Come spring, you'll notice that there are many cherry blossom trees in New York City besides Central Park. For Japanese people, cherry blossoms are very special flowers, so seeing them in bloom brings great joy.

Last Friday, I attended one of the most important tea gatherings at my tea ceremony school, the Urasenke Chanoyu Center, located on the Upper East Side in NYC.

This tea gathering, called "Rikyuki," is the memorial service of Sen no Rikyu, the greatest tea master who had a profound influence on the Japanese way of tea, known as the tea ceremony.

Although there had been a few extremely cold days in New York, it’s been relatively warm this year, and it feels like spring is just around the corner. However, I'm not sure that's actually the case.

The Japanese zodiac for 2023 is the year of the rabbit!