Friday September 25, 1:03 p.m.

The Nurse was one of the millions who braved the Kan-Etsu Highway up to Gunma Prefecture during Silver Week. It took her 8 hours round-trip to stay 2 hours there. I think the payoff was somewhat lacking.

Well, the pay packets are almost done. Once I get mine, I'll probably take off soon after since I still gotta get the bereavement card for my late uncle...I went to Ginza's Ito-Ya yesterday but although I could get a birthday card for my niece, I couldn't find anything remotely appropriate to send to my aunt. My only other choice is the Matsuzakaya Department Store in Nihombashi.

Also, during my short recce in Ginza, I found out that the HMV in the Mosaic Building in Sukiyabashi had received the axe a couple of weeks earlier. The music store had once taken up the entire 4th floor but then several years ago, the place was downsized to just a third of its original size, and then the final farewell in early September. To be honest, I guess there was a certain inevitability since there is a more accessible HMV just down the street in the Ginza INZS complex.

Spoke to Ray about her going to Akihabara to help out the bossman tomorrow at the fair. She's not looking forward to it because of the weekly infestation of otaku.

Friday September 25, 10:40 a.m.

The end of a 2-day work week. Not surprisingly, not feeling all that tuckered out. Just have The Nurse in about 20 minutes and then it's just the juku folks tonight. And that is with The Ace out of the picture since he's got plans.

Heard that the bossman and Ray gotta head out to a study abroad fair out in Akiba tomorrow. Oh, joy! In the midst of Otaku Central on a Saturday. Hope Ray doesn't go into Maid Rage there.

Thursday September 24, 10:30 p.m.

Had my lesson with The Music Man. Yep, Renault came up. As expected, both of us agreed that the car company got off with a slap on the wrist after what will probably go down as one of the most egregious scandals in any sport. He also mentioned that he thought that Michael Schmacher is truly a dangerously competitive driver.

A bit of an odd topic to finish the day on, but it's been something that's been trying to get out of my mind and onto blog for a while, so I'll see if I can get this written down before I get out of here. Being a veteran Trekkie and a soundtrack fan, I was intrigued by the reactions on YouTube concerning the Michael Giacchino score to the current reboot of the franchise. Excerpts of the CD have found permanent status on the site. There have been a lot of raves about the tracks including Track 5, "Enterprising Young Men", which is also a favourite of mine. But there are those who think that Giacchino's accomplishments pale in comparison to Jerry Goldsmith's contribution to Trek Lore with his famous theme for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". There was even one nod of support to the score for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (the one with the whales) which I frankly likened to a DeVol score for a late 60s sitcom. Not that I hated that one, but let's say that neither Giacchino nor Goldsmith should be particularly threatened.

For me and for the record, I think there is room for not just Giacchino and Goldsmith, but also for James Horner, the composer for the score for what is arguably the best of the entire franchise "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". The score fits the movie. Goldsmith's majestic score fits in with Robert Wise's laudable but doomed attempt to create a space opera out of hammy acting and a huge space turd in a cloud. James Horner created a swashbuckling seafaring motif which goes hand-in-glove with the adventure and space battles that characterized "The Wrath of Khan". And then you have the most recent contributor to Trek Music, Michael Giacchino, who has whipped out this frothy, frenetic and fun score to celebrate Star Trek's return to its roots. Giacchino even gets all illogical...much like much of the plotting of the movie...by thrusting in the legendary Alexander Courage TV theme in various parts three times. I was somehow able to get over that strangeness and have listened to the CD now even more times than I have Giacchino's other great soundtrack, that for "The Incredibles".

So, Trekkies, rejoice. You can enjoy all the pieces of Trek Music without guilt.

Thursday September 24, 7:48 p.m.

Well, I guess I had a lot of energy all stored up from Silver Week. Used it to get ready for lessons, come up with a strategy for Swank who I'll be seeing next Monday (actually, she'll be the only student I'll be seeing on Monday...The Medicine Man has cancelled his lesson), copied off a couple of tests for Mrs. Jyuppie this Sunday and Mr. White on Tuesday, and got the final part of the review done up for The Restauranteur's lesson tomorrow night. Not too bad.

On my way to Speedy's, I came across a rather unfortunate scene on the opposite platform. It looked like some high school kid had stopped breathing. He was splayed out unconscious and the paramedics were applying the defibrillator to his bare chest. Never a good sign, but I hope he's OK.

Should ask The Music Man about that Renault verdict. Earlier in the week, Renault missed the proverbial bullet by just getting a suspended sentence for intentionally asking a driver to crash for the company's benefit. The Music Man is also an F1 enthusiast, and in fact, he was the first to tell me about this scandal.

Thursday September 24, 4:45 p.m.

Back at the grindstone, as it were. Just today and tomorrow before another weekend crops up. Silver Week was basically made up of my cocooning at home for the most part (except for a Tuesday afternoon outing to Jimbocho) while the rest of the Kanto apparently enjoyed parking out on the highways for 5 days. Basically that is it for the very first extended holiday in September...I guess Silver Week will only occur when the holidays align themselves like they did this year. Newswise, it was also the week when PM Yukio Hatoyama played debutante at his ball at the United Nations. His English was pretty darn good...but then again the lad did go to Stanford for 6 years. Also, domestically, the new Prime Minister faced his first big challenge to his administration by proxy...Land and Infrastructure Minister Maebara got the screws tightened on him by a good chunk of the people of Gunma Prefecture as he had made the decision (or that is, his party made the decision during the election campaign) to cancel one of the big projects that had already been started by the name of the Yanba Dam near the city of Naganohara. This project had been tossed about for half a century before it finally had been accepted by the locals, then last week came the axe by Maebara. He's not a popular figure out in the boonies. And he had probably been feeling more sorry for Pension Reform Minister Nagatsuma for getting such a cold welcome by the bureaucratc staff.

Also, the countdown has begun before the IOC Selection Committee makes the final decision about which city gets the 2016 Olympic Games. Tokyo is in the final running and the choice will be made on October 2nd. I'm sure Governor Shintaro Ishihara will be feeling pretty cranky next week.

Got the call from Mom this morning that one of my uncles had passed away earlier this week. I had met him a few times early in my childhood and adolescence, but like with virtually every relative that I have, I was never very close to him. However, I am sending his family a card of condolence.

Just have The Music Man tonight. However, I did go out earlier today to wire over my airfare back home to the parentals. Made another recce through Roppongi, Ginza and Shinjuku. Had some lunch at Stackers, the small sandwich shop on the 12th floor of Takashimaya Times Square. Their burger plate doesn't really stack up (oops, sorry) but the BLT plate fits the bill. I was also in the nearby HMV. Looks like Madonna has released her best album in a single and double-CD format.

Tomorrow is the official last day for that old CD shop, Otokichi, in Nakano Sun Plaza. I may just take a gander there tomorrow since I have a big chunk of empty time (sign of the times) between The Nurse's lesson and my lessons at the juku later in the evening.

Monday September 21, 1:36 p.m.

The first day of Fall and, more importantly, smack dab in the middle of Silver Week. Due to a fluke in national holiday scheduling, Respect-for-the-Aged Day and the official First Day of Fall fall in the same week and just one day apart. So, there is a so-called Citizen's Holiday on Tuesday to buffer the two. However, throw in the weekend, and we've got ourselves a Silver Week. For the first half, though, I've been basically coccooning in my neighbourhood. The I-Cafe has been as far as I've gotten out of my own apartment in the past 3 days. The weather has finally become more suited to a Fall. Meanwhile, being a major holiday week, the highways have once again become the largest parking lots on the planet.

A lot of time with coccooning, there's a lot of watching of movies on cable TV. I had my own share on Saturday. I actually finally caught "When Harry Met Sally" in its entirety. Up until then, I'd only seen the famous faked orgasm scene. I have to say that I did enjoy the 20-year-old flick by Nora Ephron. The director seems to be (or was) the female Woody Allen, at least in terms of her directing style. I'd seen "Sleepless in Seattle" before, and it comes off as being a sister movie to "When Harry Met Sally" (and perhaps a godmother to the illegitimate brat known as "Knocked Up"). Ephron likes tons of banter with her romance, New York City, and jazz music as an underscore. Plus, she apparently liked Meg Ryan as well. Being a score guy, I'm now rather interested in acquiring the soundtrack. I liked the leads of Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan...they came off as likeable and real people with all of their strengths and weaknesses shown to the fore. Enjoyed the quip of "the white man's overbite" and I'm sure all of the women in the audience back in 1989 all sighed wistfully when Harry gave his short and sweet reasons why he loved Sally at the end of the movie. Just a pity that Ephron couldn't bring some of her magic when she did "Bewitched"; I think she just just overreached herself there.

Sunday was just a lot of US crime dramas on Fox Japan and Super Drama TV along with a couple of I-Go games. Yup, "Criminal Minds" and "NCIS" have kept me entertained...almost felt like I was back in Toronto. And just this morning, I caught a NFL game. I've never been a huge fan of American football, but the game between Dallas and New York did have quite a bit of everything. It actually came off as what a Super Bowl should be more like.

Newswise, it's also been a bit of everything. The Perils of Noriko Sakai continue apace...her cottage deep in the wilds of Chiba was torched by an unknown arsonist....perhaps a fanatic with feelings of betrayal. Yoshito Usui, the creator of the comic with the Japanese equivalent of Bart Simpson, "Crayon Shin-Chan" was killed when he'd fallen off a high cliff in Gunma Prefecture...there have tributes from all over East Asia. And buried in all that, is new PM Hatoyama's first trip to the United Nations since getting sworn in last week. Talk about hitting the ground running.

What little of a work week I have is gonna get even smaller. The Carolinan just called in to say to cancel Thursday's lesson since she will be busy making the transition from her old workplace in Aoyama to Jinbocho.

Automan officially got hitched last weekend. I got some of the first photos from the wedding via a mutual friend. Her brother-in-law called last week to say that Automan and the missus may be coming over to Japan next month, and maybe even The Lens and his wife again. Plus, Mom also called to let me know that the VISA bill has come in for my air ticket. So, I'll be shucking over some cash at my bank on Thursday. At this rate, I'll probably be ready to declare insolvency at the end of this year.

Thursday September 17, 8:45 p.m.

Just another 30 minutes before The Music Man finally gets here. Well, I got to see the Noriko Sakai act of contrition. It looked like everyone was in a hotel ballroom...those places are usually used for celebrations, not for humiliations. The cameras were flashing so hard and so frequently, I was afraid that another Pokemon incident of induced epileptic fits was gonna happen. In any case, since the sound on my computer has been turned off for some reason, I could only watch Nori-P looking shellshocked and tearful as she bowed beyond the contrite 60-degree angle and mouth her apologies. She's apparently put herself in the hospital for the next little while to recover. The person I feel for most of all is the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama. He had just become only the 2nd non-LDP PM in the last half-century, only to be upstaged on his first full day in office by a former aidoru-turned-drug addict.

Well, it looks like Swank is definitely coming my way again. La Fille handled the rendezvous. I'm supposed to be meeting her not in Hiroo, where she now lives, but in the relative anonymity of Roppongi Hills since she doesn't really want to be seen there by any of her neighbours. As if I could ever be mistaken for a paramour. Kinda nice if I got treated to lunch there...

And that meeting with The Romantic and his friend will have to be put off til a later date. He left the message saying that the 28th won't be possible. He suggested the 29th but I've got my classes with The Beehive and then the juku. No can do.

Thursday September 17, 7:28 p.m.

The face that launched a thousand cameras...finally came out after several weeks in the hoosegow. Yep, that's right...Noriko Sakai was released from from Bayside Police Station a few hours ago to a lightning storm of flashes and then off to a press conference to show her contrition (and perhaps some of those dance moves?). She didn't look too much the worse for wear but the sadness on her face was all too apparent. I've only been able to see screen captures of the press conference but it looks like she's had to pause a few times to dab at some tears. I've got a feeling that her story will be on all night.

Thursday September 17, 6:02 p.m.

I've managed to get pretty much everything done that I needed to: prep up for lessons for The Bass and The New Yorker tomorrow, set up the next stage of review for The Restauranteur, upload the photos into Facebook, and even sent Speedy some ideas for that Eiken 1 course. Not bad for 6 hours. And I still have over 3 before The Music Man comes in for his lesson. One big Donut Day.

That picture on the left is one from the Takeshita Dori leg of my big walk on Monday. It shows a couple of stores that provide the lifeblood for the typical Japanese teenager in Harajuku...the cream-and-banana filled crepe. I'm sure that there are a whole lot more of these shops riddling the entire neighbourhood. I've had my fair share of the thin pancake filled with stuff, but I couldn't see myself even entering the lineup for a crepe in Harajuku. With all of these kids, I'd probably be seen as a pedophile on a fishing expedition.

Had a young mother with her kid come in earlier in the afternoon. Cute kid but I was surprised to find out that he was still only 18 months old. This boy looked like he was 3 or 4 and could walk quite well. At this rate, he should be eligible for military service by the time he hits 10.

Thursday September 17, 1:50 p.m.

Just a couple of shots from that recce I took from Shibuya to Roppongi on Monday. The orange Slinky on the left is that tunnel just beyond Aoyama Cemetery and a click away from Roppongi Hills. The one on the right is one that most teens in Tokyo would know on a weekend. That is indeed Takeshita Dori...on a Monday, no less...still packed to the gills with the girls.

Yesterday split up my week into 2 mini-work weeks since I had nada on the schedule. I'm sure 001 is enjoying coddling koalas and climbing Ayers Rock in Oz right now. As for me, it was just cleaning the apartment and watching the relatively quieter pomp and circumstance (well, relative to the party atmosphere of a US Inauguration) of the swearing-in of the first non-LDP Prime Minister in 16 years into the Japanese Diet. Pretty much by 3 p.m., all of the TV stations were glued to the Lower House Chambers where Yukio Hatoyama shyly stood up to accept the accolades and, of course, the responsibility of becoming the 60th PM in charge of the 93rd Cabinet. However, things for the newbie DPJ parliamentarians got started all the way back at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. when two (relatively) young Diet folk showed up at the gates of Nagatacho...along with some bleary-eyed media types. At 8 a.m., the full media and newbie scrum finally got let in like a bunch of kids at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

Of course, the up-close-and-personal stories of the new Cabinet officers...including PM Hatoyama were put up on display. Watch young Yukio at the tender age of 9 with Grandpa Ichiro, the first LDP Prime Minister. Then see him 21 years later with his baby son, Takarazuka Troupe-trained wife, and the worst haircut ever seen, and then come the glory political years of the 90s and 00s. Then, there was his first primetime news conference as PM at 6 p.m. followed by the official investiture of him and all of his Cabinet by the Emperor before things came to a close with the group photo on the steps in the official residence.

But have a bit of heart for the outgoing Prime Minister, Taro Aso (well, I won't but you can feel free to). He gave his farewell speech in the morning and was probably very moved by the line of Aso fans who did come out to say goodbye. He was in the chambers later that afternoon, looking rather glum with some of his other fellow LDP'ers.

For several days, there had been some tabloid reports on this Mieko Tanaka and the fact that she had been in some softcore romantic movie not too many years ago. I had no idea who this person was until yesterday. It turns out that she is now one of the Ozawa Girls, a freshly-minted DPJ parliamentarian....not too old, either...only 33. Unlike some of her new colleagues, she quickly gave the press her back since she probably didn't want to go over any old ground about her movie career. But she did fess up back some days ago, stating that at the time that she had needed the money....which would probably put her incongruously with Anna Nicole Smith. Ironic, since new Deputy Prime Minister Kan lectured the young 'uns about not providing the media with any cannon fodder.

But even with all of the coverage focused on Nagatacho yesterday, Noriko Sakai could not be denied. Or that is, her husband, to be more exact. Yup, the surfer dude-crackhead, Yuichi Takaso, finally got bailed out last night at 5 p.m. from his Shibuya holding cell. Not only were the media, passersby and cops outside in force, but apparently some disgruntled Nori-P fan who took a page out of that Iraqi reporter's playbook and tossed a shoe at the departing van with Takaso in it. He got hauled in pretty short order. As for Sakai herself, she's supposed to be finally getting out any minute now.

Finally got a call from The Romantic about that so-called research project he has been telling me about. He came to the realization that it would be better if we met in person than have him send over a bunch of papers....hmmm....I wonder....

And Cozy finalized the plans for dinner for the 27th. It'll be at the last spot that he, me and the juku boss got together. Looks like Cozy will be bringing his wife...according to the boss, she's quite the looker.

I had my first early morning arrival at Speedy's in some weeks since I seem to be now having a dearth of classes. I guess absence truly makes the heart grow fonder; I really enjoyed the McBreakfast this morning. Miss Prissy returned after some weeks; she'd had a good time in Guam and told me that she made the extra effort to use the English she'd picked up in class. Nice to hear. Got an omiyage of Mango Chocolates. Now, basically I'm off til The Music Man comes in at the late hour of 9:15 p.m.

Tuesday September 15, 1:23 p.m.

Last night didn't go too badly....The Music Man was fine and I didn't end up strangling The Medicine Man like I'd wanted to last week for his non-performance. I think with the latter guy we got into a warm-up discussion about the H1N1 virus which would definitely be in his ballpark. He said that Swine Flu would probably affect almost half the population and it would peak in early October. He also suggested I get a mask, although not of the cotton variety since they would be a bit too loose to be useful. Point taken.

Speedy reacted with some surprise when he found out that I wouldn't have any classes tomorrow. As usual, he just noted "That ain't too good". Well, with two students now having vacated the premises and 001 off on her Australian sojourn along with the fact that I have no privates, it looks like I'll have the anti-Hump Day.

The Bohemian contacted me to change the date of our meeting. Apparently, an old friend of his from university will suddenly be moving to Southeast Asia very soon, so he wanted to combine his farewell meeting with my dinner with him to the 26th instead of the 20th. I'm good with that. Also, Cozy got in touch with me; apparently, he had spoken with the juku boss about getting together for dinner, and somehow he had convinced her to come out on the 27th although she may not be ready for a full dinner. Well, I'll just see when I talk to her later today.

Another celebrity death....Patrick Swayze has really become a ghost. The writing was on the wall for the past couple of years, but he finally passed away today. I bet there will be a lot of folks putting on that "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack tonight.

Apparently, Noriko Sakai didn't get out on bail yesterday which probably disappointed the vultures...er, I mean....journalists outside Bayside Police Station. The main reason was that the 5 million yen had yet to be paid. Most likely, if and when she comes out, she'll be looking quite a bit lighter physically. Prison has a way of making that happen...and it's not just because of the food. That former president of Livedoor, Horiemon, was looking positively svelte compared to his hedonistically plump days once he got out, and Sakai's fellow "comrade-in-arms" Manabu Oshio got out a couple of weeks ago looking somewhat thinner as well. The only problem is that Nori-P had already looked quite slim and trim when she had been arrested.

Well, I may not be making any money tomorrow but at least I'll probably get to see the inauguration of the new DPJ Cabinet along with the new Prime Minister live on TV.

As for my two cents on that so-called Serena Williams Tirade incident over the weekend and the fact that she hasn't apologized for it....well, what did you expect? It's not as if this was the first time a tennis player has gone bonkers....I'm sure Martina and Chris have had their run-ins with officials. And everyone knows about McEnroe. I'm just surprised that neither of the Williams Sisters hadn't gone berserk before on the court at this stage in their careers...pretty good control up to last weekend, I would say. Of course, the fact that Serena hadn't gone super-primeval on an official made it all the more shocking...still, athletes like her are different human beings. They're near-paragons of human physique, trained to be killingly competitive and have the pressure of making tons of endorsements...again, I say it's more of a surprise that she hadn't gone Wolverine before now. No, obviously it wasn't right what she did and she could've shown a bit of class by giving some sort of apology, but again under the circumstances, I really can't be that surprised.

Monday September 14, 6:38 p.m.

I ended up making that last entry exclusively on my latest walkabout so I'll wrap up the past few days here.

Ah, yes..."X-Men Origins: Wolverine", otherwise known here locally as "X-Men Zero"...they like to add Zero to any sort of prequel, and very appropriate here as well since there was a character by the code name of Zero. And unfortunately, the movie itself kinda scored itself with the same integer...at least in MB's eyes. For such a mild-mannered Aussie, MB is a pretty harsh critic. But then again, I can say honestly that "Wolverine" won't ever be scaring Chris Nolan and "The Dark Knight" franchise. For one thing, the movie was less smoothly flowing origin story of one of Marvel Comics' flagship characters, and more the usual backbreaker plotting that plagues these superhero movies: putting in so many superpowered heroes and villains in one movie that the flick just comes off as a fashion runway showcase for mutants. Hey, look, it's The Merc With A Mouth...Deadpool; hey, it's John Wraith disguised as the frontman for a hip-hop band; hey it's Merry from "Lord of the Rings" with an electricity fetish. And hey, it's good ol' Sabertooth....who just pops up every 10 minutes to have another go-around with his little brother. MB was correct in stating that he needed to punch out the editor; frankly, I would've preferred that "Wolverine" was guaranteed a quadrilogy...with that one plot strung out throughout 4 movies. It would have helped a whole lot in establishing and perhaps even relating to the various characters a whole lot better. Imagine having the first movie based on just the establishment of Major Stryker's elite unit of mutants and their adventures, then the sophomore entry could've dealt with Logan's angry defection and his meeting up with the love of his life. The third could've seen him "lose" his love (you're gonna have to read the Wiki summary to understand why I put the word in quotes) and gain his adamantium. And finally, the fourth movie would have seen him in the final showdown with Stryker. Of course, the beancounters at Fox would never have agreed to this. Their star isn't exactly in his twenties and he probably would want to get out for something more Oscar-baiting. Still, the movie made enough so that the sequel is pending. Now I wonder if Magneto is next.

Well, as for today, besides the recce, it was a banner day for news. So much so that the soon-to-be Prime Minister Hatoyama ended up 3rd in terms of news stories. Noriko Sakai and Ichiro Suzuki took the flag at different ends of the pole today. The folks at the various news desks opened up with the requisite plastic smiles since Ichiro got his 9th consecutive 200-hit season in Texas early this morning. Reporters were out on the streets all over the country getting those personal opinions while his hometown displayed a huge banner congratulating the baseball legend....now, if Seattle could actually get close to winning even a pennant. As for the other end of the spectrum, singer-turned-tarento-turned-surprisingly-good-dancer-at-a-disco-turned-druggie jailbird Noriko Sakai was supposed to be out on bail today. Not surprisingly, there was a mammoth presence of media types in front of Bayside Police Station where she'd been held for several weeks. It's an irony of pop culture in that the Yuji Oda drama "Bayside Shakedown" takes place in the fictionalized version of the station. Not sure where she would be heading after finally getting out....I would think the nearest place for her would be her old condo in Minami-Aoyama....or as far away from Tokyo as possible.

Monday September 14, 6:09 p.m.

Technically speaking, we're still one week away from the official beginning of Autumn, but I can say with some authority as a long-standing resident in this country that Summer was a mere ghost of its usual skin-melting self this year. In what might become a habitual thing with me, I did another recce like the one I did on the 4th...but this time, I beat feet from Shibuya to Roppongi in about 3.5 hours; to be honest, it wouldn't usually take quite that long since the various centres of Tokyo are actually quite compressed within the 23 wards. However, I did have my camera with me just clicking away and I had yet another visit to the largest CD store in the world. During that time, although I did work up a fair sweat, it's saying something that I would even dare such a walkabout in a regular mid-September since those days are far from the September crisp and cool days of my childhood in Canada. I did have to concede to one vending machine, though, between Shibuya and Omotesando.

Looking like the middle-aged oyaji I am, it was with some bravery that I traipsed into the Mecca of all that is Teen in Japan....aka Takeshita-dori in Harajuku. Just before I made that turn, though, I noticed a ton of younglings entering the rival stores of H&M and Forever 21. Speaking of H&M, that huge branch just across from Bunkamura is about to open this Saturday. During the Mondays that I used to head over for The Class Act, there was always that huge boarding and the construction going on. Well, according to this past week's edition of METROPOLIS, it's ready to go and therefore I, and anyone over the age of 30, will probably do well to avoid that area this long holiday weekend. The lines will probably go well into the thousands.

I survived walking through the gauntlet of Takeshita-dori. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of kids there which made me wonder if there were actually anything called school on today. They were all dressed like anything except for proper students. Made my way through the stores of strange English names, creperies and boutiques with terrifying mannequins of human bodies and rabbit heads. Pictures to come later...

Then I got out the other side and made a U-turn to get onto the main drag of Harajuku and into the slightly more mature side of Omotesando. It was a Monday but it still looked like half of Toronto had decided to walk the streets there. Walked all the way up to the Aoyama side of things and took a look at the underground Echika restaurant complex in the subway station. The aroma of freshly-baked croissants was ever-present, so it was with some surprise at the end of this marketplace done up like something in Paris that there was a Vietnamese restaurant. I was tempted to go for the pho and bubble tea, but for some reason I decided to let it go for this time....maybe it was the fact that the two together would have cost me over a thousand yen.

Got up from underground and walked deep into Aoyama. Yup, typically tony neighbourhood. Tasteful apartments and houses that wouldn't look out of place in the Upper West Side, interspersed with various post-modern architecture denoting boutiques and stores. Made it all the way to the Nezu Museum. I was wondering about heading towards ol' Noriko Sakai's apartment (more on her later) but decided that she's been put through enough hell, so I turned left instead. In the distance, I saw the commanding presence of the main Mori Building that represented Roppongi Hills' contribution to the skyline, so I decided to see how I would be able to make that connection.

I ended up walking through the Aoyama Cemetery, one of the great landmarks in the area and then to some sort of orange tube tunnel. I didn't have to traverse through that so I just walked down the stairs to another street heading straight towards Roppongi Hills. It was definitely one of the highlights of my walk...there was the strange curving architecture of The Tokyo Arts Centre to the left, a major traffic artery to the right of me and a large cavernous underpass ahead of me. As I got through the tunnel, there was a strange dichotomy of some old, obviously 60s-built apartment blocks right in front of me while that Mori Building was not that far away. Made it to Roppongi Hills and walked inside. I looked in the local branch of the Aoyama Book Centre but found nothing so just walked and ended up having a Wendy's set in the basement next door to Roppongi Station. No, not particularly nutritious but certainly cheaper than Omotesando pho. But I certainly felt my bones when I finally got to sit down. That was pretty much it for my recce. Very good walk...may do it on Wednesday as well since I've got absolutely nothing scheduled on what was once my usual Hump Day.

Saturday September 12, 2:22 p.m.

One down, one to go. Finished up with The Publicity Assistant about 20 minutes ago. One of her colleagues had taken care of Hugh Jackman during his time promoting "Wolverine", the movie that MB and I along with some others will be catching tonight. Apparently, he comes off as a real regular nice guy. Nice to hear, especially with the rumours swirling about that the sequel may be filming in Japan since Logan has quite a past with this land. I very much doubt that Tokyo will be involved since the authorities here are very tough in terms of restrictions when dealing with filmmakers. But then a lot of the Wolverine comics have taken place in the forests anyways, so probably no trouble there.

Anyways, I'm feeling famished so time for lunch.

Saturday September 12, 12:11 p.m.

I've started on the grand project of saving the school via this so-called Eiken 1 course that I have been asked to develop. I checked over the sample of the Eiken 1 test that I have in the hard drive and jotted down some notes and possible resources to help. The whole test seems to resemble the fictional Top Gun school in the movie of the same name....test the best of the best in English fluency. The written, listening and reading sections would be enough to evacuate an applicant's bowels...or vowels, but if and when that applicant passes through those hurdles, then he/she has to face the Big Boss in this one-player video game of a test: the Interview stage. (Feel free to imagine either the theme from "Dragnet" or "Duel of the Fates" from the "Star Wars" prequels.) Here, the interviewee, after going through the usual minute of introduction and chitchat, has to choose a topic (it could be on anything from the necessity of the United Nations in this century to discussion on whether honesty is always the best policy) and prep it in 1 minute and then give a speech on it for 2 minutes! And to add insult to injury, the interviewee has to run the gauntlet of Q&A for 4. Native speakers of English would probably be tongue-tied, and actually some native teachers of English have gone through it and went through shock when they failed. Yikes! However, for that very same reason, a successful applicant goes through Nirvana when they pass.

Saturday September 12, 11:27 a.m.

Did forget to mention the fact that September 9, 2009 was designated as Beatles Day. There was some sort of festival over at Abbey Road a few weeks back. On Thursday night, after The Carolinan's lesson and a long-overdue dinner at Foo Foo (I needed it), I walked over to Tower Records next to JR Shinjuku. On the 7th floor, there was a rather large display of stuff and videos playing overhead on the monitors commemmorating the remastered re-releases of the various Beatles albums such as "Sgt. Pepper's". There were quite a few people milling about and taking pictures. At 8 o'clock, there was some sort of tribute performance and talk...although passing the 7th floor again on my way back down to the station, I think the performers were definitely more for playing some of the quieter tunes. Over here, The Beatles are held in the highest esteem along with jazz and Bobby Caldwell. I'll leave you to mull over the choices.

Last night, just before I hit bed, I came across an hour's worth of tribute to The Beatles on MTV. The station patched together footage of some of their performances from the roof of Abbey Road Studios, excerpts from "The Yellow Submarine", and "Free As A Bird", that elegiac video released about a decade ago. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of The Fab Four, although it would seem that almost anyone born in the 20th century is a fan by default. I think just seeing the psychedelic stuff from "The Yellow Submarine" was enough for me to lose some sleep. Still, maybe I will pick up a couple of albums for posterity someday.

Saturday September 12, 11:05 a.m.

Lousy weather out there. Seems like there is a typhoon in Tokyo Bay.

Yesterday was basically an off day for me except for the juku lessons, and I almost ended up having just the half-hour with The Restauranteur but more on that later. The gas man did come and just gave my taps a few seconds of lookover before considering them safe. I probably won't see him again for another 3 years. During his visit, Speedy called up rather jauntily to say that Swank, the translator for the Japanese court system who was aiming to achieve Eiken 1 status, was apparently coming back into the fold. I can imagine that the bossman was pretty darn happy since she's bought new lessons although I don't think even a full ton of lessons will make too much of a dent in our debt. Anyways, it looks like I'll be making house calls to her new home in Hiroo from Monday mornings...since it's pretty much certain that The Class Act will now be a footnote in my career history. Actually, the juku boss and The Beehive seem to know more than I do about the whereabouts of The Madame and her fallen husband. There was some sort of update report on the duo after the collapse of his empire...they've been living a nomadic life of sorts...jumping from hotel to hotel. I'm pretty sure, though, that it's still first-class living all the way.

Also, the bossman slipped in that I needn't bother about that project for study-abroad students. I wasn't making too much headway on that anyways. Instead, I'm to start working on coming up with some sort of course material for folks who want to go for Eiken 1; an idea brought about by Swank's return and seconded by Ray. Yeah, whatever...

MB has deigned to give me some more time to get to JR Shinjuku for the movie tonight. 6:15. Yeah, whatever...

Just have The Publicity Assistant and The Intellectual...my usual Saturday students from this afternoon.

Yesterday was indeed the 8th anniversary since the 9/11 attacks, and Obama's first as President. Apparently, there was some sort of kerfuffle involving a horribly mistimed Coast Guard drill in the Potomac as the President was attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. The CNN and BBC anchors acted as de facto parents of the nation with their tsk, tsking. Kinda reminds me of that asinine photo op with Air Force One flying low over Manhattan which brought out the panic attacks in the populace. Heads rolled then, heads will probably roll later.

Thursday September 10, 1:05 p.m.

Will be off in about 10 minutes for Shinjuku. It was another happy, happy lesson with Miss Sedona. It'll be sad to lose her for good but it'll be good for her to gain a new perspective in Toronto. It's been understandably stressful for her these last several days as she prepares for the big voyage. She has to take care of the packing, the moving and all of the other rigamarole involved in big life changes. Plus, she and her boss have been at loggerheads again about who will be replacing her in the pharmacy. Yep, I hear her pain. I've had my share of battles with the staff at the ol' school.

I caught the pilot episode of "Criminal Minds" on Super Drama TV! last night. The cable channel has been pushing this show for the past several weeks, and now it's arrived. So, it's Gideon and his gang of profilers including a couple of fashion models and a geek. The pilot was an enjoyable timewaster although the last scene seemed a bit too Hollywood-y twist-y.

Anyways, heading out. I think I'm still feeling pretty annoyed about MB's attitude and that invite from 002.

Thursday September 10, 11:26 a.m.

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

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

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

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

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

Anyways, Miss Sedona is here...

Wednesday September 9, 8:29 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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