We have a very exciting announcement… Daydream is opening its second location.
When: 2026
Where: Chigasaki, Japan
There has always been an invisible thread between Daydream and Japan. Something that is felt more than seen. It has been less of a plan and more so a metaphysical current we hopped into, letting it guide us wherever it wanted us to drift.
Our first magazine feature ever was in Blue, a Japanese surf magazine, back in 2016. Word somehow traveled overseas before it even reached much of California. Since then, we’ve landed in a dozen more Japanese publications, each one deepening a bond that began to show up in the shop itself.
Over the years, we met so many incredible surfers visiting from Japan on their California pilgrimages. Our surfboard membership program was especially loved by our friends from abroad. Once, we watched a taxi pull up from LAX and drop off a Japanese couple, luggage and all, and their first stop in the United States was Daydream to pick out their boards.
As this connection grew, so did our understanding of just how special Japan is. Two years ago we moved all of Daydream’s apparel production to Japan, inspired by the craftsmanship, textiles, and care that go into every step. We’ve hosted pop-ups in Tokyo and Shonan, curated demos, and spent more and more time with the people who are now our Daydream Japan team.
We aren’t Japanese. And while Japan has drawn inspiration from California’s surf culture, we never want that to overshadow Japan’s own rich surf history, which we deeply respect. Our hope is to honor both cultures, letting them meet, mix, and inspire each other.
On our most recent trip, a new friend taught us something that really inspired us, he said:
“Japan isn’t Tokyo or Shonan or Miyazaki or Chiba or Kyoto or Osaka. Japan is all of these places together, and all of their cultures layered into one.”
To understand Japan, you have to experience its many worlds.
So that’s our intention with Daydream Japan:
to deepen the existing bond between California and Japan, to create a space where surf cultures co-inspire, and to honor the lineage of artists and thinkers who have felt this cross-Pacific pull, like jazz legend Dave Brubeck, architecture and design legends Charles and Ray Eames, and one of our favorites, Northern California artist Tom Killion.
Chigasaki, we can’t wait to call you home.
Follow along to see Daydream Japan come to life. @daydream_japan_
