back on the net. sort of.

So I'm staying with fisch for the time being, and he finally got yahoo broadband installed here in japan. Specifically, he's near a small train station called Higashi Koganei, about 30 minutes from downtown tokyo. Not a bad place to be, and the internet makes it even better.
I'm not feeling well, so I'm glad my trip is almost over. On the whole, it was a bit too long in fact. But well, the odd coincidences keep occurring.
I was at the internet (and manga) cafe Bagus in Kichijoji (that's 'Joji' to you), just minding my own biz and uploading some pictures when I couldn't help overhearing a heated argument in the cubicle next door. An american was fuming about how the staff there wasn't helping him recover an email from an apparently frozen internet explorer. I sat there for about 5 minutes listening to it before getting up and asking what the hell was the problem. Well, there wasn't really much of problem, except that the Japanese staff wasn't making clear what they were doing. A quick explanation in english (copy-paste, then saving to a floppy, and opening it on another computer), and the situation was more or less defused. What was really odd was that the elderly gent said that he's a columbia grad from many decades ago, and that he studied international affairs. His name is Cliff, and he didn't recognize the acronym SIPA, but it was clear that he was in that same building.
Some mediated apologies later, all seemed to be well. At the end of my visit, in fact, the staff there offered to nix my bill. I'd like to go on record that JUST THIS ONCE a good deed actually went rewarded.
The heat here was terrible, but I ended the evening having dinner and coffee with a former student, Fukutake Miwa. It's amazing how people can grow up, and she's doing quite well as a teacher herself now.