Okay, it is day nine! 
Where has all the time gone? 
I cannot believe what has transpired in the last many days. 
After doing the dying in Amami Oshima we flew to Kagoshima, the birthplace of my host in gallery owner, Shin Nakahara
It was amazing. 
We met the boys that have become everyone's favorite dream team at Rariku Ramen. Three 27-year-old boys are farm to the table Ramen magicians. 
Yosei is the farmer of the 3 and works to grow the food only 1 hour away from the downtown restaurant with his 85 year old grandfather.
That was my most delicious, most simple, most hard to describe meal.
That days travel was a little hectic and we arrived very late 4 PM forthis ramen meal and they were closed. 
They heard our voices outside and opened the restaurant for Matt Llane Yoko and I - they love this posse - Yoko documented their visit to Oakland's Ramen Shop to share their wisdom with Sam & his crew in CA. 
Matt created their handsome beyond rivited selvage denim aprons - chow - so sexy ( :
Yoko joined us in Amami. 
She is a lovely spirit and a very gifted photographer who runs around with Shin Matt and Llane to capture moments that would otherwise be unbelievable. 
We met up with them 6 hours later, after they served ramen to a hungry Kagoshima crowd, at a super funky cafe/bar called Paradise where a tall knock out of a rootsie gal cooks late night for her Ramen warrior friends.
 
We spent that day and the next in Kagoshima. 
Day two and Kagoshima was amazing. 
Shins modest 1970s apartment building apartment was so groovy :-) hard to give the details but suffice it to say a little Basil, a little Fletcher - i know fun combination ( :
We went to have coffee in the most beautiful old cabineted darkwood coffee/tea house. It was amazing - every ceramic - every basket on display an artifact and relic and something you wanted to try to leave with. 
There we met a man named Jun. He is Shin's main man on his homeland island.
Jun is a major homeboy. A man in his 30s who dresses like a man from the 40s and has never left his island home - hence the nickname i gave him, homeboy. 
He drives a 1965 Morris Minor - fully equipped with a track cassette player. 
When I found out that he would be our chauffeur for the rest of the afternoon I squealed with delight ! : ) 
Jun is quiet and has a sly smile. 
He rolled us through the amazing beautiful beautiful beautiful dense Evergreen and bamboo forests of Kagoshima listening to Jose Feliciano with the wind in our hair in this funky little car like a magic carpet ride or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - you pick.
We climbed up & up to an appointment Shin had to keep that day at a custom-made shoe shop. 
A little wooden Hantzel and Gretel house up in the bamboo forest above the city below. 
realy.
This dude was the real deal. 
Another young man in his 30s working the leather and the vibram and the crêpe anyway you want. 
Shoes custom made the old-fashioned way, but in any style - contemporary or not - whatever you want. I guess you know already, I left having ordered a pair of new boots. He liked my 15-year-old desert/lunar trooper boots, but he is creating something new and special for me. He took at least 15 measurements with a tiny slender tape measure and kind of funny little molded contraptions for the heel etc. 
It was amazing they will be veg tan with a brass zipper - they will go halfway up my calf, because he's never ventured further than 8 inches from the ground ( :
I trust they will be my new best friends. That evening we flew back to Tokyo. 
The very next morning we hit the ground running. There I have a ground crew of four guys that are all amazing - I mean incredible - they all work for Landscape Products, Shin's company, and have stepped away from their normal responsibilities to do anything and everything I need and of course there is TJARN. 
I really have no words to to express what he has done and IS doing. 
The set up Tuesday was going smoothly but I began to melt down like a Claudette candle.
I just became overwhelmed seeing all the work in one space and the thought of how it all came to be - with everyone's gracious support. 
Moving that wood and those stones from Colorado from storage in London - in and out of so many spaces: Beth's basement - working nights and mornings and weekends - working in Tjarn's back yard - nights and mornings and weekends - working at Espenet studio  nights and mornings and weekends & of course at Fletcher's every spare moment - working anywhere that anyone would allow me to chase down my heart's and mind's eye dream.

Oh, oh & on the first day of set-up - here comes Tjarn's father, Takuya ! 
He made a great effort to be here from Indiana to see my show and of course also his family in Nagoya, mother of 102 & sister, but, the timing, I believe had everything to do with the show & seeing Tjarn and I pull this off !
The two of them are amazing and have enchanted everyone here. 
They are so awesome. I really can't say that enough.
They are now 2 stories below me in our little humble apt. bldg.
Waiting for me to come to breakfast.
The show opens today.
I ain't done with the set - up & need to grab the lovely breakfast that Tjarn makes for me each day.


I am so very fortunate.


The show looks so handsome & enchanting !


WOW.


xoxo