Amongst our outings, me and my darlings Ryoko & Ichiro, found ourselves at Bird Live House [map] here in Okayama for our friend Mitsuko’s and friends holiday Christmas singing performance in Dec. 2022.
As such, what follows are a few snaps taken with an Olympus stylus camera, a ruggedized unit Ryoko had for years on her trips to Indonesia, Russia etc., (although now that I think about it, I’ve never seen photos from those trips), and of course Ichiro enjoy it as much as I do that’s for sure – with minimal annotations follow:
In this case, it was a matinee show, and by the time we showed up, all the seats were filled but we nestled into a back corner (preferred area anyhow) and I always chuckle because I’m the only foreigner (usually anyhow), and Ichi-Stan the only kid.
This venue is very special to us as it’s a community run more-or-less jazz bar, signatures all over the wooden walls, vibes like a battered old ship (somehow I think about Shackleton’s Endurance whenever I’m in there) which also serves frequently as rehearsal space for Ryoko’s band Mae Maes (with many of their spontaneous videos shot there) and was homebase for the “welcome party” for all our foreign guests leading up to our epic 3-day wedding festival #DR0420
Of course, Ryoko brought flowers and I’m sure we brought some other gifts to congratulate our sweet friend Mitsuko on her performance. She was backed by – of course – more of the folks in Ryoko’s music circle (she’s part of many circles let’s just say that for now) including Kazuko-san on piano and Yano-sensei playing a few different instruments (no doubt).
Afterwards, we could say hello to several friends we hadn’t seen for a while (this was holiday season 2022 so folks were just starting to be a bit more social after the public health conundrum various ebbs and flows and waves and undertows).
Yup, we love snapping goodtimes
