A Visit From Tokyo

I first met Ogawa san at our Tokyo pop up in November 2024. He and other creator partners helped us pull it off, and we all went to celebrate afterwards at a traditional restaurant in the Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo. Over the meal, Ogawa san mentioned that he loved our sumi collection—but wished we had more products in the lineup.

It planted the seed for what would become a memorable visit to Portland.

KEN TOMITA

Co-Founder

Upon my return to Portland, I kept the conversation going. As we developed our sumi desk it only made sense to get him our first one. While I assumed for practical reasons we would just ship it to him, he got inspired to fly all the way here from Japan with his family to personally see and document how we make his desk.

Behind the Scenes

工房へようこそ

I gave him a shop tour where he got to meet everyone while his kids shot photos of everything—there was great energy in the space. Then he got to work capturing the manufacturing process, from machining the wood and cork, to hand-dying with the sumi ink, and finally assembling the pieces. It was literally the very first sumi desk that we had made from start to finish, and we were all excited to bring it to life for him. It was a full day of shooting, with our production crew explaining all the nuances that go into the process.

We packaged the desk and shipped it back for him. In Tokyo, he set up his new office with our all-black desk and made this video about our process and his impressions—it was fascinating to see our work through a native Japanese lens:

Oregon Summer

私の愛するオレゴン

With the work out of the way, we got to hanging out. He had traveled so far for us and even brought his family, so we rolled out the red carpet to show him what we had to offer in our hometown.

We loaded up the paddle boards and kayaks and headed up to Trillium Lake to take in some views of majestic Mount Hood. Ogawa san even tried stand-up paddle boarding for the first time. This has long been one of my go-to activities on a nice Portland summer day.

We hit up my favorite beach on the Oregon Coast for some sandy fun. The half mile walk through old growth coastal rainforest is beautiful in its own right, meandering along a fern covered creek. Then the view opens up to a stunning cove.

Of course if I go to the beach, I'm going to swing by my favorite crab shack on the way home. They tried their hand at crabbing— and miraculously on the last throw of the day caught a legal crab for our picnic on the water!

To round out our tourist activities, we simply did what I used to do as a teenager growing up in the countryside. We went up to a school near my old house to hang out at the playground, shoot some hoops, and watch the sunset.

From Tokyo to Portland, from pop ups to playing basketball, we connected over excitement about product, passion about work, creativity, place, family, friends and pets. Thanks for coming to visit, it was great having you.