marcel wanders

i was in london in the spring and the early summer of 2005. until then, i had been living in my mother’s flat in osaka for several months, trying to find out where my “home” should be. one evening, i had a big and most regrettable argument with my mother, which resulted in taking another chance to start over with mr dreamer who were back in london. so i flew to heathrow. i soon realised there was no easy way-out, however. he couldn’t change. i couldn’t change, either. one morning, casa brutus magazine, my client, rang me from tokyo while mr dreamer and i were only wearing each other down. there was a god. the voice over the phone sounded like an angel. i started working on a project right away and was due to fly to schiphol in early june. i booked a room at the lloyd, the newly opened quirky design hotel whose historic building was once used as a prison. how exciting my assignment would be!
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on arrival at schiphol, i had a good feeling about amsterdam. in fact, that was love at first sight. ah, by the way, i used to have a very good dutch friend, named ruud, in tokyo. i also remember that the dutch lady-artists i met at a symposium held in a former monastery in bohemia were indeed charming. i was busy associating amsterdam with anything i could think of on my way to the lloyd. i always love the process of getting to know an unfamiliar city. i explored amsterdam till it got enough dark to go to bed. the next morning, i visited marcel wanders, one of the top and most innovative designers in the world, in his studio for an interview. he was so amiable and so funny. then my photographer and i did lots of photo-shoots at the places marcel chose for my article: lairesse apotheek; stedelijk museum cs; club 11; fifteen; droog and lute suites. i wonder if marcel “wanders” around there for seeking inspiration. still now? i guess he does. lots of things must be happening in amazing amsterdam.