Seven years ago, Yoko landed in Australia for the first time and felt a bit lost. Coming from a very traditional Japanese family, she needed to adapt. ‘I didn’t know how to behave, and I felt that my Japanese-ness became so strong. Sometimes being too quiet does not work well when you are new to a country, you have to push a bit.’ Yoko draws her source of joy and income from the things that she loved so much in her home country; food and dancing! Born in Saitama, Northern Tokyo, Yoko enjoyed the City’s life very much. ‘I never went home before midnight.’

In her dancing career Yoko performed for over a decade in studios from 5.00pm – 10.30pm. ‘I really enjoyed dancing so much.’ Growing up in a family that grew its own food, Yoko developed an interest in traditional Japanese food from a very early age. ‘In addition to his full-time job, my dad grows all the vegetables in a more than organic way.’ This ancient way of gardening involves not moving the soil around also as to preserve its organic state. ‘We were busy cooking and making miso in my family. We always ate fresh vegetables and only bought food that we didn’t grow like rice, meat and chicken. We never bought vegetables’. To learn other cooking styles, Yoko took up some cooking classes and learned a lot about natural farming technics. ‘You don’t even make the soil softer and no fertiliser at all.’

Yoko loves and appreciates her Japanese tradition. ‘I was a kind of an orphan in Japan in terms of my culture as most young Japanese these days are transitioning into western culture.’ Fond of her own Japanese culture and old values, Yoko loves making things from scratch, like making paper, dying clothes using old methods and tools etc… ‘I know they cost a lot in terms of time and ingredients, but I truly love that because they are good quality and last longer. I appreciate when people use their time, effort and love to try and make particularly good quality things that last longer, like the Japanese wash paper made by hand.’

Yoko loves wearing her Kimono regularly, especially around the house. Although she is aware that a Kimono might not be as comfortable as a pair of jeans when moving around and working, but ‘in the old days, women adapted to this kind of clothing, and it was all they wore all the time and did their work perfectly!’

A professional jazz dancer, Yoko has not yet found a dancing studio where she feels at home. ‘They have different styles that I have not yet connected with and don’t feel settled within me’. To keep her body fit and agile, Yoko is doing ballet dancing so that every time she goes back to Japan, she can still slot back into dancing.

Yoko is now making miso as her full-time business, which she sells at farmers’ markets. ‘I didn’t plan on doing miso as a business, but people keep demanding more.’ In order to cover her cost-of-living Yoko is now focusing on food because she feels responsible ‘People who have been buying my miso have been writing to me saying that they are feeling well. I am proud and happy about that because I can contribute to their wellbeing.’

Yoko also teaches Japanese home style cooking and fermentation. She was inspired by the fact that after trying some Japanese restaurants in Melbourne, she felt that the food served in the restaurants tasted different, and she also missed her mum’s cooking. ‘A lot of Japanese street or pub food are only part of Japanese food. Japanese food is not only that. It is not healthy to eat that every day.’ On weekdays Yoko runs 2.5 to 3 hours of Japanese home-style cooking classes for a maximum of four people. She cooks food from Northern Japan where she is originally from, educating people about the essence of Japanese food and travel in Japan. ‘Japanese cooking is about enhancing the natural flavour while taking out spices.’

Yoko has so much interest in this world and in nature, like seasons, gardening and making clothes using natural ingredients. ‘Now I want to make some natural vinegars with these peach palm fruits that I got from my friend,’ said Yoko while picking up a peach from the basket on the kitchen table

Yoko started doing calligraphy when she was 3-year-old but never thought of herself as an artist. ‘For me calligraphy is meditation, I am in the present moment and one with calligraphy when I am doing it. I am really in it and I lose the concept of time.’ Yoko enjoys hearing the sound of the stroke, the movement of the brush, the thickening and the smell of the ink. She took calligraphy lessons every week in Japan and participated in some exhibitions every year at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. Last year Yoko and her artist husband took part in the art exhibition in Moonee Ponds gallery. ‘My artwork expresses very old language made from very old Japanese paper’. Struggling with finding Japanese products such as papers and frames, she tries to get them from Japan when she travels or asks her family to send them to her. Yoko taught calligraphy in a private boys’ school in Melbourne as they have Japanese language classes. ‘The kids learnt a lot through my calligraphy and said that what they learn makes more sense with calligraphy than with a pen. I like sharing the beauty of black and white art, just the beauty of simplicity.’ Yoko finds that calligraphy nurtures her Soul, ‘It is healing and enjoyable, the smell of the ink. You use your full senses, you see, smell, hear and touch.’ She is planning to participate in exhibition after the lockdowns. ‘Take a bit of time and enjoy what you are doing,’ Yoko’s word of advice to all women.

Yoko finds that knowing where to exhibit her artwork and networking with other artists for support as a migrant is a bit hard, ‘Especially when you don’t have the language. I was living in the dirt, could not see, breath or talk but now I came up, like a lotus. Now I came up, still in the cloud but better, I can see and breathe a lot more than before.’