The Japan Foundation

Yesterday after a long search for what I should be working on next to justify my xexistance and especially pertaining to my next solo show which will be in April of next year I have come upon an idea. I have decided that i will do a Japan show. I will do a show entirely japanese that will reflect upon my three years stay in Sendai Japan all the works i did there which some of them are still stored away in places that might have saved them and all that i have with me here, it iwll be a good way to remember what was in Sendai.
Then I hit upon another possibility when I was asked to look around for sponsorship or a grant from the Japanese Government and I came upon the Japan Foundation and conveniently enough which has such project in mind when they offer their grants. I decided thatif it all works out I would like to involve my Japanese Artists friends who i had met and got to know well in Sendai especially those who hailed from the nearby mountain village of Akiu. I do hope after all these years they would still be producing artists and would still be intrested in my project. Akiu is a unique mountain village that is a residence for artists mostly and alot of creative individuals live there within walking distance of eachother. In my getting to know these individuals which was maily through my good friend Mrs. Emi Yanagisawa, I learned a great deal about contamporay Japanese and their thoughts and one of the most profound feeling I had was that they very much would like to travel and share their works with the rest of the world.
Hopefully if i could wing it through the Japan Foundation I could help to make their dream a realization and I too could benifit through the working experience in setting up such a project which could be developed further into wider scope for the future. Most Japanese that i know of love to travel and see the world, however due to not being able to communicate in English or any of the foreing tounges that they might encounter in their travels, have restricted their desire. I would love to be able to help in setting up the means for these artists to travel and see the countries that i am sure would widen their perspective on the world around them.
But this will all have to depend on the ability for me to convince the Japan Foundation or any other Japanese foundation for the promotion of Arts and Culture for Japan abroad.
My solo exhibition is being extended for one more month as the next show which is more of a Video presentation by a German will not be taking up much of the gallery space and seeing that my show is gaining quite an attraction among the children, the Gallery Director has decided that I might as well stay on. Allhamdullillah! This means that i have a place to hang out at and what better plae could that be than the Museum and gallery, the one place if anyone take a careful look through my journals would realize that, this is where i had most of my time whether i was in japan or the United States and now here in Malaysia. Even this very moment i am writing from one of the PCs at the office of the Gallery and i had just emailed to the Japan Foundation my project proposal. So all in all even if in my wallet there is only one ringgit and hell knows where i am going to get money to feed my daughter tonight, I have not too bad for the day i have been productive! If anyone jnows the teaching of Dogen Zenji, I have earned my food for the day!, but that is another story, Imean dont ask me who was Dogen or Rinzai or Bankei for that matter ask any Japanese... whAT IS zEN?