Time Travel

Life for me has been a time travel so far. At first, you might think that time travel is impossible. On second thought, you will realize that we all are time travelers. With every second we are slowly yet constantly moving into the unknown future. I have always wanted to experience something more than that. During my high school years I spent numerous hours watching movies. I would watch every genre, but science fiction films have always been especially interesting to me, mainly because most of them were dealing with the concept of a distant future. The future I would have had no chance of experiencing, had I continued traveling with the same speed as others.

Among many science fiction movies I saw, two of them in particular made a big impact on me as far as the idea of the future and time travel is concerned. The first one was Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic “Blade Runner”. Although the plot, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, was fantastic, it is the visual side of that movie, and the image of a futuristic metropolis portrayed there, that I would like to focus on right now. Narrow and crowded alleys filled with Chinese lanterns, neon signs and small shops running between skyscrapers with large LED screens and 3D projections. Distant incandescent daylight dimmed by the height and density of buildings, lingering night-time and constant rain. Widespread concrete and metal constructions, lack of greenery and real animals, only androids and artificial pets.

At the time when I saw it Japan was considered to be the most technologically advanced country in the world with rapidly progressing automation, fancy electronics, the most complex railway system, eclectic cityscape full of mixture of traditional architecture and modern skyscrapers, colorful and futuristic street fashion, early setting sun and almost no twilight, making it feel like the night falls way earlier than she was supposed to. I started imagining that, from the perspective of someone living in a far less technologically advanced country, moving to Tokyo must be much like traveling in time into the future. Tokyo seemed the closest I could get to that vision of a distant future during my lifespan.

Therefore, after graduation I moved to Japan. Getting money to cover the initial expenses and finding a job was not easy, but it was neither impossible thanks to my computer science education and good results at the university. Tokyo was mesmerizing and exceeded my expectations. Soon after the arrival I took up photography in order to record every bit of the city. I walked the main streets and narrow side alleys taking photos of people and buildings. I did not feel the need to search for anything extraordinary. The banality of the future with all her ubiquitous contrasts was interesting enough.

Having lived in Tokyo for more than ten years now, I feel that I have experienced the future in her full spectrum. I have endured the overpopulated version of the future while commuting in crowded trains of Tokyo subway early mornings and late at night. I have seen desolation of an aging metropolis with old people at home, empty streets and young people nowhere to be seen. I have witnessed the dangers to come: earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear disasters and contamination of the environment. I have lived the carefree and dreamlike future of vibrant streets after sunset, neon signs, bars, night clubs, blacklights and love hotels. I have felt illness and strength, sadness and happiness, love and hate, death and birth. I have hurt and I have been hurt.

The second science fiction movie that stuck in my memory was the 1962 short film “La Jetée” by French director Chris Marker. The action takes place in Paris devastated after World War III. It tells a story of a man subject to a medical experiment during which he travels in time into the past and the future in order to rescue the present. Unlike other motion pictures, this one is made from a sequence of photographs that slide throughout the duration of the entire film. Every single photo looks like a work of art. Every single line of narration sounds like poetry. But the most fascinating element of the story is the idea of time travel presented there. Instead of using a time machine of some sort, as it usually happens in science fiction movies, time travel is conducted by means of pharmaceutically induced hallucination. This made me realize that time travel does not have to involve physical movement nor yet to be invented technology. Instead, it can be a journey of the mind.

Eventually, a moment when the present started catching up with me in the future came. Around the time when my tenth year in Japan was closing in, everyday life slowly stopped being so unique anymore. I felt the desire to travel again, but did not know exactly where further in time I could go. So I decided to go backward, into the past. I have joined Bok-Koku group to study the art of ancient Chinese characters. Now I am on a journey into the ancient times. Like in the movie “La Jetée”, this time travel is not a physical one but a mental one. I am not sure where it will take me, but with every step forward I look ahead into the past with confidence.

I guess sooner or later the present will catch up with me in the past as well. I think that in order to start time traveling in the first place a certain urge of wanting to distance yourself from the present has to be deeply rooted inside you. I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing; I guess it is neither; some just have it, others do not. In the end, there is no way of escaping time, other than death, maybe. Life is where the present is; the two are inseparable. Perhaps the whole purpose of this experiment is indeed to embrace the present by visiting the past and the future. To discover gratitude and appreciate life for what it is.

Tokyo, May 2019