Every trip we have had to Japan has been a wonderful one, but we always fill our itinerary too much and we are embarrassed to say we rarely get the chance to visit museums, gardens, or temples during our visits. We do sometimes come across beautiful gardens and buildings by mistake (it’s not very difficult in Japan), but during our next trip we have to create a more leisurely schedule and try some touristy stuff for once.

Having said that, through our work we had the opportunity to visit some spectacular architecture projects by one of my favorite architects Terunobu Fujimori. I guess the first time I was acquainted with Mr. Fujimori’s work was around 5 years ago when we first started to have a conversation with Peter and Christine from Studio Junction. I remember right away being smitten with his work, and enamored with his use of materials and craftsmanship. I would be even more impressed as I learned more about him, that he almost always uses amateur craftsmen for his projects, and was an architecture historian for decades before being commissioned his first project.

As luck would have it, we visited one of the handful of public architecture works by Fujimori, and his very first commission which was completed in 1991.

The Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum.

We hope you enjoy the photos!

Cedar timber peaks extend through the roof to the entrance of the museum.

All of the metal components of the museum including the handles and hinges on the windows and doors were forged by a very famous metal worker in Kyoto.

Of course you have to take your shoes off to enter the museum.

A handmade window looks as if it has rain constantly trickling down.

The interior walls and floor are a mix of mortar, straw, and mud.

Because the walls, ceiling, and floor are the same colour there is a visual softness to the space. All of the lines are blurred.

The collection of taxidermy represents the various sacrifices during the festivals in the region.

The exterior cedar paneling is actually hand split log, by a master who unfortunately has since passed away. We were shown two boards, one attempted by Fujimori-san, and the other by the master and it was incredible the difference between the two. The hand split log follows the natural texture of the wood grain, as oppose to a saw which cuts straight through the wood. The texture on the wood is incredible, and the owner of the museum told us if one day they must replace the cladding they will not be able to do it with hand split logs.

The building resonates perfectly within its surroundings.

In other news, we are happy to say our 2nd book is going to print very soon. Please stay tuned!

As anyone who has been away from a loved one can attest, the more you buy the more you are thinking about them, am I right? At least that’s what we told ourselves every time we bought something for Elodie. Actually in the end it seemed like we bought more than we actually did. So that’s good, at least for our wallet.

A book about a cat (we surmise). A wooden car that plays music when you move it.

This happened. Mother / daughter hats. Couldn’t help myself.
Last year we went to see the cherry blossoms in High Park. It was about a week after Elodie was born and she was asleep in her car seat. This time proved more difficult with a toddler. It’s just so amazing how much they change in the first year. From tiny blob to fully mobile and four times the size. Elodie became more preoccupied with pushing her stroller around than looking at the blossoms.

A few weeks ago we headed to Japan for a whirlwind trip to gather content for volume 3 of our book and to visit with friends. First stop was a day in Kyoto. It’s kind of embarrassing but we’ve been to Kyoto twice and still haven’t visited a temple or garden. I demanded that next trip we make it a priority. But this time we had another agenda – glass artist Kazumi Tsuji traveled in to say hello and to introduce us to another artist. We have an exhibition with Kazumi on May 30th.

A cute sweets shop, and playing ball at sunset in a back street.

As many East coasters can relate, we were desperate for a hit of spring.

John was obsessed with the potted trees. We wandered through Gion over to Pontocho to find some dinner. We ended up at a Japanese bbq joint where we grilled some amazing marbled beef. I am sparing the vegan/vegetarians from the obligatory gross raw meat photo. You all know what it looks like!

After a wonderful stop in Tajimi to visit Masanobu Ando, we headed over to Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture. We were treated to an incredible cold soba lunch, to which we realize we have never truly had soba before. Unfortunately I don’t know the name of the place but it’s renown and the outside looks like ^^

The space is so simple and calm, just three tables. The owner, pictured, does it all.

Love the plant.

The pottery has been used for 20+ years and has a beautiful patina. It’s the kind of thing that needs special care, like hand washing, but creates such an integral experience.

The owner made the indigo textile rug draped over the Tsuitate in the front entrance. She does it as a hobby! Next door there is a nice antique shop with plenty of indigo pieces but we didn’t have time or cash (we always forget how Japan is still quite the cash society).

We stopped in for a coffee and cheese toast at the famous Cafe Marumo. The cafe is designed by the founder of the Satsuma-Mingei-Furniture movement, and it was the local hang out for philosopher Soetsu Yanagi, and other famous Japanese writers. The cafe opened in 1956 and is a part of a Ryokan (Japanese style Hotel), but you can just visit the cafe on its own.

3-3-10 Chuo, Matsumoto-city
8.00 – 18.00 (open 7 days a week)

End of the cherry blossoms, but still photo worthy I guess!

Matsumoto castle.

 

Laboratorio

A beautiful vintage book shop.

We stayed in Asama Onsen at a ryokan.  Usually we stay in the super mod ones, but this was our first classic ryokan experience. It actually took awhile to relax, though we desperately needed it. After a bath and dinner served in our room, we passed out at 8pm! The other plus was all of our meals were included, and since we usually stay at modern ryokans we got really used to the gastronomy Kaiseki experience which we weren’t enthusiastic about. Here the kaiseki was more approachable, still delicate and beautiful but everything just tasted delicious.

By the time we returned to Tokyo I was over carrying my camera around! We met up with Masanori Oji and Taku for izakaya.

A platter of sashimi and sea urchin. So delicious!

We’re looking forward to sharing some more photos with you this week!

The next day we visited Japanese boutique shop Kiki, owned by husband and wife team Naoko and Nori Akechi. It’s probably strange to say one of our favourite shops in all of Stockholm is this beautiful shop carrying Japanese goods. It seems wherever we go, we can’t be too far away from Japanese handcrafts.

One aspect of the shop that blew us away was the single servings of tea in small ceramic cups that were given to each of the customers as they came in the store. During the dark cold weather here it warms the bones and allowed you to slow down your pace a little to enjoy the nice articles on hand.

A beautiful black lacquered cedar chest with iron hardware. The bottom right is an amazing safe deposit box.

During our visit there was an exhibition on Japanese ceramicists Tsunehisa and Keiko Gunji.

Nori’s reflection in the mirror.

The Nendo Illuminated by Wästberg event was an installation of lamps in various configurations ranging from planters, fruit baskets, ice-buckets, and bird cages.

Though not directly Japanese, our CEREMONY set is inspired by the Japanese tea ceremony. Here is Eero Koivisto talking to some Swedish journalists about the tea set.

Canadian designer Patty Johnson co-exhibited with us, this is her “Haida chair” made by Swedish furniture maker David Design. So beautiful in person!

After this trip to Stockholm, I think we’re going to have to come up with an updated guide in Volume 2 of the Mjölk book. We discovered some new places, and met so many great people!

Here is an additional sampling of our most recent trip.

It has become a bit of a ritual for us to start our first night in any city by trolling the streets in search of a restaurant we have never heard of before. Since we were staying in Södermalm it wasn’t very difficult to walk down the street and peer into the windows of cozy restaurants and find something that looked interesting.

We walked by Blue light of Yokohama and saw this black circle with three copper pendants in the window.

In the next window was a brown vase on light blue tiles displaying an Ikebana arrangment.

Who doesn’t like Izakaya? It’s also a good sign when you see a bench of people talking and enjoying their food. We decided this would be our first meal of the trip!

The food was exactly what we were needing after a long flight: Classic Japanese comfort!

More to come all week! Stay tuned!

As you may know, we went to Stockholm recently. This was perhaps our best trip to Scandinavia, and we were extremely surprised we would enjoy Stockholm in February as much as we did. There is something about a country that has learned to make the best out of the cold dark winters. It seems there isn’t a restaurant or bar in the city that isn’t lit in the evenings with candlelight, and even the shopkeepers keep large torches on the sidewalks in front of their shop, beckoning you to come inside and warm your bones.

I would like to start this introduction with a big thank you to Monocle’s Hugo Macdonald, the host of radio program Section D, who interviewed us during our visit to the Stockholm Furniture Fair. If you would like to listen to our interview it starts around 40 minutes into the program (around 3/4 of the way), episode 70.

http://monocle.com/radio/shows/section-d/

We have to keep a some fodder for the print version of Mjolk, but we hope you enjoy the few teasers we’ve created for our most recent trip.
There will be a few normal (aka non instagram) posts to follow soon.

Amazing packaging, is there anything better than exploring a grocery store in a different country? Though I have a feeling the one on the left is maybe from the UK, the brand Saltå (right) has a butik in Söder.

The best part of this season is having Semla buns and heated milk, they’re filled with whipped cream and meant to fatten you up over the winter. Needless to say, there were a few days where we had double fika.

The Canadian Embassy is right in the center of the city, near Sergels torg. We met up with Eero Koivisto to help set up the display for the CEREMONY party.

This was the first time we’ve visited during the winter, and Stockholm didn’t disappoint.

We headed out to Kastellholmen to check out the Nendo installation, “Illuminated” for Wästberg. We love how they place candles outside to greet guests during the cold night. More on this installation another day.

We were fashionably late for this party, which in Stockholm terms means too late, as the party was over. We decided to pop into Hotel Skeppsholmen for a coffee, and then proceeded to walk back into town. But alas while we were crossing the bridge we ran into Mårten Claesson and Ola Rune! They were on their way to the Glass Elephant opening party in a bunker, so we joined them.

The next day we attended the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair. Surprisingly it was our first time visiting. Although we saw plenty of nice designs, we already work with the best companies so this was more a casual visit. Nendo was the guest of honour, and this their installation “80 sheets of mountains”. We didn’t bring our camera to the show and I regret not getting a better snap of it! Check it out over on Designboom.

It was recommended to us to visit Speceriet for lunch, where we ran into Jonas Lindvall and his lovely wife and daughter. He designed some brilliant lighting for Wästberg which was originally used in Speceriet and their larger formal restaurant gastrologik. He generously introduced us to the head chef and took us on a tour next door at gastrologik. Jonas Lindvall designed both restaurants, and although we had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful white and copper space we didn’t get a chance to have dinner there.

Chairs designed by Jonas Lindvall with Copper pendant lights hanging above (soon to be available at Mjolk).

This usually sits outside the entrance of the restaurant, we loved the design.

“To be perfectly Frank”, an exhibition by Michael Anastassiades at Svenskt Tenn.

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Fika time with (more) Semla buns.

One of our favorite stops in Stockholm is seeing mid century galleries Jacksons and Modernity.

Our official event listing in the Stockholm design week guide.

The party at the embassy. It’s hard to tell how many people came in this photograph but we had at least 300 people come to the event. We were blown away with the turn out, and it was so nice to be in such good company alongside Claesson Koivisto Rune and Patty Johnson.

A late night stroll for a night cap with Eero and his lovely wife Deta.

We had to stop in to visit one our our favourite people Pia Wallen, a designer we have been working with before our store was even open. This is the view from her studio.

The amazing staircase we walked up on our first visit to Pia’s studio. We now know better and opt for the elevator.

There’s plenty more to come, stay tuned!