THE SOUL OF JAPAN: Profound Tranquility or Modern Loneliness?

I loved Japan and its culture since I can remember… its aesthetic principles of beauty, its sense of peace and harmony, the respect for others, its harmony and safety. In the last few years I had the fortune to spend some time in this amazing country. As a side project ("THE SOUL OF JAPAN"), I explored and tried to understand some of Japan's most unique and almost hidden aspects of life. In this series I want to present and describe a feeling of detachment and kind of “self-inflicted” loneliness which may seem very strange to a non-Japanese or someone traveling to Japan for the first time. It can be encountered all over the country but is felt more strongly in the big cities, especially in the streets of Tokyo/Osaka. A feeling that deeply entangles and mixes with a secular way of life, with a thought process and a value system based on respect, duty and obligation… all directed to achieve harmony and tranquility. For most Japanese, these are not just ideas to believe in, but almost "unmovable objects" still lingering in the deeper recesses of their "modern" minds. These ideas may have changed their forms in the last century but they have also retained their influence and are frequently the main reason for misunderstanding with non-Japanese people.