Yuian-Matcha Tea Ceremony

A long-overdue lunch with a friend who just started living between two cities ✨

The meal opened with chimaki, bamboo leaf-wrapped sticky rice tied to Japan’s May festival🎏

The classic filling is sweet, but this one had a twist: salmon sushi rice was tucked inside instead🍣 Loved the whole fish-forward menu🥰

慌ただしかった5月もあっという間。
先日2拠点生活をスタートさせた友人と、久しぶりのランチ🎶

最初に登場したのは…粽！5月だけど…最初から粽？？と思いきや、鮭のちまき寿司でした😂

魚中心のコースを美味しくいただいて、シメは鯛の炊き込みご飯。（メニューは桜海老だったけど、友人の甲殻アレルギー対応で変更してもらいました🦐感謝）
次回は桜海老バージョンで食べたい💕

Enjoying a Rikyu manju alongside a bowl of matcha, I’m slowly making my way through a book about Sen no Rikyu, the 16th‑century tea master who shaped the foundations of the Japanese tea ceremony🍵

抹茶のお供に利休饅頭を味わいながら、こちらの本を読み進めてます📕

I ordered the Ichida-gaki Mille-feuille I keep seeing here, dried persimmon layered into a delicate, melt-in-the-mouth treat.

Came in three flavours: plain, rum raisin, and brandy raisin. All absolutely gorgeous, but the brandy raisin stole my heart🥰

Fair warning though - they’re smaller than expected and dangerously easy to polish off in one go🍵

こちらでよくお見かけする市田柿ミルフィーユをお取寄せしました🍵プレーン、ラムレーズン、ブランデーレーズンの３種。

想像通りのトロける食感でとても美味しかったです。ブランデーレーズンが1番のお気に入り💕サイズは思ったより小さくペロリと平らげてしまいました😅

Kashiwa-mochi: a sweet bean rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf☘️ Oak trees hold onto their old leaves until new ones grow - a symbol of family continuity. Eaten on Children’s Day (May 5th) in Japan, which is actually a celebration for boys (girls have their own day on March 3rd!), to wish kids health and a bright future.

Better late than never, enjoyed kashiwa-mochi with a bowl of matcha🍵

今日から二十四節気の小満。
草木が成長し生い茂る頃。
昨日の東京は真夏のような暑さ☀️一転して今日は涼しいを越して肌寒いぐらい…

遅ればせながら柏餅で一服しました🍵

Still deep in jet lag during the second half of Golden Week, but headed out to the Nezu Museum with my tea friend to see the iconic Kakitsubata (iris) folding screen, a national treasure, along with the museum’s garden in full iris bloom🪻

We also got to enjoy matcha in the Hikinsai, a tea room that’s normally closed to the public🍵

And then… steak in Aoyama, dessert, and yet more dessert at a café🍰 The overeating continues, even back in Japan…

GW後半、絶賛時差ボケ中の中、茶友と根津美術館へ。通常非公開という披錦斎でお抹茶をいただいてきました🍵菓銘は顔佳花（かおよばな）で燕子花の別名だそうです。花冥利に尽きる別名ですね✨

その後は青山でステーキにデザート、カフェでもデザート🍰と日本でも暴食は続く…

A final bowl of matcha to round off the trip🍵 We were blessed with beautiful weather⛰️

Some of the Italy meals are already up on Threads, by the way😋

締めの一服🍵
お天気に恵まれました☀️
食事の一部はスレッズにあげてます🇮🇹

Enjoying a bowl of matcha with hazelnut chocolate 🍵 Europe is already in early summer mode ✨

ヘーゼルナッツチョコレートをお供に一服🍵ヨーロッパも既に初夏の装い✨

#茶道教室 #英語茶道 #目黒

My photos don’t do them justice💧but I spotted these daifuku in a lady’s hands at the "depachika" and hunted them down — only two boxes left, and I snagged one.

Kumquat daifuku with white bean paste🍊
Four in a box… I could’ve eaten them all, but stopped at two😅

写真が下手で映えませんが💧先日デパ地下で素敵なご婦人がお持ちのこちらの大福が気になって探したところ、残り二箱だったので一箱ゲットしてきました。

白餡入りのきんかん大福🍊4個入りでひとりでペロリといけそうでしたが2個で我慢しました😆

Tokyo suddenly jumped to a summery 25°C today💦 So I hurriedly picked up a few spring‑hued wagashi🍀

Sawarabi (young bracken shoots in spring)
Sahohime (the goddess of spring in Japanese folklore)
… and one whose name I’ve completely forgotten... though it was just as spring‑like🍵

東京は25℃の夏日になってしまったので💦慌てて春色の和菓子を色々☘️早蕨 ＊ 佐保姫 ＊ 最後は忘れてしまいましたが春っぽい銘でした😅

#英語茶道 #夏日

The tea flowers recently were satsuki shakuyaku (an early-blooming, smaller variety of peony) and rikyubai (Pearlbush Exochorda racemosa).

The main sweets were named “No-asobi” (literally “a day out in the fields”), shaped like "onigiri"🍙, so I couldn’t resist placing them in a small cedar bento box for a playful presentation.

It was a domyoji-style wagashi (made from lightly textured glutinous rice), filled with smooth sweet red bean paste🍵

過日の茶花はさつき芍薬と利久梅。
主菓子の銘は「野遊び」
かわいい🍙だったので杉のお弁当箱に入れました。道明寺の中にこし餡が入って美味しかった😋

#英語茶道