Life

As mentioned before, for someone not used to writing a journal or keeping a blog it’s surprisingly hard to keep one active. Too many other priorities in life, but here we go again. It’s been pretty much a year since I last posted and I can recap what’s been going on to some degree

After 30 years of living life I had finally discovered the joy of reading. I started with a Chinese epic called The Journey to the West, followed by a Japanese epic called Musashi. Eventually I read some more modern stuff, Kafka on the Shore, A Wild Sheep Chase, Flowers for Algernon and The Minds of Billy Milligan. It’s interesting how much of an impact a book can have on your outlook of life.

In December I was contacted by a company to do a tea booth at their Christmas party. I accepted, I make tea all the time for a busy restaurant, host tea events of up to 45 people at least once a year, I had a lot of confidence. Eventually I asked how many people would they be expecting and the response was a cool 900. It was an event with unforeseen challenges, but we made it through with great success thanks to the help of a dear friend Lucille.

I became interested in Archery and went to a range once every couple weeks over the summer. I immersed myself in the mindset of Kyudo, and decided that it would be something I would practice for the rest of my life. I found archery to be a very fulfilling solo activity and especially enjoyed the concentration aspects of it. I went to Japan in January with my family with every intention to buy a Japanese bow along with everything else I needed to begin the practice of Kyudo. Upon entering a very well respected Kyudo store in Osaka I was denied my bow and gear on the grounds that I do not have a teacher, and barred from buying a bow until I found one. I hadn’t felt rejected like this in years, maybe decades. It was extremely hard to take, and I was salty all the way home. I needed to get my mind off things. I went for a walk around Umeda, viewed various art exhibits, and the mastercrafts of Japanese artisans for sale in the higher floors of Osaka’s famous department stores.

From that day on I decided I would take a drastic turn, but one better suited to my professional life. The world of flower arrangement. I bought shears, pruning scissors, wire, kenzan frogs, and a variety of flower vases of different mediums from wood to clay. Having flowers around you is a beautiful thing, not just visually but conceptually. I’ve found a new method of ‘going the extra mile’ which I am trying to establish through arrangements for customers at Q Haute Cuisine.

I have had the opportunity to teach classes of etiquette to young men and women brought to us by various schools around the city, private, public and catholic. Spending a couple hours a day teaching others how to hold a knife and fork, where to put them on your plate to signal you’re finished (or not), has been surprisingly fulfilling for me. We have several more coming up in the future weeks, and surely in the following years I will be a major business for us.

Last year I made a blog post about a barrel aged coffee. As of today I am proud to say it’s 1 year old, and had its very first customer sale yesterday at 364 days old. For those of you who follow what I do on instagram you would have seen me post about the coffee a few days ago. After fact checking myself a bit I learned I was a couple days off. Oops. Officially April 28th is the anniversary.

Tea season has begun, I had received my first FedEx shipment a couple days ago. I am in the process of sampling and deciding what I would like to work with. The first in line is the Chamomile flower. We’ve had requests and requests for Chamomile tea at the restaurant but have only ever had it in a blend called Quietly (which is very good and usually does the trick).

That’s all for now, thanks for reading.

Josh