Saturday October 3, 3:05 p.m.

Got through the two lessons but I was struggling to stay awake during The Intellectual's lesson for some reason...I gather that lunch was getting digested. Well, in any case, I'm done for the day. I've started searching for that air ticket to get me back home for Xmas once more. I'll probably be dropping by No. 1 Travel sometime between The Artist's and Miss Genki's lessons on Monday.

Saturday October 2, 10:39 a.m.

Bernard Schwarz, aka Tony Curtis, has passed on. However, I did get to see the last hour of "Sweet Smell of Success", probably one of the most ironic titles for a motion picture ever produced, since the overarching thematic aroma is one of corrosive acid. Sad to say, but even the last 60 minutes of this movie was the first time I'd ever seen a Curtis movie. The only other time I did see the fellow was when he came on "The Flintstones" as "Stony Curtis". There are some more movies that I have to see of him.

I also ended up catching the last hour of "Shaft" with Samuel Jackson which was chock-filled with stars but I think the amalgam of 70s blaxploitation styling with turn-of-the-century reality didn't quite take, although it was interesting to see Jeffrey Wright hamming it up as Peoples Hernandez and Christian "Batman" Bale as one of his mid-career psycho killers.

I was supposed to have the full 3 for my Saturday shift. But The Publicity Assistant baled out suddenly last night. So it's just Miss Prissy and The Intellectual. Both are coming up to the ends of their current contracts so I'm not sure what they will do. The Intellectual will probably renew but again since I'll only be teaching them regardless for several more weeks, having either or both of them leave the nest will not trouble me too much. They put in their dues.

Friday October 1, 1:22 p.m.

Gotta get this down fast since The Shareholder is on his way here. But it is indeed October. And still pretty warm out there but not like the hellish conditions of a month ago.

Of course, with Fall firmly settled in, it's time for all those warm dishes that Japan loves to rail about ad nauseum in magazines and on TV. For me, Fall means lots of minestrone...homemade, of course. I made my first batch in about a couple of years last weekend. Was able to get five bowls of the stuff over 2 days. Not too fussy about what goes in. This batch had potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions and a zucchini...and of course, bacon.

Had my lesson with The Bass this morning in Funabashi. Yep, he did contact The Matron's hubby who's the high-powered lawyer. But it looks like he won't be of much help since this involves an errant distributor in America. The Bass would have to contract not only him but an American attorney to track down one single person. Would be prohibitively expensive. As usual, the Bass was pretty sanguine about it and said he'll just keep plugging away.

After The Shareholder, I'll be heading over to Shibuya to pick up a CD or two and some magazines since I've just gotten paid. And then it'll be off to have dinner at The Restauranteur's in Urayasu. The Journo's inaugural class will be held off for one more week. Then, he promises to be there next week for 2 hours.

Heard over the wire that Tony Curtis has left this mortal coil. Was never a fan of his but I knew of his 50s/60s stature as one of the last great idols of Golden Age Hollywood. I may decide to watch "Some Like It Hot" one of these days. Anyways, The Shareholder is here....

Thursday September 30, 3:51 p.m.

It's been a nice comedown from the stresses of the last few days. I got all the translations done that The Corner had dumped on me, and for about half an hour, I had a pleasant conversation with the latest addition to the staff who'll be heading up the kids' school in about a few weeks' time. She'll be The Tahitian and will be joining Miss Sussex and The Babydoll at the new school. The bossman is aiming for a mid-October launch perhaps with the mind to get some sort of Halloween vibe going to attract the little ones.

I just heard from the juku boss that The Journo has actually committed to having his first class on the 8th. Well, we'll see. This will mean that I'll be done here at Speedy's at 2:30 tomorrow and then have the Friday night juku classes from 9 p.m. I can perhaps get some CD/magazine shopping done at Tower Records in Shibuya and even have one more dinner at The Restauranteur's place.

If the above comic strip looks familiar to you, then you're either middle-aged or a Peanuts fan. That was the first Peanuts strip ever shown on October 2, 1950, and starts the Charlie Brown legend on a pretty mild note, though the punch line has a bit of the venom which will stream through the strip for half a century. So on Saturday, Snoopy and the gang turn 60, some 10 years after their creator, Charles Schulz, left this mortal coil. Here in Japan, Snoopy remains the most beloved of the characters and I'm sure the Peanuts store in Omotesando's Kiddyland will have some sort of celebration.

Thursday September 30, 8:31 a.m.

And now we are at the end of September. Meterologically, it's been the equivalent of a blockbuster action picture. Torrid conditions at the beginning, followed by typhoons in the middle and now it's just a gloomy denouement. What will October bring?

It's been a busy week for me, I gather, to compensate for the relatively free last week. The Corner keeps sending me translations starting with the quote, "Oh, I need to send another..."; kinda like Columbo and his questions. I can now see why the criminals were driven mad. Still, it's money in the bank for me.

Just got three today but I've got that huge donut in the middle. I'll probably be using some of it for the translations but I would prefer not to end up spending my entire day inside Speedy's. I've got Grandma Dynamite for the first time in a few weeks. I've basically given up thinking of any sort of curriculum for her since she's so erratic in her schedule...maybe she'll end up practicing another show tune in front of me like last time. Later in the evening, I've got a triple in the form of The Carolinan, Mrs Thursday and The Music Man. The Carolinan has just gotten back from a trip to Thailand which she had apparently enjoyed, so I figure that some of the lesson will be centered around the report on her vacation.

Wednesday September 29, 10:22 p.m.

It's definitely been a long time since my last entry. Just got saddled with so much translation stuff from The Corner. I even had to go into the I-Cafe early Tuesday morning before seeing The Beehive.

I had a bit of a respite on Sunday afternoon, though, when I saw The Jyuppies for their regular lesson in Futako-Tamagawa. However, before the lessons, though, they were kind enough to take me to a fave restaurant of theirs in their old neighbourhood of Komazawa Park. It was called The Bowery Kitchen, and at first thought, I was reminded of old and dangerous 19th-century New York neighbourhoods, but The Bowery actually looked like a 21st-century trendy little cafe. My main course is shown in the above picture...yup, Japanese steak. I emphasize the Japanese since this is not a cut you will ever see in a typical American steakhouse. It was thin and tender and came with a huge dollar of herb butter. In Japan, steak is not steak unless it comes up with at least a pat of butter on top. At first, I was rather disgusted by the thought of adding extra cholesterol on top of something that is full of the stuff already, but I can see the madness in the method. Adding that extra bit of flavour. Still, The Bowery Kitchen really liked to slap on the Land O' Lakes. I had the waffles as well for dessert...to add insult to injury (to my heart). That also came with two huge pats of fruit-infused butter. I couldn't even eat the 2nd pat...it would've necessitated the defibrillator.

Apparently, The Jyuppies made at least 3 celeb sightings in the restaurant while we were there. There was model/TV personality SHIHO with her K-1 fighter husband, old 90s rock singer Nanase Aikawa and actor Yutaka Takenouchi. I didn't notice a soul...was just too much into the food and besides, I'm very cognizant of the fact that celebs are also people who require their privacy. I wouldn't even want to venture forth and ask for their autographs....not that I was a fan of any of the three anyways.

Anyways, the bossman wants to go home so I'll just cut it here. The Corner is still sending me translation requests, but I'm done for tonight.

Friday September 24, 10:25 a.m.

Politically, it's still blazing here due to the current row between China and Japan. Now, China has detained 4 Japanese nationals on some unverified charges in what is looking like a tit-for-tat battle since Japan hasn't bowed down to Beijing pressure to release the Chinese captain. What it's starting to look like is that the incident will string itself out with a lot of hurt feelings and cancelled exchanges and culminate with a swap of sorts between the two brats. In any case, any sort of "prisoner" exchange is a face-saving ploy on the Chinese side.

Meterologically, Autumn has officially come. It's still nice and cool outside without any of the downpours that characterized yesterday's weather. Probably there will be no more ambushes by Summer for the next several months.

Athletically, it's been a good week. A Mongolian in Japan did himself proud earlier in the sumo dohyo (and is still keeping the winning streak alive), and just this morning a Japanese did the same thing in America. Ichiro Suzuki broke the record for the longest number of 200-hit seasons, and right in my hometown. It's hard to believe that he's been with Seattle for a decade now.

As for me, I got some early shuteye last night in the now-errant assumption that I would be teaching The Photog at about this time. However, with just 15 minutes before showtime, he called up to dotakyan. I could just imagine his reaction at having to cancel his lesson. He would be squirming all over the place and giving his deep apologies in that squeaky voice of his...just like Jerry Lewis in his 50s prime. Well, I still get paid and I now have a lot of time to plow through some more of my latest translation assignment from The Corner. Plus, I did get a nice scrambled egg breakfast at the nearby Jonathan's.

Had a near-meltdown on Tuesday over at the juku. That will teach me from having a Quarter Pounder Set for dinner and then a Peach Jelly with two Iced Coffees for dessert. While I was teaching The Milds...professionally and calmly as usual...my insides were basically threatening eruption. However, from vast experience, I was able to hold my intestines under control (though it was a huge matter of mind over lots of matter) for 50 minutes. As soon as I said goodbye to my senior students, I just rushed into the bathroom and finally let everything go. I could only hope that my sigh wasn't too loud.

Well, now that my 1st class has been wiped from the slate, I just have Mr. Swank at his company before the juku classes later in the evening. With my luck, he'll end up calling the school to cancel due to some emergency meeting or business trip. Plus, I've gotta go out to the post office to send off a letter to The Matron's wife...The Lawyer...since The Bass may need some help with that errant distributor out in California.

Thursday September 23, 12:37 p.m.

Well, the weather gods have fulfilled their end of the bargain very well. Yesterday it was officially the final day of Summer and it was sunny with a high of 33 C. Today, the first day of Autumn came in with a pet shop's worth of rain and temps are struggling to go beyond 18 C. So, within 24 hours, we've dropped 15 degrees.

It is the 2nd national holiday of the week since the Autumnal Equinox is deemed in this country as important enough to demand everyone...or almost everyone...to take the day off. I'm sure a lot of people here will not refute that policy. I was talking with Miss Sony last night about her plans for today which are just to sleep all day. For a lot of corporate drones, sleep is now considered a pastime. She told me that on average she gets just 3 hours of sleep a night during the regular workweek. That would just have me jumping off a JR track. It is with some irony that I reacted to that since I had heard some 15 years ago that Japan would now be entering a period of leisure and try to unloosen their ties. But in the 21st century, it's still an inu-eat-inu world in The Land of the Rising Blood Pressure.

The Japanese government is also earning my above sobriquet due to its current and latest feud with China over its arrest of a Chinese captain for ramming its boat into a Japan Coast Guard ship. Friendship exchanges have been postponed at the very least and even SMAP cannot go perform in Shanghai next month....although I'm not sure if that is necessarily a bad thing. And then there has been news of a possible coverup involving a fellow in the Osaka Prosecutor's Office doing a bit of data-tampering.

However, Japan can take solace that it isn't in India's shoes considering the potential fiasco that may explode in about 11 days in Delhi, I believe. Less than 2 weeks to go before The Commonwealth Games arrive there and apparently less than 50% of the athletes' dormitories are ready and a major skywalk between a stadium and a parking lot has collapsed injuring several construction workers. A majority of the athletes are now considering to engage in one mass event....the thousand-kilometre walkout.

Back to Japan, Paris Hilton wasn't allowed to officially enter the country due to her little cocaine pouch in Las Vegas. At least, the twit could stay in a Narita hotel. 30 years ago, Sir Paul McCartney ended up in handcuffs for just having a bit of weed.

I've been catching bits and pieces of movies on cable....saw an old chestnut by the title of "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre" starring a relatively youthful Jason Robards, George Segal and Bruce Dern. It was an old-style tribute to the 20s with all of the characters all talking and sneering out of the sides of their muoths. And there was a bit of a "Star Trek" alert with Celia (T'Pau) Lovsky as one of the massacre victims' mother and Joseph Campanella who relatively recenty had appeared on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager". Then, I also caught the tail end of "The Presidio", the late 80s movie starring James Bond and Agent Gibbs. I could see where Mark Harmon got some of his snarl as Gibbs. But it was the first time I'd ever seen Sean Connery cry on screen.

I'm taking it nice and easy today but tomorrow will be a relatively busy day...perhaps in quality if not in quantity. I've got The Photog early in the morning, and he's always rather loosey-goosey about what he wants to talk about. Then it's Mr. Swank who's just got that Tahitian vibe about him. I've made up a tentative curriculum for him which should corral him into line for the next several weeks...at least up to Xmas.

But the important thing is that I'm happy it's Autumn...and it feels like it!

Wednesday September 22, 7:48 p.m.

It's been a light week thus far. The holiday Monday, the two lessons at the juku last night and only Miss Sony tonight at Speedy's since 001 is gone for the month and The Overachiever cancelled for the month. Plus, Thursday is yet another holiday to celebrate the arrival of Autumn. And the timing could be excellent. It was another hot one in the country...up to 33 C today but tomorrow supposedly promises rain and far cooler temps for the Equinox.

With only the lone student tonight here, I came in just a few hours ago and I've been doing a lot of other stuff along with the prep for Miss Sony's lesson. I've also been coming up with some sort of coherent plan for Mr. Swank since things have been getting a little too loose with him, and at the same time, I've been tackling the new translation assignment from The Corner.

Monday September 20, 1:23 p.m.

If there were something that the beleaguered world of sumo needed, it would be this news. And ironic that it would come in the form of a Mongolian. Mind you, this is Hakuho, the lone yokozuna. And just like John Wayne, he cleaned up by himself to possess the longest postwar winning streak since legendary Chiyonofuji The Wolf did it a couple of decades ago. He also won yesterday which means that he now has 55 wins under his mawashi. He needs 15 more to become the all-time winner. The original Futabayama still has that 69-win streak, unbeaten since the 30s. Now, every time Hakuho goes up from now until the 7th game of the next tournament in November, the media and everyone else will be focusing laser-like on him.

I actually did get my day off after all. I was supposed to have taught Cozy earlier this morning, but I got a call from him last night that he had to go some urgent business outside of the city so he cancelled. Got to wake up gloriously later than expected and had a 200 yen-combi for my MacBreakfast...a Sausage McMuffin and an iced coffee. The usual set with the hash brown comes to 440 yen...good golly, does that mean the potato costs more than then the McMuffin and coffee put together?

Got to teach Yajima yesterday in Den'en-Chofu. Usually during the break, the guy brings out some sweets to munch on. I actually got some coffee-infused chocolates straight from Buckingham Palace since his brother came back from a trip to London recently. Had no idea the Queen was into entrepreneurship.

It'll be a light week by any stretch of the imagination. I've got the 2 days off today and Thursday due to national holidays and the rest of the schedule looks pretty sparse. Basically just two or three lessons on the days that I am working.

Saturday September 17, 3:27 p.m.

I just had The Intellectual for the one lesson today. We have more staff than students in the office today: La Fille, Miss Prim and The Kewpie Doll (she'll be heading to the new school) plus Speedy. I'll be taking off pretty soon since I've got washing to do.

The Corner has sent me a new translation assignment of a website. I don't know quite yet how long I've got to get this done but the next week will be relatively un-busy because of the two national holidays and some sparse scheduling. I may actually get enough sleep.

Still, I will have to get up early tomorrow and Monday for Yajima and Cozy respectively. A bit of a pity, though both guys are nice guys and students. Ah, c'est la vie.

Saturday September 18, 3:10 p.m.

A tale of two junkies today. The first one is Manabu Oshio, the guy right above me in the police car. Strangely enough, until his arrest a year ago for MDMA possession and letting his lover die of an overdose, he was frankly not exactly on the A-list of Japanese celebrities. He was a tough-guy actor and "singer". Since then, he's popped up on TV over the past 12 months as his case finally culminated in court over the past couple of weeks, culminating in his conviction yesterday with a 2.5-year sentence. A lot of folks feel that he got off easy, but he and his legal team are screaming appeal.

However, the true tragedy is represented in the two pictures on either side. It's a Before-After thing involving the very former tarento Masashi Tashiro. The Before side is to the right with him parodying the announcement of the new Imperial reign period from 2 decades ago. He'd been a member of the 80s doo-wop band The Chanels (later to be horribly re-named Rats & Stars) with lead crooner Masayuki Suzuki before he really hit the big time as a TV personality in the late 80s and 90s,usually alongside comedy legend Ken Shimura. He could've ended up being as big a host as any of the big 3 of Beat Takeshi, Tamori or Akashiya Sanma.

But as the left side After pic shows, things really turned for the worse for him over the past decade. First, he got caught taking pictures up a high school girl's skirt back in 2000. And then came a series of busts for illegal weapons and drug possession. Finally, came the news a couple of days ago that Tashiro was arrested in a parking lot right by the Aka-Renga buildings in Yokohama (a place that I'd visited a couple of weeks ago) doing cocaine in his car with his girlfriend by the cops. Things take a sadly humourous quality in that they were doing this as whole hordes of cops were patrolling the area in a tune-up leading to the APEC conference in Minato Mirai in November. As he was taken away for booking, the After picture shows him as a combination of his old self and Munch's "The Scream" picture. Acquaintances had suspected that he was doing the stuff but Tashiro kept denying it.

This man has hit rock bottom. Oshio should take a look at Tashiro and thank his lucky stars. Noriko Sakai, the poster girl of aidorus-gone-bad, should also look at Tashiro and just thank heavens it was merely her career that has been destroyed. Tashiro has repeatedly bleated his intention to repent only to get thrown back into the gutter. Now, I think there's a pretty good chance that he's not going to survive much longer. He's lost his family, his friends and his career. There's really nothing left but his life to sacrifice now.

Friday September 17, 1:06 p.m.

Quite dry for the first time in a few days here in The Big Sushi. I was indeed able to confirm that The Journo did cancel on me and the juku boss once again...this time for the remainder of this month. The boss relayed to me that The Journo was worried that I might be rather furious. No, I'm not but I do wonder what possessed him to take lessons with us if he were going to be this busy.

The Bass is still recovering from his injuries after that wicked motorcycle accident he'd been involved in a few weeks back. He had some X-rays done and luckily there were no broken bones but just residual pain. But he's also asked me for some legal help since he's been having problems with an errant American distributor. I'll be calling up The Matron's husband sometime soon.

I've got The Shareholder in about 20 minutes. Then I have to run off to Shinjuku for my session with Mr. Swank. Both guys have their challenges. The Shareholder is a self-admitted humorless fellow while Mr. Swank has a very Tahitian attitude toward studying. In any case, I think The Journo's dotakyan is a blessing in disguise. So I don't have to run off at warp speed from Shinjuku to get to Urayasu in time.

Thursday September 16, 10:48 p.m.

Been another long day. Finished with Mrs. Thursday and The Music Man. Both had gone down to Guam last week. Both figured that English wasn't needed since the hospitality industry rightly pegged the Japanese as the main source of tourism. It'll be another 2 weeks before I see them since next Thursday is a national holiday.

Feeling pretty tired now, but I've got another long day ahead of me tomorrow since I've got The Bass, The Shareholder, Mr. Swank and then the juku classes. Luckily, The Journo did cancel once again.

Thursday September 16, 6:29 p.m.

As expected, I got a message from the juku boss concerning The Journo. Once again, he's cancelled...this time for the duration of September. I've got a feeling that this one's gonna be a goner. Well, at least that's one student I won't have to plan for.

I caught half of a movie yesterday called "Apt Pupil", a late 90s flick starring Sir Ian McKellen and the late Brad Renfro. It's about an old psychopathic Nazi (a redundant term, I know) hiding out in middle America who, in much of the way of Faust, teaches a latent sociopathic teen the ways of being evil. This was just before McKellen hit the big time with "X-Men" and "Lord of the Rings"; he was his masterful self, but I just thought the story didn't quite come to a particularly satisfying resolution. Todd, Renfro's character, uses his master's exact words to threaten David "Friends" Schwimmer...thus showing that he has made the successful transition to evil being at the end of the movie, but unlike what critics had said, I didn't think that Schwimmer looked particularly intimidated so that he would shut up.

Thursday September 16, 6:10 p.m.

The German and I had a half-gab, half-text lesson which meant that things went inordinately well. She'll be taking off for London next week for a few days of vacation. Hopefully, she'll be taking lots of pics there, so I can vicariously enjoy life in another country.

Miss Thursday is next on the list in a couple of hours.

Thursday September 16, 4:17 p.m.

Came back from my little recce on the rainy Tokyo streets. Took a short hop on the bus over to Tokyo Opera City between here and Shinjuku. As the name would imply, it is a centre devoted to concerts of a highly classical nature but the actual auditorium is surrounded by layers of corporate offices and restaurants. I ended up having lunch at the Hub, an English pub chain. With all of the chestnut wood and leather, it's ideal for the kacho class of executive. I had the Fish N' Chip plate which was actually fairly good...not an easy thing in this area of the world. However, the cooks could make the batter a bit more crispy.

Afterwards, I walked all the way over to Takashimaya Times Square and checked out Kinokuniya before I took a small break at Krispy Kreme #1. Yep, the place's heyday as an excuse to line up for 2 hours for donuts is now officially over. Got in within a couple of minutes. Still got a free sample of what I was gonna eat, the Apple Pie donut with a cup of jo. Lasted up on the 2nd floor for about half an hour before sleep threatened to claim me so I decided to head on out to Tower Records for a while before getting back to Speedy's.

Thursday September 16, 7:58 a.m.

I guess this is Number 3,600. And a rainy entry it is, too. The skies are just carpetbombing us with precipitation right now. Not sure how long it's gonna last but it makes for a fine contrast with some of the last of those torrid and horrid days of Summer.

It'll be a long day. I've got The Patent Attorney in half an hour but then there'll be a huge temporal void until I have The German at 5 this afternoon. Then it'll be a relatively quick lineup of Mrs. Thursday and The Music Man. I'll probably be going out for lunch later on, though I'm not sure where quite yet. May try West Park Cafe in Times Square for the roast chicken.

Japan finally had to get in on the act and sit on the yen like a frustrated tourist on an overstuffed suitcase. It has gone up twice to the 82 yen mark to the dollar. Frustrated tourists from overseas but a lot of happy Japanese ones going the other way.

Wednesday September 15, 10:47 p.m.

Just about ready to pack up for home...only to come back here in several hours to teach The Patent Attorney (sigh). Nice guy, but it's starting to be a drag to have to leave late and come in early.

Miss Sony is always pleasant to talk with...not quite as crazily happy as 001 but still very good at conversing.

At least, I've got a huge donut hole between The PA and The German. So I'll just head on out and enjoy Tokyo.

Wednesday September 15, 8:23 p.m.

The class with 001 was, unsurprisingly, all about attending that big concert of Arashi almost a couple of weeks ago. She had a blast with her friend watching the likes of Aiba-kun and Ono-kun. She only has a few lessons left on her current contract and she's spreading them out. I won't see her for about a month due to work and a trip to Turkey later this month.

Well, Miss Sony's here...