âOkaeri-nasai!â - Welcome home! These were the words that my Baachan (Grandma) would greet me with every time I stepped through the threshold of the home she raised our family in.
There is no better feeling than that of feeling your familyâs love pour over you as you arrive home. I may not know you, but I hope that in sharing the
đľ gentle rituals
⨠everyday magic
đş cultural wisdom
that my family and life have taught me, you can also experience the âwoosah đŽâđ¨â of coming home to a place that loves you again and again.
Baachan taught me that magic lives in the quiet momentsâđľtea steaming, đleaves turning, đžhands working, đhearts listening.
This page is my invitation to that world: a cozy corner of culture and Japanese cottage-core, shaped by family wisdom and the hope that we can live more gently with the earth and with each other.
Iâm glad you found your way here. đľ đż
Sometimes I just gotta practiceăăă
As I danced around to enka in my living room (yes in my crocs đ), I realized it has been years since Iâve done this regularlyă
Growing up, the first thing I would do when coming home was pop a đż in the player and dance my little heart oută
Karaoke đ¤was a weekly activity w the girlsă
I constantly pretended I was on the stage. (Ya, thatâs #leo complex, frfr)
I donât really know when it stoppedăăăBut after an amazing karaoke sesh with @itsbrenda last week, I realized that I wonât embody main character energy in my life if I donât practice ită
This is a ăĺ§ăă (big sister) nudge to make your kitchen, bedroom, desk, your STAGE every once in awhile n see how it begins to percolate in your day to dayă
#maincharacterenergy #bigsister #life
Something that makes the calm of the countryside so alluring is the literal chaos of the ăé˝äźăâtokaiâ or metropolisă
Iâve got the soul of the city girl and the heart of a country girlă
Every time Iâm back in Tokyo, I thrive off of the energy of the crowds. The bright lights, the host clubs trying to get you to drink at their bars â itâs a rush. A rush that has never felt dangerous, just a thrill of being aliveă
Nights like these make the country nights feel like the warm, nourishing hug that you need to get back out there againă
As we walked through the halls of the samuraiâs 367 year old home, I admired how space in Japan is often designed around one to two elements of beauty -
Perhaps itâs an iconic view,
Perhaps itâs the way the shadow plays across the tatami,
Perhaps itâs the copper of the kettle in a tea room
Every space is poetic. Simple in its balance of nature and man-made. Nothing wasted, everything useful.
The Shimazu family of the Satsuma Samurai Clan ushered Japan into the Meiji Era of Industrial Revolution. This family entertained global dignitaries at a time when Japan was still highly skeptical of the outside world.
And yet, Japanese traditional gardens and architecture are not replaced by western designs. The role nature plays in these spaces are not lost.
I canât help but wish, for all, that we continue to prioritize design that invites us to live life with nature. To have it be an active part of each of our days.
What joy and peace would we find in a world like that?
