It is already the end of June, and every year in June, it reminds me of blue-purple hydrangeas blooming in the rain. Hydrangea has a long history in Japan, and the flowers are mentioned in Japan's oldest collection of waka poems, "Manyoshu (万葉集)", which is said to have been compiled in the latter half of the 8th century.

While walking around the West Village the other day, I came across a stunning bluish-violet iris blooming in the public garden. The iris is one of the flowers representing May in Japan.

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!