Days 5 - 7 in short:

Day 5 - lots of lounging around laundry and lunch
Day 6 - Osaka Castle
Day 7 - Lunch with Jer, getting lost in Umeda, and then Elvis

words will not flow from me in proper paragraphs right now so here are some pictures with captions. it's almost 4pm! hahah, will write more about that later... enjoy! :D

Minami Area

I can't seem to remember what we did during the day... but in the afternoon we ended up going to the Minami area. This consisted of traipsing our way through an area called America Mura and then we went across and hit the Shinsaibashi covered shopping arcade. Holy long shopping arcade Batman! This was nuts. I've never seen such a long arcade in my life. Just store after store after store in this area... it was packed with ppl and went on for blocks on end. As soon as we thought it had ended (we reached a large main street), there it was starting again on the other side!

- most of the plane ride was OK until about an hour before landing. HORRIBLE turbulence for almost an hour. Felt like I was going to puke and I finally did when we arrived at the airport. To top it all off, I had the beginnings of a sty which did NOT react happily... I think it had to do with the change in air pressure. the thing went from being big to HUGE. On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being a totally normal eye, I'd say it was a 6 or 7.... I mean, at least I could still see! I could imagine it getting so big that I couldn't even open my eye but thank God it didn't get to that point!


- getting to Lito's place from the train was a bit harder than expected... it was pouring rain and we thought it was super close, but when we asked the tourist info desk about how to get there.. they were like... umm... it's kind of far! hahaha. Oh well. We made it. Wet and tired, but we made it! Then we slept. From 6pm to 6am. Oh yes, we were TIRED.

day 2

- 4 hours of exploring the neighbourhood around Lito's apartment including: finding a place with picture menus for breakfast, admiring all the tiny cars, grocery shopping, hanging out in a wal-mart type department store, roaming back and forth through the subway underground mall, and having mcD's for lunch - (the ebi filet-o had sean intrigued and apparently it was pretty tasty!)

Here are some pics from the wedding I attended a couple of weekends ago..

Viva le long weekends! :D

This weekend got off to a wonderful start. First it was a birthday BBQ at my sisters on Friday night, then it was Rangoli's for lunch on Saturday followed by a viewing of Les Miserables for our 9th anniversary!

I've seen Les Mis once before at Queen Elizabeth theatre a few years ago and it was *amazing*. This time Sean and I got tickets from his brother as a birthday present for an Arts Club Theatre production at the Stanley Theatre. I was wary of how good the quality of such a world-renowned musical would fare under the hands of a local community theatre group, but holy wow, I feel stupid now to have doubted them! Honestly, it was not far from the Broadway production I had seen before. The calibre of the actors was top notch and I spent the second half of the show crying at all the emotional bits!

It was easy choose my favourite actor this time 'round. I've seen Jonathan Winsby, who played Enjolras, in a couple of other shows before and I think we even passed each other in the halls in the School of Music at UBC when I was just a wee 1st year student. He was the *perfect* match for Enjolras. By far he was the most passionate singer of the bunch with infectious enthusiasm and his face and stature fit the bill to a T.

I spent the first half of the show debating whether or not I liked Kieran Martin Murphy's voice or not (Jean Valjean). There were times when it was so powerful and sincere, and other times I felt as if he was rushing and the notes were far too flat - although, I have a feeling that that may have been the product of the songs being sped up... maybe they were trying to keep the length of the show down? It's a long musical and actually, I think they cut out a few snippets of songs here and there from the original. Anyhow, after Jean Valjean uttered his first line of "Bring Him Home" I was sold. I cried the first time I heard this song performed live, and this time the tears came much quicker! It was *SO GOOD*! Way to go Jean Valjean!

And of course, Javert, had to be good since he's a key role in the whole story (why are so many musicals male dominated?!) I was a bit distracted though because I kept on thinking about how much Rejean Cournoyer who played Javert looked like Anthony Bourdain. lol. Where does Vancouver keep hiding these gems of talent? Another perfect fit.

Usually I find the supporting characters much more interesting than the leading roles (Mr. and Mrs. Thernardier for instance). However, I will give kudos for the actors who played Cosette and Marius for portraying their roles (however cliche they were) with a great deal of expertise. Their voices sounded lovely together along with Eponine at the end of "A Heart Full of Love". "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was another one that gave me wet cheeks. It's such a haunting song and even more so with the Marius' dead friends lining up behind him in the shadows. Another round of kudos also to Joshua Ballard who played little Gavroche who gave a touching performance by someone who's itty bitty but has got some bite.

I guess I could say more about the rest of the cast, but I think I'll stop for now. :) If you haven't ever seen Les Miserables before and are in Vancouver, go do it now!! I think they're here until July or August and it's only about $40 a ticket. Totally worth it!

K, that's all for now.
smooches!

I think I need to re-align my eyes... :)