The man who studied at Tokyo University of the Arts

The man who studied at Tokyo University of the Arts

[ Dec.2015 ] There were some stylish shops in Valparaiso in Chile.

I bought this Chrysocolla ring there.

Chile is famous for its Lapis Lazuli, but they have other stones related to copper, too, like Chrysocolla.

The shop where I bought this was called Galeria Orferes and they were selling accessories made by 7 or 8 artisans of this area.

Mr. Rocco Napoli who was tending the shop was one of the artisans.

At first I was intrigued by his works, but they were too expensive for me.

I mumbled “too expensive” in Japanese, then he said “How about this one?” in Japanese.

I thought he must have learned the language by customers, so I asked “Do many Japanese tourists come here?”.

He answered “Not at all”.

So I asked “How do you speak such good Japanese, then?”.

He said “I studied metal craft at Tokyo University of the Arts for six years”.

What a surprise! I never imagined meeting someone like that here.

As his name suggests, originally his family was Italian.

Apparently his grandfather came from Basilicata of south Italy.

He said “When I was young, we spoke Italian at home” and he spoke good Italian, too.

Of course he spoke English as well.

Valparaiso became the one of the places I want to return to.

This shop is one reason for that.