JR East Inspiration Store

Here’s a thought – most of us use the word “love” frequently without understanding what it means. That, and we often send out messages of love via a digital platform. 

JR East has set up an Inspiration Store pop-up booth at Orchard Xchange to help us uncover what an expression of love is to us. The booth is JR East’s first ever operation at SMRT Experience’s station retail facility. It will feature a series of themed exhibits from now through 2019, starting with “Forest of Love” which will be up for display till 5th January 2019. 

Here’s what you can do at the store:

Obtain a heart-shaped paper to pen down messages of love 

To start off your experience at the exhibit, you’ll receive a coin token from the staff which can be used to redeem a heart-shaped piece of paper from a gachapon machine located at the front of the store. 

Retrieve your adorable heart shaped paper from the gachapon machine

Grab a marker from the heart-shaped desks and write down what you think love is supposed to be, or, pen down well-wishes for your family and friends as a way of blessing them for the new year ahead. 

Hang up your love letter on the tree and take a look at messages penned by other attendees hung all over the tree

Attend a free ornament-making workshop

Once you’re done with your message, you can sit-in for the DIY ornament-making workshop which will be conducted by a staff member who will guide you through the process. 

The workshop is specially designed for the “Forest of Love” theme and lets attendees learn how to make adorable Kumiko snowflake ornaments using a technique that relies solely on each piece of wood to hold each other up without using glue.

Refer to this handy instruction guide to piece the ornament together

Hang up your snowflake at the Inspiration Tree when you’ve pieced it together as to beautify the space. 

Snap a photo at the #inspirationstore booth

Round up your interactive experience with a photo of your creations at the photo booth set up at the corner of the entire exhibit. Say cheese!

Inspiration Store at Orchard Xchange

As the largest of 7 passenger railway companies in Japan, the East Japan Railway Company hopes to promote the exchange of cultures between Japan and Singapore. The Japanese-style craft-making and penning down of expressive messages are meant to enrich Singaporeans with stimulating experiences, however brief, so that they can gather new inspirations and creative ideas for their lives. 

Besides the “Forest of Love” exhibit designed by Yuna Tanaka, the Inspiration Store will undergo several theme changes to provide a different kind of inspiration every season. All of the themed exhibits will feature multi-sensory displays and workshops meant to showcase three main concepts, “Experience”, “Sustainability”, and “Community”, which means more fun activities to look forward to. 

The second theme will start on 11th January 2019. If your interest is piqued, head down to the booth and check it out for yourself!

JR East’s Inspiration Store @ Orchard Xchange 

Address: 437 Orchard Rd, Orchard MRT Xchange, Basement 1 Unit no. 30, Singapore 238878

Opening hours: 10.30AM-8.30PM daily, Closed from 6th to 10th January 2019 for the next theme transition

For updates on the theme changes, refer to their Facebook.

Find out more about the Inspiration Store @ Orchard Xchange 

This post was brought to you by East Japan Railway Company.

Photography by Gerald Koh.