Osaka, Nagoya…
Right now I am writing on Monday morning, at Kannon Coffee, which is located 2 min. walk from the airbnb where we are stying here in Nagoya. I just ordered a black coffee, I hope it tastes good. Last Monday we flew from Frankfurt to Osaka via Tokyo. It was a whole adventure... but finally made it here. Ah! wait... just tried the coffee and... it is very nice and a bit fruity but light, I am glad I came to this place.
The first night we spent it with Akiho's closest family members which are her two sisters with two kids each, plus Aki's mother. In total we were around 9 people in a tiny home but it was really cozy. They all stayed over night. I was really happy to meet the 2 sons of the youngest sister Haruchan, as they were both born during corona time and we have not been in Japan since. Also, it was really nice to see again my little friend Yukito and her sister Mesa (both from Nachan, the middle sister).
We are staying in Osaka at Akiho's mother but right now we are in Nagoya because we are rehearsing for a concert with our pianist Sakichan for our upcoming concert on the 11th August. It is a recital we will sing in Osaka but the pianist lives here (Nagoya). So far, it has been a wonderful trip, full of new experiences and also remembering how it is to be here. I am here for the third time but since Covid started we did not visit until now. It has been now almost 3 years, so we are both really happy to be here, specially I am really happy for Aki that she can finally see some family and friends. The past few days in Osaka and in Nagoya ( which is almost an hour with Shinkansen) Akiho has been teaching few hours a day, in the mean time I go and wonder around in different coffee shops and areas of the cities. Getting from point a to point b using the underground is a whole adventure. Here in Japan, the metro stations are huge and they even have entrances and exits numbered in order to not get lost, as the metro can strech over several blocks at a time. So it is really important to know which exit is the right one, otherwise, you will ad some couple of hundred steps extra to your day, in which case, if you have time and energy it is just a good thing to do for your health. In these days I have already visited several amazing specialty coffees shops and several shops which I really like here in Japan as well as some shinto shrines and temples. I could go on and write here pages and pages about last week but I am trying really hard to compress the most I can. But as an example, yesterday here in Osu, there was a cosplay international festival, plus some other festival happening in the evening with people dancing and lots of drummers playing on a stage traditional Japanese music and rythms, and also fireworks. Both festivals where packed with people, and there were almost as many cameras as well, pausing these moments to be seen later in their private time. I was lucky to be yesterday there without knowing these events would happen.
Yesterday evening we had our first rehearsal with Sakichan at the University she is proffessor at. It was very nice to visit a Japanese school, it was just as in movies and anime, I must admit it was quite exciting hehe. We went through the programm of our somehow demanding concert. We sing from baroque going through the different musical periods until musical, I even sing a mexican song called Jurame (Grever).
I hope you are well and I hope in the coming weeks I can get better describing some of my experiences here, but for now, I hope this will give you an idea of my life here during these last few days. See you next week.
