Blog - Revue: 2015 weeks #47-51 (November 14 to December 18)

Revue: 2015 weeks #47-51 (November 14 to December 18)

Time just flew away this past month, and so did I on a very nice trip to Taiwan!

Travel: At the end of November we went for a very nice one week trip to Taiwan! We visited Taichung, Tainan and Taipei, and also did a quick day trip to Houtong Cat Village! I was happy to catch up with my P5ML friend William! We had so much delicious food! Check out trip photos on Flickr.

Music events: - I briefly dropped by an in-store event at HMV Record Shop in Shibuya where Comoesta Yaegashi and Groove Unchant DJ'd to promote Comoestas' new 7" single "Twist & Dodonpa".

- This year again I went to see Nomiya Maki's fantastic Shibuya-kei revue show at Billboard Live Tokyo! Aside from all the great songs as heard on her latest album, Henmi Mari's "Daniel, mon amour" was a great surprise, as well as the trio of French covers including "Contact" (as previously covered by Pizzicato Five) and a moving "Ex fan des sixties". Not to mention the amazing P5 medley encore...!

Set list: Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji (The night is still young) (Pizzicato Five) / What the World Needs Now Is Love (Jackie DeShannon) / ongaku no yō na kaze (EPO) / Friends Again (Flipper's Guitar) / Daniel, mon amour (Henmi Mari) / Le cœur qui jazz (France Gall) / Contact (Brigitte Bardot) / Ex fan des sixties (Jane Birkin) / Paris no koibito/Tokyo no koibito (Mizuki Arisa / Chūō freeway (Arai Yumi (Yuming)) / sekai wa ai o motometeru (What The World Needs Now Is Love) (Japanese lyrics by Konishi Yasuharu)
Encore: Pizzicato Five medley - Tout tout pour ma chérie / London Paris / Mon amour Tokyo / Strawberry Sleighride / 24 décembre / Sweet Soul Revue

- I also got to catch an in-store event with Nomiya Maki and Vanilla Beans, at the new HMV & Books in Shibuya, where they sang together "Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji". The place was super crowded!

- Back from Taiwan, I hurried to buy Vanilla Beans' new single, and I made it to an in-store at Tower Records Shibuya's Stage One. The show was short and sweet, starting with my favorite "Nicola", and including all three songs from the new single, plus "uchōten Girl".

- I went to see U-zhaan and Yoshida Daikiti, playing tabla and sitar, at Moon Romantic (Gaienmae) in an event presented by Salam Unagami. There was an impressive and mesmerizing 1-hour non-stop performance by the two musicians, and a talk show with Salam and the sitarist who taught some patterns in Indian music singing "Pa Ma Ga Re Sa".

- I also went to Chiroline ver.3's Christmas party event at Akasaka Graffiti, also featuring CTO LAB. and singer-songwriter Shizukuda Umi, and a mini-live by Genius (with a nice Japanese cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You").

Chiroline ver.3 set list: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (feat. CTO LAB.) / Cowgirl At High Noon / Napolitan no uta / Brand-New Morning / Chocolate sensō / (Chiroline no) hoshi ni negai o / sonna Banana / Sha-la-la Snowed In

CTO LAB. set list: mirai no kioku / 2001: A Space Odyssey / Winter Wonderland / The Elements / Space Arcadian / Go! Spiral! Go! / omocha no Cha Cha Cha / ii Papa ii Mama warui Papa Polka / Crash Bandicoot

Exhibitions: - MIM (Ryokudōkai) solo exhibition at Fūraidō. All three members of Ryokudōkai are doing a weekly exhibition there, and the last is ESOW from December 20 to 26.