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Not that long ago, back when things were only just starting to get pandemi-tastic, I was on a train making my way to Fujisan Station in Fujiyoshida. Now, while I had been to Fujiyoshida previously, the station changed its name to Fujisan Station after I’d visited it but not before I’d finished the list. This made me kind of twitchy all over & hurt my completionist soul. I figured that meant it needed to be redone.

From the window of the train, I spotted a mountain range swooping down to a lake. That’s Sagami Lake, I thought. A bit further up there was a weird looking object on the hillside, shaped like an envelope. I remembered seeing that same envelope on Twitter – someone had posted “Godzilla dropped his Valentine’s card”, or words to that effect, captioning a picture of said envelope.

It was then, to continue a motif from last time, I realized that I’d come full circle. That was Fujino over there, a little town on the outskirts of Kanagawa, two stops up the Chuo line from Mount Takao, more into art than the outdoors.

Fujino is home to a great number of artists, apparently. It also boasts an art village and a lot of art installations scattered about the place, such as the giant love letter above. When I visited Fujino over a decade ago, I have to say I didn’t really rate the art I saw while I was wandering about the place. Of course, that’s probably more down to my personal preference and the possibility that I may be a philistine. 

I’ve been told I was unfair to the place the first time I wrote about it, and yeah, I suppose some harsh things were said. For example:

a robot made out of spare parts that has to be hidden off the main road in case he should frighten small children on school buses, who would scream really loudly, causing their bus driver to unexpectedly swerve the bus, which would plummet off the bridge, something that could only be considered a terrible thing to happen to a small, artistic community

I was talking about this creation below. You decide what you think. It’s still not really my bag, and I love robots. I’ll concede it’s pretty well made though, and is possibly trying to say something about love & machines, but I much prefer this exploration of that topic.

Honestly, I’m sorry Fujino, I really am but when I look at the photographs I took and reread my notes, I travel back to that grey day in March thirteen years ago and, again, I’m sorry, truly I am, but you’re just kind of dull. 

I am ready to give Fujino another chance though. I mean, a lot has changed for me in thirteen years (a lot might be a bit of an understatement, actually) so maybe this effusive piece is more on the money than me.

Then of course my cynicism took hold and all I could think about was Bryce Shivers & Lisa Eversman:

Oh Fujino, sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll try to be better to you in future. xo

FUJIS LEFT AT THE END OF MARCH 24th, 2007 : 38/59