My friend Kenta is an awesome artist. We met up for lunch and coffee on Sunday, in Nishi-Ogikubo. He knew a cool organic restaurant there. The food was delicious, we both had the vegetarian set. I loved the use of a peanut as a chopstick rest.
After lunch we wandered around and found one of those little old-school Japanese style coffee shops, full of the owners eccentric tastes - an owl hooted every time someone walked through the door, the walls were covered in old clocks and strange memorabilia and dozens of chandeliers hung from the ceiling. In one corner there was a traditional kitchen hearth complete with iron fish-hook suspended above the fireplace.
We sat and talked for hours. He's an interesting guy. He cycled from Tokyo to Bangkok via China, lived in Thailand for a long time, travelled all over Asia, parts of Australia and Samoa and speaks English and Thai equally fluently. His whole life is documented in the most beautiful diaries, most pages with drawings he made for each day.
These pages were written in Thailand.
This was a poem and sketch he made for his Granddad. He had died a month before but his Mum didn't tell him because she didn't want him to cut his trip short.
This was in Malaysia.
He's just had one of his designs put on a tee-shirt at Patagonia and dreams of a simple life where he can travel and draw every day, instead of working in a Thai kitchen as a cook 6 days a week. His portfolio is seriously awesome.
We hugged our farewells on the train platform - he was off to Shibuya to check the in-store display of his shirt at Patagonia, and I was off home to write epitaphs. As I went, I looked at all the rushing people around me and wondered what their dreams are, and if they'll ever achieve them before the grind of daily life crushes all their fire into ash. God, I hope I do. And I really hope Kenta does too. The phrase "leap and the net will appear" is ringing in my head louder than ever.
Martine wrote this on October 10, 2007 1:17 PM
Comments
David Cotton said:
NIKE was a lot more sincere than people make them out to be when they came up with the JUST DO IT slogan. So...what are you waiting for JUST DO IT !
WOW absolutely WOW! Those diaries look simply breathtaking, a life's work!
Where is this little organic gem in Nishi-ogi you speak of?
On October 10, 2007 10:26 PM,
innocentgirl said:
Aunty Marty, lap up that organic Japanese food while you can! I miss it! I would love to meet Kenta, his journals are brilliant. I am always on the look out for Japanese artists as I am applying for a grant through Asialink to bring some out here to exhibit there work. If he's interested let me know. I have journals just like his from my time in Japan, scribbled in while in between classes at school, they feed me ideas and feelings for new works still!
re: dreams; I think it really helps when we work out what it is you really want, be the architect of your own life .... start building Marty!
i sense some big changes are on the horizon...
i am excited for you...
On October 11, 2007 6:44 PM,
Uncle Don said:
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
- Anais Nin
Yes I am still alive Martine and living in Ichikawa. I wish we would all take this good advice. You are happy and there is not much else that is important ay.
Uncle Don
Oh my God. Those diaries made me weep with beauty. They are magical. They should be buried and dug up in 100 years time and poured over.
They should be buried with your pictures of them.
Because they are lovely too.
Martine, you are just brimming with something.
Something.
Leap and the net will appear.
Leap and the net will appear.
Oh, man, I don't know whether to be inspired or expire with envy. These journals will be (posthumously) on exhibit for hundreds of years.
And you and those photos. Same feeling.
My leaps always feel like trips (not the vacation kind, but the oops! I tripped over this rock and now I'm falling over this cliff type). Somehow I have never hit the ground, tho. YOU might just discover human flight.
I knew the journals would be a hit. They are so beautiful. I wish you could all see them yourself! I'm kinda lucky coz actually, I can't *read* most of them, that's why he showed them to me. Not many others have ever seen them. I only photographed the pages that weren't too personal, he gave his permission for each one.
@sushizume, the restaurant is on the side side - head left from the sth exit, first right (onto the busy-ish street), then take um... think it's the first left and walk down no more than a minute. it's in a big building on the left hand side, with big wide stairs leading up the first floor. There's a yoga studio above it, and a gallery/event space too. Sorry, forget the name.... vague directions, I know, but you'll find it. Just ask around....
Thanks so much for that, I am hunting it down tomorrow!!
I swear they have put something in the Tokyo water...I am ready to leap too!!
Happy leap year
On October 14, 2007 1:19 AM,
Janer said:
Hiya M,
Good to see you on the weekend... those diaries are breathtaking!!
I think I know the restuarant you mention here (I last went ten years ago!!) Hobbit Mura ja nai? If not, that's another Nishi Ogi organic vegie special restaurant you need to check out!!
