Swifty, Writing

The last time I went to Senso-ji at Asakusa was nearly two months ago, for the Sanja Matsuri (check out the breathlessly evocative photos I've taken of the festival here).

When I went there again yesterday, they were having the Hozuki Ichi (Ground Cherry Pod Fair), in which hundreds of street stalls were set up to sell ground cherry pods and wind chimes.

In one particularly popular stall, the customer gets to pose with the pretty vendor.



Apparently what she and the other vendors were wearing is what used to be worn by vendors selling Chinese Lantern Plants. This festival dates back over 200 years, hence the traditional fashion. (source: Tokyo Fashion, their post has more photos too)



Suddenly, just as it usually happens, another young girl in pink wandered into my shot, taking photos of a dog that belonged to one of the stall customers.



The girl in pink really liked taking photos of the dog. (As opposed to my personal indifference towards it)



I wasn't aware that the main hall of Senso-ji was under renovation.







But when I entered the hall, it remained busy.




Oh, what joy! To be able to see, in person, such an invaluable Japanese tradition! I'm always inquisitive, always eager to learn, when it comes to foreign cultures, especially when there is opportunity to immerse myself into the experience.

As a filmmaker, such exploration and constant adventuring prevents my pool of ideas from drying up. With each tiny discovery, my world view continues to evolve, to shift, to transform, never settling into a permanent state of stagnancy. A fatal trap that leads to delusion and narrow-sightedness, a damning obstacle for creativity, I have to say.

I believed these two young ladies in the yukata understood too. That's why for the very brief instance when the paths of our tumultuous and vastly different lives intersected in a crossroad constructed solely through serendipitious circumstances, they both allowed me the pleasure to capture the moment with the following photographs!

It was a few minutes to midnight when I was taking a train on the Hibiya Line back from the BEAUTIFIED TABOO art exhibition. Then the guy sitting opposite started puking with abandon.

I can't say that I'm not disgusted.

I felt a slight sense of sadness for the Japanese public transport service.



That's why I rarely drink.

I brought Steven to the BEAUTIFIED TABOO art exhibition at SuperDeluxe in Roppongi last night. The BEAUTIFIED TABOO, in its second year, is the brainchild of Tokyo-based German/Vietnamese artist Vivienne U.H. Doan. Let me quote its origins from a Japan Times article.

(The BEAUTIFIED TABOO) is an exhibition showcasing works by some of Tokyo's better-known experimental and international artists that attempts to investigate, as well as beautify, taboos.

Doan got the idea when she started to question both Japanese and foreign people on what they felt was taboo. Intrigued by the variety of answers and feelings she encountered, she took the ideas and "beautified" them, adding an artist's perspective to socially explosive concepts. Naturally, ideas relating to the human body, sex, violence and death are well represented.

Here's a list of the featured artists for this year's exhibition:

• Alexis Alvarez (Photography, US)
• Richard Boase (Visual Art, UK)
• Ed Fox (Photography, US)
• Florencia Guerberof (Video Performance, ARG)
• Ryan Hale (Photography, US)
• Yu Hokazono (Photography, JP),
• Kawori Inbe (Photography, JP)
• Jun Kitagawa (Live Painting, JP)
• Catalina Madrinan (Sculpture/Painting, CO)
• skinni pants (Fashion Installation, US/JP)
• Massimilliano Schilliro (Photo Installation, IT)
• Emmi Venna (Live Installation, FIN)
• + "The 13th Artist" (Illustration, GER)

I managed to snap a couple of photos, and shot some videos from it, but I try not to reproduce, or reveal too much of the things I saw at the exhibition, as I understand (and sort of relate to) how artists feel about these things.

And thus I attempt to preserve the mystique of the exhibition by, ah, keeping it mysterious.

This young lady in a yukata is Reiko, she was sitting next to me. We played quick draw to see who managed to snap the photo of the other quicker.



After that, the Japanese avant-garde female dance duo 86B210 performed onstage. They were totally avant-garde.





Occasionally, the Finnish artist Emma Venna would appear for her live installation, dancing her slow hypnotic dance that coincided with the theme of the exhibition. Later when I speak to her she told me the imagination in her mind were restless when she danced, a product of improvisation based on what she saw, the people, the place, whatever was happening, whatever that popped out in her mind. Beauty that could sometimes be interpreted as ugliness, or ugliness that would sometimes be interpreted as beauty.



I thought I would introduce her to my Finnish friend Niklas, it would be great to allow her a reunion with one of her countrymen.

Photographer Kawori Inbe exhibited her take on the fetishism attached to high-school uniforms in Japan.

I managed to speak to Kaori, one of the models from her photography project. We had an intellectual discussion in philosophy and literature, when the conversation veered to my two recent adaptations of Yasunari Kawabata's works (that would be my short films. LOVE SUICIDES, which is having its world premiere at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival on this very day, and KINGYO) she told me her favourite writer is Yukio Mishima. We share a love for Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (I said I loved NAOMI and THE KEY, she told me that I must read his masterpiece, THE MAKIOKA SISTERS), and also slight indifference towards the more contemporary Japanese writers.

When the exhibition ended, I took a photo of her and another model, Mayuri, taking photos of the photos they modelled for.



They also posed for my photo of them posing in front of the photos they posed for Photographer Kawori Inbe.



(Kaori posed for the third photo from the right, Mayuri was the one in the second photo from the right)

After that I took a photo of photographer Kawori Inbe taking photos of her two pretty models standing in front of the photos they modelled for.



As I snapped the photo, I wondered whether there were anyone taking a photo of me taking a photo of photographer Kawori Inbe taking a photo of her two models standing in front of the photos they modelled for?

Very meta, I thought. Then my head ached a little.

I've written about the sad and tragic tale of Faithful Dog Hachiko last year. The Hachiko movie starring Richard Gere is also coming out next month, (But I'm not sure whether to see it since... I already knew that Richard Gere's going to die in it :(:(:( )

Now armed with a new camera, I decided to take some artsy shots of its statue.

I tried taking a photo of the statue's lower body.



It was a little blurry.

So I tried another one.



Better. But see the chick on the right?

She never stopped fiddling with her phone.



Er. Off-topic.

So I continued taking photos of Hachiko, this time from afar.



Then I tried zooming in to do a really artistic shot of the statue's pedestal.



I think the pedestal looked pretty good. (it's the one on the right of the photo)

My attempts at artistic photography of the Hachiko statue weren't too impressive, it's a shame these young women were wandering into the shots too.

Yesterday, before I was about to break Steven's mind by bringing him to Harajuku and Shibuya (photos will come in next post), we dropped by at the Zoshigaya Kishibojin Temple for its summer fair.

The Kishibojin is a goddess, also known as Hariti. This is an excerpt from its Wikipedia entry:

Hārītī (Sanskrit), also known as Kishimojin in Japanese:鬼子母神, is a Buddhist goddess for the protection of children, easy delivery, happy child rearing and parenting, harmony between husband and wife, love, and the well-being and safety of the family. Women without children also pray to Kishimojin to help them become pregnant.

Originally, Kishimojin/ Hariti was a cannibalistic demon. She had hundreds of children whom she loved and doted upon, but to feed them, she abducted and killed the children of others. The bereaved mothers of her victims pleaded to Śākyamuni Buddha to save them.

Śākyamuni stole Aiji, youngest of Kishimojin's sons, and hid him under his rice bowl. Kishimojin desperately searched for her missing son throughout the universe. Finally, she pleaded with Sakyamuni for help. The Buddha pointed out that she was suffering because she lost one of hundreds of children, and asked if she could imagine the suffering of parents whose only child had been devoured. She replied contritely that their suffering must be many times greater than hers, and vowed to protect all children.

Kishimojin became the goddess of easy birthing and the protection and parenting of children.

Some stories describe her as an aspect of Kannon. She is also sometimes identified with the Hindu goddess Kali.

(I learn something new everyday.)

It was one-thirty in the afternoon, and there was a light drizzle. Visitors were pretty sparse.



Yet the stalls I saw brought back fond memories of my New Year countdown trip in Kansai trip (check out my masterfully edited vacation videos here and here if you haven't already, parts of it were even on TV when I was invited for a chat at the NTV7 Breakfast Show back in February).

I then saw a little girl in a cute raincoat standing in front of the temple, smiling for her mother's camera.



There were a few hanging out in the temple.



A small group of people arrived later, most were mentally disabled. One was being pushed in a wheelchair. Their caretakers led them through the temple grounds.

I continued my way past the stalls.

Perhaps it was the rain. Or maybe it was the wrong time of the day.

But seeing so few people at the festival felt a little depressing.










Nearly half a day later, it was already midnight. I returned from Shibuya and went to the 99 yen shop next to the Zoshigaya station. A couple of young women were there too. One wore a yukata.

They spoke to one another in soft tones. Occasionally they giggled among themselves.

I wondered whether they had just returned from the summer fair.

It was already around 11pm when I was heading home after taking all these photos of Shinjuku from the previous post. But as I walked out of the Shinjuku South East exit, I found a young woman sitting on the floor, preparing to perform. A scattered few were gathered before her. She was the one and only musician I saw last night.

I would later find out that her name is Mutsumi (clicking her name will bring you to her blog, but Japanese only, she did write about this particular live performance in this blog post). A sample of her song can be listened here.

Yeah, I didn't manage to take a clear photo of her, so here are some from her blog.






A group of musicians (far left in photo) also appeared to watch.



Here's one of her songs in its entirety.



I later approached her, thanked her for her performance and told her I was a filmmaker, then I said that maybe we should do a music video together (yes, all I actually harbour dreams of making a music video) I probably didn't seem credible enough though, haha.

Despite having gone countless times to the Takashimaya in Shinjuku, I have never really bothered to go to the top few floors because I thought there aren't anything there but restaurants. So when an acquaintance from Malaysia came and I was showing him around, we went up and I was surprised by what I saw.

There was a nice garden for people to take walks.

The view from the top is really nice.

















This is the smoking area.



After that I went back into the Takashimaya building and made my way downstairs.



>

We went past Kabuki-cho.



By then the moon had came out.



I saw a sad-faced girl standing by herself and wondered what was going on, so I took a photo of her from the distance. The others seemed to pass her by in a blur.



A guy arrived just moments later and her face lit up happily in joy.

Yesterday afternoon I headed off to Miura (a seaside city situated at Tokyo Bay) with dorm mate Tristan, to check out an old lighthouse. Along with Tristan were Pong, whom I met a day earlier when we went to see the Gundam statue, and Jack, whom I've never met prior to the trip.

The train journey to Miura lasted for a bit more than an hour, luckily for me, I slept through most of it.

After reaching the Miura-Kaigan station, we first took a bus.

And then we travelled by foot.

The adventure was a perilous one. We encountered a dangerous centipede that in my active imagination would morph into a 500-feet gigantic monster and devour us all.



But then we finally reached the lighthouse.



The lighthouse had been around for quite a while.



A plaque said that it was "illuminated since 1st of March, 1871". This means that the lighthouse was open 113 years and 5 days before my birth. I'm not sure whether it's still working now though.



I walked past the lighthouse and looked into the distance, and saw this.



A boat passed by.



Summer has arrived in Japan. But being on the hill, and by the sea, the weather felt much cooler and refreshing.

The old lighthouse was like a 'MacGuffin'. This trip really wasn't about visiting the lighthouse, but to check out its surroundings: The sea and its pounding waves, the sleepy city so far removed from Tokyo, the plants about me that were constantly swaying rhythmically with the wind.

Being there felt as if a vast space was stretching before me, not a monolithic, futuristic building in sight, nor the all-engulfing sea of humanity I often find myself wading through wherever I was in the city of Tokyo, the cacophony of city noises replaced by the slow sleepy sounds of nature. I don't have any preferences, but the brief change of environment wasn't entirely unwelcome.

I moved to a slope near the lighthouse.







I couldn't help but think of the settings in Andrei Tarkovsky's film, STALKER.




We then moved closer to the sea.



As I was about to leave the seashore, the rest of the guys spotted some jellyfish in the water.



As they swam, the jellyfish seemed to dance a slow and hypnotic dance. I later saw the reeds that gave me the same feeling. One dances in water, the other dances in the wind?





Night arrived when I finished my dinner at the McDonald's by the beach.





And then we made our way to the station again.

After hearing so much about the life-size Gundam statue in Odaiba, I finally decided to visit it. It was the evening of the 4th of July, which is more than a week before its official unveiling. But already many have gathered over there to take photos of it.

I was never actually much of a Gundam fan, during my childhood I've only seen the Mobile Suit Gundam F91 film and the Gundam Wing series. That was it. Macross/ Robotech remained the most important mecha anime of my childhood, then as I grew up, I was more into the likes of Nadesico, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rahxephon, Escaflowne etc. the space opera of Macross just didn't feel like my cup of tea.

But nonetheless, I was excited to see the bloody life-size Gundam statue!

And to be there during sunset was cool too!





People of all ages were there to take photos.








Even the little girl below was infected by her parents' contagious excitement over the Gundam.



That's me, looking pretty in front of the Gundam.



I wonder whether I should shoot my next project there. Hm.

This is my friend, Zhu Dan, from China. She's really nice and friendly.

But she's slightly intimidating because she carries a shotgun with her all the time.



I've heard in my overactive imagination that many of her ex-boyfriends who pissed her off got their heads blown off. But those were the lucky ones, the not-so-lucky ones had other parts of their bodies blown off. Imagining all these with such gruesome and graphic detail makes me shudder.



But because she always has a shotgun with her, I figured she would be the perfect person to act for my Thai friend Kong's action short film, where all she had to do was to blow people up. So I introduced her to him back in April.



It was Kong's first attempt at directing, and he was quite intimidated too, fearing that pissing Zhu Dan off would result in her blasting him with her shotgun too. (look carefully at where the gun was, and where it was aiming at, in the photo below)