tea – Diary of a Norwegian in Japan

Friday morning, reading, plants, and lately

This morning I managed to wake up (yesterday I did not), so I can have a relaxing morning. I like to get up early so I can do nothing for about two hours. Sometimes I will do some cleaning or some yoga, but that’s on the rare occasion that I am perfectly rested and have the energy.

Lately it is cold, so the first thing to do is turn on the heaters to heat up the rooms and to make a cup of tea. Since I woke up with a bit of a sore throat today I decided to make peppermint tea.

I am rereading Murakami’s 1Q84 lately. Darjeeling is in the window looking at the birds outside, making her little meowy noises.

After being inspired by a tiktok I am trying to grow some greens in my humble kitchen and they are sprouting a bit! I also got some more mini plants to greenify our space a bit. They’re not good for Darjeeling so I am keeping them in rooms she doesn’t have access to. The teapot pot is so cute though! I love it and want another hundred more.

Not long now before I can eat some spinach! (Haha)

When we got home from the supermarket on Monday, we got home to a crime scene;

It had been on top of the dresser lately but now it is no more. Just the day before I had been talking about why I like it so much to Teddy, maybe Darjeeling got jealous. At least she didn’t hurt herself!

I have also picked up my studying again lately after getting (yet another) new textbook on the recommendation of my friend.

Darjeeling comes over to be in the way of my studies though and I am weak 🙈

Yesterday I got some Japanese sweets at the supermarket because they were irresistibly cute!

It’s 7am now so time to get back to my book before I have to get ready for work.

Have a lovely Friday everyone❣️

Living koselig

The Danish «hygge» is now known by everyone I believe, but as a Norwegian it is more about ‘koselig’ for me.

Cozy, warm, content, pleasant, enjoyable, simple joys. There is no one word for it in English, nor Japanese.

I never finished the Hygge book (because I bought it in Japanese and got stuck at all the tecnical words for lighting and just never picked it back up oops), but I feel like the two concepts are closely related.

Imagine a cold winter’s day, sitting in front of the fireplace with a warm beverage in your hand talking to a good friend.

Or sitting in your favorite armchair with a good book and a cat on your lap.

Or going for a hike in the woods which is blanketed in autumn leaves, sitting down and having a snack on a fallen tree trunk.

That’s koselig.

I usually feel the need to make life koselig in the colder months, which is a lot shorter here in Japan compared to Norway.

Anyways, yesterday I got lots of koselig stuff.

A beverage is a must for koselig, a hot beverage in the cold months, and whichever you prefer for the warm months.

Last, but not least of my koselig item haul from yesterday;

This little pottery ornament light! Very simple but oh so koselig.

It also creates a bit of a magical mood;

Darjeeling is also very koselig

I thought I wanted to be a minimalist, but I am starting to see that I want to be a koselig-ist haha. I want to live simply, but also to be surrounded by my favorite things that bring me joy and warmth, and at the same time not have too much stuff which will make tidying and cleaning a hassle. It’s a fine balance that I am still working on.

Morning bliss

Mornings where I don’t have an alarm on are few and far between. Even on Sundays when I don’t have work I feel the need to have on alarm as to not somehow waste the day.

But this Sunday I decided not to. There was no piano class either so I didn’t have to think about that. I had a lovely bath the night before, put on a new set of pajamas and then I slept for as long as I wanted. I woke up feeling relaxed, I even spent an extra hour, awake, in bed.

I didn’t get out of bed before it was already eleven and I only did so to get the cat and get back into the bed.

Yesterday my order of matcha had come in, so I made a cup of matcha latte (from scratch! No starbucks sachets today) and sat down with a new book; Lessons from Madame Chic or フランス人は10着しか服を持たない　by Jennifer L. Scott.

I like these kinds of books, they always inspire me to be better (not for forever unfortunately, I am but a fickle creature)

A cup of matcha latte in one hand, a book in front of me, and my darling Darjeeling by my other hand.

I am getting closer to my perfect image of autumn, I am just missing a chair, colder weather, and a classic.

How are everyone’s Sunday mornings like?

A quiet Sunday in September

Woke up early and did a sweep of the house. Did some much needed dusting, mopped the floors, vacuumed the carpet, hung out laundry, cleaned the kitchen counter, aired out all the rooms, and did some reorganizing in the stock closet. Everything felt clean and fresh and in order.

Went to my piano lesson and started a new piece. When I had tried it by myself earlier I could not grasp it at all, but the teacher showed me and it all just seemed so simple. It really makes a difference having a teacher to help. I will enjoy this piece, it’s a classical piece, as compared to the previous piece I was working on which was a pop-song, and I found I can’t really get into pop-songs with the piano yet. I prefer more calm, soothing, slow classical pieces.

After my lesson I went to the second-hand store and found a beautiful momiji tea bowl and had to add it to my tea-cup collection. As soon as I got home I baked an apple cake (but without apples as I don’t like them getting warm and mushy) and made some milk tea with Mariage Frères’ French island vanilla black tea and used my new tea bowl. The momiji design made me happy, and this tea is my favorite. The cake came out well too, making it a great time.

I did a facemask and wanted to take a long bath while watching a movie, but was chuffed when the application kept translating the titles making it difficult and the movie I wanted was only available dubbed into Japanese, though I wanted to hear it in its original language as I like the main actress. I had a bit of a childish tantrum and tirade on twitter and felt that maybe I am not as much as an adult as I’d like to be, when things don’t go as I wish I revert right back to a whining baby. It is almost too embarrassing to admit, but there you have it.

As the movie part didn’t go through, I decided on reading instead and it made for a lovely bath. I continued Jane Eyre, and it was around where Mr. Mason is bit by Rochester’s crazy wife aka his own sister.

After my bath, I did some measuring around the house and found that I could increase storage space if I moved things around a bit, in the hope of making it a bit more functional. One of my great pleasures is to organize and declutter. That is not to say that the house is always spotless of course. I have found that there is a big difference between wanting to have clean dishes and wanting to clean dishes.

Excluding my little hissy fit, today has been delightful. If all Sundays could be as this one, I can’t have any complaints.

A new tea-cup

There is a thrift store not too far from my house which I pass by sometimes, but here the other day I decided to go check out what they have.

As a bigger woman I was pretty sure I didn’t need waste my time looking at clothes or shoes so I went straight to the goodies; the kitchenware.

There were many cute little tea-cups, some formed like cherry blossoms with the saucer acting as the leaves, or even some impressive old wedgwood sets (but they were rather pricy as expected).

What surprised me the most however, was when I found tea-cup sets which reminded me strongly of home, and would you know! They actually were!

I saw about 6 of these sets, which was many more than I had expected (I hadn’t actually expected any). But I didn’t get them, at least not yet.

What I did get was this:

A tea-cup (or tea bowl, if you will) with a very season appropriate momiji design. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons and so the autumn leaves are on the top of the list of designs that I love (sorry cherry blossoms, you can’t always be number one).

I don’t actually own any tea bowls, nor any cups suitable for matcha, even though I have a matcha whisk. Which meant that I could justify getting a tea bowl over yet another tea-cup.

I didn’t waste a second and made tea as soon as I got home. I might have just bought a matcha tea bowl but I have no matcha powder, so I used it for my everyday milk tea instead because that is what sparks joy for me.

I have a feeling this will be used a lot in the coming months.