August
The "Soundscape" issue of "+81" vol. 41 came out at the peak of summer, on August 11. As the title of this time’s special feature suggests, it’s about musicians who create sonic landscapes, and designers that visualize those musical sceneries in the form of graphics and movies. As more and more music is being distributed via the Internet, and records and CDs are getting increasingly rare, we thought we'd meet some of these individuals and ask them about the meaning and importance of visual accompaniment for music these days. The cover is a photograph by Trevor Jackson, and that strange picture that looks as if it was taken either in outer space or under a microscope is actually showing a record from Trevor’s own collection. Check it out whenever you're in a bookstore.
The next issue of "+81" is scheduled for November 10, and I'm going to tell you more about what’s inside in my next entry in this diary.
September
After finishing work on vol.41, I took some time off, and spent about two weeks in Hokkaido. The main purposes of my journey: food, music, and nature.
On the musical side, first of all there was the Rising Sun Rock Festival that I visited shortly after arriving in Hokkaido (Ego Wrappin', Sakanaction and Schadaraparr were awesome!). From there I traveled to Sapporo’s Precious Hall, where I bathed for two days in a row in waves of sound that definitely had a purifying kind of effect. The treatment ended with the Precious-hosted Big Fun, an outdoor party with really good music. Again, as you can guess from the title, it wasn't a greedy sort of rock festival, but simply great fun in a pleasantly peaceful atmosphere. From the live bands I particularly enjoyed Kuniyuki Takahashi’s set, allowing his agonizingly beautiful and gentle sounds to wrap me up as I lied daydreaming in the grass. Danny Krivit, the Precious regular DJs, and Moochy were of course fantastic as well. I'm definitely going to visit this event again sometime in the future.
For the food section, I guess I don't have to mention that I enjoyed some of the most tasty, fresh ingredients up there in Hokkaido, along with the clean air that makes everything even more delicious! The dishes at the Rising Sun food stalls, roasted corn in the park, mutton barbecue, soup curry, miso ramen, ice cream… The list is endless! BabeStar Ishikawa (a Hokkaido-based food expert) even made a gourmet map for me, thanks to which I got to visit some really exceptional shops that outsiders like me are normally rather unlikely to discover. So I ended up eating my way across Sapporo, to find out that my weight had increased by 3 kilos after the tour. I even began to thing seriously about how I could have five meals a day…
Finally, the nature aspect. Since I traveled by car, I could enjoy the gradually changing vegetation and color of the sky as I moved north from Honshu up to Hokkaido. In Hokkaido, everything is vast and wide, both on the ground and in the air. That’s probably why the plants are growing so well there. Even the trees by the roadside look different, not only in terms of size and color, but they look as if totally full of vital energy. I feel as if it was an occasion for me to finally grasp that spirits are residing in all those mountains, trees, plants and other things. When camping by Lake Shikotsuko, I found myself surrounded by complete darkness - something I have never experienced in Tokyo - and able to hear the sounds of the wind, the trees, the insects and the water. In a strangely comforting way, this made me realize that "I'm tiny but I'm part of the earth!" It was a really precious experience for me. Another place I'd like to mention is Moerenuma Park. Just about every place in the park look like in a beautiful painting, and wherever you go you're always in an extremely nice environment. To me it felt like a "fusion of design and nature" rather than a piece of "designed nature".
All in all, my little trip to heaven was a journey full of encounters and discoveries of all kinds of things that will no doubt be of great importance for myself. Back in Tokyo, it was pretty hard though to get back into my daily routine though…
October
My biggest event recently, however, was my relocation to a new address. I'd wanted to move for many years, but somehow never managed to get down to it and seriously look for a new place. But then, finally, I stumbled upon a nice little flat on the Internet, and when having a look at the real thing, I instantly knew that it was going to be my new home. There were a handful of other applicants, but believe it or not, they chose me! There definitely exists something like "fate"! At the beginning of October I finally left my beloved little apartment in the Shibuya area, and moved to a nice new flat along Tamagawa River.
It was a time when I was just getting busy working on the next issue of the magazine, and as I had lived in my old apartment for seven years, it was a really tough job to get everything done in time. Digging up all those things that have gathered in my room in those seven years brought back some rather embarrassing memories, and at times it was almost painful in a way I cannot describe in words. I left my room behind like an empty shell, feeling as if I had shed my own skin.
Anyway, my new home is so wonderful that I recovered from such nostalgic feelings very quickly. Outside stretches a beautiful scenery of Tamagawa and the sky, and inside it’s comfortably spacious. And the best thing is, I have a terrace! It’s so big that I still don't really know what to do with it… For the time being, I'll use it to step outside and stretch first thing in the morning. Oh, and I can hang out a lot of laundry! Once the next issue is put to bed, I'm planning to adjust my lifestyle to the new environment, and if possible, change my daily rhythm too and become an early riser…