Li Jianhong’s Japan Diaries, Day One

by Ben

Last February, about the time I was wrestling with that Ronez review, I read with interest Lawrence’s post about Li Jianhong’s Japan Diaries, in which he recounts his tour through Japan the previous December. It occurred to me that studying a blog with a more conversational and informal tone might be better suited to my skill level, and the possibility of posting the results here would provide some good motivation.

So here’s day one of “My Ten Days in Japan: A Personal Map” by Li Jianhong, originally published on his site (check it out for photos and the original Chinese text). Many thanks to Lawrence and Yao Dajuin, who helped me a lot with things I got wrong or didn’t understand!

Remaining journal entries to follow soon…

December 9, 2006
I got out of bed before dawn, at 3am, and took the train from Hangzhou to Shanghai for a 9am departure. Japan is one hour earlier than China, so I arrived in Tokyo around 1pm. Marqido was already waiting for me. His bright red clothes swaying in the crowd made him easy to spot. It takes a long time to get from the Narita airport to Tokyo proper; after 25 minutes in the train Marqido said we still hadn’t arrived… My first impression of Tokyo was that everything seemed so clean.

Marqido’s Tokyo apartment is even smaller and colder than mine. His bedroom is unfurnished, apart from a bed and a desk. I asked him, “How can your apartment be even colder than mine?” but Marqido insisted our two apartments were equally cold.

We dropped off my bags and went to have dinner. Marqido’s like me; we both know a city’s cheapest and tastiest restaurants, since we’re both so poor.

At dusk we went to Kichijoji 吉祥寺 to look for second hand musical instruments and records. Kichijoji is not far away. After checking just a few shops at random, we had already seen a lot of guitars that I’d only previously seen on the internet. It made my fingers itch, but I told myself that tomorrow there would be more second hand shops to peruse, so I forced myself to endure it. As for the second hand music shops, I was overwhelmed; two floors were filled from top to bottom with every kind of music. As I browsed the second hand albums, I saw, among others, The Incapacitants, Hijokaidan 非常階段, Masonna, Keiji Haino 灰野敬二, Merzbow, Yoshihide Otomo 大友良英, lots of prominent Japanese avant-garde musicians, western composers like Iannis Xenakis and John Cage (a large John Cage boxed set was particularly tempting), and lots of free jazz albums. It was like a dream: so many stacks of records, rare beyond my wildest imagination, and on vinyl! I wish I had the dough to hire someone to carry them home for me. Second hand avant-garde albums are a little more expensive than other albums, usually about 1200–1500 yen, though you can find some that are cheaper.

In the end, I bought Merzbow’s Green Wheels, not my favorite album, but this CD was the cheapest and most economical, a thick plastic boxed set containing one CD and one mini LP, all for only 1,000 yen. So I snatched it up. In Japan buying albums is a never-ending war; you’ve got to keep your wits about you.

Outside, at a roadside bookshop, I purchased a copy of Studio Voice magazine, the 30th anniversary specially sized issue. Inside was a feature introducing D!O!D!O!D!’s recent performances in Japan.

After returning home, we went to a public bathhouse to renew ourselves. We sat on a small wooden bench, took the towel, and washed away the fatigue of the day.




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