To celebrate the publication of LOKAL STORY BOOK — released by tabi press in December 2025 and now available in both Korea and Japan — I held an exhibition of original illustrations. The book prints them very large, but the originals are tiny, so I thought it would be fun to see them side by side. On Thursday and Friday, all 15 dishes from the book were available to taste. They were wonderful.

This was my first time working in the cutout method. Painting, drying, mixing, cutting, layering — the whole process felt like preparing ingredients while imagining the taste of dishes I'd never tried. Waiting for paint to dry, watching colors blend on their own, hunting for just the right piece of paper, trimming carefully with scissors — it all felt surprisingly close to cooking.

LOKAL is a limited-run izakaya offering "local cuisine reimagined as bar food to enjoy with Japanese sake." It began when traveling editor Shindo wondered, "What if we tried changing this dish slightly?" — and has continued ever since. The book gathers recipes, illustrations, and travel-born stories from some of the menus that have appeared over the years.