Yuzu-lotion

In my adult's class we were chatting about Yuzu-Lotion.

Yuzu is a Japanese small aromatic citron.

Because of its aroma we put and set afloat in a hot bath.

It's called yuzuyu which is a seasonal word of winter.

Grated rind of Yuzu be used for Japanese winter cuisine.

Yuzu is also very good for skin care.

Yuzu seed oil, skin and fruit help our old skin cells shed off easily, and prevents melanin from being produced and retained while helping our skin to produce collagen.

I have learned about yuzu-lotion from my student, and I made Yuzu lotion. I thanked about it for her. 

I put yuzu-lotion my hands, my feet and even my face. Not only their aroma, my skin become smooth. 

A silted yuzu and seeds soaked into Shochu, clear distiller liquor.

 Shochu stops itchy skin, can be used as a moisturizer too.

I made yuzu lotion and rosemary lotion. It took 2-3 weeks to extract essence.

I put Yuzu lotion in a tincture bottle.

Painting of Good luck Mt. Fuji

First Chiba class of this year we painted Mt. Fuji on a postcard size paper.

We drew with a sumi stick which I learned from my artist friends in Oregon.

How to draw with sumi stick is fun. It is only dip a sumi stick in a little water and draw directly on a piece of paper.  This is very new to us. 

Water poured on a ink stone and rubbed with a sumi stick to produce ink is a traditional way.

A bottled  liquid sumi is popular now.

Those paintings only took 40 minutes.

It was very good warming up for them.

Hanna's classes for 2014 started

Kids class started  on January 6.

This is the first child project of this year.

5 years old girl painted on a large cotton bag.

She was very happy about her work.

My Winter Garden & Sunset in my neighborhood

I live in large multi-unit apartments near by a big river.

I live on the first floor (the ground floor). I like it because I can have a little garden.

I have several plant-boxes on my balcony.

My peas have already flowers.

I am going to transplant some of them on the ground.

The name of the river is Ara-kawa which continued to Tokyo bay.

I have a time to take a walk today.

I like this open space very much.

Winter sunset

Hatsumode

On New Year's Day we went to Hatsumode which refers to the New Year's first visit to a (Shinto) shrine or a (Buddist) temple to pray for the safety and good health of one's family and of one's own.

The local shrine was 15 to 20 minutes on foot. It was good exercise after our feast.

2014 New Year's Day

Happy New Year!

I visited my cousin and his family for the New Year.

Most of people eat osechi, traditional New Years food, New's Day morning.

Actually, many Japanese took many hours to cook osechi on December 30 and 31.

We had 'osechi', New Year's Food on New Year's Eve, because the osechi dishes which my cousin purchased from his habitual Sushi restaurant looked so good. 

We can't wait until New Year's Day.

Various kinds of beautifully prepared dishes are set in three-tiered lacquer boxes.

       ↓top of the box.  寿 kotobuki is 'long life'.

  Tuna sashimi, big shrimp, abalone, crabs, herring roe, salmon roe, Japanese omelette and lotus root...

Another traditional New Year's dish is zoni, soup containing mochi, vegetables and other ingredients such as chicken or seafood.

   ↓toasting 'Mochi' on a wire grid on the cassette gas stove 

    ↑ celebration chopsticks in the beautiful chopsticks bag with letter of kotobuki, 'long life'