two of my favourite things
tables for two, chairs with light blue faux leather – everything facing a whiteboard. cool light from neon tubes illuminates the nearly naked walls. no decoration except three clocks and a calendar. “see the world by train.” this month it’s a big diesel engine, idling in a snowy canadian yard. last month it was a german passenger train crossing the alps. how do i know? i come here every week’s thursday, 10:30–12:00. a voluntary japanese lesson by a volunteer.
all attendees know the kanji, the chinese characters used in japanese writing. all, except me, because everybody else is from china. so i feel nicely out of place here. this place where greenish metallic window blinds make us trade sunrays for neon and the ac hums the classroom’s hymn. this place where i try to put out my smoking head with convenience store coffee. when the volunteer notices, he nods to me and throws an english vocab in my direction. it’s just the same as when a dog gets a bit thrown while the two-legged portion a slaughtered animal. the dog doesn’t understand a thing going on with the prey but surely appreciates profiting a little.
“satisfaction.”
meanwhile, the others are discussing in mandarin.
the volunteer, a grey man close to 80, is wearing running shoes, chino pants, a wool-knit sweater and a light jacket thrown over since it got colder. always on time and very patient with everyone who is not. when he is turned to the whiteboard, scribbling down rows and columns of characters, it is as if he hustles up the mont blanc. huffing and puffing like last year’s calendar. a little bit weird but lovable, and some fanatics can’t stop taking photos of him. they of course would argue they’re only photographing the notes on the whiteboard and call themselves landscape photographers. anyway, who am i to speak up. i am no better, trying to draw him while he is working.
see you next week at tokyo art book fair kunde