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A half-reluctant 3 days holiday trip to Yamanashi Highlands had me reliving the forgotten horrors of an organized group tour. Sponsored by a certain Rotary Club, whose members have affliations with my former Japanese language school, I had fatally commited my name a month ago, thinking perhaps I could meet up with some of my old friends, most of whom didn’t turn up anyway. So after checking into the hotel the “program” started as we were ferried from place to place, touch and go travelling, stopping at one souvenir town after another till I was sure I won’t survive till day three.

And what’s with the incessant photo taking ?? Sure, I mean if the scenery’s justifiably beautiful and all, but the crazied lot were snapping everywhere they went, outside a cliched souvenir shop, front of the roadside, long as they could find a place to stand. This lady, seeing me grieving in pain outside the souvenir shop, came up and asked : ” Say, you don’t like taking pictures ? ”

Silence.

No more group tours for me.

I dunno which galaxy these guys came from, but on the planet where I live, and I’m no linguistic expert here either, I dare wager desert dwellers in Mongolia sure as hell don’t speak Cantonese ( Lei hai bingor ? ). Cracked me up. Still, John Moore’s remake of the film Flight of the Phoenix does happen on this planet no ? Confusing.

Anyway, a phonecall from my concerned mother regarding the earthquake ( happens intermittently here, most Tokyoites including myself have learnt to be fairly nonchalant about it, unless the roof actually comes down on our heads. ) had me assuring her that all was fine ( I keep reminding her half-jokingly that if the Big One were to visit, which by the way is overdue for Tokyo, myself, together with half of Tokyo’s population would have long since coalesced with the remaining rubble by the time news hit Singapore shores. ) Anyway, passing the phone over to my brother as we caught up a bit I realized to my absolute horror I haven’t spoken english for so long it sounded…wierd, foreign even. Like that part in Dances With Wolves, if you know what I mean. Couple that with my half_f**ked Japanese, too, and a nightmarish evening is complete, together with cantonese speaking Mongolian desert dwellers.

An invitation from my good friends Takeshi+Kojima for a summer vacation in Takeshi’s hometown Gunma ( a largely rural prefecture north of Tokyo, very Riri ShuShu-ish. ) was an excellent way to kickstart the vacation, although temperatures there soared to a searing 37.1 degrees as we arrived, threatening to set my short crop on fire. This time round armed with a video camera documentation was high on the tasklist, and the highlights certainly had to include a drive up mountain Akagiyama ( home to the manga and film Initial D, although the drive up the winding roads gave me none of that “need for speed” gusto but a splitting headache instead. ), as well as the annual Takasaki summer festival, complete with fireworks and folkdances.

In one of the ending sequences from Iwai Shunji’s Hana and Alice, Alice, one half of the film’s 2 main protaganists, turns up for a teenage magazine covergirl audition. Having been scouted by a talent agency early in the film but with several botched auditions so far ( including an excruciatingly hilarious Kitkat CM screentest ), she attends unenthusiastically, nonchalant at best. As her turn arrives she is quizzed on by the young hotshot director ( a cameo neatly performed by Osawa Takao, star of Sekainochushinde, aiwosakebu )about what she can do, but is quickly dismissed after replying “ballet”.

Unbeknownst to herself, she quips : ” Can I dance for real ? ” Taken aback by her spontaneity the director nods, and she arabesques away, the audition long forgotten as she lost herself in her own world of ballet. This burst of creative emancipation reminds me fondly of my own interview ( with a panel of 10 judges ) during my scholarship selection, for when quizzed on matters of filmmaking I had started out quivering but was soon taken over by a true sense of affection for the subject, and it can be truly wondrous to care passionately about something. Well, so I think.

A bbq party by the Arakawa River. Now these folks are really a lot crazier than they look. Photo courtesy of Mayo.

A new start calls for a fresh look, here in Japan as the seasons finally come full circle the blooming of the Cherry Blossoms symbolizes new beginnings, as with the commencement of my film school. Today folks from the various Borderless Tokyo houses got together for a Hanami party in Koganei Park, a cosmopolitan mix from Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, France, Germany, Korea, Australia, China and Sweden, and despite the dusty gails in the park sweeping in every now and then peppering our food with cherry blossom petals spirits were high as everyone got acquainted quickly, certainly the photo speaks just as much. These crazy blokes !

I’m absolutely getting spoilt by my new Japanese friends. Check out the Takoyaki !

Anyway, here’s the hilarious introduction written on me at the Borderless Tokyo website by Yoshi-san, our fantastic manager :

Mar. 23 Welcome! Yonghow! (Tanashi-house)

The star of Singapore Yonghow is moving in Tanashi-house!
He’s been to Japan for 1 year. so his Japanese is quite good!
He loves Shunji Iwai’s film and is learning this kind of thing in Japan.
Your website is really cool, Yonghow!!
Be friendly with him, everybody!!

On my way home yesterday evening after a short bicycle recky around the new neighbourhood 2 uniformed high school girls, also on bikes pedalled past me, engaged in mundane school talk. As I trailed behind them the setting sun right in front of us spilled a dazzling golden halo around the 2 girls, the light catching every strand of their billowing hair, illuminating it like stokes of white flame. Had that moment been caught on film it would have made a very fitting, Iwai-ish number.

Anyway, the folks at Tanashi treated me to a sumptous Nabe welcome dinner, Kimchi style. L to R here we have Masako, Maiko, Youngjae and Ryoko. After dinner we embarked on the arduous task of clearing up the fridge ( we have 2 here ), for one of the setbacks of communal fridge usage is that you often find food stashed since the last century, forgotten realms hidden in the dark corners, severed and half decomposed fingers, etc. Thank goodness there were none today other than a mini mushroom farmbed in a tub of yogurt, dating back to Byzantine period.

Below : A shot of my room. Moody eh ?

House moving is slated for the 23rd, a rainy day has been forecasted. I hope the powers that be cut me a break because I’ve never fancied sleeping on a waterbed. Anyway, a glimpse of my home at Borderless Tokyo for the next 2 years, Kokusaikouryuukyoukai, or International Exchange Society. ( above : a view from my room, Below : Banner at main entrance ) Think a Japanese version of the Spanish Apartment, but with alot less sex. I think. Well they did say they’re going to party every month…

I knew the first day when I moved into Domire-Meguro as an avid fan of Iwai Shunji’s films that I have found some very special, kindred souls. ( see comparison picture below ). Any self respecting Iwai Shunji fan will no doubt remember the hallmark library window/curtain scene in Love Letter, and Takeshi+Kojima did so much as to install that exact mise en scene in our very own kitchen. What a bunch of Romantics !! :]

As I prepare to move on to my new home come next week at Borderless Tokyo, I shall however remember my memorable and unforgettable days in Domire-Meguro, so lucid they were it seemed just like yesterday.

Believe me when I say that its a once in a lifetime fortuity to have been able to catch the Mucha Exhibition on at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, quite simply because 1) 100 pieces from the exhibition have never been allowed abroad till now, 2) its Mucha, champion of the Art Nouveau movement and 3)I’m his absolute, complete acolyte, right up there with Waterhouse. His advant garde illustration style was light years ahead during his era and even in recent times as countless artists feverishly copied, imitated, duplicated none ever reproduced anything as stunning as did Mucha himself. Even if anyone came close, Mucha would have beaten them a full hundred years ahead. At the end of my visit that day as I was hurried out by the curators my eyes were painfully strained having pored over every single piece of his amazing works.

PS Why are so many friends from Netherlands checking out this post ? Is there an event going on ? Please let do leave a comment and let me know why.

My first home vacation since I left for Japan 10 months ago to pursue my film studies has just ended with 20 days and 11 films. That meant one film watched every other day but cramped in between catching up with good friends and equally good food I wished I could have squeezed in time for a couple more. Hitherto Mike Nichols superbly crafted Closer wraps up the trip and as much as I would say the highlight of the film was seeing Natalie Portman dressed ( hardly I mean ) in a sexy thong much appeal is also attributed to the exceptional screenplay by Patrick Marber ( who also wrote the original play that this film was based on ) Indeed the 10 month hiatus has left my already subpar english language even more diminished so I was neither intellectually nor linguistically capable of appreciating the nuances in the delivered lines as much as I wished I could, so owning the dvd would be a plus. ( nonono, its not about Natalie Portman and her thong, mostly no. )

With that, till next year and see you guys back in Tokyo.