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Tune into ABC on Thursday, April 2nd to see Rachael performing her song ‘Elephants’ on One Life to Live.

‘Elephants’ will also be used in the ABC daytime promos leading up the April 2nd air date of the episode.

Thursday, 4/2 at 2PM on ABC.

Main OLTL page with promo: http://abc.go.com/daytime/onelifetolive/index?pn=index

Rachael Yamagata announcement http://abc.go.com/daytime/onelifetolive/index?pn=rachaelyamgata

(1.) Check out Rachael on Nyhetsmorgon in Sweden!

Elephants Live: http://www.tv4.se/1.283438?videoId=1.881985

Interview: http://www.tv4.se/1.283438?videoId=1.881975&renderingdepartment=2.4034

(2.) Check out Rachael performing "Faster" on WGN-TV (Chicago, IL) right below!

http://www.wgntv.com/landing/?Live-Music-from-Rachael-Yamagata=1&blockID...

The RACHAEL YAMAGATA Loft Session will air next week on the following days and following times:

Monday 3/23: 12noon
Wednesday 3/25: 2:00pm
Friday 3/27: 3:00am
Saturday 3/28: 12:00noon
Monday 3/30: 1:00am
Monday 4/06: 2:00am
(all times eastern)

Following it's initial airing week, each song will be broken out and put into regular "Loft Session Song" rotation.

Check out the photo section for new photos from Rachael on her tour of Japan!

Feb 20th

Home now. Back in my apartment. Did we really go? Two days of Tokyo, a midnight movie session, two walks through Harujuku, and a Hilary Clinton sighting (she stayed at our hotel – p.s. sorry to the 70 secret service members that band announced her location from stage.. we hope we didn’t stir up any trouble). Tack on another brutal flight and more jet lag and it’s here and now.

Thank you to all of our new and returning fans we met in Japan! You made it the best adventure!

And now, the wash is going and it’s time to repack. Taking out the Japanese tapes to replace with French guides and German dictionaries.

Here we go.

Xoxoxoo
r

Feb 16th

Up at 4 again, back asleep and up at 6am finally. Back to gym with new determination to run off a full cheesecake slice and I do (thank you Rocky soundtrack) and even get beyond to some other dessert as well as giant noodle dish.. I’m unpolitely a sweaty mess and feeling great till I realize noodles have more calories than the burger I passed at step 5,089 and vow again to not eat anything with salt or carbohydrate. More tea, shower and cigs and that brings me to now as I write this. On balcony in terry cloth in the early morn. We play Tokyo tonight and tomorrow and then were back home. After that it’s Europe, U.S. tour, Singapore and Korea. But first… breakfast.

Feb 15th
I hit the gym today and discover another ‘smart’ thing bout Japan.. They give you little pictures of foods you are running off as time goes by on the treadmill. I vow never to eat or drink again since I’m literally dying up here and I’ve only run off a banana. Chaves and Dan are here as well so we run side by side for a bit and I end at working off half a piece of cheesecake. Shist. Another glorious shower and I discover terry cloth bathrobes and slippers in the closet and drink tea and sit on the balcony wondering how it is that I’m in Tokyo. I decide all I need to feel good is again, good water pressure and terry cloth. Miss breakfast and order room service ($70 for a baby feast) and settle in to watch ‘The Bucket List’. The movie unexpectedly slays me and I’m all tears before rushing down to lobby for our next call. More autographs (LOVING JAPAN) and we’re off on an hour drive to Yokohama. The venue is on a port and we’re essentially on the water and in a giant flea market complex. Normally, I would’ve shopped to my hearts content, but jet lag….nap time.. missed it. No long sleeps before the second show tonight though. Swank lounge and stew dinner and I’m loving the grand piano.. how I will go back to a keyboard I don’t know. Great crowd again and filled rooms and lovely staff. Our gear gets packed up and we’re back in a cab with the manager and staff walking us out and waving to us as we go. Never in my life has that ever happened in the states.. It’s bizarre. One more drink at the hotel bar with more and still more pictures. I hate myself for taking a few bites of apptizers, but I’m hunnngrrry and tired and my body is all out of whack.

Feb 14th

Up at 4am. Still worrying about lame life issues that I thought I’d left behind. Force myself to go back to sleep until we hop the train to Tokyo.. The super train whatchamacallit that goes so fast it’s overwhelming. More bento boxes and jokes and pictures and several rounds of gin (rummy that is), a few visits to the smoking car and the great Mt. Fugi sighting and we’re there. We don’t have any equipment or luggage because it won’t fit on the train, so it’s been taken via truck overnight and meets us at our hotel.. If only we could tour like this in the states. Check in and fall asleep. It’s 2pm here and god knows what time in the states, but jet lag – you win again. Phone call from Chaves at 5:15pm and I’ve almost missed our next cab to the Death Cab for Cutie concert. Hurry down and we pile in and head out of Tokyo for a good 45 min, crossing bridges and getting great night views of ferris wheels and city skylines. Arrive at huge venue, chaos inside, but grab our passes and meet the band for a bit before they go on. (I’m giddy bout it by the way). Killer live show, more pictures. They astound me live and I take mental notes of everything and as they finish we rush out to avoid the stampede and make our way to the train station. Thank god for Oli who rides ‘the tube’ and has no fear of talking with anyone. He gets directions as best as possible and after several attempts to navigate the ticket machines in Japanese we find one in English and hope for the best. Pile into the brown line and get off at the palace which we think is near our hotel. Figure we’ll grab a cab and head to a nearby town, but alas we are dropped in the middle of nowhere and there are no cabs. Walk for about a half hour and run into a policeman complete with drawn billy club. He points and we head and finally hail to cabs and arrive somewhere wherever it was. City lights everywhere, lots of activity, definitely a night hang place and we pass gals in schoolgirl outfits, more girly shows, businessmen, even giant fish on display in streetside tanks. Spot a ‘Wolfgang Puck’ and head for dinner. It unfortunately sucks, but we don’t care too much and I fall asleep at the table. Just as my head starts to bob I wake to find everyone looking at me and laughing. Damn you thrice jet lag. More cabs. More bed.

Feb 13th

Up early and venture out to find coffee. Of course, a Starbucks is right next store and I run into Chaves and new amigo Jason and he fills us in on sights to see and we make plans to see their show in Tokyo the next night. Two soy lattes later we grab Kevin and Dan and head off into the city. ‘Tokyo Hands’ is our destination and we cross a few parks to get there, pictures all the way. The shopping centers are all piled on top of eachother, floors and floors of them. We get to the top and Chaves scores a black scarf while I pick up 4 white boas (just cuz) and $120 later we exit.. Note to self to learn the exchange rate soon. Later on, more cabs as we head off to the venue. Nice cabs. Leather interior with lace coverings. Amazing garage circular floor thing so you don’t have to back out, you can just turn the car on this rotating circle and it’s another thing added to our list of smart things in Japan. The club is like a supper club complete with 9 foot grand piano and we set up and play and play and play. No rehearsals beforehand so we try to get everything down and it goes well. Kevin Devine is with us on this round and he is joining us on guitar and playing the opening set and well… he’s awesome. Michael Chaves on guitar, Dan Carlisle on bass, Oli Kraus on cello and Chris Giraldi on drums. I love this band. We break for more chicken wings and plug in our white Xmas lights (which make all the staff laugh actually…at every show we’ve done so far..) and head back to the dressing room before the first show.

Amazing audience, although I’m think we blew their eardrums with ‘Letter Read’ as our first song. Not sure if I’ve been billed as jazz, but we keep at it and by the end of the set it’s all cheers and hoopla and I thank all that someone still knows us after 4 years gone. With one show under our belt we head back to the dressing room to get ready for the next one. We eat dinner, smoke and then we’re out. Jet lag is killing us. Almost all of us spread out on the couch and chairs and fall into a dead sleep until Jeffrey, our big bear love of a tour manager, wakes us. I’m so tired I’m convinced there is no way I can manage another show. Nope, can’t do it, forget it, can’t, sorry. But we do and it’s a success and we sign and take pictures and dance to the ‘Rocky’ theme and head out.

Back at the hotel we wander the streets for a local hang and get propositioned relentlessly for girlie shows of some sort by folks lining the alleys. We are staying in the red light district it seems. All is foiled once they see me with the crew of guys, although some try to convince them that ‘I’m not enough for them’ and don’t the men want to come in etc. I worry that I’m throwing off the band’s ‘game’, but they aren’t into it either so we finally settle in the tiniest of bars for a drink and throw some darts and take more pictures of batman figurines and anything that says ‘suntory’. Jet lag comes calling again rivaled by hunger and we get a bartender to draw us a map to Denny’s only to decide on a convenience store in the rain as we wander back. More pictures of the 7 eleven style food and patrons (we are soooo tourists) and we call it a night with our bento boxes full of soy bean and pickles and whatever else was in there.