Morning on the phone and in the computer. Met Georg Kochi, Miki Okabe and Emmanuelle (again) for a working lunch. Georg wanted to meet Emmanuelle. I think they are cooking some projects. Nice lunch. We worked on my schedule which looks like my office on the worst days (ask Lisa Middag about that). They are not used to it but they are trying. I tried to stay under control and refrain from the impulse to take more meetings than I can swallow.

I left them after coffee and after Georg took a photo of me between my two Japanese mothers. Went to meet June Fujita in Saitama, a suburb of Tokyo. I thought it was one hour from the city. In fact, it was about 2 hours. Two hours in a train in the middle of the suburbs and very soon in the countryside. Great. I was not nervous. Less and less English translation. A very nice person asked me what I was doing there. I showed my maps and he told me I was heading in the right direction. But 1-1/2 hours late.
 
I love cell phones. The artists did not seem to care. I met him at the station. I called from my phone and a young man in front of me picked up his phone. It was June Fujita. Funny. Then we took a car to his place, a little bit in the mountains. I love nature. His work is interesting. Abstract painting. Sweet colors. Kind of ambient paintings. Some of the paintings works like turntables. They are round, with sweet pinky colors and they are installed on a turntable.
June himself is very nice, very stylish. But he almost does not speak English. So we had all our conversation with a dictionary. Back to the train.
 
I was late to meet with Georg Kochi and Kathleen at an opening at Sagacho Arts Space. So I went directly to the Nadiff book store in Omotesando where Takashi Murakami was opening an exhibition he curated with the work by his assistants. Nadiff is a wonderful bookstore specializing in contemporary art and music. Great. Absolutely up-to-date. I even found some of my catalogues from Marseilles. The bookstore of my dreams. With a bar. Thinking of conviviality in the context of the art institution, this place could be a model. They also organized exhibitions. Takashi's exhibition was called Ero Pop Christmas. Most of his assistants are Manga-oriented in a very erotic way. I would think that the photo is speaking for itself . I control myself, but my god, flipping through their comics I realized that my imagination was very limited. I learned things I would never have thought about. Japan is a very complex place to produce such fantasies. I'll show the amateurs as soon as I come back. But prepare yourself. It is frontal.

 

Then the artists did a performance and shaved their heads in order to look like Dragon Ballcharacters. I have seen more radical performances, but well, it was fun. I finally met with Murakami who seems happy. We spoke about his work, about Let's Entertain and decided that next week I'd drop by his studio/factory which is located close to June Fujita's studio. Great, back in the country.

Met Sophie Calle at Nadiff. She was waiting for...Emmanuelle. She went to an appointment and we went to Idée, a design gallery also in Omotesando. Nice display of Karin Rashid furniture. I really liked it. Nice color, nice design and very comfortable. Would be beautiful in my apartment...

 
Idée was also putting together a dinner party organized by an artist. All the food was enclosed in a clay sculpture. To eat one had to break it with a hammer. I spent some time there and had a snack. Don't you think I look pretty different with pink hair?

I had to go back for dinner with Sophie and Emmanuelle. After that I went for the first time in my life for a real massage. It was a very little place in Ebisu. We had to climb to the second floor and entered a very small room with about 10 or 12 beds. Very white light. Very calm with Vivaldi music. They give us pajamas and everybody had their massage in the same room. It was way too short. I had the feeling that I unloaded 32 years of tension in my back. It was so good. Total regression. We were supposed to go to the Milk Club after that but it was already 1am and honestly my only desire at that time was to lay down and sleep. You can see (#13, November 28th. 1:04 am) that my feeling was shared by Sophie Calle and Emmanuelle. Of course I missed the curfew and went to my second home in Tokyo; I left early in the morning before the subway started to get crowded.