The origin of Lulu Kouno and her artistic journey was when she found herself in Mexico at the end of a long trip. There she began painting, and now it’s her job to travel and paint around the world. For this project she’s painted various depictions of her journeys and dreams all over this round tunnel-like space.

What did she see and how did she feel on her trip? Take a look at the collages and books available here and you’ll start to feel the journey as she experienced them.

This room is like a picture diary of her dreams. Now, I’d like to talk to Lulu and hear more about her journey. While listening to what she saw and felt during her trip, you can lie down on the oval bed floating in the air, and before you know it you’ll be embarking on your own dream trip.

-- First of all, please introduce yourself.

My name is Lulu Kouno. I live in Nagoya and I am a painter.

-- I believe the idea of the "journey" is an important theme in your artistic work. Please tell us how you see the connection between the journey and your finished product, and what the idea of a journey means to you.

So I started painting about 5 years ago. It was when I quit my job and decided to travel, and I visited many countries around the world. At the end of my trip, I arrived in Mexico and realized I had run out of money. My money was gone but I wasn’t ready to go back to Japan just yet, so I decided to work at the lodge as a housekeeper in exchange for accommodation.

-- That’s amazing.

But it was super boring! I would sit on the roof of the inn, thinking to myself, “This is so boring, this isn’t why I left Japan and went on a journey.” But it was there on that rooftop where one day, something clicked inside me and I was overwhelmed with inspiration. I wondered to myself if I could draw a mural or something in exchange for accommodation. When I asked the inn owner, he told me “How did you know I wanted a painting?” He brought me to the wall of the room and said, “Paint something here!” It was my first time to paint a mural, but I was hooked as soon as I started.

--Please tell us about the inspiration for this room.

Well, I drew many things that I saw on my trip. Many of the paintings I draw are a combination of these same motifs, so it was very easy for me to work on this project. The theme of this room is "Dreams of a trip, journey of a dream," so I drew things that I’ve seen on my trips and things that are likely to appear in your dreams. The bed is also part of the motif of dreaming, designed like a swing to imagine the feeling of lifting you up and floating around.

-- Is there a part of the work you feel particularly strong about?

I’m really fond of India, so the first part I drew was the elephant-like Hindu god, Ganesha. I started this project by drawing the big pictures first.

-- With such a large canvas, you can draw everything you want, right?

Yeah, I can use my memories and the symbols of my own nostalgia in my drawings. Sometimes I use the motif of Christianity in Mexico, the cross. Sometimes I use the motif for the Islamic "Allah", the hamsa. I use these motifs but I do my best to draw them with cheer and color, without tying it down to religious ideas. I add flowers and other pretty images to make it my own. I started painting the murals in this room right after I came back from Thailand. I sat here drawing tuk-tuks, reminiscing about my time there...

--- Each drawing has its own story, doesn’t it?

I also thought that many foreign guests would visit, so I added drawings of “Japanese-y” things like sushi, mochi, shrines, and so on. Also, the drawings I did towards the end turned out rather small so they might be hard to find, but I added some foreign currency marks like yen, euro, and dollar signs. There’s also a lot of marks without a story that I just thought of on the spot.

-- Do you have anything you’d like to say to our guests?

By all means, I hope you will take the time to enjoy the drawings in this room one by one. I mean, isn't this hotel interesting? Every room, even the public areas, are all completely different. This is a place where you can start a conversation with a stranger without hesitation as you tell them about the design of your room and ask about theirs. I know that’s the premise of the hotel itself, but I hope the other artists use that idea in the rooms they design, too.