the taste of spring

it rained all day yesterday. and today, happy windy day -- like winnie the pooh said? it is a windy sunday. indeed, the weather is up and down – like my dear mr bill cunningham has described the new york weather in his latest on the street. this time his report is about spring coats, which people no longer talk about. a few days ago, coincidentally my mother said to me “almost no one wears a spring coat these days…” in our conversation when its topic came to my new half-length cotton trench coat i just bought. i remember the old days when my mother used to be measured up for a bespoke, mostly pinkish beige, spring coat at a department store to get ready for windy spring days.

so, weather-wise, i am spending quite a disappointing weekend, but my eyes are happily catching anything fresh light green here in my living room or trees outside. even in newspaper articles, i wouldn’t miss anything light green as the definite sign of spring. then, i came across a recipe of risotto with 空豆 sora-mamey (broad beans: i’ve learned they are called “fava beans” in the us, which i didn’t know) yesterday. actually, on friday, when i stopped by a local supermarket to get a carton of milk on my way home from work, i noticed small plastic bags of shiny fat broad beans displayed among haricots verts (french beans) and green peas (english peas). i took home a bunch of bananas and an avocado, but no broad beans.

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saturday night means, for me, garlic. i popped into the supermarket in the rain and got a small bag of broad beans, after all. the food writer of the new york times wrote “their season is, sadly, a short time”, which is true. shelling peas looked like a fun job? the broad leathery pods happened to contain only a couple of peas, though. still, it seemed all right, enough for one people. i cooked a garlicky risotto with them, but i did not follow the new york times recipe. i substituted green peas and rucola pesto for asparagus and saffron as i used saffron for bouillabaisse (a poor man’s version, however) my supper last saturday. to make it a little more original, i placed a poached egg on the risotto, too.

the taste of spring was not bad at all. i didn’t take pictures of it, unfortunately – since i don’t like food pictures with lighting. instead, let me share my old and sort of kaffe fassett-inspired spring image with you, please? i took it during my “flower london era” a long long time ago.

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sakura #2

the japanese have a thing about 桜 sakura (cherry blossoms). i missed the best season of 桜 in 京都 kyoto this yea, though. i don’t feel quite up to making my way through the crowd. everywhere you go you’ll only find streets thick with people in 東山 higashiyama, 京都, this time of year. instead, i upload my best 桜 pictures i took there a couple years back. they can refresh my memories of the beauty of 京都 in 桜 season, which was speechless. i did need no words to appreciate it, but i got tired of the crush and congestion in town, really.

so, spring has come to all over japan. not exactly -- it’s already summer out here. the temperature went up as high as 28 degree centigrade in 大阪 osaka yesterday: it was a bit too hot for お花見 o-hanami (sakura picnic). i saw many people having a party under the blossoms, however. the best blooms are clearly gone, while our お花見 mode is still in full swing. everyone enjoys power-pink 桜吹雪 sakura-fubuki (cherry blossom confetti) as an unseasonable summer breeze kisses the cherry blossoms. we japanese are terribly, unbearably fond of 桜. do you know why? because, 桜 is short-lived: the bloom makes us feel like such a fool if we missed it: the blossom goes with grace, no hesitation.


i heard one 鶯 uguisu (bush-warbler) singing somewhere yesterday morning. it’s springtime no doubt. and, the climate is mediterranean's at the moment. for me, it was perfect a saturday evening doing nothing but cooking linguine con le vongole with crushed chili and chopped parsley (from my mother’s kitchen garden) and sipping argentine white plonk. i am happily idling away my time at weekend, as i’ve been working full time for a project for my last two weeks now in an office in 京橋 kyobashi, 大阪, weekend has become something special (and allows me to eat lots of garlic) to me.


on the other hand, it is an good opportunity for me to discover 大阪. i don’t know much about the city even though i’ve been one of osakans for several years; i haven’t really been fair towards 大阪, you know. the office is located in the tower 21, overlooking 大阪城 osaka-jo (osaka castle), so naturally, the view is breathtaking, while the “project x” (that's the name, actually) i now work on as a translator is just painstaking. one morning, i looked at 大阪城 from the office windows. i noticed blue plastic sheets spread out under the cherry blossoms along the river near 大阪城. then i noticed people sitting and having お花見 on the plastic-sheets when i was about to leave my office.

traditionally, poor freshmen would have to go and find an ideal place for お花見 to seize it by spreading plastic sheets early in the morning before their colleagues go to work. when a hard-working day is over, it is a party time. they rush to the place all together. this is a typical way for office workers to enjoy their “after 5” in 桜 season. they are lucky to work near 大阪城, which is famous for 桜. i’m not particularly attracted to samurai culture or castles themselves. still, i am loving the majestic view of 大阪城, with fresh green and powder pink patches and surrounded moats as the project is reaching the peak.

sakura #1

for the japanese, spring will not arrive without 桜 sakura (cherry blossoms). it was rainy, yesterday. i’m sure the disappointing weather sank many japanese people’s hearts. (by the way, it was unofficially “gay’s day” yesterday, because march 3rd is girl’s day while 5th may is boy’s day in japan…ha, ha). i threw a little tea party at my home for my girlfriends from a local university i once worked for. i initially planned to hold a girl’s day party around march 3rd, but i couldn’t make it due to my mother’s illness. instead, i made it a 桜 party. so, i went out in the morning to get finger-seized cheese cakes from my favourite local patisserie.
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on my way home, i picked up 桜 under the cherry trees – a powder pink carpet of heart-shaped petals. i got carried away. back home, i prepared finger-sized sandwiches with cucumber and smoked salmon and chocolate mousse (i learned an easy recipe of raymond blanc from the guardian online). every guest brought in some snacks or sweets, too. one of those was a tiny bag of white and powder pink dragée: the colour of 桜, coincidentally. we had so many cups of english tea as sandwiches and cakes disappeared from the table. that was the time for us to forget all about calorie-taking. still, we enjoyed our chats the most. oh my goodness. our chats seemed to be unstoppable!
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in the meantime, it was a perfect sunday for お花見 o-hanami ( 桜 picnic). in the park, the almond, plum and other prunus-family trees were also in full bloom... just lovely.

un chien andalou de cádiz

if you are a film-buff or an art-lover, i’m sure you’ve seen or at least heard of the surrealist masterpiece “un chien andalou” directed by luis buñuel. and i guess, like me, you found the film too difficult to understand. among my favourite avant-garde films i prefer jean cocteau’s work to his. to tell you the truth, despite being always a film and art enthusiast, although i saw so many art films when i was a londoner, i had only known the film by its famous title for a long time. i had never watched it until one saturday afternoon when mr geek showed it to me at his home in hampstead. he and i spent weekends together at the time. and luckily, he happened to have a copy of its video.

when i visited andalucía of españa with mr geek back in late march of 2002, he wanted to show me around cádiz that once was his adopted home town. it was already an early summer’s day. some people enjoyed swimming; young girls splashing about along the seashore. we strolled down to the sunny beach and i saw a jack russell terrier jumping into the water to catch a ball the dog-owner had thrown. a real andalucían dog. he stopped running as if he struck a pose. i snapped a shot of the dog. it was an image that would forever be imprinted in my mind. and the dog has been in my mind since then, even if i hadn’t taken the photograph, which a tokyo band, rose-unlimited, asked me to use it for their cd album cover.

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i loved it in andalucía. i was enchanted by the beauty of alhambra and generalife in granada. picturesque ronda and foodie cádiz satisfied all my senses. and i now recall one episode. a pretty but wacky middle-aged spanish woman approached us as soon as we took seats of a long-distance bus from ronda. she, wearing her hair in two plaits and zany clothes like a sioux tribal woman, kept talking to mr geek en route to cádiz. she spoke perfect british english, though. her intriguing stories silenced both mr geek and me. “i went out with jimi when i lived in london, in the 60’s, you know” – that jimi hendrix. the legendary rocker. that’s what she said. all mr geek and i did was kept nodding “wow!” while her kookiness made us wonder if she was serious and real or nutty as an andalusian fruitcake.

my pad

interior design is something i can help but think of. my most favourite shop is, probably, nicola farhi home in london. i love her rustic but contemporary chic taste. still, i imagine it’d be so boring if one was super rich and would go and buy anything he/she liked there. i could find something similar and cheaper somewhere else. and most importantly, to me, like other interior design enthusiasts, finding things is more pleasurable than buying things, which is great about making one's own home, right?

today, i show you around my pad – my home, humble but sweet home of my very own. i’ve been living here for 3 years and 5 months now. i really love being at home. i never like the synthetic materials that are used for the floor, the walls and the ceiling in my flat, however. this flat was already renovated by its former owner when it was to be on the market. the textures are awful and tasteless. i have to close my eyes to them, even though i actually see them every single moment. i guess i’ve just learned to get used to something i even dislike. it's true that every cloud has a silver lining. the views from my windows and balconies are not that bad.

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as you might know, no japanese goes into their home in shoes: we take off our shoes at the entrance hall. so, our shoe cabinet is usually big. not like one that carrie bradshow of s.a.t.c, has in her new manhattan apartment, though. my shoe cabinet, which was originally fitted in the entrance hall, was ugly enough to hurt my eyes. i painted it pistachio green last summer. it isn’t as stylish as carrie’s, but at least, it looks all right to my eyes now.

i also painted my old thonet chair (i don’t know if it’s real one or thonet-esque one) and the pine desk from muji. my semi-double bed is also from muji. i work from my bedroom office, overlooking the sea of grey-tile-roofed houses of my neighbourhood. i wish i had a bigger desk, though you may not see this tiny desk cluttered. the white canvas behind the desk is a minimalist oil painting i bought from badrol, my artist friend from malaysia. i treasure it. but i’d use it as a backdrop sometimes because of the bad walls when i take photographs. sorry, bad!

in my bed room, i treasure the old french pine chest of drawers. i found it ages back at a furniture shop in kentish town, london. its kind of clumsy way that the drawers had been repaired stole my heart – so sweet. so charming. i bought it myself on the spot. i shipped it when i returned to tokyo from london several years later. most of the stuff placed on the chest are my finds at london’s various flea markets. and, you see the patchwork quilt? i made it myself. i am pretty good at sawing (but useless when it comes to sawing-machine) and knitting. oh, the throw. i am fond of this tartan of rare colours. i bought it during my visit to inverness, scotland a long time ago.

as for my living room, the sofa and ottoman are also from a local muji shop. yes, i’ve been a muji fan since its launch. in fact, i worked for muji mook as a writer. but the thing is, muji never does a great variety of furniture design. ikea hadn’t re-launched in japan yet when i moved in. and now, more ikea stuff is likely to occupy my flat, which has been simply furnished so far. i don’t like being surrounded by too many things basically. so, my books in the bookcase shown are not everything i have. i’ve hidden the rest in my closet. the two, tall and short, perfume bottles of the eiffel tower were brought back from my paris trip back in the early 80’s. its minty colour doesn’t fade forever. well, i hope.

the colour scheme for my interior is always white as a base colour (ignore the flavourless walls for this moment), usually adding shade of green, baby blue and brown. i feel most comfortable with white and pale blue. i once (when i was married and lived in yokohama) fitted white wall-to-wall carpet in my all white bedroom where white and pale blue bed linens coordinated with it. that was a mistake. the white carpet got grey-sh only after a few months. my kids were wild little creatures back then. i have no problem now. except the budget. i can’t afford renovation. at least, i can be thinking of painting all the walls pure white this summer or next.

adding red, as an accent colour, to my kitchen plus dining space has been my first ever adventurous attempt and it’s in progress. i’d like to show it to you when completed. meanwhile, i have other 2 tatami rooms with a fitted closet respectively. i use one for my guests (usually for my daughter) and i put my muji pine wardrobe (2 units) for another. most of my clothes not in season are in muji pp unit drawers hidden in the closet, though. as it happened, my lifestyle is not typically japanese. still, i love to keep the tatami rooms in my pad.

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that’s all, folks. thank you!