Finland, Osaka, Nagoya...

Hi there! This week was full of travelling. I am right now in Nagoya, Japan. Next week we will have our concert here. 

On Tuesday I flew to Finland and then took another flight to Osaka, Japan. It was,a very long trip as I had to take first 2 trains really early in the morning to get to Berlin Airport. Finally, after many hours of flight I arrived to Osaka. I stayed there until Friday, then Aki and I headed to Nagoya. During the little time in Osaka I managed to go to probably my favorite coffee which is Lilo Coffee Roasters and the more traditional coffee place called Arabiya coffee more like a Kissaten. Lilo's coffee is definitely one of the top 3 coffee places for me in Japan and perhaps the world. The taste of their beans is really something special. This time I tried a fermented Colombian coffee with lots of taste to watermelon, banana, really incredible flavours. I saw again also my Japanese family and had Sushi in a very popular chain. Very affordable and still really tasty. I really like Osaka and in some previews blogs I have described some of it. Last time I was here was in December where I spend Christmas and New Years Eve. 

Now, we are in Nagoya and rehearsing everyday our program for the concert on the 10th July. It is a program we start with Arie Antiche, some Lieder and then Opera ( Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Boheme, Carmen) and then we finish with Japanese and Mexican songs and for the ancore the always present brindisi from Traviata. So far the rehearsals are good but we know is a challenging one, with so many difficult passages. We are taking it really serious and we are doing our best. This concert is very important for Aki as she is presenting herself here in Japan and she has a big responsibility to make a very good concert, I am just her guest and she was really nice to include me in her program and also singing difficult stuff which is good for me to challenge myself and keep improving. 

I am dealing this week with a bit of Jetlag and some tiredness from last week runs of many show of Thérèse. I am still very happy about the positive result of singing many performances very close to each other. I do not reccomend that it should be the usual but once in a while is nice to sing so much and to see how one must pace the days and the performances. When I was in Würzburg I had several times some sort of crazy schedule and it is also good for the voice once in a while test it like this, of course, if you are feeling healthy. If not it could be somehow not so good as you can imagine. From my previews experiences I took care and luckily I had not health issues during the crazy days of performances. 

I keep doing my exercise (4 times a week) routine, it is difficult while travelling but I push myself to continue with discipline. I keep also writing gladly my morning pages and reading Daily Stoic and Tolstoi. 

I hope you are well, take care and see you here next week.