FROM JAPAN WITH LOVE

These lacquer bowls were a gift from a Japanese friend, Kazuko, on her holiday of a lifetime, a week's trip to Italy, two of the seven days spent in transit. She and her husband arrived jet lagged out of their minds but had the whole of Italy to see in five days. They had a stopover in Florence, took the train to Lucca. She telephoned to give their arrival time. Himself had met her only once before and was afraid he would not recognize her so he asked.

"I am Japanese," she said and giggled. So he went to the train station (I stayed home in a cleaning and cooking frenzy), the train arrived, the doors opened and hundreds of Japanese got out. He was aghast but she recognized him.

She brought six of these bowls, beautifully wrapped as only the Japanese can do. One is missing and I fear stolen. She was wearing a new wine coloured suit. When she sat on our sofa, dog hairs flew to her as if she was magnetic. She and her husband picked them off when they thought we weren't looking.

I know how minimal Japanese houses are and I realised ours must look a crowded, cluttered mess. (It is, actually.) We had dinner and then a tour of the house. Looking out of an upstairs window, her husband started speaking softly and in a mournful way which I recognised from Japanese films. A lament. He said they could never afford to have a house of their own.

He is a chemist; she is a pharmacist. In most western countries they could easily afford their own house. Our own farmacista has an enormous one. I already knew that a week's holiday was a one-off. Normally, they had much less holiday time each year.

She says she and her husband are "100 %" following the earthquake. She is stoic and disciplined. She was always brave and courageous or I would not have met her. She said she walked home from her office after the quake. Her apartment was a shambles and her husband was not there. He was out helping others. Their apartment block has no water which she classifies as "inconvenient."

I am filled with admiration for her and for the Japanese people. No whining, no drama. There is anxiety about radiation but otherwise her attitude is that they know that quakes happen there, the task at hand is to get on with recovering from this one.

I had a lot of trouble photographing the bowls. They are extremely glossy and reflect everything. I had to underexpose them and bring them back. I could have glossy and reflections of the camera, or matt black and no reflections.

For the record: + 10 C. Dark and pouring with rain.