Stories from the fair - Japanese woman in love with Romania and her unique flower arrangements

BIFE-SIM 2019 is over! We are left with new contacts, discussions and meetings with partners and fond memories. One of these beautiful memories is the meeting with Ayako Funatsu, a Japanese woman hopelessly in love with Romania. Ayako hand-makes flower arrangements from special paper brought from Japan or the USA. She uses a unique technique, a combination of origami and American techniques. One such arrangement was on the Arboritm Workshopanother beautiful story for which you will have to be patient. It will come, but this time it's about Ayako.

Meeting Romania

I met Ayako by chance at the fair. A flower arrangement created by her was decorating the Arboritm stand, where we were going to have an interview. I was struck by the beautiful relationship she had established with the young wood enthusiasts attending the fair. Mihai Irimescu - IDUTANG (another story from the fair) spoke very nicely about her and caught our attention. Ayako has been living in Romania for a long time and likes it here very much. This made us curious and we decided to have a chat.

She is very exuberant, excited and happy when she talks about Romania. I know, happiness is a big word, but she uses it when she says how she feels about us. She loves it here so much that she says she feels the love on her skin.

Ayako was born in Yokohama, Japan and first came to Romania in 1995 on a backpacking trip. Some time ago, she had set out to visit a country less known to the Japanese. She found an article in a Japanese newspaper about the revolution in Romania and the changes that followed. For more information he bought a travel guide. From there she learned that the locals are welcoming, that you can eat and stay overnight. She decided to come and traveled around the country for two weeks. In Bukovina, it was exactly as it said in the guidebook, she ate at the table of the locals in Bukovinian villages and stayed in their houses.

Everything was so wonderful for her that she decided to return the following year, and the year after that. By 1999 she wanted to live in Romania. She told her boss in Japan that if she managed to find work in Romania, she would only stay for 3 months and then leave. In February 2000 she found a job and, according to the agreement, after 3 months she left her job in Japan and settled permanently in Romania. At 30, he decided to start afresh in the country he fell in love with.

19 years of Romania - the attraction endures!

It has been 19 years since then and Ayako speaks with the same passion about Romania and Romanians. She tells me how kind, welcoming and polite Romanians are, about their clean houses in the countryside, about the wonderful friends who have helped her, about how much Romania has given her. She tells me that Romania is the country where she is always happy and always smiling.

A few years ago she decided to get involved in volunteering. She says she has received a lot from this country, a lot of love from her friends and she feels she needs to return some of that love. This is how she got involved in volunteer activities in the Paper Mill Ensemble and the Craftsmen's Village in Comana, where a friend of hers is a co-founder. She also organizes origami workshops to benefit the Hospice Casa Speranței foundation. This despite the fact that she has almost no free time.

She loves Romanian culture and spirituality and when she has the chance she combines the two cultures. She did so this year, on March 1st, when she created origami, a combination of origami art and Romanian trinkets. She chose the crane, a symbol of attachment and fidelity, which she miniaturized and added the twisted red and white string, transforming it into a mărțișor.

Origami & Paper Flowers Natsuko - the company set up by Ayako last year

After 3 jobs that helped her learn Romanian and make many friends, Ayako decided last year to become her own boss. She set up Origami & Paper Flowers Natsuko, an international brand that offers customers floral arrangements handmade 100% 100% from specialty paper sourced from Japan and the USA. The flowers created by Ayako are the image of Japanese craftsmanship and attention to detail. The arrangements and bouquets are simple and delicate. The brides were the first customers, because the bouquets created by Ayako are unique and immortal.

For her passion Ayako works from early in the morning until late at night. She is patron, employee, designer, driver, distributor. She loves being in creative environments, associating with other creators, being part of events where imagination, creativity and good taste meet. Somewhere, deep in her soul, she is sure to find Japanese woodworking tradition. This is perhaps the simple explanation for the presence of the young creators in the field of wood at the fair.

fimei's clients are both companies that order or rent floral arrangements for events or offices, and private individuals who want exotic arrangements for the events they organize (parties, christenings, weddings). Clients appreciate the uniqueness of each arrangement, the delicacy, sensitivity and care with which they are made. Ayako also says that what she does is unique in the world, a combination of the techniques she learned as a child in Japan and those she picked up while studying in the US and at home. Her dream is that, years from now, her work will be on display at Romania's National Art Museum

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ayako convinced me of this. She succeeds in seeing the beauty of the country and discovering the goodness in people where we have tired or forgotten to. I think we need to learn from her to rediscover the beauty of places and people.

Thanks, Ayako, for the love, but also for the lesson! Arigato!