This afternoon I wanted to have a sweet but traditionally Japanese snack. For a while now I have been admiring the natsu mikan (夏蜜柑 – summer tangerines) in Robinson’s and decided to try one today. The natsu mikan is roughly the size of a small grapefruit and has a distinctive sour taste, even more so than a grapefruit.

This was prepared with the flesh of the fruit set in a jelly inside the hollowed-out shell of the fruit itself. I set it on a platter we acquired recently by way of a charity art event in Odawara to support victims of the Tokohoku earthquake. Actually this particular plate is courtesy of my Mum I took to the art show one one of the three occasions I went. The day before I had bought its cousin – identical in shape but with different glaze, and was explaining I had had a hard time choosing between the two. Mum kindly relieved me of any regret I had about not having snapped up both earlier. These plates are almost too good to use and are often just on display as art, but every now and again like today I like to enjoy their functional beauty.

The summer orange is presented with some freshly cut new momiji (maple) leaves from our garden, as an additional sign of summer.