Japanese Garden

Above: Preston Clarke Edwards, Karin Brann and Kathy McQuillan at the Hotel Nuevo in Santiago de Chile.

Tuesday 3rd May 1988

We woke up when New Zealander David came to call at 10:00 hrs. Karin and Kathy bravely attacked the debris of empty bottles and overfull ash trays with a broom. We got rid of three boxes of rubbish but the room smelt of stale beer and fag (cigarette) smoke.

Eventually, after a letter writing session, we got motivated and went out to find the artists barrio. This was a posh modern area of the city with arty bookshops, small museums and art galleries. Tired, we went for a nap in the Japanese Garden.

This garden was built in 1978 by architect Tadashi Asahi and funded by the Chilean Japanese Chamber of Commerce. We were unimpressed, describing it as a two-bob affair with a concrete mini pagoda and a post with Japanese writing on it.

We were not aware that the garden takes you back to the year 1300 in ancient Japan and reinterprets the various elements of nature which are represented symbolically and among the plants on view are cherry blossoms, bamboo, Japanese maples, creeping cotoneaster, azaleas and lotus flowers.

At 15:30 hrs. we went to see the movie “Nuts” in a plush modern mini cinema. We enjoyed “Nuts” which is a 1987 American drama film directed by Martin Ritt, starring Barbra Streisand and Richard Dreyfuss.

Charged with killing a client, call girl Claudia Draper is awaiting her trial. While Claudia's parents seek to have her declared insane so that she can avoid a likely guilty verdict and serve time for manslaughter, she rejects this approach because she doesn't want to be put in a mental institution. Lawyer Aaron Levinsky reluctantly takes on Claudia's case and tries to prove that she's not crazy, but the volatile prostitute doesn't make his task easy.

We got a Chinese set meal for 4 in in one of the Chinese restaurants on Merced and chatted about travelling in China where the “grubby wee bastards” (according to Jackie) made public display of spitting and nose blowing. It seemed to be prevalent in India too.

Back at the hotel we had a quiet night in with just the four of us for a change. I started on the left over beer from last night, which was mainly Pilsener Escudo which was brewed in Santiago. Before long we were all starting on the residual wine.

Kathy went to bed and tried, futilely to sleep while the rest of us lounged about on Preston’s single bed surrounded by candles and pouring boxed wine into each other’s mouths. The radio played and we giggled and chatted our way through two boxes and a bottle of assorted wine and four big bottles of beer.

At 04:00 hrs. I chundered (vomited) into the sink and slumped into oblivion on my bed, fully dressed.