Saturday September 4, 3:28 p.m.

Just about ready to get out of here. I got through my three classes without little trouble, although my lunch was kinda getting me to sleep during The Intellectual's lesson today. However, with Miss Prissy and The Publicity Assistant, we had quite a good time talking about cockroaches and good Tokyo hotels respectively. I was especially surprised with Prissy's apparent fearlessness when it comes to picking up roaches with her bare hands; she doesn't look like the super tough type in appearance but she doesn't end up like a quivering jelly mold on seeing the shiny brown insect in her house, unlike 99.9% of the population. And I thought I was the only superhero around.

The picture above is that of Tottori Prefecture's pear-flavored caramel that I got from the juku boss last night as a present. Her story about her experience with this candy is something that could only happen to the scatterbrain. Apparently, when she decided to chew on a cube of the stuff, she ended up pulling out one of her molars and had to go for some emergency work at the dentist. Luckily, my dental hygiene must be somewhat better since I could chew down on the caramel easily. I put up this news as a new topic on one of the Mixi communities dealing with sweet stuff. Within an hour, about 8 folks put down their favorite caramels...which is about the fastest reply I've ever gotten for anything in my 18 months on the SNS. For a country that's known for sushi and tempura, it's interesting that every prefecture apparently has their own contribution for caramel. And there was even a boom a few years back for something called raw caramel.

Well, I'm ready to go. Gonna head on over to Nakano Broadway and see if I can find something at Recomints in an attempt to repeat the luck I had at Tacto yesterday with that Ruiko Kurahashi CD.

Saturday September 4, 9:44 a.m.

I think we may have broken some sort of record for longest heat wave in Japan. In any case, it's plenty steamy out there. No sign of rain at all. I'm surprised that we haven't be given any water rationing announcements, but then again I haven't been able to catch up on the news recently. And unlike last year, there has been a distinct dearth of typhoons coming up to the Kanto, not that I'm complaining all that much.

Went down to Jimbocho yesterday after my lone class at Speedy's to check out that old CD shop. I was lucky to find a Ruiko Kurahashi disc that I hadn't had previously. Basically, it's a compilation of seven of her singles including the B-sides. The B-sides were unknown songs and though they were pretty enough to listen to, I could understand why they never made it onto one of the number of Best CDs. It's a rare one, too, judging by the cost. I paid about 3700 yen for it, which is 700 yen more than a contemporary disc.

Got my usual 3 Saturday students: Miss Prissy, The Publicity Assistant and The Intellectual. Also had to make some tests for Cozy and Miss Prissy, and grammar material for Yajima whom I'm seeing for the first time in about a month tomorrow.

Friday September 3, 11:56 a.m.

The Ramen Museum is probably the first of the food emporiums that now populate the big cities like Tokyo. I made my latest visit back on that steamy Monday after checking out of the Sakuragicho Washington. Walking out of the massive JR Shin-Yokohama Station, I was already feeling like a limp dishrag during the 10-minute walk to the museum and it was only 10:45 a.m. I'd been told that it was good to get to the place early since the place gets crowded between 1 and 5 p.m. Looks like there were some others who got the message since there was already a small group of people who were waiting in front of the locked doors. Then, when that busload of Chinese tourists arrived some 5 minutes before opening time, we all got into line lickety-split.

As you can see from the picture right here, the front of the Ramen Museum looks pretty austere but there is an interesting spiral design at the right which probably refers to one of the de rigueur toppings on a bowl of noodles, the naruto, a thin pink-and-white spiral of steamed fish cake.

Of course, one doesn't go to The Ramen Museum to look at the history of noodles but to actively partake in the digestion of said noodles. But it'll cost you...300 yen just to get into the place and then the average price of a bowl once you get into the sub-basements is around 800 yen. But the museum has gone all out to provide a depiction of old Showa Era-Tokyo from the 1950s; just think of Marty McFly ending up in The Big Sushi instead of that small town from "Back to the Future". There are even ancient announcements of arriving subways from the time period which occasionally get barked out through the speakers.

As I said, it's good to get to the ramen as soon as possible since lineups can get pretty long. So I held off on the photography until I finished my main business there. I ended up going for the Kumamoto representative, Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire), and got myself a bowl of their cha-shiu men for 950 yen. Usually the image of Kyushu ramen is of a pretty thick, artery-hardening broth coating noodles and just about anything else in its path, but the Kumamoto soup was actually rather light though the chefs didn't skimp on the rich flavor. And they didn't skimp on the pieces of BBQ pork.

Afterwards, I tried to walk off some of my added cholesterol by going through the mock-up of old Tokyo. It's rather nice to walk through the rusticity of the postwar era when a lot of buildings were still constructed in dilapidated wood instead of the huge concrete behemoths of today...including the soon-to-be-completed Tokyo Sky Tree. I could imagine hearing a jazz standard being crooned by legendary Hibari Misora as I walked through the alleys.

Some minutes later, I came across a paper sign which said in kanji, "The Future" on the stairway. So I returned to the present in the form of the 1st floor gift shop. I ended up buying a couple of boxes of ramen noodle pieces covered in chocolate for a couple of the juku students. I did try some with Mr. Mild later that night; well, let's say that I had good intentions in mind when I bought the stuff.

Friday September 3, 9:26 a.m.

Back at Speedy's again early for the 2nd day in a row. Somehow, this sort of habit has gotta stop sooner or later. This time's culprit is The Photog. Something has also gotta be done about this guy. He can't just keep rambling in classes, especially now since his New York project has been set back half a year. He's a nice guy and all but that sort of thing is gonna get old fast.

Basically once I'm done with him in a couple of hours, I have several hours of nothing until the juku lessons at 9. I'll probably head over to Jimbocho and check out that old CD shop with all of the obscure 80s discs. The important thing is that I just wanna chill out at home for a few hours until game time.

Thursday September 2, 10:36 p.m.

And thus another Hump Day comes to a slow end. Mrs. Thursday was shy but quite capable in her inaugural lesson tonight. Hopefully, she'll be a stayer. And The Music Man was his dependable self. I found out that both students will be absent next week since they'll both be heading for Guam for a short vacation. Can't complain about that. Besides, that will mean that I'll also have a rather early start to my Thursday night with The Carolinan being my final student.

Tomorrow, I've just got The Photog in the morning and then just the juku students. I heard that The Photog's assignment to New York has been thrown back until early next year. Doesn't make any of our jobs any easier.

Thursday September 2, 7:38 p.m.

About to get the last third of my classes under way. I've gone through The Patent Attorney, Grandma Dynamite, The Shareholder and The German. Grandma Dynamite's lesson was interesting in that it basically had her practicing the ol' show tune from "Fiddler on the Roof", "Sunrise, Sunset" in English. With The German, it was another gab session...mostly on the upcoming battle between PM Kan and former political strongman Ozawa.

I've now got a new student, Mrs. Thursday (couldn't come up with a better moniker for her, sorry), in about 20 minutes, followed by The Music Man.

Thursday September 2, 8:24 a.m.

Another beginning to a hot one in The Big Sushi. Drank down another isotonic drink on the way here. Gonna be another Hump Day with six students under my belt.

I've been doing some damage control vis-a-vis my e-mail. I rather foolishly answered to an acquaintance's so-called request to join an SNS called Tubely, and when I did so, it automatically sent requests to everyone in my contact list. So I've had to send apologies to everyone because of this virus.

Wednesday September 1, 9:56 p.m.

It may officially be September now, but the weather is still saying mid-August. Still scorching hot out there with nary any sign that Autumn is on its way. That timer on my AC has already gone off so I will be greeted with some cooler air when I get home and when I hit bed I can feel comfortable.

The above is a couple of pics from my annual Yokohama Chinatown dinner. For 1,980 yen, I was able to the pick of the litter for food. It was an all-you-can-eat but not a buffet. I just order it and the waiters or waitresses bring it over. I could order as much as I could handle, and what I could handle was 9 dishes by my lonesome. The food was good but not great. Although I could get as much Peking Duck as I wanted, I was still a little nonplussed by the fact that each serving of duck only consisted of two slivers of duck skin. Also the soup dumplings came with very little soup. Not all that impressed, but even with the all-you-can-drink option, it was a good 500 yen cheaper than the place that I had gone to last year.

I had three students today for my first round of students at Speedy's after Yokohama. The Overachiever and I had a great talk about political scandals (too bad he said that he may be leaving Tokyo for some sort of work in the near future). And then with 001, it was basically on the upcoming Arashi concert this Friday. She's even made up a couple of hand fans with her hero's name on it. Then Miss Sony was fine as usual.

Tomorrow will be Hump Day with 6 on the slate, including Grandma Dynamite who seems to be making just cameo appearances lately.

Tuesday August 31, 10:02 a.m.

Well, the mini-vacation in Yokohama is just about over and again I have to write quickly since I'm at a coin-operated I-stop in the hotel. I guess I know why Twitter is so popular, but I've always enjoyed writing prose more than little tweets.

By and large, the culinary experience was good, not great. I don't think I've ever had a soup dumpling that didn't have any soup in it...more on that later.

On my way to the Ramen Museum to get some noodles before I have to whiz on back home and get ready for the juku lessons. I think Speedy is right...I really ought to have 2 nights here rather than just the one.

Saw "Monsters and Aliens" on the hotel video. Missed this one at the theatre, and I think it was OK to catch this one on the small screen. Not quite as fun as "The Incredibles" or as legendary as "Toy Story". This was basically a meeting of funny voices from the A-list of the Fox Japan lineup (Hugh Laurie, Kiefer Sutherland) and "Saturday Night Live"; there were some funny sight gags and the inevitable topical in-genre humour but a lot of the jokes were pretty much limited to old Warner Bros. cartoons. Not a home run by any means, but a nice solid double.

Anyways, gotta go.

Monday August 30, 6:55 p.m.

Yep, I'm here in Yokohama. Man, I couldn't ask for a hotter day to arrive in Japan's 2nd-largest city. I was pretty much melting when I got to the hotel at check-in time. Had to buy an extra undershirt but doing OK if feeling pretty bloated after the annual Chinese buffet, but this time, it was a different restaurant. More to follow when I get home.

Saturday August 28, 10:13 a.m.

Rather incongruous pictures above, eh? The above left photo is of my breakfast at Jonathan's yesterday....it's a carbon copy of Denny's. I had a rather decent scrambled egg set with a salad, bacon, hash brown and a sausage that snaps. The pic also signifies that I'm now on my 3.5-day vacation. Nice to relax...or try to relax. I've gotten so accustomed to working literally every day that I can't easily snap out of work mode. I actually have to work at relaxing...remind myself that there is no need to look at texts or come up with lesson plans in my head or on paper. I will certainly try to achieve that before I head on out to Yokohama on Monday. But sure enough, one of my translation clients has sent me an e-mail asking for some document to be translated, but since I'm not the only translator in his flock, it's an open call. I'll politely let him know that I'm off for a week.

The picture on the right is The Photog's new project. The title reads "Eigo de Twitter" or "Twitter in English". Yes, for those intrepid students in The Land of The Rising Sun, they can now write freely write in nonsyntactical utterances and they won't get tsk-tsked for it. For The Photog, this is truly a godsend since he can only speak nonsyntactically.

I saw Mr. Swank for the first time in a month. He and his family had just gotten back from The Aloha State only the day before, and he looked like a guy who had just indeed returned from Shangri-La (the mythical land, not the hotel)...tanned, slightly out of it due to jet lag (I had a similar experience with The Artist on Thursday), and with a goatee. He was definitely not up to doing a regular lesson since he so conveniently forgot to bring his lesson notes with him and therefore any chance of looking at completed homework went out the window in the first 5 minutes. So it was just aimless chatter. I had kinda figured that it would be going this way since he has that rather laidback personality, but still I get rather uncomfortable about getting my money by just talking with a student. I mean, could he be thinking about why I hadn't been strong enough to wrestle him into a regular lesson? But a part of me was happy that I could start my holiday with an easy class.

So I got home early Friday and turned on the AC and made up some of my famous Kimchi Chicken Sandwich and watched some "Music Station" on TV Asahi. I've been watching the premier Japanese music show since the late 80s and it's been interesting to see how J-Pop has changed over the decades.

Today is gonna be a hot one. It already felt like 30+ degrees just coming here to the I-Cafe and we're still a couple of hours away from noon. But again, that should be the only thing I'll worry about for the next few days.

Friday August 27, 12:47 p.m.

Had my free-for-all lesson with The Photog. I was able to settle him down a bit to boost his vocabulary on illnesses and recommended restaurants...not that there was any connection between the two. He's apparently coming back for September with hopefully a more structured approach to his learning. And he's started his English career on Twitter and Facebook. I think Twitter will be more to his liking since that SNS apparently doesn't need syntax.

Got The Shareholder in about 40 minutes, then I have run off into West Shinjuku for Mr. Swank. Never got any response from him but I assume that he'll be there.

Friday August 27, 10:07 a.m.

Miss London is back in the school after several days of summer cold. The bossman was slightly miffed that she was about 10 minutes late but that's the Marunouchi Line's fault, not hers.

And apparently, another guy is back in the fold of controversy. Ichiro Ozawa, the former (and perhaps current) superpower in the Democratic Party of Japan, gave the announcement that much of the media had been speculating about...that he will be running for the leadership of the party against current president and Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Considering that this is a fellow who not only has had a long reputation of (supposed) dark deeds throughout his career but also had to step down a few months earlier along with ineffectual previous PM Hatoyama for some other perceived misdeeds, Ozawa's maneuver has to rate as one of the ballsiest and most mysterious moves. He doesn't have much public support because of his reputation but I don't think Ozawa much cares about anyone outside of his support group. The mysteriousness comes from the fact that he had always been more of a backroom type of guy...controlling the more personable pols like a puppetmaster. But if he actually wins the presidency, he becomes the de facto Prime Minister. He'll now be the one out there, not the one behind the curtains. However, not everyone is moaning about this new state of affairs; some folks are hoping that his years as a cagey powerbroker may actually bring some oomph into the ruling of the nation since Kan hasn't really made much of an impact since he took power in late Spring.

Friday August 27, 9:15 a.m.

Unfortunately, the upload didn't quite take, but the sign says, "Please use the escalator on your behind." Yup, one of the reasons that I love living in this country so much.

I'm doing another one of those late night-early morning transitions...basically, just going home to sleep for 5 hours between sessions. Kinda regret assenting to teach The Photog this morning at 10:45. He is a nice guy but, frankly, his stream-of-consciousness sessions yield mere nuggets of education for him. My lesson today is his last lesson on his contract; the bossman and Miss Efficiency are fairly confident that he will re-sign although part of me wonders if it would just be better if he resigned. But again, I'm just grumbling because I had to come in early.

Still, this is my last day of work before I have my 3-day holiday weekend. And the wonderful thing is that I just have The Photog, The Shareholder and...perhaps, Mr. Swank for my shift today. No juku lessons tonight since The Restauranteur has cancelled tonight's session.

It's been a bad year for The Restauranteur. She had already lost a couple of relatives earlier this year due to old age and disease. Now she can add accident to that list. The reason that she's not coming tonight is that she and her family are mourning the loss of her nephew due to a senseless motorcycle accident last Friday. Her nephew had just been newly engaged, and he, his buddies and his fiancee were finishing up a party. One of his friends asked for one more ride on the ol' chopper when his fiancee practically begged him not to go in fear for his safety (as would be expected with a party with a bunch of 20-somethings, there was a fair bit of alcohol involved). Initially, the nephew listened to common sense and declined the offer but apparently went with his buddy to his house for some guy time while everyone else went home. Tragically, at his buddy's house, he was invited one more time for one more ride and this time the nephew succumbed to his friend's harpings and went on that bike. The two of them on that bike put in a bit too much speed and ended up wiping out permanently on a stretch of road. No more engagement, no more wedding, no more future. And the idiot buddy's family now has to forever carry the burden of forever apologizing to everyone for what the son did.

Thursday August 26, 8:42 p.m.

Yup, the above are from my trip to Khazana on Monday for that curry buffet lunch. I really have to refrain from engorging. And yet, the dishes just tempt me too much.

It really has been a busy day here. Although the gaggle of staffers have all gone, La Fille was kept on her feet taking care of two incoming business students for Mr. Sydney, another new teacher, and a new student to whom I'd given a model lesson a couple of weeks earlier. She handled them like a pro.

The Carolinan informed me that she'd taken her sister, The New Yorker, for lunch at a Chinese buffet place for her birthday before catching "Inception". Yep, as expected, The New Yorker ended up sleeping through a lot of it.

Just The Music Man before I finally head on home. I sent word to Mr. Swank about his lesson tomorrow but I have yet to hear anything from him. I hope that he has returned from his month-long trip in Hawaii.

Thursday August 26, 6:22 p.m.

Ah, did forget to mention that The Entrepreneur and his wife are now the proud parents of a baby son. It's been a good half-decade for my old friend. He not only has his own thriving business, but he's gotten the love of his life and now a kid to play catch with eventually.

Thursday August 26, 6:18 p.m.

We had a full house in terms of administrative staff. Along with Miss Efficiency, we had Ms. Schmooze, the new staffer Ms. MBA and La Fille filling up the desks. It was a situation that Ray or even The Admin wouldn't have imagined during their times here. And another new teacher, The Brit, is taking care of a student right now. It would seem that Speedy is starting to grow.

Thursday August 26, 2:34 p.m.

Got through The Photog's lesson. He's a very stream-of-consciousness type of guy when it comes to his lessons. No structure, no set topics. Just let it go. We spoke on everything from movies to his camera to cockroaches.

Just The Carolinan and The Music Man although I won't be finally done until 10:15 tonight.

Thursday August 26, 12:59 p.m.

Well, I've gotten through the first two of my quintet. The Patent Attorney was as smooth as usual. The Artist was about half an hour late...kinda disturbing trend from her, but then again, she IS an artist. And she looked pretty heavily jet-lagged from her trip to New York last week. She had a good time at the museums but felt that the food was largely lacking, except for some supermarket-bought lasagna.

I have The Photog in about 15 minutes. I hear him right now gabbing away at Speedy. Hopefully, the bossman will have some sort of insight for me as to how to approach The Photog.

Thursday August 26, 8:27 a.m.

Only a few minutes before The Patent Attorney comes in so I'll have to type fast. Yesterday was pretty much a Hump Day...5 lessons. And I've got the same amount coming up today with The PA, The Artist, The Photog, The Carolinan and The Music Man. But the classes will be a bit more spread out which is a relief for me.

Just counting the days before my vacation begins.