Little greens

At the store we have edible greens. All the plants are actually edible. Herbs like basil and rosemary, parsley and shiso. Kumquat has green little fruits and will turn orange in December I think. There is another citrus that is getting close to harvest. That will be great on cooked fish. 

My favorite this year is the chives. It has appeared on our dinner table pretty often.  This is after we had cut them and used them in our cooking. It’s great that it grows so quickly and I just love the extra little something it adds to the dish. 

We add a little to our sashimi, this is red snapper, which is one of my favorites. We’ve had it with salmon and other fish. Bonito was very good too. Usually bonito is accompanied with grated ginger but chives will be great too. 

My other favorite is a simple carrot dish. The carrots are sliced and then tossed with salt so the flavor of the carrots are more concentrated. Then olive oil is added with chives. I like the texture of the thinly sliced carrots and the simple flavor. I could eat so much of it!

Thank you again Georges for these dishes~ the basil seem to want to be eaten soon! 

Making one of a kind rings

I love rings.
I think I enjoy making rings the most and also enjoy wearing them the most.

It's fun to be able to see it on your hand and change what you wear everyday like you would your clothes.

A recent ring I made is one of those bigger rings that will make an impression.

It is a ring from my Arabesque Trois Collection, a flower motif with swirl designs on the petal. This time I came across a nice labradorite as my center stone. A nice blue color depending on the light and is cut so that there is a nice big flat surface.

Before I set the stone. 

 The back of the ring

Ever since opening our store in Jingumae (which is between Shibuya and Harajuku) I've started making one of a kind rings. It is great because stones are always unique in color and shape, cut and size. To design a ring just for that stone has been a greasing learning experience. I often come up with other new designs and idea when I'm working on one ring. Can't wait to share them~!

The Manmade Forest

Meiji Shrine is one of the many tourist spots and also a very popular shrine to visit.
I have been learning so much more now that I pass by the Shrine everyday to get to the store, but there are so much I didn’t know about.


Recently I learned that the all the trees around the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku was planted 100 years ago, as a plan to grow a forest.
I watched a very interesting TV program about this and since then, changed how I look at the forest.

It turns out that 100 years ago, there was nothing there, just a hill with no trees. It was a big experiment, a project to plant trees that was true to the area and have them just grow on its own. No one was to take care of them, no one was to step into the forest, it was to survive on it's own, and that was the rule from one hundred years ago.

I go there sometimes to see if I can see the hawk, that now lives there, flying by or see any “tanuki” which is like a racoon, that might pass by.

This day I was only able to meet the spiders that live there, making webs and shuffling through the leaves.

It is just really nice to sit and look at the tall trees in the middle of your day in Tokyo. I like to find a place that takes you away from your normal surroundings, in any place that I live. In LA there was a spot looking out to the ocean right by the airport where I could watch the airplanes taking off. I think I found my spot in Harajuku when I need the trees and birds and the quiet.