Swampped

There has been so much going on!

I don't really know where to start.

This post is going to be a sort of mega-cram-monster, as I try and condense 4 posts worth of data into one...

About two weeks ago we left Sakura apartment, and moved in to a new place populated by a bunch of artists (yikes).
Between the six of us we have two textile artists, a performance artist/dancer, a drummer/singer/songwriter, a printmaker/intermedia artist and a video maker/jeweller (yours truly).
Needless to say, we are all BFFs now. I am going to do a video collaboration with this guy:

His name is 郷坪 聖史 (Satoshi Gotsubo), and he is the dancer/performer in case you haven't guessed... He also makes his own body suits!


Last week I went to see 遠藤ミチロウ(Michirō Endo) play live with his new band. 
Endo was the founding member and leader of legendary 80s punk outfit The Stalin, one of the earliest and most influential proper punk bands to emerge from Japan. 

Kyoto is a big enough city to foster an active and diverse music scene, but too small for non-pop headliners to fill up stadium size venues. I therefore got to see someone who is basically the Japanese Joey Ramone rock out and perform new as well as old material, in an intimate setting. 
Here he is showing the kids how it's done:

The following evening I attended the annual Nō festival, here in Kyoto, which includes evening performances of Nō in the open air, on a special stage built on the grounds of the beautiful and majestic Heianjingu (Heian Shrine)!

Nō is a traditional type of court theatre, incorporating music and dance. The production is typically rather sparse. There are a few characters, very minimal sets and only one scene or act.

Nevertheless, The action on stage is simply hypnotic. The repetitive chanting of the choir goes on and on and on, transporting the viewer into a meditative mindset.  

It's hard to describe, but I really got into it, I must admit. 
If I can, I would very much like to attend more shows before I leave. I am even considering doing another theatre themed video in the same vein of the Cantonese opera video I did two years ago, we'll see what happens...


In between the somber Nō epics, there was one short comic relief type play. The subtle nuances in high Japanese escaped me, but I could appreciate the colour, form and absurdity.

Here are two words that don't often go together: ALBINO PEACOCK 

Yes, that happened. 

I met this glorious chicken in a Kyoto temple. It is sacred, I guess.

Oh lovely chaos!
On the weekend we went to Nagoya again. There were two matsuri (festivals) happening in town on the same day!

One of them was apparently about carrying large mikoshi (portable shrines) with robotic dancing puppets around town, and drinking a lot of sake. 

I don't know what the second matsuri was, but out of a population of 2.5 million, I am pretty sure that about 2.4 million Nagoyans attended, and brought friends from out of town.

There were fireworks, but we couldn't see it because of the crowds. We did see the priestess of the Atsutajingu (Atsuta Shrine) perform a traditional dance though.

Last but certainly not least, Tokyo!
I got my pass, and have been taking the (very fast) train to funky town, daily.
Tokyo is incredible, and already so much has been happening. I'll write about it in more detail, on future posts.
For now I'll just say that I have visited Shibuya, Asakusa, and Ueno districts thus far, and sign off with a bit of Shinkansen, Tokyo evening, eye candy for y'all.

Thanks for reading!