Hitoshi Sakimoto!

What a bonanza of a day!

So today I get picked up by the big cheese of Eminence, Hiroaki and lo and behold, Mr Hitoshi Sakimoto! I probably don't need to remind you who Mr Sakimoto is, but I will never the less as he is one of our main celebrity guests for our Passion concert. Mr Sakimoto was responsible for some of the greatest video game soundtracks ever written. Of particular note, Final Fantasy Tactics, released on the Sony Playstation in 1997 has in my opinion, the greatest game soundtrack. The game itself, although breaking from Final Fantasy tradition was also an extraordinary game in terms of its story, character development and game mechanics. Another mainstream (by the at I mean released in the west) work that Mr Sakimoto has worked on is Vagrant Story, released also on the Sony Playstation in 2000. Of relevance to Passion however, Mr Sakimoto was the composer of the main theme of the recently released Final Fantasy XII, of which Eminence will be performing at this years Passion.

It certainly was quite an epic day as our esteemed guests had arrived from Japan earlier that morning. By midday when I had joined the party, Hiroaki treated them to a Yum Cha lunch at the beautiful Bondi Junction Westfield. There we feasted upon a large assortment of steamed and fried dumplings, delicious sticky rice and rounded the meal with mango puddings. There Mr Sakimoto got to try his first Australian beer, a Crown Lager. Of course it was not all fun and games at the table as we were intensely discussing how certain pieces would be performed at the concert and how they would be integrated into the playlist of the concert and the proceedings of the evening.

Much to my surprise and to the dismay of my backside I learned that we would be going horse riding at Centennial Park. Here I learned that Mr Sakimoto was a very experienced and advanced rider who had won several awards in Japan for various horseback events. Turns out that Hiroaki was also quite familiar with horses having ridden many in his childhood. Fortunately the friendly folks at Moore Park stables were very helpful and off we went at our slow trot around the Park. It certainly was quite an experience for myself as I know I will be looking forward to the next time I go horse riding.

Mr Sakimoto and his mount

Following our one hour sojourn at the park, we went for a brief drive around Sydney's sights taking in the views of the harbour from Watsons Bay, a view of The Head and then Bondi Beach. I believe they were quite impressed. This short car trip gave Hiroaki quiet and uninterupted time to talk further about the concert with Mr Sakimoto. It was late afternoon now and they were pretty tired from the epic day out, not to mention having flown in that same morning. That was my cue to leave as I had an appointment to see Casino Royale and they needed their well deserved rest. Of course I learned they had a dinner appointment later that evening at Prime at Martin place, the award winning steak house and grill. Yum! I have learned something further about the dinner too, something very top secret which I will let you in on, at least a little bit of it. Hiroaki and Mr Sakimoto will be discussing and negotiating about a project to be undertaken next year. This project will highlight Eminence's real upward movement in the industry. But alas, I can not tell you what it is exactly, but you will all find out sometime next year.

What an awesome day. Tomorrow will be quite an action packed day as the Passion musicians will be in a recording studio, along with our guests, Mr Sakimoto, Ms Yamamoto and Mr Mitsuda who will arrive from Japan that morning in time for Sydney's concert. Stay tuned for a report of tomorrows events.