Tokyo
Exist Elsewhere 413 opener: off to Tokyo, love in my heart: Kokoro on the past that made me, told without falsehood; keep answerability live, not posthumous.
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Track one on 413 (August 2, 2013), the opener before Can’t Fall, Unwhole, and Genesis. Exist Elsewhere was Walton and Woodward’s first band together at USC Thornton, with Noah Benardout (lead vocals, guitar, keys) and Nick Petrou (bass, vocals), Frank Rosato on mix and master. The Kinect-shot music video, directed by Andrew Gant, was the EP’s public face and Gant’s entry into volumetric capture (full credits; behind the scenes; live on The Artie Lange Show).
On the surface it’s a pop travelogue: lover as travel agent, Tokyo gardens, the Osaka sun, beneath the trees all day. Verse two turns to vows: married in Rikugien, a neon sky of luminescent butterflies, this far-off land as home. Escape as romance, off to Tokyo as the destination.
Then the bridge drops the travel brochure. Walton sets a passage from Kokoro (Heart), Natsume Sōseki’s 1914 novel and one of his favorite books, in the original Japanese:
私は酔興に書くのではありません。
私を生んだ私の過去は、人間の経験の一部分として、私より外に誰も語り得るものはないのですから、それを偽りなく書き残して置く私の努力は、人間を知る上において、あなたにとっても、外の人にとっても、徒労ではなかろうと思います。
渡辺華山は邯鄲という画を描くために、死期を一週間繰り延べたという話をつい先達って聞きました。
Roughly: I am not writing out of whim. The past that made me what I am is one part of human experience, and since no one but I can tell it, I do not think my effort to leave it written down without falsehood will be wasted: for you, or for others, in coming to know human beings. I only recently heard the story that Watanabe Kazan postponed his death by a week to finish his painting Handan.
In Sōseki, Sensei isn’t asking to be forgiven. He’s leaving a true account of the past that made him (私を生んだ私の過去, “the past that gave birth to me”) because no one else can tell it. But his letter arrives only after his death: honest, and too late to be answered. Walton keeps the channel open instead, tell it while you can still be asked. The outro holds both the confession and the trip: through the rain and snow / our eyes may overflow / but someday soon I know / we’ll wake up in Tokyo.
That thread runs forward into What Makes You You and the essays The Bent Stick and The Decision No One Authored.
Japan as longing in 2013 becomes lived geography later, on Gonna Go to Japan and Only the Beginning.
See: 413 EP · The Decision No One Authored · The Bent Stick · Exist Elsewhere on /music/ · Catalog
Written by Luke Francis Walton and Brandon Michael Woodward (Exist Elsewhere). Mixed and mastered by Frank Rosato.
Lyrics
You asked if we could go Away to Tokyo And through the gardens run To the Osaka sun You asked if we could stay Beneath the trees all day A peaceful harmony Between the stars and sea Off to Japan I know we can A far land we will roam Woah Oh we could find a little place Out in a new country Lose our every day Never thought I'd see This love in my heart Love in my heart Love in my heart Oh we could go to all the places That we didn't know See all that the world Would never show We'll be off to Tokyo Off to Tokyo Off to Tokyo Ay oh Ay oh Ay oh Ay oh You asked if we could be Married in Rikugien I promised you That neon sky Of luminescent butterflies We'll be off to the East Babe, I believe This far off land Could be our home Woah Oh we could find a little place Out in a new country Lose our every day Never thought I'd see This love in my heart Love in my heart Love in my heart Oh we could go to all the places That we didn't know See all that the world Would never show We'll be off to Tokyo Off to Tokyo Off to Tokyo Ay oh Ay oh Ay oh Ay oh 私は酔興に書くのではありません。 私を生んだ私の過去は、人間の経験の一部分として、私より外に誰も語り得るものはないのですから、それを偽りなく書き残して置く私の努力は、人間を知る上において、あなたにとっても、外の人にとっても、徒労ではなかろうと思います。 渡辺華山は邯鄲という画を描くために、死期を一週間繰り延べたという話をつい先達って聞きました。 Through the rain and snow Ooo Our eyes may overflow Ooo But someday soon I know We'll wake up in Tokyo Ooo