Tuesday 30 November 2010

MIXed FEELINGS


MIXed FEELINGS

That was me, happily smiling away a week ago when I went to Arashiyama for the autumn leaves viewing.
The scenery was spectacular and I had a wonderful time loving Japan and its colours.


However, after watching this 2 videos from the past 2 lessons in class. I just can't help wondering what really lies behind Japan. All that was portrayed and all that I've seen, was it all just a big white lie?
Was I ridicule by the things I see OR was I naive enough not to look into it deeper?


First of all, the meaningless lives of all this men and women. Spending thousands worth of money just to be entertained by several Uh-hum, Uh-hum, looking men. I just can't believe the government would even issue licence for them to work legally. It's totally absurd.

Then, there's another bloody documentary of unveiling the secrets behind the cove. People slaughtering Dolphine, with not much of a reason why they are doing so. As explained in the documentary, dolphine meat are poisonous and inedible. 

I've known for a fact that Japanese eats a lot of raw fish and different kinds of them. But mass slaughter of harmless creatures with no supporting reason behind it (besides money) is unethical . 
It's like there's a huge dark part of Japan the world knows nothing about.


On the other hand, some part of Japan portrays the most beautiful and breath taking scenery just like this picture I manage to capture when I was at Kiyomizu dera. I love the view and I admire the beauty of it. It's like living in a fairytale land where dreams come true. But to some extent, people think going to Host Club can make their dream come true. 

I don't know when I started having this mixed feelings for Japan. Part of me tells me Its such a beautiful and pure country, another part of me shows Japan as a weird and ruthless nation.

 Unlike this picture below, that shows a clear beautiful reflection of the lovely trees itself.
 Sometimes what you see is not always what you get. And what you can't see will always bring a certain surprise to your life.



2 comments:

  1. No place is perfect - especially Japan. Your thoughts are to be commended - you have moved beyond the surface level observations of orientalism and are able to see the good, bad, ugly, beautiful. It's all here (as it is all elsewhere as well). One doesn't need to love all of Japan...

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  2. I agree with the person above. You see, lost souls and just really shallow people are everywhere, there's no reason to expect Japan to be an exception. What you describe as being the reasons for your mixed feelings about Japan as a country and the japanese people are (sadly) reflections of what is going on around the whole world. One example: seal hunting in Canada - tons of people who do it have no deeper reason than to have fun by killing baby seals. And I don't think host clubs are that different from strip clubs found in pretty much every single country on Earth. I guess there's a balance, Japan sure isn't perfect, but I don't think it's that bad either, not at all.

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