So good to be back in Kyoto. On the first day I tried to do everything, and it was boiling. Up in the middle of the night with the reverse body clock, drinking holy temple water and into the red gate hills, up the top of Mount Inari, sweating through my legs and then the Golden Temple, which isn’t golden but covered in gold leaf, and then I found a charity shop, which was amazing.
The Kyoto Camarade itself, on a friday night in the Uradera Gokurakuji Buddhist temple, right in the middle of the centre of the city, in the Nishiki market, was atmospheric to the max. Disco music in a low lit temple, people giggling and eating, and hosted by the father on Monk dynamic duo of Uzai and Yoshiki Ikumi. Such good laughs. Amazing people. And lovely to be around Fukudapero and Kyoko Yoshida too, who co curated the last Japanese tour Colin and I did and are proper friends now.
The event was proper memorable - shouting, potatos, card games and kimonos, improv music, sword fights, live webcams. Not typical temple fare, but very good camarade style. The highlight was Pero’s academic paper as performance, and the huge finish by the lead monk Ukai Izumi with Decalco Marie. They fought and painted and smashed screens and it was a piece of theatre.
More on the event https://www.theenemiesproject.com/kyoto
For my own part I worked with the amazing double bassist Naoki Nakajima, who is out of a novel. Absolutely chill, up for anything, throwing his double bass around. I wore a mask I found in a bin and made some talking.
