Haiku Enthusiast, Supporter, and Consultant
Born in 1971, Alberto Sanz is from Bilbao, the Basque region of Spain. Alberto, who speaks Spanish, English, German, and a little Japanese, has lived in several countries and expects to visit many more.
Currently, he and his wife live with their three kids in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. In 2009, Alberto founded Target Japan, a Tokyo-based consulting firm specializing in international trade.
Passionate about wine culture, Alberto also enjoys cooking, running, listening to jazz, and designing anything from calendars to websites. He loves haiku and is happy to spend entire days reading and translating old-fashioned poems. You can find Alberto's haiku calendars at his website.
As to his favorite kanji, Alberto very much likes 花 (はな: flower), not only because it's in his daughter's name (花菜: Hana) but also because it has many connotations. As he explains, the lower part (化) means "change" and represents two people, one standing and the other lying down (which is to say, dead). This means that 化 includes the full range from life to death. In addition to meaning "change," 化 more philosophically means "a sense of mortality." The top component of 花 means "grass." Therefore, "grass" + "mortality/change" = "flower" because flowers blossom and eventually die.
