Bjork - Pj Harvey - Satisfaction (Full Song)

Some art is epiphany. In a first youtube post here on existential investigations, see two of my favourite artists, Björk and PJ Harvey. I don't know where this is from, but circumstantial evidence points to the BRIT awards in 1995.

The Day I beheld the Emperor of Japan

I was invited to watch the hatsubasho (the first Sumo tournament of the New Year) with my former host family. As we arrived in Ryôgoku, there was a huge commotion, snipers on roofs, helicopters circling, the whole place swarming with security personel (recognizable by the vacant look on their faces as they listen to commands uttered into their ears from some hidden headquarter). We expected either the Prime Minister or a member of the Imperial household, but when the limousine pulled up accompanied by two police details, behold! it was nobody else but the Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. There was a contagious burst of cheers and the obligatory waving. I was surprised at how tiny and frail they both seemed.
The Japanese national anthem 'Kimi ga yo' was played when they entered the hall and took their seats. Then the rikishi (the sumo wrestlers) entered the ring and were introduced one by one by country/prefecture of origin, stable and then name.
Funnily enough, of our party I was perhaps most excited about seeing them. My mother took a polite interest into the affairs of the Imperial family mostly based on compassion for the difficult lifes they are forced to lead. My host sister caught a few glances I can only describe as of the sort with which one merely registers some abstract unconnected fact . My host brother who seems to spend most of his days sleeping or staring into empty space, remained utterly indifferent.

Insomnia

Not being able to sleep: time seems to slow down, then to peter out slowly, eternity takes its place. All the other nights of insomnia come back to haunt me and the sheer load of those empty waking hours that parade in front of my inner eye sometimes seem enough to tip the careful balance of the mind towards insanity.
The house I used to live in in London was built almost entirely of wood and glass. I lived on the top floor in the triangular roof under a skylight and could see the trees in the garden swaying in the wind. On stormy nights the whole house would shake, the wind howling around the corners of my room, weather straight out of 'Wuthering Heights'. But I felt warm and comfortable curled up in my futon while outside the storm would lash the trees and the walls of my little hut.
Those were the romantic stormy nights I loved. But there were others too. The uncanny siblings of the stormy nights were the eerily quiet nights. Prolonged silence is very unusual in London, especially as we were living between Holloway Road and Liverpool Street and there was always a police siren or an ambulance in evidence somewhere. But some nights were different. The silence would slowly trickle into your brain and accumulated there at the threshold of sleep, becoming more ominous as it became longer. Eventually I would open my eyes, not tired and exhausted, but instantly fully awake, ears palpating the surroundings for noise, the senses sharpend and vivified. But none came. And sometimes a single leave would slide down the slating and create a disturbing, unearthly sound, as if somebody would scratch a single nail over the roof. The silence would thicken and become almost liquid. In such nights it was impossible to sleep.
The nights here in residential Western Tokyo are quiet to, but in a rather hushed and considerate way. There is nothing ominous about them. When unable to sleep I can hear the other tenants of the building move around or quietly talk to each other. The couple next door occasionally has sex, always between four and five in the morning. This starts with strange, high-pitched wimpering noises that last for a few minutes and then stop, only to start again a few minutes later, a slow crescendo towards the inevitable peak, at which the bed starts banging against the wall and it generally sounds as if some maniac was tourturing a cat by trying to squeeze it between the bed and the wall.

Tokyo Landscape VII

Altre Shinagawa, the new development around Shinagawa station at sunset. Was on my way back from the notorious Immigration office where my visa was extended till March. And it only took three hours!

Quote of the Day I

'Truth seldom has received and, I fear, never will receive much assistance from the power of great men, to whom she is but rarely known and more rarely welcome.'

John Locke

All the Best in the New Year to You All

We are already one week into the new year and it is freeeeeezing here in Tokyo. I am not quite sure where I am going with this blog. First the idea of just posting completely anonymous random thoughts appealed to me, but now my fieldwork does not allow for too much pointless rambling. Also, to maintain a readership one needs to post regularily and for a certain audience. So I thought this would be a good tool to keep in touch with friends in Germany, England, Switzerland and America. But so far, only my parents are reading it and thus I am strangely self-conscious about blogging.
Anyway, I decided to open two new categories in order to post more frequently. One being the obvious random photo shots; the other, somewhat more pretentious, is 'Quote of the Day'. These are as random as the rest, just thoughts that I thought were worth disseminating (like the stuck-up English snob that people sometimes take me to be, talking about 'sharing these meaningful thoughts with the blogging community' just feels as if a fishbone was stuck in my throat).
And now to something completely different: For those interested in my research, I just published a short account/memo/text on the New York University blog Material World. CHeck it out at http://www.materialworldblog.com/

Tokyo Landscape VI

Shinjuku Station Higashiguchi on a Winter Night

New Year's Impressions III

For this particuliar impression I have to rely completely on the artificial memory of my camera, as I have no bloody idea when or where I took it.

New Year's Impressions II

I spent last hour of the old year and the first of the new one practising Aikidô at the Hombu-Dôjô, the world headquarter of the Aikikai. The grandson of the founder directed the traditional Toshikoshi-Geiko.

New Year's Impressions I

This is how we spent the First Day of the Year. After a huge feast of New Year's dishes, copious amounts of Sake, Beer and Shochû and watching the Vienna Philharmonics perform the traditional New Year's concert the Majong board comes out . My little brother usually drinks a few glasses of beer in quick succession and then falls asleep. In the second picture you can see that my grandmother has joined him and they both have a good snooze.