Imagining Japan from Africa

I am watching a Japanese tv channel (NHK world) alot these days. It all started when my satellite TV connection expired due to non payment and i for some reason wanted not to watch the hundreds of channels anymore and convinced my self instead to watch the only Japanese free channel coming. Strange, how the whole world starts to dance in the ‘palm of our hands’; me sitting in Africa, away from my land , and getting obsessed with a another culture of a land even farther away.

I am beginning to love this channel and the whole Japanese culture in particular. The channel undertones are so serene, so objectively subjective about japan, so pure and above all so mellow as if one is watching a culture where time is of no value. Japanese are still recovering from the March 11 earth quake, some thing you can feel in the undertones of every news headline, documentary or soap operas but the sense of community and the calmness of living is visible in abundance.

From the peaceful zen gardens, to the British woman living in Ohara growing flowers, to the Shugendo religion(a religion that worship mountains) whose followers are called Yamabushi(those who sleep in the mountains) and who emphasize too much on experimental awakening then the rituals…. all these individual colors paint such a beautiful still picture conveying much more on human life and perpetuity of living then the usual commercial channels….. a classic subtle french cuisine compared to a spicy fast food living…..

I have cancelled my trip to japan two times now on short notices, but i hear a calling somewhere deep inside me sometimes, on going to this faraway land and stay for few months….perhaps my heart be able to find peace there……….