Like living in a magazine photoshoot

At my Japanese lesson last Tuesday, Aya-sensei gave me a flier from a giant stack she was carrying around. Moth, the shop where she works at part-time, was having a huge sale, she explained, and she invited us to come. And we did.

When I described the store's decor to slarnos, all light wood and airy spaces filled with Japanese and Nordic goods, clothesracks against the walls filled with monochromes, browns, and blues, a table in the center of the store covered in small candles, pots, and cups, he said that it sounded like a store for people who live inside magazine photoshoots. I myself had used the phrase "Kinfolk-ass store" to describe it, so I can't and won't dispute his claim. But there was a lot of tableware I'd love to have, and I did buy two things. The first is a set of cerulean dishes made by a Japanese designer whose name I didn't get. Aya-sensei told me that he was a pain to work with, requiring a lot of reassurance before he'd agree to sell his wares overseas, and that he had been ignoring the emails asking about getting further stock. The second was another matcha bowl:

I took a dozen photos and can't get it to focus perfectly, but this one shows the colors.

I don't know much about the performance of tea ceremony, but I do know how to make matcha. Right now we only have a single black bowl, but I already like the aesthetics on this one too. The black allows the matcha to contrast strongly, but the green here should be a good compliment.

The store's owner told me that the bowl was part of a collection by a Finnish woman married to a Japanese man. She also wrote a cookbook where she made all the tableware for the photos herself, but it's only in Finnish, of which I read none, though the photography is gorgeous. It's called 桜 Sakura: Japanilainen keittokirja (Sakura: Japanese cookbook). We also talked a bit about Japanese--the owner is studying because her job involves speaking to Japanese vendors and right now she has Aya-sensei do most of the go-between, but since she owns a store, she doesn't have as much time as she likes to actually study. She asked me how my Japanese was and I said, "I get by," and was pleasantly surprised when Aya-sensei took objection to my characterization. I suppose that is a little over-modest. I am reading a novel, after all.

After buying those dishes and schoolpsychnerd getting a pair of work heels she can leave at school on massive sale (60% off, I think), we said goodbye, turned down Aya-sensei's invitation to go to a party a friend of hers who owns a restaurant was throwing to celebrate their one-year anniversary since we had other plans, and went north up to the Bristol. Aya-sensei also recommended that to me a while ago, and since it was within walking distance of the Moth, it was our chance.

( Delicious restaurant food within )

After dinner we hopped on the bus and went north to tropicanaomega's house to help her with a secret project related to DragonCon which I'll edit into this post next weekend once the plan is in motion! Then we went home and schoolpsychnerd napped next to me on the couch while I watched Jeremy Parish play ten minutes of G.I. Joe: the Atlantis Factor before getting annoyed and switching to Super Mario Bros. 3. And now, after getting our shopping done, I'm playing Legend of Zelda: the Minish Cap and schoolpsychnerd is resting and working on her meals for the week.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Darker than Black, Week 50: Raaka Virgin Chocolate Sangria

Originally I was tempted to end Darker than Black on week 50, since since was when we ended Fifty Weeks, Fifty Curries, and since I have another food project planned waiting in the wings. Then I decided that we'd keep going for a while longer, as long as I could find more chocolate and these reviews didn't become too much of the same. Having decided to continue, I was originally planning to do the Taza Wicked Dark 95% Dark Stone-Ground Chocolate that my parents gave me for my birthday when they came into the city to celebrate with me last weekend, but as that link shows, we've already written about it! We get a lot of Raaka chocolate since we're signed up to a subscription service and most of it we just eat, but we don't really have any other chocolate I could write about in the house.

Fortunately, this chocolate was worth writing about.
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