"I make jewellery"

On my way home from Kobuchizawa I was standing on the platform waiting for the train. The wind was cool, but I had my shawl over short sleeves, so I was OK. I wandered down the platform, enjoying the cool night breeze, looking out at the silhouette of the surrounding mountains.

As I passed by other people wrapped up in their late autumn clothing, mumbling at the "cold", or sucking air through their teeth as Japanese are wont to do when it gets - correction - when they get cold, I pondered the difference between Japanese and non-Japanese bodies with respect to temperature. While everyone in my office complains of the cold, I am either too hot, or thinking that it is finally cooling down into a nice autumn. I commute in my work shirt while everyone else has their parkas, their UGG boots, their wool scarfs wrapped around them. The men have their three piece suits on (the ones with the thick wool vests) and are wearing the UniQlo Heat Tech under garments to keep them warm.

At the end of the platform, waiting in the wind were a mother and daughter couple who were quite friendly. We smiled at each other and said good evening. As we were getting on the train, the daughter said to me, in English, "Hi." It wasn't a "Japanese" "hi", it was the "hi" of a bilingual person. It turned out that they were sitting across the aisle and one back from me so we could engage in some nice conversation for a goodly portion of the ride home.

They looked different.. kind of like "island people" if you know what I mean. Or artists. And artists they are!

It all started off with the daughter asking me if I am an English teacher, and if I'm working in Kobuchizawa. That story went on for a while, and you all know the answer to that question, so I won't bother you with repeating it. Instead, let me tell you about these two lovely women I was blessed with the opportunity to talk to on Monday night...

I think that the daughter is roughly my age, maybe a little bit younger, based upon her history... She left Japan at 19, backpacked around the world for two years, then settled down in Columbia for seven years. Next she moved to New York, got married, had a child and lived there for seven years. Now she has been living in Bali for the past seven years. She makes jewellery and sells to Japan and the USA. She travels between Bali, Japan and the USA for work. Her husband lives in the USA and she is still very happily married. She said to me with a twinkle in her eye, that "the key to a long, happy marriage is to NOT live together." I laughed.

Honoka is her name. Honoka was wearing beautiful loooong dangling earrings (chains about a foot long) that seemed so exotic and gorgeous. I didn't compliment her, but I wanted to. I loved that earring. She also had on jeans, black shoes, a black leather jacket. And she was cold.

I asked what they were doing up in Kobuchizawa, and was told that there is a very nice art gallery with a display that was worth seeing. Which piqued my curiosity... Jewellery? No. Urushi.

Nikki, her mother, had the dark tan of an island dweller, with baggy linen pants, a central americana patchwork jacket, long greying hair tied up and a smile to melt the ice around any heart. Nikki has lived for several years with her daughter in Bali as well, and she is also an artist: urushi, or lacquerware. She is "divorced, with a partner", and she too, like Honoka  is beautiful. And　Nikki was cold.

So they were curious about me, and I about them. As I soon discovered, Honoka knew very little about Japan; after all she left the country at 19 and what 19 year old in any country knows anything about their own history or geography? She left as a child of Japan, and became a "child of the world".

Even though Honoka lived around the equator in Columbia for seven years, and now Bali for seven years, she agrees that Japan (especially Tokyo - and here I had more to say), is extremely hot, even for Asia! She feels that she "cannot breathe in the heat of Tokyo" whenever she comes back her for work. And Bali is hot as well, but, in her opinion not nearly as oppressive as Japan/Tokyo. I don't find Tokyo that hot (except for my office), as I lived in Fukui which has higher humidity making the heat more oppressive there.

The talking continued about my life here for 20 years, her life away for 20 years, how Nikki feels it is difficult for parents when their children live so far away for 20 years, and more lovely conversation.

As we were arriving at Shinjuku Station, I asked Honoka when she would be going back to Bali. She told me that it wouldn't be until January because she had to go to the USA, and then Columbia. I asked her if she was going to visit friends in Columbia... and her reply is what started this entire post!

"No, I'm going to Columbia to dig for emeralds. As I said, I make jewellery, out of emeralds, and then sell them to the USA and Japan."

"What? You are going to physically DIG the emeralds out of the rock?!?"

*BIG SMILE* "Yes, of course."

"With one of those floppy hats, a bandana, and a pick axe?!?"

*LAUGHING* "Yes!"

"Wow...."

And here I thought all along that Honoka "made jewellery" in Bali and "sold" it to Japan and the USA... There are a lot of Japanese who "retire" from Japanese life, go to the islands and live a relaxed life "making jewellery". You can see a lot of them around the world.

Honoka is not one of those jewellery artists, it seems.

Honoka digs emeralds.

With her own bare hands.

And then sculpts them into gems and jewellery.

I had a wonderful two hour ride home with two absolutely wonderful, beautiful, creative, friendly people. I am so glad I met them. It would be nice to one day cross paths with them again, I think.

Good luck digging out a lot of emeralds, Honoka! And my your creativity flow endless!

Now THAT was a great ride home!

I love you!
Cam

P.S. That's some of Honoka's work at the top of this post, and Nikki's halfway down. Gorgeous!