January 2023 - Page 3 of 3 - Life is a Journey

How to Enjoy Matcha Green Tea at Home

Tips for making a delicious bowl of tea

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

Now that I see Matcha green tea sold in most grocery stores in the US, I assume many people drink it at home. Are you one of them?

If you would like to enjoy Matcha in a similar way as served in the Japanese tea ceremony but skip all the formal procedures, well, here are some tips!

Have Sweets First

One thing you don’t want to miss when enjoying Matcha…. Sweets!

You have some sweets BEFORE having Matcha. Why?

When making Matcha, you simply mix Matcha with hot water. You don’t put sugar or milk in it. Even though you have Matcha of high quality, it has some bitterness. You want to prepare your pallet by filling some sweetness in your mouth beforehand.

Sweets are like appetizers. The main course is Matcha!

In Japan, there are literally thousands of different kinds of sweets to be accompanied by Matcha. Many of them are made of sweetened bean paste called “an.” (Have you seen a movie called “Sweet Bean”?) Some sweets are dried sugar candies.

If you can’t find any Japanese sweets nearby, no problem. Pick your favorite sweets. A piece of chocolate goes well, especially a white chocolate truffle. Another of my favorite is macaroon.

What you need

Once you have enjoyed your appetizer, let’s move on to the main course.

You need a bowl, Matcha, a small scoop, a whisk, and of course hot water. The photo shows you the real tea utensils, but you can substitute them with what you find in your kitchen, except for matcha powder. If you can’t find a bamboo tea whisk, a small mixing whisk might work.

One piece of advice is that you sift Matcha powder before making tea. Often times Matcha powder is cramped in the package. When you take it out of the original package, sift it so that the powder is smooth.

Warm the bowl

First warm the bowl with hot water. Pour a little bit of hot water into the bowl, and swirl around the bowl so that the heat of the water is transferred to the bowl. Once the bowl is warmed up, discard the water. Unless the bowl is very wet, you can skip wiping it.

Put Matcha

Put Matcha into the bowl, two scoops if you are using the bamboo scoop. Or about one teaspoon full.

Pour Water

Pour hot water into the bowl, about 50cc. Pour water quietly, so that Matcha doesn’t scatter around.

Whisk

Then you hold the tea bowl with your left hand, pick up a whisk with your right hand, and start whisking.

Another tip… Using your wrist, move the whisk up and down, up and down, quickly. You want to create a nice fine foam on the surface. Do not circle the whisk around in the bowl. If you circle around the whisk, you won’t be able to create nice foam.

Why create form on the surface, you might ask.

The foam mitigates the bitterness. With the sweet as an appetizer, and with the fine foam created by whisking, you get to taste Matcha at its best condition!

Enjoy the tea!

Once the fine foam is created, it’s time to enjoy the main course! Place your left hand under the bowl, and your right hand on the side of the bowl. Enjoy!

How Practicing Flower Arrangement Brought Success in My Business

I survived the grueling due diligence period thanks to Ikebana

Ikebana arrangement placed at the company entrance: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

I founded a Bluetooth software company in November 2000. The dot com bubble already burst, but I managed to raise some venture funds. I hired engineers, salespeople, marketing people, an accountant, et al. I found a small office downtown in Seattle, and my company started to grow.

Prior to starting my company, I was taking Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) lessons. As I got really busy running my company, I stopped taking lessons.

Seven years passed. My company with 20 employees found a possible acquirer. A giant semiconductor company in the US. After signing a memorandum of understanding, the potential acquirer sent us a list of more than 200 questions. The due diligence started.

Preparing answers to each one of the questions itself was a daunting task. In addition, our accountant took maternity leave in the middle of the due diligence.

Why look for a new accountant when we were about to be acquired soon? I took over her job and started doing bookkeeping including payrolls and taxes in addition to my executive role.

I was literally working around the clock. Until almost midnight every day. And both weekend days. I had no energy left for anything else, so I thought.

Strangely I started taking Ikebana lessons again. At 5 pm every Thursday, I dropped off everything at work and drove to the class.

The moment I touched flowers, I would forget all the stress and pressure that piled up on me at work. I simply moved my hands. The emptiness filled my mind until I completed my flower arrangement.

After the class, I would drive back to the office before going home. There was nobody there. I displayed my arrangement at the entrance so that my employees could enjoy it the next day. This became my weekly ritual.

This ritual continued for six months until the company was eventually sold. The deal was closed on the Christmas Eve of 2007.

The whole M&A process could be a good writing topic some other time, such as:

Series of meetings with our legal councils to negotiate with the buyer
The tension between the management team and employees
The tension among employees, especially among those who would be kept and those who would be let go
Conflicts among board members
A constant need for communication with investors

Without keeping balance in my mind with the help of practicing Ikebana, I wouldn’t have survived the emotional rollercoaster during the due diligence. The successful exit of my business wouldn’t have happened without Ikebana. That’s for sure.

How Calm Is Puget Sound

The ferry “Wenatchee” enroute to Bainbridge Island, WA. Photo by Tobias Eigen: Wikimedia Commons

Only after I moved to Seattle did I learn another meaning of the English word sound. Puget Sound, which I can see from my house every day (except for very foggy days), is so calm that the ferries that run between the shores don’t have doors to close the parking space.

My mother used to take me from Osaka to Tokushima to visit her hometown via ferry. The Seto Inland Sea in Japan is known to be calm, but I’ve never seen a ferry as open as the one in Puget Sound. When my mother first came to Seattle, she thought this vast water was a lake.

Bellingham Boardwalk: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

Elliott Bay and Mt. Rainier: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

Having lived here in Seattle for almost 30 years, I now associate the word “sea” with this calm, quiet, serene impression. When I walk along the shores on Boardwalk in Bellingham or a pathway along Elliott Bay in Seattle, I feel like a baby floating in a mother’s womb.

The first life form came from the sea, didn’t it? There must be a reason why I feel that way!

I Plan to Be Joyful at 11 am Today

My day planner follows Cal Newport’s Time-Block Planner method, with a twist.

Every morning I open my notebook and draw three vertical lines to create four columns. I fill the first column with numbers that represent hours – 6 am to 11 pm.

I fill the third column with what I plan to do: shower, write, read, clean, have lunch with a friend, go for an errand, etc. If I divert from the original plan, by web surfing aimlessly, for example, I make corrections in the fourth column.

What about the second column?

That’s where I plan how to be.

My Day Planner on January 2, 2023: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

I plan to be happy at 8 am. By 11 am I plan to elevate my status a notch to be joyful.

In the afternoon I plan to fill my heart with kindness. Later in the day, I prepare myself for the evening by being calm.

My planner originally didn’t have a column for planning how to be but only one for planning what to do.

But one day I thought … Isn’t my state of being as important as my actions? Can’t I choose how to be? Can I plan to be happy rather than angry? Can I plan to be joyful rather than sad? How about I plan to be kind rather than hateful?

It’s been a little over a year since I added this column. I’m far from anger-free, but I feel a little more empowered than before.

It is a lot easier to be joyful if the sun is shining on my face. But I no longer blame the gray sky, because even when the sky is dark, I’m capable to be joyful.

Being able to choose how to be, is liberating.