Lost and Found. . . and lost

Reading the hand out copied from Donald Richie's "Lateral View" was really eye opening. His perception of surroundings is remarkable. I wonder, in the years that Donald Richie first spent in Japan if the Japanese people, monitoring foreigners, were as aware of the impression they were making as well. As Richie describes that both positive and negative space coexist without opposites, I doubt that the Japanese would have minded at all. It's almost threatening to think that meeting this man could expose all sorts of character traits, some you may never knew you had. But after taking a class and going to his lectures, I found that Professor Richie is very endearing, humble, and not at all pompous as someone who is a master of Japanese social study could have been. In his writing he narrates in a way that comes naturally to the mind of the reader. He does not try to impress so much as share. But his incredibly keen sense of relativity in the end is stunning. When I first arrived to Tokyo this year I was puzzled and apprehensive towards some of the customs and behaviors of the Japanese. Little by little however, I began to think I was attaining some grip on how things worked here. After spending time with Professor Richie's work and realizing some of the complex layers that are buried within this fascinating culture however, I find that I am possibly even more lost than when I first came here.

Sweet Home. . . Niigata

What an incredible presentation by Atsushi Ogata that was today. Not only is he worldy in his knowledge of media and the arts but wordy as well. He basically gave a lecture the entire length of the tape without a break. And very engaging to boot. I've never been so inspired in such a short length of time to get off my rump and voyage to a chunk of this planet than after seeing the beauty of the Japanese countryside backdropped in Atsushi-san's documentary. The discovery of the heart the locals poured into the urban art invasion, despite it being what I imagine to be the same as the mothership landing, swept me away and created a strong desire to get to know more people like those folks of Echigo-Tsumari. If I'm not still taking any of the endless amount of required core classes by then, I'll be sure to visit in '09!!