May 23, 2004

A Time to Celebrate

Today, along with millions across Japan, I watched live coverage of a plane landing in Tokyo. It wasn't much of a show. The occupants came down a set of steps, looked overwehelmed, then went straight into a waiting bus with well-curtained windows. But I paid close attention, even when the camera was zooming in on the plane's windows, trying to appreciate the moment. The passengers were the five returning children of the abductees (the children of the Japanese who returned from North Korea last year after being kidnapped and missing for years). I've been thinking about those kids. Their return is going to be a news sensation in Japan, a land of fast rising celebrity idols and instant fads. I can't imagine the adjustments they are already facing, and I almost feel sorry for them. I hope they don't find themselves "free" in Japan and afraid to go outside. I also couldn't help wondering how long it will take for them to stop wearing those little pins on their lapels (required by all citizens of North Korea). It took their parents awhile to work up the courage to appear in public without theirs. Anyway, this is a big day for those families...except for the one whose husband deserted from the US army during the Korean War. She'll have to wait and see her husband and daughters in Beijing. And, of course, there are the families who were told last year that their abducted relatives had died of "natural causes."

As I watched this event begin to unfold, I was thinking. It seems like one of those moments when you've been through times so rough that you can only compare them to hell. Then you find yourself standing on the other side, at least for a moment. I imagined the parents and their kids. I can't really place myself in their shoes, but I would think that they are feeling emotions that go beyond words. It's strange that 90 percent of a person's life may have been a terrible mess, with so much lost along the way. And yet that same person can feel in one moment a sensation of timeless happiness and a sense that it all worked out ok. Maybe you can't relate, but I've always had the impression that we are always one short step away from either sheer joy or despair, and so much is a matter of perspective in the moment.

In a very small, uncomparable way that I've mentioned in recent posts, my past couple of years adjusting to life here have been pretty hard (or so it felt). Yet I've found myself often lately with feelings of gratitude and peacefulness that just cause me to smile. It's partly about learning more and more Japanese; partly about having a bigger place to live in; partly about my kids growing up so nicely; partly about having friends and having each other. But more so it's about perspective. Each day, through whatever strange or not so strange turns life may take, I find myself in the hands of God. Right now I can see it, although when times are particularly up or down I tend not to.

I'll leave that there for now. I wouldn't have been honest if I said my "positive" posts about life in Japan were all a matter of attitude or aptitude or whatever. As you can see, the pictures above are all from the matsuri. I hope you like them, because I'm sitting on a load of them.

See my other website to save on international long distance calls

Posted by jw at May 23, 2004 12:56 AM
Comments

I enjoyed your comments about perspective.

p.s. I do like the pictures of the matsuri. If you're sitting on a bunch of them you better hop on it. I've been waiting for almost 4 days!

Posted by: Joel at May 27, 2004 11:34 AM

Hello,
I hope you don't mind me going off topic. I believe "Lost In Translation" recently opened in Japan. Some people have criticized it for being condescending and even racist. If you or any of your Japanese friends, relatives or colleagues have seen the movie I'd be curious to hear what you all thought of it. And what kind of a reception has it gotten in Japan? Have the reviews been favorable, mixed or mostly negative?
Thank You,
Paul Shuyler

Posted by: Paul Shuyler at May 27, 2004 03:04 PM

I read a blog discussion somewhere about this issue (of "Lost in Translation" in Japan). Some of the participants were Japanese and some were foreigners living in Japan. Some of the non-Japanese commenters shared the concerns you are mentioning, but overall both Japanese and non-Japanese disagreed that the movie is racist at all. They pointed out that the movie is NOT about Japan, but it's about the two American characters (Murray and the girl). These two Americans are shallow people, both adrift in their lives and relationships. Naturally, they experience only the surface of Japan (and mainly just the inside of their hotel). The movie, if anything, is an insightful criticism of their gloomy lives. The view of Japan that is shows is one sided, of course, because they are the kinds of people who experience life that way. (And there are many people living in Tokyo who are just like them.)

It's a movie made not for entertainment, necessarily, but for people who appreciate character studies and then sit afterwards in coffee shops discussing what they saw. People who expect to "enjoy" this movie or learn something about Japan will doubtless come out disappointed. People who want to better understand themselves by examining the sad lives of the movie's main characters have the right idea.

I was encouraged that the Japanese people (whose comments I read) corrected the concerned American. Basically, they "got it" and said what I just wrote above. If you want to see a movie about Japan, then there are better choices, because "Lost in Translation" isn't about Japan. It's a good movie though, and it's not racist in my opinion.

Posted by: AG at May 27, 2004 03:48 PM

Oh, and OK Joel. :)

Posted by: AG at May 27, 2004 03:49 PM

I hope everything is okay in your neck of the woods.

Posted by: Joel at June 9, 2004 06:30 PM

Great blog, enjoyed browsing through the site

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