You are sort of there: DC & Zac's Japan Trip (January 6 - 21, 2014)

Day 1: Tokyo




Lodgings: Granbell Hotel Shibuya




Burned my right hand with hot coffee. (top) morning damage. (bottom) damage by the evening



Lunch: Vegan Healing Cafe, Shibuya












explored Nakano Broadway





rode Thunder Dolphin Roller Coaster, Tokyo Dome






Dinner: Dhaba India, Chuo




Day 2: Travel (Tokyo -> Naoshima)











Day 3: Naoshima







Lodgings: The Oval Hotel















explored The Art Houses Project














explored Chichu Art Museum








experienced James Turrell 'Open Sky'








Dinner: Restaurant Issen




Day 4: Inujima Island & Naoshima










Lodgings: Benesse House Park Hotel
































Inujima: Seirensho Art Museum& The Art Houses Project




Day 5: Teshima Island & Naoshima



























explored Teshima Museum& The Art Houses Project




Day 6: Travel (Naoshima -> Kagoshima)


















Lodgings: Rembrandt Hotel, Kagoshima




Day 7: Travel (Kagoshima -> Yakushima)
















Lodgings: Sankara Hotel, Yakushima




Day 8: Yakushima






Breakfast: Sankara Osas restaurant






























explored Yakusugi Forest








Dinner: Sankara Osas restaurant







Day 9: Travel (Yakushima -> Tokyo)



















Lodgings: Hotel Claska, Meguro




Day 10: Tokyo



























explored LED/OLED Lighting Technology Expo 2014, Tokyo Big Sight














explored Fake Tokyo (Candy, Sister), Shibuya









Dinner: Salsita, Hiroo




Day 11: Tokyo






lunch & meeting with Fujiko Nakaya, Harajuku


























explored Dog





explored Bedrock






explored Swagger




Day 12: Tokyo


















experienced 2014 January Grand Sumo Tournament



coffee & visit with Paul Curran, Shibuya
















explored Mandarake, Shibuya




Day 13: Tokyo


My burned hand on the last day

















explored Miraikan Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Daiba
























explored Kita-Kore (Hayatochi, Nincompoop Capacity, Garter, ilil, Secret Dog), Koenji














explored Itoya, Ginza















explored Dover Street Market, Ginza











Dinner w/ Fujiko Nakaya: Itosho, Minato




*

p.s. Hey. So, that's the trip, or, rather, a selection of stuff we saw and did on the trip that can be represented in pix, and if any of that stuff up there causes you to want more details or whatever, please feel free to ask. ** White tiger, Hi, pal. It was, yes. ** Martin Bladh, Great, thank you, man! ** Lee, Hi, Lee. Shit, your email. I'll write you today. Between my fading lag and catching up, I'm behind, but, yeah. Sweet said thing, me? Cool. The cryptic gets some of my love's vote too, for sure. Best to you, buddy. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Oh, well, I think I agree with everything you wrote, so, yeah, I was elsewhere in my thinking, I guess. ** Steevee, Hi. I don't think David was saying that being gay automatically cements a critical perspective, was he? I thought he meant that it lends you an inherent, given "in" re: a critical perspective, a leg up or critical step back or whatever, that one can see as a valuable gift to employ or not, I guess depending on one's need for mass acceptance? I don't know. Oh, it's a doc about Benning and Linklater? Then I got that wrong. I thought it was an actual collaborative film for some reason. Well, that sounds interesting, and I'd love to see that, but it's a lot less interesting than imagining their talent meld. You spoke about Serge Daney? Wow, cool. Does the text of your talk exist anywhere? I love Daney. That's worrying and grim news about St. Marks. $200,000 is a lot of money. Oh, man, that doesn't good at all. That's scary. Great that you 'Freelance Pallbearers'! Let me know what you think. I love that novel. ** Gary gray, I'm so glad to hear that the multi-leveled therapy is helping. It sounds great, obviously. Wonderful, man. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Yeah, I don't understand that 20% thing either. It's really hard for me to think longterm about money and its preservation and about income growth, etc., although I try. I don't think I ever totally outgrew the magical thinking about money that I had as kid, and even though that's made my life pretty up and down and unstable financially, I think it was ultimately for the best maybe. Yeah, dark glasses, lots of sunblock, ... a bunch of really practical things. There's this street on the Left Bank that's kind of the unofficial "camping gear store" street in Paris that I stumbled across a few months ago, and I guess we'll probably go there and trawl the wares. I need to make a list. ** Marilyn Roxie, Hi, Marilyn! Really great to see you! Thanks a bunch about my poetry book. I look forward to actually seeing a copy of that myself one of these days. Adult cam modeling, interesting. Like via one of those sites/businesses or independently and on your own initiative or ... ? I'll bet, about the ensuing stories. Is it purely a money making thing or for a project you're doing or both or neither? ** Torn porter, Hi, man. Yeah, I'll be here. Menilmontant, cool, that's not so far away from where I am. I'll email you my coordinates and contact stuff, or you can send me your cell # or whatever too, if you like: dcooperweb@gmail.com. Paris rules, but I'm glad you're settling in there to the point of digging England. It's grey here too, at least right now, very grey and mostly wet. Be prepared. Mm, there are sound art things on all three of the islands, I think. Teshima has the Boltanksi house, which is pretty sound-y, but I think that's the only "sound" work there. Yeah, I saw the Turrell retro in LA, and the Guggenheim one in NYC too. Hard to compare. The LA retro was particularly valuable because it included one of his "perpetual cell" pieces, and that was completely mind-blowing. Zac loves Turrell's work a lot, as do I. We're going to try to get get to Roden Crater as soon as it finally opens. ** Unknown, Wow, hi, Terrence! What an honor and pleasure to see you here! Great, thank you! I hope I'll be here in early April. I think so. Sucks that there's no Paris gig, but Brussels is quite and easily doable, so I'll do my best to get up there for that. Any chance you'll pass through Paris personally at any point? Thanks so much again for stopping in here, sir. ** Kyler, Hi. I kind of have a guilty pleasure wish to see 'Saving Mr. Banks' too, being a fellow Disney kid, although Tom Hanks is always the opposite of a spoonful of sugar for me, at least in theory. ** Sypha, Hi, James. Yeah, well, vacationing is the right word, I guess, but sounds weird, at least in theory, 'cos I imagine it being a pretty challenging time, although I guess vacationing and challenging aren't antithetical, so never mind. I hope this "off' week goes as planned and splendidly as planned. ** Jax, Hi, Jack! You have had an interesting year, wow. That's a lot. Cool. The ride is definitely the point, I agree. Or the ride is the end point, I guess. I don't think I know Zinnie Harris's stuff, but I'll go look her up. Huh, very interesting about the challenge of backpedalling dialogue for image. I mean, I know you saw one piece of Gisele's, but working with her is def. about the images being the most important part of the work, with wordage as the images' ghosts and skeletons and knife wounds and stuff. So, yeah, I think it has to be somehow very fruitful to try to work in accordance with Harris's notions of theater. How can it hurt, right? And you'll either get into that approach, or it will only reinforce your sense of the kind of theater you've wanted to make and are maybe best suited to make. Architecture = structure I think, yeah. I guess the only real difference is that architecture is a three-dimensional concept, so it makes sense for it to be used re: theater, although I know I try to think architecturally vis-à-vis the novel so it'll have a sense of internal space or something. The goat in 'Them' ... hm, well, it definitely wasn't my idea, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure that it was Ishmael's idea. Oh, man, about the split with Nicky. That is weird, but you basically sound okay with it, or that you know it was the time for that. I think I know what you mean about 'done my job', yeah. I do think I understand that. Uh, my pal Zac and I go to Patagonia/Antarctica on Feb. 11 for a month. We're going because, uh, well, it's one of Zac's dreams in life to go there, so that's why he's going, and I'm going because it's an intense seeming thing to do and because I really love traveling with Zac, I guess. New novel is happening, yeah. So far so good. Well, ha ha, I don't think I can catch you up on all my recent stuff in one exchange, so stick around, man, and we'll unfold each other's recent histories in detail. ** Thomas Moronic, T! Will you go to China with him at some point? That would really fascinating, no? New Xiu Xiu advance! Sweet. Anxious for it. I don't like his Nina Simone record much at all, but a proper new album, oh boy! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Exciting about the progress you're making on your new novel! Your confidence in that regard is very heartening and promising. Cool. I don't think I have general guidelines about that. I've tried various approaches and timings, and I've never found one plan that worked in a general way. For me, each novel begs for a unique way of doing that or something. I guess I try to get as in touch with my intuition as I can, and then, if there's a question of what modus to adopt, I try out different ones, and I try to feel if I'm going at the work in the wrong way as quickly as I can. I guess I tend to work on novels holistically a lot. I guess I'm really into building structures within the work itself and seeing that as creating a freedom to be much more intuitive in the hands-on work and re: my thinking about when and how to fulfill the structures' needs or something, if that makes any sense. ** _Black_Acrylic, I'm so glad you liked 'Stemple Pass'! That's wonderful! I'm really happy to know that my introduction had that pay off. Thanks, Ben! ** Flit, I goes really well, M8-y. And you/yours? ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Thank you a huge ton again for the post. Yeah, super exciting about your getting the Alt Lit Gossip steerage. It seems like it would be a lot of work. How that place works has always been so mysterious, sort of like Frank herself, I guess. Hugs and firm, enthusiastic handshakes in return. ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul! The jet lag hasn't been that awful, but I always give it about a week before I place a value judgement on the version that I've been given. But it's been .. okay. Blurb, yes, pre-voyage, for sure. Wonderful about the Fragments Five Years post! Thank you so much! Right, I remember GS from your post. For some reason, the beauty of that name didn't hit home until now. I'll check the clip of them, cool, thanks! I listened to Michael's Brad Listi interview yesterday. Nice. He sounds amazingly like I have always imagined he would sound. ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hi, pal. It goes good, thanks. Yep, setting sail yet again, and then I'll be mostly in Paris after that for quite a while 'cos it's going to be heavy projects/work year. Antarctica is fairly accessible. There are a number of ways to get there by ship, but you need to get to this port in southern Argentina to do them, so that adds time/expense/etc. You can do a flyover from Australia in an old jet, but looking at it through little plane windows doesn't sound like enough. I haven't heard the new Actress album yet, no. Wow, it sounds really good. Makes some kind of sense if he's gone in the Raime/DS direction. I'll see if I can download that today. I'm about to start catching up on new music now. With the traveling, I got kind of behind, so I'll let you know what I find and like a lot soon. Any tips you have would be most, most welcome. ** Okay. You can go back up and look at photos of the Japan that Zac and I saw in person now, if you like. And I will see you back here tomorrow.