san francisco

i wandered over to san francisco yesterday; the weather reports all said rain, it was clear and sunny when i got there. mostly it was to visit japantown and chinatown. i also wanted to check out some hopefully yummy french tea which was to be found at a french tea and macaron shop, chantal guillon. the tea was lovely, marco polo black tea by mariage freres, and i always take delight in a macaron.

i found this nifty little palm grass scrubby which is so tactile and a great color at an interesting hardware/kitchenware/paper store on post street; i'm not sure if i'll use it to actually scrub anything. it's one of those things that make large cities so interesting; shops don't just specialize in one area. chinatown was like being immersed in another country, and i oohed and ahhed over the 24kt gold figurines found in the window displays of jewelry stores. i often find myself at a loss as to what else to do when one is in chinatown, other than eat, and look at what is being sold as food.

one of my favorite things is this little baby owl incense holder from shoyeido, which i came across in a lovely scent filled store in japantown. i've had my eye on it for some time now, and was glad it was just as cute in person as it is on their website. you lift the little chouette off it's leaf and there's a small ceramic holder for stick or cone incense; the smoke comes out it's ears and tail area.

scents and sushi

japanese incense is really quite lovely to smell. not at all like the type which comes to mind when you say incense; the ones that are often found in hippie and crystal shops. those give me migraines. no, the finest japanese incense is much more subtle, and elegant, and made from natural sources such as clove, sandalwood, agarwood, and cinnamon.

today, there was a school festival and they brought in the president of shoyeido, the manufacturer of some of japan's finest quality incense. he discussed incense, and then we were able to create our own scents using sandalwood, patchouli, cinnamon, clove, sweet pine, andcamphor. there were two bases which we could use to make a sweet or a spicy overtone. i made one which is sweet and light in scent, and the other which is stronger and invigorating. it was such fun! some of the students and teachers wore kimono and they were all very pretty.

for dinner i had my first experience with a revolving sushi restaurant. it was so mesmerizing watching to see what sushi would come around next. the place was very busy, so the sushi was delicious and fresh. there was a plastic display sign outside which was very cute!