Meeting Henk at Fukuoka airport. Together we go to the hotel and go out again for a quick dinner. I am already in Japan for two weeks and feel very at ease and slightly start to know my way around. Henk, who just had been travelling for 26 hours, is very tired and goes back to the hotel to sleep. Mioko, my wife who came with me to Japan, and I go out for a production meeting at Starbucks. Over a mocha frappachino and a icekohi we discus the background philosophy and the movement concepts for the first performance to be done in one week in Hirado. Starbucks closes we talk our way back to our hotel room.
Early morning wake up, eating breakfast with the three of us in a far to chilly room. Air-conditioning is still the thing that bothers me the most in Japan. Unlike the food which is the thing in Japan I like the most. Besides Mioko then. So, after the bus to Sasebo, meeting the first two 12xHolland representatives bringing us swiftly to Tabira harbour in Dutch driving style, transferring to fast fishing-boat crossing over a symbolic sea length, we arrive at Hirado harbour. The rain feels like home, the temperature like holiday, the welcome-committee like something new I don't feel accustomed to. The first speeches give time to recover from a slight amazement by the absurdity of the situation. Trying to think it is normal doesn't help, enjoying it however, does. Two hours later. Our guest house is magnificent. Modern Japanese architecture within the walls of a Buddhist temple. It makes me wish for a very long stay in Hirado. A welcome party at the harbour. I am not really eating, so much to talk, to arrange. Cannot talk to everybody, forget to bring the computer with me and later at home eating convenient store food
11Schedule meeting at 10.00. High school dance performance at 10.45. Forming a group of 13 very motivated high school students to make a performance with. Schedule meeting continuation at 12.15. Quick lunch at 13.25. Phone call to say I am 5 minutes late. 14.05 sight-seeing tour on remains of former Dutch Japanese relations. 16.30 my Japanese sisters in law come to say hello in Hirado-museum. 18.15 waving several familiar and unfamiliar people good-bye at the parking-space in the harbour. 18.30 shopping. 19.00 sudden dinner-party at Mori-san family. 22.30 being drunk, running up and down the stairs behind the temples and church to look for performance space. What a day.
9.00 a.m. meeting with a strong looking major Shirahama in city-hall. I feel a bit too tired and numb in my head. Henk who had been at the Mori-san party as well doesn`t look that awake either. Luckily the major does all the talking. He gives us a beautiful folding screen with drawings as a welcome present. After that looking for a performance location nearby the castle and another harbour. Nice pictures being made, not the perfect site being found. In the afternoon Otska-san brings us to the far end of Ikitsuki island with an amazing view all around. Straight down from the high cliffs the sea brushes the rocks. A great place to commit suicide I will hear later. Payaza, a remote roadhouse by the sea, delivers squid spaghetti and a beautiful sunset. 21.00 we are brought to Mori-san family to have another great time, only this time I try not to drink. I fail.
Daily practice has begun in a nice new build studio 5 km away. The 12xHolland bicycles are a bit dangerous to drive with that far up and down, so every morning somebody will be so kind to bring us over there by car. This first practice is spend on getting the body ready to dance. In the afternoon Yumi Seyama-san, our enthusiastic host, brings us to a deserted beach 20 km away. We have a good time just being there. While swimming I encounter a jellyfish and my motivation to be in the water drops dramatically. A snoozing ride through this beauteous landscape brings us back home again. We cook, for our selves for the first time since long. Finally the yuzukosho, which had been waiting in my luggage for a long time, can spice my food again. A fleet-footed visit to the practice of a modern Haiya dance group follows. After that shodo, calligraphy lesson. The teacher explains a bit about the developmental history by drawing different versions of the character MU which I chose in the beginning. More elaborate practice is promised for next time. This time the teacher will mainly talk and unfortunately for me his enthusiasm makes that he cannot wait for translation to be done. Feeling bored and sleepy. During waiting on the way out I accidentally drop my new digital camera, which upon arrival home appeared to be totally broken. I feel deeply unhappy.
The automatic toilet greets me as usual. I cannot help to say something back. During the daily practice I improvise a bit around the theme of Haiya dance and further doing preparations for the class later that day. In the afternoon the planning falls apart when falling asleep during writing this dairy. On the way to the high-school I see a snake, sleeping in a tree besides the road. The first teaching in Hirado is quite technical Flying Low based material. The students take it pretty well. I am looking forward to tomorrows teaching. Right after that archery class. Japanese teachers seem to like to make students wait I feel. This time I was not yet allowed to touch a bow, only a kind of practice tool upon which the technique of holding a real bow cannot be properly applied. I don't know what to think. From my Dutch point of view it seems hopelessly inefficient, and I feel very impatient. Only three classes and the first one seems to be a bit lost. What is being transmitted through this kind of classes? What do Japanese learn? On the way back home we meet two tanukis, racoon dogs.
First class at an institute for people with a mental limitation. 10 people without a limitation though; the others feel shy and need a safer environment. Then being treated with self-made pickles and fish-cake-hotdogs at a kind of office/home. It is nice to see a bit from the lives of Japanese people with a mental limitation. It looks more open and integrated than I expected. There are even two junior-high-school students on a stage around. No time to hang around too long though. A bit later I enter Yukokan high-school alone. Mioko will come later after bringing the broken camera to the shop. Today we start to really fly low, then some physical theatre as well. Later on the street an enormous appetite makes us decide to do some thorough cultural research at the supermarket. Coming days we will eat a lot of things I never ate before, with yuzukosho of course. In the evening I can go to Machida-san to connection to internet for the first time here.
Feeling very sleepy today. Almost fall asleep during daily training. Luckily three interested people take the effort to come to see us train. We have tea and cookies and a demonstration of intrinsic dance. At home a wonderful nap cannot be postponed any longer. Being fresh, clean and awake in the evening, I am giving the adult dance-teacher group it`s first intrinsic dance experience. I love my job. Later at home, Matsunaga-san is waiting to help to connect the computer to the wireless system of our hosts. An unknown password seems necessary and the operation fails (again). I feel grateful for Matsunaga-sans big effort to help us. Maybe it is better like this. It will reduce the time we are behind the computer.
training and teaching the first children group, I don`t know what to expect. The young girls are very shy at first, later having good fun. After the class Otska sensei brings us to the best place to eat Hirado chanpon, then continues her road. The chanpon is very good indeed. We have a nice talk with the old lady in the restaurant. She is a big sumo-fan and tells me I look like one foreign sumo-wrestler. She gives us potato noodles as a present. They look really tasty.
In the evening Machida-san family brings us to Sasebo to see Yoriko`s theatre performance. It happens in a tiny bar. They made well use of the situation and I think they were acting well, although I did`t understand what they were talking about. In the ride back home we have a picnic in the car.
Full moon over Hirado. Mioko and I walk back through a misty atmosphere in between the old houses and over the ancient stairs up to our temple house. It feels like some other romantic places where we have been before.
I turn around in my sleep. Sudden agonizing pain causes rude awakening. Something long and thin winds away from my pillow. What?!! Find light. Find the thing. Panic stricken cooperation ends up with a 10 cm tall monster in a jar. A Geji Geji would somebody think later at daytime, a Mukade: an oversized centipede with way too thorny legs and a very unpleasant strong bite. Phoning the emergency number: my chances for survival seem to be reasonable. With as much Muhi on my head as possible I try to sleep again.
9 a.m. I really don`t want to do it. My head feels like I have been seriously drinking too much last night. Discipline and more Muhi gets me as far as to the fridge. I stuff food and ginseng pills in my body and drag myself to the cultural centre at the harbour where the Hirado Marathon Walking is waiting for me. 10 km walking with number 7472 on today`s program. The physical exercise and the plenteous sweating make the bad memory of Mukade slowly fade away. I am getting busy with my new Japanese friends, we talk a lot and drink Pocari Sweat on the way. Later Yumi Seyama-san, our wonderful host, passes by in her car. She seems happy to see me but refuses to let me in.
When arriving home Mioko had been cleaning the whole house. Yumi-san offers to take the jar with the imprisoned Mukade with her to kill it. I gladly give it to her. Feeling slightly sick I fall asleep in a clean and Mukade-free bed. After teaching an extra class to the adult dance-teachers group Mioko and I are welcomed at the dinner-party at Seyama-san. The imprisoned Mukade is displayed on the kitchen table. People are thinking very hard about what to do with it. At the end of the party I feel responsible for it and decide to let it free far away from the house. At the harbour Mioko and I are caught by the beauty of the many thousands of flying fish shaving the water. I feel attempted to feed my Mukade to them but start to feel sorry for it so I drop it of at the end of the harbour and go home feeling happy it is out of my life.
Today is a free day. We watch Sumo-wrestling all afternoon and eat nice things. In the evening we visit Ymke`s dance class and afterwards we have apple-juice and supermarket food at her place.
After the daily practice nobody is there to pick us up. We decide to go back on foot. One hour later we arrive back in Hirado after a good trip. We find also nice performance places and make further preparations for my performance coming Sunday. After eating at bay-leaf again we meet Seyama-san family in the car in front of the supermarket.
It strikes me again and again how small this town actually is. This morning I had a phone call about if I was the foreigner which was walking around the church in the middle of the island (20 km away) If so they would have liked to show us around. Another thing what strikes me is that there is such a rich cultural life here. There are so many activities going on here. Calligraphy class if fun this time, I get to practice a lot. I write 無 and 愛 many times. Some are reasonable ok and will be exposed to people later. In the late evening I start to feel at home at Machida-sans office. I am using the internet connection for some time and go home at a time in which there shines only light from the windows of our own house.
At the principles office of Noko elementary school at the other side of the island I am being asked if I was the foreigner which was walking around in Noko area the day before. This is somehow the first time that a foreigner steps foot in this school and they apologize at forehand for the expected timid reactions of their students. The class is big fun though, with 26 children in a big sports hall. They listen amazingly well. In Holland that would have been very different. We get to see school life from inside out when joining the lunch with them. They are allowed to ask me questions. The most important one: what is my favourite food? Afterwards we drive to the harbour. We see some fish in a big basin. An old fisherman lifts the biggest one out of the water for us to see. I am being asked to be on the picture with it. I don`t feel connected to this situation but I like the old man who is being very welcoming to us. Then a little boat arrives with an old couple bringing freshly caught fish at land. I see two fish being killed with a pointy hook. I start to feel doubts about the plan to go fishing myself. In the car again, we are going to see the five story stone pagoda in honour of the spirits of whales and fish. The three story pagoda in Hirado is really big so the sight of this 5 meter high monument slightly failed to meet expectations. But it was actually very beautiful and honest. The drive back home was a bit like the late night television where they show landscapes from river cruises a.o. The rehearsal at Yukokan high is very successful. They start to get it I feel. Kyodo lesson is again a lesson in patience since the teacher fails to remember the appointment. Instead we go to the cultural centre to check the performance space. In there we meet the Haya-dance group busy practicing for coming Sundays festival. I get a little more inspiration for my improvised performance at the same festival.
Today being busy on arranging things, driving with Machida-san by car past different locations; quick visit to the city-hall; fast shopping in Elephant. Next driving to Emukae with Yoriko-san. The mental handicapped people are less shy this time and time seems to fly. After the class we get two home-grown pumpkins as a present. They are so warm and friendly people. Kazue-san comes to pick us up to go back to home. Seyama-san offers to drive us to the cultural centre for the rehearsal with the high-school students. Directly after she comes to pick us up
and drive us to the sashimi restaurant. There we meet Seyama- and Inoue-sans families and a friendly person with a very red face. Henk drops in a little later. Eating today is quite something. We`re being served delicious fish which is so fresh that it is actually still trying to move away from the plate. Shocking! The squid looks at me while I eat away part of its body. It moves its tentacles. I feel guilty and say sorry. But it tastes very good and so I eat another bit saying sorry again. After a very good meal some people persuade me to try to eat a little natto sushi. I feel like puking but I don`t want to waste the good fish so I swallow. No more natto for me, I give up the hope I will ever begin to even like it a little. Inoue-sans and Henk help me to flush away the taste at the cafe a few meters further in the street. Out on the way back to home I see the biggest spider I have ever seen alive, walking on the street. I start to understand why the birds in this town are so big: Their food is big too.
Sleeping only a few hours. In the morning we see the friendly person with the red face now without a red face. He is giving a ceremony at the temple for many old ladies and a few old men. It is interesting to see the religious habits at this Buddhist sect, it reminds me a bit of the Christian ceremonies. Then Hiroko-san brings me to my regular training. As she does every time, she gives me something tasty to drink. I practice for the first time the solo improvisation I am going to do on Sunday. I start to feel a little grip on it, more work to be done though. In the afternoon I meet my Japanese mother and aunt who came over from Nagasaki for a day. We eat tasty champon. While they are visiting the museum I go to the little park 100 meter further to write my dairy. It is nice and quiet in contrast with the museum where many Japanese tourists and being involved in hardcore sight-seeing. A bit further a snake is occupying the road. Making sound seems to make it decide to go to the side again. Before mama and aunt go away we go to eat in the same sashimi restaurant as last night. This time I try to? eat three huge shrimps which are still moving their legs when I put my shop-sticks in the back of their bodies. I will not eat here anymore, I cannot feel the pleasure in eating animals which are still alive and moving. Adult class in the evening, spontaneous movement, things are being shaken around a bit. I feel admiration for my students who seem to be much older than I thought before. Most of them have grandchildren!
Teaching in a new space, it is not so nice as the other space, a bit uncomfortable to dance in. Practice for tomorrows performance is short because of all the arrangements I have to do before. I feel agitated a bit. Class for young people makes me feel better after. In the evening teaching a new adult group in the same space. Tired after. Feel very sleepy.
Today performance. I feel good and reasonably into the material. Performing goes well. Maybe a little too fast. People clap to support me, I feel their support but also their expectation. Afterwards I get attention from the only journalist on the Island. Then hanging around for some time, till a hungry stomach is bringing Henk Mioko and me to yet another champon restaurant. This champon is a little more spicy. Walking back from Henks place we first see tanuki and then a geshi-geshi walking on the stairs to the temple. It looks like 4 connected spiders trying to be a mukade. It walks faster and is a bit surreal.
Rehearsing with high school students. We work hard but are not able to finnish the piece in time. One more rehearsal on Friday. In the evening rehearsal with Yoriko and Mioko in the temple. Yoriko is playing koto. We improvise in the main space, it feels good to do.
Teaching 75 elementary kids for one hour and a half is pretty optimistically thought of I think, but I do it anyway. I had to structure it down a lot so less pleasure for everybody. Eating school lunch again with the children. They are very welcoming me and make effort to make me feel comfortable. I feel touched. I draw the character MU on my bread with chocolate paste, the kids around me draw my face on their bread. After eating writing my name on many papers. Then I try to explain the difference between modernism, postmodernism and what I do with my art to the director of the school. Ruriko-san and Yoriko-san try to help me. I had better try to talk about something we all knew something about maybe. Back in Hirado walking a bit around, meeting Mioko and together we go to what we think is a natural food shop. We get a big surprise when 15 minutes later we are being re-energized laying on a bed connected to some kind of positive energy electrodes. It is really soothing. We stay for almost three hours drinking tea and eating energized food. An extremely shiny fresh looking lady who doesn`t, by far, look like the 73 years she claims to be, explains us all about her research on healthy energy. She gives us a wonderful time and a lot of high energy. Like reborn we step out of the shop and go for a quick dinner. Calligraphy class, the last one. Also Tateishi-san gives us nice presents.
Sleepy again, but very relaxed. In the afternoon we get a power lunch box at Nagomi, the natural food shop where we went yesterday. After eating, sleeping, very deep for a few hours. From six preparations for the improvisation performance with Yoriko and Mioko at our home temple Komyoji. At 20.15 people start to stream in. It is a nice group of 50 people, very nice for this space. At 20.30 we start. Improvisation for half an hour. I have to see the video to know if it was good or not. The people seem to have liked it. Afterwards we continue our meal at Seyama-san with some people from 12xHolland.
Otska-sensei and Hiroko-san bring us to Chubu Junior High School. In the car we listen Pink Lady- UFO. Arriving there they only have girls coming to my class, 30 of them all 15 years old. It`s an easy class somehow. In the afternoon Otska-sensei and Kazue-san drive us to the 3th lesson in Emukae. The group there starts to know me and we get more and more fun every time. Mioko and I want to go to onzen tonight but somehow we don`t manage. There are too many little things to be done.
Miokos birthday, but no time to celebrate. Chubu junior High School again with two classes of 30x14 and 30x13, girls. Then flying low with Jukokan and after working with Otska-sensei adult class. They brought a chocolate pie for Mioko, which we are going to eat with mama-san and her customers at the bar. Otska-sensei is treating us. We have a good time singing and dancing.
In the morning a bit time for tomorrows performance. What to do? Then practice with the children in the park. After that preparing a lot of things for tomorrow and in the evening the 2nd class for the amateur adult group. Having a great time together.
Today is somehow a big day. I show five performances with four groups in one day. It is a little busy but everything seems to get together rather smooth with a bit of delay happening here and there resulting in 45 minutes delay at the end. There is a reasonable amount of audience although most of them are somehow part of the 12xHolland circle. The stair-performance is going very well. We got only 1 hour to work on this one but somehow it work very clear and with a mysterious atmosphere. The improvisation with Nagano-san on Tuba, Machida-san on Flute and Mioko and me dancing went reasonably ok. I was very busy in my head with all the arrangements so it was a bit hard for me to arrive in performance-mode. I think Mioko dancing with Machida-sans music in that park was very nice. Also it was nice experience to dance on Tuba music for me. The rooftop performance with seven people spread over the whole town being watched from a high point in the park could have been a little clearer, it is a pity we could not rehearse this before. The children performance was cute and energetic danced with pleasure. And also the last piece with Yukokan High School students went very well. I felt they deserved more audience. After the performances saying goodbye to Mioko who is directly continuing to Nagasaki. She will leave for Holland one week before me. Then the ladies of Otska sensei bring me to a restaurant trying to get me drunk a little. It was a interesting ending of such a full day.
All the work has been done. I sleep until late in the morning and during the rest of the day until 6 AM I try to make a DVD of the performances. In between, while the computer is thinking about it I go to Nagomi to recharge myself again, connecting to that energy thing. I am offered really tasty food and they talk with me a long time. I have so many questions for them.
The DVD failed and I try again. Later I go with Miyoko-san for a little walk around temples and graveyards. We get bitten by many mosquitoes. The fortune telling paper we buy on our way tells that I have good luck these days. After that I go to Nagomi again to recharge before we go out for dinner. They invited me. The rest of the evening is spend with good food and interesting talk. The rest of the night is spend with the computer.
I wake up and see that the computer actually managed to make a DVD. I prepare the next one and continue to sleep at the Nagomi recharger. I start to feel at home there since I find myself there almost everyday. After a good lunch I make a video portrait of all the buddha statues that I find on my way. There are so many. Then Ymke phones me with the news that she got my camera from the repair. I feel so happy, I almost did not have the chance to use it here in Hirado and there were many moments I have seen beautiful images in the landscape. I thought I would cook tonight but then I find myself in the sashimi restaurant again in which I promised myself never to come again. The atmosphere is so nice and I eat only fish that is already dead before I put it in my mouth. I even drink a bit of sake and have an amusing time overacting severe drunkenness. Before it actually comes to that point I decide to go back home leaving Henk and Inoue-san in the caring hands of mama-san.
Busy schedule today. First relaxing in Nagomi then shopping with Yumi-san. The last workshop in Emukae is after. Arriving back in Hirado visiting Yukokan High School to deliver the DVD. Only 2 of my group are there. I felt like dancing more but it could not happen. Then going to onzen-bath with Yumi-san and 3 teenage boys. The boys and I go in a separate bath. I felt shy at first but they also and thus in the end nobody was. Then appointment with Ymke and Henk, first being overruled by the 12xHolland party crew, ending up in a nice chat and a cup of tea at my apartment. Then Party again! Today we celebrate Yumi-sans birthday. The atmosphere is nice and relaxed as every night. Some people getting drunk (as every night). Then seeing a scary movie.
Somehow it is the last day. Busy with cleaning, making the last pictures relaxing at Nagomi, farewell party. Speech again exchanging email addresses. I am happy the Yukokan students come to the party as well. After that karaoke with the lot. I managed not to sing until the last song. Queen. I am manage to enjoy. Then Otska-sensei and her dance team pick me up at the karaoke for a nice drink at her place. Somewhere in the night I returned to my place....
Writing my diary and cleaning the house. I feel a bit sad leaving this town.
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