Diana Krall Concert

Tonight I went to Diana Krall Concert in Beijing, it was one of the best concert I saw for a long time.



My love of Jazz starts from my brother who showed me a CD of Louis Armstrong. Since then I can't help myself loving Jazz. I love the charm of Jazz musician - their passionate, spontaneous and lively characters, and their attitude of living life as it flows. Diana has all the best qualities of Jazz musician.

It was the first time I heard Diana's live concert. Her voice is unforgettable, it is so sexy and sensational. It requires years of experience to nurture the richness in her music. That's why Jazz singer are like wine - The older, the better.

The band was excellent. The drummer, the bass and the guitar performer are top of the class. They played a few solo that are so awesome. It was a wonderful concert.

Diana Krall ended the concert with "S'Wonderful". Thanks to Diana Krall, I had a wonderful night, fueled with passion and liveliness.

"'S Wonderful"

'S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
You should care for me!
'S awful nice! 'S paradise!
'S what I love to see!

You've made my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous
Oh! 'S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
That you should care for me!

'S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
That you should care for me!
'S awful nice! 'S paradise!
'S what I love to see!

My dear, it's four-leaf clover time
From now on my heart's working overtime
Oh! 'S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
That you should care for me!

I uploaded the weird picture I took before the concert - my face is distorted like a clown, Vivian (the girl at the bottom) was falling down with a crazy laugh, only Xin looks normal in the photo.

Japan Trip

It had been over 10 years since the first time I went to Japan. At that time, I was still a teenager, doing a homestay tour at Japanese families. That was my first time to be abroad, everything was exciting. Japan gave me an impression of hospitality, simplicity and cleanness.

10 years later, I went to Tokyo, which left me a very different impression. Right after we arrived the Tokyo airport, we went straight to the hot spring at the bottom of Fuji Mountain. Though it was a very long ride, the trip was all worth. We sat under the starry night surrounded by woods. My entire body was melt into hot spring water, enjoying the rejuvenating sensation. Oh my god, it felt so awesome. The only weird thing was that everyone needed to be completely naked when we get into the spa, this was the first time to see all my male coworkers naked. I hope it will be the last time as well.

The next day we went straight up to the Fuji Mountain. Fuji Mountain was the symbol of holiness, purity and superiority in Japan. The air up to the mid level of the Mountain are extremely fresh and clean, I wish I could can the air and bring them back to Beijing. Fuji Mountain was a bit shy in the beginning, after a while she finally got out of the mist and let us see her real look. Then we went back to Tokyo. At night, I met up with Alfred, one of my best friends in LA who is teaching English in Japan. Japanese was a very confusing language, since it borrowed words from over 5 different languages. Some Japanese are very deviated from the original meeting, for example, Business Men are called as "Salary Man"; :"Live" means concert. After having some snack at the tiny shop. He showed me around the Shinjuku area (red light district in Japan). You can see lots of "pretty" boys standing at the road crossing and waiting for an earlier women to pick him up.



The next 2 days are all free time. I went to Shibuya, Roppongi Hills and 1010 to shop around. Even though I am not a shopaholic, Japan will make you feel crazy. The design of the clothes are so beautiful. Especially now RMB acts strongly against Japanese Yen. I bought clothes for both autumn and winter.

On Sunday, I went to Meiji Temple, where all the Lolita are gathered. This is the first time I saw Lolita in person. It must not be easy for them to live in such conservative country like Japan. Around the temple, there were endless street performance to see, including Hip Hop, Rock Band, Swing Dancing... etc. There were three couples getting married in the Meiji Temple. All women wore Kimono. Originally I wanted to take pictures with the couple, at last I was caught by a dozen of kinomo grandmas.





I really like the architecture in Tokyo - the Tod's Omotesando Building by Toyo Ito, the Prada Store by Herzog and de Meuron, the Y's Roppongi Hills by Ron Arad and Louis Vuitton Roppongi Hills by Jun Aoki. It was my dream tour to see all the amazing world-class architecture.



This Japan visit let me see the vibrant, fun and exciting side of Tokyo.