Tokyo: city of fires and flowers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Heidegger pointed out that a minimally meaningful life requires sensitivity to the power of shared moods, which give ‘mattering’ to our lives and meaning to events. As philosophers remind us, the German word Stimmung means ‘mood’ in terms of atmosphere or ambiance. Often likened to music or to weather, Stimmung is something to which we unconsciously attune ourselves. That cities have their own distinct and discrete smells, weather, feeling, music, and mood is something immediately discernible to anyone who travels around the cities of Europe, where despite their close proximity, the cultures/spirits/aurae/airs/colors are immediately discernible from each other. Looking at the ‘spirit of cities’ through the lens of my own personal life history, I explore the way Tokyo exerted power over my imagination. How did I become a different person in Japanese than I am in English? In what ways did the city impact my character and sense of self? Would I be a different person thinking and dreaming in second-language Chinese? French? Is there any fundamental ‘I’ that is not in some way influenced by culture and language? I aim to ponder these questions by way of a cultural ‘conversation,’ echoing meetings along the Silk Road between West and East, between my young American self and my fully-immersed, Japanese-speaking self, and with the residents, places, seasons, and past observers of the Eastern Capital and other great cities.