“I think my mind is cluttered,” Ms. Kojima replied, from work and elsewhere. “I have so many things constantly being jammed into my head,” she said.
Ms. Yamashita pressed: “Obviously, no one can see inside your head, but it’s visible, in this space.” She then gestured at the living room. “Can you see how the challenges you’re dealing with in your head are physically manifested here?” she asked.
“I think the problem is that I can’t even recognize when there’s too much,” Ms. Kojima said.
During a break between the morning and afternoon sessions, Ms. Yamashita, accompanied by her video crew and Ms. Kojima, walked to a small noodle shop down the street. Settling at a low table in a corner of the straw-mat-lined restaurant, Ms. Yamashita commiserated with Ms. Kojima about how challenging danshari could be.
“In many ways, having to face our things is like having to face ourselves,” Ms. Yamashita said. “We all take on so much and it’s difficult to work on reducing things when it comes to relationships and work.”
Her goal, she said, was to help the working mother of three learn to become aware when things were getting to be too much. “What we’re doing with items in your house — it’s just training,” she said.
