Returning from our month-long vacation in Asia last January, I launched right into my birthday celebration with some of my dear friends. We treated everyone to the truly outstanding dining experience at Sun Moon Studio in West Oakland. This tiny 12-seat restaurant first captured my attention when I found out that Taiwanese American chef Alan…
We’ve finally reached the final post of our Taiwan & Japan travels from this winter! Rewinding a bit from the Japan portion of our tour, we circle back to January first, in Taipei. After having watched the famous Taipei 101 fireworks the night before from our friends’ place out on the west side, we ventured…
Tokyo! After a whirlwind eight days visiting four other places in Japan, we finally reached its biggest city, Tokyo. We stayed for five nights in Ginza, a nice, relatively quiet commercial district filled with luxury brands and nice hotels and restaurants. Alex had made a reservation ahead of time, so after checking in to the…
From our lovely stay in Kyoto, we continued eastward, where we made the train-equivalent of an extended layover in Nagoya en route to Tokyo. My friend Julianne happens to be living in Nagoya for two years, so we took the opportunity to do a one-night stay to say hello and even do some laundry! Our…
Halfway through our Japan trip, we had such a lovely time in Kyoto. It’s quite the darling of Japanese cities, as we enjoyed plenty of its historical attractions, food, shopping, and even some nature. Anchoring it all was our stay at the Ace Hotel Kyoto. Something about this West Coast American (from Portland) property in…
From the quiet, meditative spaces of the art islands, we traveled straight into the center of the chaos when we took a shinkansen into Osaka. The trains were all nearly full, as it seems like everyone else was also going back to the big city after their New Year’s breaks. We spent only two nights…
I first heard of Japan’s art islands when my friends visited a couple years ago and declared it their favorite place in the entire world. The islands of Naoshima and Teshima are set in the Inland Sea, west of Osaka. They require at minimum a train and a ferry– half a day’s travel– to reach,…
Another year, another birthday! Every January, I throw myself a birthday party as a way of kicking off the next trip around the sun. In the past few years, I have hosted a moody dinner party, spoon carving, pottery, my 10-year business anniversary, a plant party, a Victorian-modern tea party, a gathering all about gatherings, and most recently, a shibori…
Every year, after the rush of the holidays and the countdown into a new year, I take the opportunity to celebrate my January birthday with a creative party, and I set off on my next spin around the sun with a few of my favorite people. In the past, I have hosted a moody dinner…
It’s my annual tradition to kick off the year with a creative birthday celebration. Past celebrations include the moody dinner party, spoon carving, pottery, my 10-year business anniversary, a plant party, and last year’s tea party. This year? A gathering about gatherings. I was inspired by Priya Parker’s book, The Art of Gathering, to think…
It’s time for my first monthly recap of 2019! We rewind to the first day of the year, when I met up with family for dinner at Rivoli at the end of my solo New Year’s retreat. Opening the year with a tarot workshop with Stephanie, who created the Fleurot Deck. So thankful for our…
Over the last few years, it has become a tradition for me to throw creative parties for my birthday each January. If you’ve known me for a while, you might remember past celebrations, including the moody dinner party, spoon carving, pottery, my 10-year business anniversary, and last year’s plant party. This year, my idea started…