This article was originally published on the ABBA website quite a few years ago, right at the start of my time at Shunkaen back in 2003.  Some of the views expressed are slightly naïve, but some I still hold today.  An interesting look back at the beginning of it all...

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It was surprisingly easy in retrospect, I sent an email to a bloke from a website and that bloke turned out to be an absolute legend.  He went out of his way to help me when I first met him, and every time since.  The bloke in question is Nakamizu–san who runs Bonsai Network Japan.  He took me on a tour of some of the best bonsai gardens in the Tokyo area, one of which was Shunkaen.  I was obviously amazed at the standard of the trees, but it was all the little touches which left the biggest impression in my mind, the tokonoma displays were fantastic, the garden was more spacious and thoughtfully laid out that most Tokyo Bonsai gardens, and Kobayashi–sensei was a very genial and generous host.

He runs a class on Sundays for enthusiasts, almost entirely older men, but one or two ladies.  The students bring in their own trees, or work with trees that belong to Kobayashi-sensei.  He gives advice and lets people use his tools, wire etc.  It’s quite a relaxed class, and I was invited along to study every week. Usually I was given a very cheap tree to work with, just wiring and shaping mostly, but sometimes I was asked to work with the larger, more valuable trees.  Nothing too drastic mind, just pulling out dead needles or some such tedious legwork; however to a complete novice I was thrilled to be allowed anywhere near such a work of art.

As the year progressed, my mental state deteriorated and I became disillusioned with everything. I stopped going to class because I thought that everyone was laughing at the stupid foreigner and I was being humoured. I was also usually too hung over from the night before to move.  The nature of my job was contrary to the nature of me, and I started self destructing. I knew that I couldn’t continue, but out of a perverse sense of loyalty to a company that never showed the least bit of interest in me, I saw out my year long contract and was on the next plane out of Japan. I then spent ten weeks travelling overland across SE Asia, China, and Russia, finally flying home from Estonia.

The drastic change of lifestyle forced me to answer some of the questions I had drunk to forget. “What am I going to do with my life?” being the most obvious one.  The answer was always there in the back of my mind, and it took me a few weeks to convince myself that I could actually do it, or at least have the nerve to try and do it, risk failing and carry on regardless. I have always been afraid of failure, and this was the biggest hurdle for me. However, the time had come to stop being a big girls blouse and get on with it. I was home in England for just over three weeks, my quick departure coming as a shock to my parents, but at the same time, they could see that I was doing what I wanted to do, so they were happy to see me go again but not so happy every month when my credit card bill arrives.

I arrived back in Japan, came almost straight to Shunkaen from the airport, asked Kobayashi–sensei if I could be his apprentice, his reply was “You can start on Tuesday”.  As it happened I was busy then, so we made it Wednesday instead.

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