Thirty-one-year-old Alex St-Jean, a native of Ontario, and his wife, Mami, 34, are the couple behind North Candles. Based in Taiki, Hokkaido, they make soy wax candles by hand in a renovated akiya (abandoned house) that doubles as their home and workshop.
1. How did the two of you first meet?
Alex: We met on a vegetable farm in British Columbia in 2016. Mami was backpacking across Canada, and I was a university student who had hitchhiked to the West Coast. We happened to volunteer at the same farm and spent about a week together.
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