The Sweetest Things

 

Esther bought this for me 2 Christmasses ago but it lay on my bookshelf unread and I didn't pick it up until recently. 

When it was perfect reading material feeding my latest obsession for all things Japanese. Started with Izakaya Bottakuri, went on to Midnight Diner and finally and most significantly Rokuhoudou. From where I discovered Johnny's WEST (I love them so much I bought their last 2 albums, a complicated process that involved taking myself to Victoria Music Station at Amcorp Mall and consulting with the intrepid B).

Anyway, I listened to Wisdom of Tea on Audible (by Noriko Morishita) and the gentle wisdom that pervaded that book made me suddenly long for the tea ceremony. I didn't know where to look.

True to form, my friend Sue-Ann found it for me. On Instagram. Cha-ba-shi-ra tea roastery, which was, ironically, on Dadda's doorstep. Reminded me of of searching the world for acres of diamonds and finding it just outside your front door.

Which is a long and winding way to say that if you're craving that quietness, that Zen feeling, this is the book for you. 

Perfect with a glass of matcha. 

And being written by foreigners apprehending Japanese culture from the outside, it's perfect for someone like me me, a foreigner turned otaku.