Japanory

Won’t Get Fooled Again

Wednesday 19^th November 2008

I have the opportunity to see a legendary band who happen to be one of my all time favourites. I'm so excited!

The Who are playing at the Budokan tonight, the second of two concerts here. Tickets for the first one were sold out within minutes, but we managed to get into this one.

And I really hope that Roger Daltrey's voice is up to repeating the famous scream in my favourite of their tracks – the title of this post.

They were completely brilliant! What an incredible performance AND they played all my favourites. Zak Starkey on the drums was extremely proficient.

I was buzzing for hours afterwards.

Daltrey's voice was very croaky when he spoke after their concert last night, but was completely fine when singing. But I really didn't think that he'd be able to pull off that scream. So I was very surprised when the genius Pete Townshend played the opening chords to "Won't Get Fooled Again". During the lead up to "that moment", Daltrey stayed at the back of the stage sipping a drink while the audience held its collective breath.

Was this going to be a poor imitation of the famous voice? Was it going to ruin a lot of dreams?

Oh no it did not! He did it. It was FABULOUS!

A goosebump moment that will live with me forever.

By Royal Command

Monday 27^th October 2008

We've been invited to a reception at the British Embassy.

Actually, we have been informed we must attend.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are coming for a visit. There is a huge amount of excitement amongst the Japanese members of staff. They adore royalty and cannot believe they may actually meet them. The Emperor and Empress of Japan never, ever meet their people but just wave a couple of times a year from behind glass.

We are drilled on how to greet them – to Charles, "Your Royal Highness" first and then "Sir" thereafter, and to Camilla "Your Royal Highness", then "Ma'am". We can curtsey or bow if we wish...

We arrive on time, to a mass of extremely enthusiastic people – many of whom, in a different environment would probably claim to be republican, but are clearly not. We're given a quick briefing and a limited amount of alcohol. Well, it wouldn't do to be pissed when they arrive, would it?! And then we wait. And wait. Their plane is late arriving.

Suddenly there's a buzz and we are all herded into a large room and curtained off from the reception hallway. There are about 200 of us in all. And we wait some more.

And then the curtains are opened and the Ambassador ushers Charles and Camilla in. Charles takes one side of the semi-circle of people while Camilla starts at the other end. All the Japanese people bowed extremely low and long, and some of the ladies tried a curtsey. I was most impressed by our Ambassador – he knew everyone's names, not just his staff, but their spouse's too. We were all introduced individually.

Tim had a long chat with HRH about his (Tim's) work and then Charles turned to me. I completely forgot the official greeting and, to the rolled eyes of the Ambassador, said a cheery "Hi!" to The Prince of Wales and shook his proffered hand. His handshake is firm and confident. He asked what I did, and I replied "I look after him" nodding at Tim. He laughed and said I had a very important job, that he liked my hair and then spent a good few minutes talking to me in a very natural, pertinent and self-possessed manner. I liked him immensely.

Camilla was wearing a powder-blue outfit which suited her very well. She's far more attractive in real life than in photographs, but she was obviously exhausted and basically rolled out the same phrase to everyone she met.

Unfortunately, the official photographer didn't turn up for some reason, so there is only a snapshot of the occasion.