(2020) - Another look back at something I wrote in 1997 and sent to a few people by e-mail at the time. Not really much preamble needed for this one....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“In Tokyo” - June 1997
This one is a little bit odd perhaps. I wrote it with the intention of it’s being something like a diary, and ended up with impressions. I had intended to just write about what was happening in a regular style, but the result is something like a poem. In all honesty, I’m slightly embarrassed to send this out, but the feelings were real enough, so I think it’s valid....
June 25th, 1997 - Wednesday 20:20
Shibuya Rooftop Beer Garden
The beginning of summer. The temperature is just right, with a light breeze blowing up here on the roof. I say the beginning of summer, but it’s already June 25th!!
I think... I need a trip.
I’m sitting here... feeling many things... there’s a desire to write, but what?
Time. I came to Japan in August 1984. Everything was so different, the adventure of just living was enough. It didn’t matter if it was a twenty minute hike to the station and it took two hours to get to the Japanese language school I was going to in central Tokyo. It didn’t matter because the whole thing was an adventure, and just surviving an adventure is enough.
But, at the end of 1995, I realized... I saw... I felt my old self. The man in San Francisco standing by the ocean, wondering about mysterious foreign lands on the other side. The sound of the always in-motion cable car cables underfoot on an empty evening street. The mystery of China Town, and my passion for photography. A general passion for life....
June 26th, 1997 - Thursday 1:15 p.m.
Joban Line
I’m on my way to Kashiwa. If all my train rides were like this one, life would be more enjoyable! There are actually empty seats on this train!
Outside the train, through the window, I watch the jumble of wires and buildings slip by beneath a beautiful sky of light blue and white....
Early this morning I sent out some “Looking for e-mail pals” letters, and just before heading out, I checked for mail and found:
One letter from a cousin.
Two letters from new e-mail pals.
And.....................
One piece of racist hate mail.
I’m a little depressed about getting it, but after all, I’ve sent out a lot of letters, and this is the first time I’ve gotten something like this. Some people are dangerously crazy, but hopefully their numbers are few.
I’ve never had this particular brand of racism directed against me before, because I’m an outsider here. It’s strange, interesting, and eye opening to have this particular poison aimed at me. I’ve asked Japanese friends about their experiences with racism overseas, and mostly, if they’ve had bad experiences, they just say that they’ve had trouble before, but don’t (won’t) elaborate. But since I’m Japanese now (apparently), now I know.
Unfortunately, there’s racism in every country, but sometimes when you experience it far from home, you forget about the evil people you left behind in the old country.
But enough on that topic!
I’m almost to Kashiwa. I’ll try checking for new e-mail at a public phone there.
Ginza 18:42
Another beautiful sky. A jet flies by up very high, leaving a trail only where it passes through a light cloud. Flying... The clouds lit with the sun low in the sky. The city is drifting towards evening and night, but the sky is still one of a summer day. The city below, so... so... city. The sky... so beautiful.
A sound-truck drives by with marital music blasting from huge horn speakers facing in all directions. A bone chilling wind blows over my warm mood. A feeling of sadness. I wonder - what would the sound truck men and the evil creature who sent me racist hate mail do if they were locked into the same room together...?
I watch the sky... Evening colors are seeping into the clouds... The sound assault truck gone, my spirits pick up again....
Now it is unmistakably the edge of evening, and I must be back at work very soon. My thoughts go to you, the reader. What do you think? Does this day of mine seem to have some meaning? Let me know if you would, please, for my weeks are too much the same. Every day is different, but what I’m doing is more or less the same. Or so it seems to me... and to you?
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
June 26th, 1997
Ginza, Tokyo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2020) Rereading this now, I remember the time delay in getting a response to something I wrote back then. I would send out something via e-mail and then get some responses to it via e-mail replies over the following days. Now there's the "Like" count or "heart mark" count. Writing before was a speedy version of old-form letters. How we toss text back and forth now is something else altogether. The 1997 text I edited slightly, but it's 97% the way I wrote it back in 1997.
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
youtube.com/lylehsaxon
lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment