SIPPING TEA IN A JAPANESE BATH IN SPRING

Calendar-wise, it is spring...

But the weather, frigid it remains...

Flowering, are the pink and white plums...

The shy nightingales, a-singing...

Been enjoying the Japanese bath since we moved into our place...

The body gets warmed up to the bones and it feels super good...

And what more, the cold rash that inflict me every winter...

Is magically banished...

Last night, we experimented with putting dried lemon grass into the bath...

Wooohh... the fragrance... super nice...

Had thought that lemon grass was only for fish curries and asam laksa...

Until a Japanese friend introduced us to lemon grass tea some time ago...

As with other beverages, we took it plain... without sugar...

Wooohh... nice...

Tried drinking turmeric tea once while on a trip to Okinawa...

Wooooohh... horrid...

Last summer, had a lot of bitter gourd plants...

Not much fruits but plenty of leaves...

So, harvested the leaves, sun-dried them...

And made bitter gourd tea out of them...

Wooohh... terror-bitter... but very pleasant after-taste...