Mio & Io, water fountains, and the vibe of a city

Welcome to The Shrubbery | Headed to Yokoha-ha-hama*, the first in a series of topical, time delimited, pop-up newsletters from the desk of Steve Frost.

I’ve been to Yokohama once, when I got on the wrong train and got lost. I got as far as Yokohama before I figured out I was going the wrong way. My visit consisted of getting off the oh-no-wrong-train train (somewhere in Yokohama), getting myself over to the opposite platform, and getting on the next train headed in the opposite direction. A limited visit.

Why am I telling you this? My artist residency, the topic of this newsletter, is in Yokohama. More specifically, the residency is in Koganecho neighbourhood, which is in Yokohama City.

I wanted to know, before getting there, what is the vibe of both places? The following is what I discovered.

Yokohama

First stop, The City of Yokohama website, which is replete with helpful information should you, a "non-Japanese resident," decide to live in Yokohama. For example, in the Daily Life section, on the Riding Bicycles page can be found "When cycling, please obey the rules of the road to avoid being involved in an accident." Got it.

To be fair, the site is quite thorough, if not decidedly bereft of...style? potentially confusing language? It's very much function over form, and there is very little about the vibe of the place.

Next stop, Wikipedia. Facts, facts, facts. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan (! I did not know that), with a population of 3.8 million.

Yokohama was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1859 end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city...Yokohama is the home of many of Japan's firsts in the Meiji period, including the first foreign trading port and Chinatown (1859), European-style sport venues (1860s), English-language newspaper (1861), confectionery and beer manufacturing (1865), daily newspaper (1870), gas-powered street lamps (1870s), railway station (1872), and power plant (1882). Yokohama developed rapidly as Japan's prominent port city following the end of Japan's relative isolation in the mid-19th century and is today one of its major ports...Yokohama is classified as a Large-Port Metropolis**. Straight Out of Wikipedia  

Still, not much as to the vibe of the place.

Next stop, a blog called Yokohama Vibe. Despite the promising name, it was mostly about the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) and not, sadly and bewilderingly, given the name, about Yokohama's vibe.

What is the vibe of any place? Is it its culture? Its history? Is it what the people who live there talk about? Is it what they do? Is it what they make? Is the vibe out of their hands? Bigger than them. Or is it in their hands? They are the vibe. Or maybe it's both?

As much as I try, and as much I make you suffer along as I try, I don't think it's possible to get the vibe of a place without being in the place. I think vibe is embodied. It's lived, breathed, tasted, smelled and looked upon. The more openly and carefully each of these activities are entered into, the more vibe that can get in.

Which sets me to wondering, will I, a non-Japanese (and temporary) resident,  sense the vibe? Will I understand the vibe? Will I be part of the vibe? Will I help create the vibe? How will my perception of Yokohama change between now, pre-vibe-getting, and when I leave, post-vibe-partaking?

Koganecho

My residency is in Koganecho, which is in the heart of Yokohama City, next to the Ooka river. It is almost universally referred to as a "former red light district." In virtually every telling of the history of Koganecho, you will find this main thread, many of the exact same words used: it was bombed flat during WWII, a black market sprang up from the rubble, it became a hotbed of illicit drugs and prostitution, which remained in the neighbourhood until 2005, when city officials implemented Operation Bye Bye to "clean up the area" in anticipation of the 150th anniversary celebrations, in 2009, of the opening of the port of Yokohama.

In the aftermath of this sweeping transformation, what would fill the economic vacuum? Art, it turns out, was the civic consensus. Former one room brothels were turned into a hodge podge collection of studios, galleries and micro-store fronts, now managed by the Koganecho Area Management Center, which operates the Koganecho Artist In Residence program, of which, yours truly is now a participating artist.

Koganecho Area Management Center

Preliminary research indicates Operation Bye Bye wasn’t without controversy. I'm keenly interested in what local residents in and around Koganecho think of the relatively recent changes in their neighbourhood and of the KAMC. Having worked in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and thus having some understanding of misunderstood and/or misrepresented neighbourhoods, the Japan Times headline pronouncing "Koganecho transformed: from sleaze to teas" gives me pause. I suspect the real story is more multi-layered, nuanced and complex.

That said, as a visiting artist I am asked to "bear in mind the purpose of the town redevelopment, and to get involved in its implementation." As an active participant in the process, this lengthy article (book, really), which includes first hand accounts of early (70s, 80's, 90s) artist networks and grassroots arts organizing, gives me hope in the process.

It's actually difficult to get a handle on what KAMC does, simply because they do so much. There's the Koganecho Bazaar, and Made In Koganecho, both of which have all kinds of sub-projects and events, like studio kitchen, artist network events, knitting workshops, pottery workshops etc. And of course, Koganecho AIR.

Koganecho AIR

What is an AIR program? AIR stands for artist in residence. There are lots of AIR programs around the world. There are lots of AIR programs in Japan. It’s a thing. So much so, that people in Japan generally know what the acronym AIR stands for.

The Koganecho AIR program, like many of the AIR programs in Japan, is run by a local civic body hoping to economically revitalize a town or neighbourhood, in this instance, the aforementioned KMAC.

The Koganecho Area Management Center (KAMC) runs an artist-in-residence programme for domestic and foreign artists, craftspeople, designers and architects engaged in all kinds of creative activities. The residence programme is located in Koganecho, near the coastal area of central Yokohama, and is characterised by its urban environment, which provides many opportunities to research, create, and exhibit artworks.

Like KMAC, it's a bit difficult to get a handle on what all Koganecho AIR is up to, there's so much going on. Trying to tell you about it would be like the blind leading the blind at this point. How about this...

My Immediate Impressions While Reading Over The Koganecho AIR Information Packet

Apparently, booking airline tickets unlocks the mysteries of the Koganecho AIR Information Packet, which Theo, who I hope to meet, kindly sent links to.

Directions

First up, a couple of well thought out map/picture/directions combo documents about getting to the neighbourhood, including how to walk from the train station to the offices I need to get to.

With this level of charming care, I feel welcomed, calm, assured. It's a good way to start.

The Koganecho AIR Welcome Pack

Another pack? Inside the packet? The Welcome Pack is a 13 page PDF. It has an org chart, with contact info for everyone (?!) running KAMC. The Welcome Pack is thorough. I am soothed by the notion that I am being hosted by people keenly attentive to detail.

A lovely map  

I include the whole thing, because it's a lovely map.

Random thoughts about the map

"So many little spaces. So many cryptic names. Hachibankan-oku. What is oku? I don’t know. GALA  HOUSE. In all caps, why all caps? Who is having the gala? And why so frequently that they require an entire house? Step Two, and Step Three. Why are two tiny little spaces, more than a block apart, called Step Two and Step Three? And why is there no Step One!? What is an Art Planet!?"

House rules

Pretty standard, no claim on first born child and/or soul, etc.

Waste disposal

Fortunately I’ve had some prior experience with the incredibly detailed and complicated municipal waste disposal recycling system.

You just have to take the time to read it all, and then you will know what to do. This is a general rule of thumb in Japan BTW. If something is written down, people will read it. Conversely, the people who wrote it will assume everyone will read it. That’s not really the case here in Canada.

Studio space

There are three shared studio spaces, in addition to one’s own residence/studio space. One of the shared studios has wood and metal cutting equipment. Woohoo! This revelation feels like a happy times extra double bonus. It sure opens up possibilities, it just being there.

Kanji learnin’ break

There is a photo of the alarm system. I take 15 minutes to figure out the kanji.
警備/解除；戸締り異常 = Armed/disarmed; door is ajar.

Bikes

I can borrow the office bikes for free! Also, it’s possible to rent the office van! So many exclamation marks, I know, but the van opens up possibilities for events that Miran, an arts organizer in Chiba, and I have been talking about. (I will be sharing an interview with Miran in the next edition.)

Laundry instructions.

Yep, good.

Local ammenties map.

Nice. And that's it for the Welcome Pack PDF.

Other documents (included in the Information Packet, not to be confused with the Welcome Pack, which was also part of the Information Packet)

Catalogue

A super exhaustive list of art supply stores, stores in general, cultural destinations, restaurants and emergency services. Once again, I am comforted by a high level of attention to detail. While there, I am not likely to befall peril and doom as a result of my own scatter-brain-ed-ness.  

Waste disposal

Another 3 page garbage disposal/recycling instruction document. It is replete with cute cartoon characters and diagrams. Garbage, apparently, is taken very seriously here. (And well it should, there are a lot of people on one very small island.)

Waste disposal

Another waste disposal document. (Should I be alarmed? Is this cause for worry? Can I handle pressure?) This one, a fulsome exploration on the topic of sorting. With Mio and Io, the aforementioned cartoon characters. Now I know their names.  

Well, here we are, dear supporters and readers, almost exactly one month before departure. For all of that investigating/reading we are more or less clueless as to the vibe of Yokohama and Koganecho. We are vibe-less. Perhaps it's a result of a pre-vibe being un-vibe-able, one has to live within the vibe. Or maybe not. Between Mio and Io, and being told to "turn right at the water fountain," I find myself charmed. That's something of a vibe, isn't it?

SF

* This pop-up newsletter, Headed To Yokoha-ha-hama, is all about the lead up to my artist residency in Koganecho, Japan, and will run until February 28, the day I depart, at which time it will go away (Mycelium Council Members will be able to access the archive). Headed To Yokoha-ha-hama is the first pop-up newsletter of The Shrubbery, a series of pop-up newsletters, all of which will be time delimited, all of which will go away, and all of which are published under Trembling Aspen.

** Large-port Metropolis has to be either the name of the place an anime character is from, or a 70's rock band.