Akiko Hirai took a circuitous route before finding her place at Chocolate Factory N16, an artists¡¯ studio in northeast London that she shares with more than two dozen artists, sculptors, designers and painters. Mounds of clay, a gas kiln and a potter¡¯s wheel signal Hirai¡¯s speciality: ceramics.
Hirai first visited the U.K. in the mid-1990s after quitting her job in Tokyo. She had been working at an advertising agency for a few years after leaving college, but, she says with a laugh, ¡°I didn¡¯t like the company, I didn¡¯t like the job, I didn¡¯t like my colleagues. I didn¡¯t like anything about it.¡±
Her sister was in London studying photography, so she left for the U.K. and enrolled in English-language classes. While learning English is pro forma for many newly arrived visitors and immigrants, Hirai¡¯s next move was unusual: She signed up with a volunteer agency to work at a homeless shelter and found herself posted to Northampton, a large town in the English Midlands about 110 kilometers north of London.
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