Music, Maestro please

There is a dinner tonight that I've been invited to attend but my hair was simply a mess as if I'd been cleaning my kitchen floor and using my head as a mop! I spent some time relaxing with Maestro who is absolutely fabulous and incomparable as a master when it comes to making me feel good about myself and making my hair look so much better than it was before. He's such fun to chat with and often has me laughing until my ribs hurt. Rolling back the years a little, I first met him at excel, which is a lovely little hairdressing salon in Shibuya 109 but he left to realize his dream of owning his very own salon. I of course followed him because of his ability and of a loyalty to him and I think quite a few others did too. I have always felt great satisfaction after sitting comfortably beneath his master craftsmanship. Every time I enter his little empire he welcomes me with genuine warmth and affection and he personally pours me a refreshing cup of hot tea and he always attends me himself rather than let his staff loose on me. He knows exactly what I like and perhaps I might also say just how I like it too. He wasn't too happy with my extensions and although they were put in straight and tight they were a little knotty! I think that's down to me pulling at them and trying my hand at re-styling my hair by myself rather than any disappointment on my colleague who put them in for me last week. He promised to be brutal, to be savage (and I do like it rough sometimes) but he would make my hair look elegant for my dinner party and I at once trusted him to work his magic upon me.
Sometimes I have seen him up in the nicho and we may wave greetings in passing but the gay bars here are usually gender specific so we wouldn't meet socially over there although we have met twice in the chestnut and squirrel here in Shibuya which is a gay cafe that literally caters for both genders. He even met us last year on my birthday evening when we all attended a music festival here and he introduced Hitomi and I to his boyfriend, Mikio, who I thought was a little on the shy side but charming nonetheless. He knows that I like to blog and has often spoken to me about what he reads here but my naughty little friend won't comment. Then he'd start telling me what he'd write about and what he'd say about something that I may have mentioned and then when I suggested that he should blog too, he will just suffer a panic attack in his funny little way and run off screaming with his arms flailing madly in the air, ha ha so adorable.

We are both fans of Kumi Koda and at the time I write this blog, 'Cherry girl', the song by and from the movie starring Koda Kumi, is the music in my head and in my sidebar. Maestro told me about her doing a surprise live performance of her new single outside Shinjuku train station on Tuesday. No one knew she would be doing it and so we all missed the treat of a free show. Kumi's sister, Minono, also sang with her as the new release is a duet and the lyrics are apparently based on the true story of Misono's break up with her man and Kumi as the older sister consoling her afterwards. That man was all Lies she says!
What's new I think because most of them are! Ha ha.
It's a powerful song and I love Kumi so much but in all honesty I love her more as a solo artiste, no offense to her sister. Misono had a small solo career a couple of years ago but like so many of us, she faded into obscurity. Check out the video that I've embedded of them singing this new one, "Its all love", further down.

In a very small 'nod of the head' and step forward for the gay community of Japan, the justice ministry now states that it will be legal for Japanese citizens to marry the same gender in countries that allow gay marriages. I live with Hitomi and we live as a couple and Maestro lives with his boyfriend as a couple and many other gay Japanese do the same. Actually many non gay Japanese share and co-habitat and live together as well which is normal and no one will think of anything improper like they might be likely do in some other countries. Some gay activists are smiling and partying at this move which is without doubt a step forward but truthfully it is such a small step and still does not do anything for us living inside Japans borders. Hitomi and I cannot travel to Spain or South Africa and marry because we are both Japanese nationals and resident of Japan. This proposal of a change to the law literally applies to only one of the partners being Japanese and the other being a national of the other country where the gay marriage is allowed! The world is not perfect yet and perhaps won't ever be and as is the normal when prioritizing new procedures, the minorities are last to be offered anything. I don't think we ask too much. Who do I hurt in asking that my own country recognizes me and allows me to marry who I love with all my heart?
I want to marry a human being, not a machine or an animal. (Such frustration)
Sadly I now feel that it's not enough especially from such a modern and forward looking nation as ours is supposed to be. I will agree with my friends that this is definitely a positive step forward but I hardly noticed such a small step. I think it was just a movement of the toes.

I feel that I have been a little distracted this week with so much work to catch up with and of course I'm missing someone special. I had a small disagreement with one of my work colleagues over a trivial thing really and that seems to be a trend for me this week with friction seemingly everywhere. But one bright star on my horizon during this stressful week has been a wonderful series of exchanges with a young European woman who is absolutely amazing. She is a blend of innocent charm, eager acceptance and a most refreshing maturity for one newly exploring the world after university. It is a great thing to make new friends but to find a new friend who is so utterly charming, so open of herself and is so trusting and so understanding is really so rare that it is like the finding of a most spectacular treasure. We both have fears when we look back and we both have hopes when we look forward. How wonderful that we see each other when we look to our side.

So here we have Maestro's masterpiece and my hair was such a mess before his artistic manipulation but look at it now. He is simply genius.
P.S. Maestro, if you read this my precious, will my sweet words earn me a discount next time?
(Ha Ha ore wa joking)

Its all Love ~ Koda Kumi & Misono
complete with bows in their hair

Tying up loose ends:
In my post, 'the last supper', I asked which Jazz from number 1 to 12 could betray Hitomi?
It was actually number four. Not only is this number the touch of death in Japanese superstition but according to the original line up of the last supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, number four who also held a silver purse in his hands was none other than Judas Iscariot, the one one destined to betray his Lord.

In my post 'Over the edge' and the Jazzy puzzle I set regarding where in the world was an image of a European style building with a red routemaster bus (as Quietman noted) parked outside.
Tigger was right. This is in Shimonoseki and the building was the old British Consulate building. Today it is an exhibition hall and a tea room. The London style bus is actually a sight-tour bus that starts its journey from the old British building. Well done to Tigger for spotting the Kanji above the shop and the Kanmonkyo Bridge in the distance.