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Introducing our new article series with writer Maha Harada. Dive deeper into the world of pearls through her essays and stories exclusive to Mikimoto.
Vol.8
Someday, under one umbrella
A street corner in drizzly Paris.
Sari stood in front of the painting,
completely frozen.
It’s been four months since my daughter Sari and I moved to Chicago for my job assignment.
Sari seems a bit down, so I suggest visiting the museum together.
Part 1
Our first winter in Chicago is here.
There is a Christmas tree so big you can’t see the star on top even when you look up as high as you can. Dazzling lights illuminate the Magnificent Mile, while the words “Happy Holidays” animate the display windows. The whole city is sparkling, even the faces of passers-by aglow with festive cheer.
Millennium Park, situated on the banks of Lake Michigan, hosts a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in late November. It’s the earliest lighting ceremony in the US — a source of pride for Chicagoans.
Even though Chicago is known for its freezing winters, the tree lighting ceremony is truly magical, it will blow away the cold. A friend who had visited Chicago in midwinter to watch the lighting ceremony had told me while we were still in Japan. I had traveled to places like New York, Boston, and San Francisco on business, but having never been to Chicago, I was frightened. I mean, they say that temperatures sometimes get as low as -20°C at the height of winter.
“Chicago is a place where you can see a gigantic tree for Christmas. It twinkles and shines like stars falling from the sky,” I told my daughter Sari who had just turned seven. Ahead of our move to Chicago, she curiously asked what it was like there. After I gave her that response, she couldn’t wait to see the place herself.
“Mom, how many more days? How many more days until we move to Chicago?” She started nagging me with the same question from morning till night.
Sari loved the big red mouton coat that was gifted by my mother — deliberately sized up because children grow quickly — so much that she wrapped herself in it in the sweltering heat of summer, asking, “Do I look like Anna? Like Anna from A New Coat for Anna?”
She imagined herself as the protagonist of her favorite picture book, spinning round and round and round again, before eventually tipping over and laughing at herself as she landed on her bottom. Not long ago, she would cry over a fall or anything, but now she proudly insisted, “I’m not a baby anymore.”
My husband and I were working for different foreign-owned companies in Japan. Then, I was given an overseas posting. Leaving behind my first-grader daughter solely in my husband’s care and moving abroad by myself was out of the question. But because of my husband’s work, we couldn’t relocate as a whole family either. I wasn’t sure what to do.
As a “female manager,” I was striving to set a precedent for a future in which women like me would simply be called a “manager” without the “female” label. My husband knew how hard I was working. When I consulted him about the overseas opportunity, he instantly urged me to accept the assignment.
“Take Sari with you. I’ll also visit and check in every now and then,” he encouraged me so wholeheartedly that I was a little shocked.
“Really?”
“Really.”
My husband remained calm while I got flustered.
“How come? You’d be all by yourself. Can I really take Sari with me?”
“Yes, really. It’s fine,” my husband confirmed again. “Not only for your own sake, but also for Sari’s sake, you should take on this challenge. See your goals through to the end without any compromise and show your daughter how cool you are, huh?”
My husband’s unexpected advice touched my heart like a powerful cheer. Tears involuntarily welled up in my eyes. I fought the urge to throw myself into his arms because I was afraid that if he hugged me and gently rubbed my back or something, I would change my mind and insist on living together as a family after all.
See my goals through to the end without any compromise. Yes, if I could do that, it would be cool. But am I capable of it?
I’m not a perfectionist by any means. I can be competitive, but there have been times when I wanted to vent my frustrations, both about work and parenting. I was asking myself, “Why is this happening? Why am I the only one having a hard time?”
Can I really be a cool role model for my daughter?
Maha HARADA
b. 1962 Tokyo, Japan
Based between Tokyo, Paris, Kyoto, and Nagano, Maha Harada is a creative visionary and exceptional storyteller who has produced world-class, category-defying writing.
Harada is one of the founding curators of Tokyo’s acclaimed Mori Art Museum; when it was established, she was sent to represent the Museum as a project researcher at its principal cultural partner, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. It is for this reason that Maha Harada is renowned as Japan’s leading creator of art novels and art entertainment.
She is among Japan’s most talked-about writers and creatives, and her extraordinary experiences give her an unparalleled ability to blend art and literature. Harada’s art novels journey into the past to breathe fresh life into some of the world’s most beloved artists, who still enchant countless people today. These stories transcend time and generation crossing the boundaries of nation and region. At the same time, they are rooted in the experiences of a woman born and raised in Japan.
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