The day after I returned to Japan, Junko had an evening recital with her chanson class. It was much like the previous one, but Junko was positioned as the second the final three singers, who all did Edith Piaf songs, and were sort of the anchor of the whole thing.

Junko sang "Hymne à l’Amour" in Japanese–here is a Youtube with the original singer and English subtitles. When she started, I went close to the stage to get pictures and to give her a bouquet of roses at the end–she fixed her eyes on me and sang the song directly to me for most of it. Ah, romance! Backstage afterwards, she cried in relief that it was finally over–she’d been practicing for months–hugging me and telling me that she sang it for me.

That’s right, I’m da man.