Anna Matsushita

 My friend uploaded pictures of her roses on SNS. She loves gardening, and after spending few years in England, she grew interest to roses in England which decorated the entrance of her house in England.   “ The scent and colours are wonderful. I’m still searching for deep pink rose with right colour “   She is looking for the type of rose which you can find here. It is developed by David Austin.   English Roses - David Austin Roses   Her SNS was having rose festival for few days, with many wonderful varieties – light pink, vivid orange, deep pink, red, and many more.   There are various gardens in Japan where you get to see wonderful roses – I saw lots of photographs during May, where people posted various photographs of roses from across Japan.   Here are some suggestions, in my local area, Kanagawa. (Yokohama and Hakone) In case if you missed, June is also a season of flower – Hydrangea will be in full bloom, you can also enjoy that as well.     YOKOH

  During COVID-19 restriction, I did another project: writing essays on drinks in mainly in Europe, Japan and Caucasus.   As a one engaged in travel industry, I wrote many writings for my job to introduce European drinks, including wines, beers, whiskeys and liqueurs.   The work involves many research on internet as well as trying the drink myself. I felt it important to experience the drink itself, as I was introducing the drinks to potential Japanese travellers abroad – I did not want to sound fake.   This time, I could spend more time researching the backgrounds of each drinks. It was interesting to learn the history of each drinks and passion of those who made the first drink, and success of the business.   The main reason I wrote this subject was that I wanted to carry on researching food and drinks abroad. When I was working at travel company, the work involved many research. I wanted to carry on with that, in order to keep the antenna up and keep the writing skil

 When I was young, I came across with a picture of two entertainers in Medieval Japan, called Kusemai dancer, and Shrabyoshi.   They were one of the prominent street performers in Medieval Japan, and they were mentioned in a book called “Seventy One Songs on Craftsmen", illustrating various craftsmen which was established at the end of 1500’s   Here is the link to the original painting of Kusemai dancer and Shirbyoshi. (On the bottle left) 狂言・能楽の歴史｜文化デジタルライブラリー (jac.go.jp)   (Kusemai dancer on the left, Shirabyoshi on the right )   能・世阿弥｜文化デジタルライブラリー (jac.go.jp) So, what are Kusemai dancer and Shirabyoshi ? Kusemai, also known as Mai-Mai (Roughly translated as "dance, dance") is a male street dancer, usually paired up with a singer, and dance while holding a folding fan. Shirabyoshi is a female dancer dressed in men’s clothe and sing song while dancing. Kusemai | the-Noh.com | Noh Terminology Shirabyōshi - Wikipedia   In a book of “Seventy

 One of my friend giggled on SNS, posting a photo of shiso ( Japanese Basil ), saying that nature took its course. Her large garden pot was literally covered with a thousand’s sprouts of shiso.   Shiso (Japanese basil ) is a delightful herb which is harvested throughout summer. It is fragrant, has fresh and slightly sweet aroma.  It has two colour varieties, green and deep red. I think you will see lots of green variety at markets and shops. Red one is mostly used to make pickles. You might recall umeboshi ( Japanese plum pickles) which you can find it in some onigiri rice balls. The colour of umeboshi comes from the red shiso. It gives natural colouring.   Shiso goes well with sashimi or sushi, topped with wasabi horse radish. It has small and pretty white flowers, which is also edible. You could pop some shiso flowers into soy sauce, and dip the fish. The fresh aroma simply fills your nostril.   It is easy to grow from seeds. It is prolific so it is best to watch carefull