Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Five hundred years ago powerful Japanese lords (daimyo) vied for power and territory, throwing the nation into civil war and chaos. Samurai and ronin (masterless samurai) roamed the land with the authority to do whatever they could get away with. Yoshitada Imagawa, lord of Kakegawa—a city near Mt. Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture—rose to power and…
So I have two tea sets—one Chris bought me our first Christmas here and a lovely one from his mom the same Christmas. Both are blueish, which is my favorite color, but I needed a tea set for spring. I’d been on the lookout for a few months when I saw The One—white with cherry…
“If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.”~Japanese ProverbAncient Asia and Old Japan extended down the sloped hills on either side of the modern freeway as we zipped along. Scalloped fields of emerald tea bushes stretched toward distant hills; farmers in pointed hats waded in flooded rice…
I like to read about where I am and where I’m going. This can be good and bad. For example, reading James Joyce’s depressing book of short stories gave me dark, bizarre dreams during our honeymoon in Ireland. I try to be more careful now. If you have your sights set on Japan, these titles…
Today’s Lupicia Tea Class taught a bunch of us fun American ladies living here in Japan how to make chai tea. Tea Sensei Keiko Takahashi told us chai means…drumroll…boiled tea. Oh. So if you go to India looking for chai, that’s what you’ll get. Masala means spiced, so masala chai is the full name for…
We slept in. I made us breakfast in bed so I could use my new tea set. We puttered around. We didn’t have a huge agenda for the day. “You know what I’d kind of like to do today?” I said to Chris. “Go find that temple in Enoshima.” “Ooo, yeah!” he said. We strolled…
Asamidori sumiwataritaru ozora no Hiokio onoga kokoro tomogana . “Blue sweep of heavensWide and clear—Might my heart shareTheir spaciousness!”—Emperor MeijiThis traditional 31-syllable poem was composed by Emperor Meiji himself…or maybe Empress Shoken; no one’s quite sure. At the family’s shrine you can shake a canister until a stick falls out. This stick will have a…
