Happy New Year 2017!

May your New Year be filled with love and good health!

My holiday season kicked off with the 2016 Advent Tea Calendar theme of "12 Unique Teas from Japan".  Alongside the daily tea reviews, I included an informative post explaining more about each type of tea.  If you're curious, these posts may be found under Tea Appreciation in the top menu.

New Year's Eve was restful and I enjoyed a traditional meal of toshikoshi soba (year-bridging noodles), using up the last of the matcha soba from Itohkyuemon, with a pot of asairi houjicha from Chado Tea House, a gift from Christmas.

Today, I traveled to Tsubaki Grand Shrine for Hatsumoude, the first shrine visit of the New Year. The shrine grounds were especially beautiful covered with snow and the scent of pine and cedar mingling with the scent of roasted chestnuts was invigorating. Returning home, I closed the first day of the New Year with a bowl of matcha and a seasonal wagashi from Tokara called Golden Pine.

Happy New Year 2016!

My holiday season began with the 2015 Advent Tea Calendar theme of "12 Teas from Japan".  New Year's Eve was quiet and I enjoyed a meal of toshikoshi soba (year-bridging noodles) using matcha soba from Itohkyuemon and fukucha sencha from Fukujuen.

New Year's Day had a busy start with the Resolution Run 5k in the morning and Hatsumoude (first shrine visit of the New Year) at Tsubaki Grand Shrine in the afternoon.  I was able to relax at home that evening with a hot bowl of zenzai, a cup of fukucha sencha from the shrine, and a cup of Midnight Midori green tea sake from Itohkyuemon to ward off the day's chill.

Last week was my first Japanese dance lesson of the New Year. Now I am learning a new challenging dance, Sakura, Sakura, and refining Fuji Musume.  I hope to perform them later in the year.

Now, I'd like to share the New Year greeting from the lesson.

Traditionally, the first greeting we say to each other before a lesson is "Ohayo gozaimasu" (It's early). You may know this as a morning greeting (Good morning), but with lessons it is the appropriate first greeting at any time of day. This is followed by "Dozo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu" (Please guide me/I'll do my best).

For the first lesson of the New Year, we say "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu" (Happy New Year) followed by "Kotoshimo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu" (Please guide me/Thank you for your support in this new year).

I look forward to sharing many more tea moments from the Autumn trip to Japan and to continuing to share reviews of new teas, tea rooms, tea shops, and tea events!  

Happy New Year!  May it be filled with good health and happiness!

New Year Greetings!

I hope everyone will have a very happy and healthy New Year filled with good friends, good tea, and good food!  I am so grateful for all my tea and dance friends!

The Winter holiday season kicked off with the 2014 Advent Tea Calendar which was great fun!  The alphabet theme really helped to introduce me to completely new teas and tea suppliers.  Almost all of the 26 teas were fantastic and I hope many of them will find their way into my readers' own tea collections.  I'm already planning for the next "Advent" theme and can't wait to begin!

It seemed appropriate to send off 2014 and to greet 2015 with exceptional teas.  Since I planned to start the New Year with a 5k (ouch), I had a quiet New Year's Eve with a meal including Toshikoshi Soba (year-bridging noodles) and Obukucha (New Year lucky tea) from Yunomi/Yamane-en.  This genmaicha contains ingredients considered to be lucky, including soybeans, kelp, and even gold flakes.

New Year's Day began with a bowl of matcha from DoMatcha, followed by a 5k (including a brief dip in Lake Washington) and Hatsumoude (festive 1st shrine visit of the New Year).  The day ended with a warming meal of Ozoni (New Year Day soup) and Fukucha (New Year lucky tea) sencha from Tsubaki Grand Shrine America.

This week I attended my first dance lesson of the New Year (Odori Zome) where I began learning a new dance called Ume nimo Haru (Spring is coming to the plum blossoms), a short and lively furi (miming) dance.  I look forward to adding this to my dance repertoire and to a year filled with hard work, improving what I know and learning new things!

It is my hope that 2015 will bring positive changes, some of which may be reflected on Hanamichi.  There will certainly be more tea travels and more informative articles to share, along with new tea reviews.  More on that as the year progresses!

  

Happy New Year!

Update & Upcoming Performance

Very sorry for the noticeable gap in entries.  I've been away celebrating a family member's momentous birthday (one that ends in "zero") and preparing for the upcoming performance with Kabuki Academy.

If you're in the area, be sure to visit Aki Matsuri (Fall Festival) at Bellevue Community College.  There will be tea ceremony demonstrations, live music, Noh lectures and workshops, martial arts demonstrations, and more.  The event is free!  

Kabuki Academy will perform dance and shamisen at 2:30pm on the Main Stage.  I hope you can attend!

After this weekend's performance, updates will return to their usual frequency.

General Update

I apologize for being away for so long.  I had been quite busy preparing for and traveling to Japan and I am finally home again.  It was a great experience, though I might have preferred to travel without catching pneumonia.

There will soon be new teas to sample and review and even some Japanese dance and Kabuki experiences to share.

Thank you for your patience!

Moving Update

I've officially moved to my new home in Tacoma, Washington and now "live" in two cities due to work, friends, and other connections in Seattle.  Unpacking has been successfully completed, tea supplies are in their proper places, and I'm just taking a few days off to recover before re-immersing myself in the tea blogging world.

The good news for this tea lover is that Tacoma has a fine selection of tea rooms.  Two cities filled with tea drinking opportunities and an overflowing tea cabinet at home mean this tea blogger will never lack for good things to share.

Thank you again for your patience!

Update: Posting Delay

I'm currently preparing to move to a new city (daunting!) and most of my tea and equipment has been safely packed away.  Updates to Hanamichi will continue with some delays, returning to a semi-regular schedule in about two to three weeks.

Wish me luck and thanks for your patience!

Contact Me

Hooray! A contact option is finally available! Click the link located to the upper right to email me your questions, comments, and news of upcoming tea and dance events. I look forward to hearing from you!