Anthony Bourdain's description of visiting Japan for the first time

Bunpro
#1

“The first time I came to Japan, to Tokyo, it was a transformative experience. It was a powerful and violent experience. It was just like taking acid for the first time - meaning: what do I do now? I see the whole world in a different way. I often compare the experience of going to Japan for the first time to what Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend must have gone through the week that Jimi Hendrix came to town. You hear about it, you go see it, a window opens up into a whole new thing, and you think… What does this mean? What do I have left to say? What do I do now?”

From Parts Unknown: https://youtu.be/py6ZQ5RczdQ?feature=shared&t=125

Best attempt to describe it I’ve heard so far.

8 Likes
#2

He was such a great writer and TV host (narrator too, I suppose) that his shows reached people from all walks of background. For example, my parents are quite conservative, yet still enjoyed watching his shows. Then there’s people like my ex, who is a wannabe punk zine writer who really looked up to him, and obviously has values waaay different from my folks :laughing:

3 Likes
#3

RIP!

His book Kitchen Confidential is awesome as well - genuinely a brilliant writer with a fascinating life. Interesting few chapters set in Japan also when he gets sent to open a new restaurant there. I feel like he’s the only person to come close to accurately putting into words some of the deeper psychological effects that Japan can have on people

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#4

I think that is why I prefer his writing more than, say, Hunter S. Thompson. Despite the cool/tough exterior in both of these writers, there’s more humanity to Anthony Bourdain’s actions and thought process, which then conjures beautifully in his unique way with words.

It made me think of another writer I used to like from the UK who tried to exude all the cool, becoming a counterculture icon like the two men above, but unfortunately failed to overcome his childhood trauma by replicating his past abuse to others. Maybe that’s why he can never be as great as Tony. RIP.

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#5

I’ll be going to Japan for a month some time next year. This will be my first time as well, and I’m hoping it will also be such a transformative experience for me.

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#6

So many people have perspectives and thoughts on Tokyo in particular wrapped up in tiktok shorts, praises, grievances, and exaggerations. But very few of them matter or are well thought out.

Bourdain’s perspective is one with thought, care, and a general love for what he experienced.

3 Likes
#7

I recommend the book “Glimpses of an Unknown Japan” by Lafcadio Hearn. It was written in the 1800s, yet his first impressions, which he records in that book, seem to have not changed since. I had never heard of Hearn until I went to the Hearn museum in Matsue and read the copy of the book they had on display there.

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#8

Yeah I feel like so often on youtube etc., even with good interviewers speaking with foreign people who have lived in Japan for many many years, you rarely get poetic or philosophical answers which cut deep to the core

Just recently I watched one with a guy who’d lived there for like 40 years or something and he was asked how it changed him, and all he said was ‘yeah I bow sometimes by accident now’… I mean, I know it’s just for youtube but c’mon haha, how can that be your answer after all that time

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#9

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

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#10

One of my favorite perspectives. It’s just an entirely different world in so many ways. My first time in Tokyo was very much like this.

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