San tiao ren (Away with words)

Since his childhood in Okinawa, Japan, Asano has had a mnemonistic memory; words have such tactile shapes, tastes and colours that he won’t forget a single word he hears. Each conversation evolves like a street in his mind, and the streets form endless city blocks. Criss-crossed with so many streets, he finds his life in “gridlock” and “overload”. He escapes to the quietness of the sea, he jumps on a ship in Hong Kong one day because “the name smells good”. He finds himself lying in the deep blue sofas of the Dive Bar which embrace him like the “calm blue of the sea”. This turns out to be the solace he's been searching for since childhood. He -at once- falls into an afternoon dream.