Now selling on eBay

A long time goal met... I have now listed some of my art on eBay!

https://www.ebay.ca/usr/arttra56

Johatsu

A podcast episode that popped up in my feed this week was immediately interesting to me. Given my ongoing interest in missing people, and a side interest in people who choose to disappear, it's notable that I hadn't heard of Johatsu and the Night Movers before. Enjoyed the podcast and did more reading on this elusive story...

Tokyo's johatsu are said to disappear into the Sanya district's streets

In Japan, if you want to disappear from your life, you can just pick up the phone and a ‘night moving company’ will turn you into one of the country’s ‘johatsu,’ or literally ‘evaporated people.’ You can cease to exist. Meet the people who choose to disappear and the people who are left behind..." [listen to the podcast on the BBC].

Of the many oddities that are culturally specific to Japan — from cat cafés to graveyard eviction notices to the infamous Suicide Forest, where an estimated 100 people per year take their own lives — perhaps none is as little known, and curious, as “the evaporated people.”... [read more in the New York Post].

There is a book on the phenomena, entitled The Vanished (by Léna Mauger). Sadly, there is no audiobook and before paying crazy prices before buying a used hardcover, I checked out the reviews.... and they were not very good (Goodreads reviews).

Actually, there are two. The other, entitled The Night Movers (by Shou Hatori), has done its own vanishing act... can't find it in any form. Hmmm. It's a shame, as this guy was a night mover.

Aspiring authors: there is a book here! Just be sure to include an audiobook.

Japan's 'evaporated people' have become an obsession for this French couple - Pri.org story and podcast
Do Stressed-Out Japanese Really Stage Elaborate Disappearances? On the Trail of the Johatsu or 'Evaporated People' - Time
The chilling stories behind Japan’s ‘evaporating people’ - New York Post
Rulebreakers: How I Disappear - BBC: The Documentary Podcast

COVID Diary 4

Just had a moment where the multiple traumas and tragedies of late began piling up. The Beirut explosion, the Red Deer doctor attack, so many crazy things happening in this world. For the most part, I have been compartmentalizing ok, but had a wave of emotion hit me when I saw two photos in my CBC Radio stream.

The one that pulled at my heartstrings was this classroom photo of little kids in school, sitting with masks on, at their social distanced desks, so much of their natural spirit controlled, like invisible walls. Not being able to move, to squirm beyond their invisible walls, I can almost see the regimented ways the must need to move about their school, how orderly they must need to be on their breaks. Sad eyes over masks. How tragic. Snuffing out the kid in kids. I am not a parent, so have been learning at an emotional distance about what they say will be the long term effect of COVID on children. But somehow this one picture got me, and I cried. It feels so SAD to see the natural life spirit of kids snuffed out in the very environment they go to be with their friends, to learn, where it used to be an hour or two where they would need to sit controlled before recess, but always still witin note-passing, ruler poking and spitball throwing distance. These kids will be changed by this in ways we cannot be imagined. 30 years from now adults will be struggling through therapy to untangle complex issues. I can't imagine being a parent and needing to navigate all this. And how hard this must be on teachers. They are just little kids.

The other picture was of the arrest of activist Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. It is just so grim. It says resistance IS futile in any world where China has any influence. What struck me was the faces of the officers that surround him, eyes downcast, in resignation. I want to say in shame, as that's what I imagine I see.

There is more going on, and mostly I cope, but occasionally things pile up and it all hits me. I think the fact that I don't have TV, and don't stream it online, has protected me, by not searing iages of people in hazmat suits into my brain. I think its a wise choice, as I still get plenty of news and analysis and human stories through radio and podcasts. But it also lets images like these stand out, to not pass me by.

A man, a wild boar and a birthday suit

A must-listen podcast episode from What It Happens:

That boar has that man's laptop!
Listen to the CBC story here. 

The birthday suit boar chase in central Berlin was caught on film by Adele Landauer. You can listen here.