OSAKA AQUARIUM KAIYUKAN

GREEN TEA KITKAT - THE FUEL TO MY ENGINE.

I'M STARTING TO DEVELOP A THING FOR SKINHEADS,
AS I APPROACH MY TWILIGHT YEARS. 

SEA OTTER'S MOVING TOO QUICKLY! 

EMMA AND HYPERACTIVE.
NOTE THE PLASTIC BINOCULARS AROUND MY NECK.
IT WAS ALL THE HELP I NEEDED SANS ANY PRESCRIPTION EYE WEAR.

POST-AQUARIUM SNACK - OCTOPUS BALLS, NATCH!

HYPERACTIVE + PENGUIN

THE OSAKA 'EYE'.

// PLAYTIME! //

OSAKA CASTLE

HYPERACTIVE AND SOME HUGE-ASS ROCKS FITTED TO FORM A FORTRESS.

MOAT.

THE WEEKEND CROWD... IS NOT MUCH OF A CROWD AT ALL.

BEAUTIFUL STRIATIONS.

BLUE SKIES OVER OSAKA.

CHRIS AND EMMA TAKE THE CITY IN,
AS IMPERIAL ROYALTY MIGHT HAVE LOOKED ONTO THEIR DOMAIN.

BEAUTIFUL EMS.

SILLY BITCHIZ.

AN OLD BLOKE, A BITCH AND A BIKE.

THE GATES.

WATERLINE. 

  // INVADE ME. //

STREETS OF OSAKA

// QUIET, PLEASE. //

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Nina Simone / Feeling Good

Nina Simone's voice gives me goosebumps. She sings like she's speaking sacred verses evocative of prayers, lamentation, benediction, incantation, supplication. Her vibrato has a gutteral quality that sounds like it comes from the depths of history.

Feeling Good, with its references to birds in the sky and scent of the pine, reminds me of the Native American ethos of unity between humanity and nature.      

She's a peerless storyteller.

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life for me
And I'm feeling good...

// OSAKA //

YOU CAN SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD.

WE'VE BEEN WALKING AROUND ALL DAY.
TIME FOR A LITTLE SNACK!

EMMA IS CONSIDERING A CHEESECAKE -
PERHAPS AN APPLE PIE! -
TO GO WITH HER COFFEE.

HELLO, LITTLE MILK CONTAINER!
AREN'T YOU RATHER... PETITE?

"EXCUSE ME, MISS!" EMMA CALLED THE WAITRESS.
"MAY I PERHAPS HAVE ANOTHER THIMBLE OF MILK?" 

HM, I WONDER WHAT TYPE OF MILK THEY USE...

WHY, IT'S THICK AND VISCOUS!

LET'S HAVE A TASTE, THEN!

OMG, IT'S AWFUL...

WEEE!

// HAPPY MONDAY, WORLD! //

TRAINSPOTTING IN OSAKA

A NUMPTY IN NAMBA.

WHICH COINS TO USE?
WHICH BUTTONS TO PUSH?

THE BEAUTIFUL SMILES BELIE THE CHALLENGES OF NAVIGATING OSAKA'S DIZZYING SUBWAY NETWORK.

REALITY SETS IN.

SLEEPY?
DRINK WONDA WONDERFUL COFFEE.

MADE IT TO OUR DESTINATION!

Our first night in Osaka was a tragicomedy that involved a bottle of Bombay's Sapphire gin in our cute room at Best Western Shinsaibashi, some really terrible "kerosene chicken" (because Emma and Chris refused to eat raw chicken - duh!) in an unknown Japanese eatery, and me leaving said eatery in a huff. Drunk, angry, hungry, lost, and without a yen to my name.

I think I might have wandered off to find a money changer; all I had was a few Hong Kong dollar bills. Lucky me, the currency exchange counter in Daimaru had already closed and I had no choice but to find my way back to our toybox of a hotel room. Emma and Chris walked in a few minutes later with a "peace offering" - a Sapporo Beer King Can. We drank some more amid what seemed to us then like gut-wrenching discussion.

"Speak to him, Ems," Chris implored. "You're much better at it than I am!"

"You have to promise," Emma insisted, "that what we spoke about tonight will stay in this room will never be spoken about again."

"I promise," I said.

"Good," she sighed. "God, gin such a downer!"

I was practically blind the next day. I think I might have flushed my contact lenses down the drain the previous night - but who knows what might have truly happened??

The entire morning was drenched in blazing sunshine, with but just a few clouds to soften the assault. We struggled with Osaka's tangled network of subway lines. I suspect it was exactly what we needed to clear the previous night's cobwebs away.

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Diana Krall / Let's Fall In Love (LIVE)

The first CD I ever purchased was Babyface's The Day. The second was Diana Krall's When I Look In Your Eyes. This was way back 2001, when the charts were ruled by the venerable likes of Cher (Believe), Britney Spears (Baby One More Time) and Christina Aguilera (Genie In A Bottle).

I didn't know who Diana Krall was; I had never even heard of her before I saw a rave review in the papers. YouTube wasn't yet around for me to have done my due diligence before deciding to purchase her music. Thank goodness Tower Records (remember??) allowed music lovers to actually preview a CD on dedicated listening stations.

I was captivated by Krall's husky, raspy alto. To my ears, her voice was like rich, meaty protein compared to the sugary, empty carbs of Britney et al.

Years on, I find myself going back to Diana Krall whenever I want to listen to something easy but stimulating.

Let's fall in love, she suggested.

And we did.              
          

MY TWO LOVES:
EMMA & CHRIS

// OSAKA. //

MID-MORNING LIBATION

SHE MADE ME DO IT.

A RITUAL TO SEEK THE SPIRITS' BLESSINGS FOR OUR ADVENTURES
ON THE SLOPES.

IT STARTED AS SOMETHING BETWEEN JUST THE TWO OF US -
AND A FLUTE OF IRISH COFFEE.

IT SEEMED INNOCENT ENOUGH...

...UNTIL WE PULLED IN A THIRD.

PRETTY SOON, THE ENTIRE VILLAGE WAS INVOLVED.
IT SEEMED TO HAVE AN UPLIFTING EFFECT,
THIS LIBATION.

IT BECAME A CULT. 

AND WHEN LIBATION INVOLVES THE RITUALISTIC POURING OF AMBROSIAL FLUIDS
SUCH AS FROTHY CHOCOLATE MILK WITH GODIVA LIQUEUR
DOWN OUR ESOPHAGUSES (ESOPHAGI?)

HOW ARE WE TO RESIST?

WE'RE ONLY HUMAN.

// IT'S WINE O'CLOCK. //