What impressed and fascinated me most in Japanese culture was how much it is focused on the exact moment, how attentive it is to that “now”.
For me, “now” itself is almost non-existent, being either Past or Foreseeable Future. What is more, every past memory and future goal are evaluated, analyzed and then placed somewhere inside my own head. I cannot recall any moment when I was entirely focused on the “now”-moment without that never-stopping roaring burden of thoughts on the background.
Japanese, somehow, can do that (or so it seems according to what I’ve learned about the language and art).
I sincerely adore that ability. I adore all those exceptionally poetic and extremely moment-attentive “untranslatable” Japanese words: Komorebi (sun filtering through the tree leaves), Yuugen (the oneness of all things), Ukiyo (floating world), boketto (gazing into the distance and the world without thinking)...
I think, this is one of the things that would be helpful to learn from the Japanese culture. In the modern world, full of rush, the present is often under-appreciated.
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