Dear All,
How are you?
I feel a lot better, because I came to realize what to do from now on.
It’s been quite difficult for me. Just a few days felt like a year, strangely enough.
It’s hard to breath for me now in Tokyo.
It’s not about polluted air but this general mood in town. Perhaps it’s because of a homeostatic mechanism of the society, or it’s because of this particular time of the year: spring. I feel the invisible force trying to get back to normal as if nothing happened. It’s understandable psychological reaction for such a big loss, however I feel suffocated. I don’t want to go back to how we used to be. I want to be better.
Plus, in reality time is not ticking backwards and I see this powerful (dark) force in Tokyo is just a blindfold or earplugs for people. In my personal view but so creepy to see how people slowly accept the death sentence or a countdown for even worse catastrophe. I can imagine you’ll be well surprised by the fact that how everything looks so normal in Tokyo. We are losing that connection and closeness so carelessly and easily, until next disaster. That’s just my personal opinion, but I’m being honest with you.
The other day, a girl I know said something quite inspirational (to me, personally). She said, „you know, I experienced the Hanshin Earthquake but my family was ok. So, it’s hard to feel compassion for the people who lost family in Tohoku.“ I felt so wrong and made me really sad to hear that. However, please don’t get me wrong I’m not judging her as a person, I am only talking about what she said.
Her statement can be received as being honest or sincere because you could see it as a kind of reversed deep sympathy, but for me, it wasn’t. I felt aloneness, detachment and despair.
Surely, we all know that it’s impossible to know how/what EXACTLY other people feel. We are all different and no one can truly re-exerience other people’s experiences. True. However, what I believe as a duty of human beings is that we have to imagine things and never stop imagining. I think our connection is fueled by imagination! To feel and know that the person on the other side of the planet thinks or feels quite the same as you, and all that processed by our fantastic brain function; imagination, you feel connected and it’s real. At least, knowing the fact that everybody has a capacity to feel the pain and sadness equally as yours, is very important. Then naturally you’d become kind to others.
What we need is a renaissance of imagination!
That’s the one of things which I really scream out to the world. Well, not literally but in my literature. It’s good to find my theme for the future. I want my book to be an exercise for strengthening your imagination.
For the first time since the quake, I’m thinking of leaving this town; because I truly want to contribute what I believe to the *new“ Japanese society.
Well, I should get a map of the world for deciding the destination!
All my love,
Akira
"Imagination"
Akira, I have a...
„Imagination“
Akira, I have a strong feeling that you and your generation will contribute to a
„new Japanese society“ – who would be able to, if not YOU !! And as a literary person
you are very powerful and you must believe in your tool and WRITE .
I truly wish and hope you will find a „destination“ where you feel safe and can work.
And please do know that many of us here CAN (or at least try to) feel your pain and know what was lost on March 11th – but there may be a change for something better. Let’s use our imagination. „Change is good“ – but has to be accepted first.
It is not about the air one breathes but the intellectual air and mood, one is surrounded from! Thinking of you and sending you strength and positive thoughts.
Love, sebbi
Dear Akira,
human beeings...
Dear Akira,
human beeings could hardly ever feel what other feels and suffer. And sometimes the numbers are to big, it is insane to read that 10.000 people are killed. To feel what one person has suffered could cause sympathie and help from others, but no one can bear pain of thousands of people.
I guess that your way is a good one, imagination can lead you to the heart and soul of strangers who become persons for you, because you can imagine them.
I do wish you luck and strength to move on and change your life and maybe lifes of others too to a better one.
domo aligato for your thoughts
Akira, that is it. Yes, I...
Akira, that is it. Yes, I think You are so right. Compassion is a basic element of living, and I mean living not just to exist.
Sure, we cannot know and feel, how exactly someone feels and suffers. But if we consider our feelings when we imagine our own suffering, when someone loved is gone or we are standing in a threatening situation, when someone could die in hospital or whereelse, we know that man in general will suffer in his lonelyness and desperation. We are all the same in questions of loughing and in questions of tears.
If we have love in us, we will have compassion with others.
I wish you all the best for you and your idea. Sue
Once you wrote your next book,...
Once you wrote your next book, I’ll try to get hands on it, because I really want to see what you want to show us because even if you write something to us here, and we think we understand it, I belive we will only truly understand it once you have shown it to us.
And if your choosing your destination, mind that there are people in Germany, that would warmly welcome you.
Bestwishes from my Heart.
Mithril
You're welcome to stay at my...
You’re welcome to stay at my place in Germany next to Frankfurt till the drama is over. Get to the airport now.
"No longer were there...
„No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny,
made of plague and emotions shared by all.“ A. Camus, The Plague
Dear Akira,
this blog is a lifeline for you and for us, we are human and understand your
plight, your anxiety; you, our sister in distress. Unlike that Hanshin girl, the
whole world is thinking of you, we are all Japan now:
-You are not alone: we need you
-You are not detached: we support you
-You are not despaired: we cry with you
Tokyo’s atmosphere thick and oppressive, uncertainty hanging over Kanto,
over 42 million people in agony, in mass-denial, in resignation. The standard is
now the abnormal:
– To endure the nuclear risk.
– To stock up water.
– To prepare being stuck at home, behind closed, taped windows.
– To learn the difference between becquerels and sieverts.
– To throw oneself under the table in case of earthquake, wet cloth on the face.
– To leave your clothes, humid by rain, in a plastic bag by the door.
Or was it the abnormal to live feeling safe, before ? Silent fear is the new normal.
Our mind eagerly trying to rein in anxiety, a survival mechanism of our species.
Yet you need courage to imagine, you need courage to write, you need courage
to live and to want to be better. This disaster is a chance for many to change, to
improve their very souls, to find sense in their lives and to be better, too.
How many will take this chance ? Change is change, it hurts, but it heals.
We try to imagine, far from you, how are you feeling tonight? We try to console
your weary spirit with our words. And some of us have the capacity „to feel the
pain and sadness“ because some of us are not strangers to that…
We are connected, indeed.
Let us share pain and scare now, for only after embracing grief, can we truly be kind to others, you were movingly right in writing that. Light up your eyes, one
future day we’ll look back to these hours and feel relieved to be alive and learn
back to joke.
It would be nice to offer you a smile, to make you laugh, to comfort your heart…
For now, be brave, be yourself and try to relax/sleep/dream…
A friend from France.
PS: Your thoughts of leaving Tokyo are honest and brave, you need strength to
do what many others dare not. Come here to Paris, couscous is genuine, cafés
are loaded with artists and since 1968 is „L’imagination au pouvoir!“.
To MM ("Fear is the new...
To MM („Fear is the new normal“)
You are not French, are you ??
Sorry Akira, this MM is starting to interest me. He writes well. I was in Paris the beginning of the week – maybe I saw him in the crowd of a Metro. It sounds easy
„to invite“ you to us here in Europe. I was thinking about it too.
You are a writer and you can do this almost anywhere. But leaving one’s country and friends and parents etc. sounds hard. When would you go back, would it affect your writing and are you really thinking about it – are you ready for it ??
Because then I will start thinking about it as well, what we can offer you here.
Just let me know.
Love and I hope you are well.
seb
Akira, my sincere apologies;...
Akira, my sincere apologies; Dear sebbi,
Japanese ? German ? French ? I stopped believing in borders and in gods
a long, long time ago. Did we meet in Paris ? Maybe, this town is full of charming
individuals (from many lands) and local couscous and café and artists and a
vibrant joy of life here work wonders for inspiration and the general improvement of writing. Thanks.
I ‚m merely a human being, enjoying my leave on earth and trying now, same as
all of us, to show a comforting, steady hand to Akira, even our open arms; she
and her people need all the love and support we can give them. Akira’s heavy
decision to go or to stay is for her exclusively, but, we can let her know, she has
a choice, she has friends, she has hope, she has our love. This helps sleeping.
Vital.
MM
PS: Some five years ago, I experienced my personal hell; I was breathing, nay
eating anxiety day and night, I went abroad for six months, then calm returned
and I returned home, to France. Very nice people helped my poor soul. I’m
deeply grateful to all. So, I can feel a good deal of empathy for Akira and her
folks. To escape ? Her choice alone. We just invite, Akira can take perfect care
of herself. She’s used to that, right ?
Akira, good morning, there is...
Akira, good morning, there is a very good article in the NYTimes, ASIA PACIFIC part.
Maybe you can read it online – it is about April 1st, when thousand of Japanese „new hires“ will start their working lives. („To test Japan’s Young“) this piece emphasizes the change that will happen for society – that this will be a less than normal start.
It is about the disaster that will get people together, that the young will have a feeling that you can do something that Japan will recognize that a lot of people will be changing., – for the better. I would love to forward the piece to you. But maybe you read the NYTimes anyway and have already found it.
It gave me hope that your country will stick together and that you will be a part of it.
The disaster is NOT someone elses, it is OUR all problem.
We all have experienced some kind of „personal hell“ other wise we would not be sitting here on the computer and writing to you.
You have a choice, and this is the good news ….
I very much wish, that you will reach a decision that feels good and right for you.
The rest will be much easier. It is always the times before ….
And YES< you can take care of yourself perfectly well. I know! Sending you sunny greetings - sakura here where I live. So much hope with it. sebbi
Dear Sebbi,
Thank you for...
Dear Sebbi,
Thank you for keeping writing to me a great and positive messages. It’s strange but I already feel you as my friend! It’s the same as people who writes comments on this blog, but honestly, it’s a fantastic feeling to be connected! Yes, Germany is definitely one of my destinations, I really tell you guys how thankful we are in face to face, if possible! All my love, keep connected and thank you so much for reading and sharing!! xxx Akira