[English only] FINALLY!
Okay, I know I tried your patience, buy I’m finally telling you what I’ve been up to!Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007I told you about Pika-chan, my opera singer friend (blogger friend o’ mine), right? According to an opera buff buddy of mine (another bloggie), her voice is a NATIONAL TREASURE. I’ve been to her concert once and I could understand that is true. I went to her concert that day and I knew it for a fact! Look, this is one of the biggest and most prestigious classic concert halls in Japan. That means whoever makes it to this stage MUST BE talented --- can you imagine what it takes to play a leading role on this stage? She played a role of princess (one of the main characters, babe!)Anyway, she had her concert planned since last year and I knew who’s coming, so I planned a luncheon before the concert. [1] A-chan (the opera maniac from Niigata), [2] Ohacchi (from Hawaii), [3] Caie-san [4] and her hubby (from Nagoya), [5] Pome-san (form Yokohama), [6] Raku-chan (from Saitama), [7] Yumi-chan [8] and her little girl, Kira-chan, and [9] KIK (that’s me) gathered at Wolfgang Puck Café close to the concert hall. Okay, check this out! We bloggers exchange gifts whenever we see one another and Caie-san brought this from Nagoya (350 miles away from Tokyo). Animal? Food? Mineral? What a heck!? They are edible and they are good! You might have seen ‘fu’ or ‘ofu’ (dried/baked wheat gluten) floating in miso-soup but this is the biggest one I’ve seen!!! Compare to the size of Ohacchi’s head! Anyway, we ate good ol’ onion rings, salmon pizza, and chinois chicken salad, and talked nonstop unitl we noticed Pika-chan standing right next to our table! All of us screamed, wished her luck, and all the while, Kira-chan (the little girl) kept hugging Pika-chan (sh’s a huge kids magnet) and it was just SO CUTE! I can’t openly post her picture but she’s one of the cutest little girl I’ve EVER seen (aside from my favorite baby girl P) and I seriously believe all the magazine editors will be down on their knees and BEG HER to smile on the covers of their magazines if she so chooses. Pika-chan couldn’t stay long because she sneaked out of the rehearsal, so we wished her luck, and she went on her way to be a princess on the stage. Yumi-chan and Kira-chan had to go some other place (since no opera concert would accept a toddler), so we said goodbyes and headed to the concert hall. Now, we are party of 7, but Moca-chan (you guessed it, a bloggie) and her hubby flew from Fukuoka (90 minutes by flight) to see Pika-chan on the stage, and all 9 of us went into the concert hall. I’m no opera buff or not even close to classical music lover but when you hear Pika-chan’s voice, you’ll KNOW the difference. She’s only 4’10” tall but she sure looks larger than life! I came really close to screaming P to the I to the K to the A! Go girlie! Go girlie! GO!!!! BUT decided against it since I paid almost 100 bucks to be here and don’t wanna be kicked out before the show is over. Wait... DID I PAY 100 bucks!?!?Pika-chan put me in charge of collecting all the money for the tickets, and I gave her 500 bucks, worth 5 tickets. I received 6 tickets...I made a checklist and made darn sure everybody paid...everybody, but me...DAMN YOU KIK! Who the heck are you to bum a concert ticket!?!?My heart started to beat faster but I can’t run to the stage waving money like a complete idiot! Relax, I can apologize later..breathe...in...out...in...out. Phew, okay, now your eyes on the stage...gosh, she’s doing all the singing for free! I haven’t paid yet! No, no, KIK, breathe babe breathe! Okay, I regained my composure and finally focused on the stage. The story was the kind you see in Arabian Nights, easy to follow, but carries lots and lots of overwhelming emotions and it was a darn miracle that they only had 4 days to rehearse all this! After the concert, some headed home but 6 of us went to a restaurant to see Pika-chan where all the singers, players, organizers were having a party. All of us bloggers got a table in a different section and now, it’s finally time for my BEER! Pika-chan stopped by before I downed the first beer. We thanked her for the wonderful performance, and she thanked us for coming, and said “You know what? I didn’t get enough cas...” I cut her in mid-sentence and screamed “Yeah! Sorry! That’s me!” Case closed (duh), and we ate salad topped with prosciutto ham, fried saury marinated in vinegar, and fried shrimp salad. After 2 beers, 4 people headed home/hotel, but Ohacchi and I stayed for one more beer. Meanwhile, Pika-chan went back to her party and came back to our table one last time. Pika-chan lives in Berlin, Ohacchi lives in Hawaii, so I don’t know when they’ll see each other but it was really good to see them together since all 3 of us have blogs in the same website and we started blogging about the same time, and we ‘talked’ almost everyday for 2 years. Besides, we all drink like fish and are dubbed ‘Rakuten (the website) top 3 boozers’. I was hoping Pika-chan can stay over at my house (Ohacchi was sleeping over at my house that night) so 3 of us can finally sit at the same table and drink until we drop, but she had a flight to catch in the following morning, so we hugged one another and said goodbyes. Okay, time to head home! My hubby came to pick me and Ohacci up, so we loaded all the goodies that we received earlier (4 big bags of gifts!) and sped off to my house. Ohacci and I talked until 5 in the morning, drinking, talking, laughing all the while. We woke up at 11:00 the following morning, went to my favorite fish market and food wholesaler to get some stuff she wanted, and drove her to the nearest station. I had the BBQ party the week before, sushi party last week, and the luncheon and the concert this week, fighting stinking cold and backache at the same time. My back needed a serious rest, so I vegetated rest of the day, but I guess that was not enough of a rest, because it completely locked the following morning. I called in sick on Monday and visited my acupuncture therapist. I went back on Tuesday (before and after work), got better, then on Friday, I had a good rest over the weekend, and I’m feeling SO MUCH BETTER! Thank you for all your concerns and warm message and your patience! In return, here goes my electric hug!