Looking for a nice pottery? - announcement of solo exhibition

An Exhibition of Masaaki Ito will be held from June 3rd to 8th at Kagurazaka

Gallery Saka

June 3rd - 8th
11:00 - 19:00 ( 8th will be close at 17:00)

2 Tsukiji-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

3min. walk from Kagurazaka Station

access:
http://www.gallery-saka.com/html/access.html



If you're looking for a nice pottery for your table, here's my favorite one!


A little bowl can be used at every meal.
I put Tofu with herbs ( Long Onion, Myoga, and Kaiware, and Ginger) today.
I also use it for soup, yogurt, etc..



Also, it goes well with western food.
This is beef with red-wine learnt from my friend in Paris.

Calligraphy Lesson

Calligraphy Lesson.

This Kanji character means "Wind".
Towards summer, this character makes you feel cooler.







If you take some classes of Calligraphy, you can also take class for drawing.

A day trip from Tokyo - Takao

About 50min. away from Shinjuku, from the center of Tokyo, there’s a place called Mt. Takao, where you can enjoy hiking.


http://www.takaotozan.co.jp/takaotozan_eng1/index2.htm

Ukai Toriyama, Japanese grill restaurant, is located in that area, too. You can get a shuttle bus from Takaosan-guchi station.
You can enjoy there every season.

Lots of my friends from U.S., Australia, HK, etc… like this place, and they will go again next time when they come back to Japan.




You can choose chicken or beef.

First Green Tea Leave of the season

First Green Tea Leaves of the season are on sale right now.

It is said 88 nights after the first day of spring is the time to start new green tea leave picking. 88 days after the first day of spring is around May 2nd, every year.
It is said that drinking first green tea of that season on that day gives you a long life.

* If you find a tea shop, you can see a sign or new “新茶”.

* You can find lots of Maccha sweets, too.

Plum Wine

This season, I decided to make a Plum Wine.
I picked up 30 plums yesterday (about 500g) .

Having checked the basic recipe, you can use Crystal Sugar and White Liquor.

But, you can use Honey or Brown Sugar for sweet, and Sake, Shochu, Brandy... for liquor.

Here's my Plum Wine 2010 !

View of Tokyo

Weather is so pleasant in Tokyo area in May.
People go out on weekends.

Tokyo in Twilight

Tango no Sekku – Boy’s day

We just had holiday called “Golden Week( 4 national holidays in a week)” and May 5th is the national holiday called Children’s Day. May 5th was traditionally a festival for boys known as Tanogo no Sekku. (March 3rd is a festival for girls called Hinamatsuri) And, Carp-shaped streamers called Koinobori and doll with armour like Samurai are decorated for blessing boys of the house.