A Small Tribute to Diana Spencer

I got the above photo from today's issue of "The Toronto Star" this morning. It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the death of Diana, former Princess of Wales. I'm not a Royal-watcher by any means but the late Diana Spencer and Japan had a connection for me.

For one thing, the wedding between her and Prince Charles took place on July 29th 1981. For all those longtime readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", you may have figured out that I was in Japan for that month on my graduation trip. Yep, I was watching the wedding with my uncle's family in that small apartment over his stationery shop in downtown Osaka. I remember snarking in my broken Japanese about how much laundry detergent was needed to wash Diana's wedding gown with that huge train.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11467402

That was the beginning of the love affair with Diana as far as Japan was concerned. I was going through university when I read and heard about the princess' first visit to the country in 1986 during which "Diana Fever" was at high pitch. There was even an anime made based on her titled "Shojo Diana Monogatari"（少女ダイアナ物語...The Story of Little Miss Diana）.

I was almost 3 years into my second tour of duty in Japan when the news of Diana's death was released on August 31st 1997. With a 7-hour difference between Paris and Tokyo, the crash of her car in that tunnel would have occurred at around 7am on that Sunday, Japan Standard Time, with her death being announced at 11am. I barely remember seeing some sort of news on TV in the morning about the crash involving her and her boyfriend.

On that day, though, I had a lesson in the western part of Tokyo with a young lady who just happened to be the daughter of a famous entertainment journalist. I already had had a few home lessons with her, and strangely enough, both her and her mother were Takarazuka Troupe fans and also fans of the British Royal Family.

By the time I got to their house, the feeling was pretty blue inside with an air of shock as both my student and her mother told me that Diana had died from her injuries. While her husband was on the phone in his bedroom and frantically packing his bags to rush off to London to cover the tragedy, the mother, the daughter and I just ended up talking about the princess for that one hour.

Now I fully realize that the anniversary of Diana's death doesn't really have anything to do with the contents of this blog, aside from the fact that I witnessed the media coverage in Japan. However, I did feel that I wanted to commemorate the day in some fashion, and so last night, I had been thinking about what sort of song would have been reminiscent of her. Well, the truth is that I couldn't find anything new but a couple of ballads that I have already covered fit the bill.

One is Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Your Eyes" from 1982 since Princess Diana's eyes were one of the striking features about what was once the most photographed face on the planet.

The other ballad is Yutaka Ozaki's（尾崎豊）"Oh My Little Girl" from 1983 which just seemed to pop up in my head when I thought about past songs that I have covered.