One day I took a train to the nearest sea side town in Netherlands from Antwerpen/Belgium. I never heard the name of that small town, maybe even Dutchmen too, I think. Because we could find the name of that town only on very precise map about the southern area of Netherlands, not on the Whole Euro map ,neither on the Thomas Cook's timetable. As my thought, this sea side town is not the town, but the wharf. On the edge of the land toward The North Sea, This small town stands for simple function. The most of this town is the wharf, pier for the ferry conveying the people to the opposite side of the sea. Stepped out from the train, I started to walk toward the edge of the land. Seagull is screaming under the gray sky, I could not find out the border between the sky and the sea. All I could see in the gray gradation. My aim to visit this place is to ask the same question for HOME project, with some expectation. Because This area is completely unfamiliar to me, Japanese, or even for the Europeans. When I reached to the edge of the land, I ran into the man on that edge. The man wore the black cap, black jacket, black pants, black shoes on the black bicycle. He was collecting feathers of seagulls. He rode the bike, and watch the ground carefully, and stopped and went suddenly, and stretched his black arms from the bike, and picked up the feather each by each, like the fishermen who pick up seaweed on the beach. I asked him the question about HOME. "Tell me what is the only one you never want to lose in your home." His eyes were wet, when I looked into his eyes. I did not why. After a few seconds, he smiled at me, and continued to talk about his home and his room, and his days in this small town. He continued to talk after I got the answer for my question from him. He would like to be an artist, but he could not understand how to be an artist, and he hoped to have private time to think how to be an artist in his home. "I have so much time. So I always ride my bike to the edge of the land, and collect feathers one by one…so everyday….." He seemed to begin to cry. I could understand why. Said good-bye, we started to walk to the opposite direction. After a few minutes walk, I found the white tiny feather he missed on the rock. I picked it ,and ran to gave the white tiny feather to him as my thanksness.

Since having come back to Tokyo last Friday, I could not sleep enough, because of too much work I left before having gone on the trip to Europe. I visited Antwerpen/Belgium, a small town near the North Sea of Netherlands, Paris, and London during this trip. Since this new trip, I have started a new project "HOME". "HOME"project, my next photo project is to ask the same answer to the people in the different place on the earth and to collect their answer and portrait of them. My question is; 1)What is the HOME for you? 2)What is the one that you never want to lose in your HOME ? After having started this project, I ran into many accidents, happings, and good encounters, It was sometimes happy, surprising, mysterious, encouraing, and peaceful. I wrote down on these stories with my terrible sketches on my diary. Soon these stories and the reason I started this new project will be told on this digital diary..,, Now then, I should sleep........tonight.