lacquer geta

lovely lacquer geta

seen on the street today

morels at daitokoji

found these morels growing in the moss garden at daitokoji temple! the gardener who was weeding picked them and offered them to us when we pointed them out. apparently, they don't eat them in japan. not enough for a meal, but enough for inspiration.

lacquer lobster bowls

saw these lovely lacquer lobster bowls in a shop window today.

Yellow sweet peas

I bought these beautiful, fragrant, yellow sweet peas at the market. So excited. I'd never seen yellow sweet peas before. They turned the water yellow. Turns out they are the green carnations of japan. Alas. At least they still smell good.

poetry and sake

my favorite shrine is kamigamo. we're just back from a festival there where they re-create a heian era pastime of writing poetry in the garden and floating cups of sake down the stream in little lacquer cups on the back of a wooden duck. everyone in fabulous period costume. what could be better?

mochi pounding

mochi, pounded rice,often used for sweets and senbei. here is a movie of the rice being pounded at a mochi shop in nishiki market.

our kitchen

our house is rather like a frail old lady, delicate and full of charm. our kitchen has a well [note the pulley]which now is covered and has the fridge perched on top and is pretty rustic.

nishiki market

spent a lovely day at nishiki market, a 100 year old, mind-blowing covered food market in kyoto. every version of fish, pickles, pickled fish, seaweed, tea, veggies, and the most beautiful sweeties in the world [though, maybe not the tastiest].

first day of school kyoto

snowing sakura

Pics of our house

Here are some pics of our house in Kyoto. It's all rickety wood and paper and tatami and scaled tiny. We love it.

spare wings

New york and the mad dash of finishing my latest book, Forever Friends, seems like a million years ago, but here are some pics of my bits and pieces [spare wings and blossoms] for a sneak peak. It's due out early next spring.

kiyomizu dragon