"Why did you come to Japan?" This is a question that most non-Japanese living here are accustomed to being asked habitually.
I'm not very fond of this inquiry, so I tend to answer it glibly. Imagine my surprise, then, when I sit down (via Skype) with an acquaintance of mine, an Osaka-based faux-finish artist and entrepreneur named Roler Miles, and it's the first question to pop out of my mouth. I'm glad it did, though, because his answer, though lengthy (a good 15 minutes long), pretty much told me everything I needed to know about the man's experience here, which could be summed up in two words: "artist" and "father."
His answer revealed a man's fascinating transition, from defacing walls and vandalizing subways as a graffiti artist in New York to running a thriving spray-paint business, teaching Japanese students to express themselves through art and leading a team of artists creating authentic-looking faux-historical materials at Universal Studios Japan's new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Though I tend to attribute my drive and ambition to the values acquired back in the Brooklyn we both grew up in, Miles, now 50, says: "It ain't where you're from, Baye. It's where you're at!"