Anna Matsushita

  31st March 2024 marks Easter, a celebration in Christianity commemorating the resurrection of Christ. This widely embraced Christian holiday, now quite prevalent in Japan, is a moveable feast, changing dates each year. Despite the uncertainties of the pandemic, places like Tokyo Disneyland used to host Easter events in pre-COVID times, featuring egg-shaped chocolates and festive treats. The Easter period spans about a month and a half. In Catholic tradition, it kicks off with Shrove Tuesday's Carnival, 41 days before Easter, followed by Ash Wednesday, marking the start of Lent – a period focusing on prayer, fasting, and charitable acts, sharing in the suffering of Christ. During Lent, individuals often undertake acts of kindness or give up indulgences such as sweets. On Shrove Tuesday, known in the UK as "Pancake Day," festivities involve making and flipping pancakes in a unique competition. Towns and villages host pancake-flipping challenges, and some even attempt the

 One afternoon, I found some beautiful Kogyoku apples at a supermarket shelve. The apple is pretty hard to come by, it only shows up in Autumn. Kogyoku apple is sour apple, perhaps little sweeter than Granny Smith. When you see this apple, it’s time to cook warm apple pies or apple crumble. This year, I tried making apple pudding. Apple pudding is a simple dessert, and simple to make. And moreover, it is delicious – When I made this at home, half of it went to my neighbor. Within 10 minutes, she rang back and said she loved it.   <Recipe> -----------------------------------------------  Butter – 120g Caster sugar – 120g Egg – 2 large eggs Plain flour – 120g Baking soda – 1/2 tsp Salt – 1 pinch Ginger powder – 1 1/2 tsp Milk   - 3 tbs Kogyoku apples – 1   peeled and quartered, thinly sliced. Honey tbs Whipped cream  ----------------------------------------------------- Grease the baking tin with some butter Pour honey at the bottom of tin

Today is the moon festival in Japan. Apparently many people were looking forward to this annual event more than usual, possibly to be festive more than usual and enjoy the day thoroughly. Lots of text have been exchanged to talk about today’s weather forecast. Apparently it will be cloudy today, so the visibility of the moon may not be good. Some of my friend went out to see the moon last night, held a little party at home. Some of them cooked sweet dumpling with their kids, which looked fun. The reason why dumplings are chosen for the sweets of the day is simple : Dumplings look like full moon ! At home, my family was festive more than usual. We did went out last night to see the bright moon. My parent went out today, and bought some sweets which may be too much for the three of us.  They said some of the stores were offering Silver grass, a typical decoration of this day. Sadly the silver grasses at the stores were too mature, flowers were all open and fluffy seeds were almost

  The second state of emergency was declared in Japan at the beginning of January 2021. The number of COVID-19 patient was increasing at alarmingly high pace. This time hospitals were all prepared, so there were at least some beds for new patients contracted to the virus. It was distressing to watch the evening TV news programme to see the number of patients rising day by day, but that was our reality. I think it was almost the same situation across the world. Many businesses, especially food industries such as bars and restaurants were badly hit, requested to close early. One of my old friend who runs Yakitori and wine restaurant was hit hard. His restaurant in Tokyo serves good wines made in many parts of Japan, and wonderful yakitori (skewered roasted chicken). I used to go there with my friends and colleagues, chatted over wonderful glasses of beer and wine with delicious yakitoris and other dishes. His restaurant normally close at around 24:00, but  he needed to close at 20:00. Co

  The summer 2020 in Southern Kanoto was unusually hot and muggy. To keep good physical condition, I had homemade green smoothie every day. I followed recipe by an essayist Ms Michiko Miyamoto, known as “The most beautiful diet”  Despite of mushy appearance, the smoothie taste like fresh drinking vegetable salad, with plenty of Konatsuna green (Mustard-Spinach), tomato and cucumber, with a dash of lemon juice and Japanese basil. During summer 2020, I never felt giddy or tired, possibly helped by this eating habit. This is pretty voluminous smoothie, it can be replacement for lunch or dinner in case if you are on diet. Recipe :  A bunch of Mustard Spinach (Komatsuna) (100g) 1 Tomato 1/2 Cucumber 5 Japanese Basilico 1 tea spoon of sea salt 1 Table spoon of Safflower oil 1 cup of water (200 cc) 1 Lemon, freshly squeezed 1) Mix ingredients (except lemon juice) in mixer until smooth. 2) Add lemon juice and mix (not too long) 3) Mix ice cube if the weather is too hot Recipe is available from