Post aus Tokio

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...

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