Last night, an epic and stylish bout of insomnia saw me reading the full text of David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day" in one sitting, returning several emails, writing notes for future stories on the backs of ominous Bank envelopes, spam-blocking my mobile phone, weeping, being scared of vampires, and cleaning my entire bedroom plus a portion of the kitchen. At 7 a.m. I stared out my window at the abandoned, junk-strewn (including surf board) veranda two feet away, and made a 3-Year-Plan. Essentially, I am Stalin. Smiled for the first time in a terribly complicated week.
Excerpt from a missive to a valued family member:
"It's crazy in Tokyo right now: super-hot, lots of earthquakes. Such a normal sentence; doesn't even begin to CONVEY the relentlessness of it sometimes! So hot you sweat when you wake up, sweat when you towel off from the shower, sweat through every single second of the day -- nasty sweat, like people tipping cupfuls of syrup down your back -- it literally drips, at all hours -- except for when you're in air-conditioned rooms, and then the physical shock of the two extremes produces fever, dizziness, angst. Not that I'm really complaining .... Have you ever been to Tokyo in the summer? Did you hear the sound of the cicadas? There's millions of them, and their song is like an electric buzz -- when I came to Tokyo in August 2 years ago, I heard that sound, and I thought it was electric lights going haywire. It took me so long to believe they were insects and not artificial intelligence. But that sound makes me feel so peaceful, that I'm actually HERE and NOW -- like how on Silver Star Mountain, wolves -- their howling -- made me feel that way. It didn't matter if I liked or disliked the sound, liked or disliked the environment I found myself in; just meant I was grounded and so that made me feel some measure of calm. Same in Tokyo. (How cool by the way that Canada would have an audio of lonely, almost BARREN proportions, while Tokyo would sound like a video game!!)"
Earthquake just now. Quite big. House shook. Am recovering from homemade tofu-mushroom-walnut burgers and must TO BED. Earthquakes make me feel calm and as though there is order to the universe. Sleepy.
(I rip off / give a nod to five different authors in the following, what is it, WORD DOODLE would best describe it. Can you guess 'em? Also a couple bands.)
New Kids on the Block for a Cup of Tea and Empathy
Writing in pencil to stencil the pain away.
It's what stereotypes look up to.
Cliche me now.
Unsex me anytime:
out, out damn thought.
You made me want to be a taint.
There must be some
other way to nettle
this argument.
Nani, nani, you bastard,
I'm too.
Alice in Thunderland.
Thor wept.
The good ol' boys.
In drag.
And fucking
commies to boot!
You should have
seen me reading
charts.
Totally lazy day! Loves it! Basically just hung out in the kitchen with the cats: watched some weird Japanese TV, returned various emails, cooked a bunch of different things, read some Norman Mailer. The day's goal was to make potato salad for when Sage got home from work, but I ventured into the Dante-esque HELL that is Outside -- fuckin' hot -- only to find that the supermarket didn't have celery OR radishes OR pickles. Which was weird cuz usually they DO have celery, ridiculously overpriced -- about one Canadian dollar PER STALK. Sage is worth it, obviously, but there was nothing there, so I bought a bottle of wine, went home, drank a bit of it, and went to bed early.
Awoke around midnight to some missed calls, most of them from the Lover. He'd been round to give me back my Taspo:
This is a card you have to use when buying cigarettes from vending machines. How I got it is a jolly good tale, but not for tonight. Anyway, he said he'd left the Taspo outside my front door in a flower pot, and when I went to look there was also a packet of Marlboros and a bottle of perfume. Nice. :) SO nice, actually. But now I can't sleep and it's STILL too damn hot and I worry because I have to go to the Immigration Office in Shinagawa tomorrow but I don't know where it is.
Today is the first day of my epic, 6-week vacation, and as I don't intend to travel abroad, there will be loads of time for daily updates! This first one will be long-ish -- how do people feel about that? Do you read the whole thing if it's super-long? -- but bear with me and after this I'll try to keep up with the idiosynchratic Oh-my-God-you-won't-believe-what-happened-in-my-MIND-just-now! updates.
I'm drinking a screwdriver and sweating. It's like 35 degrees, massive humidity.
The Cat is almost dead, slumbering by the table. She's upset that I didn't give her the peanuts I just ate. On the other side of the patio door, the four Kittens lay huddled in the shade of a cardboard air-con box, coping.
Weekend:
On Friday I picked up Jude the Obscure from the station, and we headed to the Mexican place to meet a bunch of friends for dinner -- 10:30pm -- I grow alarmingly close to unhealthy and glamorous Woody Allen-style dining habits every day -- but before we got there I shouted, "Look, no! I just have to TALK at you! For like 10 minutes!" He wanted to go to a combini to do so (air-conditioned), but I wanted to smoke, so we went to MacDonald's and I detailed my latest personal peril and angst to him and he sipped moodily at his Coke and requested evidence (I complied with various damning texts from my phone) and he judged my technique kind of heartlessly but overall was helpful, I calmed down, we went to the Mexican place.
Very cool scene, it was Yutaka's birthday. I drank tequila.
At midnight everyone went home, but Jude and I went to the combini, bought a couple beers, and drank them on a bench by the station. Then went back to the combini. Etc. Drank in many different places that night. I was an emotional wreck due to some romantic dramas and Jude was the perfect companion because his life is basically DEFINED by romantic dramas and he said it was nice to have company.
Around 3 a.m. I got the urge to Climb. We selected an abandoned-looking skyscraper (a small one, but still) with an exterior staircase, and climbed 10 floors or so, passing bags of refuse and a locked gate, until we were on the rooftop. Drank and brooded for a while there. Life is never so terrible and hellish if you can get drunk on the top of skyscrapers. We descended about 4, and maybe halfway down I tried one of the doors, assuming it would be someone's apartment and therefore locked. It was NOT locked! We stumbled in, and it was an ABANDONED APARTMENT! Old pairs of gloves on the floor, cans of coffee, an ashtray, etc. A nice patio too, cool view for Takadanobaba. But haunted. We left, bought some champagne, drank it in an alley, and then Jude went home cuz he had to be at work in a couple hours. We also tried to break into another (occupied) apartment. But I don't remember this well and we were not successful.
Saturday was an all-night 'do at a small Roppongi club. Hippie-themed. Sage and I wore matching psychadelic dresses with strings around our foreheads, and everyone assumed we were twins -- which they do even when we're not dressed the same. Awesome! I couldn't ask for a better sister. :) We were there with our housemates and also my new boyfriend, whom I unwisely introduced to tequila ... Lots of good people, met one of the DJ's, and also a French Virgo who had gotten divorced 3 weeks ago -- really, really good conversation with him. Sage had a good conversation with him also, but with much different results -- however, that is her story to tell .... ;) The Lover and I went back to his place around 5 a.m. and what followed was a perfect Sunday: sex, conversation, napping, air-conditioning, sliced fruit, the "Sex and the City" movie (too awesome! Not out in Japan yet! Korea rocks), more sex. I refused to leave the apartment because it was too hot outside, so he got dressed at some point in the afternoon and went out to buy me cigarettes, returning with some Marlboros and also a grocery bag full of deli food, so we had a living room picnic. :) So sweet of him.
Monday was a holiday -- Ocean Day, I think -- so I wound up in a park out near Machida at a bbq Mika was hosting for her language school. This park had like 46 different OBSTACLE COURSES! Best park ever! There were some terrifying moments -- I got my pony-tail twisted up in a rope and couldn't move and was in a BUCKET and thought I was going to die -- seriously -- I was almost strangled -- and Jude and I were on this cable thing hurtling over a body of water and it STOPPED mid-way and we were nearly tipped off and into the water -- good clean fun though. Improvised mushroom burgers also. Thanks Mika! Beauty AND organizational skills! :)
Went back to Takadanobaba with Sage and Jude, did karaoke for an hour, bought snacks, drank with the housemates, watched the first 15 minutes of "Waking Life," and went to another park with Jude the Obscure, where we talked about sociopaths we know and love. Or at least know.
Best text received from yesterday, from the beyond-awesome Prince Harry:
"Hey you two! The Tanabata Festival is tomorrow! Joy, are you coming? There's some kind of parade that starts at 1pm that might be cool to go see! So PLEASE don't go on a bender tonight!! (*cough cough* Like what happened with the Penis Festival *cough cough*)"
Hello, Karen and Rick!
Otherwise known as Mum and Dad.
It's cool, of course, that you read my blog.
But it would be nice to be notified that you do so. Um, by you.
"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye," etc.
The river by my house isn't a river at all, but more of a drainage ditch; however, the sound of moving water is in the air, and there are rocks, so there is no better place to be on a Wednesday night with Jude the Obscure, drinking a beer and smoking a cig and listening to vivid stories about his relatives and their various encounters with police / other officials / nursing home aides.
Yesterday at the Pink Cow there were psychedelic flower-patterned velveteen curtains STAPLED to the walls, like wallpaper. I was born in the wrong decade.
Spend money on teeth, or a digital video camera and a new computer with editing software? Fuck.
I'm reading a translated version of the Gospel of Thomas with notes by Elaine Pagels, and it totally kicks ass.
Capsule updates:
I love conversations with people whose first language is not English, for a variety of reasons, primarily the way stuff can get lost in translation. I like discordant. Things a couple of men have said to me in the last little while, both of them meant to be compliments:
"You're so naive." (Korea. Actual intended meaning: "Please be careful cuz I care about you and think you trust people too easily. Which is cute.")
"You're really boyish." (Japan. Actual intended meaning: "I like that you have opinions.")
And one of my all-time favourites came from last year -- this was actually NOT intended as a compliment but I got a huge kick out of it -- Nepal told me I was "emotionally cold" because I WOULDN'T SLEEP WITH HIM ON THE FIRST DATE. Ah, Tokyo.
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In just one month I've developed an unhealthy addiction to my iPod, to the point where I get DISGRUNTLED -- I use the word seriously, with precision -- when I can't use it on my regular workday commute / hell. Last time was on Monday morning, when I was reeling from only 3 hours sleep and had forgotten to charge it, all Jude the Obscure's fault naturally, he'd missed his last train the night before and slept over and right as I was drifting off started an hour-long deconstruction of my various romantic relationships, past and present, which of course it's impossible not to listen to. iPod. These days I'm listening to Muse, Of Montreal, Justice, LCD Soundsystem, DJ Shadow, DJ Zinc, James, and the Stone Roses, more or less in that order.
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Deep-fried cheese.
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Jazz at the Pink Cow in Shibuya.
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On Friday I was in Shimokitazawa drinking at an izakaya with a group of friends, and the Lover was working late so he couldn't come till nearly 10. He sat down at our table, which was a long rectangle, and the set-up was thus: the Urban Sage at one end, me on the other, and half a dozen platonic male friends on each side. He raised an eyebrow, sighed, and said, "Always it is like this." I opened my mouth to respond that it was all because I was raised with 3 brothers, when Sage threw me her pack of smokes, I caught them with one hand, fished out a cig with two fingers, and didn't have it to my lips before three lighters appeared at the ready. He sighed again, but lit my next one. :)
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The smell of humidity. I hate the FEEL of humidity, the sweat dripping down the back before you've even toweled off from the shower, but the SMELL of it as you walk down 7 a.m. Fujigaoka is so PURE.
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Cooking with the Urban Sage in our kick-ass kitchen. When I was 18 my roommate Trever had a postcard of John Coltrane taped to one of the cabinets at Green Street, and since his death I kept the card and it's been in every kitchen I've lived in since. It watches over us now, 2008 Takadanobaba, as we prepare nachos and curry and stir-fry and salad. This card, its black-blue-white photograph, is Harmony.
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Cigarettes beer rain Yoyogi Park 3 a.m. kiss.
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Walking with spine straight. Smiling. Prince Harry: "Oh my God the P.E. teacher at my junior high school is so hot! It's like: Bend me over the principal's desk and TAKE ME." Or Jude the Obscure: "Did you ever, like, you know, back in the West, walk past a field and see cows and just wanna, jump over the fence and walk over and, um, take a BITE out of them?"
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The organic underground networks of Aoyama, and Harajuku. This is a special story, reserved for another update. There's hysterical police and abandoned skyscrapers involved. Also a cute, short, Japanese man. He played a central role actually. Total Muse, total Guide. His bike a metaphor.