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!

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!

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!

Year-End Greetings and An Update

Thank you to everyone who has visited Hanamichi over the past year!  I'm so happy I can share my love of tea and dance with you and thank you for your patience and interest.

I would like to apologize for the recent delay in posts.  There has been no lack of tea experiences to share, but studying for the ATMA Tea Master certification has kept me rather busy.  With the New Year, I will also attempt to complete STI's Level 3 Tea Professional Certification.

Meeting so many people who are enthusiastic about tea and who are willing to share their experiences and knowledge over the past year has been a treasure!  Whatever level of achievement I may have on paper, I could never consider myself a master of tea because there will always be so much more to learn.  Instead, I am happy to be a perpetual student of tea.

I also hope to continue studying Japanese classical dance in the year to follow.  Perhaps I can share some of those experiences, as well?

Look here for new tea reviews, tea shop and tea room visits, and more very soon!

May your New Year be filled with wonder and joy!

~Heather