Matsumoto, 4 Days after leaving India:
I don't know where to begin, or what to say. Today's the first day I've had a working computer, plus working internet, all at the same time. I thought i'd be journaling from day one, but honestly, it hasn't been a priority for me as I really did just want to be off screen for a while and looking and seeing and just, getting a sense of things here. Especially important considering how I was ejected out of my last project and thrown straight into this one.
And so much has hapenned.
12 Hours after the Intensive Drama Program finished in Mumbai, I found myself standing here, in Bangkok, looking at this destination departure board. Nothing on it made sense, the black and white dots that were supposed to make letters telling me where things were going, where I should go to get somewhere, all malfunctioning, just like my own inner destination board, unable to make head or tail of what I was doing, where I was going to, where I was coming from.
An hour later, Shez and I were on another plane, to Japan. Its been some time since either of us have left the country for foreign shores. I'd love to romanticize the moment, but there was nothing but blur, bleariness, and taking in the idea that we'd soon be taking in a lot of things and adjusting.
If anything, the only sense I had at the time was dread, an actual fear about stepping into places of 'otherness'. This wasn't the UK, or the US, where western culture was something I knew to negotiate, this wasn't a part of rural India, with which no matter how different, is a space I know how to negotiate and relate to. This was a place I truly felt I did not belong to.
Within 20 minutes of arriving at the Shinjuku Washington, I met the Japan Foundation officers at my hotel lobby for a 30 min 'orientation' that was more of a lets sign paperwork, pay you your stipends for your time here, and arrange to send you on your way tomorrow. Time since IDP, 14 hours. The one thing I wanted, was to try some good Japanese food, a nice place with good Ramen, or some such noodle bar, so off Shez and I went exploring, the labyrinthine tunnels of Shinjuku station (in an effort to cross from West to East). That was the first moment of ... ahh... something nice about somewhere else. I resolved I would eat well this entire trip, and eat slowly, which so far, is going well.
The thing about Tokyo.
After walking around a while, and checking out a few shops in the evening, and looking at the cafe's and the bars, and the technology, and the streets with all their people going, coming, selling, buying, working, doing, bumming. I found myself unable to see anything 'unique' or defining about the city, we could have just switched out the bodies in the clothes that were walking around to be white, middle eastern, or Indian, and conceivably you could have been in any of the nicer downtown commercial districts of Delhi, Kuwait or London. The number of things that have become so generic in the urban space, overpower any sense of distinctiveness. Or is it that I'm only 16 hours post the IDP and really just aren't looking.
And off to Matsumoto.
Luckily enough for us, things were about to change. A good nights sleep at the hotel, a romp around a city park near Shinjuku, and we were on a train out of Tokyo to the more 'provincial' as our JF officer described it, town of Matsumoto. Famous for its castle, and its university, and the fact that its nestled up against the base of the Japanese Alps, which at 3000 meters above sea-level, are beautiful to look at, and reminded Shez and I of coming home to the Nilgiri's.
What is it with my travel/work experiences always putting me in the smaller, provincial cities? I fancied myself to be such a city slicker, and here I am again, if not Nagarbhavi outside Bangalore (back when it was provincial), then Middletown, if not those, then Ipswich, famous for a theatre, and a football club, and when either of those fail to impress, Sagara, in Shimoga, well, now I'm in Matsumoto, which at least has some serious history going in its favour.
As we were pulling into the station, I called up Sankar, my colleague in India who had kindly helped me make the initial conversations with Funatsu for this to happen. He, was pulling into Calicut, on the train which he'd caught the morning after the IDP.
We reached the station, got off, and were promptly received by Funatsu Sensei's TA, who escorted us down to the parking lot, where we ended up meeting Funatsu-san, along with 5 or six of my new-students who happened to be in the area and ended up forming an impromptu welcoming committee. After a brief drive through the town and through the university, we drove out to Ikeda, where Funatsu lives, in a beautiful home, with his amazing musician wife, Emiko-san, they welcomed us in like royalty, laid out a six course meal with as much drink, and ensure that we were comfortable in every way imaginable.
All this, 24 hours after the IDP, and I had class with my 35 Japanese students in 12 hours.
Its late now. I'm sleepy. Our lovely futons are laid out on the wooden floor in my little flat which I will have for the next 7 weeks. More tomorrow, about class, students, the work, and what all could happen here, after we go day trip to Nagano to check out the Edo period temples and architecture there.
Expect to hear 'the story of Eklavya' a version ripped out of its cultural and mythological context, kind of like me at this moment, and a story that Japanese students, engaging in an act of Theatre Making, will create and possess for themselves.
Oyasuminasai, sleep tight.
