We won a Life! Theatre Award for Best Multimedia!

Okay, technically it was Choy Ka Fai who won it. But he's in the UK filming stuff for Diaspora (which will be in the Edinburgh Festival 15 and 16 August!) so I collected it on his behalf, talked about what a great guy is to work with and exhorted everyone to watch his upcoming Revolution Per Minute (23 to 25 April).

That's our only prize, though. Best Production went to Gemuk Girls and Best Sound went to... shite, I've forgotten who got best sound. It'll be in the papers tomorrow. Oh yeah, it was Philip Tan for Temple.

I'm at TheatreWorks dropping off the trophy now. Had a conversation with Selina Pappa over what Ka Fai wll use it for. Paperweight? Bookend? Extreme dildo?

Life! Theatre Awards Nominations 2009

Reservoir's been nominated for Production of the Year, Best Multimedia and Best Sound Design!



Results on Monday 31 March.

Production of the Year:

* Gemuk Girls (The Necessary Stage)
* House of Sins (Dramabox)
* Reservoir (Theatreworks)
* Temple (Cake)
* The King Lear Trilogy (Ho Tzu Nyen)

Best Sound Design:

* Bang Wenfu (The Hypochondriac)
* Chong Li-Chuan (Reservoir)
* Philip Tan (Temple)
* Zing O Drum Group (Death of a Hero)
* Zizi Azah (Above us only sky)

Best Multimedia Design:

* Choy Ka Fai (Reservoir)
* Loo Zihan (Gemuk Girls)
* Brian Gothong Tan (Temple)
* Tan Kai Syng (The Vagina Monologues)

Between the Scenes

Just a repository for all the photos that I couldn't really classify.

Reservoir Review (Today Weekend, 30 August 2008)

We're rather happy with this review because it describes the problematics of the play.

From Ng Yi-Sheng's Careerblog

A Shrining example

“A STRAIGHT line into the forest!” It’s a phrase actress Patricia Toh utters in amazement upon finding a pathway in the middle of Reservoir.

It’s also an apt analogy for this new multi-media production by TheatreWorks, as director Choy Ka Fai, playwright Ng Yi-Sheng and the rest of the team beat a straight path into uncharted historical territory like a band of merry explorers.

This collaborative piece is essentially a heartfelt ode to a forgotten monument in the heart of MacRitchie Reservoir. And not just any whitewashed statue or structure, but the rather controversial Syonan Jinja. The Shinto shrine was built to commemorate the first anniversary of the British surrender to the Japanese during World War II in 1943.

Reservoir has an autobiographical approach, literally: It tells the story of a group of people who go in search of a mysterious structure that’s been swallowed up by the jungle.

Like episodic chapters in a multi-media history book-cum-diary, it combines song and dance performances — from actor/singer Rizman Putra and Japanese dancer Norico Sunayama, respectively — Choy’s own video graphics, an evocative soundscape from Chong Li-Chuan, as well as documentary footage and audio interviews of people who’ve seen the shrine in its heyday.

It’s an inventive approach to telling a story; one that few people would even think of bringing up without getting their knickers in a bunch.

That’s because it’s a sticky topic to begin with. And because Reservoir does not dwell at length with the less-than-pleasant points of war and colonial occupation, it may get accused of handling a sensitive historical topic irresponsibly.

During the opening night’s post-show talk, for example, an audience member even made comparisons to the World War II Auschwitz concentration camp.

But that comment reveals, more than anything, certain prejudices towards such topics: for example, when you bring up the Japanese Occupation of World War II, every Japanese must have three eyes, two horns, a tail and feed on the blood of young babies.

But this reviewer was relieved that the young team behind Reservoir did not even attempt to tackle the topic in such a manner, because they found a way of making sense of a symbolic structure on their own terms, no matter how romanticised it may sometimes feel.

Unlike the black and white views of textbook history, Reservoir feels fresh. There’s a sense of wide-eyed innocence and an eagerness to explore and it’s worthwhile to follow the piece all the way to that proverbial clearing in the forest.

Reservoir ends Saturday (Aug 30), 3pm and 8pm, at 72-13Mohamed Sultan Road. Tickets at $28 from tworks@singnet.com.sg or call 6737 7213.

mayo@mediacorp.com.sg

RESERVOIR_28-30AUG_2008

"Deep in the heart of MacRitchie Reservoir lie the ruins of the 

Syonan Jinja, a Shinto shrine built during the Japanese 

Occupation of Singapore. Envisioned first as a spiritual and 

recreational centre for the future empire, then built by 

Australian POWs and Japanese craftsmen, today it exists 

only as stone relics and fragments, swallowed up by the 

thick tropical rainforest.

As young artists, we have embarked on a journey of 

discovery to reclaim this forgotten monument. Its very 

existence is intriguing– a beautiful artefact of civilisation 

from an age of blood and destruction. Its architects made 

outlandish promises: that the site would be the greatest in 

the world after the Meiji Shrine, that the area might be a 

future host for the Olympic Games.

Perhaps most provoking is the love-hate relationship 

between Singapore and the shrine. Historians and tourism 

promoters want it preserved, even rebuilt to commemorate

our national heritage. Ordinary citizens, however, have 

violently objected to any celebration of former Japanese 

rule– even as they happily consume Japanese commercial

and cultural products.

Led by director Choy Ka Fai, we are an ensemble of creative

people from Singapore and Japan with roots in poetry, 

dance, drama, architecture, sports and multimedia. We have

made pilgrimages to the jungle, probed the site scientifically, 

studied archival documents, drawings and oral histories, 

and processed our own collective memories to recreate and 

re-imagine the shrine as a sacred site.

Our performance, a tapestry of images, sound and 

movement, will be a drama of recollection, an attempt to 

capture the Syonan Jinja's sleeping spirit.

“Egypt has its pyramids, China its tomb of Shi Huang Ti, 

England its Stonehenge and Indonesia its Borobudur. 

Why not Syonan Jinja for Singapore?

It has its fair share of history, mystery and romance.” 

Report on Syonan Jinja Surveys September 1988. 

Records of Singapore Tourism Promotion Board.National Archive of Singapore.

'Twas the night before opening

And here's a word of warning for any audiences who're planning to spectate:


This is most of the gang. Clockwise from left: Rizman, Pat, Jiro, Norico, Ken, Charles, Azrin, Jasmine, Chuan, Ka Fai.


Kien Yen, our stills photographer, also came in today to immortalise us in digital film.


I stayed back with a few guys to lay out the seats.


Voila. (Actually, it was a real headache, exacerbated by my chronic rhinitis, but you don't wanna know about that.)

All systems go!

A piece of oral history I'm unfortunately not using in the show.

Gerald De’Cruz: Now I’d like to tell you a very interesting story that concerns Lee Kuan Yew. I’m not sure if I should tell it to you.

One day I received a phone call from Lee Kuan Yew, He said to me, Gerry, I want to see you tonight. It has to be a private meeting a very quiet meeting. Can you meet me at the 8th milestone, Upper Thompson Road? So I said, alright. You know at those times, Upper Thomson Road was a very sinister road. Full of secret societies and gangsters and all that a very dangerous road. But I went there 11 o’clock ant night, met at the 8th milestone and after a few minutes, Lee Kuan Yew turned up. We got into his car and drove off. We drove off into the MacRitchie reservoir.

We drove off into MacRitchie Reservoir and it was a very difficult place, full of trees and grass and all that. Natural reserve, but he seemed to know his way. He was quiet. I said, where are you going to? And he said, don’t worry, I recognise this place from this morning. And I’m going to a very quiet place where nobody will disturb us. I don’t want the Communists to know that I’m talking to you.

…

I remember telling him that if he would stop flirting with the Communists, or words to that effect, thing so would be much better between him and the rest of us. And he said, it’s alright Gerry, he said. Once I put all my cards on the table, everybody will understand. And I told him, don’t delay anymore. Because if you delay too long, people will grow to mistrust you. And whatever cards you show, they still won’t trust you. Or words to that effect.

And then we drove back. He dropped me in my car. And we drove off.

Yi-Sheng: Does anyone besides me find this unbelievably sexy?

Your daily dose of WTF.

Come and see.

Life! article today

... in which the Syonan Jinja is called the "Syonan Jinga" (this is actually not unprecedented, given the problems of transliteration), and the broken pillars of the dam we use for the river crossing are misidentified as the ruins of the original bridge.

Sigh.

Gah! Got locked out of the dress rehearsal!!!

Director Choy Ka Fai's lost his handphone, and 72-13 is very soundproof at 10pm at night.

On the upside, we have our MDA licence. Woo-weet!

Tanzyoobi Omedetoo!

We had a party to celebrate the birthdays of our performers Pat and Norico!

First, we all stopped by at East Coast Park to catch fellow performer Rizman Putra's "Jazzy Jazz and the Razzmatazz":


Then we went to TheatreWorks producer Tay Tong's home in Joo Chiat Road for dinner and drinks.


First it was just me, Pat, Norico and Ken and his wife Hiroko.


Tay Tong had ordered in some yummificacious Peranakan delicacies from Chili Padi. Buah keluak rice, anyone?


Around 10pm, the tech boys came in, tired and ravenous from having repaired a single light bulb. We washed up and gave them the next round of gustatory delights.


Here you may gain a glimpse of the absolute, pristine whiteness of Tay Tong's domicile. The yellow is mood lighting + my weird camera settings.


So good to see young men eating food.


A little later TT brought out the fruit bowl:


But by then Jiro was doing show-and-tell with his digital recordings of his experimental sets for fashion parades.


And some of us were just plain tired:


We did have a lovely cake, though:


Say goodbye to the birthday girls and TT. And let's try one more time for the perfect shot.

Jazzy Jazz and the Razzmatazz!

The first production by Paradise Alley (Cake Theatrical Productions), directed by our performer Rizman Putra. Free at East Coast Park this Saturday afternoon.


Sharon Tang from Cake Theatrical Productions says:

Come and join us this Saturday 23 August [5.00pm & 6.30pm] at Marine Cove [East Coast Parkway] for Jazzy Jazz and The Razzmatazz, directed by our Associate Artist Rizman Putra!

Involving Contortionists, Bhangra Dancers, Dhol Players, Zapin Dancers, Rock & Roll band, Breakdancers, Beatboxer and contemporary performers, Jazzy Jazz and The Razzmatazz is a super wacky super bizarre super musical theatrical spectacle set to challenge any parade of dreams on this planet or in outer space!

Presented by Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation, Jazzy Jazz and The Razzmatazz is the first performance under our latest division Paradise Alley which was set up this year. It is also Rizman’s directorial debut and we are really excited about it! Paradise Alley is a free annual outdoor performance presented by Cake. Fusing experimental theatre with visual spectacle, Paradise Alley takes to the streets, bringing theatre into common spaces to capture, enthral and uplift the spirit and imagination of audiences in a diverse and electrifying gathering.

And there will be free popcorn if you say the password 'Paradise Alley'! Come and have a day out at the beach with us!

Hope to see you at Jazzy Jazz and The Razzmatazz!

Thanks!

Bumping in.

And the gang's all here:


Norico and Ken.


You can't really see him in this pic, but one of the guys in black is Jiro. The guy in white is Yak Aik Wee, who's helping us out in the absence of a stage manager.


Rizman designed this headdress for his part. Here's Pat modelling it.


Surprisingly, it works very well on a Japanese face like Ken's.

Only a week and a half left till opening! Yaaaarrgggghhh!!!!

Me @ Jinja

Our stills photographer Vivian Lee has graciously given me some shots from our journey to the Jinja, depicting yours truly - even though I wasn't one of the glamour-models in sports clothing posing for publicity.


This is all of us.


And this is me. (I fell asleep at the Jinja while they were doing photographs.)


Our delectable director Ka Fai and our mouth-watering multimedia assistant Paviter. (That's the river crossing in the background.)


Me with our pert performer Pat...


...and our rambunctious rocker/raconteur Rizman Rutra. I mean Putra.


Messy group shot. Till next time!

Ka Fai has been inspired.

Therefore, there's a possibility that the second half of the show will be completely changed.

Oh how I love my director.

Jiro's One Night Stand

Jiro felt bad for not spending enough time on this project. So he flew in and out from Bangkok for a night to confer with us on the set design.

Went with Ka5 to pick him up:




Also did an interview with Lianhe Zaobao for the run. Then flew off again, tweet-tweet.

Radiohead's "House of Cards"

Ka Fai says this is one of his visual inspirations for the multimedia:

RESIDUE: da photos

Popped down to the SMU Li Ka Shing Library from the Velvet Underground Poetry Slam.

Closing performances started 1/2 an hour late. After Venzha...

... the crowd started to stretch its legs.


Just when our boy Ka5 came on with the National Archives Oral History recording.

"It was a beauuutiful place..."



To give you an idea of the breadth of the space:


It was around this time that Ka5 was experimenting with his toy theremin/electric guitar. It created some crazy discordance.

Was wondering why he never faced the audience to show off his gadget. Turned out that he wanted to play with his back to the audience as a homage/imitation of his idol Zai Kuning.


Insert the sequence from Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors where the little indigenous animals are singing the Japanese syllabary.


And of course, the ISEA crowd was rapt:


No lah, they're always this chatty after the first half hour of a performance session. Saw them at SPEKTR and it was the same.

Then handover to Zulkifle Mahmod, with his analogue performance.


Now to business!

RESIDUE by Choy Ka Fai / TheatreWorks

It's a preview, being performed tomorrow at ISEA2008!

RESIDUE investigates the ruins of the Syonan Jinja Shinto Shrine buried in the heart of MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore, built by the Japanese during World War II. The physical remains and the surrounding forests are explored using multi-media. Data from sound waves, electromagnetic signals and radio frequencies are also collected and transformed into audio-visual content. Mapping the forgotten inhabitants of nature and reflecting on the silent subsistence of the Syonan Jinja.

Choy Ka Fai (Singapore) is a video artist and Associate Artistic Director of Theatreworks. RESIDUE is a collation of the on-going research for RESERVOIR, a Theatreworks’ production to be staged in their space 72-13 in August 2008.

Theatreworks is an independent, non-profit Singaporean theatre company that develops and nurtures professional arts skills. It supports Singapore artists, and articulates the Singapore arts through its various productions and developmental programmes.

www.ka5.info
www.theatreworks.org.sg
www.72-13.com

Vivian's got photos.

And they're nicer than mine:

Now which of them will make it to the final publicity image? Wait and see.

Pilgrimage no. 3: the Photoshoot

For me, the excursion started at midnight, when I camped out at TheatreWorks with Ka Fai.

That's his office. He likes to play with his many electronic toys inside, some of which are $1 contraptions from Akihabara.

Can you believe that while I crashed out on the beanbag, dreaming of cats, our beloved director DID NOT SLEEP? He was busy testing out sound equipment, and then in the morning he got a buzz from our Sound Designer Chong Li-Chuan saying his baby had a fever. Can't argue much with that. Babies are important.


Ach weel. So Ka Fai and I got up at 6 am and waited for Vivian to pick us up in the taxi.

And we got to MacRitchie at 6:30am, as bright and early as we should. Ooh look! Full crew! Except Pat. Let's eat our breakfast beehoon before she comes.

And here we are:


Roll call, L-R: Paviter Singh (Multimedia Assistant), Rizman Putra (Performer), Patricia Toh (Performer), Vivian Lee (Stills Photographer) and Choy Ka Fai (Fearless Leader).

So it's across the zigzag bridge:

And into the dawn.

Vivian fell behind because she was actually doing her job. But there were cool things to see that weren't there before.


Looky! Chempedak!

Spiderweb! (Later on I walked into a gigantic one with a similarly proportioned spider.)

Tortoises! (Turtles? Terapins?)

It actually took us only about an hour to get to the water crossing - cool morning weather and a comfortable familiarity with the route served as the wind in our sails. So into the jungle.

This might be a good time to get a good look at our shrine virgins. Here's Vivian:

And Paviter:


Ka Fai has made me promise not to talk about how hot the people involved in our productions are, so I'll refrain.

JESUSCHRISTWHATIZZAT???

Haha, fooled you. It's not the Eye of Sauron; it's Patricia Toh's butt tattoo paired with the surprisingly cheap pastel sports clothes we bought for her to wear as a costume.

Time for the shoot!

It's really hard to beat Rizman in a game of silly buggers.

Although Pat sure gets points for trying!


Did you notice we have a reflector?


And a handsome reflector-handler? (Pav actually comes to MacRitchie regularly to train students in long-distance running.)


I ended up dozing off on the steps. When I woke up everyone had gone.


Okay, actually they'd just shifted over to another location in the shrine. But it was still frickin' uncanny.


This is the performers drying their clothes and snacking on Gardenia bread. We also took the time to reflect that we saw no sense of taboo eating there (unlike the Japanese), and that everything seemed so much more comfortable this time round... no tension, no politics, just a comfortable haven in the woods.

We did, however, also see a blue, red-headed snake. No photos of that.

Wrapped up at about 11:15 am. Vivian and Ka Fai stayed behind to gather a little more multimedia data.


We, on the other hand, went trudging back to the water hazard.




And scooted off pronto. We even found a shortcut to Lornie Road from the jungle.


Till next time! And we're sure to have some cool shots from Vivian's camera too. :)

Once More Unto the Breach My Friends, Once More...

Ka Fai and I are camped out at 72-13 tonight 'cos we're all journeying to visit the Syonan Jinja tomorrow/today.

We'll get maybe 4 1/2 hours sleep. If we're lucky.

To bed now.

My director, Choy Ka Fai, is making me set up yet another blog.

I've done this for 251, V.I.S.T.A Lab, the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival... sien jee buah already.

Workshopping 8 and 9 June

Went over our experiences at the shrine - have woven them in with the photos.

Mo' improv.





Mo' tech brainstormin' too.




And then a farewell to our Japanese collaborators till August. Jiro left first:



Norico managed to have a night out with us chatting with our previous collaborator Torrance Goh from FARM.



Ja mata ne!

Pilgrimage no. 2: Watashitachi no Nihon no tomodachi Jinja e kaerimasu!

And like I said, here're our Japanese friends themselves: (L-R) translator Ken Takiguchi, performer Norico Sunayama and set designer Jiro Endo. Right on time (sorta) at MacRitchie Reservoir.



Pat: I wrote a poem yesterday on a piece of paper. I remember some lines: “Hold me in the palm of your hands” and “I’ve a secret to tell you”. That’s two lines I remember from my poem.

Norico: The feeling, walking along water surface, all the beautiful is that the feeling, not so extremely beautiful as she said. Water is not so clean.



Jiro: First of all, location for that site is centre of Singapore, right. So it seems to be an island. Very enclaved the space. Just the some kind of void of Singapore.

So this the void has a kind of need to face, confonting Singapore, all the Singapore. The golf course, housing, parking lot. And even in shrine you have to reason with the highway drives.




Jiro: You can hear highway drive sound … it’s very good acoustic but also very industrial sound, overlap. So and all the time from the parking lot, just change the ratio of the components, industry, nature, hidden and everything cannot disappear completely.

That very interesting point: it’s not like idigenous. If you go indigenous, you cannot hear civil engineering sound, whatever. Everthing very close.


Rizman: For me, there were like a lot of things. Like when I first started the journey, I was like excited, very excited. And then when I saw the river – because I’m afraid of water - and then I thought, we have to cross the river. I can’t go back home now, because I’m there.



Jiro: First of all it not clean and then back really bad. Brown oily water.

Norico: I don't want to touch the dirty water.

Rizman: And when I saw Yi-Sheng going through the river and I thought, okay, I’m crossing it. And then Ken went into the reservoir - what’s happening? He’s drowning! And then he said, “I lost my specs - I can’t see,” - I was like, help.



Jiro: She said it’s a little like in role playing game… sort of simulation somehow enjoy that such an accident coming and then atmosphere suddenly change it’s really it’s kind of game very serious but also enjoying and very nervous. Two side. So the feeling of two side is very… Which side reality?

Ka5: Like sometimes remember animal. But reality come back.



Rizman: And then once we reached the shrine, that’s it. And then there were more steps. Okay, that’s it. And then when I was there, there was an unknown presence watching me. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place. There are snakes. I’m a wimp when it comes to nature.


Pat: I'm a big fan of walking. I think when you sweat in nature together, you share something together.



Jiro: Very metropolitan function. But it’s not Central Park. Central park is bound, completely rectangular and very controlled.

And it’s also it reminds me of Meiji Shrine. Meiji Shrine is just backside of Harajuku Station. You go there not be far from main meeting, you can see Dokomo, can see highlights from Shinjuku area.



Jiro: But my case is very layered. Dreamy trucks. Very analysing tracks. Everything like music.

Norico: Composed.

Ka5: But for her she always going different tracks.

Jiro: Like score. Highway sound. It’s a structural sense. I’m more objective.





Ka5: When you reach the shrine itself, what is the feeling?

Norico: Omoi. Very heavy. Heavy pressure. And I pray there to god tree, please keep peace for world.

Ka5: The first time, this is big. So I go in, imagine it’s very grand, very big during that time. Then sudeenly I feel all these trees, it’s impossible to capture or to reproduce if you don’t’ go there. And then second idea I feel is very violent, because suddenly everytbody left and it’s ust left for nature to eat. And then suddenly they destroy the forest.

Ka5: But yesterday it’s almost like visiting an old friend again. The first time is very adventurous. I map. But this time I know clear directions and objectives very clear. I want to bring you back to see it. So it’s like visitng old friend in forest.




Rizman: And then when I was there, there was an unknown presence watching me. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place. There are snakes. I’m a wimp when it comes to nature. And when we cot out of nature, it was quite a relief.

Pat: After going home, I did feel... ahhh, I felt possessed. I didn’t feel posessed by God, but this sense of, maybe it’s nature, maybe it’s the age of ruins. I became possessed by this timelessness.



Rizman: When I got home I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking of all the creepy crawlies. I’m still in the jungle. I’m still in the shrine.

June workshops: Days 1 and 2

Here're my back-dated photos of the first batch of workshops we had. Norico Sunayama (performer) and Jiro Endo (set designer) flew in from Kyoto/Bangkok to work with us.

Any attempt to recall specifically what happened would be artificial, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Pilgrimage no. 1: Visiting the Syonan Jinja Shrine

Nota bene: this entry was originally written for my personal blog. I'm backdating it so it'll make sense in terms of this blog's chronology.

Back on Saturday 19 January, me and some Theatreworksy folks made a little pilgrimage into the depths of Macritchie reservoir.


Y'see, we're doing a performance/investigation/project called RESERVOIR, based on the curious fact that the jungle around the reservoir hides the ruins of the Syonan Jinja Shrine, a Shinto temple built by POW labour during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.

There are various legends surrounding the shrine (documented here), including a few that it hides a great treasure, maybe Yamashita's Gold, maybe the ashes of the Emperor, maybe something so mysterious that it's the Japanese version of the Holy Grail: an item that would make Singapore the iconic point of Japanese spiritual colonisation of Southeast Asia. Syonan-To: the Light of the South.

But of course, it was pulled down by the POWs as soon as they realised the Allies were winning. Only the foundations remain. A parallel shrine in Bukit Batok was demolished completely and a signal farm built in its place,

But the odd thing, Ka Fai says (and of course the whole thing's his idea), the odd thing is that the Shrine remains in ruins - it has neither been cleared nor restored (failed proposals have been made to restore the shrine to draw Japanese tourists, for example). It is protected by nature, by the wilderness that is the original, genuine biota of the lately hyperurbanised Singapore. It is preserved by kami.

Still, it's accessible via a four-hour trek into the jungle. Time for a little expedition!


Snafu #1: we were supposed to meet by 7:30 but Ka Fai's tyre went flat on the highway. He had to get a new one, setting us back about a couple of hours.


Farewell, old thing! (Hey, this is a performance about old things. You gotta respect.)


Meet the gang: Choy Ka Fai (Associate Artist with Theatreworks and member of KYTV), Charles Lim (a multimedia/new media/conceptual artist who was just along for the ride), Patricia Toh (an actress who was in VISTA Lab with us and shaved her head for Singapore Season Shanghai with DramaBox).


Ah, Macritchie. The place holds a lot of memories for many of us. Science field trips, army fitness runs, family picnics.



And some new memories as well! These guys were pretty cool when we told them we were doing art.


Evidence of our jungle heritage: a community of macaques.


They're not scared of humans much. They want your food. They'll open your backpack themselves if you're not careful.


Quite early on we passed a slightly mysterious gravesite. I remember visiting it with Singapore Paranormal Investigators once. Not Japanese; Chinese.


Yup, that's Singapore.


The weird thing (okay, there are many weird things) about Macritchie is that you keep on walking through this thick virginy jungle and then suddenly come out into a stretch that's used by Island Country Club. (Yes, those are golf buggies in the background.)


And a fountain!


And also some godawful, brackish streams.


Could the secret treasure of Syonan Jinja be a sacred lingzhi?


These are the remains of a bridge that served people as a shortcut into the shrine area. The Allies pulled it down, of course. It'd be faster to get to the site if we waded through.


Even faster if we went by canoe. This is where it's supposed to be; on the other end of the shore. But of course we're gonna trek through the jungle.


With a stop at the observation deck, of course.


This is it! We're leaving the beaten path for the actual bash-through the branches jungle!


This turned out less than ideally. Snafu #2: we found the GPS we'd brought didn't work well, especially since we'd forgotten to bring a compass. Snafu #3: we got lost for a while, despite Charles's best efforts to get us to smash the branches behind us. Snafu #4: a branch hit me from the side, between my cheekbone and my glasses, right in the eyeball, and I got a bacterial infection.


But I didn't know that yet. I bathed it in mineral water, and after about five hours of trekking (yeah, we were slowcoaches...)


Whaddafuckisthat?


Don't have good photos here, but it's basically an abandoned pump room. It's really nice and overgrown; can't do it justice. The floor and the walls are eaten away by algae and moss and creepers; it's created this wonderful space in the midst of the forest.


And a dramatic backdrop, too.




Charles loves the photo op.


Look! Even the end of this broken branch is photogenic! And tourist-friendly!


Okay, time to pack it all in. More trekking ahead.


???


STEPS!!!!


Yep, these are the steps built into the hill upon which stood the fabled Syonan Jinja shrine. And here we are, finally at our pilgrimage site.


Charles was pointing to the incredible canopy overhead. There was some animal above, making warning noises. Now and then, there was the sound of a tour group in the distance, but they never found us. Hard to find.


Time for lunch first. Nom nom nom.


Then time to exploar. And dockument.


There was still the ablutionary basin at the top of the steps. Snafu #5: Charles put his hand in and he got an infection later. But the rest of us were fine. Pat said it was the most alive thing in the midst of the stone ruins: there were even guppies inside.


For shits and giggles, Charles let his GPS float inside.



Other strange fragments in the architecture, of course. That's what ruins are.


Someone's been making offerings!!!

After a while, we turned back, and decided we were too exhausted for the land route.





Yup. So we waded across the ruins of the bridge.


And we got wet.





These are Ka Fai's s interpretations of the headscarf. Eat your heart out, Jeremy Hiah.


Eventually we returned to civilisation, and Charles got his wife, the filmmaker Wee Li Lin, to give us a lift.

But not without a victory shot first!


And then I went home to sleep. And that night I went with Migrant Voices to help teach creative writing to Indian and Bangladeshi construction workers.


I do lead an interesting life. Some info on my Philippines trip soon.

Oh, and before I forget: RESERVOIR will be staged at 72-13 from 28 to 30 August 2008, with a cast and crew drawn from both Singapore and Japan. Stay tuned.