Cloud View of Paris, the return trip
In 1969 Joni Mitchell's song Both Sides Now filled our ears and souls with images of cloud's illusions, ice cream castles in the air, and feathered canyons everywhere.
I really don't know life at all
It would be hard to find a set of lyrics more appropriate to describe the Japan EXPO in Paris 2009.
Another word for it would be a collage, or a mélange of images, both words distinctly French in origin, indicating the French fondness for fragments, appreciation of ambiguity, and preference for potpourri.
Hong Kong Sunrise, back in Asia
It is almost impossible to describe the Japan EXPO in Paris, but you might try to imagine a shifting scene of illusions that take you from Kyoto to Aikihabara, from Star Wars to Harajuku, from Taiko Drumming to Mardi Gras, and from Martial Arts to Manga.
It is also a marketplace for Japanese otaku, ranging from the fantastic to the fabulous, where you turn the corner and are just as likely to encounter an aficionado or a collector, as a pirate or a pickpocket.
Surreal and beautiful, and strangely bizarre, the Japan EXPO 2009 was both a collage of cloud illusions about Japan, and a showcase for a hungry crowd of over 150,000 visitors to Paris from all over Europe.
From the website there is a catch phrase that catches the drift. Perhaps it is the French version of existentialism in the 21st century.
(There is nothing in life but manga!)
On Wednesday, July 15th, from 19:00~21:00, I will be doing a talk in Tokyo, about the Japan EXPO 2009, sponsored by Endeavor Japan, illustrating my experience with episodes, photos, and video:
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