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Sometimes, healing grows right at our feet. Along narrow mountain lanes and wood-edge paths, dokudami grows wild and thick — heart-shaped leaves catching the hush of morning light, white bracts opening like quiet little stars. The scent is sharp, unforgettable. Some call it unpleasant. But it doesn’t seek to charm or please. It proclaims. Something […]

The Signature Flavor of Mirukashi June arrives soft and swollen with rain.The tsuyu season — plum rains — breaks open with claps of thunder and settles into a steady thrum. The air thickens with mist. The landscape softens and swells, glowing green. The air hangs heavy with the scent of something ancient. And in this […]

Plant Wisdom for Daily Life The wild landscape of Mirukashi is rich with quiet teachers — leaves, roots, blossoms, and seeds offering their subtle wisdom to those who know how to listen. For years, I’ve foraged handfuls of wild foods, drawn to the flavors of the seasons, passed down to me by my mother-in-law. Now, […]

Just 7 months after our groundbreaking ceremony, I received the keys to the Mirukashi Salon’s new home and it is exquisite – open, airy, warm, inviting, and very personal. Beauty and soul are my north stars and this building marries both in spades. The building is stately and handsome and the objects in it are […]

Tuesdays are now my favorite day because each Tuesday, Hana Greer and Héctor Barrantes Montes, the architects who designed the Mirukashi salon building, make a site visit to talk with the contractor, check specs, track progress, and take photos. And with Japan being 13 hours ahead of Maine (where I am now) that means that […]

We are entering the season of shincha when leaves of the first tea harvest of the year are released. Tea benefits from some post-harvest aging to allow the flavor to intensify. But it’s hard to wait and so we celebrate the harvest by drinking an aromatic and delicate tea brewed from the freshly harvested leaves. […]

Spring must have partied hard last year because she was late to rise this year. The cherry trees haven’t bloomed this late in over 10 years. Sandwiched between cold winds and drizzle, we were graced with one bright and balmy day to celebrate them with our Sakura Season guests, enjoying a picnic under the first […]

It was a big day, an important day, and so I chose a tarot card as a meditation, a message to center me for the day. I shuffled the cards and let my hand wander to one. I drew it from the deck, flipped it over, and set it down. A black cloaked figure on […]

February 4th is an auspicious day. It’s the first day of spring according to Japan’s ancient almanac. Only in a culture such as Japan’s, a culture of anticipation, could a day as early as this be the first day of spring. Here, unlike in the west where we bear all and shout a thing from […]

After hours around the table and a feast of many flavors, I pull out a slender bottle and pour a tasting of this sweet elixir for my guests. It runs a tawny syrup and as potent as a port. Unctuous and silken, rich and intense, it hits the nose and tongue with a cascade of […]