sanriku's tsubaki cha

My friend in Sendai, sent me a care package in February.

Inside there were all sorts of her favorite snacks which were all made in the Tohoku area and also included was this packet of tea.

As you know, there was a lot of damage with the tsunami that hit the Tohoku area in 2011, but what I wasn't aware of was that Sanriku, an area in Iwate prefecture had many bushes of tsubaki (camellia) that were also destroyed.

In the pamphlet that came with the tea, it also explained that the camellia roots "extend deep into the ground" and takes "years for the plant to reach full size".

I am not sure if there is something similar in English speaking countries, but in Japan, they have something called "hana kotoba" (literally flower words), a system in which the flower, its color is used to describe what the flower symbolizes. 

For example, red camellias symbolizes "pride", "unpretentious elegance"...according to the pamphlet I mentioned above, a reflection of the people of the Sanriku area.

This tea is blend of tsubaki (camellia) leaves and ama cha (sweet tea). Ama cha is made from the leaves of the hydrangea and is supposedly 200 times sweeter than sugar.

In Buddhism, you often see sweet tea during the "birthday" of the Buddha called Hanamatsuri on April 8th...The Buddha is placed in a covered pavilion with lots of flowers and you "bathe" the Buddha with the sweet tea...I have a photo of this here.

This tea was sweet and I'm glad we tried this.

Thankful to receive this and learn more about the Tohoku area.

tsubaki or sasanqua

Tsubaki (camellia) is a delicate flower that blooms in early Spring.

The seeds are pressed for oil and used as hair oil.

Sasanqua, another type of camellia, blooms in Autumn & Winter.

The flower of the tsubaki falls off whole, while the sasanqua's petals fall one by one.

The sansanqua leaves have a jagged edge where as the tsubaki leaves are smooth.

Who would've thought that such a delicate flower would have such a hearty seed?

I spotted this sasanqua "tree" while walking in Kyoto. It was quite tall so I couldn't get too close to it.

around the neighborhood

The weather has been kind of weird, raining off and on and blustery and the sun making candid appearances. Plus, the trees still think it is autumn, some still have their leaves and the ones that didn't get to change color have started--and it is almost Christmas!....I think something is broken...

I wanted to share with you some sights from around our neighborhood.

A persimmon tree that lost all of its leaves and still had TONS of fruit.

Tsubaki (camellia) trees in both dark and light pink.

A gingerbread house in front of a baking class. Seeing this brought back memories of the Christmases where we would get together with several families to make gingerbread houses. One of the mothers would bake the parts for the houses, others would bring the candies. We would all then gather at one house and each family would put their own house together. It was tons of fun! We used royal icing to put everything together then stuck candies on the roof and walls. It was interesting, most of us had never seen or played in snow because we grew up in Hawaii, and all of our houses had icicles hanging off the roof and there were snowmen on the front lawn.

Tonight's dinner was kind of an ad-lib. I intended to make gyoza (pot stickers), but the wrappers I had in the freezer were freezer burnt or something, they were REALLY hard and not pliable, so I had to throw them out. Left with only the filling, I decided to pan fry these up...gyo-burg (gyoza burgers). With a glass of Minoo pale ale, they were delicious!

Hope you have a great week!