Lost In Translation

Tottori, Tottori Prefecture: Part One

I am on my way to a conference in Tottori prefecture in the southern part of Honshu on the Japan Sea side for a conference. I have friends in Tottori and nearby Shimane prefecture and one of them is here this weekend, so I will also visit both prefectures for the first time. These are my 40th and 41st prefectures visited out of a total of 47.

Downtown near Tottori station in Tottori Tottori, the least populated prefecture in Japan. It is known for the sand dunes near the city (which I plan to visit, perhaps sans the camel ride), seafood (crab and oysters in particular), as well as nihonshu (sake). I plan to partake in all three. My first night and it seemed pretty dead but, people were pretty friendly and I had more conversations on Friday night than all of my last weekend in Kyoto.

Local shrine.

The shotengai (shopping street) these are all over rural Japan and some even persist in Tokyo, like Asagaya, where I live.

Near Tottori station.

I found a place nearby that had the local craft beer Daisen G and read my book, which started a couple of conversations on Friday. It is a sort of biography of an exploitation star/TV star/singer, Meiko Kaji in English. It piqued a few people's interest.

The manhole cover has a mural with two umbrellas from the yearly Shan Shan Festival held in August.

Very cool dragon carved street bench near Tottori station.

Live music outside a standing bar that was very busy-the patrons were behind me. I was talking to locals for a while here, before moving on to get some food.

I found a cheap and cheerful izakaya that had lots of local food and sake. That rock oyster is huge-it's just that the angle doesn't do it justice-it took two big bites to down. I love my Japanese pickles and had a small seating charge dish. I tried a couple of other local sakes as well.

Some sites encountered on my way to see the Tottori Castle Ruins.

The moat at Tottori Castle.

The Jinpukaku residence near the castle ruins.

Castle ruins.

The garden behind Jinpakaku.

The backside of Jinpukaku.

A shoe repair shop on the way back to the station. On my way to meet my friend Takayuki, an old Tokyo friend, in  Yonago, Tottori.

Another wood carved dragon bench.

Outside Tottori station.

A Page Of Madness

I had been meaning to see Teinosuke Kinugusa's surrealistic A Page Of Madness (1926). I finally decided to see it since I read an essay about in Allan Booth's latest essay collection, This Great Stage of Fools, where Booth meets Kinugusa by chance at Kiyomizudera in Kyoto on New Year's Day and later wrote his obituary. I was also fascinated to learn that it was based on a short story and adapted by literary giant Yasunari Kawabata. The plot can be simply stated as a man takes a job at an insane asylum with the hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife. However, the film is explicitly experimental, surreal and influenced by the German expressionists. It feels very modern and ahead of its time in execution. It is very much an art film-I can't imagine that this film was ever popular entertainment, but it is no less a masterpiece.

Friday Night

I think Claire Denis' Friday Night (2002) feel the most like a Jim Jarmusch film of the movies I've seen to date. It was only recently that I was aware that she worked under Jarmusch and Wim Wenders before becoming a director herself. This film has a very simple plot-a woman (Valeri Lemercier) is moving out of her apartment to share one with a boyfriend. She leaves to go out to dinner with friends and finds herself in a traffic jam due to a transit strike and picks up a rider, (Vincent Lindon). Eventually they decide to rent a hotel room and spend the night together. As a result eh film is a sleek 90 minutes. It feels like an exercise in style with gorgeous cinematography of the Parisian streets in the rain from Denis regular Agnes Godard. The mood is further enhanced by the score from Tindersticks front man Dicton Hinchliffe. It may not rank among Denis' best films, but I found it to be a stylish and enjoyable one all the same.

Quina

Last time I was in Kichijoji eating a the spaghetti restaurant Supakichi in Harmonica Yokocho, I saw an interesting Okinawian restaurant, Quina, so I was in the mood for taco rice and sampled the avocado version for |880. Sometimes taco rice can be made in a disappointing manner-this one wasn't. I'm sure I'llbe back.

The Samurai

Shusaku Endo has been seen as one of the leading literary vanguards of the third generation of writers who were active in postwar Japan. Silence, in particular was singled out as his masterpiece. As a a result I read it, but it did not move me as much as the film adaptations: first by Masahiro Shinoda in 1971 and then by Martin Scorsese in 2016. Recently a friend (Damian Flanagan in a lecture about Mishima) who I respect talked about Endo as the heir apparent to Yukio Mishima. If he is indeed right, I thought that I should give Endo another chance. So I decided to read The Samurai (1980-translation 1997) next. I found this story much more compelling than that of Silence, which was too introspective and not very plot driven. The Samurai is based on a true story and the translator Van C. Gessel gives some historical context form the 18th century in the Preface. It is an epic journey across the sea of a band of Japanese and their Spanish priest/interpreter, Velasco, first to Nueva Espana (Mexico), then onto Espana and Rome to carry out their mission to open trade with Europe and the new worlds. It is significant that Velasco is a flawed man-vain, stubborn, and not above subterfuge to get what he wants. The hapless lance-corporals, and Hasekura-the other narrator in particular- that are ordered on the voyage feel something is amiss since the rulers did not recruit more distinguished envoys. One  of them suggests that they are expendable and a nuisance since they are invested in getting their ancestral lands that have been confiscated by the government.There are several interesting binary concepts being analyzed, compared and contrasted throughout: East and West, Christianity and Buddhism, honesty and duplicity, faith and doubt,loyalty to god and one's rulers. In the Postscript, the translator Gessel reports that the novel is somewhat autobiographical since Endo was the first Japanese person to study in Europe after the war and endured a 35 day trip at sea to get there, and eventually converted to Christianity after his visit. This might read as an apology for Endo's own conversion to Christianity. It seems that religious problem novels always seem have the opposite effect from which they were written-further strengthening faith in a god that doesn't participate in day to day life. It is also good description of what this era was like for the persecuted Christians and non nobles of Japan.

Tracked

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I have been a fan of the films of Hideo Gosha, best known for samurai films from the 60s like Three Outlaw Samurai and Sword of the Beast. So I was intrigued when Alan Booth singled out two of his films from 1985 in an essay on the state of Japanese film from 1985, "Hideo Gosha's Hairs-Japan's Academy Awards," in his latest posthumous collection of writing, This Great Stage of Fools (2018). I was only able to find one, Tracked / Usugesho (the other was Kai). This film is based on a true story of a man who murders his wife son and two fellow miners before escaping from prison and going on the run. The man on the lam, Sakai, is played by Ken Ogata who is well know for a similar role, also based on a true story, in Shohei Imaura's excellent Vengeance Is Mine (1979). Sakai, was a womanizer, and almost manages to settle down in a new life with his final love interest, Chie (Mariko Fuji). The film has many great visuals with classic framing inside the old Japanese houses as well as lush outdoor location scenes. I suppose this film might not appeal to all viewers, Sakai is very much an antihero protagonist.

Patrick Melrose

I am surprised by how much I enjoyed the darkly comic TV series Patrick Melrose (2018), based on the novels of Edward St. Aubyn. I remember a friend was reading the novels and recommended them, but after reading a description of them I was somewhat put off-the decline of British upper class-yawn. The stories seems to work well under the direction of German Edward Berger-his use of a variety of visual metaphors and effects combine well with the acting of the stellar ensemble cast. However, i was immediately captivated by the Benedict Cumberbach's performance in the first episode as Patrick Melrose. Equally effective is Hugo Weaving as his tyrant privileged father, David Melrose. Jennifer Jason Leigh puts in another memorable performance as the distracted mother of Patrick, Elanor Melrose. There a number of supporting roles that are worth mentioning as well-Pip Torrents as the acid tongued David Pratt and Jessica Raine as his off and on love interest Julia. A compelling and very watchable depiction of some dark life events of a privileged man who grew up to suffer despite the fact he need not ever work a day in his life-in the end it is a triumph, but scored in shades of gray.

Kyoto June 2018

A local shrine near Kyoto station, I usually stay in North Kyoto since my friend Ted lives there, but he is out of town and my conference is in the south part this time.

Found a little izakaya that had some local nihonshu (sake)-trying a tasting set.

It's the rainy season.

Ryukoku University-the conference venue for the International Task Based Learning Conference,

Beautiful old houses in the neighborhood near Inari Shrine.

Myokian temple, located in Oyamazaki, has the oldest tearoom in Japan, Ta-in, however, it is only possible to see it with an advanced reservation-so I didn't get to see inside. If I had planned better I could have also included a Yamazaki distillery tour as well, but the tour were already booked the day when I checked. I should have booked a time earlier-however, I hadn't decided that I would be vising Oyamazaki in advance. I recently went to an Architectural exhibition at the Mori Museum in Roppongi Hills that featured Ta-in and a private residence in Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art had a shuttle to save us from trudging up the hill in the down pour.

Here's the approach to the Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art.

The entrance to the museum.

The "Underground Jewelry Box" designed by Tadao Ando below ground level houses works from Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" series.

The Kyoto Tower.

One of my objectives was to check out the new Kyoto Beer Lab, a nice chill little brewery on the banks of the river. Good beer and nice ambiance.

I totally stumbled upon this "yataimura" stall village, Neo Sujin, just the kind of place I like. Local food outdoors with drinks.

Mural in the Neo Sujin.

Kyoto Brewery beer and leek and vegetable menchi katsu.

Iberico salami and homemade pickles.

Dinner on Pontocho near the Kamogawa river, miso soup and grilled fish.

National Film Archive Of Japan

I recently visited the National Film Archive of Japan to see Kurosawa Travels around the World The Masterworks in Posters from the Collection of Toshifumi Makita, when I noticed a painting of a still from Yasujiro Ozu's excellent final film, Autumn Afternoon (1962).

Tokyp Station Renovation

When I went to the Tokyo Station Gallery to see an exhibition (Takahisa Yumeji), there was access to a permanent exhibition on the second floor with bas-relief sculptures from the renovation that was recently completed (2017)-here's a dragon.

A snake.

And a tiger.