UNIQLO｜LifeWear Story 100 directed by Yataro Matsuura

It has been a week since I came to Portland.

The house that Jack had set up for me was in this quiet residential area just 15 minutes by car from downtown. It was a cozy one-story house with just the living room and the bedroom.

What I loved about this house was that there was a café that baked their own bread. It became my morning relaxation place where I would have my breakfast and coffee. It was run by a woman named Katherine. She was in her 30s. From my third visit, we started to chat and soon became friends.

One morning, when there weren’t many customers, Katherine and I had coffee and talked about our work and our past.

She runs this small café by herself where she serves these amazing pancakes and sandwiches. Her wonderful and kind hospitality to all her customers intrigued me very much. There were many regulars who were elderly and lived alone. She made sure to talked to them and ask if they needed any help.

“I am so inspired with how you work each day,” I said. With a great smile, she said, “I’m just running a business.”

“Business?”
“Yes,” she replied.

“Here’s how I see it. The condition for happiness is to be loved by someone. This is universal. The other condition is to have the correct purpose in business and pursue it the best you can. What you see in how I do my job or run my business is my sense of purpose and belief, I think.”

She puts her long hair in a bun, wraps a clean apron around her waist, gets up early to bake her bread, and treats each customer like a family. It surprised me to hear the word, business, from such a person. I felt a sense of aspiration towards this woman who can clearly claim that having a sense of purpose is the condition for happiness.

“Can you verbalize your sense of purpose?,” I asked.

Without hesitation, she said,
“Sure, I know that it’s not about making money. My purpose in business is an activity to improve something for the person in front of me. You could probably call it a project. It’s about putting the ideas to improve to practice. There are so many things that do not go the way I plan but that lets me develop internally. That gives me hope.”

“Thank you, Katherine for sharing that with me. Now I know why this café is such a heartwarming place.”

“Oh! I tried making donuts this morning. When you first came you asked if I had any donuts. Have a taste.”

She brought a donut from the kitchen and gave it to me wrapped in a napkin.

“If you like it, I’ll make some tomorrow, too!,” she said with a great smile.

Airism boxer briefs, always keeping you fresh and comfortable in this sticky season. Our mission was to achieve this “wear-nothing” sensation with the thickness, the lightness, and the refreshing comfort.

The ultra-fine microfiber creates this premium smoothness so fine on the skin. The waist elastic is light with special stitching that minimizes stress on the skin. It also features Cool Touch, stretch, and anti-microbial/anti-odor properties.

Have a sense of purpose and pursue it the best you can…

These words of Katherine resonated for a while inside me.

I thought about the word business. All business requires a sense of trust. Without trust, nothing happens. Because there’s mutual trust, the business continues.

What is the purpose of a business? Many would say it is the means to make money but it’s not necessarily so. It’s the honest sincerity to put in your best effort to make things better which builds trust. As a show of gratitude, money is exchanged. When you look at it from this way, a correct business is a daily exchange of gratitude.

“I’m responsible for everything that happens in this small café. But that responsibility brings me happiness and sense of accomplishment…,” Katherine said.

We all have our own sense of purpose and some kind of a trust, big or small, and have the responsibility towards it. To clearly verbalize and own it is no walk in the park. Because most of it is something we unconsciously undertake in our given environment. One thing I can say is someone like Katherine who can clearly speak about it is the successful one. To continue to think about this sense of purpose creates the hope and future for the business.

My encounter with Katherine at this stage in my life when I was not sure whether the work of book trading was right for me was a true blessing.

What is the correct purpose of the project which I’m running with Jack here in Portland? What responsibility should I undertake? I now know that it was important that I can clearly talk about these two points.

“Whatever the work, know and accept that it will impact someone in this world. This will allow you to better enjoy work.” I recalled these words from my dad.

There is another thing that I recalled related to my dad.

When I turned twenty, he said, “Hey, take off your clothes,” completely out of the blue. When I was baffled, “Just strip down to your underpants,” he said, laughingly.

As I stood in front of him in underpants, he looked at me and said, “You can be fat or thin. Every morning, stand in front of a mirror and study yourself like this. This is how you keep healthy.”

Yes, this has become my morning ritual now, staring myself in the mirror with just my briefs.

I just had to laugh that I still keep to this routine, here in Portland.

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Even briefs have design.
You’ll see it when you stand
in front of the mirror.
Go on, try it.

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MEN AIRism
BOXER BRIEFS $9.90

Choose this clothes

What is “LifeWear story 100?”

At UNIQLO,
there exist these lines of clothes
which has remained for many years,
trend-neutral
yet never dated.
Out of the line-ups,
they are the unsung presence,
sitting quietly behind in TV ads.

Yet, they are the culmination
of the years of passion and devotion,
where UNIQLO sought to pursue
more comfort,
more durability, and
more quality.

They give shape and gravitas
to what and who UNIQLO is,
and what UNIQLO continues
to nurture with great care.

To go beyond yesterday,
to reach higher tomorrow.

When you take it in your hands,
when you try it on,
it softly speaks to you,
almost like a friend.

What is a rich quality
lifestyle?
How is such a quality day spent?
What does happiness mean to you…

And you will find yourself
surprised to discover that such
piece of clothing has existed.

What is the UNIQLO principle?
Why do we call clothing LifeWear?
What kind of clothes constitute
LifeWear?

Here, we go deep into
the root of LifeWear,
to know
and to tell.
And I hope to write
stories that revolve
around LifeWear and myself.

LifeWear story 100 will be
a story about a journey with me and LifeWear.

Yataro Matsuura

Essayist, editor. Born 1965 in Tokyo.
For nine years from 2005, under the leadership of the founder, Shizuko Ohashi, he was the chief editor for the magazine, “Kurashi no Techo.” Since, he launched an online media site, “Kurashi no Kihon.” Currently, sits as a director for Oishii Kenko Ltd. Recognized for his eye for style and experience in presenting ideas for quality lifestyle. Regularly writes in his columns in newspapers and magazines. Has penned numerous best-sellers including “Kyo mo Teinei ni” and “Shigoto no Kihon Kurashi no Kihon 100.” Hosts a radio program on NHK Radio 1, “Karen Style.”