OSAKA -- Clad in a bright pink kimono and blue obi with matching color accessories in her neatly tied blonde hair, English-language "rakugo" comic storyteller Diane Orrett appeared on stage recently in front of a mostly Japanese audience in central Osaka.

Sitting on a cushion on a tatami mat behind a small low table at the center of the stage, in the traditional style of rakugo performers, she began greeting the audience of more than 400 in fluent Japanese.

"Good evening, everyone. . . . It's a full house, isn't it? . . . I'm so happy," the native of Liverpool said in a soft Kansai-region dialect.