Every year, I make homemade lemon syrup because I like its sweet and tangy flavor. I use the syrup in my homemade yogurt or to make hot lemon drinks in winter. In summer, I love drinking the syrup

I've been working on gosuakae, which one of the styles of akae , for a while now. Since my current piece is large, I've only been painting at my teacher's studio. My painting lesson for this year has

Since last year I've been learning unpitsu. Using a single brush and sumi ink( often used for Japanese calligraphy) , we have to describe objects by controlling brush pressure and sumi ink's gray

Today, I'd like to share about my favorite kitchen gadget, the air flyer. When I visited my British friend in England last year, I saw it at his house. He told me how amazing it was, and his

A couple of days ago, while chatting with a friend of mine from Texas, he shared a very interesting story, which there was the only one Japanese survivor from the Titanic tragedy, with me. Since I'd

Since the oatmeal reaches its expiration date, I baked some cookies. I took step-by-step pictures, so I'd love to share my recipe with you. This recipe is very simple and easy to follow. It should

Last month, my husband and I went to Nara Prefecture to have yakuzen cuisine again at our favorite restaurant. This time, we enjoyed crabs called Shanghai gani in Japanese. These crabs are very

I recently finished some knitting projects. I only knit while speaking English on Skype with my friends from overseas, so these are my "speaking time projects". The first project was a vest for

A couple of days ago, I received two small gifts from a friend of mine. She gave me some plants. Although we've been having cold days and it was snowing lightly, I planted them in pots. At first, I

I live in Osaka Prefecture, and today I'm pleased to introduce our local food, called takoyaki. ”Tako” means octopus in Japanese, so you can probably guess one of the main ingredients. Although it

Every day is so cold that I'd love to make something hot to keep me cozy. What should I drink? Hmmmmm...... hot coffee, hot tea, hot milk, or....? Today, I'd like to introduce my favorite hot drink

Two month ago, I visited Hyōgo Ceramic Art Museum again with a friend of mine. This time, there was an exhibition about akae (a style of Kutani ware ), which is my favorite because the color read

Today, Toyota announced that they'll open a futuristic city named Toyota Woven city in Shizuoka Prefecture this fall. They'll start with about 300 residents and gradually expand the population to

Since winters in Japan are very harsh, I don't grow anything in my garden. I've tried to grow root vegetables a couple of times, but they weren't so great. Instead, I enjoy growing broccoli sprouts

Since the pandemic happened, I stopped using Instagram and Facebook. I used to post my art pictures there, but I had spent lots of time to check out other people's timelines or Instagram pages too.

In Japan, we are enjoying the New Year holidays while gardeners, especially rose enthusiasts are busy during this season. Today, I pruned half of my roses even though some were still blooming. After

I started practicing something new this year, and it's Japanese calligraphy. When I wrote on the lid of a paulownia box, I realized I definitely needed to improve my skills, so I decided to start

Happy New Year! Since the weather was warmer than yesterday and a very clear day, I felt we started perfect 2025! As usual, my husband and I invited my parents, our daughter, our son-in-law and our

Listening to the midnight bell, known as jyoya no kane (除夜の鐘　じょやのかね) is a cherished Japanese tradition. The bells ring at midnight on New Year Eve, and some people even go to temples to take part in

Today, my husband and I visited my parents and his mother in our hometown. I took my hand-knitted cap for my mom. Since it's getting colder, she loved it. She wanted to go somewhere to wear her new