Category Archives: Los Angeles

It’s a New Year… issho-ni!

Posted on by under Los Angeles

We’re back! Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your time with friends and family. We had a good time down in LA with the nice warm weather but couldn’t help but to miss Walnut Creek. Who wouldn’t? Everything is so incredibly convenient here and you can noticeably tell the difference in the fresh, clean air.

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, but feel it’s so much more rewarding setting small/daily and or weekly goals that allow me to accomplish several over the year. Last year was quite busy as Mas and I moved to East Bay and started our career adventures in the city. Last year was also the beginning of issho-ni, quite exciting!

New Year’s eve was spent at Jon’s house with Yumi and Joey and a sweet Google Hangout with Chris and Taka in Japan. Yes! We counted down across the world and had so much fun getting to hang out with everyone (no pun intended).

New Year’s day, Mas and I went to Coast Beach Cafe and Bar in Santa Monica (cafe within Shutter Hotel). It was right on the beach and did I mention that the weather was beautiful?! It was a great way to spend New Year’s.

How was your New Year’s? Do you have any new daily/weekly goals?

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Royal/T + Momiji Dolls (Los Angeles, CA)

Posted on by under Family / Friends, Los Angeles

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus lately, busy with work and the holidays (you know how it is!), but we (Mas included) have also been busy working on creatively putting the puzzle pieces together for issho-ni. What does this entail you ask? Well a completely new re-design of the blog (thanks Mas!), which will also carry over to my Etsy shop (Japanese Yen Bracelets coming soon!). Don’t worry, I’ll give you a bit of a sneak peak in the coming days. I will also need to brush up on my html/css so that I can implement the new design, truly a team effort…isshoni!

While we were down in LA this past weekend we visited a very unique, curated Asian art gallery + tea station with our friends Joey and Yumi called Royal/t. It wasn’t like any gallery / store that I’ve ever been to. The art was encased behind clear plastic walls and had everything from wall art to installation pieces. I’d have to say the porta potty with a disco ball inside was quite clever, if you don’t believe me check out the images on Yelp and their website!

The store section of Royal/t was so cute! They had a Christmas tree and the area was completely decked out for the holidays. I was introduced to Momiji dolls and the fact that they had Hello Kitty ones I was hypnotized and headed straight to the cashier. Momiji dolls are not only adorable figurine dolls, but they carry a special gift, that of a message, hope or dream created by you! There is a small piece of paper (much like a fortune cookie) at the base of the doll, take it out, unfold the paper and write your message, you then place it back in and work towards it for it to come true! The Momiji story is available on their website as well.