Thrilled and Honored to Participate in the Showing of "Jun-Ai" (Film) in Sedona

A couple of weekends ago, over my birthday, I unexpectedly had the time of my life here in Sedona! I knew that I was going to do some interpreting for a Japanese spiritually oriented tour group that was coming to Sedona with Club World Co. from the Tokyo area, but I had no idea that I would be meeting the key-players in a most remarkable "Japanese-Chinese collaboration for the world" film entitled Jun-Ai. In fact, I became the de facto interpreter for the Japanese actress and project manager of the film as it was presented at the Sedona Film Festival. The lead actress's name is Keiko Kobayashi; someone appropriately called her "the Julia Roberts of Japan." She is a uniquely talented and courageous actress, screenwriter, and producer in Japan who helped spear-head this moving film. She is also a woman with a profound vision for world peace - for the sake of the children of the world. She believes firmly that one film can help to change the world! She is also doing some wonderful things to help create better schools and kindergartens - to begin with, in China.

Here's a bit about story line of Jun-Ai, which by the way, means "True" or "Pure Love": It plays like an unusual romance novel - chapters of beauty and intrigue. It is the summer of 1945, the end of a long world war and conflict between Japan and China. The story involves war but portrays love, a love that overcomes the conflict between two neighboring nations. Overcoming one obstacle after another, Ai and Shunsuke, along with their new-found enemy turned friend, Shanron, son of a blind Chinese woman who harbors them, experience the taste of friendship beyond borders and the kind of love that's worth risking their lives for. Featuring spectacular scenery and cinematography, this contemplative film offers a true gift to the world: The possibility of opening hearts through repentance, forgiveness, and newly blossoming love. The real star of the film is a wise old blind woman who opens her heart and mind with tremendous wisdom and hope, despite the losses and vicissitudes of her war-torn life.

Naturally, one of the reasons I loved this film is because it portrayed my home country's people, the Japanese, in a country where they did not truly belong. That sense of desiring to belong has always haunted me; and this feeling haunts the film as well. It also shares beautiful pieces of Japanese music that remind me of my childhood growing up in Japan. However, I was interested that I was not the only one tearing up a number of times during this film; in fact, most everyone in the theater seemed to be moved to tears. It is a genuinely heart-opening, healing film that transcends national borders and boundaries. It has been shared with four nations of the world - Japan, China, Monaco (where it won five awards), and the U.K. Now, with its Pan-American debut here in Sedona, it seems that the time has come for it to be shared with the entire world.

And incidentally, the "Jun-Ai Team" had the joy of discovering that the film had won two awards on the last day at the Awards Ceremony: Jun-Ai won the Best Director Bridging Cultures Award and the Best Audience Feature Award! Needless to say, we were all thrilled to hear this very special, hoped-for news!

I hope to continue to be a part of the effort to get Jun-Ai out into the world. Ms. Kobayashi and Shogo Okumura, the project director, hope to bring it back to Sedona for a week-long showing later this year. I hope that we will be seeing this film showing not only in Sedona again, but across our country and world, in many countries. Keiko's dream is that it be shown in every nation of the world! May it be so.

May peace prevail on Earth, especially for the sake of the children of the world, Dancing heart~~

p.s. The above picture is from the site: http://jfdb.jp/en/title/999.

The Grace & Grit of the Japanese: May We Learn from their Shining Example

I have been in some kind of deep shock since March 11th. In the midst of my own transition -- moving from "the rainforest" of Seattle to the desert of Arizona -- my homeland Japan was rocked by an earthquake of tremendous strength; and then there was the tsunami that reeked havoc on the people, their land, and the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This catastrophe has made me reflect a lot about the Japanese people and their history. It's made me wonder why the Japanese of all people are having to experience yet another nuclear disaster. I have grieved for them and even been angry at God/dess on their behalf.

The best conclusion I've come up as I grapple with the situation is that this is happening to a unique and special people (Remember the book The Japanese and the Jews by Isaiah Ben-dasan?) at this time so that they can be an example to the world. As many have pointed out, the Japanese experience after this catastrophe has been remarkable: There has been calm, poise, kindness, grace, order, sacrifice, even tenderness and restraint in the midst of tremendous suffering and potential chaos. I believe that the aftermath of this earth change in Japan is expressing something new and different so that the world can learn from the long-suffering Japanese.

Even growing up in Japan as a missionary kid I remember learning a great deal from the Japanese people and their public school system, too. They were always a polite and gentle people, forgiving and very giving -- selfless, even. They would go out of their way to give directions, sometimes even taking you physically to the place you were seeking. They may not have been passionately "religious" people (who attend church every Sunday, for example), but they were taught doutoku, or "ethics" in their classrooms, and they seemed to always have a conscience -- a good sense of what the "right thing" to do was at any given time.

At this time, my hope and prayer is that the world will continue to give thanks for, honor, and stand with the Japanese for what they are enduring, yet again, in this sometimes very unfair world. The forces of this planet have somehow come together to cause this trauma; and Japan and her people are rising to the occasion. May the world learn from the Japanese how this wave of suffering can be ridden, and may we all we blessed by it. We can continue to pray for -- and send positive energy to -- this small, vulnerable nation that is contributing to the rise of consciousness on the planet in a gentle, gracious, and very quiet yet powerful way.

May Peace prevail in Japan. May peace prevail on Earth! May peace be in our homes and communities. May our missions be accomplished. We thank thee, guardian spirits and guardian divinities. Byakko (White Light)!

In Deep Gratitude and sending Hope and Light to the Japanese and all who are helping with the transformation of this magnificent planet, Dancing heart~~~~

p.s. May we continue to keep the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and all those working with the leaking radiation in our hearts and minds, too -- We can pray for the water!

The above photos were taken by Bob Rink at the Remembrance for Japan ceremony at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Phonix, AZ on March 26, 2011.