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 Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:07 pm
WELCOME Hello! This is Mriae's quest thread for Mrs. Azami Smith-Itou.
Hyuu~
I think things are good enough now.
The dust has seemed to have settled.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:13 pm
Table of Contents __________________✿ [o1] ......... The Basics__________________✿ [o2] ......... Personality__________________✿ [o3] ......... History__________________✿ [o4] ......... Purpose for a Pet__________________✿ [o5] ......... Reserved__________________✿ [o6] ......... Open!
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:14 pm
The Basics Name:
--- Azami Smith-Itou (スミス糸薊)
Nickname(s):
--- Azami-san, Smith-Itou-san, Oba-san
Age:
--- 80
Gender:
--- Female
Birthday:
--- April 22, 1931
Nationality:
--- Japanese
Languages:
--- Japanese, English
Location:
--- Asakusa District, Taito Ward
Occupation:
--- Kimono Maker / Shop Owner
Family:
--- Andrew Smith (husband; deceased)
--- Taro Smith-Itou (son; estranged)
--- Rin Smith-Itou (daughter; estranged)
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:17 pm
Personality • Caring –
Mrs. Smith-Itou is a very caring and warm individual. If you show up on her doorstep, you can always expect her to invite you in graciously with a smile. A nice cup of tea or some sort of refreshment will always be offered to you. Should you have a problem or feel the need to talk to someone, Azami is always ready and eager to lend an ear, or even go so far as to provide advice, should the person want it. No one should feel sad or upset, and if she sees a person feeling such a way, she will go out of her way to help, even if they do not want it. Sometimes it’s nice to know that someone is there and watching out for them. • Cultured –
Due to her age, Azami has been able to see and do a lot over the course of her long life. Because of this, she knows quite a bit about the world and how it works. A big enthusiast of Japanese culture, Azami was always showing and telling everyone as much as she could about her heritage. Not only did she love Japanese culture, however – the woman was fascinated with other cultures from around the world as well. Throughout her married years, she and her husband often took frequent vacations together and when their children were younger. The elderly woman is also a big fan of various types of literature, cuisine, and music. She seems to have quite the extensive library at home, and has been known to cook various types of cuisine, often fusing some together into her own unique style. On nice nights, expect her to find her sitting out on her balcony sipping on a glass of fine wine or a cup of sake. • Stubborn –
Unfortunately, Azami can be a bit hardheaded when it comes to certain things. In her younger years, her husband often described her as a very stubborn lady. It was her way or no way. This is something that can be seen, even today. A person may ask the elderly woman if she wants help crossing the street, but of course, she doesn’t! She’s elderly, not invalid. As helpful as she is to others, she prefers to do things on her own in her own special way. Having others help her or doing things another way is like admitting to having a weakness, which she doesn’t want to admit to. Mrs. Smith-Itou can be a bit trying when she gets into one of her hardheaded moods. Either think of a way to appease her so she’s satisfied or the woman won’t be budging. • Over-exerting –
For the ripe young age of 80 years old, Azami seems to do quite a bit. All of the work she does, however, usually comes back to bite her in some way. The people that live around her, as well as her old children have told her time and time again that she needs to slow down and not work as hard, but the woman won’t seem to listen. She enjoys the work that she does, even if doing all of these things affects her in a negative way. The elderly woman has a tendency to tire herself out a lot, but keeps pressing herself onward. This certainly can’t be good for a woman her age, and leads to the occasional fainting spell every once and a while. Really, the woman just needs to slow down, relax, and spend the rest of her days taking it easy, yet she just won’t seem to settle. • Old Fashioned –
Azami holds dear to her traditions and her values. It is because of this that others who know her claim that she is stuck in the past. Having been brought up in a different generation, Azami was raised with traditional Japanese values. Women were to stay and take care of the home and the children, while the men went out and did the work. She also is a strict advocate for being polite and kind to one’s elders and those around her. As a woman who has seen and done a lot in her life, she expects to be treated with that sort of respect. Seeing how the younger generation acts in today’s day and age really can get her frustrated from time to time: from the use of foul language to how some of the younger people dress. Don’t be surprised if Azami gets grumpy at someone for acting in a way she finds inappropriate. It’s not that she means to be grumpy – she was just raised in a different time and is used to a different style of living.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:18 pm
History Itou Azami was welcomed into the world on a nice spring afternoon in a hospital in Tokyo, Japan. The year was 1931, and she was the first child for her parents. Her father, a kimono maker, and her mother, a stay-at-home housewife, tried for years to have children, but with no success. Initially, the members of the Itou family (specifically, Azami’s grandparents) wanted a boy, but the moment Azami was born, none of that seemed to matter anymore. They were happy all of their lives were blessed with a newborn child.
Overall, Azami’s childhood was a normal one. She attended school, just like every other student, and on the weekends attended ikebana lessons. She also became quite adept at sewing, thanks to her mother and father who both showed their daughter the trade of the family business. The Itou family had been making kimono in Tokyo for the geisha ever since the artisans first appeared in the city. Their daughter seemed to have a knack for it. Between her lessons at school, ikebana on the weekends, and learning the family trade, Azami was kept quite busy during the days of her youth. She managed to graduate high school without much difficulty and - instead of pursuing a higher education at college – had dreams of helping run the family business.
Everything changed, however, in 1948. That was the year that Azami ran into, quite literally, a Mr. Andrew Smith.
It was the summer of 1948, and on a particular day that summer Azami was carrying a stack of boxed kimono over to a buyer’s house. Unable to see where she was going, the seventeen-year-old girl ended up running into a poor, unsuspecting man. This man was Andrew Smith, an anthropology student from the US who had come over to Japan to study the Japanese culture. Despite the strange circumstances of their meeting, the two individuals found themselves oddly drawn to one another, and a romantic relationship quickly ensued.
The romance between Andrew and Azami didn’t take long to blossom. About a year or so after dating, the two of them were married, and Azami took on the name Smith-Itou from wanting to take her husband’s name while still keeping her old one. Although her family was initially disdainful of Azami’s new husband, after a while, they grew to like him. Andrew was a good man, and he could provide a good life for Azami over in the United States. Shortly after marrying, the couple moved back to Andrew’s home country of the US. It was there that the two of them eventually had two children: a son named Taro and a daughter named Rin. Their little family was beginning to grow.
Time went on and Taro and Rin grew older. As their children grew, so did Azami and Andrew went on to grow older. Azami did her best to raise her children in the proper Japanese fashion. However, having grown up and gone to school with other American kids, the woman’s lessons did not seem to translate well to the children. They seemed to disdain their Japanese heritage, preferring to have their interest in more American things: baseball and cowgirls, not kendo and ikebana. Try as she might to get them interested in such things, Azami’s efforts just made her kids rebel even more. By the time they moved out of the house to live their own lives after graduating high school, their disdain of Japanese culture was all the more solidified. Neither of them wanted anything to do with it.
So Azami resigned herself to giving up on teaching her children the ways of her culture. Neither of them seemed to care, so the woman then proceeded to live out the rest of her days with her husband. That was all she could do, after all, yet she was happy to do it. Anytime spent with her husband was time well spent in Azami’s eyes. Yet little did she know how much time she’d actually have left to spend with her beloved Andrew.
Andrew Smith ended up passing away in the year of 1976. Azami was 45 years old. It had been storming that evening, and Andrew was in a rush to get back home. He had promised his wife that he wouldn’t be late. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how slick the roads were, and managed to lose control of his vehicle after taking a particularly sharp curve. His car ended up smashing into a tree and killing him on impact. The entire Smith family was devastated with his wife and children taking the blow the hardest of them all.
The death of her husband left Azami at a loss for what to do, so she did the only thing that came to her mind. She decided to go back to Japan. With her mind made up, the woman told her children of her plan, and told them the two of them could come with if they wanted. In the back of her mind, she hoped so badly that they would accompany her back to her home country, but both her son and daughter declined. With her husband passed on and her children not wanting to go with, Azami found herself heading back to Japan alone.
The year is now 2011, and thirty-five years later, Azami can now be found living in her old childhood home. Shortly after returning to her home country, she took over her family’s kimono making shop, and has been doing that ever since. It provides a nice income, suitable enough for the woman to live comfortably. At a respectable eighty years old, Azami pretty much just oversees the work that goes on in her shop these days. The workers she employ end up doing most of the work, but if there are any majorly important clients Azami takes these herself, personally. The business they provide is mainly to the geisha in the district of Asakusa where Azami’s shop is located. Asakusa has the oldest geisha district in Tokyo, so the business is always there.
Azami keeps herself busy these days, for the most part. When she’s not overseeing her shop or working on kimono, she is out in the various neighborhoods of the Taito district volunteering and helping others. If people see an elderly Japanese woman with white hair tied up into a bun, wearing a kimono and walking with a cane, that’s her. On the weekends, she finds herself giving ikebana lessons to the younger girls of the area. The elderly woman also keeps in touch with her family now and then. Her children have now grown and have children of their own, but they seem to know little of their grandmother. Taro and Rin only bother to bring them to Japan once in a blue moon.
Content in herself and her lifestyle back in her home country, Azami just takes everything one day at a time, trying to do her best with the time she has left.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:19 pm
Purpose for a Pet Outwardly, people would never guess, but Azami is quite a lonely old woman. She hides this side of herself well by keeping busy and staying active, but it still can’t mask the feeling completely. Most of her family members from Japan have long since passed, so she has no one to talk to in that regard. Her children, somehow, managed to become materialistic and selfish-individuals, which see their mother as more of a burden than anything. They want as little to do with her as possible, and thus, Azami is again alone. To put it simply, she needs someone to talk to and keep her company in her elder years.
Azami is also in need of someone who she can help to teach lessons to. Her children never really picked up on the importance of tradition and family. Try as she might to show them, it never seem to stick with Taro and Rin. The Japanese lifestyle was too boring, too stuffy, too rigid. Every excuse in the book they could think of, they had for learning about their heritage. The elderly woman needs someone who she can help teach Japanese culture to, otherwise her culture will end when she passes away. It won’t continue on with her children, so the woman wants someone else she can pass it on to before she dies.
Azami isn’t the only one who needs to teach, however. She needs to have lessons taught to her, as well. Mrs. Smith-Itou needs to learn not to overexert herself so much. She ends up working so hard and tiring herself out, when really all she should be doing is slowing down, taking it easy, and relaxing. Another thing that she needs to learn is to not be so stubborn and set in her ways. She needs to let other people help her; otherwise all she’ll end up doing is pushing them away. A pet could help her show that other people are worried and looking out for her, and thus help her to learn to accept help from other people.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:31 pm
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:33 pm
Annnd...
Now we're open.
-snips the ribbon-
Please be gentle.
; A;
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:42 pm
Azami Smith-Itou
PROFILE REVIEW
Date: Dec. 17th 2011
By: Nyxtsuki Moon
This quest is really well written, there isn't really a flaw I can think of atm (really love her) So I am going to approve it. Welcome to the Tea Stall Azami!
This Quest is now APPROVED. You may rp at the Wooden Door now if you'd like~
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