Gentle and Soft Recipes for Daily Life EP.03 | collaboration with hauu (nishikawa)

Q: What kind of space or place allows you to relax?

I love places where people naturally gather around music.

Everyone there shares that same love for music; titles and status don't matter, and each person just surrenders themselves to the sound in their own way.

In that sense, I think music bars and clubs are very egalitarian spaces. You are freed from labels like race, gender, or religion, and there's a feeling that you can just be yourself without having to conform to anyone else.

That’s exactly why I feel I can spend time there without putting on a front. It might be the place where I can be most natural.

The fact that everyone is enjoying the music with the same intensity—that sense of shared experience is something that always saves me.

Q: What rules do you value when creating a room?

I’d say it’s about "only placing things that I truly love." For instance, the poster on my wall is something I found at an art book shop in Berlin. It’s a somewhat famous store, and I went there feeling like it was a pilgrimage, but this just happened to catch my eye.

I hesitated a lot over whether to buy it, but since it was a piece with a very limited print run, I decided I didn’t want to miss out on such an encounter and brought it home.

I’ve always liked vintage items. This lamp and this rack are both vintage. Perhaps I’m drawn to things from the past, whether it’s interior design or music.

Because I spend so much time at home, I want to carefully curate this place where my work and life overlap with the things I love.

I often have the radio on while I work. I’m not very good with spaces that are too quiet; I like to have a bit of presence. One thing I’ve really been into lately is the podcast "Yoshiharu Doi and Tomoko Chris Philosophize About Cooking." Mr. Doi’s talk is truly fascinating, and I can listen to it for hours.

Q: How do you reset your mind when you are tired?

I make a conscious effort to get outside. I’ll show my face at an exhibition or a party, or work at a café. If I stay at home for too long, I inevitably feel stifled, so changing my environment helps me clear my head.

When I was just starting my brand, I feel like I was in a state of being "on" all the time. I didn't know what kind of wave was coming next, so I was just frantically tackling whatever was right in front of me.

I’ve always been the type to pack my schedule and work hard. It was honestly a difficult time, but I also believe that experience is what taught me how to set my own priorities.

Recently, I feel like I’ve finally started to get a grip on my own rhythm. I’ve reached a point where I understand the sense of "if I put in this much effort, I’ll get this much back," and I've gained a bit of breathing room... Having that breathing room has allowed me to think about how I can act to improve my performance even further.

Following those changes, I now make a conscious effort to exercise, like going to Pilates or dancing. Since I’ve been dancing since I was in elementary school, I feel like my mind naturally resets when I move my body.

It makes it easier to understand my physical and mental state, and my thoughts become clearer.

I’ve also started making sure I get enough sleep. I used to push myself too hard, but now I feel that getting enough sleep is actually more important. If I’m sleep-deprived, my judgment becomes impaired, and in the end, it takes longer to recover.

I believe that in order to continue creating better things, it’s essential to keep myself in balance.