With flowers! – Because you always spend some time there every day
Flowers in the bathroom: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
The graceful line. The vivid color of the petals. The sweet fragrance… A stem of flowers can bring joy to your life! The question is, where you want to keep it.
I suggest, don’t forget the bathroom!
It’s a smaller space compared with the other rooms in your house, like the living room, the dining room, or the kitchen. The relative significance of the little flower is greater in the tiny bathroom than in any other room.
Without exception, there is a mirror in the bathroom. Place a stem of flowers in front of the mirror, and you get to view two!
You go to the bathroom at least several times a day. While you are there, most likely you are enjoying the solitude, a precious time in your busy daily schedule! Keep a flower as your company in there. It brightens up the space as well as your heart!
In Japanese, we use three different types of characters: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
Both Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic, and each has only 46 characters.
Kanji, on the other hand, is ideogramic. Just like English words, there are thousands of Kanji characters, and each Kanji character has a certain meaning.
How was the Kanji character developed? What is the original meaning?
Each character has its own story to tell and learning its story is one of the fun for learning Kanji characters.
Snow is written as 雪 in Kanji.
My dear friend Shizu Usami is a professional calligrapher and has deep knowledge of Kanji’s history. Recently she created a Youtube video explaining how the character “雪” was developed over time.
Not only will you learn about this Kanji’s story, but you will also get to learn how the Kanji character is written in calligraphy.
Shizu’s beautiful brush strokes, her straight posture, her focus, and her serenity while she moves the brush on the paper… When she writes the character, maybe she feels as if she becomes part of snow herself?
Hatsugama – New Year tea gathering in a 8-tatami-mat room: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
Can you guess what I had to learn first to practice Japanese tea ceremony?
No, it’s not how to make Matcha. No, it’s not how to drink Matcha.
The very first thing I had to learn was how to sit, stand, and walk on tatami mats properly.
Image drawn by Author Akemi Sagawa
The image above is a part of the 4-and-a-half tatami-mat tea room, a typical size. In the center of the room, there is a kettle for hot water.
Before you enter the room, you sit down on your knees in front of the closed sliding door. You slide it open, bow to the guests, stand up straight, and place your left foot just outside the tatami mat.
The first step you enter into the tatami mat should always be your right foot (1).
You place your left foot a little forward (2), turn around with your right foot (3), put both feet together (4 and 5), and sit down, and close the sliding door.
Image drawn by Author Akemi Sagawa
Once you close the sliding door, you stand up, step your feet so that you move your body 90 degrees (6 and 7), step forward with your left foot (8), and step into the next tatami with your right foot (9).
Walk forward, left (10) and right (11), then move back diagonally and put together your feet (12 and 13), and sit down.
In Urasenke School, the general rule for walking on the tatami mat room for is:
When you come in, always step the next tatami mat with your right foot.
When you go out, always step the next tatami mat with your left foot.
In order to walk on half a tatami mat, you take four steps.
At first, I didn’t understand why we have to be so strict about our footsteps. How tedious! What does it have to do with serving tea?
After practicing tea ceremony for several years, I came to realize the importance of keeping our body movement smooth, as well as rhythmical. The movement is not always at the same tempo. Sometimes we make a swift move, sometimes we move rather slowly. Overall, each movement has to look beautiful.
You move your body beautifully, with certain rhythms, and tempos. Isn’t it what dancing is?
When I realized this simple fact, my tea ceremony practice was stepped up one notch. When I serve tea, I’m performing dancing!
At Hatsugama 初釜, the New Year tea gathering, my teacher served this beautiful and delicious meal for every one of us students. She spent hours preparing for it the day before. Thank you very much, Mrs. Takemura, my dear teacher!
It’s shivering cold outside. The sky is gray with not even a slit of blue. The drizzle continues. All the deciduous trees and bushes in my tiny yard have lost leaves and look dead…
No, they are not dead!
A closer look at Spirea: Photo by Author
When I look closer, I see tiny, hard, young buds and shoots on each branch. The plants are constantly carrying nutrients from their roots to each branch.
Well before we come to admire the vivid green leaves and bright color flowers in the spring, they are preparing for that moment. Nonstop.
I’m no different from these plants. I’m part of nature. So I ask myself.
Am I preparing for my flowers to bloom? Even when there is hardly any sign of the spring shown? Am I striving for my growth today?
These 5 plants are my teachers!
Hydrangea: Pho by AuthorHydrangea: Photo by AuthorDwarf Lilac: Photo by AuthorDwarf Lilac: Photo by AuthorForsythia: Photo by AuthorForsythia: Photo by AuthorWisteria:Photo by AuthorWisteria: Photo by Author
When I visited Koyasan several years ago, I was amazed to see so many foreign tourists, especially from Europe. I asked a backpacker from England why he decided to visit Koyasan. He said, “didn’t you know Koyasan is the second most popular place to visit in Japan, after Kyoto?” Whatever the travel guidebook he read, I agreed with it.
When I finally went back to Japan after three years of separation in May 2022, two places were my must to visit: Kyoto and Koyasan.
In May 2022, Japan still restricted visitors from abroad. A foreign citizen couldn’t get a visa without an invitation from a Japanese organization or proof that their Japanese parents or children are living in Japan.
Since I had renounced my Japanese citizenship when I was naturalized in the US (because Japan doesn’t recognize dual citizenship), I had to get a visa to enter Japan to see my mother. At least in May I no longer had to prove that my mother was seriously ill.
Because of the travel restriction, there were hardly any foreign tourists in Japan. Both Kyoto and Koyasan were quiet as ever.
As usual, I stayed one night at one of the shukubos (宿坊) in Koyasan. Shukubo is a temple that allows people to stay overnight.
In addition to lodging, it provides meals (dinner and breakfast) and often lets visitors experience some of the Buddhist rituals such as meditation or shakyo, a practice of transcribing sutra text by hand. In Koyasan there are so many shukubos, each of which has a unique history.
For no reason, I felt like trying something different this time: a 24-hour digital detox.
Kondo in Koyasan: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
In one and a half hours, the train took me from the middle of the busy Osaka-city to a quiet mountainous area of Koyasan. From 10:30 am to noon, I walked around and took pictures: Daimon 大門 and Kondo 金堂. Come noon, I switched off my phone and kept it off until noon the next day.
I kept walking along the winding road,
checked in at Jimyoin 持明院, the shukubo I had made a reservation,
unpacked in one of the rooms upstairs,
took a walk in their vast Japanese garden,
strolled a long corridor in the temple,
sat down and looked at each fusumae 襖絵, pictures painted on the sliding panels (Jimyoin had so many of them!),
read a manga book depicting a life of Kobo Daishi (弘法大師 774-835), the founder of Koyasan,
slept in the futon,
participated in the Goma 護摩, a Buddhist ritual conducted in Jimyoin at 6:30 the next morning,
enjoyed a simple breakfast,
checked out Jimyoin and walked further to Okunoin 奥之院,
and got to the station to take the cable car and train back to Osaka, at noon.
View from the Koyasan Station: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
No cell phone. No TV. No Internet. Minimum conversation. Not thinking much, but just seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting what is there…
In 24 hours, I felt like part of my impurity was replaced with the freshness of Koyasan’s pure air.
Koyasan was the right place to experience the digital detox for me. How about you? Which place would you choose? Or where did you go for your digital detox? I would love to hear your story!
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
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
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
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
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
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
Put Matcha into the bowl, two scoops if you are using the bamboo scoop. Or about one teaspoon full.
Pour Water
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
Pour hot water into the bowl, about 50cc. Pour water quietly, so that Matcha doesn’t scatter around.
Whisk
Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
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!
I survived the grueling due diligence period thanks to Ikebana
Ikebana arrangement placed at the company entrance: Photo by Author Akemi Sagawa
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.
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 SagawaElliott 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!
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.
