Japan, I love you a little, a lot, passionately ... Watch
In addition to a wonderful souvenir of work, many times imitated but never equaled, this phrase sums up the wonder that we have read in some of our readers from both earlier articles "Oh good! So like that, you leave Japan. Already! .
Oh, yes! To our dismay, it's already time to complete the suitcases. Technically, it's already done: farewell party, called here "sayonara party" or simply "sayo" and repainted in "yellow evening" by us two months ago, some old furniture, appliances, mobile and transformers broken through the French community; movers packing the rest with all the care which expect from the Japanese (and the box Sandra!) a month ago ; Holidays a little rough in Paris to sell the apartment, among others; weekend of wakeboarding in Singapore with Denis and Jerome after a week of intense training ... and here I am alone in a hotel in Tokyo, as I began in September 2007 when I loudly proclaimed that I "knew nothing" of Japan (
cf. the first post of this blog
). This has not changed anything! These almost two years have passed too quickly, a kaleidoscope of images and sensations in our heads shaking, but still no exegesis of the Japanese psyche, still no control of mysterious rules of Go, sumo or ikebana. However, as fun, meetings, flavors, delightful walks! Hold: a range for men, delicately ornamented, deftly opened and closed during a summit meeting, that's a gesture that marked me a lot, this mixture of distinction, light distance and refinement.
Or the pure blue sky and the winter of Tokyo, when you walk along the old moat of the Imperial Palace (Sotobori-dori) to the station in Iidabashi watching cherry knobs days longer than early spring.
A red torii Shimoda planted on a rock overlooking the sea, announcing a sanctuary in the area, or great big brother Miyajima bathing her black pillars at high tide, or the forest of orange torii lined up on the extraordinary " fox hill "of Kyoto.
The brilliance of The Ballad of Narayama or Zatoishi (that of Kitano), the lyricism of Yoshikawa recounting the life of Musashi and melancholy Murakami, could continue to beading of the Japanese universe. A final
manga, offered by Vincent and Sylvie, to remember all the fun taste of Tokyo and Japan " The gourmet solitaire "in Jiro Taniguchi, the Summit of the Gods (translated and published in France by Casterman). The hero wanders quietly through the neighborhoods of Tokyo, Osaka or elsewhere and enjoyed his udon, tonkatsu or its katsukare as much cake. An important detail opens the last chapter, a new angle that I did not know Japanese sociology: "The food in Japan fits into two categories: that which we take to eat, and that which we take to support alcohol. Specifically, without rice dishes revolve around alcohol you drink while nibbling. A gourmet who does not drink Alcohol is not a lone wolf. "It will
return to Japan, read the Japan board in the same places as the hero to see if Chez Tomo", the Korean barbecue or Gompachi Jyu-Bei Gotanda still exist, re-learn the Japanese (and Japanese), in short, he will feel Japan.
again and again.
follow, so ...
