Follow your heart
Masako Endo (Martha) is originally from Fukuoka Prefecture and currently lives in Shonan. With roots in both the Philippines and Japan, she began her entertainment career at age 16 and moved to Tokyo at age 19, where she quickly began building a career as a model. She now has over 120,000 followers on Instagram and is active in a wide range of fields as a model and influencer. Recently, she started a chai shop with her partner, and has been setting up stalls when traveling and at markets. One of her greatest charms is the way she brings healing to so many people through these new challenges. Furthermore, as a mother of one child, she cherishes her life with her beloved family, and her natural lifestyle attracts many people.
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This time, we had the opportunity to hear a lot about Martha's daily life and her thoughts on her work.
We visited her home in a quiet town in Shonan and took photos. The camellia trees in the garden were in full bloom, creating a warm spring atmosphere as we photographed the mother and child. The scene was a tender moment that warmed the heart just by looking at it.
"Change is inevitable" 
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Martha has been active in the modeling industry for a long time, but many people have noticed a big change in her recent activities compared to a few years ago. As I listened to her talk in detail about her lifestyle, the following phrase naturally came out of my mouth.
"Change is inevitable."
We live in an age where anyone can become an artist. Fixed ideas about what a person should look like are gradually fading, and people are no longer bound by the notion that "models just do modeling work."
She herself felt the changes of the times firsthand. 
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"At the time, I was working as a model in an agency, but now I've left and am continuing to work freely. I didn't get hung up on the industry and just let myself go with the flow, and now I'm getting work in all sorts of genres. And I don't think I was too resistant to change. That's who I am now, and that's the times."
Whatever change comes your way, you have to accept it without resisting the flow. It's not an easy thing to do. I felt that her mindset of having meaning in everything that happens is exactly what her lifestyle is all about.
"I didn't plan when I got married or when I would have children, but in the end, everything turned out perfect. I think when you go with the flow, you often get better things than you planned."
Martha's words reminded me of the importance of living naturally.
"It was just terrifying."
Martha gave birth to her first child in April 2024. The 10-month pregnancy period was also a time when she overcame many conflicts.
"I was very anxious about giving birth. I hadn't experienced much pain before, so I was afraid of the pain. It felt like jumping into the deep ocean without knowing anything."
Childbirth is an unknown world for everyone, and everyone feels anxious. In order to ease that anxiety, she tried various things recommended by people who had given birth.
"I've tried yoga, mountain climbing, taking ice baths to focus my mind, meditating, and taking time to face myself, but in the end, the anxiety just doesn't go away. Because I haven't experienced it yet."
She frankly told me that she was unable to overcome this fear in 10 months. When I asked her why she decided to have a natural birth at a midwifery clinic, she said that it was inspired by a book that her chiropractor had recommended to her.
Fear of pain. And a desire to have her first birth in the ideal way. While facing these complex emotions, she was moved by the "wonder of natural childbirth" that was written in the book, and she says that her confidence gradually grew.
"In the end, it took 34 hours to give birth. Lol. I had never experienced anything so scary before, so I couldn't let myself go, and it was very painful, but my heart was filled with emotion. I still can't forget that moment.
I'm also glad that I was able to experience my first birth at a midwifery clinic. I felt like I was being myself. I was able to spend time with my newborn son in a natural state, rather than in an impersonal hospital room.
Looking back now, I'm grateful that, among all the different medical options available, I was guided to natural childbirth in this era. If it wasn't for this era, I might not have even had this option. That's how special and irreplaceable my experience was."
"It's just one piece of information."
We live in an age where information is overflowing and anything is readily available, but Martha says that giving birth made her realize that information alone is not enough to understand everything.
"After giving birth, I listened to other people's experiences, read books, and looked online, but when I tried it, I realized that it was someone else's knowledge and experience, not mine. In reality, it didn't suit my child, and it was a burden for me."
I was deeply convinced by what she said.
"Unless you experience it yourself, you never know if it will happen to you. It was a big lesson for me that information isn't everything."
As Martha shared her experiences, I was reminded of the essential aspects of life.
Of course, information can be useful and even indispensable at times. But what's even more important is to develop the ability to see through to the essence of things without being swayed by information. And to have confidence in your own intuition and choices.
What is good and what is bad? Perhaps there is no answer. Listening to her story, I am reminded that sharpening one's senses is the key to living in this world.
Martha, who is currently holding her 10-month-old son, spoke vividly about her experiences from pregnancy to childbirth. We also got to hear her refreshing comments on how her lifestyle has changed since giving birth. 
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Children always give me energy that adults can't create.
The first thing she talked about was an energetic feeling.
"I feel like I've come into contact with an energy I've never known before, and it's strengthened the momentum of our family, which has had a really positive impact on our relationship. I think that was the first change and realization I noticed after having a child."
Naturally, adding a family to the family meant a change in lifestyle. How did she adapt to this new life?
"Raising a child is a moment to let go of attachment"
Martha says that raising children has been her biggest challenge.
"At first I was upset because I suddenly couldn't physically do the modeling work I'd been doing alone, or spend time hanging out with friends or with my partner, but what I learned from that experience was that I needed to let go of the attachment I had to myself at the time. Letting go was a big challenge in itself.
So my husband and I decided to try something new."
Martha talks about the challenge of opening a chai shop with her husband.
"Letting go of who I was and trying something new was a perfect fit for our current lifestyle."
Even as she created a new family, she embraced change and was not afraid of challenges.
They said that they want to continue to build a family that is unique to them, without being too bound by conventional wisdom, with confidence in their way of life and their sensibilities, healing many people with chai, and being grateful for the new connections they make while traveling and at markets.
Her vision is to create an environment where everyone can live freely, doing what they love, as if the world were one village. Her attitude of looking to the bigger world is a great inspiration to us all.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what Martha does next.
Masako Endo
Instagram
Article and photos by Hinako Kanda
