青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

For the two of us . . . the creation of this book was a process of pulling together and confirming all that we saw and felt over our days of working with the fleeting mediums of food and flowers and visiting distant places.

——from the preface

In a house surrounded by lush greenery in the Jingumae (Harajuku) district of Tokyo stands “restaurant eatrip,” right next to The Little Shop of Flowers outside in the garden. The owners of the two shops have been business partners for more than ten years, and in this book they offer the ideas they have gleaned through their travels together for embellishing spaces with food and flowers.

For the two, travel has always been a way of expanding their horizons, of opening up their senses in unfamiliar places and discovering different new flavors and beauty. Here they visit four areas of Japan―Kanazawa, Nemuro, Kamakura, and Karuizawa―in each of the four seasons, coming into contact with flora and foodstuffs and turning those encounters into cuisine and flower arrangements. The volume is one that acts as a record of their travels and, in a broader sense, an inspirational guide for women wishing to lead deeply meaningful lives.

Nomura Yuri, the leader of the “eatrip” food project, was inspired to become a chef by her mother, who ran a hospitality class. She designs catering presentations, teaches cooking classes, writes magazine columns, appears on radio, and otherwise works to form and enhance varied connections between people, places, and things via food and décor inspired by the seasons and the spirit of hospitality. In 2009, she made her directorial debut with the movie eatrip, which was screened in five countries. She opened “restaurant eatrip” in Harajuku, Tokyo, in 2012. Recent publications include Shunkashuto oishii techo (Delicious Notebook for Every Season; Magazine House, 2017) and Tokyo Eatrip (Kodansha, 2018).

Iki Yukari is the owner of The Little Shop of Flowers, which she began running just on the weekends from August 2010. In March 2013, she moved the shop to Harajuku next to “restaurant eatrip.” Her one-of-a-kind floral creations range from small everyday gifts to presentations for exhibitions, parties, and weddings.