I spent one day on Teshima island at the beginning of my trip. Teshima is known as an "art island." That is, in the past ten years or so, it has many works of art all over the island (some public, some ticketed). It's a very verdant and rural island otherwise, with rice fields and green trees and forests...

I picked out some works to see on my map. There was one titled in French that seemed alluring, "La forêt des murmures." So I kept following the signs to find it. I walked over 25 minutes through a forest to arrive.

But once I did, a sign that said "closed" blocked the entrance. But no one else was around me, and it was possible to walk around the sign, so I tresspassed...

I started walking fast through the forest, past the sign, worried that someone would catch me through hidden cameras in the trees. I walked for maybe three minutes when I heard a strange noise. I kept going, faster and faster, until I arrived at the work. It was a million wind chimes in the forest. Since I couldn't find any information about this work in the pamphlet, I was quite surprised. It was beautiful.

(Please note... it wasn't my intention to break the rules! However, there were no closed hours mentioned in the informational pamphlet for this work. I also figured I wouldn't come back to this island in a long time since coming to Japan is expensive. And I had just walked all that way. I hope anyone reading this in the future can forgive me... I definitely treasured this artwork and tried to be as respectful as possible at all other times.)

I returned to the entrance, walking quite quickly, hoping not to be caught again. Thankfully no one was at the entrance. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back to the main road through the long forest path.

Creativity is usuaully fueled by some type of transgression. It's almost alchemical. How are you going to create something new from all the old parts, anyway? You need an energy transfer, a spark. Often it is playful transgression, that is, it's unexpected and maybe a little risky but doesn't carry any ill-intentioned side-effects. That's what I hope my forest tresspassing was, anyway. Maybe it was wrong, but I don't think I hurt anyone. I must say, tresspassing into the murmuring forest was one of the most memorable parts of my time in Teshima, and maybe that whole first week I spent in Japan.

On my first night in Osaka, Haruka and Kazuma from pe hu told me about their new hobby. They like to hang out in fancy hotel lobbies even though they aren't guests. So after dinner, we rode bikes to a fancy hotel. We brought drinks we purchased from the convenience store and drank them in the hotel lobby on the 40th floor overlooking the city. No one kicked us out, because we weren't doing anything too suspicious. But still there was still a playful exciting energy permeating the whole evening, just by imagining the possibility of what could happen. From time to time, we observed the hotel staff reflected in the huge glass windows, as they might be watching us too.