Here’s a nice story that I would like to share:

I had a customer that needed her bracelet resized. She sent her jewelry to my studio, I resized it and sent it back. Shortly after, I received a gorgeous handmade scarf with the following note:

Dear Yumi,
I take the express bus to work and crochet to pass the time. These items are usually gifts for family, friends, church fundraising and charity. The enclosed is a little “thank you” for your courtesy. When the cold wind blows, consider it a big warm hug from me.
- Maria

THANK YOU Maria! Amazing crochet work and the vibrant purple, fushia, turquoise colors are very me! You are a wonderful example of spreading kindness, thoughtfulness, and being nice!

Martin Luther King Jr. was also a wonderful teacher of spreading kindness, hope and faith to all. He believed that, “Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” Good thing to ponder

Happy MLK Day! Think Nice!

Bathing is something that I rarely chat about with my friends here in NYC.

Probably, it’s because we consider bathing to be a boring daily habit. However, deeply rooted in my Japanese heritage, I was raised to think that bathing is an art-form that should be cherished, enjoyed, and appreciated (not to mention healthy!)

Onsen is the Japanese word for bathing in natural hot springs. Located only near volcanically active soils, onsen water is a famous, magic elixir known to cure all sorts of health conditions and is simply the best, best relaxation spa in the world! Some say it is also the fountain of youth!

Over the years, I’ve trekked around the back country of Japan in search of the perfect onsen. Hakone Onsen is wonderful, rich in arts and culture and close to Mt. Fuji. I love searching for my hidden onsen. It would be tucked away at the bottom of a snowy volcanic mountain, overlooking lush green moss and rock gardens. The sounds of cascading water streams would lull me to a serene state of mind…and the hustle and bustle of city life would be far, far away

It’s always good to slow down life, step away and enjoy! If you can’t travel over to Japan for an onsen bath, why not simply take a warm, toasty bath and imagine being in the mountains of Japan. Heavenly, I say!

* photo credit: http://tinyurl.com/73vpdp

It all started with Myspace. The little website that could. It paved the way for a new dimension of the internet, a new facet of people’s lives: the internet as a social tool. Now the sites seem to be spreading like wildfire, with facebook close on the heels of Myspace (now maybe even a hair ahead), plus there’s imeem, LinkedIn, and Twitter to name just a few, not to mention the whole blogging world which is its own version of socializing and networking.

It’s 2009, baby! We live in a world of blogging and tweeting! It kind of makes me feel like we are all part of one huge social experiment, like a real world SimCity. Imagine all the scrolling fingers and clicking keyboards right at this very second! Just like it is hard to imagine life without a cell phone, I bet life without the internet seems almost impossible to millions of people around the world (I know it’s true for me!) (and yet I’m not totally ignorant of the fact that there are still millions of people in the world who have never touched a computer, never mind surfed the world wide web).

My favorite new experiment, if you will, is Twitter. Like the other sites, it has an initial addicting quality. Perhaps that is why all of these sites can succeed in their own right: they’re all generally offering the same things, but they’re just different enough that each new user feels like a kid in a candy store.

What I like about Twitter is it’s short and sweet. Not a ton of applications or wordy descriptions. And the whole point is that it is updated more regularly than sites like Myspace or facebook. You can get minute by minute feeds of how people are spending their time, and I think it’s fascinating! It’s a way to feel connected to people who are far away, or maybe who you’ve never even met. To be inspired by what they do on a daily basis, or perhaps to learn through their experiences and mistakes. Not to mention that it is a great networking tool (like the other social sites).

Sure, the internet may lead to more people sitting at home in front of their computers, but the difference is, now they’re not alone while doing it.