Japan 15: Dubai Notebook

Things can be deceptive at such early hours, after a long overnight flight. As I peered through the airplane window into the darkness below I could make out well-lit bridges, over a dark sea, connecting one island to another. It was 5.00 am and we were making our approach into Dubai.
But as the sun slowly began to rise, it became clear that we were not over the sea, but had been passing over the desert. The lights below marked the roads cutting through the undulating desert sand. In this sense they were still bridges - arteries connecting one pocket of population to another. We eventually began our final descent into Dubai. But at this point the lights of the city had all but disappeared in the morning sunshine.

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A bus was needed to transport us from our plane to the arrivals terminal. As if to signal what we should expect from Dubai, we passed a new terminal that is under construction – an extension to an already very modern airport. The construction cranes were hovering over the place like vultures. There was something skeletal about this building site, as if a giant whale belly had been left to decompose in the desert. All that’s left is the massive ribcage, waiting to be bleached by the sun. Only, this isn’t something decomposing, but rather composing itself. This is the “miracle” of Dubai – it’s a place where skeletons are being raised up, waiting to be given life in the scorching heat. The desert is a place of extremes and an extreme effort is needed to create this city.

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Whatever the financial cost of shifting millions and millions of tons of sand, whatever the environmental cost of turning the desert into a permanently green space, whatever the social cost of this playground for the rich being built through underpaid, marginalized labour, whatever the cost – it will be done.

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Dubai is contingent. Everywhere billboards advertise its future. It is still much more a vision than a tangible city. This is the time to visit – when things are still raw, under creation, when everything has yet to take its final shape.
Our friend meets us at the airport and after letting us catch a couple hours sleep in the hotel, picks us up in his BMW.
A telling conversation:
He asks what we would like to see. Remembering a billboard I saw in the airport I say, “How about the Old Town”. He replies, “It hasn’t been built yet”.

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After spending some time driving through the city, I begin to realise that it’s not the towering skyscrapers, but the countless amount of construction cranes that catch my eye. Many of the buildings that we pass are still only shells, frameworks, yet to get their glass skin. Everything is being built. Everything has just been built. Dubai has that fresh, clean, feeling you find in some North American cities. Yet Dubai, despite it being only one small city, is some ways it is outdoing the North American drive for bigger and better. It is well known that Dubai has begun the construction of the world’s tallest building, and it is also well known that the exact and final height is being kept a secret to prevent any others from building one higher. Dubai is also building the world’s largest shopping centre, and the infamous man-made Palm Islands and The World are being constructed out in the coast. The have had their own overpass built to reach them. There are so many workers involved in the building work that many are transported to the area by boat to prevent any traffic jam.

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Our friend has taken a day off from running his business to show us around. But he is getting constant calls to his mobile and eventually pulls up outside his office. It is in a section of the city that is considered old – that is, all the buildings are between 20-30 years old. He explains to us that it is a lower middle class neighbourhood, with mainly Indian residents, and some of the most affordable housing in the city. But it is all coming down. There are plans to build a new subway station here, and to simply get rid of this “out of date” housing. A testament to the pace of Dubai’s development: even the middle-classes have become the victims of gentrification.

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Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai between 1958 – 1971 and 1979-90, had a saying: "My Grandfather rode a camel, my father road a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel." In this saying is the key to Dubai’s success. If the economy is simply based on oil then the success won’t last as the oil must run dry. He and his son, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who ruled between 1971-79 and 1990 – 2006, set up a successful economy that looked far beyond the oil booms. They were responsible for transforming Dubai from being a small fishing and trade port centred at the mouth of Dubai Creek, to being an economic and commercial powerhouse in the Middle East. Many global companies have their MENA (Middle East North Africa) headquarters in Dubai, not only because it is a tax haven, but also because it is a very secure and stable city in the Middle East.
But Dubai’s ambitions lay well beyond the Middle East. It has the largest man-made harbour in the world and recently purchased P&O, giving it ownership over the U.K.’s port operations. There are billions of dollars of investment pouring into Dubai, apparently outweighing foreign investment into China. The vision is to establish Dubai as a global economic centre.

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The Maktoum family are descendants of Bedouin chieftains who settled in the Dubai area in the 1920’s, when it was still a British controlled territory. The ruling Emir of Dubai is also appointed Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. It is the ruling Emir of Abu Dhabi who holds the Presidency.

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Politically narrow, but tax free. Undemocratic, but a high standard of life. One ruling family, but a very global city. These are the tensions of successful city in the contemporary Middle East.

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Dubai certainly destroys the usual conceptions we have of the Arab world. It is global city, with large Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese communities, mixed with the traditional Arab population. European tourists flock here for the sun and shopping, and businessmen from around the world live and work in Dubai. There is a word to describe this: hybrid, however, it is a hybridisation solely for the wealthy and elite.


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Any sense of place can be lost in the various shopping centres of Dubai, which are in effect the same all over the world. Dubai has been described as the Las Vegas of the Middle East, a statement that reflects more on the city’s relative cultural freedoms rather than the amount of casinos.

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We spend the evening at the Marina, outside a hotel, smoking from hookahs. Although it is now a well-established part of the city, many of buildings towering over us are still under construction. The construction cranes light up as night falls. They look like halos hovering over the skyscrapers, as if this were some holy place. But this only amplifies the superficiality of many of the buildings. Each new building has to mark itself out from the rest, to distinguish and separate itself. One office tower is built in the shape of a space shuttle, which lights up in a bright blue at night. Another has a spiralling shape, while others simply try to extend higher than the rest. This is Dubai: A city of landmark buildings, a city of office and business icons. How many unique buildings can you take before it all gets a bit boring?

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Our friend, a son of an Indian immigrant to Dubai in the 70’s, has lived here most of his life. While driving around the city, he points out areas that were still only desert three or five years ago. Before we head back to the hotel our friend takes us to some of the most recently developed areas of the city. They are mainly Arab-style villas for the super rich. The newest areas are all hidden behind large security walls, running alongside green avenues. Names such as “Dubai Hills” and “Lakeside Villas” remind me of being in the pseudo-communities of the North American suburbs.

Japan 14: 26 Hours in Dubai

Japan 13: Kiyomizu

I jumped off the Kiyomizu Temple. I jumped off, but I hadn’t realised it. I could still be falling, but I don’t really know. Maybe I’ve already crashed down, but again I can’t really tell. That is why there is so much sorrow, this is where all my difficulties lay.
How will I know when I’ve landed if I never knew when I jumped?
In that path, which seemed so natural to take, in those steps which always seemed inconsequential, there was one that took me over the temple wall. Perhaps that’s the only task I have left – as I fall I must decide which step that was.

Japan 12: Two Sides of Roppongi

Roppongi is just one of the business districts in Tokyo. The towering skyscrapers that dominate the view here are emblems of the corporate power of the area, announcing themselves to anyone who has not yet realised this fact. Hidden amongst the office towers are the corporate courtyards which, in recognition of the thousands of offices, offer a different space, an area of oasis, a space where sunlight can shine in and the sound of a water feature can provide a less stressful atmosphere. But these courtyards are not separate from the world of the office. Lined with chain cafes and pricey restaurants, they are still a business space, however relaxed or informal.
The glass skyscrapers that make up Roppongi not only compete in the commercial world, but also in the architectural one. These buildings are made to stand out, the express the dominant visions of each company. But there is a tension in this drive to be noticed: there is a need for each building to be unique but only without losing their essential function. These attempts to be distinctive are only ever superficial, always outweighed by the need and desire to remain the same. This is why this side of Roppongi is not that different from any business and commercial area in any city.

There is another side to Roppongi, a side that reveals itself after 9.00 pm. It is a side dedicated to nightlife - streets lined with nightclubs, bars, restaurants. It is also a seedier side. Many of the clubs are strip bars. The streets are lined with touts trying to drag you in for the “happy hour” and who- in a broken English- shout out the vulgarities on offer inside their club. Unlike other areas of the Tokyo night, the streets are also lined with bouncers and doorman, revealing a much darker side to Roppongi. It all suggests something illicit, illegitimate. Despite the invasive atmosphere the area is littered with people from all over the world. The touts are mainly from Africa, and the doormen American or Japanese. Western tourists walk the streets here to check out Tokyo’s nightlife. Many are businessmen being taken on a night out by their Japanese colleagues. This is the point where the two sides of Roppongi intersect. The corporate side was never actually that distinct from the nightlife. This is not only in the fact that these bars and clubs are as much commercial enterprises as anything else, but also in the way that the same people who make Roppongi successful in the day use it to unwind in the night. It is not an uncommon sight in Roppongi to see a half-drunk salaryman with a “kogal” at his side.

Japan 11: Take Your Hats Off To Past Consciousness

There is this t-shirt trend in Japan where slogans and proverbs, written in English, appear on t-shirts. Initially the seem very strange, incoherent and possibly contradictory. I'm sure some would claim that this is an example of English being undermined through globalisation.
But I'm not so sure that this is true. Often the t-shirts have a sort of philosophical tract printed on them, which seem long-winded on a t-shirt. But perhaps there is actually a deeper, more poetic meaning in them than intially appears. Maybe we are just not used to any sort of profundity on everyday clothing.
I'll let you decide.
Either: Wear the erosion of the English language with pride!
Or: Have an "edifying discourse" on your very own t-shirt!

Here are few examples I have found printed on t-shirts:
(I even bought a couple of these t-shirts)

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You'll be relieved when I can see my favorites.

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DISCRIMINATION.
It's a human characteristic to be able to have an object or hope in life.
My greatest mission is to nurture life.
Now life is clamoring: "Cheer up!"
It's my mission to create a life that can feel love.
40 Years of Life: Time for an Overhaul?
Challenge again with the Mystery of Life
CONQUERED SINCED 1975

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The more free time I have, the more I tend to think of bad things
I want no more time competition.
From now on I need more leisurely time.
How Many Well-
How Many Hours Do You Have In A Day?
Have more free time to keep your mind young
Quality Time nurtures grace and heart.

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Smile of the Sun
The Sun to the mind at any time
Some painters transform the Sun into a yellow spot
Others transform the yellow spot in the Sun
We wish to express our gratitude to the Sun.
The Sun is eternal. Your Smile is eternal.

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Everything begins by Seeing
In the near future, a "NEW BEING" will be born
A new condition for living is a life
full of sensitivity and intelligence
We want to nuture life that is kind to people.

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Sound nutrient.
Life is always taking care of me;
I will recompense it before long.

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Take your hats off to Past Consciousness
But take your coats off to the future.
When it is dark enough, men,
See the stars.
The first two letters of the Goal are GO

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I MIGHT SAY
I don't fear the . . .
FAILURE!

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Japan 10: Tokyo Moment II

Shimbashi, 10.00pm.

A Salaryman's Song

Sake is my friend
Sake will make love with me!
Sake will make the earth peace!
But in final I will be killed by sake.

Japan 9: Yasukuni-jinja

We visited the Yasukuni Shrine when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. It was festival time and the approach was crowded with people moving among the market stalls selling confectionary and snack foods. Hand made Hello Kitty chocolates were being sold alongside hot meat-filled buns, yakitori, and octopus tenticles on a stick. Families, friends and colleagues gathered in the avenue leading up to the shrine which was covered by the arching branches of the sakura trees. The blossoms provided a long ceiling of delicate pink. The friendly and family oriented atmosphere could not be farther removed from the intense political controversy attached to this shrine.
The Yasukuni-jinja is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the war dead. There was nothing controversial in this until 1978 (?) when the names of widely known Japanese war criminals, such as Tojo Hideki, from the Second World War were discreetly added to the list of names in the shrine. The inner chambers of the shrine are not readily accessible to the public and the secret additions remained unknown until it was revealed in a media scoop. Since then it has soured international relations for Japan. Each year of his rule, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pays official visits to Yasukuni-jinja. His act of paying homage to the war dead, including notorious violators of human rights, leads to a diplomatic crisis. Each year the Yasukuni-jinja appears in our newspapers as China, Korea and Taiwan officially protest against this tactless and historically insensitive act.
Japanese culture is quite open to its neighbouring cultures. Korean dramas feature on television, Korean films are popular, and Korean language lessons are broadcast on NHK while travel shows will feature China. Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni-jinja seem to jar with this trend. A broad section of the political spectrum views Koizumi's visits as pointless and damaging. The editors of the left-wing Asahi and centre-right Yomiuri newspapers have both expressed their opposition. Closer links need to be forged with Korea and China and only the very conservative right can see any value in the action.
But on a day like today the controversy seems something remote and distant. Yasukuni-jinja seems just like any other tourist attraction, like any other shrine: Japanese visitors throw a 50 yen piece into the shrine and make a short prayer while some Western tourists stand at the side taking pictures of them.

Japan 8: A Tokyo Moment

The Namboku Line, 11.00 pm:

It is one hour before midnight, but the Subway is absolutely packed with people - mainly salary men returning from their offices. It is standing room only and the carriage reeks of alcohol.

Japan 7: Tokyo

Tokyo is difficult. It is difficult to move in, to interpret, to understand. Just when you think you are ready to describe it, just when you think you have soaked it in, you only come to realise that Tokyo has been soaking you in. It has been taking you in, gargling you about its mouth, bouncing you off its inner walls, tired disorientated, run down.
Tokyo will demand a piece of you before it ever reveals itself. You will need to live there a few years before you can begin to comprehend it, but even then . . .

A friend, who was in a similar situation, once told me this: "Tokyo harnesses the energy of the Pacific. It is a coastal city that moves with the immensity of the ocean".
There is a constant flow of people. I have been to larger cities than Tokyo, but never have I seen such a continuous pulse. To move through Tokyo is to be a rock in the midst of a never-ceasing set of waves. Exhuasted and eroded. But everyone in these waves is also a rock. You become a part of another person's wave - a part of their exhaustion.

Depsite this mass movement, Tokyo's energy never expresses itself in any single way. There is no unity. Tokyo is eclectic; A Japanese eclecticism. Just as the ocean reveals its power in each different wave, Tokyo's energy is dispersed among its disparate elements.

Japan 6: Hagakure

Otosan once commented that the Japanese speak of the past in very general terms: "A long time ago such and such happened". Whereas in the West it is much more precise: "In 1579 such and such happened". This makes Japanese history much more poetic. Therefore we must regard Western history as being more academic.

Japan 5: A First Vision of Kyoto

The route to the city never permitted a view. We took the train from Yasu to Kyoto Station and from there exited directly into a department store, down its escalators, across its floors, until we reached the subway entrance. The subway exited directly into another department store and again we walked through its floors and up the escalators. We then entered a shopping mall attached to the department store. From there we walked past all the shops until we were finally coughed up unto Shijo Street.
A first glimpse of the city. But it was a bleary-eyed vision. Bleary-eyed because it appears like any other city. Bleary-eyed because the temples and shrines appear as something unique. Nothing announces these shrines amongst the streets lined with shops, cafes, noodle bars and restaurants - they only come into view when you walk right past. "Look! There's a shrine, and its just tucked in there, just like any other building, just like any shop or house". But it is not just like these. It's non-commercial, non-domestic. It's natural. The bird sits in the tree, in the temple garden, singing as if it were in a forest. Only, it is just off the street, between the electronics shop and someone's home. Yet it seems to slip naturally into the city this way.
There are no high rises in Kyoto - nothing dominates the skyline. It is a city that, amongst the new, maintains the traditional. It is a city of traditional maintenance.

Japan 4: Lessons in Pluralism

The first thing I passed when I entered the house was a shrine to their ancestors, which was given its own room. After our first meal together Tomoko and I presented our gifts to Otosan (Dad) and Okasan (Mum). I gave Okasan a L.S. Lowry Print - The Organ Grinder, which is now framed and hanging on the wall, and to Otosan I gave a fifteen year old bottle of Scotch. Otosan, soon after, placed the bottle in the family shrine to display to his ancestors, where it has remained since. The other week I asked Otosan to explain the shrine to me - with Tomoko translating.
There are pictures of deceased relatives above and inside the shrine. The photographs span different generations; great grandparents, great uncles, grandparents and others more recent. Some are from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, some are dressed in military uniform, and again, others are more recent. In front of the pictures inside the shrine are stands to place small amounts of food. Each morning and each evening a cupful of rice is placed on the stand. They are removed after breakfast and the evening meal have respectively finished. On pieces of wood, which are placed behind the photographs, is Japanese Kanji script. Inscribed are the names given to the relatives by the priest after they have died. In the afterlife you receive a new name. There are also candle holders to burn incense.
After the rice is placed on the stands, very small and delicate candles are placed in their holders and lit. The incense is burned and finally Otosan rings the bell to call the ancestors.
The room also has another, much smaller shrine in one of the top corners. I aksed Otosan what this was and he replied that it was a Shinto shrine - for the traditional Japanese religion. It was only used during special holidays and festivals. However, the shrine to the ancestors was Buddhist.
This struck me - a religious pluralism that is so much a part of life that it is not an issue. In our society (or at least my own little world) where so much effort and debate is centred around religious pluralism, it was interesting to see it as an effortless part of cultural life - an inherent rather than a new phenomenon. I began to think that this was because the boundaries and definitions of Buddhism and Shintoism were very different to the boundaries and definitions of Christianity. The religions of India and the East had a different orientation compared to the religions of the Middle East - Judiasm, Christianity and Islam, which all play a stronger role in our culture.
But Tomoko brought me back down to Earth. These shrines were not about religion at all, just as Otosan and Okasan were not religious. The first shrine is simply a sign of respect for one`s past family members, just as we have pictures of our family past and present in our house, the only difference being the varying degrees of intensity. The Shinto Shrine is simply a tradition. To put it simply: You don`t have to be religious to decorate a Christmas tree.
Suddenly the cultural gap seems to be a small step rather than a crevice.

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Tomoko and I visited the Nobunaga museum in Azuchi. It is a small museum, in the cultural section of the town. The buildings here are designed in a Cathedral-esque style, reflecting Azuchi`s historical connections to Christianity. This includes the concert hall, with its bell tower complete with a bell from Rome, the archeological museum with its three domes, the sports centre and the Nobunaga museum. Tomoko and I only visited the latter after hiking up to the ruins of the Azuchi Castle. Although the museum is quite small, it contains a complete and full-size model of the top two floors of Azuchi Castle. These floors were painstakingly recreated after sixteenth century documents were discovered which revealed the architectural layout of the castle. It was first displayed in the Japan Pavillion at the 1992 World Expo in Spain.
The top two floors are completely different to the rest of the castle. They are not living spaces, but are meant to signify the political and spiritual powers of Nobunaga. In fact, from these two floors it is clear that his political and spiritual hopes were indistinguishable elements in his vision of power. The first floor was called the Golden Room. The walls are emblazed with large paintings depicting the ideal Buddhist heaven. The pictures, with their gold background, circle the room. The centre panel is the focal point, with an image of Buddha teaching his disciples. In the other pictures, followers from farther away make their way towards Buddha.
The top floor is much more intimate and close-quartered. Here the images draw on a wide variety of different characters from different backgrounds. In one panel, Confucious arrives riding an ox while another depicts Confucious teaching his disciples. Other Chinese philosophers adorn other panels. Two gods are also the central features of another panel - one is the god of farming and the other the god of caligraphy.
Each floor had a single mat to sit on in the centre of the room. I imagined that Nobunaga sat here, in these rooms, revelling in his spirituality and wisdom. He was in the Buddhist heaven, he was in commumion with ancient gods, and in dialouge with the great philosophers of China. With these figures and deities surrounding him, Nobunaga was on top of the world. The spiritual essence of these rooms were in tandem with the political essence of the castle itself. For in terms of political power he was also "on top of the world".
In these rooms I encountered a different, more explicit pluralism. The cross over between philosophy and religion. The mixing together of Indian religions, Chinese philosophies and Japanese Shintoism, were all apart of Nobunaga`s construction of power. His introduction of Christianity into Japan had political motives as well. The new religion would quell the power held by the priests of the established religions (This is similar the aristocratic support for Luther - the Reformation removed the political influence held by Rome).
In some ways it left a bad taste in my mouth. This religious pluralism, one that maintained difference and avoided a superficial unity, was only maintained by a man with immense political power. It was a pluralism born out of one vision - and that was power.
It does however, offer something revealing about our conception of Japan. Japan is often regarded by both the Japanese and outsiders as an homogenous society. But even in the years before its unification, Japan was being constructed out of different cultural and religious influences - from India, China, and Europe. To comprehend Japan is to see the different fragments that have been pieced together to form the unity.