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Catalans Abroad
1 May 2016 2.00 h

Isaac Zamora

Japan

Japanese delight

Isaac zamora I sitjàis from Badalona. He has lived in Japan for twelve years with his wife and children, a 10-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son
Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?
I think I wanted to leave Cat­alo­nia the day I was born, don't mis­un­der­stand me, I love my coun­try but I al­ways wanted to travel and “see the World”. The first chance I had was going on an Eras­mus grant to Eng­land, to study Graphic De­sign, I was very dis­ap­pointed with my re­sults at the Uni­ver­sity of Barcelona, so after my forth year in Fine Arts I de­cided I had to move for­ward. UK gave me the op­por­tu­nity to learn how to do and see things in a dif­fer­ent way. Back in Cat­alo­nia, I could never read­just to my coun­try, by that time I had no idea I would end up in Japan.
Why did you choose Japan?
As I said, I was try­ing to read­just back in Cat­alo­nia, then I met Aya, my wife, at the open­ing of an ex­hi­bi­tion of a pro­ject in col­lab­o­ra­tion with other artists. After we mar­ried I wanted to learn more about her cul­ture and coun­try, so I asked her to move to Japan.
How long have you lived there?
This sum­mer it will be 12 years,five years in a coun­try town, and seven in Hi­rat­suka, a sea­side city near Yoko­hama, on the Shonan Coast.
Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found in your adop­tive coun­try?
I had great ex­pec­ta­tions but re­al­ity hit me hard, it's very thought for for­eign­ers to work for Japan­ese com­pa­nies, when I was look­ing for a job at “Hello Work” (the pub­lic em­ploy­ment of­fice of Japan) about 70% of the em­ploy­ers re­fused me be­cause I was a for­eigner, even with­out look­ing at my re­sume or know­ing the lan­guage. I con­sider my­self lucky.
What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing in Japan?
The best thing about Japan is the po­lite­ness of the peo­ple, the se­cu­rity, cus­tomer ser­vice, pub­lic trans­porta­tion, and good qual­ity food at rea­son­able prices.
What do you con­sider the high­lights for any brief visit for the first time?
Every­body who comes to Japan has to visit at least Tokyo and Kyoto to un­der­stand the past and the fu­ture of this coun­try, tech­nol­ogy and tra­di­tion. In Tokyo, the fash­ion town of Shibuya, the night life of Shin­juku, the new Tower Tokyo Sky-Tree (634m) and the tra­di­tional tem­ple of Asakusa.
In Kyoto, the Golden Pavil­ion, the Tem­ple of Ky­omizu, and the Fu­jimi-Inasi Shrine are my favourite places, also the nearby city of Nara.
And if vis­i­tors have more time or make a re­turn visit?
Peo­ple who have more time or wish to know the coun­try bet­ter should visit Yoko­hama and its China Town, or the old Cap­i­tal Ka­makura and the Great Bud­dha. Nikko Tem­ples in au­tumn, Osaka's Cas­tle, Hi­roshima, climb Mount Fuji, or the moun­tains, enjoy the hot-springs of Hakone, or the snow of Hokkaido. Japan has many places for dif­fer­ent ad­ven­tures.
What do you miss most from home?
I miss the beauty of our towns and cities, I miss the mu­se­ums and the Mediter­ranean sea, the weather and the late sun­sets. This is one of the main rea­sons I helped to cre­ate the Tokyo Cat­alo­nia So­ci­ety. One of the best things of being abroad is that I re­mem­ber only the best part of Cat­alo­nia and the dis­tance makes it nicer, cleaner, and brighter.
Do you plan to go back to Cat­alo­nia?
My wife says that she pic­tures us liv­ing in Cat­alo­nia after we re­tire, it could be nice, but we'll prob­a­bly stay as close as pos­si­ble to our chil­dren.
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