This is what I look at every day for 8 hours. People just smiling at me. I'll ask a question and all I get in return is a shy grin. Sometimes I just feel like screaming "Speak, damn you! Speak!"

I don't get it. Nova isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, so why pay to go to a conversation school if you aren't going to talk? People just come to smile at me for 40 minutes.

Me: Hello Keiko, nice to see you again.

Student: Hi. *smile*

Me: So, what did you do last night?

Student: *smile*

Me: Well?

Student: *smile*

Me: You there, Keiko?

Student: *smile*

Me: Uh...right. Ok, please open your book to lesson 15.

Student: <flip flip> *smile*

Me: *sigh* 38 more minutes to go.

Student: *smile*

I have been missing coffee like crazy since I have been in Japan. They have Starbucks here, but I can't drink that "dark roast" crap they serve. I'm sorry, but there is no such thing as "dark roasting." There is only "roasting" and "burning".

I worked at ING Direct, just this past summer, and their cafeteria sold Starbucks coffee for $1 a cup. I started drinking it on a daily basis in a rather unsuccessful attempt to stay awake on the job. To my horror, I began to get used to it, and found myself commenting on regular coffee, saying that it tasted too weak. Once I realized what was happening, I quit and flew to Japan.

I stooped to buying a jar of instant. It's disgusting. My grandfather used to drink this stuff all the time. Rather, I used to make it for him when he would ask for a cuppa joe. Sorry Grandpa. I didn't know any better back then.

This is a small sampling of some of the merchandise for sale in Tokyo. On the left, you will see a Micky Mouse DVD player. Enough said about that.

I don't know if you can really make out the next picture, but it is a stereo that you wear on your back like a jetpack. This is the new wave ghetto blaster. Instead of carrying it on your shoulder with the volume cranked to the max, you can deafen yourself and everyone else in a 10-foot radius, while soaring around in the sky.