Author: kamys

Vegetables Bond Our Friendship

The joy of cooking vegetables to serve our friends

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

I belong to, not a book club, but a TED talk club.

Instead of reading a book, a host for the month picks one TED talk video and shares it with the rest of the group.  Everybody watches the video, and we discuss what we learned at the meeting.

The group members take turns hosting the meeting, and it was my turn this month.

I’m the only Japanese in the group, so I try to add some Japanese flare to whatever I serve.  It may be the ingredient I cook, the type of serving plates I use, or the table runner repurposed from an old Obi.  Something new to the group to give a hint to start an interesting conversation before we dive into the main discussion.

When I was wondering what to prepare for the upcoming meeting, I found out about Dr. Preeti Singh’s writing prompt for this week.  Vegetables!  Why don’t I serve only vegetables, focusing on the cutting method into different shapes?  Visual presentation is an important element of Japanese cooking!

The bright red in the center box (see the photo above) is beets, roasted and cut into cubes.  I placed white goat cheese on top of the cubes and added a drip of aged balsamic vinegar.  The sweetness of the beets and the vinegar, plus a hint of sourness of the goat cheese is my favorite combination.

I added steamed broccoli and cauliflower diagonally to add color variation.

Can you guess the two vegetables in the photo above? 

The whitish ones are satoimo in Japanese.  Taros, they are called in an Indian store.  I didn’t know this kind of potato is used in Indian cooking. The color of satoimo, cooked with mirin and soy sauce, is rather dull. Cut into hexagon pieces, however, they add some charm to the dish. 

The other ones are kabocha squash pieces. The vivid green outside and the rich orange color inside are great for adding accents.  I cut them like a cone shape so that they stand upright. 

I carved Shiitake mushrooms so that they look like flowers.  Not only are they pleasing to the eyes, but the mushrooms also absorb the sauce better, resulting in a shorter cooking time.  I cut carrots to look like flowers also, but I need some more training.  The lotus roots with so many holes are always fun to play with.  This time I cut out the outer rim alongside the holes.  The crunchiness of the lotus is a nice addition to the biting experience.

My TED talk group enjoyed the food as well as the discussion. These vegetables nourished us, entertained us, and helped us grow our friendship.  Thank you, vegetables!

Do You Really Need an Alarm to Get Up in the Morning?

How reliable is your inner clock?

Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

In the last several days I had special events back-to-back. 

A private Ikebana workshop for employees of a major IT company, Ikebana International New Year party, Hatsugama (初釜), the first formal tea gathering this year.  Each event requires preparation from the night before till late and early morning on the day of the event.

Normally I never set an alarm.  I wake up at about the same time every morning, no matter how late I go to sleep the night before. 

The last several days, however, I had to get up about an hour earlier than usual.  Just in case I set an alarm so that I won’t oversleep. 

While I was setting up the alarm, I consciously told myself to wake up at the set time.  The next morning, without exception I woke up about an hour before the time I was supposed to get up.  I lingered a little before I got out of bed, but I could turn off the alarm before it made an annoying sound. 

Then I thought, maybe I can rely on my internal clock a little more. 

A dog or a cat, your pet begs for food same time every day.  Without an alarm clock, they seem to have a daily routine set up for doing when to do what. 

Time, after all, is not created by human beings.  Maybe we creatures were created because there is a cycle in the universe. 

I’m not advocating discarding your alarm clock at all.  Our social structure requires us to be super punctual.  But you may be surprised by the ability of your body to tell you time.  Because, you know, we human beings are part of nature.

We Are Much Closer to Bugs than AI

Remember, human beings are living creatures

Photo by Sue Thomas on Unsplash

Whenever I hear discussions about AI and how afraid we humans are to be replaced with AI someday, I feel something off the point. 

Those discussions seem to assume that human beings merely consist of their brain. 

AI might surpass human beings in its memory capacity and computing capability.  But without power can AI function? 

A bug, on the other hand, is born, eats, reproduces, and dies someday. The body returns to earth.  So does a human.  We are living creatures.  AI is not… Will it ever gain life?  More importantly, should we ever allow that? 

How to Turn Vintage Obis into Art

Obis are wearable art!

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

If you see a woman in Japanese kimono, you also see a long, broad sash tied about the waist over it.  The sash is called obi.  Its function is to secure a kimono and avoid it from falling open.

Obi used to be a simple narrow sash, but over time it became wider.  In Edo period (1603 – 1868), many different ways of tying obi emerged.

Now that western clothes are dominant in Japan, vintage obis are so abundant.  Visit a second-hand kimono store, you will find a pile of colorful silk obis sold dirt cheap.  If the craft person who painstakingly wove that obi sees his/her work in that pile, how would s/he feel?  My heart hurts whenever I think about that.

People in the US, on the other hand, are fascinated by the intricate designs and colorful patterns of obi.  Some use an old obi as a table runner and others hang it on the wall as a decoration.

How can I give these vintage obis a second life?  What can I do to keep the original length but present it in a much more interesting way than merely folding It into two and hanging it?

I began trying to tie the obi the same way as we would wrap around the kimono and make it a hanging art.

What do you think?

Now whenever I go back to Japan, I purchase a couple of vintage obis and bring them back to Seattle.  I make these obis into ranging arts and donate them as auction items at Holiday Dinner of Japan-America Society. 

The obi is no longer worn, but its beauty remains on the wall in somebody’s house, thousands away from the original maker.   

When Matcha Drinking Was Once Gambling

14th-century Japan was wild!  

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Matcha drinking as gambling?  How can it be, you may wonder. 

After Eisai brought Matcha to Japan in the 13th century, growing tea trees spread from Kyoto to various regions in Japan.   The custom of drinking Matcha also spread from among Zen monks to a much wider audience like samurais, then the ruling class, and also among rich merchants.

History tells us that by the 14th century in Japan, samurais and wealthy merchants turned Matcha tea tastings into lavish gambling events often called Tocha (闘茶). 

Not all Matcha tastes exactly the same.  Matcha made from tea leaves that are grown in one region tastes different from those grown in other regions.  People would bring several Matcha made in different regions, taste them blindfolded, let’s say four kinds of Matcha, 10 bowls at random order, and try to guess which bowl was made from the same Matcha. 

The person who guessed most correctly would win. 

The prize of Tocha would be such precious items as a vase imported from China or extravagant silk garments. Often these Tocha events would accompany elaborate banquets as well as a lot of sake drinking.

Tocha became so extreme that then ruling Ashikaga clan even banned such events in 1336.  This type of gambling with Matcha, however, remained popular for another hundred years or so.

Source: Omotesenke Website

This 200-year-old Book Shows a Different Aspect of Samurai

They were avid practitioners of Ikebana (flower arrangement)

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

I found this book at Kyoto Art and Antiques warehouse sale in Seattle several years ago.  As always, this book was buried in a pile of old books in a basket. 

The book was in pretty bad shape.  The front page was torn.  I still don’t even know the title of this book. I could barely read on the last page that it was printed in Kyoto in “文政九年”.

I bought this book because I found the page which was showing three samurai men sitting on their knees, taking a closer look at the large Ikebana flower arrangements displayed in the alcove.  And another page was showing a samurai and a Buddhist monk arranging flowers. 

After I bought this book, I confirmed that “文政九年” was 1826. 

This book was published 197 years ago! When it was published, Japan still closed its doors to western countries and was enjoying almost 200 years of peaceful time without wars.  The samurai clan was still reigning the country.

Two hundred years ago, mostly men practiced Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).  Especially samurai, the ruling class. This worn-out old book is evidence of this historical fact. 

In peaceful times, masculinity was not enough for the ruling samurai clan.  They were expected to be highly cultured, and practicing Ikebana was one of them.

If you visit Japan today, you will see more than 90 % of people who practice Ikebana are women.  Even here in the US, most of my Ikebana students are women.  Somehow there exists a certain gender bias about practicing Ikebana.

If you are a man and interested in Ikebana, please don’t hesitate.  I hope this old book will encourage you to take up learning Ikebana.  Believe me, it’s fun.  Even the samurai knew about it!

My First Acrostic Poem

In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 16 of 52

Photo by Amanda Flavell on Unsplash

Even though poetry is the last thing I would have imagined myself trying, how can I reject this fun prompt?  So here it is!

Ambition

Knowledge

Excellence

Master

Intelligence

In my life 1.0, I would have chosen these words above.   Those days seem to be galaxies away. 

…

I have aged since then.  I hope that time passed has made me a little wiser.  In my life 2.0, my choice of words is: 

Artistic

Kind

Earthy

Merciful

Inclusive

Can I achieve the second poem before my life 2.0 expires?

Flowers Are My Best Color Consultants!

Learn color coordination from nature

Photos by Author Akemi Sagawa

During the lockdown due to COVID-19, my husband and I made a new daily habit of taking a walk in the neighborhood in the afternoon.

March, April, May… The front yard of most neighboring houses became more colorful day by day.  I don’t know how many photos I took!

Pink and yellow.  White and red.  Purple and blue.  Yellow and blue… Some are harmonious with similar hues.  Others are striking high color contrast.

“Oh, I never thought of this color coordination!”

I don’t know even half of the names of the flowers, but it doesn’t matter.  Those flowers have become my color consultants!

Here are some examples.  Which one is your favorite?

Why My Mother Is Smarter than Me

Because she can calculate with a soroban in this age of AI

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

The photo above is my soroban that I got over half a century ago.  In those days in Japan, every student was required to get one in the first grade at school.  I remember learning how to use it a couple of times in math class. I never bothered to learn privately to further practice using it.

My mother, on the other hand, learned how to use soroban more proficiently when she was young.  At the age of 84, she doesn’t even know how to start a calculator app on the phone, but she can add, subtract, multiply, and divide several digits of numbers quickly, much quicker than I can, using this simple tool. 

Who is smarter, me or my mother?

I can perform simulations that my mother wouldn’t even comprehend using Excel.

I can search hundreds more recipes for cooking rice than my mother knows by heart using my smartphone.

But can I say I’m any smarter than my mother? 

I think not.  The very fact that I call it a “smart” phone implies that now the gadget is smarter than me.  I’m not the smart one.

I’m simply outsourcing my brain power to external gadgets like computers and “smartphones,” aren’t I? 

Without such gadgets, I’m useless.  Even if these gadgets are around me, if electric power is out, all these gadgets become useless. 

In this age of AI, I’m thinking of resisting this trend of “outsourcing our brain power.”   Writing manually like this is one example.  I’m seriously thinking of practicing soroban next.  Then calligraphy…

Recently more and more people are testing to generate articles using ChatGPT here on Medium.  Many of them are flawless and some of them are even funny.  If machines can write better than I can, what’s the reason for my writing?  This question has led me to write today’s article. 

5 Secrets to Fully Enjoy Your Matcha Green Tea

It’s all about gratitude and respect

Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa

In my previous article, I showed you how to enjoy Matcha at home.  I hope my tips worked for you.

You made a bowl of matcha, with fine foam on the surface.  Your mouth is filled with sweetness.  Now you are ready to drink the green liquid.

But wait!  Let’s deepen your experience by adding these 5 tips. 

Hold your tea bowl with both hands

Feel the warmth of the bowl.  Look at the light green, silky foam.  Inhale to enjoy the aroma – Just like you swirl the glass before you sip wine.

Bow a little

While holding the bowl with both hands, bow a little to show respect to someone who made the tea (it’s you!), people who took the effort to grow the tea leaves and to make them into Matcha, and nature that provides us with clean, pure water.

Turn the bowl twice

If the bowl has some design and it’s facing you, turn the bowl clockwise a little so that you avoid touching your lips on the front design.

Now you are ready to have the sip.  Enjoy!

Make a noise at the last sip

The tea is almost gone in the bowl.  You can make a little noise when you have the last sip.  It’s a sign that you enjoyed the tea so much and you are done.

Take a closer look at your bowl

Turn the bowl counterclockwise so that the front design is facing you again.  While holding it with both hands, take a closer look at the bowl.  Do you know who made it?  Even though the bowl is manufactured in a factory, someone must have handled this bowl.  Think about that person and thank them for their efforts to make it. 

In the Japanese tea ceremony, you will be doing these five gestures as a guest with more formal steps.  The purpose of each little gesture is to show gratitude and respect to the host and to your surroundings. 

It reminds you that you are not living alone, that even this little bowl of tea wouldn’t have been made available without so many people’s and nature’s involvement. 

By taking a little extra time to add these gestures, I hope your teatime will become an opportunity to experience deep gratitude and respect, enriching your life.