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February 11, 2005
Found My Guesthouse
It’s Friday, and I wake up at Eric’s place along with Sun. We all walked to Roppongi. Eric had volunteered to front me the cash for my deposit on the Guest House / Apt I will be moving into, so he went a withdrew a large sum of cash for me, which I soon take to the fudousan of my new place. After all the paper work, a young, nice Japanese guy drove me out to the apartment. we talked for most the time about Sakura House, the closest direct competitor to Fontana (the housing company i am using now), and how it was different / better / worse, etc. We also talked about how i hate cars, and don’t want to live in California (or socal and LA more specifically), but probably will some day because all my best friends, and my Moms are there.
This was the longest conversation I’ve had in japanese in a long time, and as such I always come out thinking that I really need to get a tutor, start studying again, or at least talk to someone regularly, as I’ve come far enough to be able to have a halfway decent conversation, but am always frustrated at not being able to really articulate many aspects and nuances of what i want to say. Of course, there is a certain amount of letting go, and expressing things only at the highest resolution that one is capable of. Incidentally, this may often lead to an unintended impression of yourself, or a strange and jilted rendering of the opinions you actually have. This is actually somewhat fascinating, like passing your personality through a sort of filter, and not being completely in control of how that will change its output.
Anyhow, I got my apartment, though I didn’t actually move my luggage there yet, and left back for Eric’s. I got off at Hiroo station, it was dark out, and I started walking the wrong way. This made me a bit late coming back. He calls and says hes going to dinner with Ando and friends, but I decide not to go, instead getting some cheap-ass food at a conbini, and eating back at his place which watching the Gus Van Sant film Elephant, followed by the Ben Stiller / Owen Wilson rendition of Starsky and Hutch. I enjoyed both. At some point during those films I talked to my friend Grace on the phone, whom I hadn’t seen yet since arriving back in Tokyo. She says she’s going to a club later, so I agree to meet her at Hachiko at 11. We meet up, go for a drink, meet a bunch more of her friends, then go to La Fabrique, some French-owned Tokyo club. We wait for a while to get in, its really fucking crowded and it ends up that it’s not really my cup of tea, so I leave a little bit before 3, leaving the whole posse I showed up with to dance the night away.
I return to Eric’s place instead of my new apartment, which would mean an expensive taxi ride. Upon arriving around 3:30 am or so, I am surprised to show up at an empty apartment. I go to sleep, and am awoken some brief length of time after by Eric and Sun, who say i missed an amazing night out with them, which saw DJ sets by Sun’s friends DJ Codomo (yes, he spells it with a ‘C’), and Mooog Yamamoto of Buffalo Daughter, who Sun (and Eric for that matter), says played probably the best DJ set he’s ever heard in his life, in musically chronological and evolutionary order, completely fulfilling on a rump-shaking, as well as intellectual, and curatorial level.
Posted by shane at February 11, 2005 06:46 PM