Tokyo take two

Ikebana - A giant among flowers

Passing an Ikebana school Alistair notices they offer English instruction at 1.30 and suggests I might like to do it. I dutifully present myself at the rather tiny desk for enrolment to be met with near hysteria, which is a little off putting but having started the process there is clearly no way out, despite my protestations that if it isn’t appropriate for men etc. I am eventually ushered to the back of a classroom filled with tiny tables and chairs and tiny delicate women artfully arranging tiny delicate flowers. The principles of Ikebana turn out to be much like the principles of English landscape painting of the 18th century, subject, object, fill and asymetry, all groups in odd numbers, 3,5,7, easy! There is a simple system for getting proportions right, 2 x diameter + 2 x height of vessel = height of subject, 1/3 height of subject = height of object. Painting with flowers. My efforts do look a bit like Frankenstein’s monster arranging a posy and I do slightly feel like I have ruined everyone else’s afternoon, silence reigns, I ‘ve made everyone self conscious and I am utterly ignored, like the my friend who once waited in the Antiques Roadshow valuation que with a standard plastic garden chair for 2 hours.

A revisit to Lord Geordie’s bar in darkest Kuwengi finds John on great form, we are hoping that he will perform the part of Rambo in Nathaniel Mellors performance ‘First Blood’, John seems keen he certainly has the presence for the part. The bar itself is surrounded by Americans of various sizes whilst the rest of the bar is entirely filled with Japanese women all desperate for John’s attention and food/cooking gifts. John manages to run a kitchen that dispenses food as special favours there is no asking for specific food, food appears as and when, Spanish in style and always excellent. My kind of bar, no decisions, if only all restaurants were so reliable. John maintains a entertaining banter with all and sundry, always walking the tightrope of decency and the individuals standards of acceptablity, we see another side of Japan. John calls apparently respectable women, dirty old slappers, and asks them who they are gonna shag tonight, the answer is invariably, laughingly ‘you’ he talks about their past boyfriends suggesting they have spent a lifetime under fat sweaty Americans. There is a lot of sex banter, the Americans – David – a charming and funny first horn in the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra seems to have a special relationship with a number of women in the building and describes many more. We hope he might provide a horn section for the performance in Ikebukuro.

The photo is of John and his baby girl Rosa.