Japan fully reopened in October 2022, just in time to enjoy the autumn session of the marvelous Setouchi Triennial.
Japan is my favorite country and the Seto Inland Sea is my favorite region of Japan. I returned to Japan, just days after it fully reopened, to participate in the Setouchi Trenniale, a modern art festival dispersed in and round the beautiful Seto Inland Sea.
I had first heard of this region of Japan some 500 miles away in the Tsutaya Bookstore in Tokyo. My companion, who took me to the store — a marvel of a bookstore — , picked up a coffee table book, “The Art Islands of Japan” and asked if I had heard of it. I had not. Paging through the book — and the encouragement of my companion, an architect, that I might like it, convinced me to put it on my (non-existent) itinerary.
Japan is the only place in the world where I have felt 50 years in the future one day and 500 years in the past the next. (The best moments occurred when I felt both at the same time and of those there was one every other day.) And it was in and around the Seto Inland Sea where I felt this most vividly.
This sense of “time-travel,” — a mixture of appreciation, admiration, marvel, enthusiasm, and ethnographic focus — was acute in 2019-2020. As the reopening of Japan dragged on from the spring into the fall of 2022, I worried if but it persisted this past fall as well. My last visit made me remark to friends that I was part Japanese. I love orderliness, good manners, carrying a pencil case, dressing well, ramen, and the ability to spend hours choosing stationery as well as acting like a better person in public than I am in private. These are all traits that abound in the Japanese. My first extended visit in 2019-2020 felt like falling in love. This visit felt like moving in together.
Setouchi 2022.
I imagine I was one of the last (of thousands) to have visited Japan before COVID caused it to close its borders. I am sure that I was also among the first to visit upon reopening — five days in.
I felt an acute need to return to Japan throughout 2022. I had promised myself to participate in the 2022 Setouchi Triennial in 2019. Japan’s was the slowest national reopening and the one that I followed on nearly a daily basis. I remained optimistic but far from certain that I could fulfil this promise to myself in the summer of 2022.
Thank you, Japan.
Everyone is helpful; people smile readily; the facilities are first rate; the country is beautiful. I’ve had amazing encounters with art and nature while here.
Every cashier handles money like a Vegas dealer and will take the proper change from your outstretched hand with sympathy and efficiency.
This is the land of yes, “Hai” always said with enthusiasm and a direct look to your eyes.
The onsens and public baths are heaven. I have seen a couple of hundred naked men and only once a tattoo.
The stationery is magnificent. Japanese tea ceremony paper has changed by life.
Coffee is great, maybe because the water is delicious. Or maybe because the Japanese are expert at improving things they take from other cultures.
No people queue up better than the Japanese. The place is rational to me.
Things make sense and the Japanese are a quiet folk. You can be overwhelmed in Tokyo Station or by the neon signs on the streets and a minute later be on a lane with no light or sound coming from a house. It’s like the Rapture occurred.
Elderly women here are adorable. They are about the size of 8 year old girls, they move agilely and wear great hats.
The young men are fit and dress well. Couples are affectionate.