lost in transportation

everybody knows that great movie by Sofia Coppola, Lost in translation. it gives a real feeling of what it feels like to be a stranger in this city, where every corner is identical to a thousands others. this feeling of being lost is of course a mix of geographic confusion and psychological bewilderment. the psychological side lends itself to many shades and comparisons between the western and eastern culture, but it is the geographic confusion that beyond any doubt gives rise to the most funny stories.

this week I am spending my time between two different symposia, the NanoPhysics2009, at the International House of Japan, in Roppongi, and the MANA Symposium in Tsukuba. I am supposed to bring along my student, mr. Sato (the guy who doesn't understand english). we should have met in the lobby at 8.30, to go to the IHJ together. I came down at 8.35 but he wasn't there... ok, my fault, I was 5 minutes late. now, getting to the IHJ based on the map provided by the organizers was a real puzzle. I got lost twice at Roppongi crossing, then went back on my steps and restarted from scratch twice. I ended up in a wide street, where I could locate my position on a map at a bus stop. I was about 1 mile away from the target! however, I could eventually reach the IHJ at 9.45, late by only 15' . mr. Sato wasn't there... he showed up at the coffee break, at 11.00. he looked at me and said "sorry, sorry prof Cleri-sensei, I got completely lost to get here, it is too complicated"....
well, he's supposed to know better than me, isn't he??
anyway, the coffee break was amazingly good, arranged in the japanese zen garden of the IHJ building, with a range of glorious european-style cakes... I needed some real sugar badly!

tonight I am spending the night at the Keio Plaza Hotel, an upscale hotel in Shinjuku where I was greeted, cared, and assisted by no less than five different people in the first ten minutes after my arrival. I had to move here for just one night, from the Komaba faculty house, since all rooms were booked months in advance. In fact, tomorrow is the in-famous nyūgaku shiken day (入学試験 ), the day when the extremely selective entrance examinations for the admission to the most important universities are being held in Tokyo. this is an incredibly important step in the life of many young japanese: in practical terms, tomorrow the destiny of a life could be decided, for any boy and girl who wants to get a high-pay job in the top management of the society. every Tokyo hotel and facility is crowded by nervous parents and anxious children, under a terrible social and psychologic pressure. wish them well, even if I had to leave my nice room in Komaba and come here (at the fair price of 17,000 Y), at the 26th floor of the Keio building...
Most notably, from here I can admire and get lost (again!) in the thousands lights of the City that never sleeps, and listen to the muffled echo of the cars in the background, while looking at the skyline that rises all around, like an immense wasteland of steel, glass and concrete. this - once again - adds to that Lost in translation feeling (remember the loneliness of the young woman looking from behind the windows....?)

highlight of the day: the Map Camera store in Shinjuku and its camera-cash density.
The Wonderful World of Map Camera. When I discover a place like Map Camera (and there are plenty all around the world) I feel happy for me. It gives me a feeling of comfort, to see that there are noble places like these, where cabinets after cabinets display the most wonderful pieces of analog photograpic machinery, still in perfect working order, with selling prices that rival and largely surpass the most expensive electronic toys of the digital era. It confirms my idea that there is still plenty of room in these days for the old art of silver bromide and gelatin prints.
the upper four floors of this anonymous and quite unpretentious store are stuffed of old cameras from all ages, but most frequently from the 70s and 80s. I could find (and buy, for just 1500Y) the original E-screen for my Nikon FA, which was officially impossible to find. so happy!
but the real treat was the basement. it is there that the most precious objects are kept and cared for, with a sort of religious regard. in the small space of no more than 50sq.m., enclosed in 6 glass cabinets, I could count: 227 M-series, and 68 III-series Leica bodies, 27 Nikon-S rangefinder camera bodies, 255 Leitz lenses, 32 Hasselblad bodies, with 135 Carl Zeiss lenses and 24 magazines, plus a display of accessories and other minor cameras (among which, however, several Horseman, Bronicas, Zeiss, Sinar etc.). A quick estimate gave me the figure of about 1,000,000 Euros of cash value, probably more, enclosed in that small surface... about 20kEuro per sq. meter! not much, probably, if compared with the cash density of some stores like Armani, or Prada, or Cartier etc., but (at least to me) of incomparably higher consistency, and of peerless beauty.