I feel pleased that we can restage this production so soon. When I talked about it with Inatsugu, she said she was happy to do the show again while she still remembers its feelings. I think the same. And I think of those feelings that remain with us.

We went to Seoul when making this production. Eating Korean-style grilled meat and cold noodles, we still rehearsed the same way we do in Yokohama. We travelled to Yokohama and Kumamoto on another production in April. I also travelled to Kagoshima with Taketani and Inatsugu. These experiences fed into this production. I also thought about Europe and Morocco where I travelled in May. I went to Sapporo after a long while too. I also went to Yakushima. I drank in Taipei.

I don't know what my actors, staff members, or audience members will do. But how I changed or what I realized in the past two years, is the fact that it's impossible for us to settle down in one place. We move between cities, by foot, train, car, plane, ship, and bicycles. I leant about the earthquake on a express train to Wakayama. Since then, or even since before then, I escape, avoid, pass time, thinking of those places that we cannot go.

＊＊

I got shocked when I visited Omiya recently for the first time, because I found it a very interesting city. Whether they are near or far, all cities are interesting. Why are cities interesting? Because there are many strangers. I sometimes curse it when a place is filled with strangers; but after all, I would like to live among others, with a sense that our lives have crossed for a passing second. Is this an aged thought? I move from city to city, getting older.

Why do we move about? Why, though we find it interesting, it can also make us feel sad? Why feel aged at the same time we feel refreshed? Why does the idea of stopping make us think of death? These small questions are what we deal with in this production.

This month (December), I will travel around China for the first time. I don't know what awaits us there, but we gather for a moment in theatre. No matter if I write a script or not, we spend a moment in theatre if actors move and speak. This thought is perhaps idealistic and happy-go-lucky. But I would like to include them all and make a suitable production, so I work harder on direction and rehearsal of this piece.

I saw Okazaki Arts Theatre's the Absence of Neighbor Jimmy.
After the show, I regretted not to have discovered this theatre company sooner.
The show was great.
It held within the unknown that connects to everything in life: scream yet to become words, gestures yet to become stories, the unconscious yet to become meanings, and so on.
I recommend this show to you earnestly, if you still haven't seen it.