"My aim was to master a craft and then return to traveling. I had three ideas: making soba, pulling a rickshaw or learning to forge swords. All three I could learn in my hometown, Kamakura. I also considered Japanese tattooing, but I knew I didn’t have the skills for that.
“In fact, I planned a tryout with the rickshaw company first. But it was raining really hard that day, and the soba master was closer to my home. Fate intervened.”
