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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Full of art, ideas
and Waikiki businessesYasutaka Noguchi is bursting with creativity, to the point where the former hairstylist owns six businesses operating out of four locations in Waikiki hotels.
Noguchi and his wife, Hiromi, moved to Hawaii in 1991. He was a hairstylist chosen to oversee his employer's expansion from Japan, as the manager of Creave Beauty Salon at 2310 Kuhio Ave.
It wasn't long before he purchased the salon.
Now he also owns La Pure, a shop adjoining Creave that sells specialty beauty products, two Naillabo nail salons, a spa gift shop and a new boutique named Heart & Cross that carries jewelry he designs. It opened in May.
Oh, he's also an artist, with an exhibition planned in Japan next month.
Despite building these businesses during an extended economic downturn in the state, the couple has taken small, slow, steady steps toward growth. The era that caused many a business demise displays no trace of wear and tear on either Noguchi.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Yasutaka Noguchi owns six Waikiki businesses, including his latest, Heart & Cross, a jewelry retailer in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki.
Yasutaka Noguchi is president of From Y'z Corp., the umbrella over all his businesses. Hiromi has "no title, but hard worker," she laughed.
Shy but warm, they go by shortened versions of their names; he, by Taka and she, by Romi. A longtime customer hails that friendliness as a reason she's loyal to the many businesses.
Heart & Cross is on the ground floor of the Ewa tower of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki near the Kaiulani Avenue entrance. Within a few steps is the Na Hoola Spa gift shop, which is also home to a Naillabo counter.
A few pieces of glittery, sparkly jewelry are in the Heart & Cross display windows outside, along with crystal glass calligraphy pens the boutique offers. The display also bears a gasp-inducing 48.5-carat blue topaz heart, nestled in the shop's signature ocean blue box. It's one of a few the shop uses for display purposes only.
The heart and cross evoke happiness and a sense of feeling protected, which is why Noguchi says he chose those themes. More than 90 percent of the pieces reflect a heart or cross theme and each necklace comes with a tiny logo charm strung on the chain.
The pens he designs reflect a bit of family heritage as they are a simpler version of the ornate crystal glass pens his grandfather once made. They are meant to be dipped in ink so the swirled tip will slowly dispense ink to paper.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
In addition to being a business owner, Yasutaka Noguchi is an artist. He shows two oil paintings, "Diamond Head and the Ocean" on the left and "Waikiki Beach" on the right.
Handmade in Germany, the pens are $95 and come in a variety of colors including cobalt blue, green and yellow with a white tip, the latter reminiscent of a Japanese bamboo calligraphy brush. Stone rests are sold separately at $25.
"I love that store," said Elaine Tsui, a longtime customer who works for a retailer in Waikiki. "There's something for everybody which is why I like it."
Hearts and crosses are among the most popular symbols or icons for jewelry and "he has so much passion in his designs, he created them from his heart and so I don't see how anybody can walk out of there without buying something," Tsui said.
Tsui also cited prices as a reason for being a regular customer. "The price points are what makes it attainable," she said.
Silver jewelry starts at $85 and the line expands to include 18-carat white, yellow, pink and black gold set with natural crystal in various colors up to the costliest piece in the boutique, a diamond and white gold bracelet at $7,700.
Creave and La Pure share space on the second floor. The salon's professional hair care lines include brands familiar to Japanese visitors and others popular in North America. La Pure's shelves display skin care and other beauty products from around the world, many of which are favored by Japanese visitors, but are not readily available in Japan. Hence, La Pure draws mostly visitors from Japan.
Creave's clientele is primarily local and includes many longtime customers, Hiromi said.
Tsui is one of them, in part because of hair care products she can't find anywhere else.
"I think they have a really good niche in the type of products they carry."
The Na Hoola Spa gift shop and Naillabo counter on the first floor offers the hotel spa's logo robes and signature treatment products chock full of Hawaiian ingredients.
An explosion of color springs from other shelves, stocked with hundreds of bottles of nail polish including Noguchi's own Lupua line. Lupua means "flower scattering" in Hawaiian, which seems apropos as Noguchi's signature nail art design is the hibiscus.
He wanted to offer something uniquely Hawaiian and was the first to offer the hibiscus design, Noguchi said. It quickly gained popularity.
Naillabo offers manicures for $30 and for adornment purposes, dozens of designs from simple to elaborate, starting at $12 a nail. Despite the intricacy of some, one nail only takes two minutes, according to Manager Keiko Muraoka. For a manicure and high-end design on all 10 nails it's 1 hour and $170, plus tax, she said.
Word of mouth among clientele who returned to Japan caught the attention of supermodel Kanda Uno. She had her nails done at Naillabo last year while in Hawaii for a promotion with Ala Moana Center.
Tsui is a Naillabo customer as well. "They're really quick. You don't have to waste too much time. The staff is so professional," she said.
The larger Naillabo nail salon is on the first floor of the Sheraton Waikiki.
"The staff (of each shop) is so friendly that you end up being friends with them. I think a lot of people who patronize them have that feeling, so they become frequent customers like myself."
Companies pay lip service to customer service and attention to detail, but Tsui says Noguchi's employees have got it down.
"Their attention to detail is what makes the difference. Attention to detail in customer service, attention to detail in the products that they carry and attention to detail for the overall shopping experience.
"It's just the way they do business that makes them stand out."
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com
