Entry #006:

2021 August 12

This microseason we enter Obon. Obon is a multi-day event that has Buddhist origins. We welcome our ancestors back home, and then send them off again. This time of year we find cucumbers and eggplants with wooden legs. The cucumber resembles a horse, and the eggplant resembles a cow. It is said that our ancestors are sent a horse with their long legs and swift gallops to quickly bring them back home. And we send our ancestors off on a cow to slowly part again, and to carry the many gifts we share. This is also the season when we are highly aware of the cicada, with their high pitched songs. Cicadas grow beneath the earth for 7 years, and live above the earth for a mere 7 days. No wonder they are so vocal. The cicada during Obon days remind us of birth, life, and death.

♡ momoko

Microseasonal Stars

August 12 - 17

Autumn > First of Autumn > Cicada’s Evening Song

Are you expressing your truth today? Singing the song that is uniquely your own?

Entry #005:

2021 August 7

It’s Summer break. Many will take several days off over the coming weeks. Despite the pandemic, I suspect that means camping, fireworks, BBQs, and beach time for a generous portion of our population. All the while, we very much associate August to the end of World War II. Or rather associate it to each and every piece that is the travesty of war. Yesterday was Peace Memorial Day, a day to remind ourselves not only about the two atomic bombs that hit Japan 76 years ago, but about the concept of war in its entirety. I’m not sure that peace is the opposite of war. To me, peace is an entire spectrum of choice. Approaching differences through an endless number of ways. And war is the outlier. 

As innately animistic thinkers, my belief is that Japanese people can be excellent global thought leaders when it comes to this topic of peace. My hope is that I can contribute too.

♡ momoko

Microseasonal Stars

August 7 - 11

Autumn > First of Autumn > Cool Breeze Arrives

In what, in whom, in where, do you find breathing space? A moment of rest, to breathe in all senses.

Entry #004:

2021 August 2

It’s the last sub-season of Summer, “Dog Days”, and the last microseason within “Dog Days”, “Flash Rain”. As I prepare to bid farewell to Summer and step into the first inklings of Autumn, I have a fuzzy, hazy, bittersweet feeling in my heart. Summer feels both laborious and simultaneously free. If it were human, it would definitely embody the teenage years, don’t you think? Or maybe even well in the 20s. You appreciate Summer and all its learnings, but you’re also hugely happy to be in a different stage. In Japanese culture, cookery and otherwise , we speak about seasonality in three parts: hashiri (the first inklings), shun (peak), and nagori (the remnants). Just like seasons don’t switch over in an instant, season produce can be enjoyed in a sort of sliding scale. And depending on the stage of seasonality, the fruits or veg can be prepared differently. As I write this the flash rain has just passed. SO I’ll open the window again to let in the next breeze.

♡ momoko

Microseasonal Stars

August 2 - 6

Summer > Dog Days > Flash Rains

What unexpected cleansing are you experiencing today?