5/10/2008

As I quietly sit this morning in a small, soft tatami room, listening to a famous brazilian opera singer (my I-tunes) and gently smelling jasmine from the open window, I wonder how to convey some sense of my rich and varied experiences in japan. literary attempts will fail for sure and so I’ve delayed this doomed task until now… because now I am overwhelmed with the need to share some glimmer with you who are not here with me. Pardon my inadequacy.

It has been 5 full weeks since I arrived in Tokyo. Somehow the 14 hr. flight seemed much shorter and actually enjoyable—despite the fact that I nearly missed my connecting flight in Detroit and my luggage arrived 3 days after I did. My friend welcomed me to her grandfather’s house near shibuya. It is an old traditional style, wood/tatmi/shoji house with a beautiful garden of fruit trees, greens, and blushing cherry blossoms. He 94-year old sprite of a grandfather is a delight! He was a geologist destined from birth because his name literally mean ‘stone + man’. He is an elegant, sharp, healthy man who traveled the world surveying rocks and recorded the drawings in several bound volumes. After dinner he would introduce the books and flip through pages landing on some interesting place then recounting interesting facts---in English!—to the utter surprise of my friend. (The man’s peripheral vision is keen. Late at night when I return home from class and eat a snack in the kitchen, he shuffles down the hall to the toilet….i freeze because I don't want him to see me see him denture-less and in his pajamas…but the next day he asks about my meal.) at this house, I also meet my friend’s mother and younger brother, change shoji screens, eat simple home style foods, and marvel at the collections of masks, dolls, and various fascinating objects.

During the first 2 weeks in Tokyo, I saw performances by yoshito ohno, natsu nakajima, min tanaka, saburo teshigawara (latest dance project using 10-15 year old dancers). I saw cherry blossoms in ueno area (edo era area), attended butoh classes, temples in kamakura, and read during rainy days. A disappointment was that my kamigatamai teacher seriously broke her leg just before I arrived and is bound to the hospital during these 2 months of my visit. Although we communicate via email and plan to meet next time, I am sorry to miss the opportunity as I was very excited for this new encounter.

…on to Sapporo in the northern island of Hokkaido. In Sapporo I meet with goo say ten for a 2-week workshop in butoh dance therapy. There are 3 foreign students including a dancer who now cannot use her legs and various Japanese students, in an intimate tatami studio approx. 15’x20’. We meet 5-6 hours each day and have a small performance of solos at the end of the workshop. The rhythms and spatial experience in Sapporo are completely different from Tokyo. In Sapporo you can encounter the sky (full moon!) and mountains. The feel is a bit like a college-town in Idaho or something. It is relatively new Japanese frontier-land with lots of farming. Ainu are the native people that inhabited this area, maybe a similar experience to the inuit and native Americans…

from Sapporo I return to Tokyo a few days and board an overnight bus bound for akita (the northern part of main island). Akita is known for its forests and cold winters. My friend’s friend works on a private forest/garden in akita and they were holding a special festival to invite the public. I was asked to perform. Again I encounter sky and mountains but now the forest textures, color, smell, and energy are more present. I spend 3-days reading and taking naps in the forest….sugi is the famous tree here--a type of pine or cypress? It was as if I was intoxicated or ill---I slept so much! I performed on a small platform in the midst of sugi tree forest to a warm crowd of curious locals and Tokyo-ites. After my dance the rain began to fall, lightly at first and then the deluge continued throughout the night. We end the rainy night at the onsen and have a magical dinner at the owner’s house (big enough for 40 people +/-). Then we catch the overnight bus returning to Tokyo.

Akita is the birthplace of tatsumi hijikata. Hakodate in hokkaido (not far from Sapporo) is birthplace of kazuo ohno. This northern excursion became a butoh pilgrimage of sorts, allowing me some small sense of the roots for several of the founders/master butoh artists. (natsu nakajima was born even further north but then was raised in akita for 7 years and then Tokyo after that…)

With 3+ weeks remaining in japan, I am settled in Tokyo again. Now I stay alone! In a small unfurnished extra apartment of another friend’s grandparents, about 15 min. train from ikebukuro area. It is so wonderful to be alone! And I can pretend to really live in Tokyo….riding my granny-style bike (so small my knees and elbows cannot straighten!) to the train, line-drying my laundry, making coffee….these next weeks will be occupied by long train rides, standing, and butoh classes 6 days a week, and performances by ko murobushi and dairakudakan.

To give you some idea: it takes 2+ hrs and 4 trains to get from my place to yoshito ohno class in yokohama—ONE WAY (I leave at 5PM). The class is 2 hrs. long and after you drink tea and eat snacks. I usually return home at 1AM. The round trip expense is about $17.50. it’s not quite as long or costly for nakajima’s classes, maybe half time/$.  For me, there is a very strange and real sense of displacement/dislocation because of the trains. I have no real experience of space and distance (only time and money). I do have a sense of geographic direction from one place to another….but then its like the jetson’s when you shuttle from train to train and suddenly arrive outside. People in Tokyo have an endless capacity to stand!

I have nearly finished reading all the heavy books I brought with me—hooray—the weight will be justified as many of these books have opened significant avenues for thought about my larger project and investigations. Although, I can tell my eyesight is even worse despite my new eyeglass prescription. How quickly the body deteriorates! Oh, I am reminded that I will meet with mr. Kazuo ohno next week….what an amazing life presence even as the body reduces itself to the minimum.

That’s all I can write for now. Thanks for taking the time to read. Sorry I am not technically savvy enough to include photos or something, but please allow your minds to create something more fantastic!

Savor each moment.
---nicole