Oiwa Sae was born in Okayama Prefecture and raised in Tokyo.
Although she spends her days in a city filled with tall buildings, she occasionally visits Okayama, where she is exposed to nature and the slow flow of time. Having spent time in both the city and the countryside, she has a balanced sensibility.
This time, I visited her.
It was a drizzling rainy day, a chilly afternoon for March. When I was shown into her room, the faint scent of tatami mats drifted through the air, and the cool breeze blowing in from outside the window quietly carried the scent of incense. In this nostalgic and calming space, I spoke to her about her life.
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"I'm turning 23 tomorrow."
She spent her high school years in Canada and returned to Japan after graduation. She majored in event management at university and now uses what she learned to personally plan and manage events. She has a particular interest in environmental issues, and while conveying her thoughts through events, she is creating a place that will give the younger generation an opportunity to think about the environment.
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She has a striking neutral appearance, as if the atmosphere of Japan and abroad has naturally blended together. The roots of this sensibility can be found in her childhood.
"When I was little, my grandfather lived in Australia and my family would often visit there. Also, my cousin studied abroad in Canada, so I felt somehow close to overseas countries. I admired my cousin from my childhood, and before I knew it, I had already decided to study abroad."
When it came time to decide on her high school path, she decided to go to Canada.
He headed to Delta, a city about an hour outside of Vancouver, where high school life was completely different from his life in Tokyo.
"What I discovered in nature and what I want to cherish"
Canada is a land of vast nature, surrounded by vast skies, endless forests, and crystal clear lakes.
On weekends she goes camping and after school she goes diving in the lake. Her daily life there is very different from the way she spent her time in the city, and this lifestyle awakens a dormant love of nature within her.
"Life there was very simple."
Looking back, what struck her was the awareness of the people around her. Almost no one around her used plastic bottles, and carrying one's own bottle was completely natural. Choosing not to use plastic was not something special, but something that had become part of everyday life.
He was moved by the fact that environmental consideration was not an obligation imposed on someone, but was an ingrained part of the landscape and life.
Spending time surrounded by beautiful scenery gradually changed Sae's values, and before she knew it, she began to want to cherish nature even more.
"What is learning?"
Sae said that another big learning experience she had from living in Canada was the style of education at school.
"I found the education at school interesting. Every subject taught me how to use my brain. In this world where information is overflowing, the basis of my classes was not to simply receive information about anything, but to value critical thinking within it."
Sae says that from that moment on, she started to question everything first. It was the first time she realized that it was only by questioning things that she could form her own opinion.
"I used to have a bad attitude towards studying, but after learning about this way of thinking, I gradually began to think that 'learning is fun,' and now I don't hesitate to actively study on my own."
It taught me a very important lesson when it comes to discerning information in this world.
In Japan, education is dominated by manual-based lessons and tests that require students to achieve set correct answers.
The goal is to get good grades, and it often feels like you are expected to memorize things repeatedly without questioning them. For Sae, who had previously had an aversion to learning, the "thinking" style of learning was interesting.
"Shock after returning home"
After such a fulfilling life in Canada, he returned home to Japan and was met with a number of "discomforts." The first thing that caught his eye was the abundance of plastic in Japanese cities. Bags were automatically handed out, and he was surprised to see so many people carrying plastic bottles. He says the contrast with life in Canada was greater than he had imagined.
"Of course, there are many people in Japan who are working on the environment, but it's not the norm."
What impressed him most was a conversation he had with a friend.
A friend of hers said this to her when she refused bags at the supermarket and carried her own bottle.
"Sae is very conscious about the environment, isn't she?"
"I knew he didn't mean it in a bad way, but those words just made me feel like there was a wall between us."
In Canada, environmental issues are shared with nature, but in Japan, they are seen as something only "special people" should be talking about. The moment Sae experienced this difference in perception, A strong feeling was born that "things have to change."
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"Encounter with Youth Rock"
Just before returning to Japan, Sae participated in a climate change march in Canada. She was deeply moved by the sight of people filling the streets, raising their voices and taking action for the future of the environment.
"That was my first time participating in a protest, and when I saw similar movements in Japan, I felt that society viewed them differently. At the same time, I felt that it was difficult to have an opinion about environmental issues and take action."
At that time, while searching social media to find other girls her age who were working on environmental issues, she came across "Youth Rock," an active crew started by two girls who are working on various social issues. She felt excited that this would be an opportunity to clear up the sense of discomfort she had been feeling and her strong desire to make a change.
"I thought, 'This is it!' I contacted them right away and they accepted me as a member. From then on, we started working together."
For Sae, Youth Rock was a place where she could put "actions beyond words" into practice. As he spent time with friends who shared the same feelings, the discomfort and loneliness he had felt up until then gradually turned into strength.
Before long, she begins to create that "space" with her own hands.
"Eternal fizz is filled with emotion"
"Now that each of us has entered the workforce, our activities have changed little by little, but recently we've started hosting our own events, called 'Eternal Fizz'."
The literal translation of "eternal fizz" is "eternal bubbles." The present moment is likened to a bubble, and within its edge, there is a continuous "now" with no beginning or end, no time axis. The name comes from the image of the "now," which is as fleeting yet beautiful as a bubble, overlapping with one another.
She first encountered this concept during her third year of university, when she spent a year studying abroad in New York as an exchange student. During this time of deep self-reflection, she began to question the concept of the "time axis."
"When I came across a book about the timeline at that time, my concept of time completely changed."
The book had a story about what would happen if there was no time axis.
We currently live within a fixed timeline. But time is a yardstick that we humans have decided upon, so do we really need to be bound by it?
For example, eating lunch at what is generally considered the noon time. Now, when that time comes, I automatically get hungry and feel like I have to eat.
What I want to say is not that being trapped there is evil, but whether you are acting with a "will" towards that. This seems to be connected in some way to what Sae taught me about "the ability to think for yourself."
A passive approach of taking action because the time has come may lead to being swayed by common sense created by someone else.
"I'd lived my life believing there was a time axis, but when I started to question the existence of a time axis, I felt like things became a little easier.
I was working hard, hoping to do something for the future, but I realized that I wasn't enjoying the present moment to the fullest. I truly understood that the present moment is the most important thing."
"Eternal Fizz is a product that embodies those feelings."
The atmosphere created by the decorations, music, and people who gather there is a sense of freedom that is not bound by time, and a straightforward sense of "enjoying the present." The events that Sae shares provide a space where you can enjoy that precious time known as "the present."
SAE
At the age of 15, he went to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada to study abroad alone. After graduating from a local high school in Canada, he entered the Faculty of International Liberal Studies at Sophia University. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he founded the information dissemination group "You(th) Rock!!" with six other people. In his third year of university, he spent a year studying abroad at Pace University in New York, USA as an exchange student, and after returning to Japan, he founded a new event community called "eternal fizz." He currently works as a company employee during the week, and spends his weekends planning ef events and enjoying his hobbies.
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Article and photos by Hinako Kanda
