Here is another awesome timely event that I was really lucky to be able to see some of — Setouchi International Art Festival 2010. It’s going on until October 31st this year, on the seven islands of the Seto Inland Sea + Takamatsu! (where I grew up!)

I was really excited to see my hometown proudly hosting the art festival, the signs were everywhere in the city, people were so enthusiastic about the whole thing…

Love the view of Seto Inland Sea.

Blue and white, stripes were everywhere — very summery!

I will be posting lots of photos this week from the art festival!

Posted under Japanese, art, trip

Hi hi! I am back and so is my website :) I had such an awesome time in San Francisco and Japan, thanks to all my family and friends, I am totally refreshed, energized and ready to do anything! (I might be a bit off with the jet lag for a little while, though…)

I’ll be sharing a lot of stuff from my trip, please stay tuned!

(Picture is the Tokyo Tower view from Roppongi)

Posted under Japanese, trip

It was soo crazy before I left, I couldn’t even post a little announcement here… but I am in San Francisco now! Just flew in today, it’s been beautiful, saying hello to the city and my lovely friends :)

From here, on Tuesday morning, I will be going back to Japan until August 11th — I’ll pop in and say hi whenever I can or tweet what I’m up to here and there, but I won’t see you as often… Have a great summer, everyone!

Picture is my suitcase that has been traveling with me since 1997.

p.s My shop is having a summer vacation sale, you won’t receive your order until I get back in August, but if you are not in rush, please stop by! While supplies last — I won’t be re-listing again… until I get back, that is :)

Posted under studio news, trip

Hello, hello!! It’s me! How are you, everyone? It’s year 2010! How has your new year been so far?! I hope you are off to a great start! Mine has been pretty awesome — spending a quality time with my family and friends, traveling around and seeing lots of great places/things here in Japan, eating lots of yummy foods… I couldn’t ask for more :)

Just wanted to stop by here and say hi real quick :) I have so many pictures already, I hope to share them all here so please stay tuned…

Picture is from Japanese new year — “kadomatsu” in front of my parents’ pharmacy.

I have so many hopes and things I’d love to accomplish this year, I still need to sit down and really think about them… it’s always nice to have a goal!

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and exciting new year 2010!!!

Posted under Japanese, events, trip

So I was in Meredith, New Hampshire over the weekend for my friend Liz’s girls celebration before she gets married in D.C…. (it’s this Saturday!) It was such a fun trip, I saw lots of beautiful fall scenery everywhere we went, here are some pictures from the trip… enjoy!

Found type — Cruise ticket office sign.

I always love coin-operated binocular viewers. This one was by the lake…

We took a train that goes around the lake for like an hour.

A red tree. Isn’t it romantic?

Driving around the lake…

These were so beautiful…

Stopped by this really tiny vineyard for a wine tasting. It was special.

On Sunday… it snowed…! Looking out the window from our lake house we rented… (you might not see well here, but it was snowing so much!)

Have a great day, everyone!

Posted under trip

Hello! I just got back last night from my mini vacation to New England, starting a little slow this morning with lots to catch up…

We were just in Montpelier, Vermont for our friends’ beautiful wedding and got to walk around a little bit yesterday before we headed home. It was such a cute little town, found lots of cool old signs, managed to snap these before it started raining…

Bear Pond Books: Lovely sign!

Coffee Corner: Always sounds good… (I need one more cup)

Hope you all had a great weekend! :)

Posted under trip, typography

Happy Friday, everyone! and it’s the 4th of July weekend!

For the happy holiday weekend, I’ll bring something from happy place… the Disneyland. yay. I love it there and it’s been more than 6-7 years since the last visit so I really wanted to spend a day there while we were in LA… :) This time, though, I looked at more designs and types and I was actually really amazed how well everything is designed and put together. It must have been so fun to work on the designs at Disneyland…

The entrance: this image here is a bit small to read, but it says “Population 500,000,000″ — is that how many people Disneyland can hold? Also says “Elevation 138 feet”

Cute postal box:

aww Churros… Love this design!

I know this font, it fits the restaurant.

Jedi Training Academy (!!) — I thought the logo is pretty cool. and yes, I am a Star Wars fan.

(look at all the jedi-to-be!)

Nice wood sign.

Hand-drawn (I think) sign.

and one of the Disney classics… Pirates of the Caribbean. (The ride had some new additions.)

Love this waiting line information board.

The reflection was kind of crazy, but I thought this poster was cool.

One of many bathroom signs. They were all different in each different area.

and another Disney classic… Haunted Mansion sign. (I also know this font, but the decoration around the sign really makes it)

While waiting in a line, looking at these were fun — simple and designed well.

Another nice sign on wood.

Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road!

The Happiest Turkeys on Earth! Seriously. (read the descriptions) Happy turkeys get very cool sign, too.

These are so well designed and I thought it would make a great letterpress poster… I want to print something like this soon…

Very cool.

A big letter R from Disney’s California Adventure:

San Francisco wall art… (I miss you, SF)

Another great Churros stand design. Color combination is awesome.

Hope you enjoyed my finidings… wishing you all a happy 4th of July weekend!!! See you on Monday :)

Posted under trip, typography

After we got off of the cruise ship, we went to Huntington Beach to hang out, have lunch, walk around… our friends’ flights weren’t until later of the day so we hopped on a car from Long Beach to here. I loved the drive along the sea, palm trees, sunshine… aww California goodness… I miss it…

and I saw lots of surfers, too. In the ocean and on the street:

Cool graphic. These were everywhere on the street.

Huntington Beach bench :: HB

No smoking, No bicycle, No skateboard:

There was this huge Pelican watching the beach…

Ruby’s Surf City Diner: love the colors!

sometimes, graphics are all you need:

Chopping board:

I love this sign! Some letters are missing so it’s drawn in, some letters are falling… but how perfect this imperfection is! I love that.

Lots of cool colors around the beach, it’s very eye catching.

Rusty sign:

Love this yellow on yellow blind emboss types, too…

It is July 1st today! Yes, summer is here!

Posted under trip, typography

I found lots of types, arts and designs on my trip and I would love to share them all here for your inspiration and for my inspiration… I know I can use some of the elements for my design someday… I think it’s also a fun way to show where I have been for the last 10 days :)

I’m going to start from the beginning of my trip… We arrived at Long Beach Airport in LA.

Nice Helvetica welcome board:

and I also saw a different welcome sign — it says the same thing, but you see how it feels so different with different fonts?

found art – it looks interesting and very conceptual piece.

From the Queen Mary restaurant menu (before we get on a cruise ship, we stopped by Queen Mary hotel):

I love this sign. Very vintage and cool.

and this is the cruise ship we took to Ensenada, Mexico:

It was a 3-day wedding cruise, stopped by Ensenada for one day, went to this gorgeous place for a wedding.

The hand-written/drawn house sign:

The patio/pool area:

Oceanfront area:

From the house backyard — Cute turtle statues:

Love this mini bicycle with plants:

Love the patterns and colors! So pretty…

One of the dining areas in the house. Isn’t it gorgeous?

The wedding was beautiful as you can imagine :)

and… right before I got back to the cruise ship, found this wall and the public phones — love the color combination!

I saw lots of hand-written ads on the street on the way to the wedding venue, I wish I wasn’t in the car so I could have taken more pictures because they looked so cool…. next time, maybe… :)

Hope you enjoy so far — more to come!

Posted under trip, typography

Hello! I am back from vacation now, a lot to catch up, feeling a little tired and overwhelmed with what I have to catch up with, but we had such a nice time with friends, different cities, weddings were great, got lots of happy energies…. it was a great trip :)

I took a lot of pictures and I will be sharing them here all week this week! I need sometime to sort everything out, though… (I took 419 pictures, apparently.)

Pictures are from the flight. I love looking out the window and see the sky, ground, the whole earth… it is always different, always inspiring to me.

Somewhere in between LA and Boston:

Somewhere in between Boston to New York:

(the window was really dirty – can you see?)

The best part of coming back from vacation was to see Maia!!! She had a great time also, with her best friend, Hime and her parents. We missed her so much!! Thanks to our petsitter, Mallow and Milo the Chinchillas were doing great, too! :)

Posted under trip