The first thing that fascinated me about Tabata was the lone whimsical earing drooping from her left ear (or was it from the right ear?). If I remember it correctly, the design was a miniature dream catcher with a feather poking out from a lock. It was so pretty and exotic. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she bought it from a fetish shop in Africa or Brazil. But yeah, maybe. I wondered then if such earing was sold solo or if Tabata intentionally took off the second of the pair to keep up with a trend back home (it was a few meetings later that I finally got to ask her why she wore only one earing).
I first saw that earing on her on the first time we met. Our cousin Joevince has been telling us about his hot Brazilian girlfriend whom he met while modeling in Singapore, at the same time not encouraging our imagery of a hot Brazilian by showing us only obscure photos in his phone. Not long after he started bragging, he finally brought her with him here in Cebu. My sister Iana and I were binging at Bigby's in Ayala while she and my cousin Joevince were having salad in the same restaurant. I clearly remember she made beso-beso as she was introduced to us. With a faded and loose racerback top and a pair of shorts that ended rather shortly on legs that seemed to go on forever, and of course, the pretty earing, Tabata was easily a stunner at first sight. you could tell a smile when it's forced on the wearer, and Tabata's was not. We decided there and then that we liked her.
Over time, as her visits to the Philippines became as regular as Joevince's, we discovered more things about Tabata. The greatest facet that made all of us in the family instant fans (even Mamita) is that she is real and very grounded. In Singapore, she is counted as a supermodel. She's walked on the most important stages, appeared in the most important fashion spreads, and attends the most important fashion events. But she does not parade this success in her walking portfolio (herself). She does not let who she is and where she came from hide behind her supermodel.
On the contrary, Tabata is a homebody, as Joevince once attested. For a homebody though, she has the ease and comfort to blend in amongst strangers... and in strange places! She is even quite a talker, but not the kind that cuts in a conversation abruptly. She is generally the meek type who bubbles up when provoked. When she is asked, she doesn't throw one-liner answers that are honestly useless in attempts of initiating conversation. She just doesn't talk, she converses. Just as well, because her life so far is very interesting. She once slept over in our place in Ormoc during Summer. For breakfast, we talked about her life before she started modeling and after that.
Tabata started traveling abroad to model at age 16. Her first experience was in South Korea, and since then, she has lived and worked in Hongkong, Japan, and Singapore. She says a lot of girls from her small town just outside Sao Paulo seek escape from their meager lives in modeling. She is one of them. This is probably why there is not an inch of prima-donna in her. Or the exhausting been-there-done-thatness common of those who have been there and done that. The way she talks of it, modeling is only a job, not something she can crave a crown from for herself and wear it like a tiara to show everyone. [But she really has no choice. With her long legs, a killer body, and a pretty face, she's a natural give away].
Since Tabata travels a lot, she doesn't keep a lot of things with her, even clothes. Whenever she buys, she gives away. She's even sent us a bunch of tops and jeans, and thankfully, her style is all loose and laidback, so her size 0 didn't matter. We asked her if she ever get freebies from photo shoots and she said she can, but doesn't want to. She tries to keep the weight of her luggage at the same scale. She loves to read but can't buy books, so when she's in a country, she borrows from a friend and tries to finish it before she has to leave.
I asked her once where she really is based, and she answered not in any place. In one moment, she's in Singapore, the next, she's completing a contract in Japan. The last time we heard from her (June this year), she's still in the Land of the Rising Sun, but will be traveling to Germany anytime soon for another opportunity. I followed up with, "Don't you miss home?" Tabata answered that she does, but her being a traveler is almost innate in her. Among her siblings, she's the different one, and has been likened to her grandmother who stemmed from a gypsy clan in Europe.
For somebody whose lifestyle depend on a profession that determines success at face value, Tabata loves to touch base with her inner soul. On our way to a Boracay jaunt in 2007, she was glued to a Dalai Lama book on the Meaning of Life. She commented that during the turbulent part of the ride, she was on the chapter that tackled death. I've heard a lot of people talk about loving sunsets (me, included), and they never fail to capture the phenomenon in paragraph-full of romantic superlatives. When I asked Tabata, she only said of the Boracay sunsets, "I love sunsets here... because it's different every day." In a clearing high up on a hill in Biasong with a majestic view of the Ormoc Bay and the city, Tabata, while looking at the landscape, sighed and told Joevince, "I want to stay in a place like this for good."
In Tabata, we have met different people: the Brazilian, the supermodel, the traveler, the person. I don't think I have met a lot of people like her. But definitely, I have read stories of her kind. The kind that wander the world in pursuit for the best that life can offer (Pico Iyer calls them Nowhereians, as in people who finds home in everywhere). Most people find their best in just one place; a rarity find theirs in breaking through the unknown. Tabata just happens to be lucky because along with finding her best in the unknown, she is earning, all by what she can be. But what she really marks the world with (at least, with us) is who she is.
Tabata as a supermodel
Joevince, our cousin, with Ting, my brother and the woman of the post, Tabata, grooving to Summer Place's fun during our Boracay Trip in 2007. It was where Carlyn famously blurted out, "Tabata, if Joevince won't marry you, we will marry you." She was speaking in behalf of the whole family, of course.
P.S. Joevince and Tab broke up in January this year. They remain friends.
P.P.S. I asked Tabata why she wears her dangling, feathery earing one at a time, and she answered, "Because if I put on another one, it would be too much."
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