My name is Hoa = Hana-chan (written by Ho)

Good evening, Vietnam! Good evening, Vietnam! It's just past 9 PM in Ho Chi Minh City, 28°C, 71% humidity. I'm dressed lightly. The ceiling fan keeps spinning round and round. 【Today's topic: Vietnamese folk crafts】 Just the other day, I came across something in Hanoi. Even further north than Hanoi, Vietnam, in the Sapa region, there's a folk craft shop. I'm not really into shops that scream "folk crafts"... That place had a somewhat modern design and arrangement to it, very stylish. I found myself drawn in and wandering inside. Maybe it's because somewhere in the back of my mind I've always had this thought: "Someday I'd like to go to Sapa and see how the Sapa people actually live." Clothing and handicrafts made by the Sapa people are now available for purchase in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City too, but they all kind of look the same... I'd picked similar things up a few times before, but always thought, 'hmm, this isn't quite it.' This time, what I found in Hanoi stood out for that slightly different arrangement. The Sapa people combine vividly colored threads—distinctive reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, greens, and more—into stitches and ribbons to make everyday items and clothing. The way this Sapa pattern is used, not too overstated, yet still unmistakably 'this is Sapa!', really won my heart.

Combining stripes with sapa patterns, it has a distinctive texture.

The ethnic costume is layered on almost excessively, as if to say "take that!!!" — but for tourism purposes, it only incorporates a bit of that flavor. There's a single accent embroidery of a sapa pattern on the chest of the dress. This subtle detail is exactly where taste and sense come into play.

This embroidery too, every single piece has a completely different pattern. Oh wow~ I can't decide.... Just like this, casually, with a Sapa pattern woven right in if I slipped this cotton dress on over my head, it would feel so nice~ = it'd probably be so comfortable~, I thought. But I'd just been walking around, and I also had a bit of a cold, so I couldn't tell which embroidery was the best one.... and the price was also a little on the higher side. I thought "maybe I'll come back another time..." and was about to leave the shop when...

I ended up locking eyes with the stuffed animals that were on display in the window. Wait, hold on a second — I stopped inside the shop to think it over. That's a huge monkey! There's even a baby gorilla in the window! I saw sherpa-patterned bears, bunnies, dogs, and horses in Ho Chi Minh City too. There were so many of them. I once gave one as a doll gift to a friend whose baby had just been born, and it made them really happy. But there were no monkeys or gorillas. When you hold it, it's surprisingly heavy—quite a satisfying weight. It's a stuffed animal with a glossy body made of faux leather (though the shop clerk insisted it was cowhide), with sapa embroidery decorating its head, belly, and legs. While I was staring intently at the monkey, the clerk kept bringing out more and more stuffed animals in different colors from all over the place, saying "there's this one too, and this one too. Black monkey, brown monkey, dark green monkey, yellow monkey... The creepy-cuteness is just too much... I, I, I want it. But it's just too big, this one's really a bit too big. At home, I already have Paul, the "sloth" from mina perhonen that I brought back from Japan. Akira Minagawa's textiles and stuffed-animal designs have a slightly cool edge to them that I really like. This too was love at first sight. I decided on the spot at the minä perhonen shop in Jingu Gaien. Life in Tokyo with the sloth was comfortable, and so was life in Vietnam. So I thought this one resident was enough for me... Because once you let something with eyes into your home, surely... you can never part with it. Since you can't throw it away, you have to be careful when you buy one. My husband Sei already tells me I have too many things as it is... and honestly, he's right. Even if I bought it here in Hanoi, it wouldn't fit in my suitcase anyway... I can just come back again. If I really want it, I can visit this shop again. That day, I went back to the hotel. But the image of the Sapa dolls kept weighing on my mind, on my shoulders, on my back, on my legs. As long as I make it in time for the flight (and for meeting my husband Sei for lunch), Let's go to the shop one more time. If it's sold, or if the shop isn't open, I'll give up... And then...........................it was open, and it was still there! And there's just enough space for it to fit perfectly inside my bag (I made sure of that~). Yes, Sapa Gorilla-chan, I've decided — you're the one.

Let's go home! I confessed to my husband Sei while we were on the plane. He told me he'd noticed I was in the bag the whole time... ehehe, guess I was already caught. Sorry, I'm slowly getting overtaken by all my stuff~~~

But it seems like Paul and I are going to get along well. I named the little gorilla from Sapa Hoa. It means "flower" in Vietnamese. It's also a name often used for Vietnamese people. In Japan too, names like Hanako-chan and Ohana-chan have long been familiar, haven't they... They often appear as example names on bank forms and government documents. My family has grown in Vietnam. Ohohohoho... Migration Life Ranking