Kanazawa geisha

Yesterday I had my first intimate exposure to geisha. In fact, I didn't realise until about 6am the next morning, when all the hints just kind of set in. I instantly woke up and couldn't go back to sleep until I relived the entire experience in my imagination.

One of my favourite students, a heart doctor took me out last night. We went to a nice restaurant, where we had a quiet meal. Like most sushi bars in Japan, the best place to sit is the counter. The women all wore kimonos and served us in the politest of Japanese.

When we left, he told me that the next place is a kind of special club. He was trying to prep me about the fact that it would be fancy...or so I thought. When we arrive, there are a handful of gorgeous ladies — hostesses, really — waiting outside. But we walked right past them and took the elevator to the top floor. Penthouse suite.

A tuxedoed man greeted us at the door and opened it upon a glorious, gold and black interior, where a kimono-clad girl was playing a harp. We sat down by the bar and talked while they prepped our room. The woman pouring our drinks wore a gold, sequined top, and our introduction consisted of her grabbing her breasts and saying something obscene in Japanese. So naturally, I thought we went to a posh hostess club.

Anyways, we enter the room and the girl who played the harp comes to sit next to me. She introduces herself and we attempt a broken conversation. She was new. It was her third day, so the conversation doesn't go too well. Somehow the red flag popped up and the 'mama' came over to talk to me. She tried a bit in extremely limited English, gave me her business card and introduced herself as 'Madam Night Butterfly'. At that point, a new girl entered, decked out in the most beautiful kimono. She sat on the other side of me, tucked in neatly between myself and the wall. She was much more skilled and immediately started a conversation with me. This time it went really well and even in my limited Japanese, we could communicate. Actually, we talked about a lot of things...and then the conversation turned dirty! The girl was really smart and made some — believe it or not — very clever dirty jokes.

The sequined top was all over my friend, and she seemed to be the ringleader of the sexual talk. I was kind of reserved in general, but I gave them what they wanted to hear. I mean, it wasn't like I was ever going to be able to come back anyway.
"What colour is your underwear?" was one question
"I'm not wearing any." I replied.
"How big is your...er, foot?" etc, etc, etc.
The game went on, with me taking it one step further each time. I told them about how Japanese condoms are too small and I have to get people to send me some and they loved it!

Anyways, eventually I go to the washroom and the harp-player geisha is in there. It's a single bathroom, which both men and women use, with the urinal in the open. This is not unusual for Japan. So I take a leak while the geisha is doing her makeup. When I finish and zip up, she is behind me, whispering "Let me help you" in my ear. Then I feel the hand rubbing against my pants. At this point she proceeds to button up my pants and does up my belt. Then she offers me a hot cloth to wipe my hands with. Next thing I know she's tucking in my shirt! I was more than bewildered! Confused even! She then announces that we are ready to go back out.

We return to the booth and talk some more before the place closes. We left without paying and they all walked us out, took the elevator down to the street level, and saw us off with humble bows, smiles and waves. It was probably one of the craziest experiences I've ever had in my life. But the strangest part is that I didn't even realise they were geisha until the next morning!

finally finished!

well, last Sunday was voting day here in Ishikawa. To tell you the truth, I'm so glad it's finally over. For the last 2 weeks these vans have been driving around shouting propaganda into their megaphones. Some people say that they drive around really early or really late shouting another politician's name so annoy people into not voting for him.

It was truly crazy to see. The thing is, I've been trying to capture a good shot of these the whole week, but every time either I miss the shot scrambling for my camera, or they turn off the sound as soon as they get close to me.

I finally managed to get some footage in the last couple of hours, though.

The last few minutes seem so desperate!

cultural differences

so...Here in Japan 'flipping the bird' has no meaning. That is to say, I could walk down the street, pointing my middle finger at a baby in a carriage and no one would even care. In the last week I've been flipped off by about 5 people. Most commonly high school girls in uniform and old men.

See, I'll be teaching and asking someone a question when they'll get this itch on their eyebrow. And for some reason, it seems like the middle finger is the preferred scratching finger here. So the student will reach up and give me the big ol' FUCK you sign in innocent defiance........And the worst thing is: I gotta take it like a little bitch!

nagoya..........

Well, today yesterday I picked Gavin up from Nagoya. It's so good to see him again. Nagoya was fun. I got to hang out with Tomoyo one last time before she leaves for Australia. And Gavin met up with Mike Thompson, who co-incidentally lives there too.

It was a lot of fun. The city is BIG, but has little to offer.
another Japanese Castle.

The main attractions are Nagoya castle, and Bic Camera...basically an electronics store. We also visited the Robot Museum, but the whole thing took like 20 minutes to see. The highlight was going on a Segway, which we skipped because:
a.) Segways are just about the dumbest for of transportation you can imagine
and
b.) I wanted to see Asimo, the running robot.

Now, Asimo was there, but he was turned off...I guess they didn't have enough space for him to frolic. Damn...


Anyways, I also saw this guy standing on the corner. Nice hat!

The coolest part of Nagoya was the back of the bus station. The building faces 'Central Park', which is a narrow park in the middle of a boulevard.
I liked the colours. Actually, in Nagoya all the cherry blossoms had already been replaced by leaves. So this sight was rare. It looked very sci-fi. Beautiful like an architectural sketch!

more sakura

Rest in Peace Mr. Vonnegut!

cracking the Japanese market

So this is what celebrities do for pocket money!

You know, why not stop, take a break for a while and have some Japanese guy snap your picture for the ad on a vending machine? I bet these celebs are thinking: "In America I degrade myself if I do commercials, but in Japan no one cares...Plus who's gonna see my Suntory BOSS™ advertisement anyways?" Well, Mr. Tommy Lee, I recognise you and I'm going to expose you for the sell out you really are! Bring Bill Murray back as Mr. Suntory!



These shots of Cameron Diaz was taken from a shop window. When did she slump down to Candice Bergin status. I mean come on! Doing Phone Company ads?

That reminds me I also saw Bruce Willis doing an ad for some car company. He doesn't say anything, he just sits there so you can see his face behind the window of the car. The thing is: because cars drive on the left side here, he's sitting on the wrong side, so it looks like he's just a passenger, not the driver. Weird, eh?

Geisha Dances (culture tip #10)

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for another cherry blossom post. But this one clearly explains what I meant by hanami in the last one.

Yesterday there was some kind of massive festival going on in the Geisha District. Last year I had to work, so this year I was going to lie and cheat my way there (if I had to). Plus it was a beautiful day!

On the way there, I passed through the tiny alleys behind the tea houses, and emerged upon this public dance. You could hear music everywhere though, and so it was still a surprise to basically walk right into this flute girl. The dancer's mask is pretty cool too!

The Geisha District is next to the Asano River. The party seemed to be happening all along the river, so we descended the giant, stone steps to find shelter under the pink ceiling of blossoms.

This is the perfect example of hanami! People having picnics under the blossoms, getting drunk in the afternoon. While sitting there, we saw some of the most beautiful kimonos, but every time I tried to take a picture, someone would step in front of my camera. It was really busy.

Well, I've been in Japan for more than a year now, so I figure it's about time that I had my picture taken with a real geisha.

This is the famous water dance. The main dancer had 3 costume changes during the show. The ninjas behind her just pulled off a red kimono.

Here is a sword dance she did to start off the performance. She's still wearing all three layers in this picture.

Tomoyo, me, and Kotaro. We asked some girl sitting next to the river to take our picture. It turned out she was like a professional photographer or something, because she managed to get the sakura in the background by hunching down close to the ground.

hanami

Well, Spring is finally here! The blossoms are not yet in FULL bloom, but they are out.

I've been snapping pictures whenever I walk past a pink tree, so I thought that I'd better post them now before I totally fill up my hard drive. Hanami, or 'cherry blossom viewing' is a common event around this time and people will have a meal under the blossoms, and drink sake. There are organised tours that take you to prime viewing locations.

These pictures were taken mostly around Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen, but also along my walk to and from work.

This tree is white this year. I was surprised because last year it was bright pink. This is the tree I talked about in an earlier post; the 'early bloomer'. On my way to work, in the Samurai District.

Ishikawa-mon, the gate to Kanazawa Castle.

A bridge over the moat around the castle yard.

Sakura and the moat.

do you recognise this?

This is a logo of a famous brand you should all be very familiar with. Do you recognise it? If you can successfully identify this brand, I will personally award you the 'coolest person of the month' award, give tonnes of Kudos, and send you a gift in the mail.

All you have to do is identify the brand.

POST 100

hurray!!! Post 100!!! Bust out the champagne!

This post is dedicated to particle physics. In my art, I've always had a fascination with the microscopic world, drawing from the images of cells, and scientific diagrams. One of my favourite themes is the idea of cell mitosis, the basic creation and sustaining of life. It's the force that keeps all life stable and allows it to continue.


This is a painting I did a while back. It's is an allegory for creation, by the penetration of the ozone by a comet. The image is the dividing cell. Cell Mitosis. Recently, however, the ideas of physics are very interesting to me, despite my serious handicap at abstract mathematics (which includes basic division, by the way!). Before I left Toronto, I wanted to make a giant particle collision diagram on a sheet of plexiglass, but sadly, it never got started.

There's somethign in these diagrams which reminds me of alchemical charts, hiding the secret of transmutation, eternal life, and the philosopher's stone.


These particle collisions are so beautiful. They prove to me that the universe is a graceful, intelligent entity, which performs a magical dance even at the infinitely small level.

I've recently found this website that has posted a PBS series called The Elegant Universe online. It's a great watch — beats Japanese TV anytime!