"Mono no aware" - Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan. November 2014 (Nikon FM2 on various films) "Mono no aware" (物の哀れ) is a Japanese expression that literally means "the pathos of things". It is used to indicate the awareness of transience of things, and both a gentle sadness at their passing as well as a longer, deeper sadness about this state being the reality of life. Tokyo is a city of fascinatingly strong contrasts. They are everywhere, in colours, lights and shadows, but more deeply in culture. What perhaps impresses the most, is the coexistence of modernity with a way of thinking and behaving that is deeply permed with the heritage of century-old traditions. But what really stuck in my mind, is a certain sense of loneliness that can sometimes be red on people's faces. Urban loneliness might be a state inherent to all people living in big cities, but in Tokyo it gives the impression of being particularly strong, sad and poetic at the same time. When I (later) learned about the meaning of "mono no aware", I found it was a perfect description of what I felt wandering around Tokyo and mixing with its poetically lonely people.