The Constorium of Greater Minds

i will write a collection of short stories about japan – enough for a book. here is the contract with myself. i can’t go back on this contract – if i do myself owes myself 1,000,000. done.

started to read glimpses of unfamiliar japan by lafcadio hearn. hearn was the first foreign writer to really immerse himself in the culture of japan. moving there in 1890 hearn would never return to his home in america, but make a new one in his adopted homeland of japan, the country he loved so much. here’s a great quote of his in reference to yokohama – i think it pretty well sums up my feelings towards the city of tokyo.
“i could not, in those first weeks, resign myself to remain indoors and write, while there was yet so much to see and hear and feel in the sun-steeped ways of the wonderful japanese city. still, even could i revive all the lost sensations of those first experiences, i doubt if i could express and fix them in words. the first charm of japan is intangible and volatile as a perfum.”
–lafcadio hearn

lady in red, wonderful apparition, lady in red. Through narrow marbled streets, shoulder to shoulder with the italian, with the german, with the greek. Lady in red. Red summer dress, red summer dress. blood red sunset and opal night sky. Busy streets, streets filled with life. Life, mad, laughing, wild and drunk, silly and naïve, life and youth exposed. Naïve youth exposed. Mediterranean breeze, give to me your secrets Mediterranean breeze whisper into my ear sweet frivolity, sweet lady in red. Once shrouded behind a curtain of blackest night, now exposed in crimson fury. a passion and a lust for life. A lust, a lust, I lust, I lust. Soft sand beneath delicate fingers, lips of fire and eyes of brilliant starlight the reflection of the ocean in a lingering glance. spirit rising to the heavens in a shroud of ardor and smoke. Summer rising to the heavens above. Summer but a dream, not but a memory of a lady in red, opal sky, sweet salt of the ocean, sweet paradise isle ushering forth to the heavens. Capture my body and soul for a fleeting instant a fiery flash in eros eye. Lady in red in blissful reverie in dancing, in wine, in song and in colloquy. Red summer dress, red summer dress. a lady in red.

so this piece is about a girl i met in bodrum, turkey summer of ‘06. she was staying at the hostel my friends and i were crashing at. we got to talking the day after she arrived. she was from kazakhstan and worked for Harpers Bazaar as a photographer and layout designer. her name was helena and i still carry her business card around in my wallet. anyway, my last night in town with a 0430 bus to catch to the airport we went out into town together. she wore this short red summer dress and deep red lipstick to match. she knocked me out. she was so fashionable and gorgeous, her skin was a wonderful honey coloured brown. we spent the night dancing, sitting on the beach smoking hookah, drinking and talking as two people instantly attracted to one another but both awake to the impossibility of the situation do. i wont say how it ended – have to leave something up to the imagination, but our brief relationship effected me as so many like it have and will continue to. such episodes are one of the sweetest joys of travel. peace