Japan on our mind – Sunday music

Kovács and Kováts have finished work at the European Council Saturday morning at 4:30 am (meeting was over after 1 am, then came the press conferences and then writing our report to send back home).

One big lesson we learned in the diplomatic world is that the life of diplomats is made up of mostly unglamorous reporting and reading of reports by others (alas, not all reports are as exciting as the wikileaks-wires...)

After a few hours of sleep, we have been watching with shock the events unfolding in Japan. Sundays we always post political music on this post, but today we make an exception and post two songs on Japan.

The first is a touching prayer in song by Japanese-American singer Madi Sato for her family in Sendai:

The second is of a rather different kind. We have been thrilled to find out that Alphaville is on tour, with an appearance in Hungary on June 10 as well! (Even though we will surely not make it there because of the Presidency..)

Here is their now-classic debut single “Big in Japan”:

(FYI: the title phrase was used to describe Western celebrities failed in the Western world, but more successful in Japan. It is interesting to browse the list of such bands on Wikipedia, along with the “Small in Japan”, whose list notably includes Britney Spears and Akira Kurosawa.)