Friday July 31, 2:38 p.m.

In a holding pattern right now after having taught The Nurse. She was in good spirits today. Apparently, she'd met The Admin at the local supermarket. I don't think I particularly revealed anything by telling her that I teach her regularly on Wednesdays, although I'm not sure how many lessons The Nurse has left. But, as they say, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I'll probably head on out in about 15 minutes. Since the dinner is at 7, I've got lots of time so I'll hit Nakano Broadway and see if they have any more cheap discs on display. Miss Sedona told me yesterday that she'd gone there to see her dentist whose offices are right in Otaku Central. She said that she felt rather uncomfortable; on a weekday afternoon, too. I could only imagine how she would feel if she ever had to go there on a weekend. Still not quite sure how this shindig is gonna turn out.

The Cornerette has yet to respond to my latest missive to her. I figure that she's on her weekend right now. Not to worry, though. I'd rather go into my long weekend with very little on my mind.

Friday July 31, 11:59 a.m.

It was just a few entries ago that I'd mentioned that this month only saw a quarter of its days considered as sunny. Well, as I was heading home last night, I was accosted by something that I would never have expected at the end of July....refreshing cool mist belted at me by the usual winds in Nakano-Sakaue. The term "air conditioner" never entered my mind as I went to bed and opened the window, and then when I woke up this morning. It felt more like May or October than mid-summer. The weather folks are now openly considering whether this summer will be known as a reika, or cold summer. Can't be too good for the farmers.

I just have The Nurse in about half an hour. And then that'll be it for nearly 4 days. However, I did have that talk with the bossman considering our current cash crunch. So we threw out some ideas and now I have to think about coming up with some seminar ideas for those clients planning to head on out to Canada on study-abroad programs.

Tonight's the night for the juku students to get together at The Restauranteur's restaurant for that dinner. Hope all goes well.

Thursday July 30, 5:57 p.m.

I haven't had one in a long time, but I ended up having a nicely empty afternoon of nothing but surfing through Facebook and Mixi. I haven't had one because I'd been grinding through that long translation project. Still getting through the negotiations about how much I should be making from it, but I'm not fretting too much. Ended up joining two more communities on Mixi, 80s New Wave and Early Miki Imai.

The bossman is having a discussion with the troops (aka Ray and La Fille). I decided to be Santa Claus again and bought a box of ice cream for the folks. I think after a hot day like this, and the ladies were still fanning themselves in the air-conditioned office, it is time for a treat.

I'm looking at a very long weekend. I just have The Nurse here tomorrow and then it's the dinner party at The Restauranteur's with the juku bunch. Then I have two full days of weekend, and then nothing on Monday until The Medicine Man at 9:30 p.m. It's looking like a pretty sparse month in August. I'd been thinking of using that translation money for perhaps a weekend in Yokohama, but I'm now thinking that it might be wiser to hold onto that cash for as long as possible.

Thursday July 30, 2:10 p.m.

It's been a very quiet week. Case in point, I only had my first Speedy lesson of the week this morning with Miss Sedona. I'd been in Monday and yesterday but in both cases, I only stopped in to check on the latest negotiation between me and The Cornerette before I headed off on my private lessons. On Wednesday, I only had The Admin and then The New Yorker in Ichigaya. I saw a campaign wagon for the Japan Communist Party drive up in front of the local koban there, and a candidate with a couple of folks jumped on top to give out their campaign rhetoric. It's truly one of the saddest sights to see when old folks wave frantically away while giving out their hopes for the future of Japan, only to be greeted by disinterest. Mind you, they are Communists and they have as much hope to get into the driver's seat as a Neo-Nazi Party.

In any case, I had a very rare Wednesday night off since 001 decided to cancel once more. Looks like she'll be preferring biweekly sessions although she hasn't come out and said so directly to the bossman. I was able to actually catch some prime time television (and managed to survive with most of my brain cells intact). Found out that the World Cup of Rugby will be heading over here to Japan in a decade. I do wonder what that will mean for Tokyo's Olympic chances.

After Miss Sedona, I'll be waiting for the next several hours until The Music Man has his lesson here at 9:15. During my holdover, I'll be waiting for the next missive from The Cornerette, and probably a talk with Speedy about what to do to bring in more students on pain of bankruptcy.

My suspicions were confirmed during the weather forecast last night. July 2009 will go down as one of the gloomiest Julys in history. Only a quarter of the month had any sort of sun which will raise havoc with the crops this Fall. I did notice that there has been a lot more rain than usual.

Ray told me that Grandma Dynamite has asked for two lessons in the last two weeks of August. Hopefully, her attitude has brightened considerably.

Thursday July 30, 1:48 p.m.

It's been quite The Summer of Celebrity Deaths. Yesterday was no different. Woke up early on Wednesday morning to find out that Japanese pop singer, Kaori Kawamura, had passed away at the youthful age of 38.
In my own little world, I've started to make comparisons between her untimely death with that of the much more famous Michael Jackson. Not to diminish The King of Pop's passing, but even the man himself admitted to his first wife that he wouldn't be long for this world and that the news of his death would be one for the record books. And that's what it was. Pure pop spectacle...right from those early reports of him being sent to hospital right to the performance funeral service in an arena which could hold tens of thousands.
On the other hand, Kawamura's passing was truly sad and poignant. Some years ago, she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer which necessitated a single mastectomy. Unfortunately, the cancer came back and finally did her in on Tuesday. She'd had her last hurrah in early May with a concert. But it was just yesterday that a video log of the hell that she'd had to go through to get back onto that stage was released to Fuji-TV. In it, she told of the horrors of chemo but also her defiance in ensuring that the show would go on. She looked truly different from that teenage girl with the pale beauty (she was half-Russian) and punkish hairdo which seemed to make up half of the female demographic's choice in cuts back in the late 80s. Kawamura not only had that slightly rumpled look of a mother, but also a haggard look of someone who's aged a lot faster than would be considered fair.
I was surprised to find out that she'd been the original singer of "Zoo", her debut single in 1988; I'd thought that the tune was made many years later and sung by actress Miho Kanno and one other pro singer during the airing of one of her dramas. I first knew about her during my days on the JET Programme when she provided a couple of tunes for a popular variety show 20 years ago. One is being shown in the picture, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" (Give Me Wings). That song was one of those hoary tunes which had to be sung at those annual high school singing contests. Kawamura gave it a rock twist which got it a bit more respect.
However, unlike some of her contemporaries, she never became a huge superstar and she quickly faded into the obscurity of late 80s J-Pop history. I caught her once several years ago on late-night TV while she was doing a stint as a DJ at some dance club but that was about it. Then came the news a few days ago. What made it even more poignant was not just the vlog of her truly suffering for her art but her authoring of a book written for her little daughter...notes about her life and wisdom that her daughter won't truly understand until later.

Tuesday July 28, 2:05 p.m.

A transition is coming into place on a number of fronts. August is just around the corner so of course, the number of students coming into my view has been decreasing steadily. The Beehive is off for the summer, as is SIL. Also, before I got my latest pay pack, Speedy brought me into the office and told me that things aren't looking too good for the school right now. There haven't been any new students for the past few months; I've noticed I haven't been getting any model lesson requests. Not that I've been complaining....I treat model lessons like I treat medical checkups....they may be necessary but I try avoiding them if I can. In any case, the bossman has once again asked me for any ideas to keep the school up and running. He's done this before over the past five years I've been associated with Speedy. Back then, it was the usual wailing of "Woe is me"...just the bossman letting off steam. But this time, he looked pretty serious. Still, I have to admit that we've been lucky that we'd been able to stave off recession this far into the year. I'd thought I would be breadsticks as soon as I got back home from Canada back in January.

It hasn't just been the Speedy students either. The Smile has left the building, and then last night, I met up with The Full-Timer. She'd literally gotten back into the country in the same day after a 4-day trip in Seoul. She did have that rather fragrant smell of garlic on her. I got a nice box of sweets from Korea as an omiyage. And I also got the message that she may not be able to see me anymore because of her new job at some start-up medical supplies company in Hamamatsucho. She has really become a full-timer....pretty darn lucky on her part in this economy. So, amongst my friends introduced to me via SR, The Carolinan is being let go at the end of September while The Full-Timer is heading the other way.

Since The Beehive is off for the summer, I have most of the day off. The keyman came in to install the chain lock at the request of the owner of the apartment building. Apparently, she was concerned about safety in my area. I'm knocking on wood pretty heavily as I say this but in my 15 years in my neighbourhood, I haven't experienced or witnessed a major incident. And this is a guy who regularly comes home past midnight. Of course, the guy who murdered English teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker back a few years ago had lived in the next area over, but I still think he's now lying at the bottom of Tokyo Bay. The keyman was a folksy fellow, not surprising considering that he hails from Osaka. Since my family is from the same area, we had a good talk for the 45 minutes he was there at my doorway checking, drilling and installing my chain lock. True to Kansai hospitality, he even fixed my sticky doorknob and gave me advice on how to keep things from squeaking. Always nice to meet a true professional.

The other day, I caught the latest "Harry Potter" movie with MB, The Sylph and Skippy at the Picadilly in Shinjuku. Basically, it ended up as a 3-hour prelude to the finale. None of us liked it too much, and I knew we were in trouble when MB started putting his head into his hands and started shifting in his seat. "The Half-Blood Prince" should've been released an extra-special made-for-TV event, not as a blockbuster motion picture. This could only have appealed to the die-hard fans who would swoon even if Harry strangled a cat. I'd never read any of the books so it was with some surprise that I found out from MB that there was a major battle sequence in the original book. But instead in the movie, it was just the bad guys up on the belltower with that final quiet assasssination of Professor Dumbledore by Professor Snape. The director, David Yates, left in all that "Beverly Hills 90120" stuff with Harry, Ginny, Hermione (please, do grow up, girl!) and Ron, and decided to take out a key battle sequence from a blockbuster franchise instead. OoooooK....and what is even more mystifying is that Yates is the same guy who whipped up that crackin' battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the last movie. I mean, that fight scene was even better than anything Yoda and the Sith could bring up in the "Star Wars" prequels. Just disappointing....

Saturday July 25, 3:22 p.m.

Well, got a bit of a disappointment in that The Smile decided not to renew her contract with us. But she's one of those rare students who came up front and told me flat, which I do respect. I have a feeling that Suzanne from the juku will take the other tact and just not show up anymore. In The Smile's case, it's just that the money was a tad too much for her, although Speedy will insist that our school is the most inexpensive. Still, conversation schools by nature will never be known as being particularly cheap. The other disappointing thing is that she was a fun, hard-working student.

Just have The Intellectual in about 30 minutes, then I'm finished.

Saturday July 25, 11:30 a.m.

To your left, may I proudly introduce Kirin Cola? For those people who may be scratching their heads, yup, one of Japan's preeminent beer companies has decided to release their own version of Coke. I came across this one at a vending machine in Tokyo Station, and since it was a broiling day outside, I plunked in my 120 yen. As I guzzled it down like any mug of suds, it did seem to have that tinge of hops. Maybe it was a subliminal thing.

Got that party thing cleared up with both the juku boss and The Restauranteur. I even had dinner at The Restauranteur's place. I had my usual Chicken Saute. The only thing different was that it was a full house. Usually when I've dined there, I was the only one or one of two people; The Restauranteur figured that since we're officially on summer holiday time, the restaurant managed to haul in some holidaymakers from Tokyo Disneyland.

I had Mr. TOEIC for the first time in a couple of weeks. In the interim, he had gone with his family to Okinawa and so, as an omiyage, the school got some beni imo tarts. Beni imo happens to be red potatoes. Just imagine purple potato pie and you've got the right image.

It's a hot one out there...perfect beginning to the annual fireworks festival season. The Sumida River Fireworks Festival...arguably the biggest one in the country will be launching tonight...which means that close to a million guys and girls dressed in sloppily arranged yukata will be amassing in Asakusa from about 4 p.m. for a 7 p.m. start. There are also the Urayasu and Matsudo Festivals in Chiba at the same time. I've never been a huge purveyor of fireworks, despite the fact that the festivities here far outstrip anything we have back in Canada. Folks here ooh and aah over each explosion, but I'm kinda the opinion that once you've seen one festival, you've seen them all. I had my live viewings of the Sumida River Festival years ago and then had to contend with the worst commute home in my 15 years here. So, now I'm rather content to watch it on TV Tokyo in air-conditioned comfort. And since this is Eel Day No. 2, I may do it over an una-don.

Friday July 24, 9:05 a.m.

I was mugged by a squall this morning. When I was walking over to the subway station at the bleary-eyed time of 6:30, it was overcast but with nary a drop. However, I come out the other side, it looked like monsoon season. My umbrella was pretty much useless against the onslaught of wind and rain but I managed to get my McBreakfast.

Saw the Fuji-TV headlines that stated that President Obama may be making his first trip to Japan in November. Well, I can just imagine the media here having 3 months' worth of wet dreams before his arrival. Of course, the TV crews will be again heading toward the town of Obama in Western Japan where the mayor will be pleading with Nagatacho to put his town on the presidential schedule. The commercial networks, like the aforementioned Fuji-TV, will be breathlessly showing off his hotel suite and restaurants that he and perhaps Michelle and the kids will be going to in Tokyo. I suspect that Ten-Ichi, the famed and overpriced tempura restaurant, will be a must go-to

As for Speedy's, I just have Miss Prissy in about 90 minutes. And then a film crew will be doing a feature with the bossman. If I'm lucky, I'll avoid all that coverage and make my way home.

Thursday July 23, 10:46 p.m.

Just about to get out of here...only to come back here in about 8 hours. The Music Man was fine; found out that not only is he a big fan of Kylie Minogue, but he's also a follower of Formula 1. He gave out a lot of info about how the late Gilles Villeneuve was basically made a pariah in this country, but I'll explain all that tomorrow.

Apparently, one of the morning shows has taken an interest in Speedy. So, a film crew will be here in the morning after I'm done with Miss Prissy to do a small feature. I'll be hiding out in the kitchen but I'll make sure I get back home pretty soon since I've got laundry to do.

Thursday July 23, 8:58 p.m.

Well, there he is. The 11th Doctor Who by 26-year-old Matt Smith. The pressures the actor must be having...I bet even Peter Davison didn't face this level of minute analysis and criticism when he took over for Tom Baker 28 years ago. The folks online have already started squabbling over his new costume. However, I'm sure the tweed sellers must be celebrating their lot right now. Hmm...I guess he looks sufficiently different from David Tennant's geek chic...definitely more geek than chic. He's got more of the Ivy League professorial tonsorial mixed in with a floppy hairdo and cheekbones you could cut bread on. However, I'll be looking out for what kind of personality he will be exhibiting. Hopefully, it'll be a little less manic than that of his last two predecessors. We could use a bit more Obama-like calm from this new Time Lord. And hopefully, the powers-that-be won't have me killed for using this image.

Thursday July 23, 7:13 p.m.

I'm not sure what causes these psychedelic trip-ups in my photo uploads but sometimes the results aren't too bad. This is indeed a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts from about a month ago. Ray and La Fille were quite happy.

The Carolinan showed up as scheduled at 6 tonight. I had been initially worried about her after she got word of her company going out of business at the end of September. However, true to her O-type blood, she's taking things in stride. The sounds of Hello Work are now ringing once more. Hello Work happens to be the most famous employment placement agency in the country. Kinda like Manpower back in Canada.

Now that I've gotten that mammoth translation assignment out of the way, I've been getting back into Mixi again. I made my open diary entries concerning those tsukudani grasshoppers I've been munching on along with pictures. And I've already been getting comments. There's nothing like sensationalism to bring in the masses. Speaking of which, someone from Nagoya took a look at my profile and has struck up an e-mail friendship of sorts since we both have connections with studying in Canada and jazz.

Well, time for dinner...Chip Star and soumen.

Thursday July 23, 2:28 p.m.

I do hope wherever you are taking a look at this, you haven't just eaten a meal. If you look closely at this pic, you'll find that these are finely roasted grasshoppers in soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Mmm-mmmm....dem's good eatin'. Called inago in Japanese, they've been given the tsukudani technique which refers to the stewing in the above ingredients.

Actually, they aren't bad at all. Quite chewy and the sauce pretty much obliterates any authentic grasshopper taste that may have come through. I got the package from Grandma Fado a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, inago tsukudani are quite the delicacy in some of the more far-flung prefectures. And Mom has told me that eating locusts was quite the necessity in the war years since protein was rather hard to come by. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to munch on some antennae...

It's been a fairly quiet day so far. I've only had Miss Sedona. She's been getting pretty hyped over her trip to Canada in a few months. Speedy has been counselling her for the past few weeks now. I should be seeing The Carolinan later this evening, and then it'll be The Music Man to wrap things up. The Carolinan has fallen on some hard times...actually, she and the rest of her company staff have known for a while that the axe was gonna come down, but the unfortunate announcement came a couple of weeks ago that her company will be shutting its doors at the end of September. Not sure how the lesson's gonna be like today. May have to get the tissue ready.

I've done the accounting for that huge translation project for The Cornerette. Well, if she's still willing to pay the full amount, I may be in for a pretty winfall at the end of this month. But that's still a big if. And strangely enough, Paddy, the friend who had first introduced me to The Corner over a year ago, got back to me about another possible project involving 100 pages! I sent him the immediate caveat that I would need to find out what the material involved and what the deadline was. After having to deal with pages of ceramics, I'm not quite sure if I'm gonna be up for hundreds of pages.

I checked my machine and got a rather breathless message from the juku boss last night concerning this little dinner next Friday night I had first proposed a couple of months ago for all of my students at The Restauranteur's. Unfortunately, it seems like The Restauranteur and Mr. White called her up about a number of things involving the "party". I never gave too many details to the boss since, for one thing, I never intended this thing to be nothing bigger than a few students and me having a little din-din together. However, forgetting to realize that anything called a party in this country automatically demands planning on a NASA-like level, I had the juku boss talking my ear off about how she's arranged things. I couldn't really even get half of what the boss was babbling about. And at that time, The Fashion Designer was coming into Speedy's for her lesson. I told the boss that I had a student coming right up but she just kept nattering away like a jackhammer so I just finally had to tell her that the student was here and clicked off. I was annoyed that my little get-together got bumped up higher in social status and the fact that the scatterbrain wouldn't let go, regrettably made it easy for me to hang up on her. Hopefully, she won't be ticked off at me on Friday night.

Wednesday July 22, 8:55 p.m.

There was supposed to be one of the biggest solar eclipses in human history, and Tokyo was completely overcast. Bad, Tokyo, bad! Looks like we'll have to take it on the road for the next big one. 001 told me that it would be on Easter Island. I've got a feeling that the Moai Statues will not feel so lonely in the not-so-distant future.

I had just tallied up the cost of those 6 weeks of translation when The Cornerette came back with some corrections I had to do to the original drafts. So, it's not quite over yet.

Saw the new 11th Doctor Who in his new getup. Not too, too bad although I was kinda hoping for something a bit more different than the slight variation on the theme of geek chic that David Tennant had brought in. Still, the tweed and bow tie with folded trousers makes Matt Smith a Doctor.

Saturday July 18, 3:22 p.m.

Just on the verge of heading home. Ray is still here and may be for some time. I've only scratched the surface of figuring out what I'm gonna charge for those 6 weeks of translation. Yep, it's already looking like I might get a small winfall...provided that The Cornerette still wants to pay me after running behind by over a week.

Still have to teach The Jyuppies tomorrow. Not sure about the husband; he's been having that crisis of opportunity. I may have to seriously re-adjust how to teach him.

Saturday July 18, 1:20 p.m.

Well, just a couple of weeks after Michael Jackson's passing, another legend, this time in the broadcasting industry, has died. Good ol' Walter Cronkite has just gone to that anchorman's desk in the sky. He's been pretty much out of the spotlight for the past decade or so but I'm sure all of the news shows right now in the States are giving a full court tribute to Uncle Walter, The Most Trusted Man in America.

Some 6 weeks after I got onto this Japanese ceramics project, I finally got that last kanji translated and sent over to The Cornerette yesterday afternoon. Like with any relationship, there were some ups and downs, and The Cornerette was getting fidgety about when I would finally get everything in. Well, it's in now, and I just have to now tackle the arduous task of tallying up the cost.

Got a long weekend, although I did that one lesson today with The Publicity Agent and then I have two with The Jyuppies tomorrow afternoon. Found out that she'll be putting in her hours this weekend, too. Has to do some filming with the comedy team known as Kyaiin tomorrow. And I found out that her uncle got himself into the Guinness Book for being to fold a rice grain into an origami crane.

Thursday July 16, 12:39 p.m.

Just two more topics away from finally doing away with that mammoth translation, and I just couldn't have enough time to do it. Well, looks like there will be a Part C. However, I did send Part B to the Cornerette. She'll have to wait til tomorrow to get the whole thing.

Just a few minutes away from Miss Sedona's lesson. Speedy is counselling her on that trip to Canada.

My apartment agency has been leaving messages on my machine about something. They left two yesterday...didn't say what it was about so I wasn't particularly enthused about calling them back since I had that problem with them early last year. Finally, I got that third message this morning. Apparently, they want to put in a chain lock on my door and just wanted to confirm a day and time, the workman can come on over. Could be a bit dicey but it's looking like the holiday Monday will be the only one close by.

Wednesday July 15, 7:17 p.m.

Yup, plenty hot out there. I was crazy enough to walk down from Nakano-Sakaue to Shinjuku in blazing 30-degree-plus heat after meeting up with The Admin and then lunch. But the weather was kind to throw in some stiff winds to cool us down. I ended up browsing at the Book First branch in the Coccoon Tower for a while before I took off for Ichigaya to teach The New Yorker. Actually, had three different people come and leave beside us while we had our class; I think that's a personal best for me. Not many people can stand sipping coffee next to an English lesson.

Heading back home on Monday night strangely felt like a Friday night in that I witnessed a rather nasty set of fisticuffs in Iidabashi Station (one guy flipped the other a la judo) and there was a drunk salaryman splayed out on one seat on the Tozai Line home. Of course, the surrounding people didn't disturb him. If this had been in New York City, the poor fool would've been missing several things, including teeth and limbs.

I seem to be making good progress on this last article for The Cornerette. I don't think I'll finish the whole thing off by tonight but I can probably send half of it to The Cornerette to appease her further. But I still have The Music Man's lesson at 9:15.

Wednesday July 15, 8:51 a.m.

Still plowing away at the translations; I've just got one more article to do. Luckily, 001 has cancelled her lesson for today, so after The New Yorker, I've got several hours to bash that into shape.

Last night, the juku boss showed me some of that endearing scatterbraininess that she's often famed for. She had a talk over the weekend with a potential substitute English teacher for the kids whenever I head off for home. Apparently, he's just a 20-year-old greenhorn from Hungary who's pretty much into the Japanese language. The boss was so impressed with his Japanese abilities that she didn't even bother checking into the most important attribute...can the guy speak English?

Mr. White's second class went off without a hitch. As for The Milds, we kept it nice and light. They're still not masters of Past Continuous/Simple Past contrast but after two weeks and several exercises, I don't think they're gonna get any better. On to Present Perfect next week.

I don't have The Admin until 11 today but made the trek over to Speedy's as if I had an early lesson since those translations and The Cornerette have been breathing down my neck. Afterwards, I've got The New Yorker and then it'll be The Music Man for the last one tonight.

I actually have got another O-chugen package from The Matron (remember her?) coming to me. It's now been three months since I last saw The Class Act, but I still get the little cakes. Still not sure whether The Class Act will ever get together.

Monday July 13, 10:50 p.m.

Well, finished with Medicine Man...my sole student of the entire day. Still feeling a bit down about what all of those weeks of trying to translate the ceramics website have culminated to. I never had this much trouble with hot springs, contracts and even tax lingo. But ceramics has thrown me for a loop with all of that arcane language. I've sent the message out to her...didn't give any excuses to her. So the ball's in her court.

Time to head on home.