Juan Wauters Goes to Japan

A PHOTO DIARY BY KIKUCHI YUKI
WORDS BY JUAN WAUTERS

 
3

One day I got an email from someone who I didn’t know inviting me to play shows in Japan. I was a bit confused and I asked them if we could set a time to talk thru Skype. So we did. We got to talking and then she said: “We can get you out here to do some shows.” I was still a little confused because I was unfamiliar with how things work over there. Well, the story goes that they bought tickets for me to go from Dublin to Tokyo and back to New York and I had 6 shows set up around Japan over the course of 8 days.

At the end of my last European tour in October, I left my friends who I had ben touring with behind and I left for Tokyo. This to me was still a crazy thing. I was going to Japan alone with my guitar to play shows.

As soon as I get there I experienced something very different from everything I had ever known. To not go so deep into it I would say that if one word describes the place is RESPECT. I had known respect, but over there it translates to everything. The way people communicate and the way people work carries a grand amount of respect. Check this – one time as we are pulling over at the gas station to get gas, the attendant greets us as we are coming closer to the pump with arm gestures, as if we were an airplane, and running towards the pump. After that, very excited and with the best disposition, she talks to the driver. This person takes her job with a lot of RESPECT. It is hard to explain now that I think and am writing about it but the country runs on this set of codes that everyone respects and it translates to everything. The food… imagine someone cooking for you with that RESPECT, of course it will come out tasting fresh and delicious. No one really gets fucked over because everything is done with the best intentions so the country has that really fast smooth pace that feels very easy going and therefore, to me, foreign.

Here are some pictures taken by my friend Yuki Kikuchi who accompanied me and the guys from the Siamese Cats (Tokyo band I was doing my shows with) while I was in this very special place. I left Japan after being there having made very good friends, all the guys in band, Yamaguchi (their manager) and Sumire who organized my trip and worked as translator. They took me to the airport, gave me gifts and waved at me until I was not able to see them anymore thru the gate. I dropped a tear and got on a plane that brought me home. I literally went around the world for the first time. Man… sometimes I freeze thinking about life and how I am cultivating relationships thru the world. What a magnificent place.

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

JUAN