Tanabata Festival

Happy Tanabata Festival!

Today, July 7th marks my favourite Japanese festival – Tanabata! The decorations for this festival are just so pretty!

Tanabata originated more than 2,000 years ago with an old Chinese tale called Kikkoden. Once there was a weaver princess named Orihime and a cow herder prince named Hikoboshi living in space. After they got together, they were playing all the time and forgot about their jobs. The king was angry at them and separated them on opposite sides of the Amanogawa River (Milky Way). The king allowed them to meet only once a year on July 7th. This is why tanabata is also known as the star festival. It's believed that Orihime and Hikoboshi can't see each other if July 7th is rainy, so people pray for good weather and also make wishes for themselves.

Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture) and Hiratsuka (Kanagawa Prefecture) are particularly famous for their elaborate Tanabata displays. Shopping arcades in these two cities feature huge decorations that are sponsored by local shops, which try to outdo one another in the size of their displays.

For more info please click here. I hope you might be inspired to make you own little origami paper decoration on this special day. And if so, you might like Origami Club!


Tonight Yumi-chan and I will attend a special Tanabata Festival Concert at the Conservatorium of Music organised by the Sydney Japan Foundation. To book tickets please click here.

Also, please check out Yumi-chan’s new blog Dear Plastic where she documents her no plastic challenge. Yumi recently posted about grocery store co-ops where you can re-fill your own containers rather than adding to landfill by purchasing items that come covered in packaging. This is something I was inspired to do when I saw No Impact Man movie with Lovely Liane. Here is Yumi's list of some Sydney co-ops to get you started. I can't wait to join one! But the best kept secret is that the Manly co-op on Yumi's list also sell fresh tofu, umeboshi and other Japanese essentials like mirin!

Enjoy lovelies!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

SANAA Starstruck!

I am a little starstruck after meeting Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA architects this week!



Do you remember my post on SANAA here?





Well the lovely Nishizawa-san came to Sydney for a one night super speedy stopover on Thursday night for an exhibition at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation .

I was so lucky to be able to listen to his 1 hour special presentation about his favourite projects. He was so delightful and I could not wipe my smile from my face! I somehow gathered up enough courage to ask him for a photo and he very politely replied that my Japanese was very good! So sweet!



And - oh my goodness he signed my book (I am never using that pen again! )



If you are in Sydney be sure to see the exhibition!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich

xxx

Mini me boxes

I hope you had a lovely, relaxing and inspiring Saturday!

This morning I went to Clipper Cafe for breakfast and when I returned home I found this oishii bento lunch box surprise that was left as a treat in the fridge for me! A $6.50 Salmon bento from Tokyo Mart!

And another yummy boxed treat...my mum and I ordered our fruit and vegetables to be delivered this week! We called upon Fresh Food Direct to deliver super fresh, super convenient and super cheap and cheerful fresh foods! yay!

Hope you had a lovely Saturday lovelies!

Love Love

Hello Sandwich

xxx

Hello Sandwich Birthday

Hello Sandwich is getting old! eek! This post marks 100 Hello Sandwich posts! And yesterday Hello Sandwich had a birthday! Yay! The lovely Clipper Cafe agreed to host a special private birthday dinner for me and allowed me to decorate the tables! 

I couldn't resist but make scalloped edged metallic party hats for all of my guests!

I just love party hats don't you! 

Maybe it's because I'm a milliners daughter but I just LOVE them! They are so fun, festive and silly! 

I hope you had a lovely weekend filled with inspiration, creativity, relaxation, love and delicious treats!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

Lullatone

Hello! I am so sorry for not posting sooner! I have been very busy trying to write my MFA thesis before August! And unfortunately I think Hello Sandwich posts might be a little less frequent until my thesis has been handed in. Gomen! :( But lovely blogs like Ii-ne-kore, Sarah's loft, Handmade Love, Make it Easy and Meet me at Mikes will be inspiring you with beautiful posts until I am back in full swing. But having said that I am going to do my best to post as much as possible during the thesis writing days! xxx

Today is so lovely and rainy and cosy in Sydney. I am all rugged up with granny squares blanket and hot water bottle, eating homemade bento and listening to my new music crush Lullatone who I discovered through the lovely Aron from Make it Easy blog. Aron has the best music taste in the world! Be sure to visit his blog often for the most beautiful music features.

Anyway I am so thankful to Aron because husband and wife team Lullatone are so gorgeous. Based in Nagoya, Japan the duo made up of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida make music, Art Direct and make all of their own film clips, have a huge advertising portfolio, appear on Japanese childrens TV and are just all-round adorable. They even make music for Sanrio's Hello Kitty! You can read all about them on this Ping Mag Interview.

And, if you are anything like me and rather fancy yourself as a electronic music maker staying up late to make 'impermanent audio style electronic experimental music on garage band or better still your boyfriends version of pro tools or reason' then Lullatones Raindrop Melody Maker is the game for you! Play online to make you own raindrop music.

I just adore this Bedroom Bossa Band clip:

Shawn on Japanese kids TV:



See some of Lullatone's commercial work here:

So cute!
Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

P.S. Can you believe they came to Australia last year and I missed it! so sad!

Tom Polo

I don't mind Tom Polo's artwork.

Misaki Kawai

I just bought this gorgeous zine and am now waiting for it to arrive! 

Misaki Kawai is my new art crush. I spotted her on Ii-ne-kore (thank you lovely Bree!) and now I am so in love with Misaki-san's artwork which includes installation, sculpture, painting, drawing and zine making! Sigh! What can't she do! 

Misaki-san is also a friend of my favourite Japanese band Kiiiiiii! In fact Misaki made a zine with Kiiiiiii's Reiko Tada! The pair are super talented and super cute!