Research in Tokyo part 16:
When your view changes, the world around you changes. Suddenly I’m aware of the man who spits his phlegm next to me, I hear the car (with speakers on top) in front of my supermarket who screams out right-wing messages against foreign influences and I feel the constant denial of my existence.
I had a lovely lunch, high in a skyscraper, with a gaijin (=foreigner) and we talked about our ambivalent experiences here in Tokyo.
After that I needed to see some beauty. I went to Asakusa, famous for it’s temples. It’s also the old theatre district. I wanted to see a very common show.
But nothing was on.
And what I saw wasn’t exactly beautiful. This japanese lady walking her dog.
And this tourist copying an old Japanese man.
When I finally went home, an image on the side of the street made me cry. An old man sat in his cardboard house, made of just two simple boxes placed against each other. Only his head stuck out. It looked like if he was sitting in his coffin, waiting. Waiting for what…
Luckily I have my Japanese friends Keiko and Tari, if not I would become very homesick.