Let's Explore Perseverance with Kristopher Matheson
The teachings of ganbaru and gaman
There have been days when I believe that the city doesn’t want me here. Subtle and not so subtle pushes and pulls, which conspire to make me pack my bags and board a plane back to the comfort, safety and familiar embrace of living in my own country.
During my first weeks here the city was almost successful. The move from the familiar to the jarring of the unknown was too much of a shock that I had a breakdown. Rushes of emotions and doubts of if I had made the correct choices and the fear of uncertainty loomed large over me. Here was the first trial: arriving in a foreign country, jet-lagged, being told no other employees lived in the area, no idea where a supermarket or corner store was. Beyond being given a small package from the company telling me to be in a place called Shibuya for training in a week there was little assistance. The area, which I was eventually to call home, was fruit orchards and small homes, not exactly what I thought the city would be…That was 12 years ago.
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Biography
Kristopher Matheson is a Canadian photographer in Japan. He feels a strange attachment and wonder for the substance of the city of Tokyo, its objects, its buildings and the chaos of the streets. He is also interested in abstractionism in architecture and landscapes. When he isn’t exploring Tokyo he can be found in cafes journaling and reading, or at home enjoying Scotch whisky.
