Reading, Watching, Listening

I'm back for some quick recommendations. The last couple of weeks I've worked towards educating myself with media that I've been meaning to check out for a while. The following line-up is full of books, podcasts, documentaries, and talks that I recommend checking out in your free time.

Books

Sex at Dawn

The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Notes on Hiroshima

Documentaries

Trouble the Water

Taxi to the Dark Side

Going Clear

Podcasts

For Colored Nerds (FCN)

Sex Nerd Sandra

Talks

 

1) How Do We Define Feminist Liberation?

2) Are You Still a Slave? Liberating the Black Female Body

3) Transgression: Whose Booty Is This?

4) A Public Dialogue Between bell hooks and Cornel West

5) Transgressive Sexual Practice

6) Forever Young

7) A Public Dialogue Between bell hooks and Laverne Cox

8) Transgression in Public Spaces

Five Days in Tokyo (the Beginning)

We spent our first five days in Tokyo before traveling to Kyoto. The week was spent taking language courses in Japanese. Our teachers were kind and patient. I now can say, fluently, complicated phrases such as, "where is the bathroom", "thank you", and "I don't speak Japanese."

On Thursday we were given a bit more time to explore Tokyo. In a group, I traveled to Asakusa Temple. The area was incredibly chaotic. We arrived mid-afternoon, perhaps at the time that most people visit the site. There was a plaza full of shops outside the temple, and we took a half hour just to look around.

The temple itself was beautiful. There were fires burning outside with lots of smoke billowing out. People would gather around these smokestacks before entering the temple.

After the temple we ventured to a big park where cherry blossoms were in bloom. The park had a number of groups sitting out on tarps, having picnics and drinking.
 
 A bit about the cherry blossoms: they really are as beautiful and widespread as people say. In Japan, the cherry blossoms are celebrated. The park was full of people, of all ages, enjoying the season, laughing together.

Here we stopped for a snack. Aaron ordered something rolled in bacon, I ordered a crepe. We stayed near one of the lakes and people watched for a while, taking photographs, appreciating the fashion.

After going to the park we visited a bustling part of the city, Jimbocho. Many young people hang out in the area and this was where we had our first Japanese conveyor belt sushi experience. It was awesome.

Inside PARASOPHIA

A film is screened through a microscope in the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art

Anyone who knows me is likely familiar with one of my traveling flaws, my impatience for art museums. It was with this in mind I prepared my museum-going partners, Aaron and Sofia. I told them there was the chance I would charge ahead, be completely disconnected, or worthy of abandonment. Art--as museums make it--I find terribly inaccessible.

With this in mind, we descended on the PARASOPHIA exhibition in the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. I should state that it wasn’t our idea to go, it was an assigned excursion by our professor. After buying our ticket and taking off my coat I braced myself for a modern art marathon.

We stepped inside the first exhibit, a room called Café Little Boy. Placards on the left side of the room provided an artist statement.

“Café Little Boy is a space for reflection, communication, and exchange. Its title is inspired by ‘Little Boy,’ or the codename for the atomic bomb that was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Your participation is an integral part of the installation. You are invited to express yourselves on the painted surfaces of this room. Using the chalk and erasers that are provided for this purpose. Your interventions will follow one another and intermingle as time goes by, helping to give shape to the pluralist and collective spirit of this evolving work.”

“After the explosion of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, there was nothing left of the elementary school in Fukoromachi apart from a wall with a large blackboard on which people left messages for loved ones.”

Inside Jean-Luc Vilmouth's Cafe Little Boy

The room was full of dreamy, pastel colors, words from people all over the world. Some parts almost looked smoky, others more like street art. The color palette highlighted a childish playfulness in the exhibit, a reminder of the roots from which the project came to being.

 

Going into the museum, I had all these ideas of my day at PARASOPHIA. Bursting with modern, abstract art, I imagined speed walking through the museum all raised eyebrows and folded arms. I’ve been to the Ufizzi in Florence, the d’Orsay in Paris. I consistently felt aware of my unfeeling. Seeing a Degas earnestly hanging on a white wall, the spectacle of artgoers clustering around the Mona Lisa, it was interesting and exciting. But it always was an experience removed from me. Walking into Café Little Boy, this melted away. I was being accessed. I could run my fingers against the walls, I could write things, take pictures of people and the words they leave behind. So I did.
 

Looking at what people wrote I found that so much of it wasn’t what I would expect. People wrote their names, drew pictures, there were many languages. Soon I found myself turning to my museum partners and saying the words I never expected to say in a museum. “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up later.”
 

I stayed for what felt like a long time. I cried. I got chalk under my fingernails. I took pictures of a couple kind strangers.
 

Before leaving I did something weird. I rubbed my hands against the chalkier parts of the space. I rubbed chalk into my arms, my pants, my fingers, my shirt. I was purple and dazed when I came out. The museum workers didn’t look surprised.
 

 I would be lying if I said the other elements of the museum came close to evoking what Café Little Boy had. Even so, there were many elements of the PARASOPHIA exploding with creativity and color. There was a mixture of short films, sculpture, light and sound exhibits, paintings, and much more.

Arin Rungjang's Golden Teardrop

One room was back-lit hallway with a mirror at the end. I spent ten or fifteen minutes jumping around, taking photos. If you are ever looking for a photography challenge, try jumping around in a dark room, not able to look through the viewfinder, and hold the camera still while your body is in motion.

Leaving the museum, it felt like I finally understood what all the fuss was about. PARASOPHIA was like no other art exhibit I've ever seen.

Busan Wrap-Up

AK and Korean Barbecue

I spent my final evening in Busan eating at a nearby Korean BBQ restaurant. As I said in my last post, I was only able to go due to the generosity of one of the hostel workers, who volunteered to come with. AK is the hostel worker, she instantly struck me as outgoing and kind when I first arrived at Terra. She smiles and speaks with most everyone who passes through. Potung, the hostel cat, has a specific affection for her (something even more telling when we consider that he is a very apathetic and arrogant cat).

One of Potung's favorite positions. The superman sprawl.

We left around 7 and passed the time talking about how she ended up in Busan. AK is from Taiwan, has two siblings, and attended University with a major in tourism. When asked why she chose tourism, she laughed and said, a bit more timidly, that it was a very easy major.

I should also say that our entire evening was an exchange in English, something I’m grateful for. At one point in the evening I attempted to define “patriarchy” to AK, who was not familiar.

When we sat down, she showed me how it worked, cooking and cutting the meat, explaining the different sauces. I tend to be embarrassed about taking food pictures, but she encouraged me right away. 

I was very grateful for such a relaxing dinner. The earlier part of the day was committed to pursuing summer opportunities, which was largely unsuccessful and made for a high-stress afternoon. The delicious meal combined with AK's sunny presence restored my spirit.

We cooked garlic to the side of the hot plate. Pork fat is used to fry the meat, which we then mix with a variety of veggies and kimchi.

I will also add that while the meal itself was a dream, the next four hours were not. It felt like a porcupine was crawling around my stomach. I realized I hadn't eaten so much meat and fat in a long time, causing a less-than glamorous response from my body.

Puppies at a street-side store in Busan

Busan: Part I

Fact #1 of traveling across South Korea: going to Busan will take longer than you think.

My view from the hostel in Busan

I discovered this on my budget-friendly train ride to Busan. The trip was beautiful, and gave me a chance to see Korean countryside I may not otherwise see. It also took six hours (compare this to 3 hours by the spendy bullet train). I do not regret going to Busan, everything about the city is beautiful. Even so, it certainly was a commitment going south. 

Once again, I selected my hostel semi-randomly. Once again, I found it easily and was astonished with the luck of my choice. Terra guest house is located in Jagalchi Fish Market and sits facing the water. The first time I made my way to Terra I could could tell I was getting close based on the smell of seawater, fish, and the bustle of street vendors. It was on the 7th floor, and has such a phenomenal view that people often come up to buy a coffee and just sit out on the terrace. I spent my breakfasts reading, drinking coffee, and enjoying the beautiful view.

I dedicated my trip to capturing interesting photographs. Before I say more, let me assure you that most of what I took was shit. Transitioning to street photographer in a place where you already stick out and can't communicate is a challenge. This came as a slight disappointment to met, but I also knew going into the project that my work would reflect my time contraints. Most of the interesting material I captured in Busan was at Jagalchi. It was a good place to start, since people are often too involved in their work to notice you. And let me just say...

Jagalchi Is Where Bitches Get Shit Done

I soon realized that of all the people, chopping up fish, gutting and skinning a carcass, selling to the customers-- only about 15% were men. Almost all of the people selling/handling the fish were women in their 50s or 60s. You may say that many of the men were doing the fishing. You're probably right.  But even so, the amount of work we see from these older women is pretty kick-ass.

The first full day I was in Busan I visited the tower in Yongdasan Park (better than the Eiffel Tower?!), ate sushi, and took photos all over the city. This was also the day that Potung and I got a little closer (he likes to be pat on the butt like a dog).

Busan Tower

A Recap of the Day

It was sunny, and walking through the city was made all the better with some taro bubble tea. For those who don’t know, there are many unique and complex flavors of tea in Oceania. Taro is not one of them. Taro is purple and basically the sugar flavor of bubble tea. It’s great.

By the time I got into Busan it became clear that shopping and fashion are a national pass time in South Korea, particularly among young people. Every night swarms of students walk the brightly lit streets eating fried food, looking for clothes, and socializing.

In the afternoon I perused the clothes market, but came up empty handed. I was, however, happy to find that clothes fit me. If you didn’t know, Korean sized run much smaller than in the US. Knowing this, I assumed nothing would fit (particularly because of my breast size) and was a bit sheepish shopping in Seoul. Discovering that some clothes fit was nice, and allowed me to grab one pretty item on my way out of Seoul.

This is all to say my first day in Busan was a success. Returning book to my hostel around 4, I started to scope out my dinner options online. I should preface this with a story of when I first got to Terra. I met a very kind and outgoing woman named AK. She quickly learned that I was traveling alone when I first checked into the hostel. I asked her for restaurant advice to which she shook her head. “No just for one, is no good.” She told me many places don’t serve one person. I asked her “What about all the single people in Korea?” She laughed, shaking her head. I got the sense she was saying “they fucked.”

This brings me back to my dinner the first full day in Busan. I was unsurprised that I hadn’t ran into the problem yet. The only real sitdown place I had been was sushi for lunch. I looked around for places that served Korean barbecue in my hostel the first day. It’s so famous, I realized I’d be missing out to not give it a try. I searched online and ended up asking AK for advice. She shook her head in regret. Apparently no Korean barbecue restaurants serve one person in Busan. None? What if I ate enough food for two people? She said it would be tough for me to get seated. Around ten minutes later, after continuing to struggle and looking slightly discouraged, AK approached me. I was working in the lounge, and she said she would accompany me to her favorite Korean barbecue restaurant the next night.

I was so relieved and surprised by her kindness. I spent the evening eating a local pork soup, and a waffle in the shopping district.

I’m currently in Japan, I’ve been very behind on the blogging. I’ll post pictures and a bit about the rest of my time in Korea in the next couple days. <3