Sakura Smith is the creator of Bagel Bunny, hand-rolled bagels made using a starter passed down from a Japanese monk. She writes about her travel and food escapades on The Bunny Diaries.
#107: Sakura Smith
Tokyo, Japan (“but I am fly fishing in Hokkaido right now”)
What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?
Health is ever-changing and a balancing act. Beyond all of the minute details, being healthy is wondering what makes me feel the best. What food? What drink? What movement? What people? Health is a practice of learning to listen to yourself.
How would you describe your current lifestyle?
My lifestyle is definitely in a transition phase right now. My fiancé and I are traveling this year, and so much of making myself feel good is dependent on the routines that I have in place while we bop around. How do you feel while being in a bunch of places with one suitcase? Simply accessing different ingredients or herbs has been super interesting. Taking care of yourself in a new place is an exercise for sure. With this, I am practicing control and less control.
How do you start and end your days?
This depends on where I am going. I usually wake up and immediately brush my teeth (oil pull when I have time). I can’t do anything until I brush my teeth and put on my contacts. I drink room-temperature water and then make tea. When it is a slow day, I will meditate in the morning, but if it is a fast-paced one, I will do it in the evening. I try to move immediately, otherwise I just don’t have the will. These days, that either looks like boxing, stretching on my floor/yoga, or going to walk in Yoyogi Park. This is dependent on my menstrual cycle and general mood and time management.
I always get a coffee at my favorite shop in my neighborhood and sit and read or use this time to call people around the world. I say hi to all my neighborhood friends and dogs. This part of my routine brings me probably the most joy. When you are in an ever-changing state, I find a physical place to have routine extremely grounding.
I end my day as chill as I can. My favorite time is dinner, I feel like I live a whole day only to sit down and have dinner. It is the celebration. I like to eat grilled or steamed veggies, a protein, and rice. If it were up to me, I'd eat rice porridge for every meal.
I take a hot shower. Lather up my face and lips. Put on my glasses. My eyes have been dry since moving here so I have been really focusing on taking out my contacts sooner, which has never been something I cared about. Thinking of getting deeper into eye care soon.
The time difference has been strange because I now have to talk with people when I wake up or right before bed instead of in the middle of the day. I am trying to not let that sway my whole life, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. Though I am learning that staying connected to people I love, or taking meetings, is more fulfilling than the peace of the bookends of a day.
Can you recall a moment when you became more aware of your health, or your relationship to it changed?
I have been thinking about this a lot. I grew up in LA, so I think I have always been aware of “Good + Bad” instead of balance. Learning this has come with time and knowing what makes me feel good — instead of wondering what makes other people feel good.
I have strong childhood memories of my best friend at the time, Misha’s family. Her dad is a Chinese medicine doctor and acupuncturist. We spent so much time at each other’s houses. In any moment or ailment, they would show us an herb or do a quick acupuncture session. I was always curious to learn more from her parents. Curious about the ways someone had all of this knowledge. I remember her mom sprouting nuts and teaching me to breathe lower in my stomach. I think of that a lot when I sit — how I had such bad stomach aches as a kid, and how she taught me how to breathe by putting her hand on my stomach. Being wiser than I was, knowing that it was probably connected to my nervous system more than an actual ache.
I would like to see more people going out of their way to be nice. Without this, we all continue onto our own singular paths.
What’s your relationship to self-healing?
I believe we have a lot of power in our healing.
It is important for me to note that I am a hypochondriac and struggle with an imaginative mind. But with that, I know my body immensely well; a tiny sensation can tell me a lot. I do go to a traditional doctor yearly for checkups and bloodwork, and I am quite in touch, so I will go if anything feels dangerous. If it is not something serious, I always rely on my other health practitioners first and do my own research. Medicine is powerful and amazing, but I am also of the belief that it is not always necessary. I make potions for myself and am very preventative. Food is super integral to it all. I used to be so strict that it made my body so stressed. I let myself have almost anything I want these days and I feel better. (That is all within reason.) Stress is something I am trying to focus on more as it seems to be the basis of all kinds of illness.
Do you work with any practitioners, texts, or modalities on a regular basis?
I had a whole network while I was in New York, and now that I have recently moved to Japan, I am slowly finding the people who are a part of my system. Acupuncturists I swear by for almost everything. Bodywork, meditation, or yoga teachers are our guides. Really the most life-changing body work in Tokyo is from Eight Tokyo. Ogawa-san has saved me so much.
I recently started doing Tuning Yoga with the most lovely teacher, Kyoco. I feel like she just gets it. My body felt like it had gone through total replenishment after class with her.
Going to bathe and sauna a lot has also been a regular part of my routine. Sweating it out and moving is important. I am really against stagnation in the body.
Something I listen to: A teacher of mine was raised in an Ashram with Osho and he was monumental in her studies. (I am aware he was kind of canceled…) One day she played this audio recording of him speaking about living life simply, and it really resonated, so I asked her to send it to me. Anytime I feel chaotic, I play this recording and it always brings me back. Private message me and I am happy to email it to you.
I also always travel with The Pocket Pema Chödrön in my suitcase. You never know when you need words of wisdom. Small things like this, or the audio file or even a crystal, can be starting points for going deeper. Having accessible nicknacks that trigger good make it easier to keep going.
When do you feel the most nourished?
Cooking at home, a whole beach day, or just a day outside. I can be an over-indulger, so when I don’t do that I feel best.
How do you reset?
It’s always different. If I need a break from myself, that means seeing other people and being out. If I need to take a break from others, I love a day to myself. This is my go-to: wake up, don’t look at your phone — or fine, look at your phone, but only answer the fun messages, not the ones that feel like obligations. Move the body. I box when I am not menstruating, and on the days that I don’t do that, I run/walk or do yoga. Go wander a new part of a city. Read in a park. Call an old friend. Have a beverage (lately, I have been into boba with straight Ceylon tea).
I wanted to originally answer by saying “going on a weekend holiday is best to reset,” but I took it back because while I love to go on a little trip, I think that being able to reset where I am feels more like a true renewal.
Do you have a favorite meal?
THIS IS SO HARD! My mom says that I think everything is my favorite. That’s because in my mind it is my favorite at the moment.
A favorite meal…probably porridge, roast chicken with vegetables, bolognese. Not together.
In my fridge, I always have miso and apple cider vinegar. There is always a bag of rice. Lately, my favorite breakfast is just rice with scrambled eggs and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Stocked is popcorn and nutritional yeast for snack time. I used to always have bone broth, but it is harder to find in Japan unless I make it. Lately, I keep raisins. The wrinkly things used to scare me as a kid, but they are my snack obsession right now. I like the weird-kid-in-elementary-school snacks.
What advice would you give your younger self?
You know.
What advice would you give to the person reading this?
A lifetime of small pleasures will delight you.
Maybe not advice, but a fortune cookie I once got that reminds me that all the small things will make the whole thing good.
What would you like to see or create more of in the world?
I would like to see more people going out of their way to be nice. It is active work. Practice telling someone their smile is nice or that their outfit is so cute. Without this, we all continue onto our own singular paths. I also believe this is a small way to fight negativity in the world. I see this a lot in New York, actually, and less everywhere else.
I’d also like to see more practices of free will. Nothing too crazy, but if you want to go dance on a table, you should dance on a table. You hear a voice in your head telling you to skip — skip. If you want to go slide down the slide, go slide.
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An old soul who knows.
it's always about the little things.