Belle Vie

Today was marvelous. Marvelous! It had the potential for disaster but Luck was on our side, bless Her generosity, and everything turned out well! Nay, fantastically!



This hotel, the Belle Vie, was on the very outskirts of Saitama. I wasn't sure what to expect - I've become so accustomed to Tokyo glamour that I thought I'd be disappointed by plain old Goda, Saitama... but I was pleasantly surprised to pull up to this:





A hotel that dealt mainly with wedding ceremonies and parties, it even had a cute little chapel on the side in front of which Keren and I took a picture (although it has since been deemed too unflattering to bare to the Interwebs).



The banquet room today:



The setup was a breeze and we all felt a little hopeful. THEN a major blow: our soundcheck started and with it, the migraines. The acoustics of the room were horrible. We all mentally shook our fists at the room's designer as our mics continued to howl and our voices got sucked into the void, whilst Dad ran back and forth between the mixer and the front of the stage.

The Rotary Club guests started to arrive and so our soundcheck was cut short. We dragged our feet to our dressing room, and were mollified at once by our Wonderful WONDERFUL bentos!!



Fresh, melt-in-your-mouth sashimi complete with my very favourite: raw scallops, karage deepfried in what could only have been peanut oil that melted like little Christmas Miracles in my mouth... I'd go on to describe every single piece but that would just be tedious, so suffice to say that they were a HUGE step back up from the sad grinch sandwiches from yesterday.



Phil approves.

(The coffee was also great, to me and Dad's unending relief)



Dad, looking relieved.

Time to get on stage came a little too quickly and we literally ran up to get there on time. Thankfully, the sound problem fixed itself as the human bodies soaked up the echo, and we were able to forget our worry for the main part and concentrate on performing.

The performance itself was a little unusual: first a half-hour set at the beginning, our "Showcase Stage" so to speak, and then a second hour-long set after a short break whilst everyone ate. Mostly Oldies, a few originals, all in all a real feel-good set list. For our final encore, we were actually asked to play Rawhide... again. That prompted a wild and impromptu demonstration from our dear Philip, on how to ride your chair like a proper cowboy. The crowd ate it all up.

Our CDS were pushed out by an endearingly pushy Party Monster, who insisted that every single member buy a CD or 3 as they walked out, and the evening drew to a close after much hand pumping and bowing. We were slightly rushed to pack up, but we still found time to have a little photo shoot in the waiting room.







Also on the wall was a completely unexpected photo of what could only be described as the Japanese version of Paris Hilton:





The evening wrapped up with a little niji-kai in a nearby family restaurant, where we ate and drank and had intense conversations with the Rotary kaicho and his wife about religion, death, and how awesome our harmonies on Rawhide were. There were two very cute and very interested young men sitting nearby, who kept me and Keren aflutter and a-giggling.

Now I'm sitting on the couch, listening to Grandma and Mom's Cantonese conversation, Keren and Melinda's English randomness, and Dad's tired silence. The Christmas tree's ablaze with colour and the heater's on full blast - it's cold enough to freeze the dew on the roof of our car outside - and the kerosene-y smell should be gross but is just nostalgic.

It's good to be home.