Tokio Whip by Arturo Silva Page B

system pretty quickly – the stations them-
photo, a city all black, flat, except for the fire towers. The map from the
yes, Roberta, as well as two facing mirrors, receding mirrors, Chinese
selves are the hard parts sometimes. I remember it took what seemed
earthquake, where the fires were, where people were lost – or assassinated.
mirror-lined boxes. Pictures on top of one another yes, perhaps, Arlene,
months before I felt confident making my way around Shibuya, and
The JTB overhead photos of the entire city, every seven years, trace the
pictures that obscure any seeing, but pictures that are all transparent too.
now I rarely go there. Then there are stations like Akasaka and Hibiya
rise and fall, what stood three years ago on this plot of land, for example.
Like Borges’s perfect labyrinth that is a straight line, Tokyo is a great thick
where you can walk for miles, a real underground city. But no I have
The Yohan map, the TIC map, the Kodansha map, they each show a
volume of page after page of pictures that are all transparent. Perhaps the
really only one map: my neighborhood. I copied the basic plan out of
different city. And the bus maps! The train and subway maps; you know,
whole is empty, and the center, what? An empty emptiness? No matter.
Yanasen magazine, and now as I wander I fill in the shops and places I
you almost never see them together, it would be so convenient. I like the
The three regalia thrown into the sea at the end of the Heike Monoga-
like. There’s the handmade ice cream place, as well as the “traditional”
maps in the subway stations – why don’t they issue those? And the pock-
tari. Regalia that probably never existed, and therefore perfect. Shinto.
ice cream place which used to be in an attractive old building and is
et maps wallet size, the whole city the size of a credit card! The 3D map
But I like to think of it as being like those medical textbooks, you know
now in what looks like a clinic – ha, an ice cream clinic – “I’m going
of Ginza, the Pia maps and the BT maps. The “My Way” map: all white,
what I’m referring to, textbooks with those plastic sheets that you unfold
to the clinic for a check-up, Mom!” There are at least five tofu shops,
fill in according to need. Those real estate maps, every single detail, each
one after another: the sheet of skin, the sheet of muscles, the sheet of
four or five noodles shops, there’s Hobos, where the woman sits at the
little house and shop, how do they do it? Those funny metal maps you
bones, the sheet of viscera. In my body-city we’d have the sheets of res-
spindle weaving. The kamameishi restaurant with the Klimt posters,
find every few streets – and people complain about no street signs; it’s an
taurants, of cinemas, of bookstores. The sheet of memories, and the sheet
and Hantei of course – you know, the Pond used to extend so far. The
easy city to find your way around in – or get lost in, but that can also be
of desires. The sheet of crime and assassination. The jizo sheets, and the
New Year’s walk of the lucky gods. That photo shop with the window
fun. Sort of. And the handmade maps, the type Barthes liked so much.
Yoshiwara sheets. The work sheets, dress well sheets, and the date sheets.
where he changes the display every three weeks. There’s always a callig-
Scraps of paper, matchbox covers if anyone ever uses them anymore,
The sheet of foreigners who got it wrong, and the sheet of those who just
raphy scroll, a small rock garden, a seasonal flower arrangement. I visit
chopstick wrappers, meishi, cutesey stationery, a variety of surfaces and
accepted it. The Cafferty sheet: half a dozen homes, as many loves and
once a month and take a picture. Oh, and there’s usually an insect, too.
scripts, each a map a kanji itself – what a jigsaw puzzle they could a make!
losses. And back to the spiral city, the book’s cover, the