Check out the early-spring window display at the Journey shop in
Daikanyama.  The SAKURA cherry blossoms, which are just about to bloom fully, are decorated there together with a few old photos of SAKURA from100 years ago.

http://www.hrm.co.jp/journey/

We Seilin&Co. invite friends and those who support us to a traditional tea ceremony every year in the early spring.  The ceremony is held in the Yabunouchi style.  

The tea party is held here at Seilin-an, a modified traditional Japanese-style house.  There is a big magnolia tree in the entrance, Nishikigoi swim in the pond and seasonal flowers bloom in the garden.  Sometimes, Seilin-an is used for accommodating guests from abroad.

Inside the tea room hangs a scroll by TOHKURO KATO “MUICHIMOTSU”.  The flower container is “Sounds of the first light” by SHIRO KURAMATA.

Sushi and Sake are served in the gret hall after the tea.  Sushi are served by INAHO from Hayama.

We Seilin&Co. welcome our guests with homemade onigiri (rice balls) and sweets at our exhibitions.  Our onigiri come in four kinds.  Takuan (Japanese pickles). Okaka (dried bonito shavings), plum and mustard takana (with ancient rice).

Our Konpeito (Japanese sugar candies) are from “Ryokujuan Shimizu” a traditional organic Konpeito shop founded in the Edo period.  Red konpeito is strawberry flavored, the white ones ginger, the purplr grapes and the blue organic soda water.  Rice crackers are called “Hanafuusen”  from Suetomi, Kyoto.  The crackers are flavored with colored organic sugar.

The guests are also offered Japanese green tea or coffee on their preferences.

Many of our guests travel long way to attend our exhibition.  This is one the ways that we thank our guests.

Field mustard flowers, which signifies the coming of spring, 
are in full bloom now in the “JOURNEY” shop gallery.  
Some photos of the local area from 100 years ago are also on display there.  Please stop by and take a look.

http://www.hrm.co.jp/journey/

Thank you to those who participated in this year’s Seilin&CO’s bean throwing festival.

On February 3rd, traditionally a day of the “Close of Winter”,
we at Seilin&CO hold annual Bean Throwing Festivals.
In Japan, it is believed that “evil vibes” come into being at the turn of the year.
Few members of our staffs dress up as “ogres” symbols of “evil vibes”, and go around the shops.
Following Japanese tradition, we throw beans at the ogres to drive off the evil vibes.
Because the ogres come around during shop hours, the lucky customers are given the chance of bombarding the ogres with beans!
With the cry of “Ogres out!  Luck in the house!”  we welcome the early spring.

When the pounding is done, we roll the mochi into palm-sized mochi cakes.
We roll them quickly before they get cold.
 
3 types of mochi were served this year: plain white mochi, Yomogi herb and Japanese ichimi pepper.
The yomogi herb was grown by our friend living in north Kyushu.  It is 100% organic and we only used the fresh sprouts.
The ichimi pepper we use is from the Nagano prefecture, where the spiciest of the kind is grown.
 
We served the mochi with blueberry sauce, anko (sweet-bean paste) and mentaiko (seasoned cod roe) as toppings.
Tonjiru soup (pork and vegetable miso-soup) is also served with mochi to keep you warm.
 
All went well without any accidents, it was a wonderful event to mark the end of the year.

We at Seilin & Co. held this year’s “Mochi Pounding festival” on December 7th as our annual year-end event.
We invited many guests and served freshly pounded mochi rice cakes to express our feeling of thanks for their support.
This year, the weather was wonderful, and it made a perfect day for being up early and pounding mochi. 
 
The day started with lighting the fire at our cooking stove in the early morning at 5:30am.  We steamed 60kg of glutinous mochi rice in just one day.
 
At 8:00am, we started pounding the mochi.  We made 31 mortars of mochi in total.  The pounding went on until around 4pm.
 
Before we start the pounding, we put the steamed rice into the mortar and knead the rice into mochi.
A lot of effort is put into the kneading process to make smooth mochi.
When the kneading is done, four people stand around the mortar and pound on the mochi one by one.
 
In the next issue, we will take a look at the rolling of the mochi and the mochi menu.

In front of Hollywood Ranch Market, purple flowers finally bloomed on our jacaranda tree for the first time after we planted the tree 12 years ago.

Jacaranda is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Central America and South America.
It is renowned as one of three major flowering trees together with royal poinciana and flame trees.
 
Please stop by and take look, when you are near by.
We are hoping that one day, Kyu-yamate Street where Hollywood Ranch Market stands, will be known as  ”Jacaranda Street”.

We have been watering our buckets of rice every morning since we planted them in June.
They have grown this much since then.
It looks like summer has given them a lot of energy.  Soon we will see them turn autumnal.
See BUCKET RICE PROJECT 2012 to see where we started from.

Bombay Bazar is a cafe in the basement of OKURA.
Like OKURA, we built it from scratch with our own hands using driftwood and other materials we found on the beach.
We applied the same rule on building this cafe as OKURA, to use the materials “Just the way they are”.
You can see it in the solid wood used as the counter and the crooked iron banister.
 
We wanted to create a place where not only we serve food and drink, where customers can feel at home and relax without feeling stress of urban life.
 
We try to use safe ingredients as much as possible.  For example, blueberries and “Namban” pepper we use are grown on an organic farm in Nagano.
The pungency in our spicy menus such as curry, derive from this organic “Namban” pepper.  This organic spiciness is one of Bombay Bazar’s trademarks.
Okinawa style “OKURA Noodles” and Japanese style “OKURA Cake” are also something worth trying.
 
Please stop by when you feel like taking a little coffee break.