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Encyclopedia of niime

Encyclopedia of niime 100th anniversary
niime Year In, Year Out 2023-2024

New Year's Eve 'Giant Killing' random discussion

〈 Year In version 〉

2024 . 01 . 01

Happy New Year, 2024, everyone! Thank you for reading the ‘Encyclopedia of niime’!
Please work with me this year as well.

〈 continued from the Year Out version 〉


Tamaki
It was so much fun in Dubai, where I went last November. We heard there was no rain at that time of the year, and when they had a lot of rain, sewage overflowed, and a whole town would be flooded. However, our plane took off for Japan, and there was a thunderstorm with lots of rain. The next day, they had a flood.


—— Right after you left…


Tamaki
Yeah.


Sakai
Tamaki connects with nature. She can hack nature.


Tamaki
By chance, we talked to the people we met there about the ‘Tamatsuri’, which we had in summer.


—— It was a hard day because there was terrible thunder and rain in the evening.


Tamaki
The City Fireworks festival was canceled, but we projected images onto niime village buildings using projection mapping, and there was thunder and lightning behind the building, which looked really cool. After talking about it, we thought she hacked it again. (laugh) It usually cannot have thunderstorms at that time of the season.


—— She is the woman who calls down thunderstorms. (laugh)


Tamaki
When I get upset or am not happy with the matters in the meetings, we have heavy rain and thunderstorms, but I appease the person that it is not wrong, and then the storm stopped … (to Sakai) is it a ‘nature hack’?


Sakai
That is an extreme example, but it means connecting with the five senses.


Tamaki
That is why I think I connect with nature. Everything is connected…to me, Mr Koshikawa, my dog Limo, the earth and sky…the world and everything on the planet are together.


—— Everything is connected.


Tamaki
If I ask you to move your right hand, you can move it, right?


—— Yes, I can.


Tamaki
It is the same thing. If I order to have rain, it will rain.


—— It’s a bit much… (sweat)


Tamaki
The principle is the same. (laugh) If you wish, it comes true. It’s based on the same principle that three pizza places were opened in town when I really wanted to have them.


Sakai
She is amazing that they come without asking if she is considering calling someone for the projects we want.


Tamaki
They come! Certainly. (laugh)


—— I believe in ‘call’.


Sakai
It’s not normal, and it happens a lot.


Tamaki
Our daily schedule is filled with it, right? (laugh)


Sakai
So, even how much do we use digital technology now, and our physical speed is limited.


Tamaki
Nowadays, we are heading in the opposite direction. We don’t use our physical bodies but only our brains to enrich our creativity. As a result, we can’t be happy without using our bodies because they are not satisfied.


—— Ummm…


Sakai
That’s right. You can’t be happy in the truest meaning.


Tamaki
True happiness is achieved when one is filled with one’s heart and body using one’s five senses. Even if one temporarily feels happy with adrenaline from one’s brain, one eventually feels empty.


—— You mean your happiness has to go through your whole body.


Tamaki
If you don’t feel happy with your body senses, you become like a robot …


Sakai
There’s no meaning to typing on a keyboard at high speed. It’s much better to go out to feel the wind or listen to cow mooing, or if you see Mr Koshikawa walking, call his name, “Hey, Mr Koshikawa”, to make him turn, which all are direct communications that are ‘nature hacking’ to me.


Tamaki
But to practise that, there’s one thing you have to get rid of.


Sakai
What is it?


Tamaki
Do not touch computers.


Sakai
Smartphones as well.


Tamaki
In my case, since I tried being away from computers, I gained such an ability.


—— You haven’t looked at computer screens?


Tamaki
No. I haven’t.


Sakai
I haven’t seen you watching the computer screens for a long time.


Tamaki
I use a smartphone to email or communicate with people, but I never sit in front of the computer. Until then, the biggest part of my work was computer work. Since quitting that, my five senses have been sharpened. When you leave something, you get something new.


—— Oh, that makes sense.


Tamaki
I was terribly exhausted from using the computer. Once I shut down and asked other staff, I found that many were good at it. I am not good at it, but I wanted to develop the things that only I could do instead. I can interact with animals but decided not to work with computers.


—— That’s the core of things. Please let me understand better. After all, it connects with the meaning of keeping animals, right?


Tamaki
It does. As I thought we must experiment with living humans and animals to see what is good. Computers give us information. We are not interested in details because we are the creators.


—— Yes, you are.


Sakai
Digital doesn’t have physical objects after all.


—— It indeed is the world of completion in our brains.


Tamaki
I was aware of that. When digital develops more in the future, many products are created in the virtual world that involve a lot of money… Mr Takeshi Yoro said that if we increased the number of people who only live in the virtual world, they wouldn’t be able to live if power was cut off. He asked us if cutting the power off could be murder. Many people are sucked into that world. We have been encouraged to use computers for fun, but what will happen in the future? We have to think about it.


Sakai
Many scholars and experts say that AI will take over humans, but it can never happen 100%. AI cannot use the five senses, so it cannot connect with nature.


Tamaki
But Al can take over for the people who don’t use the five senses. The most we need now is five senses!


Sakai
Absolutely. That’s why we may have such a risk of a tsunami coming in the future; we have to develop five senses now.


Tamaki
That’s more than essential.


—— Resisting the present world of having all the information on the net screens, ‘tamaki niime’ advised us about the importance of developing the five senses, which encourages us to enjoy going outside to feel nature and animals and to live excitedly.


Tamaki
You know, we had fought with fast fashion at first. We ‘tamaki niime’ fought with them, but we won’t in the future. We have to think about what AI can’t do. Otherwise, it will take over us.


—— Ummm.


Tamaki
Because there’s no way to survive.


Sakai
If humans can use their five senses properly, AI will not take over us; we will get along with it.


Tamaki
After all, why do we have to fight with it? Don’t you think?


Sakai
They always say AI will take us over.


Tamaki
Look at sheep. They wake up in the morning and eat grass, sleep again, and wake up again the following day and eat grass and sleep.


—— They are simple.


Tamaki
They don’t do anything else. Humans do many things; don’t you think we waste our time?


—— Speaking of myself, I have not worked in the fields recently, but I know I have been satisfied growing veggies and working with soil.


Sakai
Yeah.


Tamaki
You are right!


—— In the extreme case, it’s good to die in the fields.


Tamaki
Yeah, yeah, everyone should feel like that.


—— In other words, other things are just ‘bonus’. Mr Tadanori Yokoo also wrote a book, ‘Life is a play’.


Tamaki
Exactly. It’s okay to draw pictures or write a book. You can do anything you like, which is not obligatory. It’s not something to do reluctantly.


—— I see.


Tamaki
First, I would say, ‘Enjoy what you do!’.


Sakai
Yeah, you can’t help doing it because it’s so fun.


Tamaki
That’s right. You do it because you want to do it. That’s all you need, though. Don’t think you have to do it because AI will take it over…


Sakai
AI would take over if you think it over and worry.


Tamaki
AI can do well with the use of brains.


—— …You shouldn’t stand on the same stage with AI.


Tamaki
That’s right!


Sakai
They make it a pattern based on the vast database.


—— That’s what AI wants, right?


Sakai
Exactly.


Tamaki
Completely, they get it. (laugh)


—— And all your money gets stolen. (laugh)


Sakai
It connects with the ‘Giant Killing’ we discussed, or punk. We need to have such spirits now or never.


—— Going to the mountains with no electricity or deserted islands would be more cutting edge and frontier.


Sakai
That’s right. Without wearing underwear, we go naked.


Tamaki
We are naked people (laugh) living with deer.


Sakai
Overall, we live on nature hacking in the future.


Tamaki
We will get back there.


—— It must be sensational if you declare that you want to get out of AI while our society is excited about AI.


Sakai
No one can read AI in this way. Please read it regularly.


Tamaki
ai (Japanese romanization/pronunciation reading)


Sakai
Correct.


Tamaki
‘愛(ai)’ (Japanese kanji for love)


Sakai
No one recognizes it. When you pronounce AI(ei ai), you would have an image of a big database or robots; reading it in romanization means 愛(ai). The most essential part is, after all, love. The time when punk rock was heated, or even now, essential love is unchangeable.


—— It never changes.


Sakai
It’s immutable. There’s love at the bottom of punk rock music.


Tamaki
That’s why…


Sakai
They stand up to rebel, trying to appeal for love.


Tamaki
That’s right. It’s love!


Sakai
Exactly. That’s what everyone is missing. They are in a lukewarm, indecisive place.


Tamaki
Why are they missing love?


Sakai
I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of digitalization. They just get information and become big-headed.


Tamaki
They get information from their heads, so their hearts are not fulfilled.


Sakai
When they get information, they are satisfied. But that’s not right.


Tamaki
They would feel like seeing their goals.


Sakai
They do. But what they think is not real goals at all.


Tamaki
They are just superficial goals that make them feel real.


Sakai
In other words, the internet is like the movie, the Matrix. While people sleep, they just watch virtual reality.


—— After all, the challenge is getting out of there.


Sakai
That’s right. This one may become a “Godly message,” right? We are having an excellent talk.


Tamaki
Are we talking about the future? (laugh)


Sakai
Yeah, we talked about it.


Tamaki
Right before the 20th anniversary of ‘tamaki niime’.


Sakai
Yeah, Mr. Koshikawa, I don’t mind having a long article this time. Please write it candidly.


—— You haven’t discussed ‘tamaki niime’ in this interview. (laugh)


Tamaki
(LOL)


Sakai
That’s right.


Tamaki
What would the world become in the future?


Sakai
Yeah, but don’t you think that’s what we believe? We are suggesting it only under the brand name ‘tamaki niime’.


Tamaki
What ‘tamaki niime’ would do for the world. Because we are watching the world movement.


—— Over the name frame of ‘tamaki niime’.


Sakai
That’s right. We are completely doing it out of our name.


Tamaki
It’s suitable for the 100th anniversary of ‘Encyclopedia of niime’, right?


Sakai
Yeah, in other words, if we are not beyond there, we cannot talk about ‘tamaki niime’.


—— I think it sounds right. You are already beyond the planet.


Sakai
That’s right. If you don’t see it on a cosmic level or catch it endlessly, you cannot talk about ‘tamaki niime’.


Tamaki
We wouldn’t be comprehended.


Sakai
Never.


Tamaki
People would wonder why we do such inefficient things.


Sakai
We are still told about it now.


—— In other words, it’s not good enough to see things only in the Nishiwaki district, nor only in Japan…


Sakai
You are right.


Tamaki
No, no! You have to go outside. It was good for me to go to Dubai!


—— Speaking remarkably, it’s not good enough to see it globally. (laugh)


Sakai
That’s right. I often say that you cannot see the essence of things unless you see them at the planetary level.


Tamaki
No, you can’t see it!


—— …In this time of ‘Year In, Year Out 2023-2024’, we go off topic of ‘tamaki niime’, but it will be back like a launched satellite returns to the earth.


Tamaki
Yeah, zoom …boom. It comes back at last.


Sakai
It does come back. I really think so.


Hashimoto
(holding a camera) Mr Sakai, can you move in slightly?


Sakai
Never mind!


Tamaki
Hey! Please move this way; he will take a picture. You are too close…


Hashimoto
This is a Godly special talk.


Sakai
That’s right.


Tamaki
Let’s cheer on this Godly talk.


Everyone
Cheers!


〈 continued 〉

Is it ‘niime Future Vision’, or is it called ‘niime Prophecy’? In parts 1 and 2, Year In, Year Out, they freely speak, releasing their senses and thoughts. In the middle of this article, I put my 70’s punk movement experience as the same generation. After their heated discussion unfolded, the thoughts of Tamaki and Sakai seemed like they were jumping off the planet…

However, their talk was not over yet. What incident impacted Ms Tamaki’s matters in Dubai? And what is her new determination? Again, they continued to talk deeply about art, its expression, and self-liberation.

‘There’s no limits in mental speed.’ (Tamaki & Sakai)

Surpassing AI, unpredictable senses unfolded…please look forward to the article’s continuation in the next part of Year In.

Original Japanese text by Seiji Koshikawa.
English translation by Adam & Michiko Whipple.