I’m not a religious person at all really, which is why I relate to Japanese religiousity. They say a nihonjin is born Shinto, marries Christian, and dies Buddhist. Religious holidays are more of a cultural tradition than a celebration of faith. I like the Japanese way; I’m pro using religion for your own means, as opposed to feeling like you have to prove yourself to God or whoever all the time. Not to say that the Japanese are nonbelievers, or that religion in Japan is simple, because actually it’s super complicated.
Like so many other things, the Japanese have taken foreign religions and made them into something of their own. But this weird blend of faiths has left some confused. My host mom was relieved when I told her I wasn’t very religious and didn’t really believe in anything. Other young people I talked to felt a sort of transience between religions, not knowing a whole lot about any particular one, but having exposure to the main Shinto, Christianity and Buddhism.
Religion demands a lot of time, something that most nihonjin, especially Tokyojin don’t have. To even get the basics of a religion down should probably take something like a few months. I took a class on Buddhist philosophy for a semester and I felt like we had only scratched the surface. So with the limiting factor of time, it doesn't seem very possible for religion to play a big role in everyday Tokyo life.
Praying when it is convenient, or when you need something, gels with my idea of the typical salaryman, student, and other types of Tokyo people. Every day is so busy, everything is so rush rush rush, and these aren’t really the type of people to be setting aside time to thank Buddha or God for what they’ve been blessed with. They’re too focused on the next thing, be it a promotion, excellent marks on exams, or a successful day at the fish market.
The closest thing I’ve had to a spiritual experience was my Fuji climb, only a few months ago. Fuji is known to have been a sacred pilgrimage site for centuries. It also used to be off limits to women, who were thought to be tainted, and incapable of enlightenment. Today Fuji is full of everyday joggers, as well as tourists and other adventurous nihonjin. Fuji-san was at the top me and my friends’ to-do list, so of course we had to go.
We rode the bus over to the fifth station, as far as buses can go, at around 9pm at night. The plan was to climb all night and make it to the top for sunrise. The first signs of drizzle weren’t unexpected, the forecast was for rain but they seemed to change all the time. There were no lights, but we had come prepared with headlights and a friend had snagged me a North Face hiking jacket/pants set. But as the rain turned into a downpour, us and all our gear got soaked and one of our girls started shivering uncontrollably, the situation got real. Two of the girls decided to stay at wherever we were at that point, at a “hotel” at the sixth and a half station, and the rest of us trucked on. It eventually got near impossible to crawl along the rain-soaked rocks, and keep climbing up and up in the oxygen deprived air. With no opportunity to get out of our soaked clothes and basically spending the night in a 3000 yen “bed” (actually a wall of sleeping bags), it was pretty much the most uncomfortable night ever. And I’ve stayed in some shitholes in China. We missed the sunrise (but made it to the top!) and missed our bus back (had to take a crazy detour to get back to Tokyo) but I completed the most challenging physical and mental task of my short two decade-span life.
I don’t believe that you have to be a true believer or feel strongly that there’s no room for religion in this life. I am comfortable where I am, feeling open to spirituality but not definitively settled on anything. Maybe it’s not that necessary to think about it all. Do the nihonjin have it right? I’ll get back to you on that.
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