In which UniQlo reads my mind

A pretty chilled beginning to Golden Week. On Sunday just headed into Osaka. Then there was meant to be a big outdoor party in the grounds of Osaka Castle but the police had come and told them there was to be no PA system so they couldn't have the DJs performing. Instead they had a bit of live drumming which was alright but the whole thing was a little bit hippyish. Met up with some friends and went off to Umeda to go clubbing, and on the way back to the station, passed a choir of about 100 students singing Amazing Grace. Very cool.



We went to a really cool little club called Karma, and just as yet another sign of how spot on Japan is with the music, completely by chance, Masanori Morita, one half of Studio Apartment was spinning the deepest house. Drank shochu and enjoyed the serious tunes.

Headed back around lunchtime the next day and did a little spring cleaning, then had a day of work today. Anyway, tonight, on the way to return my movies to the rental shop, I stopped at Uni Qlo to look for a belt. (Uni Qlo has a slightly worse image here than in the UK, think more Primark than H+M, but we all need plain stuff right?) Anyway, Uni Qlo has launched a fresh line of tees called UT, designed to compete with the more expensive designer tee lines, the idea being theres a whole bunch of limited edition rotating designs at low prices. Sounds good and I wanted to check it out, but it was better than I could have imagined. UniQlo×ECM collabo Jazz LP sleeves on tees? Classic albums from Keith Jarret, Chick Corea, Charlie Haden, Pat Metheney, and others? For about 7 quid, and a special deal that if you buy 4 it's about 24 quid? OH YES.



I'm sorry that I cussed you in the past, Uni Qlo. I take it all back. I don't know if the UT line has launched in the UK yet (the website doesn't have it yet), but if it has, or when it does it is definately worth checking, some of the designs are amazing and worth far more than what they're asking. And at that prics it's much easier to build a collection than something like Beams T.

Incidentally, on the subject of classic albums, at the video store, one of the movies I rented (I'm watching loads of Japanese movies now to help with listening, each week now I get a serious, darker movie, a comedy and a love story) which is the equivalent of Love Actually, emotional heartstring-tugging story set in Tokyo aroud Christmas, starts with the main character getting Bill Evans "Waltz For Debby" out of a shelf of records and playing 'My Foolish Heart' (also the name of a bar in the film.) Can a day not go by without some awesome music hitting me in mutiple ways?