Experience Japanese beauty in real life.
Biyori brings kimono, tea, wagashi, and Japanese-style color analysis to people in Europe who want to wear, taste, learn, and feel Japanese culture in a personal way.
Originally from the Philippines and now living in Germany, Yen Kato is the founder of Biyori, a cultural project that brings Japanese culture into everyday life abroad.
After more than 10 years working as a UX/UI designer, she decided to take a new path, bringing a thoughtful, experience-centered approach to everything she creates. While living in Europe, she began to develop a deeper connection with Japanese traditions through tea ceremony, wagashi making, and kimono. What started as personal curiosity gradually grew into a desire to share the beauty of Japanese culture with others.
Today, Yen creates experiences centered around matcha, nerikiri wagashi, kimono, and seasonal Japanese aesthetics. Through workshops, cultural gatherings, and personal styling experiences, she hopes to make Japanese culture feel closer, more meaningful, and part of everyday life — even far from Japan.
For Yen, Japanese culture is not only something to admire from a distance. It is something to taste, wear, make, feel, and live with.
着物
Dressing lessons, rental, expat rental support, styling, kimono photo experience.
Tea
Table tea ceremony, beginner seminars, matcha workshops, cultural introduction.
和菓子
Seasonal nerikiri workshops and Japanese sweets as cultural craft.
Color & Style
Japanese personal color analysis, face analysis, and kimono-aware styling advice.
Sharing the deeper connection
Many people are drawn to Japanese culture through matcha, kimono, wagashi, or seasonal aesthetics. But to me, these are not separate worlds.
They are connected through hospitality, craftsmanship, color, seasonality, and quiet attention to detail.
I started Biyori because I wanted to share this deeper connection in a way that feels warm, approachable, and meaningful outside Japan.
Making tradition feel approachable
Traditional Japanese culture can sometimes feel formal or difficult to enter. Tea ceremony may feel intimidating, kimono may feel complicated, and people may worry about rules or doing something wrong.
Through Biyori, I want to create a gentle first step — a place where people can experience Japanese culture with respect, but without pressure.
The spirit of tradition remains, while the form is adapted so it can be enjoyed naturally in everyday life in Europe.
Creating genuine connection
For me, culture is not about status, perfection, or comparison.
I wanted Biyori to be a space for genuine connection — where people can simply enjoy Japanese culture together, learn with respect, and share beautiful moments without pressure or gatekeeping.
Whether through one bowl of tea, a seasonal sweet, a kimono experience, or Japanese color and style analysis, Biyori offers a quiet pause from busy everyday life: a moment to slow down, notice beauty, and feel Japanese culture with all the senses.
For me, Biyori is a way to bring these elements together — not as separate lessons or services, but as one gentle cultural experience.
Through tea, sweets, kimono, color, and seasonal details, I hope to create moments where Japanese culture feels close, personal, and alive.
