"Food is not just the sum of its nutrition. Food is a stew of flavors
presented with meaning. Each flavor is a color from the patchwork quilt
of landscape" -Alan, flavorologist
Flavor in Space: Ch. (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53) 52. At the New Post Station, the city of the night lies to the northeast, the devil's direction. The city here is called Ohcikubak, meaning both "the city of the bizarre" and "the city of song and dance." By one of its many kaleidoscopic colored gates, a huge phoenix splashes across building facades, the symbol of feminine power. The streets are named for cherry blossoms, alleys and paths spin off at odd angles, lined with pink billboards, blaring multicolored light bulbs, thousands of technicolored doors, each leading to halls of perfumed parlors, each of these hawking fifty different methods of sweet intoxication. Names on the signs parley double meanings or allude to sticky garden spots of someone's fantasies... "Moth King/ Ego King" "Ms. Crimson's Castle" "Kangaroo Court Decision" "Marsh/ Chat over Tea" "Hamelin" "Striking/ Diversion" "If" "Washing Boat" "Waiting Dream" "Apache" "Southern Seas" "Orange Prince" "O2" "Mana" "Who" "Hair of the Dogs" "Baltimore" "Desert Inn" "Euphoria" "Found Night +1" "Buoy" "Cat Root" "Pony" "Hide" The rooms are run by women, women who spill out onto the street, glittering in red, pink, purple, and green. Their heads are layered with long loopy blonde locks. To the right, a group of white collared executives are ushered out blushing and laughing, followed by the crowing of lovelies. To the left, men, dressed in silken suits and robes, eyes beaming from bushy orange manes reaching nearly a foot high above the eyebrows, follow the women, trying to syphon off a section of the the lady's earnings in his own plush bar. "Men" are sexual objects here; if they are not passed up for the objects of the sex shop entirely. This is the city of flowers, of beauty, of art. Those who work in the city of the daylight, rigid with service, status, and accounts; they come to the city of flowers for drunkenness, for equality, for kinship. They are with their brothers here, cared for by their sisters... for a price perhaps... and hence things are really no different here, just status taking another shape, the servants getting served: One bar has its name written in fat black plastic tape, "Love and Peace: Life is a bitch but I Love bitch and bitch Love me. It's Your Choice." The city of the night will only be a place for drunken fantasies bred in the oppression of the daylight, froth boiling over from the control of the pressure cooker of the towers of men, unless... Unless there is meaning in art, in theatre, in play, real shadow and shade beyond the sparkles of color and midnight lights. This is the sober work of Toulouse Lautrec, Okuni, Picasso, Utrillo, Yoshino, Jakuchu, Rikyu.... | Latest Flavography- THE FULL BLOG (Subscribe!): In the Willow's Shadow - Flower City News 柳の陰で花街新聞 Walking the Old Road from Kyoto to Osaka 京街道の話 Hana yori dango? Rice cakes over flowers? Movie Theater The classroom is a movie theater- the garden is the movie. Its drama slowly unfolds. Soon, the plum tree, and then the cherry tree will become the star of the show. However, the garden is not the only movie. I move, you move, and we make a movie together as both audience and actor. As you walk down Hanayacho, consider each house and shop as the stage for a movie. Even the street is a stage... Happy New Year! Are you warm enough?Winter Light 冬の光Living in Flight 飛んでいるで住んでいるFlying Away 飛ぶPlaces: Tayucho Square お所:太夫町広場Nakagyo Neighborhood Revitalization Plan 中京区興し付図 I. Historic open air ahopping street and transgenerational park. 古露天商店街と伝世公園 Nakagyo Neighborhood as seen from above Shisen-in (神泉苑から南の方)looking south. |