My Heart Wants Roots. My Mind Wants Wings. I Cannot bear Their Bickerings.

Everyday I thirst to see more, to do more and to experience more. And everyday, I miss my family, I miss familiarity and I miss home.

Italy, shmitaly.

Sometimes when uploading or sending via messenger, Facebook flips photos. Turns out it ain’t a bad look!

This is Château De Coudrée a 12th-century castle now a 4 star hotel.

These last pictures are from Yvoire; officially one of ‘The Most Beautiful Villages of France’, a former fishing village, fortified in the early 14th century, it’s a riot of turrets, towers and old stone houses.


I feel really silly writing this with all of the terrible terrible adversary happening in the world and how incredibly lucky I am compared to it all but one of the “troubles” of travelling is being unable to buy the big beautiful things to take home.


Can someone romance me already?!

An all-wooden toy-store. “Very German,” according to Auntie.

Santiago (part two)

I may or may not have sneaked into the world’s oldest (and one of the most luxurious) hotels in the world to take these pictures for you. And, look! The third picture. It’s a bride having her wedding photos! How wonderful!





And, they put on a full-blown traditional Galician parade just for me!

In my friend Soroosh’s words, that went from idyllic to creepy real quickly.

On Day Five The Three Little Bears Rested

From top to bottom: a walk in the village with mom, snaps from a small Japanese matsuri (festival) in the old street of my village (the food is shiitake mushroom tempura, onigiri and tempura onigiri!), lunch with Lifa, Akiko and Oz at mine where my father gifted Oz a Kinder Surprise (a surprise-toy containing chocolate egg), a gluten and dairy-free black sugar and raspberry cake, and last but oh my goodness never least, an incredible make-your-own sushi dinner at Kaori and Taka’s with BROWN RICE, avocado and all things nice. It is an understatement to say that my heart is bursting with 愛 (love).

An Inside Look At A Traditional Japanese Bath

I don’t think I’ve told you guys much about onsens.  Onsens are traditional Japanese baths. Basically, Japanese people wash their bodies via a shower first, then soak in a bath/hot pool – that’s how they cleanse themselves. However, there’s a catch. Not only do they do that communally with their family members (all nakey at the same time) they do it with strangers too. Which, is of course, terrifying at first especially when you come from a culture (Persian) where you’re taught to hide everything, always but after the initial soak, completely natural and complete relaxation. Ain’t nothing to it. These days, I gladly get naked.

Some other bits and pieces (tehehe bits):

*Usually there are separate onsens for male and female

*Tattoos are strictly prohibited – which is real shitty and rude if you ask me because clearly, Anisa sensei is not yakuza sensei and this is the 21st century and we should be accepting of everyone and open-minded. Alas, tis like the whale in the school lunch, tis “tradition”. So, one has to find ways around said problem, like going to private onsens owned by hipster young men (thanks Jun). But in all seriousness, I’m lucky because my tattoo is small, if your ink is larger than a fist.. you should probs stop reading this.

*Some onsens have cold baths so you can go from hot to cold to hot to cold and back again. I hope this doesn’t give you a medical condition because I am kinda-sorta-pretty much addicted.

New Year’s in Japan

The following extract is from education.asianart.org cos aint nobody got time to write a blogpost. Just joking, not really, but I will say a word or two. First, that I’m so darn lucky, I got to experience mochi pounding TWICE this year since I live so rural and second that the mochi, the adzuki beans (used to make the red bean paste, anko) and the soybeans (used to make soy bean powder, kinako) were all grown and made by hand by my lovely hosts. Also, that the old lady (obachan) pictured below is a great-grandmother and 94!

JOY JOY JOY! Happy New Year, y’all!

In Japan, mochi (sticky rice dumpling) is a tasty treat made to commemorate special occasions, most notably the New Year. Once essential to the New Year celebration, the practice of pounding mochi together, or mochitsuki, is now rare even in Japan, as busy people eat store-bought mochi rather than make their own. Traditionally, glutinous rice is washed and soaked overnight on the evening before the pounding.

The next morning the rice is steamed and placed in the usu (large mortar) where it is pounded with a kine (wooden mallet). Once the mass is soft and smooth, it is pulled into various sizes and shapes. It can be enjoyed a variety of ways: fresh, with different sauces, sweet stuffing, or seaweed.

An offering to the kani (deity), called kagami-mochi (mirror mochi), is comprised of two mochi cakes usually placed on a sheet of pure white paper in the center of a wooden tray. and topped with a bitter orange (daidai). Kagami-mochi is placed on the family altar during the New Year as an auspicious gesture that signifies hope for a happy and bright year ahead.

Mochi is used to make a variety of traditional sweets and it can be eaten right away or cured and dried for later use. When it is cured, it hardens and can be cooked with red beans, vegetables or soups. It is also popular toasted on top of a stove, dipped in a variety of flavorings such as soy sauce and sugar or coated with toasted soy bean powder. Toasted mochi inflates to several times its original size, forming a crisp crust with a soft, chewy interior.

The exact origin of mochi is unknown, though it is said to have come from China. The cakes of pounded glutinous rice appear to have become a New Year’s treat during Japan’s Heian period (794–1185). As early as the tenth century, various kinds of mochi were used as imperial offerings at religious ceremonies. A dictionary dating from before 1070 calls the rice cake “mochii.” Around the eighteenth century, people began to call it “mochi.” Various theories explain the name. One is that “mochi” came from the verb “motsu,” “to hold or to have,” signifying that mochi is food given by God. The word “mochizuki” means “full moon.”


Oh, and just to confuse y’all a little more, the very first image is where the rice cooks and the last images are of tochimochi being mixed into red bean paste or in Japanese, anko.

A traditional Japanese restaurant in the middle of the woods

Deep in the heart of the woods by the foot of a tranquil waterfall, the least likely place for a restaurant, is a restaurant. It’s called Mitaki-en, it serves vegetarian cuisine prepared by using seasonal wild mountain plants, it’s a little pricey and it’s undeniably beautiful.

If you are searching for a place to take your Gaijin folks/friends to show off traditional Japan (food, culture, architecture) then Mitaki-en should be it (just be sure to make a booking before you go). Unfortunately you only have 2 weeks left to do it though as Mitaki-en closes December through til Spring because if you didn’t know, the heart of the woods is cold. And by cold I mean unbearable. Nevertheless, whether you make it in the next couple of weeks or sometime next year, I guarantee you’ll be impressed.

Food wise: at the main restaurant, there are three menus to choose from and the cheapest starts at 2400 yen per person. If you think that’s a tad too much for lunch then you can enjoy a cheaper meal of homemade udon or cake and coffee from the other two eateries in the same vicinity.

My favorite details include the wild chickens, the handmade konjac and the outofthisworld stone-ground kinako (soybean powder) tochimochi (mochi rice with Japanese horse chestnut) – it is the best mochi I’ve ever had since being here and I’ve had too mochi – see what I did there?

Nara Photo Diary

Nara is that place in Japan where once wild but now tame Bambi roam.  Before Tokyo and Kyoto, Nara used to be the capital. This means two things: 1. the city is beautiful; many traditional buildings and ancient streets now home to artsy cafes and trendy stores to explore and 2. it’s a popular destination for school trips so you’ll be seeing/bumping into many (and I mean MANY) peeps in uniform. The prefecture’s mascot, Sento-kun is a funny looking half-deer, half-Buddha boy which, as you can imagine has offended many people. Hmmm what else? There are many shrines and temples but perhaps the most popular touristy attractions are Todaiji Temple (home of the big Buddha) and Nara Park (the deer home). As far as I understood, Nara isn’t famous for a specific type of food but you can find almost everything Japanesey (or shitty Italian) if you wish to.

I hope you enjoy my photo diary, taken and edited on my iPhone.