Part of Japanese tourism is the red light district. I went for a quick lunch. Very quiet as you can see during the day.



Very charming. Old area, little streets, littler stores. Cute. Kawaï in Japanese. I liked a lot this part of Kyoto along the river. It makes me think of old Japanese movies, Streets of Shame, and so on. Even though I had nothing to be ashamed of.



Yes, I was little ashamed to photograph this old shoemaker. Ashamed because it shows my shoe fetishism and because this person did not really like that I entered the store to take photos.
I assume that what he told me in Japanese was not about the size of my feet, nor something like "Hi there, what can I do for you today?" No. But the store was nice with the shapes of his client's feet carved in wood. Exactly like John Lobb in London. Sort of. I am such a snob.

Since I was in a sightseeing mood I threw myself into another temple, which, of course, I do not remember the name of but that everybody might know because it was photographed by Sugimoto. I am ashamed of myself. I will find the name. This temple was beautiful. This is the one with all the statues, all the same, around a Buddha. When I say statues, I mean one thousand of them. It was a very beautiful installation, so to speak. The only problem is too many people there and, of course, no photos inside.
The architecture of the temple was also just perfect. I am totally fascinated by the sense of detail. It is so precise and sophisticated--from the roof to the doors to the prayer display. I can't believe I do not remember the name of this temple. I am a moron. I should live on Cretin Avenue (there is a Cretin Avenue in St. Paul).

After my sightseeing moment I performed one of my favorite activities in Japan, which is walking in the streets, looking around, being surprised, or not, by the environment, by the hyper-media culture. In Kyoto this hyper-media culture is less aggressively technological than in Tokyo. They still use paper and posters -- but lots of them.



And everything overlaps with everything. Each poster on top of another one. The information saturates your eyes. It is like a 19th century painting installation. The space must be over-used. No space for the image itself. But a lot of images on a wall. The wall as an image.

While walking down Kyoto's commercial streets I noticed a very fancy shoe store. Mainly sneakers. But when I say sneakers, I mean thousands of them. A place which would drive any teenager in Minneapolis totally insane. The most beautiful ones were the ones reframed in classical Japanese style. They were displayed on a sort of tatami base and the body of the shoe itself was made out of "kimono" fabric. A strange mix. But maybe very Japanese. Traditional and contemporary at the same time. Perhaps very Kyoto. I did not try them on. I was being shy.

And I was kind of shy when entering this Pachinko parlor too. Shy because these places are so aggressive. The light is violent. The people are very intense. The sound is disturbing. Music, noise from the machines, and the voice of the staff telling you that if you don't play, you don't stay. You have to participate, that's the rule. No voyeurism. No photos. What do you mean you don't want to be on the Walker web site?!?! Disappointed. OK. I leave. I have better things to do.

Bubu de la Madeleine is waiting for me in front of McDonalds. Bubu de la Madeleine. Isn't it a strange name? It could be the name of a Toulouse Lautrec model. An end of 19th century bohemian name. A bunny from Le Lapin Agile. A cover girl from CineMonde. A Picabia muse. Well, Bubu de la Madeleine is a little bit of all of that. How to describe her? She is the person to meet right now in Kyoto. She is the exact opposite of Mariko Mori's dream of a diaphanous purity. She is the impure. She is the rough edge of Japan. She is the sweet edge as well. Bubu is an artist. She used to perform, and still might be involved with Dumb Type. She is a sex worker 5 days a week, from Tuesday to Saturday. I met her on a Monday. Bubu is developing two kinds of works as far as I understood her project. One is directly artistic. Self portrait as McArthur in photocollage. All oriented toward the history of postwar Japan, the American presence, and the history of prostitution and sexual dependency, and how both might interact or be the cause of one another. The other part of her work -- and for me maybe the most interesting -- is the social engagement she is developing through collectives which are fighting to provide more information about AIDS in Japan and the way to fight it. It is real action in conflict with the government and also a series of videos (seen at Tobias Bando's place) telling, in funny and entertaining ways, the tricks for safe, but fun, sex. Right on.... We met in the Dumb Type office.



We had a very nice conversation about her work. About pleasure and how this notion is conjugated in different ways for male or female audiences. We spoke about her "day job" and the way she was dealing with her colleagues knowing that most of them did not choose to do that. Bubu did. It was very informative.