It can be a big challenge, even a burden, to strategize your life and prioritize your goals — and then stick to them. It would be far easier if we just had to opt for one pleasure or another, but life being what it is, we must sometimes grapple with really agonizing choices — none moreso than if illness forces us to confront our own imminent death.
By way of preparation for such a life-changing circumstance, a recent workshop in Tokyo, titled "Shi no Taiken Ryokō" ("A Death-experiencing Journey"), offered participants a dummy run navigating their way through the maze of options that may arise at such a time — or rather, the imminent loss of them — after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Despite the workshop's rather dark and depressing theme, the second-floor hall of Shotokuji Temple in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo was full to capacity with 30 people — mostly in their 20s and 30s, and 80 percent of them female — who had signed up in advance for the 90-minute course.