Or day naps and a lot of caffeine in the morning.

Yesterday on a FaceTime call with G-Flo, told me she hates water because its “boring.” I suggested she put something in it (referring to Crystal Light, or flavored water drops) and she responded, “Like what, vodka?” UM. WHAT. (more…)

Every Monday at Matsumoto Studio is #matsumotomonday. A day that we take time on the blog to share a family story, something about ourselves or anything behind the scenes. When we started blogging daily, we had to figure out what we were going to talk about then if anyone was actually going to care. We realized it didn’t matter if we had 100 hits or zero. What did matter is that we used the blog to tell our story and remind ourselves where our ideas for Matsumoto Studio are rooted and that’s our family. Looking at what inspires us and how our designs have evolved we see a lot of Hawaii and a lot of history. We take what we know best, our culture and our heritage, and turn them into something we can share with everyone else. We hope that people are not getting tired of seeing these old family photos, because they are really what make up what we are today.

Today’s post is a photo from I’m guessing, 1991. Boy’s Day, when we actually all looked like boys. Jes had a bowl cut and I was in an army uniform—like what. I love these old photos  because a lot these memories, I don’t remember. These were the years that we lived in our first house upcountry. A lot of times, this also seems like a big blur. Pictures like this help to solidify the memory. They make it real again and make it fact that my siblings did indeed put me in that army uniform and wished my name was Justin.

I started realizing the impact of my family upbringing and how it affected my work as an artist and design while I was in college–away from home. Since then it has been fueling my ideas and dreams for what I create. Everything I thought didn’t really matter is starting to matter most. I imagine the rest of my career as an artist and designer will be driven by the appreciation and celebration of my home and culture. One day it will go full circle,  I will return back home to my roots and we’ll have Matsumoto everydays. Until then look forward to more throwbacks of three happy fat kids with bad hair cuts.

From a Sunday two years ago because Sundays are not Sundays if they are not also beach days.

Let’s do it again.

Before New York, there was San Diego. My first “home” away from home that I struggled to come to terms with as a place I lived.  Graduating from high school I knew I wanted to go away for college. After watching my sister fight to stay, but then leave anyway, my fate was already decided and I was going. I was lucky to move to a new city where my family, my sister, already lived for five years. My sister even went to the same college and I followed in her footsteps and even studied the same major. Since I watched her struggle, I knew I might struggle too.

My first year of college was difficult. In the first semester, nothing major went wrong, but I was learning about what it was like to live alone away from my family. All my friends were learning. That plus focusing on school (remember, that’s what I was there for) but also making new friends and enjoying a new city. That Fall semester was a rush and a whirlwind. Returning back for my second semester in the Spring things were different. I started to miss home. Finally people were finding their place in school and social groups and I was starting to really see how different life on “the mainland” was from Hawaii. School was more difficult and I put in many more hours of studio time, often not making enough friend time.

Towards the end of that Spring semester I felt very distant from my school and community. Always being from a place where everyone knew each other, I was surrounded by strangers daily. USD was not even that big of a school, yet I felt so small.  I took advice of my advisors and friends and started looking for more things to get involved in. After all, I came from such a busy and scheduled life in high school (school, tennis, clubs, art), it was time for me to make one in my new home.

This struggle and overcoming my first face-to-face match up with “the real world” influenced my art practice for my remaining years at USD.  During my second year, I was more involved in school activities, was able to create the art I wanted to create and of course, got to know San Diego a little better too. A pattern emerged and when it became time of my senior thesis I explored how my present life  brought meaning towards my past and as a senior, my thesis, Please Remove Your Shoes, was born.

For the first time everything started to make sense. I understand that I would not have made it to where I stood as a graduating senior if I didn’t struggle and fight as a freshman four years before. As I continued through my art major, I also kept looking back to my Japanese heritage and Hawaii upbringing as inspiration for my work. That seemed like the most natural thing to do because I knew it best.

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I was five years old. I don’t remember writing any of this, but thanks to my mom the memory saver, I know I did.  We didn’t hit China, we just got beat by science. It was my brother’s genius idea to dig a hole and in an attempt to fill it with water, pushing it further and further into the ground, where it got stuck. Live and learn.

In 1995 we had no iPads. We didn’t have smart phones and we did not have the internet. We got that in the next house we lived in. As children we occupied ourselves with things that took us away from the TV and into the “real world.” I loved playing in the backyard. It wasn’t big, or fancy. We didn’t have a play set and it wasn’t until our next house that I got a tree house! My childhood was filled of making my own adventures. Playing with the sand, water, and leaves from the trees I also talked to myself and made up scenarios in my head. Sorta sounds like I was crazy, but really I think these are the moments that tested how clever I could really be with the bare minimum.

Sorry for being the biggest water waster in Kahului that day. I’m not sorry for making the river, making my own adventure, and imagining I was somewhere else in the world while never leaving my backyard. I did all that before I had the internet.

I’m talking about a dime, as in perfect 10, not just worth a few cents. I’m throwing it back on this Thursday to a state I’ve learned to greatly appreciate–California. From top to bottom, east to west, I’ve only really explored a few hot spots of the Golden state. All I have are these memories pictures but I have to say that being here on the East coast has made me long for California more and more. Of course while I was there, I was finding everything wrong with it, and now it seems like there is a lot of right going on with the left side of the USA.

Let’s start from the top, in the Bay. Oakland to be exact. Yes, I always think about what my life would’ve been like if I went to USF and spent four years in the Bay. My guess is my life would be a lot different, but I am so happy with where I’ve been so far. Now with so many ties up north, I can always visit and be guaranteed a good time. One of my first trips after graduating in 2011, we roamed Berkeley and Telegraph Avenue, obviously with the desire to stop at CREAM. Ice cream + chocolate chip cookies–yeah glad I didn’t get those every week or my pants size would be a lot different too. Cookies do rule my world though.

Moving down, how can I ever forget where it all goes down, in  JTOWNNN. Japan Town in Los Angeles. Taken during one of my first trips down to JTown, Japan towns are always so quaint and quiet in wherever they might be. Things are changing, business are moving and I would love to feel like I’m in a little piece of Japan, away from Japan again. Okay fine. I really just want to eat ramen and get mochi.

Last but not least, San Diego. I remember taking this picture during one of my last few months in college. In a part of town that I really only started going to during my last year of college but should have ventured to more often. This is the North Park Post Office. As retro and vintage as it seems, it is. The streets of North Park are filled with stores that take you back to a quieter time. If it wasn’t for that GMC truck and H3 monstrosity behind it, throw this photo in black and white and you might even be fooled about when it was taken.

Leaving San Diego to go to New York was the right thing. The time came for me to close the college chapter of my SD life and change my pace. I could have seen myself living in California longer, maybe in SD, LA, or SF, and I still do. There was only so much I could do in the four years I spent there and so much more I wish to explore. I want to climb more rocks, eat more food, see historic landmarks and make more memories. So far, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen from top to bottom. So California, thanks for the memories, I’ll be back for more. You better believe it.