Subway explosion

Friday October 19, 7:41 p.m.

I heard a couple of hours ago that there had been some sort of explosion on the Tokyo Metro. It was on the Marunouchi (Red) Line at Hongo-Sanchome Station at around midnight. I was never on that line at that time of night but considering it was Friday, it was probably still quite crowded with commuters coming home from a night carousing at the bars or karaoke. Luckily, if one can call it that, it was an accident involving a chemical reaction between some cleanser and the aluminium can that it had been in; a young lady had the can in her bag. She and about 14-15 others got some slight burns but nothing more major than that. When I first heard the news, my mind immediately brought up images of the sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyo back in 1995.

A few hours after the explosion on the Tokyo Metro, there was some sort of knifing spree at JR Fukuoka Station. Some 26-year-old psycho had stabbed about 5 men before he was subdued. Several years ago, there was a rash of these stabbing sprees done by troubled men who had thought the world and their lives meaningless. Luckily, the wounds at Fukuoka were all relatively minor.

Just goes to show that Japan may be safer than most countries but there's no such thing as total safety.

Regular Monday

Monday October 15, 7:54 p.m.

Literally blue Monday since it was cloudy all day with intermittent spits of precipitation. Dad and I went to pick up Mom. Had a more troublesome-than-usual ride on the roads due to some well-placed accidents and construction sites. Rosedale Valley Rd. was closed off due to a collision so we had to take the real long way to get to St. Clair, and then coming home was arduous since Wynford Dr south of Eglinton was all clogged up.

Ended up with Pizza Nova for dinner tonight. It's been interesting getting accustomed to Canadian sizes for pizza. Just like converting from Imperial to Celsius, the same has to be done for pizza sizes from Japan to Canada. A Japanese large is actually merely a Canadian medium. A Japanese medium is a Canadian small. Pizza lovers in Japan, therefore, will therefore swoon at seeing a Canadian large. And then we had the remainder of my niece's birthday cake for dessert. I think my doctor was probably sneezing his brains out when I took that first high-calorie bite (Japanese in-joke).

Well, what do you know? Dalton McGuinty decides to call it quits. No surprise there; he's basically burned just about every bridge. And after almost a decade, he did live long enough politically to become the villain.

Crumbling Gardiner and DPJ

courtesy of n+s
from Flickr

Wednesday July 18, 11:04 a.m.

With all the shooting horrors over the past couple of days (to add insult & further death to injury, there was another man shot & slain at Jane & Eglinton, just a day after the mass shooting in Scarberia), it's almost laughable that the Gardiner Expressway Whack-A-Car Sweepstakes has popped up on the news again. Yep, it looks like the extreme heat amongst other factors has caused the aging highway to drop the concrete version of bird poop. Luckily, no cars were harmed but Bathurst St. has been closed which will majorly screw up traffic today.

courtesy of DonkeyHotey
from Flickr

Then, there is the quagmire of being the governing party of Japan. It seems to be death by a thousand paper cuts (or paper cranes with especially sharp beaks and wings) for Prime Minister Noda. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan has been whittled down bit by bit by defecting disgruntled party members. There was the not-insignificant chunk of led by political kingpin/Loki, Son of Odin Ichiro Ozawa which has now become a new party with another frustrating name, Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi (People's Life First). And just a couple of days ago, three Upper House parliamentarians left the DPJ in disappointment over their former party's recent decisions to form a caucus group called Midori no Kaze (Green Wind), although I don't think environmentalists should start getting excited. According to The Japan Times, that leaves the DPJ on the precipice to lose its No. 1 status to the official Opposition Liberal Democratic Party. And the mass media has been reporting that further defections are possible....although I think that could be just viewership baiting more than fact.

It's been a slow, agonizing fall from grace for the DPJ in the past 3 years since it arrived as the new rulers of Nagatacho on a wave of victory and hope. President Obama and the Democrats ought to look at Japan and sigh in relief that at least they haven't been quite that unlucky. The first Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama came off as an indecisive mama's boy. Then, Naoto Kan got buried underneath his handling of last year's triple disasters of quake/tsunami/Fukushima. Now, it seems as if the knives have come out for Yoshihiro Noda. Somewhat earlier on, there had been some hope that Noda would be coming out of his first year in office relatively stain-free. But in pretty rapid succession, he got 3 albatrosses strung around his neck in the form of the gradual raising of the consumption tax to 10%, the OK to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the reactivation of the nuclear power plants against massive popular opposition. Still, I have some respect for him in that he has stuck to his guns and made the unpopular if necessary decisions....he's definitely better than Hatoyama that way, and he comes off as more pragmatist than idealogue. Now, I'm just wondering how he'll do in September when the Lower House General Election beckons. There's been no talk about him resigning so most likely the DPJ elders are thinking that it's probably too late for a leadership change to do much good in the short time between now and the Fall.

Uptown

The most minimalist eye chart I've ever seen.
Or it could be the calling card for Quince.

Friday June 15, 8:21 p.m.

I went uptown later that Wednesday since I was to meet Egg and his wife up at Yonge and Eglinton at 6. However, I got there at about 3. There was a Jays game at The Rogers Centre at 1:10 that afternoon, and the last thing I needed was to travel up during rush hour AND be with a drunk (lots of beef sold) and surly (the Jays lost...again) mob on the Yonge Line.

I took a small break at the local Tim Hortons on the east side of Yonge before browsing at a couple of bookstores for a couple of hours. Did BMV for an hour....browsed through a lot of Marvel Comics and some movie books there before crossing the street and checking out the local Indigos.

I was about to cross the street to meet Egg and his wife at the southwest corner of Eglinton & Yonge, when the couple actually intercepted me just by accident on the northwest corner. It had been a few weeks since I met the Egg, but well over a year since I'd met the wife. She griped about her work again. Apparently, her company suffered one of its first cases of karoshi, the Japanese term for "death by overwork" not too long ago. Oh, the irony.

In any case, we made our dinner venue Quince, just south of the main intersection, across from The Art Shoppe. I'd been there with them before. Good food and service. We started off with a number of appetizers, including one lone Spring Roll, poutine (at Quince, it should be called La Poutine), and frites with aioli (apparently, it's not good form to call it "fries with fancy mayo"). It was all good.

Mmmm, mmmmm....good!

My main course was the Steak Frites. It was a fine and juicy medium-rare hunk of beef with nicely caramelized onions no top and crispy fries...er, sorry, frites...to the side. I definitely had my share of potato that night.

The three of us had a good talk on TV and movies, not surprising since both are big telly fans and Egg is one of the big managers at Cineplex. Yup, "The Avengers"is the movie to beat this year. I am looking forward to the Toronto Film Festival. I haven't been to one since its fortunes went way up. Now, it's one of the world's cinematic events, and I would finally like to partake in a bit of celeb-gazing. Will have to stake out my post near the Bell Lightbox.

Yes, amazingly enough, I still had room
for dessert.

I finished my feast with an Almond Tart with a combination of custard and berry sauces. Also had copious amounts of coffee. I definitely overdid it on the caffeine that day with the three cups at Quince, the iced coffee at Tim Hortons, the Coke with my Chicken Parmigiana and the breakfast cup that morning.

Not sure when I will be able to meet the Eggs again since both are very busy folks. Our dinner meetings may end up being seasonal affairs.






To finish off, I took the Eglinton 34C home. We had a real character driving our bus. Even though, the computer dutifully announced the various stop names, he just insisted on calling out the names by himself in a huge barker's voice. He also loudly offered to let people off before an intersection if the stop was after it. And he even made a Usain Bolt-like dash for the Tim Hortons near my stop for a quick coffee. Got some applause from the passengers when he made it back in less than a minute. It was obvious that he and a number of them were quite familiar with each other, and the atmosphere was almost very cordial....something that I haven't seen on a TTC bus in decades, especially considering the virtual civil war that almost ensued between commuters and drivers a few years ago. Apparently, he was in quite a happy mood since he would be switching to a new route from next week. Of course, his regulars were saddened by this news but wished him well. One even suggested that he take the Woodbine 91 which actually crosses the 34 near that Tim Hortons. I can vouch for that passenger's choice. I used to take the 91 on my way to junior high school decades ago, and it is one of the easiest and most relaxing routes. I remember that that route also had a bit of a happy eccentric driving that bus, too, in the mornings. Kept making birdcalls and announcements in strange voices. He even intentionally drove his bus onto the curb for a few metres when he saw a very pretty young lady sashaying on the sidewalk there.

At this point, I can only hope that that sort of whimsy can infuse itself into more urban situations here. Perhaps then, Toronto can start climbing itself up a bit more.

Take the TTC....please!

Friday June 1, 11:22 p.m.

courtesy of magnetboy1
from Flickr

We got piled on with torrents of rain and the high only got up to 13 degrees C in the GTA.. But that wasn't the disaster. First off, for some bizarro reason, my Vic Park bus suddenly got ordered NOT to enter the bus bay area at the station, so there were a few minutes of uncertainty, very loudly voiced by the commuters on board, as the driver ignored all questions (probably because even he couldn't answer them) and made a roundabout turn to get us to the main entrance. Then, when we got to the subway platform, the first subway completely bypassed us though it was in full operation. And by the time we did catch the next one, I saw TTC personnel and the cops having a discussion on the platform. I was wondering if that psychopath Luka Magnotta had ended up hiding out in the station somewhere.

And then of course, there was the flood. I got out of my training session at about 3:30 and dove into St. Patrick Station to hear the announcement that an entire swath of line ranging from Bloor to Osgoode Stations was now cut off due to a major flood down at Union Station. Unfortunately, some of the flood included raw sewage so the station ended up masquerading as the world's largest toilet. So there were tons of commuters waiting to go up north, although I was lucky to have walked further down the platform where there were not as many folks hogging the platform. Then I took the Bloor Line over two stations and got on the Yonge Line which was now turning back up from that station. The rest of the commute was pretty sweet. As I overheard one lady say back at St. Patrick at 3:30, "It's really bad now. Can you imagine what it will be like at 5 p.m.?"

And sure enough, when I turned on CP24 when I got home, I just saw one heck of a lineup on Bloor & Yonge waiting for shuttle buses. It was a major mess for rush hour.

But my title there is perhaps a tad harsh on the TTC. After all, last Thursday's kerfuffle was due to a suicidal student, and today's was a force of nature. If anything, current and past administrations at City Hall are really to blame for today's commuting horror. Years of deteriorating infrastructure downtown finally showed what can happen if not taken care of.

However, I now have to ask myself, considering that I will be teaching everyday next week, what the odds are of getting into another TTC tumult.

Some Old Friends

Sunday May 27, 11:35 p.m.

It's been a bit of a reunion week of sorts. Mrs. Perth and Mrs. Alp of my old student collective in Chiba, The Beehive, arrived in Toronto. And so, I was off to the Sheraton Gateway Hotel at Pearson to pick them up. Almost didn't make it due to a major subway snafu involving the suicide of a high school student at Castle Frank which had hundreds of commuters pouring out onto the streets trying to smash onto the hastily arranged shuttle buses or hailing taxis. I was lucky to have shared a cab with three others so that I could get to St. George Station where the trains were being turned back westbound.

But I did get there right on time, and Mrs. Tulip was there with her van to pick all of us up for a round of dim sum at a Mississauga restaurant called Summit Garden. It had been almost half a year since I last saw the group that I'd been teaching for 13 years, but it felt like yesterday when I saw them. Afterwards, Mrs. Tulip picked up some mussels at the local Costco to make up dinner for the ladies at her place. I spent a few hours there just to reminisce before I had to head on home.

On the Saturday, I met up with Perth and Alp again and gave them a small tour of the downtown area. Specifically, I first took them down to the St. Lawrence Market. I had been kinda iffy about this place being voted the Best Market in the World, but it looks like the weekends actually do help give the place a lot more excitement.

The three of us went for a DIY Ploughmans Lunch of sorts. We made full use of the market's facilities by picking up gravlox, prosciutto ham, olives, apricot cheese and Montreal bagels. It was the right call...better than settling for the set meals, although they are also good. Alp and Perth were suitably impressed with the variety and taste. In fact, Perth decided to buy half a dozen of the bagels to bring back to Japan. Just by the largest coincidence, my old friend Eriko just happened to be taking a lunch break from an all-day course in the area, so she joined us for the meal.

The weather was just perfect for a walk down to Harbourfront. It was warm but not too humid unlike the steam bath of Friday. We had been thinking about getting on the ferry for Centre Island but coming upon the huge lineups at the ticket booths, we decided to just enjoy drinks at Queen Quay's Terminal. Talking there for a few hours just reminded me of our old sessions on Tuesday morning.

Of course, with the weather being so gorgeous outside, the TTC declared the season "Construction"and closed down the Bloor-Union leg of the Yonge Line, so we took the shuttle bus up from Union Station. Man, it was like going on a JR Bullet Train during Golden Week. The three of us were lucky to get seats and that we got off at the other end of the bus route.

The last part of the tour ended in Greektown where I showed the ladies the wonders of Mr. Greek. Greek cuisine isn't exactly cheap or plentiful in Tokyo. Not to say that Greek fare is dime-a-dozen but it's all-so-reasonable here in Toronto. If they had come here a month later, they would've been privy to A Taste of the Danforth, but c'est la vie. Still, they were happy enough with the hot spinach dip, calamari and souvlaki. And of course, I had to order the literally flamboyant saganaki.

We were joined by a young Japanese-speaking Korean lady who is buddies with another Korean who had been good pals with Mrs. Perth back when the latter had been living in Australia several years ago. Very engaging and talkative, and her Japanese was so fluent that I kinda crumpled up inside in terms of my pride.

And of course, the night in Greektown wasn't complete without having dessert at Demetres. However, I just settled for the far more liquid Iced Cappucino since I was just so stuffed from the souvlaki. However, the three ladies were happy to engage their sweet tooth by munching on a cherry cheesecake.

I was the complete host and took them all the way to their hotel near Spadina Station. It will be a long while before I see any of the Beehive again, but hopefully either next year or the year after I may get a chance to visit Japan again.

Starbucks & The Mongolian Grill

courtesy of tebpp

 Thursday April 19, 1:51 p.m.

Got to get out for most of the day yesterday. First, went down to Christie Station and walked up north to Dupont where a Starbucks was housed inside a former old bank building. Made for a nice, interesting interior. I had their cheese & sausage muffin, which was a decidedly mediocre affair; too bad for that price. $8.02 with the tall latte. Last time I ever try that combination. I could get a fine hamburger & fries with gravy and a Coke from a U of T food truck for a twonie less.

courtesy of gdquerubin
of Flickr

Shard came by at around 11. Not too much about business but we had a good 3 hours gabbing about movies, music and the like. Starbucks may be a bit expensive and not serve the tastiest of savory fare, but it is conducive for good kaffeeklatsching.

At about 2, Shard went off north to pick up his kid and I walked east along Dupont. The neighbourhood has got that small town/inner city look. I saw a bit of the tops of Casa Loma as I walked across....I have to visit that place again someday. I made a turn down St. George, which was getting some major repair work done to the pavement, so I had to breathe in some dust during my walk to the station. I noticed quite a few institutes of religious learning on the way as well as some obviously well-to-do fraternities and sororities. It was a good walk since the weather was cool and bright.

I was planning to do a loop down the University Line and back up Yonge when I heard the announcement that there was a major delay (what else is new?) due to smoke in Osgoode Station. So I hopped on the Bloor Line a couple of stops to Bloor-Yonge where I found out Rosedale Station had its own issues with someone who had apparently jumped onto the tracks. So, there was another 5-10 minute delay while that got sorted out. It did, and the subway got moving. When we hit Rosedale, there weren't any nauseated commuters on the platform and the subway did get underway after only a few minutes, so I figured it hadn't been a suicide. And usually, The Egg once told me that there was a special code for that sort of tragedy that gets over the TTC speakers.

Took the Eglinton Bus over to Don Mills and walked the rest of the way up to my next destination which was the Mongolian Grill. But getting there an hour early, I just walked up a bit further into what was once my hangout area for about 4 years when I was a high school student at Don Mills Collegiate Institute back in the 80s. A few of us used to hit Don Mills Centre during the lunch period or when we just wanted to skip class to tackle the video games of the day such as Pac-Man and Defender at the bowling alley. DMC had the same sort of configuration as any regular mall with one or two major department stores with a food court and all sorts of smaller stores like a Coles in between. I was surprised to see that sometime in the last 30 years, it had become this man-made mini-village of fashion. Just a lot of trendy emporia attached to each other like neighbourhood blocks with cool restaurants spritzed liberally all over. Definitely not for teens although I saw a couple of groups of loud kids sitting in the outdoor seating areas. Most likely DMCI.

Got back to the Mongolian Grill about 15 minutes before The Entrepreneur got there. I was the first one inside. Except for one staffer, I wouldn't say that the service was particularly all that welcoming but again I never expected all that much from people working at a buffet place.
The Entrepreneur got in at about 5:30 and we spent a good couple of hours touching base on all sorts of things. He's been really busy with his own business and of course, there has been the issue of him being a father for a couple of years now. We also spoke on movies which made me wonder if I could ever get him and Shard to meet up with me all together someday. But with most everyone being family folk now, that could be quite the challenge, especially with a lot of them living out in the far-flung areas of the GTA.

As for the food, it was far better than the stuff I had gotten at the Mandarin back in February. The Mongolian Grill also has that gimmick where you stuff a bowl with meat, veggies, noodles and your choice of sauce and give the whole mess to a chef who fries it up on a huge cylindrical steel drum. Not sure how authentically Mongolian it is (I may have to ask a couple of sumo wrestlers), but it made for a good course. Of course, the dessert table had that chocolate fountain that so many Japanese women are always dying to try.

My old buddy was kind enough to give me a lift home although he was running a bit late to get back to Milton. When we approached the intersection of Don Mills and Eglinton, which is supposed to be the worst intersection in Canada to drive through, he told me how he used to love cars and driving but that driving in Toronto had pretty much leached that out of him. I couldn't blame his growing dispassion since probably the great majority of Torontonians share the same opinion. Strangely, a couple of cop cars suddenly came out of the woodwork and pulled a U-turn to chase down a malfeasant car to stress our point.

It was good to have seen Shard and The Entrepreneur again. Would be nice to meet up once more, but it will probably be at least a month.