Playboy's Kakiage Fritters

The beauty of the softened sunlight, shining through the yellowing leaves, is truly captivating. Autumn touches both the eyes and the heart.

Dinner on the last day of September.
We mindlessly fried a large batch of tempura with shrimp and vegetables, and everyone ate it all up, exclaiming, "Oh, this is delicious! So delicious!" This is the autumn of appetite.
Norwegian shrimp, frozen green beans, carrots, mushrooms, and zucchini.
I couldn't get perilla leaves, burdock root, lotus root, or maitake mushrooms, but I just gave up on those. You make do with what you have.

When you're doing something mindlessly, that's when your mind is at play.
It's a state of mind where you unexpectedly enter a new realm of consciousness, and then later, you suddenly come back to reality.

And I was thinking, while frying the tempura, that perhaps when truly excellent things are created that move the hearts of many people, it's because someone was pursuing that very state of mind.

Such moments of the mind are also preserved in the paintings of the old Meissen artisans. These are things that can only be achieved when the mind is at play. Things that move people's hearts.
Even the hearts of people over 100 years later are shaken.
Whether in sports, art, cooking, or any other field.

To let your own mind play, even if it doesn't move others, even if it seems meaningless.
That mindset, that state of mind, is free and beautiful.
It's about having fun.