So I've been in Tokyo about 2.5 weeks now, and as I was journaling tonight (which I started doing, thanks guys for the suggestion, I think it's really important) I realized that for the first time in my life, I'm completely separated from both my physical and personal world. I am in this place on the other side of the world where I don't speak the language and I have no one from my personal life (including all of you guys!) anywhere near me. I'm being very social and meeting a lot of new people and friends, and wouldn't say that I'm lonely, but there is this (maybe) inevitable sense of 'blah'. It would be different if I was anywhere in the States or in an English-speaking country or doing some sort of program. However, I'm not, and that's okay, but wow it's taking me a long time to get used to all of this. Of course, I'm mostly having a great time, and learning so much every day, but it is still hard sometimes.
Additionally, what's happening with my project is not helping with the 'hard' factor. I have talked with people from the street/bars (usually they don't speak much English, not surprisingly), people that I know here, young people that DO speak English and I have started to become friends with, academics who are studying Tokyo/Japan, and documentary film people, and done a lot of thinking/writing but I am still sort of in a weird, unsatisfied place where it hasn't 'hit' me yet. I came in with the approach of using people I know to help me meet people so that I could find some sort of an 'in' and find some people to focus on. These youth subcultures are (to varying degrees) sort of very guarded and exclusive, so it is naturally very hard to get access to them in such a short period of time. In terms of Lolitas, I am feeling more and more like I DON'T want to do a film just about them since it has been 'done to death' and I don't want to that foreigner who goes and films them. Like I said, I'm much more interested in their interaction with the outside world in terms of the tourists than with them themselves. Also complicating is the facts that a) a lot of them don't live in Tokyo and only come in for the fashion show of sorts that happens on Sunday in Harajuku, and b) many of them, surprisingly, do not like their picture to be taken.
Last week I was told about Shimokitazawa, which is sort of the bohemian area of Tokyo that more or less shuns the commercialism and shallowness of Shibuya/Harajuku. It's a very visually interesting neighborhood--it lies on both sides of the intersection of two elevated train lines, has colorful rainbow bridges and murals on window shutters, there aren't many chains but mostly independent boutiques, record stores, bars, cafes, or some crazy combination of the above. It is deeply musical, with street performers (of varying ability) constantly dotting the landscape. The youth that hang out there are not at all like the lolitas and cosplayers--they shun the labels and consumerism and fickle trendiness that drives that culture. Many are artists, musicians, and struggling part-time workers (as opposed to having signed up to work for a major company for life). I met with guy doing his post-doc at University of Tokyo who studies the part-time workers in the area. He showed me the area, introduced me to the main neighborhood bar, and answered a lot of my questions. I am going to meet a musician who utilizes some sort of anarchist or hippie or some alternative type bookstore as a music venue on Mondays. I'm actually very excited and interested in this neighborhood and whenever I go I'm always thinking of what I see in terms of shots (well I'm kind of always doing that, which can be annoying, but here there's just a lot of potential). On another note, I'm also meeting with my new friend Shiho, who is a young Tokyoite (25) who is in-between jobs and spends a lot of time partying 'amongst the youth' and is very dynamic/speaks great English, so I'm going to pick her brain and she who/what she knows.
In terms of filming I have been getting more used to carrying my camera and filming strangers (which is sometimes hundreds at one time, this being Tokyo and all). I had forgotten how much just carrying the camera around changes my interaction with the world. I instantly go from 'invisible foreigner' to 'GUY WITH A HUGE CAMERA!!!' so naturally people notice me more and make eye contact and smile at me more often, making it possible to sort of talk to and record random (sometimes crazily dressed) people. This is definitely a good thing. I have some interesting street scenes mostly in Shibuya and Harajuku, but I do not know how I will use them. I am still interested in utilizing my foreignness as a 'pivot point' (to quote Anh-Thu) in a piece that is more personal and essayistic/lyrical. Basically I'm veering more and more away from thinking of this in terms of a traditional observational ethnographic piece partly because I don't know how feasible that is and partly because I don't feel like I have the right to do that and partly because I think I could do a lot more with/am more interested in doing something else. I've also been thinking about the western stereotypes we have of the Japanese--conformists, copy-cats, rigid/serious and thinking of ways that I can use these to my advantage and present them in a fresh way. In terms of fashion, it seems like there are a lot of people that do follow trends to the T, but to say that Americans don't do the same thing would be absurd, it's just that Japanese put a lot more effort into getting every detail right--there is a precision in the presentation and attention to detail (and there are so many of them) that is just unparalleled.
The great thing about Tokyo is that no matter what, if I bring my camera anywhere, I'm almost guaranteed to catch some sort of 'oh my God' moment, since they happen all the time. The bad thing is that there's always SO much going on it's incredibly hard to focus. I'm hanging in there and definitely have hope, but if any of you have ANY insights or advice or see something that I don't please please let me know!
--Lucas
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The alienation is to be expected and will only make you stronger! Finding a comforting spot around the city to go back to again and again might help you regain a sense of the familiar. Also I find that if I'm left to my own devices for too long, that's when I start to think way too much and loneliness becomes most pervasive. You don't seem to lack people to hang with so maybe it's just a matter of easing into something more than fleeting interactions. I think Ty's advice to take a quick crash course in speaking Japanese will help give you a bit of a structure and more confidence.
ReplyDeleteAs for project focus, what is it about the Lolita interaction with tourists interests you? Is there meat enough there for you to sustain a full piece?
If you're tending towards an essay work, Shimokitazawa sounds like a great place to start since you've already found appeal in the visual life there. Maybe you can put this neighborhood and Shibuya/Harajuku in productive tension. Or think about your experience of northern Cali alternative lifestyles in relation to what you find in Shimokitazawa.
Gluck!
ATN
Lucas!
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed your g-chat message last night. I was exhausted. I completely understand how you feel about the camera. I too have been re-acquainted with its more alienating aspects. however as you pointed out, it can be used productively as well. It sometimes just takes time for you and others around (preferrably the same people) to get used to it as a presence. It's lie having a second head sometimes complete with it's own personality and quirks! ahhh, scary.
anyways, have you thought about trying to contact some of the anthro grads who are there... I know that Nico and Esra would both be willing to help you out with anything, and they both speak Japanese as well... if you decide you'd like to contact them, send me an e-mail and I'll give you their e-mail addresses. (I don't want to post their e-mail addresses here).
good luck and keep at it!
julia
Dear Lucas,
ReplyDeleteI wish I could recall the Paul Theroux quote that I took comfort in on my travels, describing how, if often lonely, the solitariness of traveling can often open one's eyes to what would otherwise go unnoticed. It sounds like your eyes (and camera) are seeing a lot. I'm glad you are journaling--I just had to pack up my room and took the chance to read through some passage from my box of journals, which chronicle my fieldwork places, and are my most important keepsakes--Reading through them is always a strange experience of familiarity and estrangement. I am sure your journal this summer will be invaluable whether or not it ends up appearing as an essayistic component of your film.
I agree with Anh-Thu that the juxtaposition between Shimokatazawa and harajuku could be productive. I wonder, though, that if you continue to talk and explore these two neighborhoods, you might find new ways of relating them to one another, despite their initial antagonism, or differing responses to kinds of consumerism. do you remember, for instance, lucien talking about similarities between two groups in colorado that he considered as a film project before moving to sheep?
In relation to recognizing and putting stereotypes to work,I think alex fattal from last year's class did a good job with this, incorporating some strong iconographic images of the amazon in his opening (and his allusion to levi-strauss tristes tropiques furthers it, as claude laments the destruction of these indigenous communities by the white conquistador (himself included) in that book). As I read it,tThe film then disrupted and unsettled any easy answer to the predicament of the amazon's deforestation as it progressed through a family portrait. The opening images sticking out for me are the ones of the pristine forest with the fantastic shot inside a dugout juxtaposed with a environmental degradation epitomied in the foregrounded, "bloody," oozing acai? tree stump. My impression (not verified) was that alex was particularly attuned to where his film would be showing (liberal, nvironmentally conscious Cambridge) when shooting and editing, which made it all the more powerful. Just an strategy to consider, particulary given how aware you seem of stereotypes and what it feels like to be viewed through them from your own experiences...
But already the difference (almost a contradiction) in your description of the Lolitas between the two entries (such as your earlier observation about many kinds of people photograph them, including themslves in contrast to your recent comment about them not liking to be photographed ) hints at a more complicated phenomenon at work. Perhaps you could continue this avenue opening up in Shimo but continue to learn about the lolitas (perhaps leaving the camera behind for a bit in this caes) and see if anything pans out, or if you become comfortable enough with some of them to do a film project that could act as a counter to the tourist gaze or media eye to which they are subjected. if not, (i.e. you do not reach a level of intimany and trust where you would feel comfortable, the language barrier is too high) then you'd have Shimo to fall back on...
Also, it's odd but I have heard a different set of generalizations about Japan, less "copycat" and more observations about how their "modernization" process in the postwar period has been quite distinct from that, say, of the United states...
best of luck with continued filming,
cynthia