lass showed me photos of her Honolulu Marathon trip; some of them actually had come from her friend's Mixi homepage. For those outside of Japan, Mixi is the Japanese equivalent of Facebook. Then, I showed her my own little page on the same Facebook. She was amazed at the content...although I have to admit that I've been a bit more...shall we say, otaku-ish about my contribution. I made a quick comparison myself, since I also have a languishing Mixi page that I haven't done anything with in the last several months. I think it's a cultural thing...it would seem rather Western that Facebook folks would be more than happy to supply just about all the information outside of favored sexual position whilst the Japanese are relatively more conservative and therefore applications are few and far between on Mixi. As far as I know, I haven't seen anything like an "X Me" app or an "Audiovisual Rack" on the Japanese version. I don't think people here would really want to take the chance of having everyone on the planet knowing that they actually still listen to Morning Musume. And that's fine.
Wednesday December 19, 5:48 p.m.
Gained a few things and lost one in the past few hours. Weight is probably the first of the former. Had lunch at Foo Foo, that ramen place in the Odakyu Shopping Mall right by Shinjuku Station...I needed to get just one more raffle ticket to get 2 turns on the wheel. For collecting 20 tickets, I earned myself two tiny packages of sour candy. Also managed to get myself a new HMV card...a gold card. I've finally reached elite status in something. My purchase of David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album was what did it. After hearing David Craig 's(or is it Craig David?) sampling of the title track, Memory Lane did the rest...some 25 years after it had first been released.
Mind you, I lost my pair of gloves. Basically, it would be useless of me to ever buy expensive gloves or umbrellas since the number of gloves and brolleys I've lost in the past decade would amount to the cost of their premium cousins. All I can say is that the Tokyo Metro can go into a lucrative side business selling all of their items from Lost & Found.
I made those reservations at the Shidax karaoke box nearest the juku for the 27th. It was all done on the Net but I still have to await confirmation by phone. It looks like we may have an octet.
Just waiting for 001 to show up for her final class of the year, then I'm done for the day. But I'll be back again here tomorrow for The Yogist. I really need to loosen those shoulder muscles.
Gained a few things and lost one in the past few hours. Weight is probably the first of the former. Had lunch at Foo Foo, that ramen place in the Odakyu Shopping Mall right by Shinjuku Station...I needed to get just one more raffle ticket to get 2 turns on the wheel. For collecting 20 tickets, I earned myself two tiny packages of sour candy. Also managed to get myself a new HMV card...a gold card. I've finally reached elite status in something. My purchase of David Bowie's "Let's Dance" album was what did it. After hearing David Craig 's(or is it Craig David?) sampling of the title track, Memory Lane did the rest...some 25 years after it had first been released.
Mind you, I lost my pair of gloves. Basically, it would be useless of me to ever buy expensive gloves or umbrellas since the number of gloves and brolleys I've lost in the past decade would amount to the cost of their premium cousins. All I can say is that the Tokyo Metro can go into a lucrative side business selling all of their items from Lost & Found.
I made those reservations at the Shidax karaoke box nearest the juku for the 27th. It was all done on the Net but I still have to await confirmation by phone. It looks like we may have an octet.
Just waiting for 001 to show up for her final class of the year, then I'm done for the day. But I'll be back again here tomorrow for The Yogist. I really need to loosen those shoulder muscles.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Wednesday December 19, 9:47 a.m.
Another early Wednesday to teach The Nurse, but at least it'll be the last one for this year. Not that I don't like her...she's a fine chatty student, but I could do with some more sleep.
Last night at the juku, I started off with that sort-of party with Chip N' Dale. As expected, the fondue segment did take about 30 minutes from melting the chocolate to finishing the last of the banana slices. And then it was Scrabble for the rest of the hour. Obviously with melted chocolate, there was some mess involved but everything was squared away by the time Mild Jr. showed up. The rest of the evening was pretty smooth-going.
After almost 3 weeks, I've finally finished sci-fi writer Dan Simmons' recent mega-opus, "Ilium" and "Olympos". Man, after reading through his books which often touch upon classic literature such as "Canterbury Tales"and "The Tempest" as much as sci-fi concepts as artificial intelligence and black hole manipulation, a budding writer will either be inspired or absolutely discouraged. But to be honest, I don't think Simmons would appeal to every potential reader, either. His stuff can force people to re-read certain segments again.
And Simmons doesn't exactly skimp on the sex and violence. There was one chapter in "Olympos" which made me wonder if I hadn't come (no pun intended) upon an X-rated porn film. I'd read on Wiki that there had been some attempt made to make this latest Simmons epic into a movie or miniseries, but I just don't know how that could be done without withering or whittling away a lot of the meat. However, in answer to my unspoken question, the attempt had been made quite a few years ago but nothing has been heard since. It is truly an epic piece; when I recollect the characters at the beginning and the end of the tale...and then the journey in between, I just had to go "Wow!" Count me a fan.
Well, the Nurse should be here any second...
Another early Wednesday to teach The Nurse, but at least it'll be the last one for this year. Not that I don't like her...she's a fine chatty student, but I could do with some more sleep.
Last night at the juku, I started off with that sort-of party with Chip N' Dale. As expected, the fondue segment did take about 30 minutes from melting the chocolate to finishing the last of the banana slices. And then it was Scrabble for the rest of the hour. Obviously with melted chocolate, there was some mess involved but everything was squared away by the time Mild Jr. showed up. The rest of the evening was pretty smooth-going.
After almost 3 weeks, I've finally finished sci-fi writer Dan Simmons' recent mega-opus, "Ilium" and "Olympos". Man, after reading through his books which often touch upon classic literature such as "Canterbury Tales"and "The Tempest" as much as sci-fi concepts as artificial intelligence and black hole manipulation, a budding writer will either be inspired or absolutely discouraged. But to be honest, I don't think Simmons would appeal to every potential reader, either. His stuff can force people to re-read certain segments again.
And Simmons doesn't exactly skimp on the sex and violence. There was one chapter in "Olympos" which made me wonder if I hadn't come (no pun intended) upon an X-rated porn film. I'd read on Wiki that there had been some attempt made to make this latest Simmons epic into a movie or miniseries, but I just don't know how that could be done without withering or whittling away a lot of the meat. However, in answer to my unspoken question, the attempt had been made quite a few years ago but nothing has been heard since. It is truly an epic piece; when I recollect the characters at the beginning and the end of the tale...and then the journey in between, I just had to go "Wow!" Count me a fan.
Well, the Nurse should be here any second...
Monday, December 17, 2007
Tuesday December 18, 4:46 p.m.
Well, the march of the final classes of the year continues. Said goodbye last night to Mr. TOEIC and The Full-Timer, and today was The Beehive and 002. Mrs. Alp of the Beehive couldn't make it out for the final since her back gave out, but supposedly the rest of them (including Mrs. Perth and Mrs. Potter) are heading for a French dinner in Tokyo tonight. They were lapping up my report on the party at The Lady's last Friday.
As for 002, it had been about 3 weeks since my last lesson since she had annual trip to Honolulu for the marathon there. She did pretty well...made it to the finish line in 4:41. Beforehand, she had her medical checkup; over here, a checkup is pretty comprehensive. It includes not only an MRI scan but also getting that endoscope. She said that the latter was actually less worse than the former. For one thing, the doctor gave her some local anaesthesia so she only noticed her mouth open but not the artificial snake going down her gullet. In any case, she only registered a bit of an inflamed stomach...nothing major.
Now, I just have to prepare for the little party with Chip N' Dale in about an hour and then the rest of the juku students.
Well, the march of the final classes of the year continues. Said goodbye last night to Mr. TOEIC and The Full-Timer, and today was The Beehive and 002. Mrs. Alp of the Beehive couldn't make it out for the final since her back gave out, but supposedly the rest of them (including Mrs. Perth and Mrs. Potter) are heading for a French dinner in Tokyo tonight. They were lapping up my report on the party at The Lady's last Friday.
As for 002, it had been about 3 weeks since my last lesson since she had annual trip to Honolulu for the marathon there. She did pretty well...made it to the finish line in 4:41. Beforehand, she had her medical checkup; over here, a checkup is pretty comprehensive. It includes not only an MRI scan but also getting that endoscope. She said that the latter was actually less worse than the former. For one thing, the doctor gave her some local anaesthesia so she only noticed her mouth open but not the artificial snake going down her gullet. In any case, she only registered a bit of an inflamed stomach...nothing major.
Now, I just have to prepare for the little party with Chip N' Dale in about an hour and then the rest of the juku students.
Monday December 17, 5:42 p.m.
Just finished a double with Mr. TOEIC...unusual for him since he is a regular salaryman, so a daytime lesson is pretty rare. Apparently, he will be cooking teriyaki chicken for his girlfriend on Xmas Eve...and Hell won't freeze over, either. He wasn't too bad in the lesson...it certainly helps not to be exhausted from work.
Also rather rare Monday for me in that I'll be seeing The Full-Timer and then heading straight home from Doutors...maybe if the traffic isn't too crazy. I couldn't get any photos from the party last Friday for her (I just thought it was a bit tacky to take them for the purposes of showing off The Lady's mansion....although we did invade her buffet table like D-Day at Normandy), but I will be giving some of that leftover cake as a memento.
I guess aside from Britain officially ceding Basra Province back to the Iraqis, it must be a slow news day for BBC so they put up the news about David Tennant possibly leaving "Doctor Who" after this season. Well, I mean he put in his three seasons so why not leave while the iron is still hot? Besides, it wasn't even him making the announcement but that comedienne Catherine Tate. And nothing shakes up the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth more than anticipating the new actor to enter the role of Everyone's Favourite Time Lord.
Just finished a double with Mr. TOEIC...unusual for him since he is a regular salaryman, so a daytime lesson is pretty rare. Apparently, he will be cooking teriyaki chicken for his girlfriend on Xmas Eve...and Hell won't freeze over, either. He wasn't too bad in the lesson...it certainly helps not to be exhausted from work.
Also rather rare Monday for me in that I'll be seeing The Full-Timer and then heading straight home from Doutors...maybe if the traffic isn't too crazy. I couldn't get any photos from the party last Friday for her (I just thought it was a bit tacky to take them for the purposes of showing off The Lady's mansion....although we did invade her buffet table like D-Day at Normandy), but I will be giving some of that leftover cake as a memento.
I guess aside from Britain officially ceding Basra Province back to the Iraqis, it must be a slow news day for BBC so they put up the news about David Tennant possibly leaving "Doctor Who" after this season. Well, I mean he put in his three seasons so why not leave while the iron is still hot? Besides, it wasn't even him making the announcement but that comedienne Catherine Tate. And nothing shakes up the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth more than anticipating the new actor to enter the role of Everyone's Favourite Time Lord.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Monday December 17, 2:45 p.m.
I guess this would be the week before Xmas. The media onslaught should be beginning in earnest just about now. I can hardly wait for all those KFC commercials now.
Well, The Bohemian left yet another message on the machine yesterday asking me to call him. I had given him a suggestion about meeting him for dinner yesterday...2 weeks ago. However, he called me yesterday...a bit too short notice. So I sent him back a reply with some advice of my own.
Only had The Matron today at the mansion. The Lady was suddenly occupied with something concerning her daughter. However, I did receive some nice slabs of leftover cake from the party on Friday. As for the Matron, we basically discussed her daughter's snagging of her first real boyfriend. Of course, Daddy doesn't know anything.
I was able to grab some goodies for the little party with Chip N' Dale tomorrow. The usual Santa hats and goodies from Tokyu Hands. It'll probably be chocolate fondue with some other snacks; nothing like the Yuletide to bring us all closer together...to diabetes. The planning shouldn't be difficult since the kids had requested another round of Scrabble...that should take 20 minutes at least. Just really Jolly's class to worry about..
I guess this would be the week before Xmas. The media onslaught should be beginning in earnest just about now. I can hardly wait for all those KFC commercials now.
Well, The Bohemian left yet another message on the machine yesterday asking me to call him. I had given him a suggestion about meeting him for dinner yesterday...2 weeks ago. However, he called me yesterday...a bit too short notice. So I sent him back a reply with some advice of my own.
Only had The Matron today at the mansion. The Lady was suddenly occupied with something concerning her daughter. However, I did receive some nice slabs of leftover cake from the party on Friday. As for the Matron, we basically discussed her daughter's snagging of her first real boyfriend. Of course, Daddy doesn't know anything.
I was able to grab some goodies for the little party with Chip N' Dale tomorrow. The usual Santa hats and goodies from Tokyu Hands. It'll probably be chocolate fondue with some other snacks; nothing like the Yuletide to bring us all closer together...to diabetes. The planning shouldn't be difficult since the kids had requested another round of Scrabble...that should take 20 minutes at least. Just really Jolly's class to worry about..
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sunday December 16, 1:50 p.m.
Well, we managed to get through another one of The Lady's annual Xmas parties on Friday night. It was more than the usual Friday night scrum in front of the Hachiko statue in Shibuya. Because of all those year-end parties, the place was even more densely packed. A couple of yahoos were even riding the poor dog like a steed.
Skippy, OA and Speedy showed up. Mrs. Speedy was the neophyte this time around since the other three had shown up some 2 years previously. Not surprisingly, the wife of the boss was feeling pretty doki doki about attending a swanky fete. When we did get inside the gates and the front doors, the house was already getting rather packed with the high n' mighty. The Lady herself was being her usual hostess self by just flying about from guest to guest.
If the experience could be compared to the BBC show "Upstairs, Downstairs", we were definitely the Downstairs cadre of servants infiltrating the organized zoo that was the Upstairs crowd. Of course, we made a beeline straight for the buffet table. It was the always-sumptious spread of Italian fare on the one table while the other had sushi catering highlighted by a huge block of thawed tuna. I gotta admit that the highlight there were the huge tender fillets of steak hiding under mounds of sauteed veggies. The ladies outate Speedy and myself in that department....a fact that didn't seem to pass The Lady's attention unnoticed since she kept passing by with that enigmatic smile and asking, "Full yet?" I almost felt a bit embarrassed since Skippy and OA hung about that table all night like vultures hovering over the dying carcass of an antelope.
As I observed, though, I saw a lot of the same faces at the party. Of course, none of them approached us since they were the high n' mighty and the opposite was true as well. However, I did also notice that the Upstairs crowd also consisted of little cliques that kept to themselves. So, I didn't feel as self-conscious as I had in the past. The Lady's children were there talking it up with their buddies...they'd met me a few times in the past but didn't deign to talk with the hired help. As for celeb sightings, I did catch a Fuji-TV announcer and a retired tennis player.
After about 3.5 hours, we made our way down the slope from the mansion and back into the real-life situation of Shibuya. We saw quite a few raucous types wrestling about in the side streets. Meanwhile, Mrs. Speedy was swooning over her cocktails of fresh strawberries and Dom Perignon. I did have one...it was quite tasty. Everyone gave me their thanks for a glimpse into the well-to-do side of things and half-jokingly said that they were waiting for their invitations for next year. Hmmm...we'll see.
Life did indeed strike me as being very unfair that night. While the five of us Downstairs folk and close to a hundred of the Upstairs swells were noshing on gourmet fare, at about 7:13 that night, there were two relatively young people being shot dead, hundreds of kilometres away in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. In a crime that eerily resembled the regrettably common mall shooting sprees of the States, some psycho set up an ambush on one of his old junior high school classmates at a Renaissance Gym using a shotgun. He also managed to injure several children in a swimming class as well as kill their instructor.
And just like the massacres at Virginia Tech, Columbine and most recently, that attack in a Nebraska shopping centre, the shooter ended up killing himself several hours later, ironically near a Catholic church. Police have yet to find the true motive behind the shootings. But if this is the last major gun-related incident this year in Japan (hard to believe that guns, crimes and Japan can now be put in the same sentence), it would cap what has become a year of a large increase in such crimes...something for all of us to mull over as we get ready for the New Year.
Well, yesterday was strictly a stay-at-home day in my little rabbit hutch of an apartment (spending a night at the Lady's place can leave that impression on me). Still, I managed to get out to the station mall where I handed in my raffle tickets for a few rolls of the wheel. Earned myself 2 Mandarin Oranges and a bottle of green tea. Ahh...life is complete.
Had what I thought would be my final lesson with Tully and The Coffeemaker today. However, they were gluttons of punishment since The Coffeemaker suggested the 29th for one more session. Today's session wasn't any great shakes...Tully was fine but The Coffeemaker seemed exhausted which exhausted me. So I just said that the 29th will be a thank-you lunch for them at Din Dai Fon, the Chinese soup dumpling place in Takashimaya Times Square. And speaking of other social engagements of the season, I have to go across the bridge to Times Square itself to check out some stuff for the little party I'll be holding for the juku kids, Chip N' Dale, on Tuesday. It's probably gonna be Scrabble, maybe another game and then chocolate fondue.
Well, we managed to get through another one of The Lady's annual Xmas parties on Friday night. It was more than the usual Friday night scrum in front of the Hachiko statue in Shibuya. Because of all those year-end parties, the place was even more densely packed. A couple of yahoos were even riding the poor dog like a steed.
Skippy, OA and Speedy showed up. Mrs. Speedy was the neophyte this time around since the other three had shown up some 2 years previously. Not surprisingly, the wife of the boss was feeling pretty doki doki about attending a swanky fete. When we did get inside the gates and the front doors, the house was already getting rather packed with the high n' mighty. The Lady herself was being her usual hostess self by just flying about from guest to guest.
If the experience could be compared to the BBC show "Upstairs, Downstairs", we were definitely the Downstairs cadre of servants infiltrating the organized zoo that was the Upstairs crowd. Of course, we made a beeline straight for the buffet table. It was the always-sumptious spread of Italian fare on the one table while the other had sushi catering highlighted by a huge block of thawed tuna. I gotta admit that the highlight there were the huge tender fillets of steak hiding under mounds of sauteed veggies. The ladies outate Speedy and myself in that department....a fact that didn't seem to pass The Lady's attention unnoticed since she kept passing by with that enigmatic smile and asking, "Full yet?" I almost felt a bit embarrassed since Skippy and OA hung about that table all night like vultures hovering over the dying carcass of an antelope.
As I observed, though, I saw a lot of the same faces at the party. Of course, none of them approached us since they were the high n' mighty and the opposite was true as well. However, I did also notice that the Upstairs crowd also consisted of little cliques that kept to themselves. So, I didn't feel as self-conscious as I had in the past. The Lady's children were there talking it up with their buddies...they'd met me a few times in the past but didn't deign to talk with the hired help. As for celeb sightings, I did catch a Fuji-TV announcer and a retired tennis player.
After about 3.5 hours, we made our way down the slope from the mansion and back into the real-life situation of Shibuya. We saw quite a few raucous types wrestling about in the side streets. Meanwhile, Mrs. Speedy was swooning over her cocktails of fresh strawberries and Dom Perignon. I did have one...it was quite tasty. Everyone gave me their thanks for a glimpse into the well-to-do side of things and half-jokingly said that they were waiting for their invitations for next year. Hmmm...we'll see.
Life did indeed strike me as being very unfair that night. While the five of us Downstairs folk and close to a hundred of the Upstairs swells were noshing on gourmet fare, at about 7:13 that night, there were two relatively young people being shot dead, hundreds of kilometres away in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. In a crime that eerily resembled the regrettably common mall shooting sprees of the States, some psycho set up an ambush on one of his old junior high school classmates at a Renaissance Gym using a shotgun. He also managed to injure several children in a swimming class as well as kill their instructor.
And just like the massacres at Virginia Tech, Columbine and most recently, that attack in a Nebraska shopping centre, the shooter ended up killing himself several hours later, ironically near a Catholic church. Police have yet to find the true motive behind the shootings. But if this is the last major gun-related incident this year in Japan (hard to believe that guns, crimes and Japan can now be put in the same sentence), it would cap what has become a year of a large increase in such crimes...something for all of us to mull over as we get ready for the New Year.
Well, yesterday was strictly a stay-at-home day in my little rabbit hutch of an apartment (spending a night at the Lady's place can leave that impression on me). Still, I managed to get out to the station mall where I handed in my raffle tickets for a few rolls of the wheel. Earned myself 2 Mandarin Oranges and a bottle of green tea. Ahh...life is complete.
Had what I thought would be my final lesson with Tully and The Coffeemaker today. However, they were gluttons of punishment since The Coffeemaker suggested the 29th for one more session. Today's session wasn't any great shakes...Tully was fine but The Coffeemaker seemed exhausted which exhausted me. So I just said that the 29th will be a thank-you lunch for them at Din Dai Fon, the Chinese soup dumpling place in Takashimaya Times Square. And speaking of other social engagements of the season, I have to go across the bridge to Times Square itself to check out some stuff for the little party I'll be holding for the juku kids, Chip N' Dale, on Tuesday. It's probably gonna be Scrabble, maybe another game and then chocolate fondue.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Friday December 14, 9:44 a.m.
A day off today. Again, a typical December day in the Big Sushi...cold (cool for Canucks) and sunny. Just have that swanky party at The Lady's house tonight, so I've got my dress blues ready to go. I sent off a missive to Skippy yesterday asking if she would rather meet in Bunkamura, closer to the house, rather than in humongously crowded Hachiko-mae. However, never got a reply though I sent it to her cellphone, so I'm assuming that she thinks I doth protest too much since I got her to rush up the meeting time to 6:30.
Along with the usual things surrounding Xmas, it's also raffle and lottery season in Japan. Lines almost as long as those for Krispy Kreme (celebrating its 1st year in operation tomorrow) are snaking everywhere in front of the ticket booths for the huge $3 million prize in the New Year's Jumbo Lottery...teensy winnings compared to the near-ionospheric loads that retirees seem to win Stateside. And a lot of the older malls such as the one under my subway station are holding year-end raffles. Basically, for every 500-yen worth of stuff I buy at any of the stores, I get a raffle ticket. If I get 4 of the tickets, I get one turn on the raffle wheel which is situated somewhere in the middle of the mall. A little ball of some colour comes out; depending on the colour, I could win stuff like a 5-kg. bag of rice (in Japan, this is valuable) or gift certificates. So far I've got enough tickets for 3 turns on the wheel. I've also got enough tickets for a roll on the wheel in the Odakyu Shopping Mall where Foo Foo is located...thanks to the entire gang eating there last Saturday.
Last night after my lesson with The Yogist at Speedy's, I rushed over to Ichigaya to have my biweekly with The Carolinan and BC. The two friends make for an interesting comparison. The Carolinan's ability may not be as proficient or fluent as BC, but BC is more of a worrier than The Carolinan; the Carolinan is quite a bit more self-confident and secure about herself. She's even boasted that she always handles all the reservation arrangements for her overseas travel by herself for her and her sister, The New Yorker. Indeed, quite good for an intermediate student although the only reward I would consider giving her is a lolly and a pat on the head. For BC, it was her last lesson of this year since she's heading off to Vancouver next week for the Holidays.
Finally, took a look on YouTube at that "1,2,3,4" video by Feist. I hadn't realized that she was one of ours. That was certainly a breakout hit for her just because of that iPod Nano commercial that's also reached our shores. She got a lot of catty remarks in the comments section (maybe the folks are veteran "2 Channel" flamers) for her dancing, but I thought it was just a sweet little video. I also took a look at one of her earlier videos "One Evening", an interesting 70s-ish R&B ballad. Again, it was obvious that she likes strutting her heels...in a post-modernesque way.
A day off today. Again, a typical December day in the Big Sushi...cold (cool for Canucks) and sunny. Just have that swanky party at The Lady's house tonight, so I've got my dress blues ready to go. I sent off a missive to Skippy yesterday asking if she would rather meet in Bunkamura, closer to the house, rather than in humongously crowded Hachiko-mae. However, never got a reply though I sent it to her cellphone, so I'm assuming that she thinks I doth protest too much since I got her to rush up the meeting time to 6:30.
Along with the usual things surrounding Xmas, it's also raffle and lottery season in Japan. Lines almost as long as those for Krispy Kreme (celebrating its 1st year in operation tomorrow) are snaking everywhere in front of the ticket booths for the huge $3 million prize in the New Year's Jumbo Lottery...teensy winnings compared to the near-ionospheric loads that retirees seem to win Stateside. And a lot of the older malls such as the one under my subway station are holding year-end raffles. Basically, for every 500-yen worth of stuff I buy at any of the stores, I get a raffle ticket. If I get 4 of the tickets, I get one turn on the raffle wheel which is situated somewhere in the middle of the mall. A little ball of some colour comes out; depending on the colour, I could win stuff like a 5-kg. bag of rice (in Japan, this is valuable) or gift certificates. So far I've got enough tickets for 3 turns on the wheel. I've also got enough tickets for a roll on the wheel in the Odakyu Shopping Mall where Foo Foo is located...thanks to the entire gang eating there last Saturday.
Last night after my lesson with The Yogist at Speedy's, I rushed over to Ichigaya to have my biweekly with The Carolinan and BC. The two friends make for an interesting comparison. The Carolinan's ability may not be as proficient or fluent as BC, but BC is more of a worrier than The Carolinan; the Carolinan is quite a bit more self-confident and secure about herself. She's even boasted that she always handles all the reservation arrangements for her overseas travel by herself for her and her sister, The New Yorker. Indeed, quite good for an intermediate student although the only reward I would consider giving her is a lolly and a pat on the head. For BC, it was her last lesson of this year since she's heading off to Vancouver next week for the Holidays.
Finally, took a look on YouTube at that "1,2,3,4" video by Feist. I hadn't realized that she was one of ours. That was certainly a breakout hit for her just because of that iPod Nano commercial that's also reached our shores. She got a lot of catty remarks in the comments section (maybe the folks are veteran "2 Channel" flamers) for her dancing, but I thought it was just a sweet little video. I also took a look at one of her earlier videos "One Evening", an interesting 70s-ish R&B ballad. Again, it was obvious that she likes strutting her heels...in a post-modernesque way.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Thursday December 13, 12:30 p.m.
Back at Speedy's for the fourth day in a row. I've got The Yogist in half an hour. And then I've got The Carolinan and BC. It'll be the last one for BC for this year since by this time next week, she'll be in rainy Vancouver. Speaking of which, I think we got a simulation of their weather today. Pretty cold and wet out there. Actually, last night we got out of here at about 10:30 p.m. For the bossman, it was the equivalent of getting out in the early afternoon since he almost never gets out before midnight most nights.
I've finally sent the last of the Xmas presents out. So, hopefully, I won't be darkening the post office for at least a month.
The bakery/cafe near Speedy's, La Vie De France, got a facelift of sorts. The interior has gone from a wooden hominess to a slightly more whiter, hi-tech look. Same good if pricey fare.
Just heard that Jessica Alba is pregnant thanks to her boyfriend (doesn't anyone get married first anymore?). I'm sure there are a lot of worldwide boys crying in their pillows right now.
Man, are my shoulders stiffer than a guy on Viagra right now. Maybe it's the cold (both disease and temperature). Could use with a rubdown but I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon. The flu is apparently flying around Tokyo as I type, but so far, I've been lucky...just been popping some of the medicine so my nose is currently nice and dry.
Back at Speedy's for the fourth day in a row. I've got The Yogist in half an hour. And then I've got The Carolinan and BC. It'll be the last one for BC for this year since by this time next week, she'll be in rainy Vancouver. Speaking of which, I think we got a simulation of their weather today. Pretty cold and wet out there. Actually, last night we got out of here at about 10:30 p.m. For the bossman, it was the equivalent of getting out in the early afternoon since he almost never gets out before midnight most nights.
I've finally sent the last of the Xmas presents out. So, hopefully, I won't be darkening the post office for at least a month.
The bakery/cafe near Speedy's, La Vie De France, got a facelift of sorts. The interior has gone from a wooden hominess to a slightly more whiter, hi-tech look. Same good if pricey fare.
Just heard that Jessica Alba is pregnant thanks to her boyfriend (doesn't anyone get married first anymore?). I'm sure there are a lot of worldwide boys crying in their pillows right now.
Man, are my shoulders stiffer than a guy on Viagra right now. Maybe it's the cold (both disease and temperature). Could use with a rubdown but I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon. The flu is apparently flying around Tokyo as I type, but so far, I've been lucky...just been popping some of the medicine so my nose is currently nice and dry.
Wednesday December 12, 10:08 p.m.
Pretty painless day. 001 was fun as usual (found out that both our mothers have the same birthda). In fact, Speedy found out that it was The Admin's b-day today. The Admin was profusely begging us not to make a huge fuss...so of course, we did. As for The Manhattanite, well, she actually got perfect on the first three of her four pages of the test. Then, there was a bit of a crash n' burn due to a misread question. However, she managed to get 78% so nothing to worry about now.
Found out from 001 that she has to go through a major health exam on Xmas Day of all things. Over here, a major health exam means a bout with the dreaded endoscope...the endoscope being that huge snake-like camera which winds about in your gastrointestinal tract. And the Americans are debating waterboarding as a form of torture. The endoscope can go from either end, although I would've thought with the name of endoscope, it would've been obvious which end was up. Well, I know that I'll never submit to one of those probes, especially since it would entail having to fast for 12 hours before the thing goes up or down. And I certainly wouldn't do it on Xmas Day.
Pretty painless day. 001 was fun as usual (found out that both our mothers have the same birthda). In fact, Speedy found out that it was The Admin's b-day today. The Admin was profusely begging us not to make a huge fuss...so of course, we did. As for The Manhattanite, well, she actually got perfect on the first three of her four pages of the test. Then, there was a bit of a crash n' burn due to a misread question. However, she managed to get 78% so nothing to worry about now.
Found out from 001 that she has to go through a major health exam on Xmas Day of all things. Over here, a major health exam means a bout with the dreaded endoscope...the endoscope being that huge snake-like camera which winds about in your gastrointestinal tract. And the Americans are debating waterboarding as a form of torture. The endoscope can go from either end, although I would've thought with the name of endoscope, it would've been obvious which end was up. Well, I know that I'll never submit to one of those probes, especially since it would entail having to fast for 12 hours before the thing goes up or down. And I certainly wouldn't do it on Xmas Day.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Wednesday December 12, 4:13 p.m.
Wasn't quite sure whether to strangle or hug Chip N' Dale last night at the juku. Dale had said last week that two of her buddies would be interested in joining the class from yesterday. So I had to prepare for a model lesson involving two more boys along with my two current kids. I basically went down to town, preparing all sorts of games and realia such as buying prop food from Tokyu Hands and expanding the lesson to an hour. I was taking deep breaths when Chip N' Dale came in, only to say that the parents' of the boys had decided to hold things off til the New Year. Well, at least Chip N' Dale got quite a realia-laden lesson and they enjoyed seeing the model donuts and other food.
This aborted model lesson had been the one major stress point yesterday. When that turned out to be a false alarm, I could sigh some relief although I had a few more hours to go last night. I was worried about Mr. Mild's health though. He'd been suffering from a heavy cold for the past month, and remembering the fact that older people tend to bounce back from illness a lot slower, he still looked pretty haggard. In fact, he admitted that he'd lost 3 kg. Plus, he also stated that because some of the strong medicine, he had some issues with his liver. I'm hoping that he'll pull through OK. Jolly was about a half-hour late but I kept him for another 90 minutes only to be told that my student didn't need to make up the lesson so I could've just let him go at 10 p.m. Well, at least I survived the night. It was a pretty hectic day with having to do the crosstown commute between The Beehive in Tsudanuma and The Nurse's atypical Tuesday afternoon class before coming back for the juku.
In comparison, tonight will be pretty quiet. I've only got 001 and The Manhattanite. 001 had taken a powder last Wednesday since she had the day off, and I've gotta take a look at The Manhattanite's take-home test tonight. Me and Speedy aren't quite sure how she did.
Looks like everything is all set for the Friday night party at The Lady's. Got final confirmation that Skippy and OA are ready to meet Speedy & his wife and myself at Hachiko before trudging off to the mansion. I kinda wish that they had chosen a less crowded place like Bunkamura for the meeting place. The Hachiko Plaza on a Friday night is a pure maelstrom...especially during bonenkai season.
The latest change to the station mall has opened up. At this time last year, one section of it under the tracks consisted of a longtime bookstore and the shuttered former site of the failed kaiten sushi restaurant. Well, several months ago, the branch of the hairstyling chain, Orange Pop, opened up where the bookstore had been. And today, the old sushi place is now some wafu eatery called Yayoiken. It specializes in what would probably be bento fare if it hadn't been served right at your table. I went into the place in the afternoon and got greeted by some fresh-faced waitresses with the new training and plastic smiles. Yayoiken is one of those places where one has to plug his/her yen into a machine which spits out tickets for the waitresses to process in the kitchen...just like a lot of ramen places.
The interior had that current trendy look of smooth wood and soft lighting with jazz playing on the yusen. I ended up ordering an assorted set of two wafu-style hamburg steaks, two sausages, two fried potato chunks and one karaage (fried chicken) with a bowl of rice, salad and miso soup. For 880 yen, not a bad deal at all...and something to add onto the go-to list after the usual DVD nights with MB and The Satyr.
Well, kinda fighting a slight cold right now. May have to go to the salarymen's remedy of swigging down two Yunker Vitamin drinks and wrapping up in multiple blankets to sweat it out.
Wasn't quite sure whether to strangle or hug Chip N' Dale last night at the juku. Dale had said last week that two of her buddies would be interested in joining the class from yesterday. So I had to prepare for a model lesson involving two more boys along with my two current kids. I basically went down to town, preparing all sorts of games and realia such as buying prop food from Tokyu Hands and expanding the lesson to an hour. I was taking deep breaths when Chip N' Dale came in, only to say that the parents' of the boys had decided to hold things off til the New Year. Well, at least Chip N' Dale got quite a realia-laden lesson and they enjoyed seeing the model donuts and other food.
This aborted model lesson had been the one major stress point yesterday. When that turned out to be a false alarm, I could sigh some relief although I had a few more hours to go last night. I was worried about Mr. Mild's health though. He'd been suffering from a heavy cold for the past month, and remembering the fact that older people tend to bounce back from illness a lot slower, he still looked pretty haggard. In fact, he admitted that he'd lost 3 kg. Plus, he also stated that because some of the strong medicine, he had some issues with his liver. I'm hoping that he'll pull through OK. Jolly was about a half-hour late but I kept him for another 90 minutes only to be told that my student didn't need to make up the lesson so I could've just let him go at 10 p.m. Well, at least I survived the night. It was a pretty hectic day with having to do the crosstown commute between The Beehive in Tsudanuma and The Nurse's atypical Tuesday afternoon class before coming back for the juku.
In comparison, tonight will be pretty quiet. I've only got 001 and The Manhattanite. 001 had taken a powder last Wednesday since she had the day off, and I've gotta take a look at The Manhattanite's take-home test tonight. Me and Speedy aren't quite sure how she did.
Looks like everything is all set for the Friday night party at The Lady's. Got final confirmation that Skippy and OA are ready to meet Speedy & his wife and myself at Hachiko before trudging off to the mansion. I kinda wish that they had chosen a less crowded place like Bunkamura for the meeting place. The Hachiko Plaza on a Friday night is a pure maelstrom...especially during bonenkai season.
The latest change to the station mall has opened up. At this time last year, one section of it under the tracks consisted of a longtime bookstore and the shuttered former site of the failed kaiten sushi restaurant. Well, several months ago, the branch of the hairstyling chain, Orange Pop, opened up where the bookstore had been. And today, the old sushi place is now some wafu eatery called Yayoiken. It specializes in what would probably be bento fare if it hadn't been served right at your table. I went into the place in the afternoon and got greeted by some fresh-faced waitresses with the new training and plastic smiles. Yayoiken is one of those places where one has to plug his/her yen into a machine which spits out tickets for the waitresses to process in the kitchen...just like a lot of ramen places.
The interior had that current trendy look of smooth wood and soft lighting with jazz playing on the yusen. I ended up ordering an assorted set of two wafu-style hamburg steaks, two sausages, two fried potato chunks and one karaage (fried chicken) with a bowl of rice, salad and miso soup. For 880 yen, not a bad deal at all...and something to add onto the go-to list after the usual DVD nights with MB and The Satyr.
Well, kinda fighting a slight cold right now. May have to go to the salarymen's remedy of swigging down two Yunker Vitamin drinks and wrapping up in multiple blankets to sweat it out.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Monday December 10, 8:56 p.m.
It was a pretty good weekend, all told. Met up with Movie Buddy, The Satyr and their respective significant others. Also, The Sylph's former co-worker tagged along with her German boyfriend who looked quite a lot like actor Adrian Brody. Fairly quiet lad, though. We all went to Foo Foo for the first pai ko tan tan men of the season. MB was quite happy to be devouring it down.
Afterwards, it was off to see Matt Damon in the supposedly final part of the trilogy for which he'll always be remembered for....nope, it ain't the Ocean's series either. "The Bourne Ultimatum" did come off as being a most entertaining movie, and certainly the best of the threepeats that seemed to have littered the cinematic landscape this year. After the depressing "Spiderman 3" and the blah "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" (never even bothered with "Ocean's 13" or even "Shrek 3" after their bad reviews...even on DVD), it was good to have seen a 3rd part which was indeed good. However, I don't think I would go far as that reviewer for Tokyo Metropolis and say that "The Bourne Ultimatum" was the best action movie ever. There was a tad too much repetition in the stunts for it to top the original "Die Hard". However, I could see that the director was using the old technique of copying certain scenes from the "The Bourne Identity" for comparative effect...in this case, between Franke Potente's "Marie" and Julia Stiles' "Nicky". There was actually some good suspense and an especially delicious "Gotcha" moment when Jason managed to infiltrate CIA HQ. Definitely a must-buy DVD.
Sunday was a quiet day at home. Just did the "I-Go Day in Japan" via NHK-3, and that was all she wrote. Today ended up to be rather painless as well. I head over to The Lady's mansion and find out that not only did The Matron cancel out but The Lady had to do some emergency shopping. Missed out on the usual handsome pay but still made half for doing absolutely nothing but sip coffee by the living room bar. Her big annual ball is this Friday so I finally made the arrangements amongst Skippy, Speedy, Mrs. Speedy and OA to meet.
So I ended up having quite a few hours before meeting SIL. Continued to do some Xmas shopping before heading up to Ueno. Instead of the usual Wendy's or KFC, I actually went into an eatery in the middle of Ameyoko that specialized in don...various kinds of meat on hot rice. I had the minced negi toro and slabs of maguro on my rice...a little more expensive than the usual hamburger set but it made for a nice culinary diversion at 780 yen. Will definitely have to take guests like The Lens there next time they're in town.
As for SIL, it was my last time with her for this year. She won't be coming to The Lady's party this Friday on account that she has always found it very boring. To be honest, I kinda think the same way but I'm sure the people that I'm bringing along will find it thrilling. And The Full-Timer showed up tonight....aside from a nagging cough, she has recovered from her cold although I can't say that being in smoky Doutor's helped her throat any. And then, I come back here to find out that Mr. TOEIC had to dotakyan because of work. In fact, my schedule has changed quite a bit. The Nurse will be coming in tomorrow afternoon which means that I'll have to eschew my usual lunch with The Beehive to rush back from Tsudanuma. The Manhattanite will be coming into Mr. TOEIC's Wednesday night slot after 001. Plus, this Saturday will be a total scratch since The Dentist had to cancel so I'll be seeing her on the 22nd instead. And then Mr. TOEIC will come in for a double next Monday afternoon which works out since SIL is out for the remainder of December.
However, the big lesson for me will be tomorrow at the juku. I may be having a couple of extra waifs to add onto Chip N' Dale from now on. Just what I need...more pre-teens...and they're both boys. Well, at least, it's just the model lesson tomorrow and then the special Xmas lesson next Tuesday and I won't have to worry about them for about a couple of weeks.
It was a pretty good weekend, all told. Met up with Movie Buddy, The Satyr and their respective significant others. Also, The Sylph's former co-worker tagged along with her German boyfriend who looked quite a lot like actor Adrian Brody. Fairly quiet lad, though. We all went to Foo Foo for the first pai ko tan tan men of the season. MB was quite happy to be devouring it down.
Afterwards, it was off to see Matt Damon in the supposedly final part of the trilogy for which he'll always be remembered for....nope, it ain't the Ocean's series either. "The Bourne Ultimatum" did come off as being a most entertaining movie, and certainly the best of the threepeats that seemed to have littered the cinematic landscape this year. After the depressing "Spiderman 3" and the blah "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" (never even bothered with "Ocean's 13" or even "Shrek 3" after their bad reviews...even on DVD), it was good to have seen a 3rd part which was indeed good. However, I don't think I would go far as that reviewer for Tokyo Metropolis and say that "The Bourne Ultimatum" was the best action movie ever. There was a tad too much repetition in the stunts for it to top the original "Die Hard". However, I could see that the director was using the old technique of copying certain scenes from the "The Bourne Identity" for comparative effect...in this case, between Franke Potente's "Marie" and Julia Stiles' "Nicky". There was actually some good suspense and an especially delicious "Gotcha" moment when Jason managed to infiltrate CIA HQ. Definitely a must-buy DVD.
Sunday was a quiet day at home. Just did the "I-Go Day in Japan" via NHK-3, and that was all she wrote. Today ended up to be rather painless as well. I head over to The Lady's mansion and find out that not only did The Matron cancel out but The Lady had to do some emergency shopping. Missed out on the usual handsome pay but still made half for doing absolutely nothing but sip coffee by the living room bar. Her big annual ball is this Friday so I finally made the arrangements amongst Skippy, Speedy, Mrs. Speedy and OA to meet.
So I ended up having quite a few hours before meeting SIL. Continued to do some Xmas shopping before heading up to Ueno. Instead of the usual Wendy's or KFC, I actually went into an eatery in the middle of Ameyoko that specialized in don...various kinds of meat on hot rice. I had the minced negi toro and slabs of maguro on my rice...a little more expensive than the usual hamburger set but it made for a nice culinary diversion at 780 yen. Will definitely have to take guests like The Lens there next time they're in town.
As for SIL, it was my last time with her for this year. She won't be coming to The Lady's party this Friday on account that she has always found it very boring. To be honest, I kinda think the same way but I'm sure the people that I'm bringing along will find it thrilling. And The Full-Timer showed up tonight....aside from a nagging cough, she has recovered from her cold although I can't say that being in smoky Doutor's helped her throat any. And then, I come back here to find out that Mr. TOEIC had to dotakyan because of work. In fact, my schedule has changed quite a bit. The Nurse will be coming in tomorrow afternoon which means that I'll have to eschew my usual lunch with The Beehive to rush back from Tsudanuma. The Manhattanite will be coming into Mr. TOEIC's Wednesday night slot after 001. Plus, this Saturday will be a total scratch since The Dentist had to cancel so I'll be seeing her on the 22nd instead. And then Mr. TOEIC will come in for a double next Monday afternoon which works out since SIL is out for the remainder of December.
However, the big lesson for me will be tomorrow at the juku. I may be having a couple of extra waifs to add onto Chip N' Dale from now on. Just what I need...more pre-teens...and they're both boys. Well, at least, it's just the model lesson tomorrow and then the special Xmas lesson next Tuesday and I won't have to worry about them for about a couple of weeks.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Friday December 7, 11:18 a.m.
I say this in the snarkiest of voices here: How do you make 10,000 yen (about $100 US) disappear in 2 hours? Simple...just pay postage for sending Xmas presents via Air Mail and then get your hair cut. Gahhh....at least, I was able to bleed off some of the tension via the scalp massage.
Yep, I was able to get most of the Xmas shopping done. The family is all taken care of. I got a couple of 007 DVDs for my brother (I guess MB and I aren't the only Bond fanatics), an uplifting book for my sister-in-law and an enka DVD for the parentals. Considering how many times I've been to the neighbourhood post office this week, the staff and I should be on a first-name basis by now. And I still have got to send off the rest of the calendars to The Dancer, Shard and The Entrepreneur on Monday.
MB had left a message for me inviting me to some sushi thing on Sunday but I politely declined since my wallet is now a whole lot lighter. Besides I'm seeing him and The Satyr tomorrow for Foo Foo and Jason Bourne. Basically starting from today, I've got a 3-day weekend. Boy, could I use it.
I just heard that Kiefer Sutherland has gotten himself into a situation that even Jack Bauer wouldn't be able to escape. Got caught for DUI for a second time...so he's going into the hoosegow for 48 days. I wonder if the judge was being a bit hilarious by sentencing him to a multiple of 24.
Nicholas Cage and his "National Treasure" crew were here to launch the Japan premiere of the sequel in Roppongi Hills last night. Looks like Helen "The Queen" Mirren is joining Jon "President Roosevelt (via "Pearl Harbour")" Voigt for this voyage. I can only hope that the sequel is a bit bouncier than that flatter-than-urine-in-a-petri-dish first movie.
I say this in the snarkiest of voices here: How do you make 10,000 yen (about $100 US) disappear in 2 hours? Simple...just pay postage for sending Xmas presents via Air Mail and then get your hair cut. Gahhh....at least, I was able to bleed off some of the tension via the scalp massage.
Yep, I was able to get most of the Xmas shopping done. The family is all taken care of. I got a couple of 007 DVDs for my brother (I guess MB and I aren't the only Bond fanatics), an uplifting book for my sister-in-law and an enka DVD for the parentals. Considering how many times I've been to the neighbourhood post office this week, the staff and I should be on a first-name basis by now. And I still have got to send off the rest of the calendars to The Dancer, Shard and The Entrepreneur on Monday.
MB had left a message for me inviting me to some sushi thing on Sunday but I politely declined since my wallet is now a whole lot lighter. Besides I'm seeing him and The Satyr tomorrow for Foo Foo and Jason Bourne. Basically starting from today, I've got a 3-day weekend. Boy, could I use it.
I just heard that Kiefer Sutherland has gotten himself into a situation that even Jack Bauer wouldn't be able to escape. Got caught for DUI for a second time...so he's going into the hoosegow for 48 days. I wonder if the judge was being a bit hilarious by sentencing him to a multiple of 24.
Nicholas Cage and his "National Treasure" crew were here to launch the Japan premiere of the sequel in Roppongi Hills last night. Looks like Helen "The Queen" Mirren is joining Jon "President Roosevelt (via "Pearl Harbour")" Voigt for this voyage. I can only hope that the sequel is a bit bouncier than that flatter-than-urine-in-a-petri-dish first movie.