By EMILY MITCHELL

TEARS AND HOPE

``Please keep your spirits high,'' urged EMPRESS MICHIKO, gently touching the hands of refugees at an emergency shelter in Kobe. One woman, overcome with emotion, wept when the Empress, who is usually kept at a distance from ordinary Japanese, tenderly embraced her. Protocol yielded to compassion as the Empress accompanied Emperor Akihito on an eight-hour visit to the stricken city, stopping at a site where many had died to place a bouquet of daffodils from the gardens of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Their tour of the disaster area was delayed two weeks, so as not to interfere with rescue operations. Though Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama got a cool reception when he was in Kobe 48 hours after the temblor, seeing their Emperor and Empress was a symbol of hope for most quake survivors.

VULGAR ON THE VOLGA

Presidential elections are set for 1996, and Russia's VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY is already campaigning. During stops on a 20-day cruise along the Volga last August, he spoke to crowds, cannily tailoring his words for each region and ethnic group. But to Canadian free-lance journalist Jennifer Gould, 27, who interviewed him on the cruise, he was rambling and revealing. Their conversations appear in Playboy magazine's March edition. Topics ranged from Russia (``We need democracy. But some violence is required.'') to Clinton (``one of the founders of the decline of America'') and Arafat (``I don't like his clothes''). Zhirinovsky talked of his past sexual experiences with women and of his present voyeurism. He was angry when Gould and her young female translator refused to undress for him and his bodyguards. ``I wanted to break through his facade,'' says Gould. ``I got more than I anticipated.''

THE LADY TAKES CONTROL

As the space shuttle Discovery and its crew of six climbed into orbit, the dreams and aspirations of women also soared, in the person of Lieut. Colonel EILEEN COLLINS, 38. Collins is second in command and the first female to take over the controls of a NASA spaceship. She is carrying mementos of women aviators of the past, including a scarf that belonged to Amelia Earhart. Collins started taking flying lessons when she was 19 and in 1990 became the U.S. Air Force's second woman test pilot. She is not dwelling on the historic aspect of this flight: ``Maybe someday when I'm old I'll think about it,'' she says.

SINGH SWING

VIJAY SINGH, 31, is a self-taught golfer who learned his lessons well. Of Indian ancestry, he grew up in Fiji and is a rising star on the U.S. and European professional circuits. Last week the lanky man with the homegrown swing won Arizona's Phoenix Open--and $234,000--on the first hole of a two-man playoff. Said Singh afterward: ``You can be a little more aggressive when you know you can't finish worse than second.''