東京タワーは、東京でいちばん優しい。Tokyo Tower Is Tokyo’s Kindest Tower
Today we feature a Japanese essay that has an insightful lesson.
It is about the difference between seeing a thing from afar, or hearing about a thing second hand, and seeing that same thing up close. It’s about getting your information, and your experiences, about that thing directly from the source. In today’s age of information gluts, and gluttony, where to “know” something is to say that you once googled it and scanned the the top 3 search result headlines, the essay argues the case for deeper experiential learning.
It uses the spectre of Tokyo Tower, potent symbol of a mega-city, as a parable to explain why it is better to live life in close range, than at arms length. It was written by Inazo Inamoto( 稲本稲三) and appeared on his note.com blog. We have a reading of it in Japanese, then in English, then a mix of the two. I hope you enjoy it, and please subscribe if this is of interest, and check out Inamoto’s other work on Note.
Approx Japanese level
Themes
Text Type
東京タワーは、東京でいちばん優しい。
今日は、「普通の旅」をしました。
その地域で生活するというだけのことです。
こういう風にして、僕は疲れていると感じたとき、いつもいる場所から少し離れて、ボーっとする時間を確保しています。
仕事や家のことで忙しくしていると、どうしても「あれを終わらせなくちゃ…」「早く寝ないと…」と、常に何かに追われている感覚になります。
特に僕は、家で仕事することが多いので、仕事のオンオフが曖昧になりがちで、仕事のことを考えない日はありません。
家の中には、仕事グッズがたくさんあり、隙さえあれば仕事を進めてしまいそうになりますし、実際に取り掛からなくても、仕事のことを考えてしまいます。
なので、完全に心身を休めるためには、家の外に飛び出して、一人でゆっくりする時間を取ることが欠かせないのです。
今日は、東京タワーを観ながら、ボーっとしていました。
東京タワーは、どういうわけか、どこから見ても綺麗に見えるので、東京タワーに向かって歩いていない人でも、振り返って写真を撮っていました。
通行人のほとんどが、東京タワーを綺麗に撮りたい一心で、何度でもシャッターを切り、地べたにカメラを置いたり、腰を後ろに90度曲げようと無理な体勢をとりながら、自分なりに最高の角度を探していました。
その他にも、東京タワーに照らされた恋人を見つめてはしゃぐカップル、東京タワーを眺めて芝生に寝っ転がる中年男性、インスタ映えを狙う女子大生、展望台に昇る楽しみを抑えられずに走り出す小学生、その誰もが東京タワーに心を動かされていました。
これまで僕は、東京タワーを都会の象徴だとしか思っていませんでした。
もし、東京タワーが喋るなら、「資金力のある大都会じゃないと、こんなスゴい建造物は建てられないだろ？ほら、これが東京の凄さなんだよ！」と、いやみったらしく自慢してくるんだとばかり思いこんでいました。
しかし、実際のところは、全く違いました。
東京タワーを見れば見るほど、僕は安心感に包まれていきました。気がついた頃には、芝生に座り込んで、２時間も東京タワーを眺め続けていました(笑)。
恋人がいようがいなかろうが、仕事がうまくいこうがいかなかろうが、全東京の人々を暖かく受け入れて、どこから目を合わせても嫌な顔をしません。
その証拠に、ほとんどの通行人が、東京タワーに心を奪われているのを何度も目撃しました。
たくさんの人の心を預かってくれる東京タワーが、東京でいちばん優しいヤツなのかもしれません。
ちゃんと近づかないと、分からないものはたくさんあります。
ただ、見ただけの情報、聞いただけの情報に満足するのは、もったいない気がしました。
そして僕は、これから何かあるたびに、東京タワーに心を預けたいと思います(笑)。
Tokyo Tower Is Tokyo’s Kindest Tower
Today I took what you would call a very ordinary trip. By “very ordinary trip”, I mean going to a place other than my own local area to stay overnight, and live for two days.
In this way, when I feel I’m getting tired, I take myself to a place just a little away from where I am, and provide myself with some time to zone-out. When I busy myself with matters of the office or the home, I can’t help but get myself caught up in thinking “I must finish that…” or “I must get to sleep”. This is especially so as I do a lot of my work from home, switching from on the job and off the job can become hard to differentiate and there is no day that I don’t think about my work. My house is full of the tools of my trade, I find it hard not to fill every spare moment of time with progressing my work, and even if I don’t get started on something, I think about what I should be doing.
So, to completely relax mind and body, getting out of the house to spend quality time alone is irreplaceable.
I spent today gazing vacantly at Tokyo Tower.
Somehow, Tokyo Tower is a thing beautiful to behold from any angle. Even the people not walking in it’s direction turn to take photographs.
Most of the passers-by are as one in their determination to photograph Tokyo tower at it’s most beautiful, and they repeatedly release the camera shutter, or place their camera on the bare ground, or bend at the waist at unreasonable 90 degree angles, in pursuit of the perfect shot.
You also see care-free lovers luminescent in Tokyo Tower’s haze, middle-school boys lounging round on the lawn staring up at Tokyo Tower, high-school girls going for the Insta-shot, elementary school children sprinting towards the observation deck unable to contain their excitement, every last one of them their hearts moved by Tokyo Tower.
Until now I had thought of Tokyo Tower as being no more than a symbol of the city.
If Tokyo Tower could talk, I thought it would sneer conceitedly, “Behold the financial muscle of the great metropolis, who else could erect such an awesome edifice? Heed Tokyo’s grandeur!”
But, actually, the situation is quite to the contrary.
The more I looked at Tokyo Tower, the greater the sense of calm that enveloped me.
Lover, or no lover, work going well, or not going well, the tower warmly takes in one and all, meets each eye to eye and points not a disagreeable face to any vantage.
In evidence, I noted all but a handful of pedestrians having their hearts repeatedly stolen by Tokyo Tower.
This Tokyo Tower, that keeps the hearts of so many safe, just may be Tokyo’s friendliest giant.
Some things you can’t understand unless you get up close.
It made me think that to simply be satisfied to hear about or see something from afar is a great waste.
I think that from now on, when I have the need, I will entrust my heart to the safekeeping of Tokyo Tower.
ただ、見ただけの情報、聞いただけの情報に満足するのは、もったいない気がしました。 It made think that to simply be satisfied to hear about or see something from afar is a great waste.
Favorite lines
ただ、見ただけの情報、聞いただけの情報に満足するのは、もったいない気がしました。
It made think that to simply be satisfied to hear about or see something from afar is a great waste.
ちゃんと近づかないと、分からないものはたくさんあります。
Some things you can’t understand unless you get up close.
たくさんの人の心を預かってくれる東京タワーが、東京でいちばん優しいヤツなのかもしれません。
Tokyo Tower, that keeps the hearts of so many safe, just may be Tokyo’s friendliest giant.
Unfamiliar Words For me
資金力 Financial might
インスタ映え To try and make yourself look good for an Instagram photo
Conclusion
Seeing a picture of an icecream is not the same as eating an icecream. Watching people fall in love in a movie is not the same as falling in love. Gazing at a Tokyo Tower from a far is not the same as seeing the people who live, play and pass through its arches everyday. Inamoto’s essay is a call for mindfulness, but delivered in a modern way without any of the residue that that Buddhist-derived buzzword holds.
It’s a lesson you don’t have to go to Tokyo Tower to implement.
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Who is behind this site?
I’m Peter Joseph Head. I lived in Japan for four years as a student at Kyoto City University of the Arts and on working holiday. I have toured the country six times playing music and speak Japanese (JLPT N1).
ピータージョセフヘッドです。３年間京都市立芸大の大学院として、一年間ワーキングホリデーとして日本に住み、６回日本で音楽ツアーをし、日本語能力試験で１級を取得しました。要するに日本好きです。
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