"Quick trip to Japan"

Four words that don't go together.

(Thanks for the line Barry)

You don't normally think of going to Asia for the weekend. However, when you have the chance to go to Japan on someone else's charge card, and the benefactor offers to pay your fee as well, you say "When do we leave?"

I spent 22 hours on airplanes, 7 hours waiting in airports and 5 hours riding on busses, to perform at the  Yokohama Triennale: Time Crevasse.   The show lasted about 35 minutes.  I figure that is about 1.5 hours traveling for every minute I was on the stage.  I have always joked that I get paid to travel, the show is free. That was never been more true than for this gig.  

Yokohama Triennale is an arts festival that happens every three years and is the real deal in the art world. It attracts the best contemporary artist the world has to offer.  There are venues all over Yokohama presenting installations, exhibits, showings and performance pieces. As with all art some is incomprehensible, some is childishly silly and some is moving or disturbing.

Long time blog readers, and art world aficionados will know my friend Philippe Parreno. He directed me in his show "Il Tempo del Postino" at the Manchester Arts Festival in 2007. There were many juicy blog stories from that experience. Although Philippe lives in Paris he travels all over the world making art.  I am intrigued by Philippe's talent and the world he lives in. I will always jump at the chance to work with him.  So, like Manchester, this was another occasion to hang out with Philippe and make art. 

Basically Philippe came to the Yokohama Triennale to  deliver a 10 page essay he had written about the way we communicate. He decided to turn it into a performance art piece and that is how I got to be involved.  I provided Philippe's voice for the "lecture".  I sat next to him at a desk, and ventriloquated as he mouthed the words.  Although you can't judge an art performance by the same standards as any other performance, it seemed to be received very well. There was a group of about 500 people there to see/hear it.  They tell me that it is typical of a Japanese audience to be very quiet during the performance and go crazy at the end.  That is what seemed to happen.  

I have never been to Japan before and can't say that in 72 hours I know it very well. However, there are certain first impressions that will stay with me. Everyone was very polite and civilized. The tradition of bowing is still pervasive, and I found it very calming and respectful. They don't handle money, it is always placed in a tray. If you try and hand a merchant or waiter money they will offer you a small tray to place it in. Likewise your change is placed in the tray and not into your hand.

The cab drivers do not accept tips. They wear white gloves, coat and tie and have a mechanism to open and close the door for you from their driver's seat. The passenger seats are covered with white, lace edged covers and are spotless.

About a block from my hotel was old town.  They actually called it Chinatown and it was about half again the size of old New Orleans French Quarter. The streets were very narrow and it was crowded with hundreds of people.  I couldn't tell if the architecture  was more Chinese or Japanese in design. It all looked Asian to me. 

Mostly restaurants and the Japanese equivalent of fast food take out stores, fortune tellers and an equal number of souvenir stores. In front of every restaurant was a display of the food items they served created in plastic. The entire menu was replicated in surreal sculpture, sitting on glass covered shelves.  Where there was not enough room for a full display they had a flat screen with a loop tape showing the menu, and occasionally the chef as he prepared the food.  

Most of food items involved noodles with some kind of topping.  The toppings were unidentifiable by me as any kind of animal or vegetable matter.   Most were not appealing to my Western pallet.  To my surprise there was not a sushi bar to be found among the 10 square blocks I surveyed.  

The rooms and lobby of the hotel I was staying were simple, spartan and calming in design. Very much that Zen fung shui idea.  The very opposite applied in the commercial section. As you can see from the picture it is an orgy of moving lights, competing patterns and clashing colors.  I was mostly in sensory over load as I walked the streets.  Like looking at one of those 3D posters, you had to stare a long time at a store to even tell what it was selling, or where it ended and the next store front began. 

There was always a hustle to get you into the store or restaurant. Most places had at least two people out front inviting you in.  They were not pushy, just invitational.  I found that if you didn't make eye contact, they did not approach you.

Everything seemed to go extremely well for the short trip, until I started to come back home.

Tomorrow.... Airport hell and flight cancellations............

As you were,

Jay