A young woman in England decided, when she was of university entrance age, that she wanted to do something as far away from her own life as possible. So she did a degree in modern Chinese studies at the University of Leeds.
During her year abroad in Beijing, she met her future husband, a Japanese student in her class. "For the first four years of our relationship, we communicated only in Chinese," said Harriet Boxall, the young English woman who was drawn by distances.
After graduation, Harriet came to Japan to teach. She returned to the U.K. to get proper qualification for teaching English as a second language, and came again to Japan. "At this point I became seriously interested in singing," Harriet said. "As school children we grew up singing. I knew I was in tune, but didn't think I had a particular voice. But I loved music, and ballet movement, and being on stage. I found a teacher here, and with her encouragement went to Rome to continue studying. I studied privately, and supported myself by freelance teaching with the British Council. I had several opportunities to perform publicly."