I’ve been reviewing some tea samples I got from MastersTeas.com and I’m finally getting to the two Japanese green teas. I’m so excited! Today I’m reviewing Shincha Sencha . From the website: The very first plucking of the first harvest of the year is known as Shincha and is highly prized in Japan. While Sencha has a tendency to be quite brothy with strong umami notes the earliest harvests can be much lighter with hints of sweetgrass. Our 2020 Shincha Sencha is a light, layered cup. The nutty notes of umami hit your mid-palate, while delicate apricot lingers on in the finish. Elegant and lovely. In the Japanese tea tradition, the texture of the tea itself is extremely important. At the end of the tea making process, the tea master will carefully blend in tiny, broken up 'tea dust' to give the finished cup more body and richness. You can actually see these particles when you scoop out your tea. You also see them in your cup - Sencha should have a lovely, slightly cloudy ...

Just a reminder, the prices of Who I Want to Be ebook and print book go up again next week Wednesday! For a limited time, my Matthew devotional book,  Who I Want to Be , is only $0.99 for the ebook and $3.94 for the print book, which is the minimum marketplace price! Buy  Who I Want To Be  in  Kindle ,  iBooks , and  Kobo  ebook formats, and buy print books on  Amazon . If you already bought the ebook, the ebook versions now have my pastor's foreword, so be sure to update your copies from wherever you bought them. The print version already has the foreword. This sale is in celebration of the Japanese language version of the devotional, titled  本当の私に , which just released. I am very excited to have my devotional translated into Japanese and available to Japanese women who may be interested in Jesus Christ. If you know anyone who might be interested in this devotional book in Japanese, please do point them to the  Japanese section o...

My friend Audrey Appenzeller is friends with some missionaries in Japan. They told her about this podcast, which she passed on to me: ”They also mentioned that a fellow Pioneers worker to Japan is currently in the US and started a Christian lifestyle podcast in Japanese. If you know people who might be interested, feel free to pass along the link below. This person is planning to release a new episode every Tuesday.” The website is https://anchor.fm/teatimewithuspod Here’s a (cleaned up) translation of the home page (thanks to Deepl): Welcome to the “Teatime with us” podcast. “Teatime with us” is where Jessica, an American, and Nao, a Japanese, discuss a variety of everyday topics during teatime. It's a Christian Lifestyle Podcast to chat in a casual atmosphere like ☕ ️Whenever you're on your way to work or school, while cleaning up, or maybe during your 3 o'clock teatime, feel free to listen to try it. We will see you at our next teatime! This would be great for a...

I made my original Comfortable Cotton Skirt with a simple eyelet round at the bottom, but this one has a simple antique garter stitch lace edging, “Edging to Trim the Body and Sleeves” on page 43 of the book New Guide to Knitting and Crochet , published in 1847. You can download a free ebook copy of the book here . The edging was originally to trim a Baby’s Knit Body, but I have no idea what that is. :P If you do, please do leave a comment. I also changed the hip increases to 4 distinct darts rather than 8 sections, but if you prefer the hip increases from my original Comfortable Cotton skirt, you can substitute that. Like the original Comfortable skirt, this one is cotton for summer, and loose for casual wear. It has a little positive ease and is only slightly flared. The waist is drawstring rather than elastic so that I can loosen it on my fat days or after pigging out at my favorite restaurant. This pattern/recipe is for my size, but there are instructions at the bottom for...

Okay, full disclosure, Sawano Hiroyuki is my #1 favorite composer, so I buy almost everything he’s released, even if I have to order the CDs from Amazon Japan. But his RE/MEMBER album is actually on iTunes, which I was pretty stoked about. This song, Remember , is what I’ve been listening to a lot the past couple weeks. There’s something just really upbeat and happy about it that’s made me feel great while I’m working. It’s a combination of English and Japanese lyrics. 手を止めた一秒で変わるはずないと 気を緩めた後ろで連れ添う音が逃げていく oh, oh 君は黙って見ていた 破けたページの所為で先が読めないように このまま一つの物語抱いて エンドロール見返してても人が過ぎていくだけ 大人の言い訳にもたれ掛かる前に remember Let it shine! I will never give it up All the spirit is gonna let it fly 強がった日の言葉が錆びた夢の体をまだ支えている Running circles around what is mine I'm getting closer as I move in time Wow-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, wow-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Let' em know! Oh, let it shine! Oh, let it shine my friend! そう 誰の弱さも前に繋げる You remember, purest heart? And the beauty of the colors Wow-oh-oh-oh-oh-...

I’ve been reviewing some tea samples I got from MastersTeas.com and this is the only white tea I got from them. Today I’m reviewing Bai Hao Yin Zhen white tea . From the website: Made up of the youngest, fuzzy, plump buds, our 2020 Bai Hao Yin Zhen, otherwise known as Silver Needle, hails from the Fuding area of China. Its dry aroma is quite floral, and the leaves are a lovely silvery green. Once brewed the light honey-colored liquor offers flavor notes of honeydew, fresh sweet cucumber and a slight hint of mineral. About the leaves: Grown at an elevation of around 450 meters above sea level, our 2020 Bai Hao Yin Zhen was hand-plucked in April from 5-10 year old trees. Consisting of only 6 cm long buds, it is a Fuding big tea leaf cultivar. After harvesting the buds go through a special withering process until about 90% of the moisture is gone. It is then roasted at around 60 degrees Celsius for two hours. This tea contains a low level of caffeine Steep at 170° for 2-3 mi...

I’ve been reviewing some tea samples I got from MastersTeas.com and this is the first of three green teas I got from them. Today I’m reviewing Shi Feng Long Jing green tea . This is the only Chinese green tea I received from MastersTeas (the other two are Japanese) and it’s the 2020 crop. I reviewed the 2019 crop in a blog post last year and liked this tea, but at the time I hadn’t yet gotten into gongfu steeping and so I just steeped it western style, about a teaspoon in 170°F for 3 minutes. It was a very good green tea, especially for drinking with dessert, but it’s a light flavor and I wouldn’t drink it with dinner because for me, it gets overpowered by flavors from a meal. However, now that I have my tea tray and a gaiwan, I was eager to try this tea gongfu style to see how it might taste differently. From the website: Our 2020 Shi Feng Long Jing, which translates to Lion's Peak Dragonwell, is one of the most famous green teas in China. It hails from the equally fam...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com I asked God to make me a prayer warrior, and I realized I was missing out on the chance to pray for all of you, my online friends! So how can I pray for you? I will try to remember to post this at least once a month so I can pray for you. Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure to fill out the form again to update me if you sent me a prayer request in the past. I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Loading…