What on Earth is Cozy Aesthetic?

There are only a few days left of this year's Golden Week.
I still can't seem to relax even during the holidays—ugh, hello, it's Kapa-Nya, the Kappa cat.

Today, I'm talking about a lifestyle called 'Cozy Aesthetic'.

Gazing at the sediment of time—Cozy Aesthetic and my indoor daily life.

I feel like ever since the pandemic ended, the speed of the world has been accelerating faster and faster, and I feel like time for gaps or margins is disappearing.

If you look at your smartphone, trivial celebrity news, someone's sparkling daily life, and sometimes sharp words flow in one after another.
Online meetings have become the norm for work, and there's no time between meetings either.
Looking back, most of my day is spent chasing after some kind of information processing, and my head and heart are packed full...
I think a large part of my HP and MP might be being whittled away by 'digital fatigue' every day.

In the midst of that, I recently heard the term 'Cozy Aesthetic'.
I thought, did Cozy Corner try a new beauty-related business model? But it was completely different (laughs).
Literally translated, it means 'the aesthetics of comfort'.
It doesn't really click for me (laughs).
In short, it seems to be a lifestyle of 'taking a break from stimulation and spending time comfortably and leisurely at home'.
This seems to be supported mainly by the younger generation today.

I am an indoor person to the core, to the point where I could easily make 'Indoor' my middle name.
I feel most at ease spending my days off at home, and I don't even own a car. In the end, I love the convenience of digital, and I am extremely indebted to movie subscription services.

But even in those blissful moments in my first place, there are moments when I feel a kind of 'boredom' or 'fatigue'.
I start watching YouTube as an extension of watching a movie, and before I know it, I'm scrolling through short videos forever, and I'm startled to realize that it's no longer the healing or fulfilling time I really wanted...

While things have become too convenient, we may have lost the calm moments to quietly gaze at the rich feelings that should have been accumulating in the flow of time—what you might call the 'sediment of time'.

The perfect 'overlap' of digital and analog

Perhaps because of that, I find myself drawn to analog things more often these days. To me, it feels like a very natural 'rebound'.
However, the return to analog that I'm thinking of is by no means 'making digital the enemy'; rather, I want to cherish the feeling that digital exists as an extension of analog.

Reading a paper book while drinking coffee from my favorite mug. The pleasant music filling the space is playing from my smartphone.
Come to think of it, this note is just me doing digitally what I used to do by writing down my own introspection in a paper notebook.
In that way, I first base things on expressing with my own heart and receiving with my body and five senses, and then I place convenient tools on top of that. That kind of gradient-like relationship is what creates my 'comfortable time and space' right now.

The luxurious time of 'doing nothing'

If you pursue the idea of 'cozy' to the end, I think you will eventually arrive at 'savoring the time of doing nothing'.
But in reality, it's quite difficult to recognize this as a 'luxury'.
When I do nothing, I feel a sense of guilt as if I'm wasting time, or I find myself reaching for my smartphone because I have nothing to do.
However, I tell myself that looking at the sunset outside the window or listening to the sound of trains from afar—time that seems 'unproductive' at first glance—is actually the important 'margin' that resets my packed heart and head and recharges my vitality.

In the end, I always think that what's important is 'balance'.

More 'margins' in my daily life

There can be days when I move actively, and there can be times when I focus on work.
But just as much, I want to consciously create calm and gentle time.
Picking up and cherishing each moment where I feel, 'Ah, this feels good right now'.
I think that is the simplest way to live without losing myself in this world where the acceleration of time never stops.

I hope this will be an opportunity for you, who have read this far, to find your own 'cozy margin'.

I remember someone once told me I looked like Koji Imada...