A man passed by me in the station – thirties. vaguely fashionable – and the sour, marmite -like smear of artificial oud he left on the air around him as he passed through the ticket gate, startled me out of whatever afternoon daydream I was marinating in and made me realize just how rare it is to smell this kind of base accord in Japan; that western fragrance tropes have very mercifully failed to permeate the market.
Usually, ikebana flower arrangements are very controlled. Staid, respectable, but often beautiful, even in municipal settings such as train stations.
This overpreponderance of very pungent, thrown together, yellow and white lilies I discovered near the escalators, seemed rather unruly- a plentiful offload of flowers seemingly displayed without any obvious rhyme or reason.
What fascinated me was the SMELL: sealed off behind glass, what would be deathly and nauseating inside the sweltering wooden frame was, for the casual passerby, fanned out in measured installments : a dense, long reaching muffle that descended on your consciousness almost without your realizing, like a slow, silent cacophony of trombones on mute
Lilies should always be unruly, all those curvaceous waxy petals and suggestive stamens. Freckles are cute too. Talk about blousy!
Don’t smell oudh of any sort much here in Nepal, sandalwood or cypress are the traditional woods of choice ( sandalwood enhances spirituality and cypress brings good luck while nullifying aches and pains). The only western tropes I smell here are Brut and Jovan SexAppeal, South Asia seems stuck in the 70s style-wise.
I am fine with that !
Medallion Man in blue jeans over foul fake oud ANYDAY
Paco Rabanne pour Homme 1973 still rocks my world!
mine too baby x
A flower arrangement in a municipal setting like a train station …!!! Wouldn’t happen here in a million years! Tabloids screeching „abhorrent waste of taxpayers‘ money“; people complaining about migraine inducing scents; the bored and the drunken demolishing it within minutes—no, anything inherently beautiful is shredded before you could actually quietly enjoy it.
Thank goodness you are around to say this x