WELCOME to the JOURNAL

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 […]

Lights still twinkle on the Christmas tree as we linger in the final throes of the festive December season. But as we count down to the end of the year, I feel the first sparks of an urge to put away remnants of things past and set the stage for a new beginning. I relish […]

I wake in the dark, kindle a fire in the hearth, brew chai, and kneel beside Bean on a sheepskin before the wood stove. I cradle my warm mug between sips and together we watch the flames dance. Not a glimmer of light glows on the horizon, won’t still of quite some time. Darkness reigns […]

After a warm spell that left me wondering where winter was hiding, it blew in on an icy north wind. We brought the first load of wood up to the house and built a fire in the wood stove. I pulled sheepskins out of storage, one at each bedside to caress bare feet on cold […]

October, a golden season of ripe rice and goldenrod, turns to orange and red in November as the colors of autumn thicken. But we are still reveling in the season of shinmai, dining on the new crop of rice. The plump, chewy grains pair so well with other autumnal flavors like Ginko nuts, mukago, and […]