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Four days of learning, creating, and connecting through Japanese tradition. A few delicate strands of mizuhiki. At first, they may seem like nothing more than colourful cords. But as our hands begin to move, the cords slowly take shape, forming knots that have been part of Japanese customs for generations. Each knot carries its own form, technique, and sometimes a symbolic meaning. And behind the beauty of these knots lies something I find even more meaningful. The idea of co

The quiet beauty of Japanese wrapping culture A simple square of cloth. No buttons, no zippers, no fixed shape. Yet, with a few thoughtful folds and knots, it can become a bag, a gift wrapping, or a protective covering for something precious. This is furoshiki, (風呂敷) a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. Its beauty lies not only in what it can do, but also in the values it can quietly express. A Tradition Woven Through Time The practice of wrapping objects in cloth has a lon

A Japanese word for the small adjustments that make things feel just right I’ve had the same portable air conditioner for about five years. It worked. But every summer, I had the feeling that something wasn’t quite working as well as it should. This year, I finally became curious about what that “something” was. The hot weather arrived unusually early in Switzerland, already around May, and then the heatwaves seemed to keep coming back. So instead of simply switching on the a

Looking back at one small thing that made the hottest nights a little easier Summer is beginning to feel quite far away now. The days can still be warm, but the evenings are different. The air is cooler, and at night the temperature can drop to around 15°C, sometimes even lower. Sleeping has suddenly become easy again. There is that familiar feeling in the air that autumn is coming — and that before too long, we will be thinking about the cold again. Perhaps that is why I hav

Looking again at something I grew up with This summer was a hot one. It was hot in Switzerland, and it was hot in Japan too. For me, it was also a summer with a lot to think about. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I found myself looking at something very ordinary: a noren. I took this photograph simply because I liked the way the light fell across the fabric, and how softly it moved in the air. Growing up in Japan, noren were never something I thought very much about. The

A small sound from Japanese summer — and what it makes us notice There is a sound that, for me, belongs unmistakably to a Japanese summer. Chirin.チリン。ちりん。 The small, clear note of a furin moving in the breeze. Growing up in Japan, I don’t remember wondering why we associated this sound with summer, or why it somehow seemed to make a hot day feel a little cooler. It was simply there. Like cicadas, sudare, cold noodles, or the particular brightness of a Japanese summer afternoo

What two mizuhiki knots can say without a single word In Japan, sometimes a gift begins speaking before you open it. Not through the wrapping paper. Not through the card. Through the knot. At first glance, the red and white cords tied around a Japanese gift may simply look decorative. But the way those cords are tied can carry a message of its own. One knot says: May this happiness come again. Another says: May this happen only once. The difference can be just a knot. A Knot

What a very hot European summer made me notice again about Japanese summer Now that the evenings are cooler again, it is strange to think back to just how hot this summer felt. There were weeks in Switzerland when the heat seemed to stay inside the buildings long after the sun had gone down. I live in an older building without built-in air conditioning, and on some nights the apartment simply didn’t seem to cool. So I bought a portable air conditioner. Then began a small summ

A Morning of Quiet Focus By the time morning light reached the table, its surface was already scattered with the makings of something delicate — cords in red, gold, teal, and lilac, instruction sheets in Japanese and English, scissors, tiny shaping tools. a quiet reminder that what we were about to do was rooted in something far older than any of us. This was the setting for msubi's Mizuhiki Omamori Charm Workshop — a day devoted to one of Japan's most understated crafts. Wh