As a nineteen year old, Bruce Chatwin introduced me to the latin phrase, solvitur ambulando (The Songlines). Translated as ‘it is solved by walking’ I liked the phrase immediately. It has become a talisman to be kept in my thoughts. I have not only sought solutions by walking but also by running and cycling. Physical exertion is part of the process. This phrase to me is about abnegation of immediate responsibilities freeing myself to remember or discover my own core responsibilities. We bog ourselves in uneccesary essentials (lawns need mowing, dogs walking, gutters fixing… ) it is good to remind ourselves of what is actually important to just live and be happy. Solvitur ambulando is my reset button to living.

Tourists start out with lots of gold (suitable for shopping with), a credit card, lots of food, some maps, and an expensive camera. Most monsters don’t like being photographed.

(Nethack)

I have not had the chance to go for a walk/run/ride this past week. My work and home chores have taken precedent. Next week I am visiting Tokyo. I am starting to look forward to walking its streets. There is something rather lovely about landing in a completely new environment and wandering around like an interplanetary alien exploring ‘this city thing’. The aimless explorer who has been defined by Baudelaire as the ‘botanist of the sidewalk’ or the by the situationists as a drifting psycho-geographer. These romantic notions are appealing but in all honesty I will be a tourist. I will walk the city with my phone in hand and no doubt share a few snaps on social media. I will eat food that is new or unusual to me. I will buy souvenirs.

Readings

• How do we re-capture the moment of our first arrival to a new place? Tokyo Journeys: Travels in Psychogeography
• Unreal cities: Sohei Nishino’s magical photographic maps of London, Tokyo and utopia
• A visual diary of Gail and David’s Tokyo Drift