Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka…

Hi there, I hope you are well. This week started in Osaka, and we got ready to take the train to Tokyo. We arrived early afternoon to Tokyo Station and we walked to Koko Hotel in Ginza. This is like the 4th time I stay there, it is really close to several stations and very convenient to travel through the city and the best part is that this hotel is affordable considering that is in Ginza, a very expensive area in Tokyo. After several visits to this incredible city, this location has been ideal for me. We stayed until Thursday. We visited areas like Shibuya, Harajuku, Shimokitazawa, Omotesando, Ueno Park, Tsukiji Market, among others. We visited for the first time Tokyo National Museum where they have the permanent collection, and these months, they have a special collection, Celebrating 1250 Years Since the Birth of the Great Master Kūkai, the exhibition is called “Kūkai and the Treasures of Shingon Buddhism”. It was very interesting for me to learn more about it, and see incredible artefacts, wooden sculptures, manuscripts, and many more things. It was worth to take a whole half day to just learn and discover this museum. Around this particular museum there are about 4 or 5 more museums around. It reminds me to the museum island in Berlin, except here is a huge park that also has a beg zoo… and fun story, I learnt the Chinese took all the Pandas they had in here recently, because apparently political reasons, etc. A topic for another blog or better just leave it as a cute Panda story.

In Tokyo we met several times our baritone friend Takaoki and went to several places among them to eat Yakitori in Shibuya at a local restaurant, and listen to Classical Music at “Lyon” a 100 year old Kissaten where you only go to listen to music recordings and it is not allowed to speak, you order your drinks and just listen, you can take a book, or nothing. The experience was very surreal, the place smells like old furniture and tabaco, from another era, the lighting is very dark and it is like cabaret lighting with very dimmed yellow light , like candles. The sound system is the centre of the whole room with speakers made of wood and as big as I would dare to say at least a meter tall and width maybe 2 meters. For that, the volume was really conservative. The place is hidden in the middle of the bustling Shibuya area, you would not know is there, I recommend you to look at it online and if you visit and are interested, go and visit it. We also met Takaoki in Shimokitazawa where I went on a hunt for Vinyl recordings. I know some record shops there and I made a friend, the owner of the record shop, who gave me a lot of advice and recommendations on Jazz/ Funk and got some albums.

Walking another day through the streets of Omotesando, we found a Mexican Taco place called “Tres Hermanos” we have seen it on social media and youtube, so we decided to give a try and it was really, really good. The workers most of them were Mexican, to be honest it was a bit surreal and I did not expect the food was going to be that good. The owner a Japanese guy, I believe he went to Mexico for several years and worked there and learn how to prepare tacos and one day after years, decided to go back to Japan and open his own stand, and now after years of hard work, he has his own place in a very well positioned area of the city, full of tourists. Very close to the taqueria, I found another Jazz Kissaten and visited, just seating with a nice ice café and enjoying some jazz and making a bit of a pause for the long day of walking and window shopping. Ah! I almost forget, on that day while having brunch in Omotesando area at a nice bakery/ café, there was a Mexican guy, so we say hi and it turns out he is on a research trip to Japan, he is a sociologist I believe and he won a scholarship, he was also there with a Korean girl. Somehow her face seemed familiar, for reasons I cannot explain, well it turns out that Fito the Mexican guy is living in Bielefeld and the Korean girl, when I said to her that her face somehow seemed familiar, she said she lives in Leipzig too, and I could not believe it, perhaps I saw here there. When we told her we are living also in Leipzig we all broke laughing in disbelieve. What a coincidence! We exchange contact details and will stay in touch and definitely meet in Germany.

Days in Tokyo passed so quick, but I am glad I managed to visit some of my favorite coffee spots and also discovered new ones. On the last day among other things I managed to teach Yuto a very talented young tenor who is finding his way as a freelancer in Japan, he wishes to go to Italy to study with I believe a mezzo and he really wants to leave Japan to improve his singing. I met him few years ago and whenever I go to Japan we find a time to meet and work together on the voice. Through the years like me, he has several doubts and keeps questioning himself, which is essential on this journey in this career as a singer. What I like about him is that he wants to improve and searches for better ways to develop and he reaches out to me every time I go there. Or course is difficult to help him constantly as I am not his teacher and I am not in Japan except once a year. But I try to give him lots of input so he can work further with the little advice I give him and try out new ideas on how to use his voice. Ah I almost forget, before leaving Tokyo, our countertenor colleague Daichi had a recital in a very beautiful Hall near Ginza, a 2 hour recital full of beautiful songs and it was a beautiful well planned program. I think this is the first time I listen to this type of voice for that long. There was also a guest soprano singing some duets with him, he also sang a capella. I do not listen at all often to countertenors and for that, to hear Daichi was really pleasant, he has some very nice sounds and he is a very clever singer. What he sang, he has really worked on and one could hear all the hard work involved behind the nice program, so well done and respect.

Then we headed to Nagoya, where we met several friends and had wonderful time with the people I have met since the first time I visited Japan, with lots coffee of course, food and walks, also, I had my hair cut and got again some colour on my hair, a kind of red ash. Being in Nagoya is always nice and specially because of the people I know there, this time was also special and although it was only 2 days I really enjoyed it. Nagoya is a bit underrated in the cities to visit as tourist, so if you visit Japan is worth visiting.

Last night we arrived to Osaka and Today Sunday was full. It started near Osaka Castle where a tenor friend named Kohei had his general rehearsal at a very nice Hall in Osaka of Mozart’s Requiem. I heard him for the first time and it was nice to hear him. We spoke last night while eating in a local restaurant over so much food, about technique and music. It was nice to see the rehearsal and meet several colleagues who were also taking part. After the morning rehearsal I headed immediately to Lilo Coffee Roasters where I got to be in a bling coffee cup tasting. 16 different coffees and a sheet whereby smelling, tasting, thinking I must guess and write down which coffee is the one I am trying. It was fun and tough, as many of the flavours are very similar and I believe 16 coffees is incredibly difficult to guess. At the end of the tasting, the barista told us that people who work there, guess maximum of 8 coffees. I got only 3, and 2 more I got almost right. We are around 10 people at the place and only one guessed 5 correct answers. The rest 3, 2, 1, and there was also one with no right answers. This amazing experience I did together with Erichan, a friend of us and she loves coffee too, and loves Lilo Coffee so I invited her to take part of it, later we went to Umeda in Osaka and spent with Aki and nice evening walking, window shopping and mostly talking. It is always really nice for me to get in touch with Japanese people. Erichan tries really hard to speak English with me and I really appreciate that.

Now I am exhausted and will sleep. Since I arrived to Japan there has not been a free day. I hope you are well, please take care and see you next week.