#jocelin

Jocelin Carmes • "Art journey #4"

Freelance visual development artist

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In my previous blog post I mentioned that a certain somebody would be visiting me in Japan for a two week holiday. The person in question was in fact my inamorata - Jocelin. On paper two weeks seems like an awfully short period of time and yet each of the fourteen days were abounding with dawn till dusk enjoyment. 

As she was experiencing Japan through her own senses for the first time, Jocelin’s initial reaction to her new surroundings struck me with interest. Jocelin - on the drive back home from the airport - displayed a kind of gleeful amazement at what I have, for all my life, considered mundane and “normal” aspects of Japan. Convenience stores, the style of the houses, the roads, the cars, to name but a few. I realised, having been born in Japan - leaving for England at the age of 3 and visiting every summer thereafter - that I never had or will have experienced Japan for the “first time”. At this I first felt ever so slightly envious of Jocelin’s experience but that feeling quickly wilted as I felt vicariously her excitement towards the peculiarities of a completely new place on Earth. There are, of course, innumerable places, cultural aspects and quirks of the country that I have not yet been exposed to and which I’m certain would trigger in me a new way of looking at Japan. One of these places was the first place Jocelin and I were to go.

The bullet train (shinkansen // 新幹線) is a remarkable achievement in the evolution of locomotion. It rips through the cities and countryside, with the crumpling of various food and drink packaging by the passengers making more sound than the train itself. Our particular train would take us over 500km in two and a half hours, from Tokyo to Kyoto. We arrived at our destination before midday and with just three full days to explore the area we wasted no time in going to the first temple on our list : The Kinkakuji temple - a coruscating golden pavilion. Even though an abundance of clouds accompanied us on this day, it took nothing away from the serenity of the pagoda sat upon water which looked as though some much as a ripple had never graced its surface.

Kiyomizu 

Fushimi inari taisha

The following day was a cloudless affair in which we visited the famous Arashiyama bamboo grove and possibly the most well known attraction in Kyoto, the Fushimi inari taisha shrine. With a total of 10,000 orange torii gates, it is a compelling experience to walk through them up to a shrine and pay respect. On our last day in Kyoto, we visited the Kiyomizu temple, another temple with a serene area to walk around. The night was concluded with something a little more modern in the form of a game of bowling; I did not spare any mercy for Jocelin, ruthlessly beating her by one pin.

Kiyomizu Temple

Strike?

Though Kyoto was bustling with tourists, Nara was in contrast a lot more placid. I immediately liked the quaint atmosphere about the area and we walked through a very peaceful shopping and restaurant district to get to the acclaimed Nara Park. Nara has always been very well known for its park wherein deer roam freely amongst people and are allowed to be fed. Whenever I’m told something interesting such as this, my reaction is invariably one that follows along the lines of a tepid “Oh really?”, not because I’m feigning interest but because the extraordinary nature of these things, for me, is realised only when I have first hand experience of them. Jocelin and I were therefore quite surprised when we suddenly found ourselves encircled by these amiable and elegant animals. It really was strange. We found it particularly amusing how the deers in Nara, quite rightly, haven’t the faintest regard for human rules, striding fashionably and slowly from one side of the road to the other while us humans on foot wait for the green signal to legally walk across. I suspect the drivers in Nara are used to the inevitability of their journeys being disrupted when they approach the vicinity of Nara park.

Deer in Nara

The second week of Jocelin’s time in Japan was spent heavily focused on introducing to her the eccentricities of Tokyo. Having hitherto never been to Kyoto or Nara, coming back to Tokyo to show Jocelin around was a very interesting juxtaposition between humble shrines and flamboyant electric billboards, kimonos and Harajuku fashion. Both places are so starkly different in places and yet they are both very “Japanese” - as if one is “old” Japan and the other “new”. Jocelin enjoyed very much the idiosyncratic Takeshita street in Harajuku, and I looked in shops with her that I certainly wouldn't go in by myself. The next stop was Shibuya, a place which speaks for itself really. Other ventures included visiting my work and showing Jocelin the many bright floors of Akihabara’s huge Yodobashi camera store to get our rolls of film developed. A highlight of the second week was going to Ebisu to see a musician we both like called Mac Demarco. That afternoon and night it snowed so much that we had to book a capsule hotel in fear of the trains not being able to take us back home. This turned out, in the end, to be quite the auspicious event for us as we met Mac after the show, something we wouldn’t have been able to do had we gone home earlier.

The two weeks inevitably passed by like a bullet train and we both agreed that it could have been two months and it still wouldn’t have sufficed as an adequate period of time to be introduced to this eclectic land called Japan. But with that conviction came the promise from Jocelin that she would one day revisit Japan not so far in the future. I hope you’re ready for that day, Japan...

Kyoto

Kamakura

Kamakura

Bus

Kyoto

Kyoto

Kyoto

Jocelin

Jocelin Carmes

Freelance visual development artist and concept artist.

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