One of the ideas I had was a simple wooden toy made of the Yakushigi cedar, one of the kind wood from the island that has a very distinct smell... it was a very special smell that I remembered from my childhood visits to the island and I wanted to create a toy that is beautiful but also stimulates senses including visual, tactile and smell. Hopefully it will be an object that lasts for a very long time and have a place in kid's room, living room, or in the parents' office when a kid grow out of "playing" with the toy and perhaps gets passed on when they have their grandchild.
We headed out to a wood shop nearby our house to discuss if it's anyway possible. I talked the vision and FB added a great visuals to communicate specifics. They are going to build a prototype and we will see where we go from there!
Having to leave our home and office for so long brought a lot of unexpected expenses and hurdles (like dealing with a car accident that happened earlier this month)... but it's hard to imagine following an organic and intuitive creative process if we were only here as a tourist for 5 days. So the idea of "Inspirational Investment" definitely works! We have little less than 20 days here on the island and I am really hoping that we could execute it! (crossing all my fingers!!!).
p.s. On the different note..., we just got a box of products that will be ready to be shipped from Yakushima to our office in Los Angeles. As you could imagine, I am thrilled!! More stories to come about this soon!
xoxo
-wakako
