paths intersecting

A Study on Footsteps in Shimokitazawa

Genre: Waltz-Ballet
BPM: 73

-A young woman in blue jeans and a beige top sways nervously in her footsteps. Perhaps lost. Perhaps confused. Perhaps wanting to be lost.










Genre: Early 60's down tempo Jazz
BPM: 85

- A man walks by in a white t-shirt, his tennis shoes dragging along the brick covered ground, producing a sliding sound similar to Jazz brush drumming, jumbled into poly-rhythms by his uneven, wandering steps.










Genre: Late 80's Hip-Hop
BPM: 90

-A man with a black pork pie hat and matching thick rimmed spectacles walks by with a 4/4 human-esque swing; perhaps due to a damaged knee, perhaps a conscious effort at coolness. Either way producing an unevenly flowing, but human rhythm, reminiscent of the imperfection of early sampled hip-hop beats.

8,000 Steps

Today i had a student, an older - probably early 50's - business man, who arrived to my lesson about 10 minutes late. He explained that the health insurance division of his company had distributed walking meters to his company's employees as a way to promote a healthy lifestyle through walking. He said that the average person walks around 17,000 steps a day and that a sort of competition to see who could take the most steps had arisen within his division. He continued to explain that he was late because he had a meeting that finished early so he decided to take a walk from Tokyo station to Yotsuya - a distance of seven train stations; 8,000 steps - to get in the lead of the competition.

goodnight moon

Permanent Vacation (part 2 of 2)

We decided to go get some Ramen and then go to a bar. On the way back we all rushed to look beyond the fence where some students were doing militant exercises. Some friends of mine met these two girls who were into Iggy Pop and Blondie. I tried hard to remember the names 'The Idiot' and 'Lust for Life'. We passed a wedding dress store, everyone seemed to think it was funny I was taking a picture of it. I told everyone we had to stop by the bape store, on the way. We walked in the entrance and admired the flashing colored lights and the shoes on the conveyor belt below the glass. Then we went to the Ramen shop. I was shocked that my friend ordered rice at a Ramen shop. I asked him if he would have sex with a girl in a stuffed animal costume. He was just as shocked as I was about the ramen, but everyone had a laugh. The Ramen was really good. I ate no.16, there were like 50 choices. Then we went to the bar, the 300 yen bar. We drank there fore about 5 hours. It was all quite amusing. I watched a little bit of the baseball game, the Tokyo Giants lost to the Chunichi Dragons. I saw my friend Bashico there. He came with his friend Mike, who is from England. He has his own English school and a record label called, Beetlejuice. I remember ranting on about politics spontaneously. Around 1, we had to catch the last train, so we rushed out. One of the girls we were with bought us all cheeseburgers from Macdonalds. We got on the train, Tim was wearing his woman's purple coat. He gave his lilo and stitch stuffed animal to this woman standing with her boyfriend. I wasn't sure if she was happy or not. Finally we got off the train at Kajigaya. We went into the convenience store and got some snacks. Apparently Roland and Tim drink with the clerk, they told him to come over later. I wanted to go home, but they insisted I come over for a few drinks. I came in and everyone posed for the camera wearing the purple coat. I drank a beer and then decided to go home. It was a long day.

29 seconds of free fall

Things one would not otherwise see

I came across this memorial at Sloans lake park in Denver. This person was obviously loved and cherished, he was someone's brother, father, grandfather, lover, and partner. I walked by it on the way through the park with Sunny, I couldn't get over how modest it was... it truly was a memorial for the sake of remembering, and not based on of a mess of pretension. It wasn't something you would normally see in a park, I mean this style of memorial is site specific to highways.... so, did this person die here, or was is just their favorite place. What made this place special to this family and the person who had passed on, what made it special to me? Anyway, while I was walking through the park with Sunny it grabbed my attention, and I guess it's still pulling at it now. I am thankful this walk, my feet, and my life... and for being part of another's public remembrance of their own life, loss, and affection.

Permanent Vacation (part 1)

Today is my vacation. Last night I drank whiskey until 3 am. I woke up this morning in my bed with the light on. I was hungover, but I felt excited to be on vacation. Yesterday was my last day at my job. I cooked some eggs, and had a shower. I was planning on meeting my friend, Troy in Harajuku. Tim called me and said to come over and have some whiskey before I go. I got over there around 2. We had a few drinks and chatted about the state of affairs, and religion. Ken was hanging out with us. He's on his way to Hokkaido tomorrow to work at a ski resort. He told us about how in Kansas they teach religion in schools based on the premise that the existence of god cannot be proven, so a group of people created their own religion. Its called The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster(look it up on wikipedia). So after a few stories, I finally convinced everyone to go with me. Of course I was already late meeting my other friend. So we all got on the train to Shibuya. It was just mad in Shibuya. We immediately got separated because of all the crowds. So we just decided to keep walking and wait for a call. We got to the convenience store to buy some beers. The line was about 20 people long, which I've never seen before in a convenience store. I got a beer and some salt and onion chips. We got outside and the other guys found us. We walked a little more. At the end of the street there was a fountain and some people dressed in Anime costumes. My friend tried to talk and sit down next to this one girl, but I guess he was coming on a little too strong, so we kept moving. There was an earth market happening. Organic vegetables and hand made crafts lined the pedestrian street. Some people were making Tatami mats, and another guy had some unique instruments for sale. After that it was street musicians. I was a little buzzed from the alcohol and the crowded streets. The first performance was a group of six girls imitating some idol group. Then there was a guitarist playing alone with his black brimmed hat and studded leather belt. And then there was the guy dressed in green looking like a leprachuan. We started singing with him, but after 30 seconds I lost my attention. Then my favorite was this guy who had a big white round mask with a face painted on it and wore a blue jumpsuit. When I walked up to him he spoke to me in Japanese through some sort of audio microphone filter which made him sound like a robot. He was writing Japanese on cards and giving them away. My friend got one. At the end of this street there were a bunch of street vendors. Tim got some okonomiyaki. We sat down next to these two girls who were studying Japanese from Korea. They were here for only a month. At this point I told my friend who was still waiting in Harajuku to come down to where we were at. There was just too much distraction to move any further. So I walked around a flea market next to all the street vendors. A couple were meditating, there was a pony you could ride, over in the band shell some Taiko drummers were performing. One stall had a couple of gigantic dogs from Germany. And then there was all the cheap clothes. People were selling them for as cheap as 100 yen an item. Groups of women were digging through heaps of them. There were rows and rows of old sneakers. At one point my friend, Austin, was stopped by one of the vendors, they were handing him things to try on. Eventually they just gave him a hat for free. Then I was walking around with Ken, he said he was sad to leave Tokyo especially after just witnessing all of this. Finally my friend Troy called, and I met him at the bottom of these stairs. We grabbed a beer and then ran into this American guy who was asking us about finding jobs in Japan. He came over here to do interviews, but was having a real hard time getting a job. Then we walked back over to the guys who were now trying on strange clothes. I took some pictures of everyone. It was quite amusing. Then Mark and I sat down and chatted about women. He told me he wanted to marry his girlfriend and have lots of children. We all sat around there. Ken started rapping about Tim's new costume. I took a video of it. The sun began to set. It was a fantastic afternoon, a little drunk in the comfortable autumn air.

Shimokitazawa

from Rob