The Carpenter and the Frenchman

I met him last night when he came walking through the woods. I was creating a stone, moss and gravel arrangement down by the railroad tracks that run along the edge of one of the last virgin forests in Japan.  We are about 2 hours into the mountains north and west of Kyoto.

Harper is from Minnesota, but has lived in Japan for 30 years and is a carpenter by trade, focusing on traditional Japanese furniture.  He was pleasant to talk to and stayed with our group for dinner and drinks afterward.  I had lots of questions and he was kind enough to answer.  Questions about living in Japan, working in Japan - what the market is like, etc.  It takes a certain kind of person to make it here as a foreigner because they just don't want you here, and make it difficult to do so.  After 30 years of trying and dealing with visas, etc., he just barely got his residency.  He doesn't recommend it, but then again, he says he wouldn't have it any other way.  He loves his rustic life in the countryside of Japan.

I mentioned that I would be going up to Tango Hanto peninsula Monday morning for the rest of the week.  Claude, a Frenchman who is married to a Japanese woman, will be taking me around to the restaurants, onsens, beaches, temples, towns and coastal areas - and will provide lodging for me - a quaint traditional farmhouse all to myself in the middle of rice paddies near the coast.

"Oh, yes...Claude."  A hearty chuckle and a distant look in his warm eyes.  "Huh.  He's a fossil among us ex-pats.  Great man.  Tell him I say hello.  It's been a long time..."

And so the big wide world stays small.