In-Between Objects & Rituals
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When Appetite Returns
Seasonal cooking, a home lunch in Kichijoji and the thoughtful simplicity of the Japanese table During Japan’s hot and humid summer, meals often become lighter and easier to prepare. By early autumn, cooking begins to feel inviting again. Markets fill with new rice, mushrooms, root vegetables, persimmons, grapes and fish associated with the season. This…
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Under the Early Autumn Moon
After a Tokyo summer, the first cooler days change the way I think about leaving the city. During the hottest months, even a short walk can become something to calculate around the heat and humidity. Then the first cooler morning arrives, and almost immediately I begin thinking about trains going somewhere greener. Early autumn is…
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Regional Craft and the Rituals of Japanese Living
Most people visit Shibuya for its energy – crowded crossings, shopping streets, and the constant movement that has made the district famous around the world. Few would think to enter Hikarie, a modern commercial complex connected directly to the station, in search of a deeper introduction to Japanese culture. Yet hidden within its upper floors,…
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What We Carry Into the Season
There is a quiet habit of bringing things along. Not much – just enough to sit, to share, to stay a little longer under the trees. Each year, people return to the same moment. Not because it lasts, but because it doesn’t. The blossoms arrive, open, and begin to fall within days. Nothing about them…
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The Quiet Work of Trays
Some objects live between places rather than belonging to one. They travel quietly through the rooms of a home, carrying the small necessities of the day: a cup of tea, a book left open mid-page, a folded cloth, perhaps a sweet placed beside the cup. A tray is one of these objects. In Japan, trays…