A geisha, a painting of cranes stretching their wings over an old Japanese garden, a samurai, a unique bouquet of Japanese flowers or what was known to me later as " kado" or "ikebana", little girls with silky black hair or thousands of men dressed in dark suits wandering the busy streets of Tokyo. That was the very classic image I had for so long about Japan.
　 This image could have persisted even after coming to Japan, since this mixture of the modern and the past is not very difficult to find until now in many places where scenting the smell of the past is very much possible even in the most modernized districts of Japan.
　 But that was not ?and still is not- what I was looking for. I am not sure if this happens to all foreigners coming to Japan from developing countries like mine, or if I am a special case. I came to Japan burdened with my country's economical, political and -very naturally in consequence- cultural problems. I came with my eyes wide open hoping to find among the Japanese an answer to the turmoil roaring in my mind: "What is the way out of the troubles my country and my people are suffering from?. Maybe Japan seemed to be so encouraging to learn the lesson for reasons that seemed very interesting to me. The first was that ironically Japan started its modernization during the Meiji era, at nearly the same time when a serious modernization attempt was being tried in my country Egypt by Mohammad Ali in the 1800s. Yet Japan's experience was meant to survive while ours was sadly aborted. The other reason why Japan was encouraging is the fact that the Japanese managed to build their glory while they are "yellow". As much as I hate such racial or color stratification of people, yet we can not deny that the western and the American media machines so often managed to confuse us, and make us wonder if actually being developed is a synonymous to being "white'!
　 Sometimes people choose their destiny, and sometimes it is imposed upon them. Which case is Japan? To me it seems both cases are as much as true. Japan with its geographical location- a group of islands at the very far edge of the world-, a beautiful though very hard nature of mountainous lands with very narrow valleys, a land with nearly no resources. This nature with no doubt had imposed hardship on the people, and seemingly offered the Japanese one of 2 choices, to struggle to survive, or to be weak and be forgotten. So somehow this hard nature helped sculpt the Japanese personality. This is why "rice cultivation" seems the corner stone into understanding the Japanese; it seems the start and end point whenever you try to go deep into the Japanese soul. Even in the modern Japanese mind, the word "rice" simply means survival. So it was not strange when a friend of mine was telling me how her father used to scare her in order to study hard to become a doctor, manipulating her subconscious by telling her that becoming a doctor simply means to be able to have "rice" for dinner! In a land with such a hard nature, and of such minimal resources, it was very natural for people to know that they can not afford the luxury of being lax about "food", about "rice". Because very simply being lax means to jeopardize the lives of all, a price much more expensive than anyone can afford to pay. This might be where the team soul the Japanese are very famous for started. And until now, though the Japanese are very much wealthier than when rice was everything, yet that sculpted personality seems to have become a genetic mutation that persisted through generations up till now. This was very obvious to me as a foreigner when the Japanese people introduce themselves on first meetings or when talking on the phone; their names are mentioned only after mentioning the name of the group to which they belong. Like saying: " Tokyo daigaku no Suzuki des" which literally means I am Suzuki of Tokyo university. Rather more interestingly there is no mention of what this "Suzuki san" might be doing at this group. Is he on the top of the hierarchy or a simple worker he is? Simply because the value of Suzuki san is not how big or small his role is in his group, but rather his value is the value of his group as a whole. Such a belief must have been the reason how work to the Japanese became a synonymous to honor. When you get to know the Japanese you feel they were created to "work". Work in Japan is a virtue, an honor in itself, not just a means to earn money or improve one's quality of life. Again this explains how a Japanese person might choose to end his life if he thought that by his actions he might have disgraced his group or company. An act that still dazzles people from all over the world until now, yet maybe to the Japanese mind it is very well understood and justified. This is also why I find it amazing that dedication and sincerity the old man who waves his flag at construction sites shows to warn bicycle riders or people walking across those seemingly dangerous sites. A very simple job, yet with his dedication it transforms into an outstanding example on how things get their value from how we see them.
　 One other amazing aspect of the Japanese mentality is the absence of "difference" as a value or a goal, unlike western cultures were being unique is a goal. The Japanese mind on the opposite side rejects such an attitude, and on the contrary the more similar you are to your colleagues or beers, the more accepted you become into your group. And naturally this is why Japan is still one of the very few countries where school and company costumes are still very popular. Walking in the streets of a small or large city, it would be very difficult to tell how rich or poor a person is from his looks or what he wears. It was really astonishing to me, I remember it was my first "hanabi" in Japan, and there were thousands in homogenous crowds. The thought that struck my mind at that moment was: "This is socialism in an undoubtedly capitalist country"!
　 One can not be talking about Japan or the Japanese and help not revive the memories of the second world war. What consequences did this war have on the Japanese soul and mind? And how did they manage their defeat and up rise again among nations as a strong, rich and highly productive society? To me it is all again about the strength of the Japanese personality that was created over the years. This is why I really doubt the idea that Japan's post war fate was dictated by the USA. Nations' fates can never be created by decisions, and success can not be dictated. Changes only happen when the nations have the will for change. And I assume the Japanese had the will for change at that time. It is not about political or historical facts. It is about how the Japanese faced their fate courageously, how they defeated their defeat, and how they converted their failure into ultimate success. The time of that war could be the saddest memory in the history of modern Japan, but at the same time and ironically it is by no doubt one of the turning bright moments when the Japanese renewed their oath of an ever lasting struggle against conquer neither by nature nor by history. There is a photo in the peace memorial museum in Hiroshima, where a flower grows among the ashes and the massive devastation. That photo never fades in my mind. As if that was the Japanese message to themselves and to the others at that time, a message saying: "we are here to stay"!
　 Yet, to me the question remained. What is the cultural or moral base behind all this? It is inapplicable to apply the pattern of what happened in Europe -with the industrial revolution and the era of enlightenment- to Japan. It simply does not work. Again, Japan stands there, unique in its geography as much as it is unique in its history and evolution. It is true that Buddhism and Confucianism with no doubt had influenced the Japanese mind. Yet like in my country, where Egypt used to absorb all the cultures or religions that influenced its cultural heritage, and used to mix it and reproduce it to make its special unique culture. I guess this applies very well to the Japanese culture. The Japanese have been affected by such religious or philosophical influences yet in a unique way. The Japanese reproduced their own cultural cocktail, that cocktail that managed to transform morals into a social custom. The Japanese mind seems to be purely secular. People conform to their "unwritten constitution" of morals maintaining their social solidarity, with no reference to religion or any super-powers. And even if some Japanese perform religious rituals, I can assume that this has no direct influence on the daily attitude of the Japanese, but rather the secular moral system is what has the upper hand in that.
　 I always believed that to see through a nation you have to see its art and read its literature. And although my experience with the Japanese intellectual production such as novels or movies is to some extent limited - due to my poor Japanese language abilities - ,yet through these few experiences it was not hard to figure a common theme in most of the works I had the chance to read or watch. In most, the author or director tried to be as concise, as sharp, and as deep as one could be. With very few dialogues and a special tendency to symbolism, any idea was expressed. Silence in Japan is the real wisdom. The unspoken is way more important than the outspoken. What you can imply and hence what the other can figure is much more appealing than what can frankly be told. With hardly any words outspoken, the beauty of the tea ceremony for example is the chance it gives one to enjoy the silence, the beauty of the tea room, of the cup or of the calligraphy painting on the wall of the room. Simply it the chance it gives to feel beauty without many words. A very famous Arabian poet said:
　 "Our words about love; kill love. Words die when outspoken! ". Did not the Japanese believe the same? Did not they adopt simplicity and silence as their logo? A logo that tells all about the deeply complex nature of the Japanese. The complexity that is very much beautifully not outspoken.
　 This special nature of the Japanese personality might be very difficult for a foreigner to understand. I remember first coming to Japan, a lot seemed to be so strange to me. Even simple daily practices were hard to adapt to or compromise. The lack of “touch” as a way to express feelings for example, was very confusing to me in the beginning. Coming from a culture where touch is a very important element in human relations, it was a dramatic change when the maximum I would expect would be a head bow and a smile. It was even more difficult to comprehend how even among parents and their children, feelings are not expressed by touch. How then do people transfer their feelings? Does this oppress feelings? Or does it intensify feelings that somehow they are felt by others even without touch or being spoken out? Does this bring us back to the “beauty of the unspoken?”　This seems to me one of the hardest things a foreigner might face in Japan. The balance one has to make to be able to approach the Japanese without being so “intruding”, yet be able at the same time to understand and perceive their feelings and gestures not to miss or reject some kind feelings that might be hidden beneath this veil of silence.
　 Living among the Japanese, I got to learn more and more about them. Yet hand in hand I managed to know more about myself and about my people. Maybe that image of a geisha or of a samurai would remain in my mind after me leaving Japan. But for sure, the impression it will leave behind is by no way similar to what it used to have before I came here. To see through, you have to see from within. Beyond the shown you shall see, beyond the said you shall hear.