kamiyama arrival

I arrived in Tokushima city after my hours in transit (the pacific glittering below the whole way). It was about 8pm when I arrived, the sun had set in a hazy cloud while I sat on the runway at Haneda airport. The air is warm and humid, more like a mid summer Virginia night than the Seattle weather I had left. I was first taken to get dinner at a Japanese buffet decorated with brick and wrought iron, with illustrations of what appeared to be an attempt at Bavarian countryside in glowing panels on the walls. My hosts cooked korean style bbq and kabocha squash over the fire at the table.
After an hour drive through the darkness on what felt like very winding roads, I was delivered to my place- its an aged concrete structure- a duplex actually. I have a whole house to myself- which is a kitchen, tatami room, tiny bath, squat toilet, and two more tatami rooms upstairs. The house is old and not exactly pristine (some tattered walls and cracks for the bugs to get in). But I am adjusting to the kitchen, where the sink and countertops seem to be about knee-height, and the place is very spacious. There is a balcony and a ladder to the roof, from which the round bowl of mountains is visible in each direction.

The town runs along the river in the bottom of the valley, and then the sides of the mountains are filled at the lower levels with terraced, interspersed agriculture- rice, eggplants, and many small orchards of what looks like limes.

At night, the darkness is full of a cricket drone, which transforms in the heat of the day into an even louder drone of cicadas (but louder than any cicada I have heard so far). It has been quite hot. Luckily there is an air conditioner in my room. I had thought, at the last minute, that I needed to remember to bring an alarm clock. However, no events start before ten and so far I am waking up at 6. Plus, at 7:30am every day, a chime and a loud public service announcement comes on the loudspeaker of the high school down the road. Since I can’t understand it, I don’t know if it is just a wake-up call, or if it is the town crier announcing the news of the day.

My first full day was spent walking around in a jet-lagged daze, exploring some, and being taken to the supamaketto and around town. I have not had a chance yet to talk with the other artists- the Japanese artist does not speak English and the Turkish artist has been off on her own. An orientation meeting occurred in the evening, which consisted of a large round table, surrounded by all the board members of KAIR- plus some other local towns people who are sponsoring and helping the artists. It was quite an amusing experience since everything was in Japanese including the meeting agenda which was printed out. I had an interpreter there, but still, long periods of conversation would take place in which I would have no idea what was happening, until I heard “Von-san” and realized that they were talking about, or to me. The artist from Turkey must have it doubly confusing, since English is not her first language either.

The town really is lovely.