My student Sayaka S. gave me this tea bowl nearly 25 years ago, when I lived in her small Japanese town.

I never used it until this year! Why?

I didn’t want to stain it.

After noticing that a barista at a local cafe was using a rustic tea bowl and bamboo whisk to make a matcha drink, I thought, “Why don’t I do the same?”

Now I enjoy watching this tea bowl evolve … little fissures in the glaze come to light, and stains appear and vanish … much like seasons of life.

Today I enjoy my matcha drink, thinking of Sayaka and my other students, wondering how their lives have turned out …

(I wrote about my experiences in Sayaka’s town in my memoir, The Same Moon.)