On Monday I visited the doujinshi event that my first informant had recommended me, and which was already on my list.
On Tuesday I took the Shinkansen to Nagoya and the local train to Gifu, where I met my fourth informant. It was an interesting meeting. During our two hours at an izakaya I didn’t think I managed to create any rapport or get any good information (at least not good enough to justify the trip). But afterwards the meeting grew on me, and I now consider the things that he shared with me very valuable – he stands out as another clear type, a representative if you will, in regard to the way you might think about your life and how you negotiate the slots for 2D and 3D in it.
After spending the night in Nagoya, I improvised a trip down to Kagoshima, where I shot the volcano Sakurajima and some lowkey street scenes.
From Kagoshima I went to Kyoto, where I spent two nights in a capsule. On the day in between I rented a bike – the only one they had in my size – and biked around the city. First I went to the Golden Pavilion to shoot it properly. I loved Mishima Yukio’s novel about it, so who knows if I might want to use some quotes from it. So much people though. Then I biked to Kyoto university and walked around on their campus until I found a mensa, where I managed to eat lunch:
Then I went to Sapporo, which took all day. I checked in to a capsule hotel in the entertainment district, bought a Sapporo beer at a conbini, and enjoyed the Saturday night atmosphere in the central park, under the TV tower. I slept surprisingly well. I woke up early and went to the station to get a reservation to Tokyo.
I arrived back to Tokyo in the early evening today, and went to my first hotel – the one for 3,300 yen per night (which is cheaper than the Sapporo capsule hotel, which charged me 3,900 despite advertising 2,700 – something probably went wrong there but I didn’t want to complain; in comparison, 9hours in Kyoto only charged 2,500 per night) – to see if they had a room (I’m booked from tomorrow). They did. And they also had a delivery from Amazon for me. So now I’ve finally received Saitou Tamaki’s book, which I have scoured Book Off for and ordered three times (once to Germany – it never arrived, second time to the more luxurious hotel, which declined to accept it). So much hassle to not have to buy the Kindle version. I boycott Kindle for aesthetic reasons.
I feel like I’m done with this trip now. I’ve filmed a lot, I’ve had great meetings with informants, and I’ve travelled around. The last week will be about meeting some friends in Tokyo, do some shopping, and waiting for the main event, which takes place on Saturday and which is the main reason for this trip. On Sunday in one week I go home to Berlin. I miss S so much.
We have got some readings for the third semester, which starts with in-house classes tomorrow, although I will not be there.
Study
Experimental Methods in an Ecological Age
- Tsing, Anna, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt, eds. 2017. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- “INTRODUCTION: HAUNTED LANDSCAPES OF THE ANTHROPOCENE” (pp. G1–15)
- “INTRODUCTION: BODIES TUMBLED INTO BODIES” (pp. M1–13)
- Rose, Deborah Bird. “SHIMMER: WHEN ALL YOU LOVE IS BEING TRASHED” (pp. G51–63)
- Swanson, Heather Anne. 2017. “The Banality of the Anthropocene”
- Latour, Bruno. 2019. “‘We don’t seem to live on the same planet…’ — a fictional planetarium.” Catalog Beyond the Horizon: Designs for Different Futures. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- Sautchuk, Carlos. 2012. “Cine-weapon: The poiesis of filming and fishing.” Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology 9: 406–30.
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