Memories of...

A couple of videos I made to reminisce on my time in Japan

Immediately after leaving Japan at the end of the tumultuous year that was 2020, having lived there for 3 years, I felt a deep hole within. This was amplified somewhat by the fact that I was returning to the UK; a country defined by the roughness around its edges. Most of all I missed Japan’s delicateness and the many life lessons it taught me. The types of life lessons that you see being thrown around on Instagram recently as fodder for easy and interesting content, like Ikigai or Shinrin-yoku, both of which have recently become very vogue and probably don't need to be translated to a growing number of people.

On the long plane journey home, alone with my thoughts, I scribbled a handful of pages about my time spent living there and the knowledge I'd picked up along the way. What I had learned, things I wanted to remember and memories to hold with me as I returned to my home country for the first time in many years.

One thing I wrote and ended up reflecting on a lot was "Japan was an enabler". To me, this meant that Japan allowed me to achieve things that I don't think I could have achieved if I was living in the UK. Living in Tokyo allowed me to experience a great deal and discover parts of myself that I hadn't come across before. I started a coffee shop with my wife, built a strong and loyal community around us, unlocked a creative block that had been gripping me for a decade, wrote hours of new music, defined what my sound was as a composer, collaborated with numerous artists and travelled to Taiwan and New Zealand exhibiting. During this time I also laid the groundwork for a lot of projects and collaborations that came after I left Japan.

I'm certainly not quick to forget that it was because I met certain people that these things happened, but I feel there's something about Japan that allows these chance meetings to happen easily. Chance meetings that often lead to sparks of creativity.

Being in a country with a foreign population of around only 2.2% means you're bound to bump into a foreigner doing something interesting quite quickly. My initial assumption that Japan's foreign population was pretty much full of only English teachers was pretty much proven to be false. Live in any of the larger cities and you'll rub shoulders with freelance illustrators, photographers, fashion designers, coffee roasters, writers, bar owners, composers & artists and this easily becomes a source of deep inspiration. Even if you yourself are doing something only vaguely interesting, in this situation it gives you a chance to strike up a conversation and a bond can be formed quickly over your mutual love of the country you now call home.

It's safe to say I still miss Japan intensely. So much so that its influence runs through all the work I now create. Sometimes that thread of inspiration presents itself in a subtle way, and sometimes it's more visible — like with these two videos I made to reminisce on life in the country, albeit not using my own memories.

Hunting through archive.org's unwieldy collection of video footage I stumbled upon some gorgeous videos of life in Kyoto and Tokyo from days long gone. Are the people in these videos still alive? Where are they and what are they doing now?

Please let these short videos transport you to another place. There are some beautiful moments to be found in each. I especially love seeing the child clapping at the temple near the end of the Kyoto video. His facial expression is half-seriously contemplating the ritual that he's been brought to this temple for, whilst still remaining half-mischievous.

Memories of Tokyo

Memories of Kyoto

Thank you for being here. Please share this with anyone you think who might enjoy it and if you'd like to support this newsletter please buy one of my albums over on Bandcamp or consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack.

SJF