Everything is Awesome #7 : Tokyo!

When people think of Tokyo they think of how "crazy" Japan is, but anyone who lives here knows that it is all just part of marketing and consumer culture. They know that it's a very lonely and rigid place. Anyone coming here hoping to enjoy a "unique culture" gets bored in a year or two.

I often ask myself what I'm doing here. Why did I come back? But then I remind myself that I'm always exactly where I need to be and then the city has a way of surprising me ever so brilliantly. I will put aside my issues with the place and focus on what is so very awesome about Tokyo, in an entirely subjective way.

I love the way this city challenges me. I love how it often leaves me to my own devices, without a tribe to work with, so that I have to become a stronger and yet simultaneously more gentle voice for what I believe in. It forces me to come up with new ways of being me, because if I don't, life will just slip away without my participation in it.

Here are some tangible ways that the city helped me grow.

I used to be shy but surrounded with so many others who were shy i realized that remaining that way meant nothing would move forward.

I left the first time because of how ridiculously capitalistic and controlled everything is. Being in an environment that so perfectly embodied everything I dislike about modern society while also exemplifying how peaceful and cooperative humanity could be challenged me to look at these things in a more nuanced way which eventually led me to both activism and spirituality, two things which I see as balancing forces.

Tokyo was the first place I discovered the importance of community. Now that I have some more perspective and have seen community elsewhere I know that it can be more free and empowering, but the way cafes and bars allow even the most reserved people to connect with and understand people who they would otherwise ignore or even scorn...coming from a place with very little of that, it opened up a whole new dimension of my life to explore.

The overwhelming advertisements and the way self promotion seemed to be the main function of friendship was too much for me my first time around. It chased me to the edges of society where inner peace was the only way, and now coming back here, I realize that while on the surface, I am just a drop of water in an ocean, my actions ripple outward, and sometimes impact others even more profoundly because of how different I am here. A smile here means a lot, and a sincere opinion shared without expectation that others will conform to my way of thinking means even more.

Isolation in the city allows me to be more independent and focus more on my passion and my own development. Since I came back a year ago, I've learned how to record my music and developed all my songs to the point where I love them. I wrote half of a novel and a third of another. I gained nearly full control over my emotional state through the power of focus. I've learned how to listen to my body and heal it without much help.

The way people work is unreasonable! It's nuts, but it's inspiring too. The average Japanese worker is not extremely efficient but everyone packs their schedule with productive things. Not a minute is wasted. No one lounges around at home for more than a few hours a week. If they have the time they'll spend it on what interests then, whether it's sports or yoga or learning English or to educate themselves on some topic of their choice. A lot of it is robotic and surface level but it inspires me to get off my ass and be more proactive about my life. I figure if I can adapt to this, I can go back to a quieter simpler life and still feel motivated to do things.

As lonely as the city can be, it always surprises me with allies at every corner. It may be hard to congregate and build something together, but we can cheer each other on and come together for little bouts of sharing and generating energy together.

There is no shortage of things to do. While much of it is unreasonably expensive, that also motivates me to work harder. Every band and their mother comes here to play music, there are all kinds of events and parties and different spots worth checking out. And it's really not hard to travel to other countries from here.

I could go on but I will save the rest for a part 2 somewhere down the road