For breakfast we had standing udon. It’s for real quick eating and usually at train stations so that people can move on and get to where they need to go. I’ve never eaten standing up like this haha so I guess it was an experience for me. It was so cheap yet so delicious!
We got off at Namba station and was headed to ‘Americamera’ a culture district in Osaka when I was met with second hand markets! I was in heaven except Taiga and Yuri kept saying it was pretty expensive compared to Tokyo so I didn’t get to look thoroughly. I did buy a sweater though… United Colors of Bennetton, 100% wool and made in Italy in my favourite colour for only 500 yen – so to me, I thought it was a bargain!
The lights are people!
I couldn’t resist when there was green tea soft serve.. it’s my favourite flavour and I hadn’t had it in Japan yet. I got served up a 40cm bigger than the size of my head.. and I couldn’t finish it. Didn’t taste amazing either so I was pretty sad haha. We wrote it off as a culture study and decided it was worth it anyway.
We then checked out 2nd hand music stores where we were greeted with many, many sexy guitars. Some of the vintage ones were amazing but hefty on the pocket. I cried inside.
This inlay work is amaaaaazing.
This headstock work was intense!
We all know I’m purely acoustic at the moment. I’m pretty scared to delve into the electric world as it opens up to a universe of pedals.. but if I ever do convince myself to head that way, I want a Gretsch. I want a hollowbody. And my favourite colour is green. Never seen this one before but there were 3 similar ones from the 1960s in this store and they were beautiful. Love that 60s stripe too.
This was an old Kabuki theatre but it’s closed down. I think they are going to knock it down too. I noticed a lot of great old buildings were being prepared for demolition – which is sad. But what I heard is that people here love being NUMBER 1 and MODERN.
We had the renowned dry curry for lunch. It’s when the curry is added from the beginning of when the rice is being cooked. Then a raw egg is on top so you can mix that and Worcester sauce throughout. I noticed the Osaka food gravitates around Worcester sauce a lot haha. So good though.
Taiga and I then headed to sound check at our next gig – Artyard Studio. It’s a relatively well known space due to it’s combination of art and music. Owned by Haruo Takimoto, I was also impressed by his ability in music and art – drum pad old school MPC style & film. On the rooftop was a plant house. I got shots of happiness as I saw mini cacti, large ones, succulents and tiny bonsais.
The whole building was so artistic – this was the floor for the rooftop.
Tonight we had Bambi doing live painting while the gigs were going on. Bambi was a nickname of my childhood too so we bonded straight away and shared stories of why we were called that in the first place.
Taiga-san!
We also had イエンドエンド, Re:Lilly and The Fractures play. It was such a great line up of music – each person were so different from the other but were amazing in their own ways. I was extremely touched by the emotions in all of their music.
The last band, The Fractures were so much fun! They had great music and got everyone moving. They were hilarious as well, saying that they only wanted me to see them while in Japan as they didn’t have confidence in their music – and also laughing at the fact that I was wearing real heavy winter clothes already when it’s not even that cold yet haha. I was around the corner when the live painting and gig wrapped up and when I walked around I nearly wanted to cry when I saw that… it got dedicated to me. The painting had all the artists names incorporated into the artwork, signed by ourselves – and then to see ‘Welcome to Japan, Deena’ above it just really struck a cord. It was so sweet.
All the musicians together… 😀
Bambi & Bambi
I got this drawing of me – which is absolutely adorable. All his characters are called ‘Insert Name – june’ and they take on a somewhat boob, jiggly, squishy shape. I loved that there was also a sea of dancing rabbits around me.
This lady, Nicole, gave me a handmade finger puppet of Bun. The generosity of Osaka people really moved me. I wasn’t expecting people to come and listen let alone gift things to me. Reminded me of Bun Bun though and that made me sad but these physical reincarnations of drawings and finger puppets will stay with me for a long time.
From both my gigs in Osaka I got given way too much. I also got a black cat made of wool in reference to the second album, a poetry book by one of the audience members, CD, T-shirt, food, signed polaroids of everyone, handcrafted bird, scarves and hankies etc and a handmade pin badge. I only bought one thing in Osaka being the sweater but I’m taking back all of this and more in my heart and head.
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THANK YOU OSAKA! I really hope to be back. I previously thought of never visiting Osaka as there didn’t seem like a whole lot to do and see but it’s really the people that makes this place special.
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