Café Mizuumi みずうみ to Eat Words

The Invisible Dog (New York City) and BUoY Arts Center (Tokyo) are thrilled to present a performance by Mizuumi as part of NAFAS TOKYO.

This performance /worksop is part of NAFAS, an international festival exploring the relationship between art and food with an exhibition of 70 artists and a series of performances, workshops and events. Discover the full program here

In this world where words overflow and flow away, and where “I” seems to be swallowed up by “AI,” we run Cafe Mizuumi to Eat Words, offering sweets shaped like words and inviting you to savor each and every one. We write the pages of “Mizuumi” as a book that wanders, coexisting with different places, things, and people, while engaging in conversation with those who visit.

Mizuumi bakes handmade cookies in the shape of words using only the simplest ingredients. By transforming language into something edible, each word becomes tangible, intimate, and memorable. Just as identical ingredients can create infinitely different flavors, the meaning of a word changes with every person who encounters it. The Japanese word for “taste” (aji) echoes the idea of meaning itself: language is something to be experienced through the senses, not only understood by the mind.

Through this simple gesture of eating words, visitors are encouraged to reconnect with their own forgotten language, memories, and bodies.

Mizuumi means “lake” and also serves as the artist’s alter ego. Like a reflection on the surface of water, Mizuumi accompanies visitors into an imagined landscape, inviting them to converse with another version of themselves reflected on the water’s surface and to explore layers of memory in search of fossilized words. You never know what words you’ll encounter.

Together, artist and audience excavate these fragments, discovering new meanings through conversation, imagination, and shared experience.

If we could truly eat words, would we still need a café?

How it works:

(1) Please order a drink and take a seat.

(2) Introduction theatre of cafe Mizuumi (played at the beginning and sometime later)

(3) Cafe time to eat words:

While talking with another yourself reflected on the water’s surface, Explore the layers of memory to find fossilized  words.(You never know what words you’ll encounter) 

※Japanese and English compatible

Café Mizummi is on Instagram

Location
BUoY Arts Center / Basement
49-11, Senju-Nakacho, Adachi-ku,
Tokyo

Admission:
 ¥1000 (include Drink and Word Cookie)
Cash only, Last order 4:30pm
Come and go freely during the cafe time

Walk-ins welcome, Reservations preferred: mizuumiplan@gmail.com

Date
Wednesday September 23, 2026
From 3 to 5pm

Posted in 2026, Around Nafas, Event, Nafas Festival, NAFAS Tokyo, Performance