This is a part of Why I movedThe repetitive series of Americans lives abroad.
Japan It’s been a long time Hannah Kirshner. When he learned the Japanese after the university, Kirshner moved to Kirshner Kioto As a 22-year-old, working in the bike shop and immersing his messaging in the subculture of the bike. Then in 2015, then a food stylist New YorkKirsher returned: Yamanaka Onsen with a “magic mountain town”, in an Ishikawa prefecture, took a three-month school in a bar. The locals had not been planned to find wood shifts and wild boar hunters and paper artists.
The idea of his book, Water, wood and savagesYamanaka crossed by the ODA of Crosses and Laboratories. “When I went there to write about the community, I became part of it and wanted to be there,” Kirshner said in a conversation Passenger. Seven years, Kirshner has two old houses in a compound of Yamanakan. It is slowly renovating (mostly herself) using the principles of ecological design and local materials, and now that uses Schlep supply (and debris) with a white Kei truck. It’s just the best, a couple of crow and her older neighbor stops with Shiba Inu while walking in the morning. “I grew up on a small farm Northwest of PacificAnd there is well known in the foggy forests of Yamanakoa, “he explains.
The next chapter in Kirshner’s life includes Cuisine retirements and food writing workshops To celebrate local food cultures, as well as the following book. “It’s ironic when my husband went to the US since Japan, he would never return to you to marry an American woman who doesn’t want to leave.” At the bottom and bottom, we talk to Kirshner to settle in Japan and how he built the community in his hometown.
Where did you go, and why this place?
“The first time I lived in Japan, when I lived in Kyoton and worked in a bicycle shop. My friend (it was also my host) tell me about this magical town called Yamanaka Ons, but I didn’t ever visited. I finally returned in 2016 in a three-month learning and artist and artist and artist and artist, and I realized I wanted to learn what I was doing together Yamanaka Culture and Community. Yamanaka is culturally rich, although it has been a four-year history of tourism, due to its hot sources, and I started spending more time in Yamanaka and Eventually I got my Visa resident in 2018 to start research from my book.“
What made you to expel you from the US?
“I thought it was originally a couple of years, but I became part of this community. I fell in love with an old farm. And that was the next step, finding the house now: 100 years of money (wooden comin An old traditional house) I am renovating and the next door I live in another 60-year home. “
Have you moved alone or with a partner, family or friends?
“Ironically, my husband is Japanese, but he lives Brooklynwhere a graphic studio does. I do a lot and a lot of travel. “
Give the higher explanation of the movement process.
“In Japan, you can go for three months at a tourist visa, but when I came to write my book, I had to be much longer, so I asked for a protected artist visa. I talked to a photographer who lived Tokyo In this visa, you have given me advice on how to do it and how to do it, if you were a professional in your art field for a few years, the conditions are not hard. Also, I found it with all the links I have done in the community, I managed to get the help letters that really helped. All of these stories are very difficult to hear foreigners to rent properties in Japan, but because I am in a small town, everything is based on the way you can get for you. I have never had to pay for rent. Being in a small community and effort to really assimilate opens many doors. “
How does the nature of your work contribute to the decision to move abroad?
“I found more opportunities in Japan in New York. There are several writers in New York, which can be a bit of struggle to sculpt space, because many writers live in English Landa Japan. So unintentionally, writing Japanese labor And it became a way of food and rural life into my niche. “
What was your new life to move or the biggest obstacle?
“Language. I took Japanese in college, but I didn’t really talk. Now I like to say that I’m renewing a house in Japanese, because I had to read my husband and friends. First I read at the level; you must memorize some 2000 characters to read it. So yes, learning has been a tough curve. “
What was it like to adapt to a new culture?
“It’s a very nice thing, now I bought the house, a neighbor that has become a guardian angel. It’s always looking for me, and I’m very grateful to tell me what I need to do. This will be like this: ‘tomorrow The sanctuary is a day cleaning day, so come at 9:31 and bring gloves. Or, ‘The next time you cut the grass, it would be very nice if you could cut the grass for this person.’ It is important to have people who will be the expectations of the community to learn. Another thing is about Americans, as an example. As an example, I had to get a survey of my property, which included seven different people with seven different properties Mine is dividing and signing things. There are many processes that take a lot of patience because it values the collective consensus on individual choices. I have certainly considered a change of mind. “
Give us a brief description of your typical weekend or weekend.
“I like to sit in the kitchen window and chatting with residents. There are two homes working in the garden or upgrade. I am in the middle of the big house in the outside kitchen, pizza oven and a traditional wooden chef, which is dedicated to cooking retirees. It is offered to physical work, which accumulates wood or work in the garden, and then passes my next book in writing and illustrating the afternoon . At one afternoon, they eat a couple of crows and eat the peanuts out of the hand. They have been visited for two years, and this year I would have led to the bicycle village and I will go to OnSene