Hatagaya

Day 82: Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I was going to make a pot of curry for dinner as an excuse to tell the girl I like that there would be plenty left over, so she could stop by after her work if she was hungry(because I knew she often skipped dinner since she worked late every night). Also the other day, she mentioned that she wanted to try and take a stab at designing God Only Knows (my photo series about an imaginary animal farm) into a book for the competition that I am applying to next month, so I was hoping that we could discuss that as well. I sent her the text around 8:00, but didn’t hear back from her until 1:00, which by then I had already given up and was in my pajamas about to go to bed. In her message, she said that she was at a bar in our neighborhood with friends and asked if I wanted to come join. Even though I was tired, I wanted to see her so I said okay and then made a cup of strong tea while I waited for her reply about directions. It turned out that one of the judges from the competition that we were applying to was also there hanging out, so now I was twice as nervous.

I skated over while adjusting my penis in my pants because I got dressed in a rush. She met me on her bike. She said she hadn’t slept for more than 30 minutes last night because she didn’t get off work until 7:30 A.M. Today she went home early and was going to rest, but ran into a friend at the local vegetable stand. They ended up drinking in the neighborhood, and eventually the judge, who is a famous photographer in Japan, joined them. The guy turned out to be really nice and friendly. He had also seen My Little Dead Dick before and really liked it. I told him that I was doing a new diary now (T.B.) about Hatagaya- the neighborhood that we were in- and he laughed and said it was probably going to be really boring(man, he had no idea…). He then reminisced about how Takashi Homma, one of the top photographers here in Japan, and him had shared a darkroom in the neighborhood in the 90s, which was the glory years for photography in Japan. Anyone who had won the competition that decade (the same one that I am applying to now) became super famous and a legend. Unfortunately, the competition is rather lame now, but still, if I could win, the prize money would help a lot... The judge and the friend ended up leaving around 3:30. I assumed that the girl would want to go home and sleep as well then, but she didn’t and we stayed for another drink talking about how her work. It sounded hard, but she seemed to enjoy it… Anyways our lives were completely opposite. She worked too much wishing she had time to do her own projects while I was doing the best personal work of my life, but felt like a bum because I didn’t have enough money coming in. I told her that even though we were both struggling in a sense, I think this was our time just like Homma and the judge back in the 90s before they had everything. I bet they look back now at that time in their lives when they actually tried and cared and were passionate… and remembered it as the good old days.

The sun came out and we left the bar at 4:30. She looked cold, so I gave her my jacket (does that mean anything if she accepted it?) and pretended not to be cold myself while I walked her home.

Trouble Around the Corner

Hayato: Patorikku! The police are here!

Me: Why? What's going on?

Hayato: An old lady can't get up!

In A Rush (To Hold Hands)

Day 86: Saturday, June 04, 2011

Ian threw a going away party at our house for his friend, who was moving to the U.S.A. Tim came over and I asked him if he had made any progress with the woman he started seeing recently. When we went out to dinner with Ian last week, which we called “Boy’s Night”, he told us about her and how he was frustrated because he wanted things to move along quicker since it’s been a month already and they had only held hands… Now at the party, he said she that she was finally back from her trip to Mongolia, but supposedly couldn’t see him because she was in Ibaraki at the moment… then he shrugged and said he didn’t know if that was true.

I gave him an update about the girl I liked too, which didn’t look too good neither, since now I was beginning to wonder if this relationship was just about business. Anyways I told Tim about my theory, which is how you can rate how much someone likes you by how fast they respond to your text messages (regarding love and attraction at least)… since no matter how busy you are, if you really like someone, you will write them back ASAP even if it is just a stupid smiley face because you want to let that person know that you are thinking of them as well. Tim looked down at his beer and said that his girl always takes 2 days… and I smiled back at him with understanding and told him mine usually takes about a day.

After everyone was gone, Yuki and I were in the office relaxing and enjoying the quiet. She too asked me how things were going with the girl, and I told her what my actual instincts were, which I had been keeping inside me for the past few days- that she didn’t really like me and that it probably wouldn’t work out even if she did because she was too busy and dedicated to her job while I needed someone who could give me more… Sitting in Ian’s chair, Yuki said that when she was single, she had never thought about being lonely or needing someone, which left me amazed thinking, “I bet she would be fine in Mongolia...”

梅雨(Plum Rain)

Day 89: Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Today was Yuki’s second weekday after quitting her job. She seems to be doing laundry all the time now on the veranda. While I was in the office this morning, she called me over to see something. Down below there was a crane pulling out of Hayato’s alley. After it turned the corner, the driver looked up and waved me off to stop shooting. It was the same guy who got annoyed with me the other day. I ignored him because who did he think he was causing such a ruckus the past couple of weeks and now telling me that I couldn’t shoot in front of my own house. Yuki and I discussed why construction workers in Japan don’t like to have their pictures taken… Yuki said that maybe since a lot of construction workers had gotten out of jail, ran away, quit school, etc… they didn’t want themselves to be exposed in case their families or someone else, whom they wanted to avoid, were to see it...

After they were gone, the street returned back to normal; and there was no sign that they were even here.