PL Peace Tower (1970) , Osaka, Japan

The PL (Church of Perfect Liberty) Peace Tower intrigued me as I explored the outer reaches of the Kansai area. Despite my efforts in circumnavigating the tower it remained behind a barbed-wire fence.

"The PL Peace Tower has become an interreligious, sculptured monument dedicated to all the departed souls of those who have died as a result of all human conflicts. It's a place where people can reflect on the ravages of war and pray for world peace. For this reason, the PL Peace Tower was erected and dedicated to symbolize PL's heartfelt desire for "the eternal peace and true happiness of humankind".

"Enshrined within the main altar in Peace Tower, is a list of unlimited names of those who have died as a result of human wars. These names have been collected from around the world, regardless of race, nationality, religion, or political beliefs, and they have been recorded on microfilm and placed in a sacred golden container".

And the site of the world's biggest firework display...

http://www.perfectliberty.ca/history_c1.htm

Shinto torii, Tofukuji, Kyoto, Japan

The most appropriate place for the federation: among the falling, drifting diesel particulate and gasoline additives. Cramped beneath a cathedral for the private, metal transportation box. Got to keep moving, fast.

contentment?

There's usually some profound truth behind these gimmicky english phrases that decorate t-shirts- and in this case, bikes. Bikes certainly are magnificent and Japan is abuzz with them. It makes me very happy .

Bikes travel well on tarmak...but are also good on compacted dirt. Tarmak is problematic in its domination on travelling spaces- it gets too hot. But they're trying to figure out water-permeable tarmak- see: http://web-japan.org/trends01/article/020902sci_index.html

Plants on rooves are a good idea too--As Tokyo burns  in record high temperatures this summer, the metropolitan government is following in the steps of Hundertwasser, requiring 20% of new buildings to be covered in greenery.

See: http://dalore.net/PhotoWeb/Pages/Vienna19.html

who arranged these?

melting...

Does the sea surround us? Or do we surround the sea? Sometimes we fortify our land-based habitation with concrete. This militaristic manoeuvre of distrust separates us, isolates our land-based metropli from the impeding ocean. Not distrust maybe- but an act made with awareness, a futile and petty piece of human engineering in the  face of melting ice sheets:
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/climate/climate.jsp?id=ns99994864

In Japan it is difficult to physically touch the sea. Fences, walls, concrete, tarmak keep us safely on land. You're on more intimate terms in the basement of the Hanshin Department Store.  Octopus eyes, crabs, cockles, whale...every bit of living flesh from the sea up for sale. Its fresh, and sometimes alive. And a fleeting confirmation that I live on an island.

Note the basement: the boundary between over/under ground is far more easily/frequently transversed than that between land and sea. Maybe we'll escape here more often- it's the war...shelters not from bombs, but from land prices, and from this hot, burning (but drowning?) planet.

Tarmak: Tenoji, Osaka, Japan

Slot machining has a certain charm. I am reminded of Dostoevsky's The Gambler as I attempt to descend (elevate?) into the unthinking. Is this the new meditation - with coins in hand, a circular, never-ending machine...like feeding a never-satisfied dog.

What else would one do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Kyoto, ancient holy city? Fortunately the judgment of the protestant work ethic is absent (more accurately leisure as work/productive ethic) --replaced by something quite different- haven't quite figured it, but something that embraces the nothing time, the pointless- as necessary. It is, it is---a meditation, a focus point beyond the regime.

The appeal of moving massive numbers of coins - they're even the same weight as the real thing provides an illusion, the physical sensation of wealth. I attempt to gamble as an Aristocrat- The Gambler my reference point. Beyond my thinking I am unexpectedly immersed, focused within this other world of usually maddening noise ....becoming music that rises and falls with my fortunes.

The rational systematic efficiency, cleanliness of the subway...one descends beneath the ground, is packed in a small tube full of strangers and emerges in a completely different space. Having seen only the reflections of ourselves in the glass of the tube.

My space is bare (barren?). It reflects little of me - save for what is absent; the yellow polyester floor rug with vulgar patterns is folded away out of mind in the top cupboard. As are the plastic drawers that would make a corner awkward. The wooden floor is clean, the table covered by a loose assortment of goods for my life.

Friday rained and blew and took me across the river to a business park where I could exist in Planet Corporate Capitalism. Here, one is removed from other realities; buffered by manicured gardens which support abstractly arranged towers. A minimal artwork with plenty of bare, paved space.

On this day it was my favourite cafe--a tall, tall room surrounded by glass, a corner converging at 75 degrees. Light and airy inside despite the rain; coffee and a sticky cookie, Japanese magazines and soft jazz. That air of moneyed contentment. Temporarily I can take a swim. In the luke warm...Outside I realise I've been sitting beneath fifty stories of something - it doesn't say--offices doing something, for somewhere, far away and out of mind (sight). 

Osaka has been a magnificent mercantile city. Can't help but regret (wonder, atleast), at the possible loss of these bustling waterways filled with haggling and goods being tossed between bodies; fish and rice from all over the inland sea. Gives way to this sterile, abstract cleanliness of the business park. Today's commerce. Elevated walkways and underground tubes prevent any unnecessary collisions, excitement.

inbetween spaces: New Zealand & Japan 

A functionalist, utilitarian architecture and general aesthetic pervades- despite such a rich tradition of design and possession of the beautiful. In the parks we are reminded occasionally by the flat rectangular and sparse arrangement of forms.

Nevertheless - utilitarian barriers for nothing interrupt and remind us of this pointless and harrowing - stifling obedience. Still- the men wave fans to cool themselves - decorated, yet mass-produced in this pleasing pared-down style. Cherry trees abound, forgiving, repenting the city and all its ugliness - its functionalism that ignores the human. Ignores life and purposefully stifles it - breeding conformity. Atleast the sky is still golden.

Japan needs to get things done, get things done fast and efficiently. Quickly and at minimum cost; because we've got so much more to do - dam rivers, build elevated highways, more railways, build more airports, reclaim the sea - a constant busi-ness which is, in itself, admirable. The results: disappointing, requiring us to move to the next project, or smoke a cigarette and forget.

inbetween space: Osaka & Kyoto