EP 203 Happy AANHPI Month: Stand Proud, Stay Rooted, and Know Where You Come From

Wabi Sabi - The Perfectly Imperfect Podcast with Candice Kumai

Candice Kumai

Health & Fitness, Education, Health, Wabisabi, How To, Nutrition, Mental Health, Wellness

4.9 • 793 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

AANHPI Month: Honoring Japanese Beauty, Wellness & the Truth About Matcha: Konnichiwa, my friends. Genki desu ka. This AANHPI Month, we begin not with trends—but with truth, reverence, and remembrance. Because behind every bowl of matcha, every beauty ritual, every moment of calm that the world now celebrates...there are generations of Asian hands, stories, discipline, and devotion that made it possible. And for a long time, those stories were not told. This episode is about honoring them. It’s about honoring Japan, and the greater AANHPI community: China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Hawaii, and beyond: the cultures that have shaped global wellness, beauty, and food in ways that are only now being recognized. It’s about bowing—not performatively, but with deep respect: to the teachers, farmers, chefs, artisans, and elders who came before us. Because what we are witnessing right now w/ the global rise of matcha, the fascination with Japanese beauty rituals, the obsession with “clean living”—this did not happen overnight. And it did not happen without us. For decades, Asian culture was overlooked, misunderstood, or reduced to aesthetics without context. Our food was simplified. Our beauty rituals were copied. Our philosophies—like wabi sabi, kintsugi, and mindfulness...were often stripped of their depth. And yet, we continued to show up. Quietly. Consistently. With excellence.Today, the world is finally catching up. But with that visibility comes responsibility. Thank you for listening - please share this episode with a friend and make sure to give this podcast a five star review and subscribe thank you so much for listening again I really appreciate you x ck

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi friends. Welcome to the Wabi-sabi podcast.
0:04.5	Konichiwa. I hope you guys are having a great day. It's a N-HPI month, so let's kick off this May
0:13.6	with sending appreciation and love to all of our Asian friends and fam out there in the world.
0:20.3	Today's podcast is going to be about
0:22.7	celebrating Japanese beauty, wellness, heritage, and matcha. This is episode number 203.
0:30.6	Welcome. It's been a couple weeks. I have been, I guess you could say, in demand, as my mom
0:36.9	likes to say, even though I'm quite humbled,
0:40.8	because last year was a really tough year. Actually, since 2023, I would say things have been
0:47.0	really rough. And not to mention in 2020, a lot of us were completely out of pocket and out of
0:53.4	work. Things have gotten a little bit
0:55.1	better and I would say sometimes you get what you pray for, right? So today we're going to dive in on
1:00.4	why it is so important to celebrate our Asian counterparts, friends, leaders, teachers,
1:08.2	bow to those who came before us, maybe even our Japanese elders. And what I've been
1:14.0	learning lately that I want to share with you. Like what products have I been using lately
1:19.1	and testing beauty and Japanese beauty? And what have I learned about the current market
1:24.6	living in New York City and pitching in media and wellness and even
1:28.7	macha. Well, I'll start with a little surprise here. So I'm actually really surprised that people
1:36.5	are not calling on more Japanese people to talk about macha. With the matcha boom currently
1:42.3	in full speed and the market heading into the high billions over the next 20 years or so, we're going to see macha go up in price.
1:51.5	A lot of match is going to be made in China, which is not really matcha.
1:55.3	It is real matcha when it comes from Japan.
1:58.6	We'll talk about that on another pod and we have before in many of our articles.
	...

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