A gorgeous pink candy flower

A lovely looking pink flower at my friend's organic firm at Canalette, Upala.

water melon season is in!

Finally, water melon season is here! Yummy!!!

Upala, my friend's firm

I stayed at my friend's firm in Upala, northern part of Costa Rica last weekend.
I was expecting his firm to be my scary WWOOFing experience in southern Spain in 2005, but his place turned out to be like a paradise. He's got the basics(water, lights, refrigerator, shower and toilet in open air), and lots of fruit trees and greens. His firm is huge and enjoyed walking tour of his firm in the wild jungle where there are many fruit trees planted, gorgeous river, and a great view of the city. I felt comfortable and relaxed completely at his firm.
Hope to visit his firm agina soon...

30 coconuts

30 yummy coconuts were delivered to my house this afternoon. I have asked the coco man to open 15 of them and the rest un-open so they remain fresh. They cost 6,000 colones (about $12). What a great discount. He sells one coconut for 300 colones, so it is 9,000 without a discount. I just asked him the price and he just nods. How beautiful!
Yesterday, I made coconut soup with cilantro and turmeric. It was surprisingly delicious!

from La finisterra at Playa Hermosa. I was out all day long with my work - jet skiing, having meetings with cool people at Liberia, Playa del coco, Playa de Hermosa, and Sardinal. It was so much fun!

Pipa, fresh coconut from Upala

This guy sells fresh and sweet coconut every morning. He says that the coconuts come from Upala (northern part of Costa Rica). I have asked him to bring 10 coconuts this morning, and I have already finished 8 coconuts water this morning.
I have asked him to bring me 30 coconuts tomorrow morning. How beautiful getting delivered coconuts to your home and getting discount on top of it. Yeah!
1 coconut costs 300 colones (about 60cents, 70円). 10 coconuts for 2,500 colones (about $5) Yeah to the discount! Let's see how much I would buy 30 coconuts tomorrow...

For lunch, I had Green soup (2 coconut meat, water, salt, soysauce, extra virgin olive oil, turmeric). This was surprisingly good. Tasted like avocado. I've added turmeric because my wonderful acupuncturist suggested me to take (as I don't care so much of the taste, this was a great way to eat consume - the soup had no taste of turmeric).
I also made sushi rice with shredded cabbage, sesame, ginger, and over night soaked oatmeal. I wrap the "sushi rice" in nori, and it sure tasted like Japanese sushi rice!

papaya ginger smoothie

I went to a cool acupuncturist, who speaks 4 languages fluently (English, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese), referred by my raw food friends. He is half Japanese and half Korean. His wife is Tica (Costarican) and their son's name is Japanese, Kiyoshi.
The doctor told me I have a "cold" body with a bad circulation, and suggested to take ginger and curcume (ginger like root vegetable). So I have been adding ginger whenever I get chance.
Ingredients of the smoothie: papaya, water, naturally grown lemon, organic ginger, raw organic honey, naturally grown aloe vera.
Papaya was not so sweet but this smoothie was delisious!!!
oh, the accupunctuarist told me I have an allergy with Noni. No wonder my skin has been irritated everytime I ate Noni... He said he can cure the allergy though. His treatment is too good to be true. No pain, and no stinky tea needs to be taken!

lunch boxes for my weekend's trip to hot spring

Here are pictures of what I have packed for my last weekend trip to El Tucano (Hot spring resort hotel in Ciudad Quesad, San Carlos). They were yummy but after 8 hours of a bus trip, they were spoiled as I forgot to put some ice...straight to garbage :( At least I enjoyed preparing and tasting them :)
Ingredients:
1. chick pea filling: same as "worm wrapping" post.
2. Beet salad: beet, apple, carrot, pineapple, raisin, salt, lemon

Noni power

Months ago, I once tried a fresh organic Noni juice. I blended with some water without adding any other sweet fruit nor honey as I was directed to. My Costa Rican family praised me how brave I am, and also told me I could eat anything if I can tolerate Noni. I have heard that Noni is an amazing medicine that cures everything, but that one glass of Noni didn't do much for me.
But this weekend, I was convinced that I have to at least try 5 days to see the result. As I still have some minor skin problem, so I have decided to give Noni another chance.
When I mentioned my interest, the Taiwanese family packed a whole bunch of fresh Noni (they have a beautiful organic Noni tree but they hardly eat them) for me to bring back to Guanacaste. Didn't realize how much Noni they have packed, so I was pleasantly surprised there were 32 of them!!! I only needed 10 (2 each day* 5 days).... Well, my kitchen now is full of wonderful Noni aroma (hopefully my roommate does not mind....)

I've tried one ripe Noni last night and it tasted sharp and spicy, very different from what I have tasted before. To my surprise, it was easy to drink.
32 noni with leaves (Noni leave: cook with water and it's water supposed to cure skin problem)

台湾人家族 Weekend at my Taiwanese family

My Taiwanese family (vegan) lives in a beautiful house with a gorgeous garden. Don Miguel and her wife, Doña Katia has retired in Costa Rica about 13 years ago. They have many organic fruit trees and vegetables grown (orange, mango, noni, avocado, lemon, guajaba, some herbal to name a few, and they are all so delicious!!!). Their place truly is a paradise, and love having breakfast at their patio with a morning sunshine, sharing our stories. They are always happy and well-balanced with lots of love to share.
Their front yard and our breakfast.

Fresh celery

I love celery here. They are big, crunch, and fresh. I often make green smoothie with celery (mostly the leaves) and pineapple. yummy!

star fruit tree in my front yard 私の庭のスターフルーツの木

I noticed this star fruit flower this afternoon when I went out to pick some for my lunch. I did not know that star fruit tree has a flower... They smelled sweet, and lovely.

worm wrapping

Well, the worm looking picture looks a bit scary, but it was so yummy!!!
Ingredients:
stuffing: sprouted chick peas (soaked 1 day), integral sesame, salt, lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger - use a high power blender to blend them, then mix it with olive oil, avocado, celery, funugreek sprouted beans.
Wrap them in cabbage (could use Nori as well).
They are very filling and surprisingly yummy! Taste a bit like tuna, but better.
Green smoothie: pinapple, celery (mostly the leaves).
Today, I had:
breakfast: 1 Papaya
lunch: above
dinner: ? (will post tomorrow)
and about 1 litter of lemon water

Raw vegan parties

This picture was a farewell party for me on June 18, 2007 the night before leaving Japan for Costa Rica.
I throw some raw vegan parties when I was back in Japan, and I am quite please most of my friends who participated in those parties enjoy continue preparing raw vegan dishes I've taught at the parties. Here's more photos on raw vegan pictures: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/slideshow?a=67b0de21b35a18f66596&auto=0&m=1&d=1195071605597

Naturally-grown persimmon tree 柿の木

Two years ago on the same month, I was in Japan visiting my great uncle who had some naturally-grown beautiful 柿 (persimmon) trees in his backyard. He gave me boxes of freshly picked persimmons and I consumed most of them ;) You'd have to be careful on persimmons because they make you constipate (surprising isn't it?).　　Fall is probably my favorite season in Japan because this is the best season for vegetable and fruit. Where I live now is summer all year around with 2 months of rainy season. We are now in the transition from a rainy season to dry summer, and it feels like fall in my home town, Nagoya.

raisin prune banana oatmeal

Breakfast:
1. oatmeal with organic raisins soaked in bean sprout water over night and added a banana and prunes smoothie before eating (very filling and yummy!)
2. Green soup: one banana, spinach, cilantro, ginger, and salt. (enjoyed it but probably will not try again. I don't quite like the taste of spinach)
About 1.5L of lemon water
Lunch:
1. Celery soup: Blend celery, cucumber, tomato, ginger, lemon, salt. Add avocado, and chopped celery for add some crunchiness.Dinner:
1. Sesame Cabbage salad: grated cabbage, unhulled sesame, fenugreek bean sprout, lemon, paprika, salt, cucumber.
2. raspberry prune oatmeal: blend prunes, raspberry and banana. mix it with over night soaked oatmeal and add honey. (This was like a guiltless dessert. The only guilt part was that I ate way too much).

homegrown bean sprout (fenu greek) and lemons

Isn't it so beautiful to eat what you grow yourself? Sprouting beans is so easy and I love mixing them in my salad and soup.We have abundance of homegrown lemons now, but the tree is sick now and does not seem to be able to survive..... While we have more than enough lemons to consume, I am using them to wash clothes and rinse my hair as well.

Satisfying Lunch

I live just a few blocks away from my work, so I get to go home and prepare fresh and full course of lunch.

Ingredients (from the top):
1. green soup:celery, homegrown star fruit, paprika, funnellgreek sprout, extra virgin olive oil (this olive oil is so yummy!), salt, avocado, cucumber
2. Salad: Avocado, tomato, celery, cilantro, salt, sunflower seeds, extra virgin olive oil
3. banana-choco smoothies: 2 bananas, organic cacao powder, water (I use water that I rinse for the sprouting), honey
All to myself alone.... I eat a lot, don't I?

Dinner last night - 2 huge salads

I love sharing food, and have been preparing raw/living food for Mr.G, my land owner. He truly enjoys whatever I prepare and I love sharing who can so appreciate what I prepare. It only has been two months since I started preparing some raw dishes for him, but he has been losing some weights -he definitely looks better now.

ingredients:
1st pic: cucumber, tomato, paprika (red sweet pepper,) cilantro, lemon, guajaba, avocado, lettuce, extra virgin olive oil, salt
2nd pic:Tomato, homegrown basil, homegrown lemon, avocado, extra virgin olive oil, salt
Prior to these dishes, I have also prepared green smoothies with homegrown star fruit, banana, celery, pinapple, and a little bit of sprouting rinse water. Everything was yummy!

A birthday treat

I turned 33 last Friday, November 9. To treat myself, I went to a cute German bakery, Panaderia Alemana near Liberia airport in the afternoon and enjoyed their strawberry smoothies, fruit salad, and green salad.

Definition of 自然主義 Shizenshugi (Naturalism)

自然主義　
〔哲〕 存在や価値の根本に自然を考える立場の総称。一般に、超自然的なもの（理想・規範・超越者など）の独自性を認めず、自然的なもの（物質・感覚・衝動・生命など）を基盤にして物事をとらえる。
宗教上では、汎神(はんしん)論にほぼ同じ。
-excerpt from @nifty辞書

Naturalism
1. Action arising from or based on natural instincts and desires alone.
2.Philosophy.
a. the view of the world that takes account only of natural elements and forces, excluding the supernatural or spiritual.
b. the belief that all phenomena are covered by laws of science and that all teleological explanations are therefore without value.
-excerpt from http://dictionary.reference.com