Whitney in Osaka, Japan

Never before in the history of man have Japan's borders been breeched by a foreign force, until now. Armed with soul, rhythm and lots of love, Whitney Houston and crew arrived and conquered the entire nation in one week of concerts that will be remembered forever.

The curtain rose on the first show at Osaka's Jo Hall to a sold-out, standing-room-only house on Monday May 5th. While the band started into the customized opening piece "Nippy Nine-Seven," the crowd, in typical Japanese fashion, sat in polite and subdued applause. That didn't last long.

As the band segued into "I'm Every Women," Whitney's voice filled the hall as she rose gloriously and suddenly appeared at the very top of the stage. Instantly, the crowd was on its feet dancing, clapping and singing along - certainly not acting very Japanese but then Whitney has that effect on people.

Whitney ripped through the first three numbers non-stop with "So Emotional" and "Dance With Somebody" following the opener. At this point, the building could have lost all power and the lights would have stayed on there was so much energy flowing through the house. In Whitney's own words, "There's going to be a lot of love coming from this stage. I want you to mix it with your love and throw it back to us. Can you do that Osaka?" Yes they could.

Whitney and company, nine strong band members, four dancers and four back-up singers led by music director Rickey Minor, then continued the celebration with "All At Once," "Savin' All My Love," "The Greatest Love Of All." During "Savin' All My Love," Whitney strolled off stage right to give husband Bobby Brown a kiss. She then opened "The Greatest Love Of All" with this message to the audience, "Don't believe everything you read in the press."

These were followed by "Queen Of The Night," "My Name Is Not Susan" and the song she dedicated to Bobby, "All The Man I Need." Whitney then asked the audience if they would mind if Bobby sang them a song. To the cries of "Bobby" from the crowd, Whitney exited the way she arrived and Bobby jumped into the Elton John classic, "A Song For You."

Whitney took the stage back with "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" and proceeded to teach the audience how to Shoop! I believe it was the section behind stage right that won the competition, but suffice it to say that there are 160,000 Japanese that could now be back-up singers for Whitney on this song now.

Proclaiming her love for the Lord, Whitney eased into "I Love The Lord" and "I Go To The Rock." These were followed by the closer "I Will Always Love You." Of course there was no escaping this easily as the jumping, cheering and applauding audience brought Whitney and the band back for encores of "Step By Step" and the revised version of "I'm Every Woman."

So does that sound like a good, no GREAT show? As the old saying goes, "You ain't heard nothing yet!"

Opening night at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday May 13th had so many highlights that it is hard to know where to begin, but with a sold out crowd of 41,000 you could guess that The Egg would be jumping.

The set list was basically the same as Osaka, but the first change came when Bobby suddenly came on stage to dance with Whitney during "Dance With Somebody." Then two thirds of the way through the night and after she finished singing "Exhale," Whitney told the crowd, "My shoop partner is here tonight." With that, CeCe Winans walked on stage and the two hugged each other with tears of joy. Whitney and CeCe then broke into "Count On Me" and performed a duet that words cannot begin to describe. It was heavenly.

At the finish of the song CeCe edged towards the side of the stage only to be halted by Whitney calling out to the audience, " I would love to hear CeCe sing one more song. How about you too Tokyo?" The house went crazy with applause. Whitney then stepped off stage and let CeCe take over with a song written by her brother Marvin, "In Return." Whitney joined CeCe for yet another powerful duet to close "In Return" and they embraced one last time before CeCe exited.

With the mood properly set, Whitney closed out the show with "I Love The Lord," "I Go To The Rock" and just when you could not imagine a show getting any better Whitney eased into "I Will Always Love You" to the enthusiastic appreciation of the crowd. With every note of the song Whitney took us to greater heights. Even Whitney's crew and staff stood in awe of her performance and the power and pure beauty of her voice during this song. Whitney ended with, "Tokyo, I Will Always Love You."

And Whitney, Japan will always love you.