In a city flooded with mass-produced accessories, Shibuya Channel contributor Lily — a self-described handmade enthusiast — visited a workshop where the payoff was literally one pair of earrings nobody else would own. The setting was Class Hands, the hands-on corner inside HINT7 on the seventh floor of Tokyu Hands Shibuya, and the instructors were Nenouwasa (ネノウワサ), a floral unit based in Yoyogi-Uehara.
Workshop dates, pop-up windows, and floor events below are historical.
HINT7 and Class Hands
HINT7 is the experiential seventh floor Tokyu Hands opened after a major Shibuya-store renewal in early 2012. Lily’s visit sat inside that broader context: the floor was already being framed as a place for themed corners and seasonal programming rather than standard shelf retail. Class Hands is where visitors could join guided making sessions instead of only browsing product.
If you want the floor’s launch background, see Shibuya Channel’s March 2012 piece on the 7F renewal and Hands Café — a useful anchor for how HINT7 was being sold at the time as a destination, not an afterthought aisle.
Who Nenouwasa are
Nenouwasa operates from an atelier in Yoyogi-Uehara under the concept “flowers that remain in people’s memory.” Their work spans custom gifts, shop decoration, spatial staging, advertising shoots, and performance — a wide field that made them a watched name in Tokyo’s plant-and-space scene circa 2012.
The June workshop title was straightforward: “Let’s make plant earrings.” Participants used real plant material — dried flowers — to assemble wearable pieces. Plant jewelry was uncommon enough that the article treated the idea as genuinely new: accessories made from botanicals you might otherwise only see in vases.
Why earrings? Yoshina Umeda’s framing
Lily interviewed Yoshina Umeda (梅田佳苗), one half of Nenouwasa, about the design logic. Umeda’s answer centered on how plants enter daily life.
Plants usually live in the “display” category — something you place in a room. Nenouwasa wanted to explore wearing plants and taking them out into the world. Earrings fit that brief because they are easy to swap: unlike a ring or necklace you might wear for weeks, earrings can change with mood, outfit, or schedule. That lightness, Umeda argued, lowers the barrier for plants to mingle with ordinary routines.
Lily, who already rotated earrings daily, found the reasoning convincing — a small accessory shift can reset how you feel without a full wardrobe change.
Making a pair: samples, glue, and help
The session prepared three sample designs for reference. Lily browsed materials, started assembling, and admitted her hands were clumsy — glue gun included. The Nenouwasa duo stepped in to guide the tricky steps until a finished pair emerged: cute, personal, and literally unique.
The emotional note was not perfection but process. Choosing when you might wear the earrings, imagining them as a gift someone would enjoy — that thinking, Lily wrote, left her feeling mentally refreshed. Handmade work as small therapy, not just output.
PARCO pop-up: “Wearing Plants”
For readers who wanted ready-made pieces instead of a workshop bench, the article carried a timely announcement. From Friday 22 June through Friday 28 June 2012, Nenouwasa planned a limited shop at Shibuya PARCO Part 1, beside the first-floor elevator. Theme: “Wearing Plants.” Unlike the Class Hands session, this was a retail format — Nenouwasa originals including plant earrings, wreaths, herbs, and interior greens.
Nenouwasa also continued to take custom gift orders and spatial decoration commissions beyond the pop-up window.
Also on HINT7: Mineral Play Natural History fair
The same floor was running parallel programming. From Monday 21 May through Saturday 23 June 2012, HINT7 hosted the “Mineral Play Natural History” fair. The driver was Kyoko Fujii (フジイキョウコ) and her “Mineral Play” project — described in the source as a laboratory for spreading mineral appeal and possibility.
The angle differed from traditional mineral collecting: fresh viewpoints and ways to enjoy stones inside everyday life. HINT7 gathered curated specimens for the fair and introduced a new product line called the “Mineral Viewing Specimen Box.” Visitors already upstairs for plants or workshops could detour into a second, unrelated curiosity lane.
Shibuya context
Tokyu Hands Shibuya sits in Udagawachō, a few minutes from the pedestrian currents around the scramble. Seasonal floors like HINT7 belong to a different rhythm than street-level crowds — structured visits, demo tables, and campaign menus. If you watch density on a Shibuya Crossing live camera, the seventh floor is the indoor counterpart: smaller groups, longer dwell time, and programming that rotates month to month.
Travelers stacking Shibuya culture stops with a longer outing can compare options in best day trip from Tokyo.
Contacts (historical)
Nenouwasa
- Address: 1-22-7 Uehara, Shibuya, Tokyo — Nagai Building
- Tel/Fax: 03-6407-9665
- Mobile: 080-3597-0419
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://nenouwasa.com/
Tokyu Hands Shibuya
- Address: 12-18 Udagawachō, Shibuya, Tokyo
- Tel: 03-5489-5111
- Hours (as listed): 10:00–20:30
- Website: http://shibuya.tokyu-hands.co.jp/index.html
Store layouts, workshop schedules, and brand URLs change. Confirm current Nenouwasa activity and Tokyu Hands floor plans before visiting.
