{"id":57268,"date":"2024-11-28T08:21:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/?p=57268"},"modified":"2024-12-03T10:08:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T10:08:02","slug":"now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/","title":{"rendered":"NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL &#8211; CAPSULE I"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><strong>Kokura, Japan, September 2024<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The Nippon Zen Master (NZM) buys the coffee from abroad. Then roasts it and grinds it. I thought that I was drinking the best in the world. It is soothing and unfair: there is no such thing as best in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The caffeine intake results in an unexpected thesis on the nature of Senseis. I\u2019m about to visit my first dojo in the country when she says: <em>\u201cSenseis are macho-boring and touchy-feely.\u201d<\/em> She compares them to jazz musicians. <em>\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, at least jazz musicians are mostly dentists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have to ask her to finish the line. It is one of the many social rules that made this country the wet dream of humanity\u2019s future. There are so many of them. Not saying is the main one. You don\u2019t finish controversial lines; you just push your interlocutor to pull them up; hence you turn your confidant into your accomplice.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cA lot of jazz players are dentists\u2026so what?\u201d<\/em> \u2014I forcefully ask.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey called themselves doctors but they aren\u2019t. But at least they use gloves and technology to dig in your hole.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have no alternative.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSo what about Senseis?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey are all physiotherapists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I don\u2019t ask \u201cseriously?\u201d<\/em> I just think it might come handy if my fucked up left knee crumbles.<\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t trained since the ambush. It was two of them four months ago in Phnom Penh. They came from behind with tiny blades. I turned fast, and knocked the first down before the second crushed my knee with a knuckle-duster. They hit my head and sliced my left ear, and up until today I\u2019m pretty sure they raped me. I woke up with an excruciating pain in my temples and arsehole, blood all over my underwear and outerwear.<\/p>\n<p>She heard the news and invited me over. She knew I had never been in Japan and that it was my dream before the obliteration of my underwear.<\/p>\n<p>Timing was kind of perfect, except for the injuries. My main intention was to visit the country to practise Aikido. She said, <em>\u201cmartial arts are the least interesting thing about us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It was too irresistible a line. Spot fucking on.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-57268 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23.png'><img width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23-300x300.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23-650x650.png 650w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23-120x120.png 120w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/23.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24.png'><img width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24-300x300.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24-650x650.png 650w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24-120x120.png 120w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/24.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<h4><strong>Kokura Reloaded<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>We are in Kokura. There\u2019s an ancient samurai castle behind an obnoxious mall. It is an impressive piece of architecture built in 1602 that was brought down to ashes during the Summer War of 1866. The reconstruction was finished in 1990 and has the exact same flair as public health offices in Spain. All the walls are foamy and the whole place smells like mothballs, which is in turn how most porn cinemas used to smell in Spain back in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>So it is cheap samurai porn, except for the sculpture outside its stunning garden depicting the battle between Miyamoto Mushashi, arguably the finest swordsman that ever lived, and Sasaki Kojiro, the second best. Mushashi claims that Kojiro was the last man he killed. He was 29 years old when he finished him. Then he went on living without killing, and when he turned 59 he wrote <em>\u201cThe Book of Five Rings.\u201d<\/em> (1645). You can only wonder what Kojiro could have written if he had got the chance. <em>\u201cThe Book of Five Rings,\u201d<\/em> remains today as a must read for many martial Senseis.<\/p>\n<p>Outside the castle, down a flight of stairs, there is an old building that according to the Nippon Zen Master and neighbours \u201cis the official HQ of the local Yakuza.\u201d Kokura is still regarded as the main Yakuza city in the south.<br \/>\nI stop at a tiny cafe. The owner has a convoluted tattoo that seems to run his whole anatomy, which according to her and neighbours, makes him one of them.<\/p>\n<p>I ask him where he buys his coffee. He grins like a diamond cat and says <em>\u201cmany different places.\u201d<\/em> I just want to know about the one I\u2019m currently drinking, which is incomparable to hers. He says <em>\u201cVietnam.\u201d<\/em> I say that is where I come from and he grins again.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cDoes it feel like home?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cJust in a Robusta kind of sense\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I sit down, keep rereading Mushashi, and order a second coffee, his finest if possible.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf you do not pursue a genuine path to its consummation, then a little bit of crookedness in the mind will later turn into a major warp. Reflect on this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That is Musashi writing.<\/p>\n<p>I reflect on my cracked arsehole and sliced ear, tiny major warps.<\/p>\n<p>The moral of the story is that when you lose your awareness you either become a murderer or a corpse.<\/p>\n<p>I pay for the second coffee and he asks what happened to my ear. I say it was sliced in a back alley and he gives me nothing but an unforgiving smile. The second coffee is excellent, same for the place and its music. There is a massive BUT though: its location <em>\u201cmust remain undisclosed,\u201d<\/em> he says. I say that is the motto of my travel log:<em> \u201cundisclosed locations only.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He majestically bows and says that I can try to describe the insides. It is a forty-metre square living room, minimal to the max: just four dark wooden tables, each one with two light wooden chairs, and a mahogany bar. The coffee grinder is Italian, circa 1970\u2019s and the whole room smells like Naples darkest roast. There are four small Marshall speakers and an ancient record player with an outstanding selection of cosmic jazz, from Sun Ra and June Tyson to Thelonius Monk and Billie Holiday. The undisclosed owner has a lovely tendency to interrupt cosmic jazz with Black Sabbath and Kraut Rock. He claims that he lived in Munich and Chicago, where he allegedly joined the envoys of his clan. He has a scar on his cheek that runs until his chin like a crooked question mark. It rings an undisclosed bell.<\/p>\n<p>If you get in and ask the wrong question, or fail to remove your shoes, this might become the last cafe of your life.<\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, you can walk around and look for an old inscription in Hiragana and Kanji that reads: The Five\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Just take a photo and run.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-57274\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25.png 1080w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25-650x650.png 650w, https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/25-120x120.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kokura, Japan, September 2024 The Nippon Zen Master (NZM) buys the coffee from abroad. Then roasts it and grinds it. I thought that I was drinking the best in the world. It is soothing and unfair: there is no such thing as best in the world. The caffeine intake results in an unexpected thesis on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1059],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL - CAPSULE I - FIESTA y BULLSHIT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL - CAPSULE I - FIESTA y BULLSHIT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kokura, Japan, September 2024 The Nippon Zen Master (NZM) buys the coffee from abroad. Then roasts it and grinds it. I thought that I was drinking the best in the world. It is soothing and unfair: there is no such thing as best in the world. The caffeine intake results in an unexpected thesis on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FIESTA y BULLSHIT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-28T08:21:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-03T10:08:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/capsula1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1443\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/\",\"name\":\"NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL - CAPSULE I - FIESTA y BULLSHIT\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-28T08:21:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-03T10:08:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d7a9cfeeb7d0ae4f383cee6ef929eb18\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Portada\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL &#8211; CAPSULE I\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/\",\"name\":\"FIESTA y BULLSHIT\",\"description\":\"Magazine 3.0\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d7a9cfeeb7d0ae4f383cee6ef929eb18\",\"name\":\"Dani\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2bb71e25934a17b865a0db2825fab0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2bb71e25934a17b865a0db2825fab0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dani\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/author\/teo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL - CAPSULE I - FIESTA y BULLSHIT","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fiestaybullshit.com\/en\/now-here-now-here-hector-castells-travel-journal-capsule-i\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NOWHERE-NOW HERE, HECTOR CASTELLS TRAVEL JOURNAL - CAPSULE I - FIESTA y BULLSHIT","og_description":"Kokura, Japan, September 2024 The Nippon Zen Master (NZM) buys the coffee from abroad. 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