This week in the blue belt life – new recipe up for my Satsumaimo Power Bread. Check it out, head to the Ginza Farmers Market (or your local farmers market) for ingredients, and whip up a batch this weekend. Recently I have been devoting time to putting up recipes I have found helpful in a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. I have no intention of making this into a recipe blog – why even try when there’s Thug Kitchen? But since I am eventually going to delve into a major problem humanity faces – our attachment to the religion of carnism – I feel it is important to give solutions to that problem…
This week in the blue belt life – posted an awesome hearty soup recipe from 500 Vegan Dishes by Deborah Gray, updated the vegetarian recipes page, and added the Mizuna Mind Opener recipe in English. Still working on a template for recipes that looks good on mobile and that I can plug recipes into relatively quickly. We eat well in the blue belt household and it is only right for me to share in that bounty. So fire these recipes up, let me know what you think, and have a productive week ahead!
Every weekend I visit the Ginza Farmers Market to stock up on the best produce in Tokyo and catch up with my friends at the market. Each visit is a ritual – in addition to getting outside and procuring fresh foods that will drive me toward greater health, I get to build community, interact with vendors, visitors and regular shoppers, and always learn something new, about the produce, the people, or a particular area of Japan. Selection at this market is generally much better than supermarkets, with hard-to-find items like kale, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash – to name a few I picked up today – available when in season.…
I’ve allowed some months to pass since my last post on Ashtanga, as I have gone deeper into my practice and contemplated more on what drives me to continue. The first reason I keep this as a major part of my life and the first impact the new practitioner is likely to feel is physical purification. This is best understood through experience – and I encourage all to try this practice for a month with an experienced teacher – but I will try to explain in words in the hope that I pique someone’s interest in exploring further. 1 This can actually be a problem for people with a body…
“A warrior knows he is waiting for his will.” – Don Juan It’s been a little over a year since I embarked on this journey of doing a bit of everything. In the last “Perspectives” piece I noted some of the challenges I faced with a blank slate and open schedule. I won’t sugar coat and tell you it has gotten any easier. Though the time passed effortlessly, it was the hardest year of my life. This is measurable in tears. I cried more tears of sadness, frustration, and very occasionally, joy, than any other time in my memory. Sharath Jois put it simply at his Tokyo workshop this year:…
So my friend and co-conspirator from behind the scenes on this website, Joe Smith, has just moved to the foot of Mt. Fuji. He’s living in a cabin, teaching, and making music – sounds like the picture of a blue belt life to me! He has volunteered occasionally snap a photograph of this majestic beauty for everyone to behold. Look for updates in the Mt. Fuji section at the top. And who knows, maybe we’ll hear more from him over year two of this blog – hello? Where you at Joe Smith? Or are you just going to remain the Scorsese to my DiCaprio? OK I’m going to plug him…
This week I answer the most common question about my current life: what exactly is it, I do here? Well, in all its glory, here’s the blue belt life play-by-play from last week:
Per the original post on wedding speeches, I recently gave a speech at an Indian wedding – here it is: Speech text (names changed to protect privacy and reputation) Hi, I’m Chris Duss, and Rupal is my mortal enemy. Ever since the moment we stared one another down across the tennis court at age 10, we have been embroiled in a battle for superiority. Like any good rivalry, ours has traversed many areas, from the tennis court, to the bowling alley, to Delores Park bocce ball 2013. Tonight I’m honored to have the opportunity to share with you some of my experience with this great fool. “Education matters. Education matters…
Music has been part of me for most of what I can remember of life, and one of my first memories is hand drumming. Long before I usurped my sister’s electronic keyboard and before I built my first popcorn tin drum set I was using my hands to bang sounds out of just about anything – much to the chagrin I am sure of my teachers and parents. Unlike other parts of my musical life, hand drumming has been with me continuously from that early age – it’s one of the few skills in which I would almost admit to reaching a purple belt level. And so I feel compelled…
Most people will have the honor and responsibility of giving a best man, groomsman, or sibling speech at least once in their lifetime. Since I have had the honor to give all three, I am at least qualified to share with you my experience in the hope that it can make a difficult challenge easier and more meaningful. Let me preface this by saying I am not a natural born speaker. I can count the number of times I have given speeches to “major” crowds of 100 or more people on one hand. Like most people I am scared of public speaking, and the nervousness shows when I deliver speeches.…
