Easter Weekend

Sunday March 31, 8:58 p.m.

Hard to believe that we're almost into April, and there is still the threat of snow tomorrow. And the weekend was so mild, too. Maybe April Fool's is coming a bit early this year. Hey, this is Toronto...world of wacky weather!

Since I'm neither religious nor a huge eater of chocolate anymore, Easter doesn't have that much meaning for me. And since I work almost exclusively at home now, the long weekend didn't really have that oomph. Still, since it was a holiday weekend, our family went out for good ol' Fish n' Chips. But because the Catholics are indeed keeping to tradition and not eating any red meat, the Fish n' Chips places were doing volume business; I think one owner remarked that Good Friday is the busiest day of the year for them. My family hit The Olde York, a venerable old place, on Saturday evening. And sure enough, Good Friday was spilling over into Good Saturday. We had to wait for about 30 minutes before we could get a table, but the service was absolutely friendly and unruffled despite the hungry hordes, and we all splurged for the Halibut. Of course, that fish is the most delicious (and not surprisingly, the fattiest one); whenever I've gone there in the past, I've gone for the more inexpensive but drier Haddock but since I was eschewing the chowder and the dessert, I decided to go for the gusto. Wasn't disappointed.

Got back home to see the Leafs trounce the Senators 4-0....one columnist for "The Toronto Star" has all but anointed the team into Playoff Nirvana. I'm not quite ready to make that pronouncement myself, but it's nice to hear such happy thoughts this year compared to the horror that was on the ice this time last year.

Then, I saw the start of the 2nd half of Season 7 of "Doctor Who" with a new companion and a slightly new outfit for the Time Lord. Apparently, the reviews have been somewhat mixed for "The Bells of St. John". I'm more in the middle of the pack. It was nice to see Matt Smith happy and madly eccentric, especially after that horrid swan song episode to the Ponds, and the accompanying travelogue to London reminded me of "Skyfall". However, the episode didn't have quite the oomph I had been expecting for the 11th Doctor, especially after all of the accolades that the Xmas Special had gotten (still haven't had the chance to watch it). Hopefully, things will be going ever upwards.

Unfortunately, there has been another shooting at another major shopping mall in Toronto in as many years. The Toronto news channels were all fixated on Yorkdale Mall for the rest of the night after some sort of altercation; from the sounds of the victim's and the instigators' names, it may be a Vietnamese gang issue. Just another way that Toronto seems to be resembling more like an American metropolis....creaking transit system and urban crime.

Spring Supposedly

Monday March 18, 12:02 p.m.

Well, rumour has it that Spring is on its way, but despite the expert opinion of several large lumbering rodents in February, it's still gonna be plenty chilly here for this week. Plus, we've got some messy weather on the way as of 4 this afternoon. So, there may be some Vernal enthusiasts who are thinking up of some evil plots to cook groundhog.

Team Japan just lost to Puerto Rico in the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic in San Francisco, I believe. Probably a lot of disappointed folks over in Japan right now but after winning the first two championships, the country has nothing to be ashamed about. Plus, they can start back on how to regain the big prize for next time, and I think that's always more fun for everyone involved rather than trying to defend a championship.

Had my brother's family over for dinner last night. The usual pleasant time involved, including playing with my niece. But we did have one casualty in the form of the coffee carafe which ended its long life by cracking and pouring some fresh brewed onto the kitchen floor. Mom seemed to be quite eager in getting a new coffeemaker anyways.

Just been taking care of some invoicing and awaiting my next translation assignment which should be in sometime over the next few hours.

Looks like Pope Francis I is having an immediate effect on the world at large with his charm and Gorbachevian openness. I think Pope Benedict XVI is probably grumbling and muttering, "Dang whippersnapper!" And apparently, the leader of the Orthodox Christians is even gonna attend tomorrow's Papal Inauguration for the first time in a millenium. Rather unorthodox, if you ask me. (thank you, I play Vegas til Friday)

Clearing the Air

Sunday March 17, 12:15 p.m.

St. Patrick's Day again....or Don't-You-Dare-Drive-In-Downtown-Toronto Day. Because of the annual parade and the fact that one major long segment of the TTC is out of commission, driving downtown must be a huge migraine....even more than usual. A couple of my old friends who used to love putzing about in their cars have basically had their love leached out from them due to the horrors of navigating badly-maintained streets, chronic construction, few and pricey parking lots and incompetent drivers. Ah, and we do have those Pan Am Games in a couple of years, right?

Having the windows open in a number of the rooms here just to clear all the stale stuff out. My brother's family is popping over for dinner tonight, so I don't want my niece making any remarks since kids are very straightforward about their opinions.

Met up with The Egg and his wife for lunch out in North York yesterday. We went to the local branch of Asian Legend, one of the popular Chinese food franchises. The Anime King and I often head out to the branch near his place where we usually just nosh on some soy milk soup and perhaps some potstickers. But I was kinda surprised that we all went a bit wild on the quantity of our choices. The Egg and I were champion eaters in our day, and I can still surprise even myself at times but, I think our best days are well behind us now.

I've sorted out my tax stuff so that I can hand over the numbers to my brother since he's got some whiz-bang software. If I were still in Japan, I would've done this a month ago since the due date is actually right now there for returns. Aside from the kanji, it was never all that bad filling out the forms.

The Leafs lost another heartbreaker to the Winnipeg Jets in a shootout. But the news media isn't exactly getting too upset since losing teams in a shootout still earn a point. But that's 5 in a row for the Buds, and so I'm just wondering if recent history is gonna repeat itself, and the players will have to don disguises when they go shopping locally. In any case, I have a feeling that they're probably gonna make the playoffs by the skin of their noses.

I guess the other big news here is this looming pachyderm known as the Big Casino Debate. The casino conglomerates have been courting Toronto like really desperate bachelors, and Mayor Rob Ford has been more than happy to show them inside the house. Meanwhile, a lot of us are not feeling too good about having a bit of Las Vegas (or as my old high school History teacher used to say it, Lost Wages) or Detroit/Windsor/Vancouver/Niagara Falls plunked down in downtown. Sure, jobs may increase but at best, I think it would be a Faustian victory. There was a job fair for jobs that don't yet exist for this casino that doesn't yet exist yesterday somewhere which struck me as somewhat odd. And as it turned out, the turnout was indeed sparse and the so-called job fair was really a badly-disguised group of lobbyists trying to show the merits of having a casino. Supposedly, some of the officials who did come on out were caught off-guard themselves when confronted with the question about this "job fair". The pro-casino side is having a tough enough time of trying to convince a very skeptical city, so false advertising on this level isn't exactly going to help their cause.

Family Day, Foodie Weekend

Wednesday February 20, 12:23 p.m.

Been a while. Being away all those years, I still need to be reminded that, yes, there is an actual long weekend in February now....at least for 3 provinces in this country. And I think having the Family Day Weekend is a necessity during a time of year when Xmas is long past us and Winter has outgrown its welcome.

Certainly, this past Saturday gave us a good reminder why Ol' Man Winter needs to get going. Although, the weather on that day was not quite the big storm from a couple of weeks ago, the snow and winds made for some treacherous driving on the highways...which is why I felt a little badly that my old friends, CG and The Entrepreneur with respective families in tow, came to my neck of the woods for a brief dinner at a place called Congee Star in the Don Mills and Eglinton area. When we had made the plans to meet up, there wasn't too much of a sign of the nutso weather, but still, it was very good of them to trudge on up all the way from the West End of town. It was brief....about a couple of hours since the kids were still very young, but it was good to chat for a while over har gow and brisket. I'll definitely head over to Mississauga next time since the two of them have raved about this restaurant called Spoon and Fork.

Sunday was the official Family Day for my clan. We decided on doing The Keg up on Leslie. I made reservations which was the smartest thing to do since when we got there at 6 pm, there was a ton of folks waiting to get a table....and the parking was something reminiscent of Yorkdale Plaza on Xmas Eve. I don't think I've had a Keg steak in a few years....went for the Baseball Top Sirloin. I wasn't disappointed; my steak looked like a slab of beef with a thyroid condition. Definitely not the definition of a Kobe steak. It was thick, juicy and was seasoned quite well. Just the right amount of salt and pepper...which probably means that it was still too much. Thick steak isn't exactly popular with a number of Japanese....they like their beef thin and melt-in-your-mouth, kinda like sukiyaki. I've told my old students in the past that here in the Americas, chewing a bite for several seconds before swallowing is part of the pleasure of enjoying a good steak. I don't think I saw that many shrugs in one room before.

Then on the holiday Monday was the biweekly meeting with The Anime King. We just can't seem to catch a break with The Olde York Fish N' Chips place on Laird. It was closed for Family Day and it's closed regularly on Sundays. So instead it was off to one of our regular Dim Sum places up in Scarberia. Not surprisingly, it was pretty brisk business there. Afterwards, it was the usual mix of Second Cup, Timmies and a few hours of anime before dinner at Tako Sushi nearby. It was my second time there, and I guess because of the Family Day weekend, there was a lineup there to rival that of what I'd witnessed at The Keg. The King didn't make any reservations but it was just a 10-minute wait.

Couldn't get a place at any of the teppanyaki tables like last time, so the two of us settled for a regular booth and the entrees. The King went for his steak dinner while I opted for tonkatsu. Tako Sushi tonkatsu is frankly more thin wiener schnitzel than Japanese deep-fried pork cutlet....which may be why I got three flat wide slabs of the pork. Tonkatsu in Japan is pretty thick stuff with plenty of shredded cabbage; one slab for lunch is enough to keep you sated until dinner. But I'm not gonna get snobby about it since I enjoyed the dinner just the same.

The King and I had a talk about possibly getting as many of the Court together for a bigger dinner, perhaps as soon as early March. But again, a couple of our number are established family men so I have my doubts whether the entire group can get together but it'll still be nice to have a group outing that doesn't involve a Ribfest. Perhaps The Baton Rouge may be the venue.

Back in the regular work week. I actually got an assignment done for translation yesterday. And I sent the invoice to Cozy for the first of the annual financial statements. Was a bit disappointed that I didn't get too many more during the two weeks that I kept open for him, so I'm potentially gonna have to deal with both Cozy's requests and those of the translation company.

January Thaw

Sunday January 13, 9:13 p.m.

As was the case yesterday, I couldn't complain about the weather today. Was downright boiling at 12 degrees....too bad the sun refused to cooperate. It was pretty dreary all day. However, things will get back to normal as of tonight as we dip down to -2. Strangely enough, according to a photo put up by my Facebook friend in Japan, it looks like Tokyo is getting bombed with the white stuff. But as I've said before, snow isn't exactly an everyyear phenomenon in that area, so I'm sure a lot of kids...and my friend (she's in her mid-thirties but she's got the heart and energy of someone a sixth her age)...are taking full advantage of having snow.

Well, the NHL training camps are in full swing as of today. As would be the case in this city, the press conferences of both the General Manager and the Coach of the Maple Leafs were Breaking News. Haven't heard any news of major trades and I figure if GM Nonis is gonna be pulling the trigger, it will be within the next 24 hours....otherwise, he'll be making some major disruptions to his team. But then considering the boneheaded timing behind the ousting of his predecessor a few days ago, anything can happen.

Got my latest translation assignment in, and I'll probably be getting another multi-day one tomorrow. I'm definitely getting busier....the money coming in will be helpful, especially when tax time comes around. I also helped out a friend of my sister-in-law who'll be coming back to Japan from overseas life; she needed some advice on the Customs stuff. Basically, if she's having goods follow her, she should be prepared for some extra time conversing with the folks in another section of Pearson.

Speaking of which, my sister-in-law and the rest of my extended family came over for dinner tonight. My niece was as cheerful and running off at the mouth as usual. Unfortunately, she was one of the hundreds (thousands?) of kids who got caught in the middle of that Friday morning kerfuffle involving the Ontario government and the teachers' union, not that it bothered her too much.

Was looking at some photos from my time in Tokyo. I took this one back in 2009 as I was walking through the Park Avenue (Koen Dori) area of Shibuya. Sometimes when I look through the shots, I can't believe it's been over a year since I made my return from my second home. I do miss the place at times. Shibuya can be grungy at times but this shot certainly makes the neighbourhood a little more sophisticated.

New Year's Day

Tuesday January 1, 9:51 a.m.

Well, Happy New Year to you. Woke up with only 5 hours of sleep since I knew Mom would be early up in the kitchen making the annual o-zoni: miso soup with rice cakes inside. Plus, there was the usual blobby stewed konnyaku and black beans. No problems with eating them (although a few people in Japan leave this mortal coil due to choking on the rice cakes) but I sometimes feel that eating this stuff is more of an obligation than a desire.

Didn't take too long before the shots rang out here in Toronto. There were a couple of shootings downtown overnight, and apparently there has been some sort of incident near Vic Park Station according to the TTC reports. Life in the big city, I guess.

No particular plans but my brother's family will be coming over later today for dinner. Of course, right now in Japan, it's much later into the evening over there, but I assume that a lot of extended families are still reveling in the party atmosphere of O-Shogatsu. This will continue for a couple of more days at least. Over here in the Great White North, it will be straight back to the grindstone as of tomorrow. Of course for me, this will probably entail me walking just a few metres from my bed.

Nice Quiet Christmas

Squirrels would have had a difficult time getting run over
yesterday.

Wednesday December 26, 8:29 p.m.

As usual, December 25 was as quiet as church mice. I took a walk for an hour outside in my neighbourhood. There was traffic but it was quite subdued, and there were patches in which I could've easily imagined I'd stepped into a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie....with very well-preserved buildings.

 

 It certainly says a lot about how special Xmas is when even the neighbourhood Tim Hortons is closed for the day. No double-doubles, no Timbits, no double-glazed donuts. There was indeed a hush throughout the world yesterday.

Dinner at my brother's last night indeed included the big bird with all the trimmings, including potatoes and stuffing.

But there was a Japanese component in it in the form of inari sushi. Gotta have the inari in a Japanese-Canadian Xmas dinner, doncha know?

And for dessert, there was Buche de Noel, otherwise known as the Xmas log roll cake. In Japan, it's known as the former, and has a near-fanatical following there for some reason. An Amazon Forest's worth of these logs are sold every year there, and there are cooking shows galore on TV which present how these confections are created. Of course, most viewers just like to watch it out of some vicarious thrill; most just race out and get it at the closest patisserie. Probably this, the German stollen, and the Fujiya Strawberry Shortcake are the Big 3 in terms of Xmas desserts in Japan.

Behe Right or Behe Wrong?

Monday November 19, 4:11 p.m.

Usually when I get up early on a Sunday and head on out, it's because of another day of food-and-anime with The Anime King. Yesterday, I did indeed get up early...in fact, it was the earliest I'd ever been up on a Sunday in Toronto at 6:30 a.m.....but it wasn't for my good friend. Instead, it was for the argument of Intelligent Design!

I'm not a religious person at all. Never have been, never will be. But my fine sister-in-law is very much so. We've gotten along well with no problems, though, and we've barely touched upon the topic that separates us. However, a few weeks ago, she informed me about a series of lectures that Dr. Michael Behe was giving at places like the University of Toronto, and asked me if I would be interested in taking a look at one of them. Well, I was a bit intrigued about what Intelligent Design was all about, although I was pretty confident that my religious non-beliefs would not be swayed.

And so yesterday, my brother and my bleary-eyed self went to a Richmond Hill community church gym to hear this professor from Pennsylvania give this talk. My brother had been expecting a lot of the dyed-in-the-wool middle-aged and elderly folks just to show up, but to his surprise, half of the audience was quite a bit younger than us. In any case, Dr. Behe gave a talk on his concept of Irreducible Complexity which explains that some systems are so complex that they cannot be broken down into simpler units....he used the common mouse trap as an analogy for the common cell. Why can the cell function with its parts such as mitochondria or cilia? Obviously having given this talk so often and so long, his delivery was as smooth as silk, bringing in some pop cultural references such as "Calvin & Hobbes", "The Far Side" and even the "Ghostbusters" logo. He also spoke of that famous sci-fi trope of individual cells being microscopic organic machines. And yes, he did hint at the firestorm of controversy between Intelligent Design and Darwinism, likening the lot of Designers to life in the old Soviet Union.

There were a few questions from the audience at the end of the talk but despite the host's proud assertions of some of the liveliness of the talks downtown, I think giving a talk involving a battle over the origins of life and biochemistry is never going to be an easy sell on a Sunday morning when people may not have had their coffee and bacon n' eggs. As for me, what I got from Dr. Behe's talk was that after nearly 2 centuries, Darwinism is getting slightly ragged and there are perhaps some holes forming in that quilt, but I'm not as eagerly willing to fill those holes with a divine solution as Dr. Behe has been. Perhaps there still are scientific explanations out there but not yet discovered. Maybe higher beings did come to this Earth millions of years ago and planned everything out, but I certainly won't say that they were supernatural ones.  Another interesting observation is that Behe never directly said that God was responsible for creating things such as the parts of a cell, although the fact that he was speaking from the middle of a church intimated things clearly enough for me, at least.

Still, the good doctor seemed like the type to have a good friendly debate about this over a beer. If it hadn't been for the fact that the both of us were constrained by time, I probably would have approached him for a question or two afterwards.

Behe can be found anywhere on the Net, but here's one page: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/behe.html

And here's a YouTube of one of his lectures:

Peking Duck

Saturday November 3, 1:17 p.m.

It's been nice to finally kinda unwind after a week of solid teaching....or something resembling it. I showed "The Dark Knight" as the final "activity"for the morning class. It was something that most of us agreed to, and the ones who didn't were the ones who didn't show up. One of the kids brought over a box of Timbits for everyone which was really nice. However, I just wondered, though, if it would've been better if I had just taken everyone to a Tim Hortons or a reasonable restaurant for brunch or coffee instead...the gang would've, of course, had more opportunity to speak in their final class. But there have been a lot of doubts percolating through my mind over the past few months about this gig.

Barrie, which is a small city 1 hour north of Toronto, got the meteorological icing sugar yesterday morning, and even The Big Smoke witnessed some wet snow coming down. One of my students from the afternoon class excitedly told me as I made my way out of the school. Pretty early these days for even a flurry, so I'm wondering how this Winter is gonna be. It certainly did feel quite wintry out there. After my week's work, I treated myself to lunch at Yueh Tung on Elizabeth St. Of course, I had my default Manchurian Chicken on Rice. Since I got there about 12:30, the place was at full steam in terms of both customers and harried staff. It was my fourth time there, but amazingly enough, the main guy seemed to recognize me and get me a nice table by the exit.

 Now, back on Halloween night, my family had our long awaited reunion with my Vancouver cousins. My sister-in-law was kind enough to arrange dinner at the Asian Legend in Scarberia. Thanks to her father's connections, we were able to get our own room, and the Peking Duck dinner. Yup, darn scrumptious that skin and pancake first course. I hadn't seen my cousin for over a decade since my brother got married, and as for her husband, I hadn't seen him in close to 30 years. Happily, they haven't changed all that much.

Of course, the 2nd course was that delectable duck fat-cooked dish of duck meat and vegetables wrapped in leaves of lettuce. Strangely enough though, in Japan, where Peking Duck is seen as the King of Chinese Cuisine, a lot of places only provide that first course of skin and wrap...none of the 2nd course and the duck soup at the end. I'd always thought about what the cooks did with the rest of the duck. Did they eat it or did any of the stray cats in Yokohama Chinatown look a lot bigger the next day? I figure if any of my old students ever venture to Toronto, I will arrange a true Peking Duck adventure for them.

Having said that, we didn't get the duck soup. But then again, a lot of dumplings and dessert at the end more than compensated. But when our cousins came over to the house, my mother served apple pie and coffee. Even I would've declined it, but since it was crumble-top....

Hurricane Sandy

Sunday October 28, 10:13 p.m.


Hurricane Sandy is on its way, or perhaps to be more accurate, remnants of it are gonna be striking us over the next few days. The forecast has been somewhat confusing although I'm sure the weather folks are enjoying the excitement of it; Sandy has been doing a little of the yo-yo between tropical storm and hurricane, and then apparently it's gonna be merging with another storm to become a superstorm although the folks in Toronto say that pieces of it will be slamming into us. In any case, we're gonna get a season's worth of rain within a few days.

And just as luck would have it, I have a week's worth of teaching to do at the school. So, I'm hoping beyond hope that the TTC will be able to hold itself together. Noone's sure how intense this storm is gonna get, and I'm wondering if the school may actually cancel a day or two in response. I was doing a lot of prep work just for tomorrow's classes....a bit of a blind shot since the teacher I'm subbing gave me the bare bones about what to do. It'll be an interesting week.

And to further add to the mix, I've got a cousin and her husband coming to visit us, and they're arriving on Tuesday, one of the storm days. I haven't seen my cousin in over a decade, plus, I haven't seen her husband in about 30. We plan to have dinner with them on Halloween; there may be some respite from the storm of the year on that night.

Teppanyaki and Anime

Tuesday October 23, 10:55 p.m.

Dinner tonight was teppanyaki. We don't have it all that much anymore since it is rather rich in beef and oil, but once in a while, we like to overindulge. I was half-joking that we were taking a risk if the main ingredient had come from XL Foods (for those who haven't been watching Canadian news, this is an Alberta-based company which recently had to recall literally tons of beef because of the scare of E Coli). As it turned out, no problems. But the digestive pattern I'm starting to pick up on whenever I have teppanyaki is that my stomach starts a bit of a rumba when all that beef and veggie hit the hydrochloric acid. Nothing to send me to the toilet....immediately. In any case, I was still happy to have had one of my favourite dishes.

Kinda feels a bit weird on the TV tonight. Now that the San Francisco Giants have won the National League pennant and there is no football until later in the week, there were no big-league North American sports going on at all. Usually, there would be some NHL games going on that the sports channels would be showing, but we all know where professional ice hockey has gone, don't we? Just soccer on the ol' telly.

The Blue Jays have seen John Farrell take off for Boston for good. Nice guy perhaps but no manager....at least not yet. Basically his 2-year stint here was probably more of a rough-and-tumble internship with the Jays and the rest of Toronto paying for it. Now, we all wait for the next shoe to drop and see who decides to take on the job next. Should be fun. I kinda feel like one of the villagers in "The Magnificent Seven" hoping to see a Yul Brynner or Steve McQueen ride into town.

I think I know when an anime has reached a certain level of success here and abroad when even little 10-second pieces of it get featured and liked on YouTube. The latest one seems to be the one I've been enjoying myself, "Joshiraku", the just-wrapped anime featuring 5 zany rakugo girls. One very enterprising fellow with obviously a lot of time on his hands even successfully had one of the girls, the ever-blue Kukuru Anrakutei, do a Julie Andrews imitation.

Dragon Pearl

 Monday October 15, 12:25 a.m.

Well, it was the family birthday dinner for my niece. So we gave the Dragon Pearl a shot up around York Mills and Don Mills. The parentals and I had done takeout from there a week ago with some impressive results, so we all decided to give the buffet a try.

I guessed it was still pretty new. Not too new so that there were stumbles in the menu and service but new enough since the staff actually looked eager to please. There was a small squad of wait staff at the front to greet customers as they came in, and one would peel off from formation to guide the diners to their table.

My brother remarked on how big the dining area was. Yep, it was quite roomy inside but all the tables filled up quickly. The variety was pretty good as buffets go. About a quarter of the food on display was Western....I went up twice for roast beef and mashed potatoes. The rest of course was Chinese stuff: everything from Singapore Noodles to Peking Duck. We also got our chits to get one serving of lobster. I gave my chit to Dad since I was never a huge fan of shellfish....only because I don't want to work hard to extract every little sliver of lobster meat from the shell.

I was rather surprised to realize that I was 80% done by the second round. The mashed potatoes and the high-fiber banana bubble tea probably did me in there. Perhaps it was them or it's just age creeping into my metabolism. I used to make 5 trips easy to the buffet tables back in the day. Heck, I used to terrify the staff at The Farm Grill, the legendary buffet restaurant near Ginza. They begged me to make a reservation before I showed up. Not anymore. I went a third time to convince myself I still had something in my belly besides an overcapacity alarm going off. I didn't even go for dessert...but then again, there was my niece's birthday cake back at home.

Told the Anime King about the place, but he basically told me that it was a no-go zone for him since it just seemed to attract too many white people to convince him that it had authentically good Chinese fare. As for me, chop suey or siu mai....both worlds of Chinese food suit me just fine.

Finish for the day

Sunday October 7, 12:02 a.m.

Well, got my music blog done and finished up with Mr. Moriya for his usual biweekly lesson. Got his  payment for September as well. Good session with him. All's well that ends well.

Tomorrow (or later today to be more accurate), I've got my brother's family coming over. But Mom really hasn't done turkey in some years since neither she nor the rest of the family aren't really into the big bird (I'm the lone holdout). So we'll just head on over to the local Swiss Chalet. If it weren't for the fact that I love the place, I'd be a bit depressed right now.

I'm gonna have to head to the ATM as well since I owe my brother some bucks for the toner for my printer. That's fine...I can always do with some extra walking.

Finally....Decent Chinese Takeout

Saturday October 6, 1:40 a.m.

Well, will wonders never cease? After having come back to Toronto after 17 years overseas and thinking that good Chinese takeout was about as alive as a T-Rex, my family was somewhat relieved that a place still exists. It's called the Dragon Pearl and is located on York Mills just east of Leslie in that big Galleria mall. The Cantonese Chow Mein actually had a goodly amount of toppings instead of the sparse material that had adorned some of the other mein from other places. And the Lemon Chicken's batter-to-chicken ratio was actually favourable. I will have to inquire The Anime King about this place, although I have a feeling that he will probably pooh-pooh it as being too Canadian. Still, gonna have to try the buffet there someday.

Kanji Krunch

Wednesday September 19, 12:54 a.m.

It's been a bustling past couple of days. On top of teaching at the school yesterday, I've been getting my fair share of translation assignments, and the boss is hinting that a small deluge will be  driving in over the next few days. Not too bad, although at one point, my boss left me a message begging me to send over a couple of finished pages for his demanding client. No problems there.

Looks like my October may be having some further visitations. I've got my old students coming in and then my parents got the call that my cousin and her husband will be flying in from Vancouver around Halloween. Appropriate since after not seeing me for 30 years, they may get quite a scare when they lay their eyes on me.

My new computer has gotten a clean bill of health. My brother wasn't too hard on me but he did warn me not to use the Factory Restore anymore. Man, I'm just not getting along with technology.

Lazy Sunday

Sunday September 16, 3:20 p.m.

Yup, it's feeling a little more like Autumn today. Took a brisk walk around the neighbourhood...not too warm and not too cool. I finally got those translations off to the boss just a half-hour ago. I hope that these pass muster, although I sometimes have the feeling that it's really up to the editor's whims as to how words are put down. Coincidentally, just one second after I'd sent them, the boss sent me a message stating that this could be another buys week. Feeling tired enough as it is.

Will be heading out in a couple of hours with the family to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. We're supposed to be going to Congee Queen up near my old high school. I was a bit surprised at the choice; at first thought, I'd imagined that the restaurant was just the Chinese gruel equivalent of Dairy Queen, but according to some Net research, the place is a bona fide restaurant.

I've got a full day at the school tomorrow. I know the guy I'm subbing for. He's teaching the Business English classes, so things should be fairly straightforward.

On my Twitter account, I got followed by some Japanese idol/TV personality. Never heard of this young lady before, Ayumi Yasuoka, but apparently she's also a fashion director of sorts, although at the age of 24, I can't be quite sure how much of that is true. But I'm not exactly jumping for joy, since she "follows"over 10,000 people as she is followed by over 10,000 people. On her profile, she admitted that she pretty much presses the "Follow" button for just about everything..

Yasuoka is the one on the right. Apparently, the ladies are enjoying the wonders of roast beef.

Finally get to cook!

Saturday September 15, 3:42 p.m.

Hard to believe that we're already at the midpoint of September. It's feeling a little closer to Fall now....not one to complain, especially when my old home is still blazing away and going through a water crisis.

Just by myself since the parentals are out at some big party with their fellow Japanese-Canadians. So, for the first time in several months, I will be able to cook something up by myself. Usually, my mother always had something bought like a steak so that I can just throw it into the pan, but I guess after my health check, she doesn't want to give me any more red meat. And since I don't want to add any complications myself, after my hour of walking, I hit the supermarket...just 5 minutes' walk away...and bought some boneless (and skinless) chicken fillets, a jar of kimchi and bread. I'll be making my old favourite from my Ichikawa days, the Open-Faced Kimchi Chicken Sandwich. My parents may be wondering about the smell afterwards, though.

Basically finished my most recent translation assignment. Once again, I got slagged for one of the other ones for not paying attention to the client's style....my boss did warn me that my progression into the realm of professional translator wouldn't be too easy. Ehn! I'll just slog and learn.

My sister-in-law has her birthday tomorrow. My brother was asking me if I knew of any good places around the neighbourhood. It looks like our usual to-go place, Zen in Scarberia, is closed on Sundays. If worse comes to worse, there is always Swiss Chalet. Yup, plenty greasy and with a ton of that BBQ skin....but hey, the doc did say that I can ease myself into the new lifestyle.

Looks like we'll have another NHL strike at midnight. It's been said that this will turn fans off of hockey. I say that the Toronto Maple Leafs did that to me long ago.

Potpourri Entry of the Week

Tuesday September 11, 8:41 a.m.

Yesterday was pretty much devoted to translation. I got a bit of a good-natured chewout from the boss for handing an admittedly half-assed assignment, but it was very difficult...all of those pharmaceutical terms. Actually, my boss didn't even jump on me but he told me matter-of-factly that the editor really had to earn her pay with my hand-in. I apologized for the work but he kindly brushed it off saying that it was a learning experience and he knew how it difficult it was. In a way, he rather reminds me of that Warner Bros. cartoon bulldog....not the aggressive one who was always chasing after Sylvester the Cat, but the one who counseled the other cat like a good buddy. Still, I've been served....I'm gonna have to be at the top of my game. Fortunately, I did hand in something yesterday that I think is a much better product, and I will be getting a pretty big payday in about a month for another large product. And there is another much smaller and hopefully easier assignment for today.

I'll be taking off for downtown on somewhat of a TIFF journey. The Toronto International Film Festival is past the halfway point, so I expect that the celeb population is starting to peter out. However, I will be taking a look at the Hot Docs Cinema near Bathurst and Bloor since that's one of the venues, although in my case, I don't think I'll be lucky enough to catch any celebs. In fact, I'm more interested in seeing what food trucks will be there for lunch. If they've pulled out, I can just head over to The Thumbs-Up Eatery for a bit of Korean. Afterwards, I will walk over to Yorkville and see if the fishing is good there.

The big chewout I'm expecting to get is from my brother. I received that new laptop from him about 10 days ago, and I managed to destroy it over the weekend due to some stupidity on my part. Suffice it to say, my wonderful palette of software is no more. I've already sent him the bad news and going hat in hand to see if there is some way to salvage any recovery.

I've gotten some good news from my former students-turned-friends back in Japan. Two of them sent me a package of Kaki-P (a snack mix of rice crackers and peanuts) that I used to engorge weekly but haven't had in 9 months since returning to Canada....I can probably buy them here, but I'm not gonna shuck out a ton of cash and take the TTC all the way to the boonies to J-Town to get them. Apparently, they'll be heading over to France next month for a vacation. Then I received word from another student that she and her family will be coming to Toronto in October for a bit of a leafwatching. So it'll be time to put on the tour guide hat once more. Too bad they couldn't come over during the TIFF.

Apparently the Kanto area has been going through some major water rationing blues because of the extreme heat and the extreme lack of rain this past couple of months. One of the major reservoirs in Gunma Prefecture currently looks like a nearly-drained bathtub at just 6% capacity. The government had called a major crisis several years ago when the reservoir had been at 30% capacity, so things are pretty dire over there. I miss Japan but the summers are one thing I have been happy to do without. It was like swimming through atmosphere.

Blood and Urine

Tuesday August 21, 10:34 a.m.

It was an early wake-up call for Dad and me as we made our way to the nearby medical centre. For me, it was the second part to my first medical checkup in several years after yesterday's initial physical. Not too painful at all. After all was said and done, we were out and back at home within an hour.

Giving blood hasn't been an issue with me ever since I was five, although I noticed that the tech took away four vials' worth of the red stuff....I think even early 2000s Angelina Jolie would've swooned at the sight. But the urine part took a bit of hand-eye coordination. There was an unnecessarily long list of rules right by the toilet as to how to properly leave a good sample of the golden shower....something about providing mid-stream urine as the most ideal sample. Heck, I would've written it this way:

Never early, never late, middle surely, to urinate.

It had been a good while since I left a urine sample. I had a bit of trouble with controlling the pressure...the vial (and my hands) needed some wiping afterwards. But the important thing was that I could leave a healthy 40 ml for the medtechs to have fun with.

Long Time No See, Medical Checkup

Monday August 20, 3:58 p.m.

This morning, I had my first physical in several years. Yup, I'm probably hearing a lot of "tsk, tsk"right now, but hey, I'm not a huge fan of those. So sue me. But my parents' doctor was pretty cool about it....did all the standard parts of the examination, including the one with the rubber glove (it and I are having cocktails on Friday). Not surprisingly, the doc just told me that I need to lose about 15 kg. Yup, I have gained quite a bit since I got back from Japan...most likely due to the two Ribfests and the biweekly anime-and-foodie outings with The Anime King. Then, Dad and I drove a bit West where a neighbourhood medical centre took care of the X-ray that I'd requested for my left shoulder. Yup, it still aches. I'm hoping that it isn't more serious than tendonitis when the doc finds out in a few days. Still have to give my blood and urine samples tomorrow, so no brekkie for me.

Speaking of The Anime King, I had my all-day with him yesterday. Went over to this place out in the North called Myeongdong, in the same strip mall where that branch of Wild Wings was where we downed a bucket of chicken wings a few weeks earlier.

Apparently, even the Koreans from back home rave about this place, so that was a fine incentive for us to try it out. And this time, it wasn't just The King and I. Another old friend of ours from way back, The Anime Knight, joined us. It's nice to have one more added into the conversational mix.

The menu is actually limited to just a handful of items. Myeongdong specializes in shabu shabu, and two-thirds of the menu was devoted to that. However, we did go for one of the few other a la carte items which were these huge dumplings. I mean, if they were frozen, they would be weapons. Luckily, piping hot, they were simply delicious instead. All that was needed was just a pinch of complementary kimchi and soy sauce, and they were good to go. We also had bowls of noodle soup which were spicy but the dumplings were the winners here.


Afterwards, the three of us went to one of our regular post-meal haunts, the Second Cup on Steeles. I treated for the drinks there. And it was another hour or hour and a half of reminiscing and computer talk.

The Anime Knight went back home afterwards, but The King and I went down into the basement as usual to view the various offerings. We continued with the rebooted "Yamato"saga. I have to say that although the story is along the same lines as the original 1974 presentation, the graphics are entertaining enough to keep me watching. We ran through the 4 episodes that came with his latest shipment, before we viewed the one-hour documentary on the onstage show with cast and crew when the episodes were actually shown at an Osaka movie theatre earlier in the year. Just saw that long line snake down the staircase. Heck, even Isao Sasaki, the singer of the iconic theme song, made a surprise appearance and performance. Probably not a dry eye in the place.

Then, it was an hour of appreciative listening to soundtrack stuff before heading out to a neighbourhood Thai joint for dinner before coming back to watch "Joshiraku"and the latest episode of "Smile Precure". "Joshiraku"is just one seemingly stream-of-consciousness Japanese screwball comedy anime spearheaded by five female rakugo performers that spares no sacred cows in Japan or beyond.