Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

180 SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATIONto Japan’s involvement in World War II; the disastrousend to Japan’s military campaign in World War II;the reversed policies of the American Occupation incountering rising Communist influence in Japan; thesocial efficacy of Buddhism in addressing the need forrites and rituals in certain stages of life; the emergenceof the New Religions, and then the New New Religions(yes, that’s right); culminating with the Sarin gas attackin Tokyo’s subway system by the religious cult group,Aum Shinrikyo; the negative image of religious cultsfollowing that incident; and the long list of text, contextand subtext just go on and on and on (to put it all verysimply).I realized quickly that I didn’t want my work to beoverwhelmed by so much historical baggage and aninconsequential amount of anecdotal detail. I did notwant to spend so much time setting up, explaining orclarifying the circumstances preceding or surroundingthis theme that I would be left with very little space tojudiciously and naturally develop and present my ownconclusions and perspectives.Nor was I interested in a study that had to be limitedby a specific geographical or situational parameter, norreliant upon some compact or useful angle, cliché orstereotype, nor an approach that would fragment thissubject-matter, even though I realized that it may rendersome to see this study as unsubstantive, ambiguous andnon-scientific.More than just for academic research or study, I wantedto tailor it according to the immediate and genuineconcerns of current society in Japan and the rest ofthe world, without creating another piece of ‘pseudo’social commentary geared merely for consumption anddistraction, or else for conspicuous social affirmation.These were just some of the considerations besettingmy mind during those early stages, whilst I descendedfurther into the shadowy valley of my first fullexperience of autumn and winter in Japan. I was still ina state of non-arrival, languishing out in the wildernessof misapprehension, misconception and misadventureover all that is spiritual and material within today’sJapan and Tokyo.This Soulless MetropolisUltimately here in Tokyo, we live in a metropolis overpopulatedwith people and material possessions, materialconduits and material distractions, but depopulated ofsouls.Or rather the souls of people everywhere are simplynowhere to be seen nor felt.Try scanning around on a subway train or whilstwalking a busy thoroughfare. The soul is just somethingyou never really see in public here in Tokyo, much,much more than in other major cities. It is perhaps acommonplace reality, given the discrepancy betweenthe tatemae, or public face, and the honne, or innerfeelings, in the daily life of the Japanese.This is not to say that everyone in Tokyo is in factwithout a soul.But simply, their souls are nowhere to be seen. Perhapstucked away carefully from common view, perhapstucked away so well that even they have forgotten whereto find them.I, for one, certainly forgot where I left or tucked awaymy soul at some point during my fellowship, and havebeen spending something like a year trying to coax itback into the centre of my existence.Every now and then, whilst living in a decent residentialarea, I could see how some foreigners would, for thebriefest moments, get excited upon seeing me—a fellowgaijin, or foreigner, in their non-touristic area—onlyto see them quickly switching back their expressionto something emotionless and blank as everyone elsearound them.Even foreigners here—besides tourists and other shorttermvisitors—are apprehensive about being out of stepand inappropriately behaved here in Tokyo. Myselfincluded.As a result, everyone lives within himself or herself—alone—emotionally and psychologically. Amongstpeople they may be, but they are always alone.The father is typically alone in his own role-playingobligations and career insecurities. The mother istypically alone in her never-ceasing obligations andresponsibilities, if not to her children, then to herneighbors and her social circle. The children maybe fortunate enough to have a sibling to share theirchildhood with—but ultimately each and every one ofthem must carve out his/her own niche in the worldeventually. They are taught very early in life not to bea burden on others nor to depend on others, and they,too, rapidly become alone.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows