Millions of people connect with his media persona, he was/is a cultural phenomenon. There is a picture of him that is treated like a shrine at my cousin's very good restaurant. Why did a man who seemingly had everything to live for take his own life? Not through an OD or other excess, but by hanging himself from a doorknob? The guy could score drugs in a second, why not ride it out in a heroin haze?
This whole thing is a puzzle to me and it seems wrapped up in his romantic life somehow? I remember seeing a picture of his girlfriend who was obviously cheating on him while "training" MMA etc...
I lose a lot of respect for people that "trade up" after they get famous and ditch their long time spouse that supported them when they were just a normal person, turnabout is fair play? Was it really that he could dish it out but couldn't take it?
Is this someone that people should look up to because he could be a charming bad boy for the cameras? I almost feel like it was too many 3rd world trips, I could actually see the pain he experienced while getting an "authentic" experience over and over again from people that wouldn't make in a lifetime what he made in a day. One or 2 fixers/guides even angled for some wealth or a chance to move to the US and pointed out the extreems, and that is just what they showed us on camera.
Anyhow, I'm a few glasses of wine in. Nowhere in my rambling, incoherent response did I come close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. We are all dumber for having read it. I award myself no points and may God have mercy on my soul.
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Notes -
Neither here nor there but until shortly before his death I had never heard of Bourdain, and have yet to read anything by him or see anything with him in it. Sometimes Japan really is isolating.
Like you, I had only vaguely heard of the guy and was surprised by the publicity around this.
We don't know why he killed himself, so it's all speculation. Nobody knows what demons others are struggling with. Maybe he spent years globe-trotting in order to get away from them, but you can't run away from yourself. Maybe he just finally ran out of energy to keep fighting.
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You live in Japan? Are you Japanese? What's your story?
Yes.
No.
Not interesting, and anyway I'm already too self-revealing by half on this site. I've lived in Japan since late 1998, anyway.
What's your story?
My story is that I love Japan! From afar.
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