Today was a tiring day with a lot of work.

So, as I was resting at night in bed because I was so tired, I heard a knocking at the door, so I opened the door to try and find it was my neighbor Khatuna and her son David. I have been seeing Khatuna quite often since the other day and she wanted to introduce his son to me, so I was really looking forward to seeing him, but I wondered when I would be able to see him? I had been looking forward to meeting Khatuna, but I had always wondered when we would be able to meet. I had always wondered when that day would come. I was a little surprised when she knocked on my door, but I was relieved to see that David seemed to be a very nice person.

I get invited to his house and visit him. And we talk about many things

I am usually very nervous when I meet people, especially when I meet them for the first time, but for some reason I was not so nervous with David. He seemed very friendly. So I went to Khatuna’s house. We were really close neighbors, our houses are right next to each other, so it took me only 5 seconds to get there after I left my flat.

I was really impressed by how safe it was here in Old Town Georgia, with no security, and the doors were so simple that I wondered if they even had locks. I thought it was wonderful. I could really understand how safe it was. When I visited the house, I saw a woman. Was she David’s wife? Or is she his sister? I still didn’t know (I found out later that she is David’s brother’s wife).

His work is amazingly admirable and I saw incredible potential!

Anyway, Khatuna and David showed me a lot of their work. David is a freelancer who has done illustrations of Italian cars and National Geographic, and is a very detailed pencil artist and watercolor artist.

He showed me his work and it was so good that I felt like I was in a museum. He painted a self-portrait of Audrey Hepburn and a self-portrait of his former Chinese girlfriend, and it was so good that it looked like a photograph. I was so happy and amazed to meet such a wonderful artist. I was standing there for a long time and Khatuna gave me a cushion to relax.

I was able to relax. Then David and I talked in English for a long time.

Khatuna provides me with Georgia meals, and I share stories of my many adventures

What did you do in Georgia? And did you go somewhere? We talked about such things all the time. After a while, Khatuna prepared a meal for me. It was a bean dish called robio, which is the bean usually found in robiani. It was like a paste of them, and it looked really delicious. And, you know, eating it with bread. That’s what they were doing. So I decided to eat it with bread. The bread was also really different, like bread you can’t usually buy at the supermarket, and it was really delicious.

Next, she prepared omelet with a little salt and pepper. I had never really had the chance to try omelet with a little salt and pepper, and I rediscovered how colorful Japanese food can be. At the same time, it was a wonderful experience to eat the eggs themselves. The taste was very nice, very Georgian. I thought, “Oh my God, this is the taste of Georgia, and Khatuna’s egg omelet”. I was like, “Oh my God, this is Georgia”. I felt happy.

While we were eating, we talked about David’s works for a long time, and we also talked about the differences between Japanese and Georgian culture. Khatuna seems to keep a daily diary, so she took it out and I decided to write a message to Khatuna. In Japanese. I didn’t want to translate it because I was embarrassed, but David asked me to translate it, so I did.

First of all, I want to thank you for inviting me and cooking such a great meal in my solitary life, and secondly, I am so happy to have met David and Khatuna. I also wrote Khatuna’s name in katakana.

This dessert is my favorite!

Then, as soon as David found out that I was lonely, he offered to take me to his place of business next Friday. I thought, “How nice!”. He is going to show me around his place of work and meet the various members of the team. I was so happy. We also talked about wine, and I asked him if he had ever been to a wine cellar nearby. Khatuna told me that the owner of the cellar seemed to like David’s work, so she said she would take me there again. So I’m going back tomorrow. I was really happy.

I also drank Chacha, which is considered Georgia’s vodka

Exchange of ideas about art and people

I wondered why they are so friendly, and David and I exchanged opinions about my work, values, and art. I really enjoyed these discussions.

I am not able to open myself so much to Japanese people. But when I talk to people from overseas, I am able to be open. I know why. Because, in other countries, “to talk openly” = to show that you want to be friends, in other words, to open your heart. But in Japan, I can’t talk because I think that if I talk a lot, perhaps someone will think, “I’m not really interested in you, so I don’t want to listen your stories” or something like that.

Maybe this is just the nature of Japanese people, but I wish Japan is like this friendly manner. We can talk as much as we want, listen as much as we want, and don’t have to think about such silly things as “it’s not good to talk too much with being cautious”. I really believe that this is what communication is all about. So David and I talked for a long time. Then he told me about the time he was bitten by a dog in Batumi.

He was walking down the street in Batumi in the morning, feeling drunk, when he was surrounded by dogs and was bitten. He went to the hospital right away and got a shot, and he can’t drink alcohol for a few months because of it. I promised him that I would go with him to the biggest club next Saturday, but he told me that he can’t drink alcohol. So I told him that when I went shopping in the morning in Tbilisi, one dog followed me and apparently he wanted some chicken. It was really fun. It was 1 a.m. before I knew it.

I had to leave early in the morning for a meeting, so I decided to go back. It is a really comfortable place, and I love it. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Thank you so much.