Inspired in the Dark On a Tatami Mat

A large robed man squeezed his way into the corner of a tiny, low-ceilinged room where 10 of us sat on tatami mats, squeezed around two small tables pushed together to form one. His robust stature combined with the fact that we were sitting on mats made for a strange scene. I was hyper-alert, as you would be walking down a shady street in an unfamiliar neighborhood at night, put on edge by the foreign surroundings. I kept trying to predict what was about to happen, even though this was the environment I was most comfortable in. A restaurant. Strangely, I had to keep reminding myself that in fact I was in a restaurant and we were in fact about to have dinner, because there were very few indications, at least not from the cues that I was used to. The conversation stopped and everyone focused on the silent man.

Read the rest of my article on The Atlantic