10/06/2026
Sascha had been waiting for me since late afternoon.
By the time I found him on the street in Tokyo, the cold had crept in slowly, the way it does, and he was shaking.
Not dramatically. Just that deep, bone-level cold that settles in when you’ve been outside too long and your body has quietly been giving everything it has to stay warm. I insisted he put my scarf on.
We found a small restaurant just across the street. Dark wood, warm light, bowls of deep, nourishing food. We sat down and just ... let the warmth come back in.
Watching him slowly stop shaking made me think about how often we do this.
We don’t notice the cold coming. We push through. We keep going. And by the time we realise we’re depleted, we’ve been standing in the cold for hours.
In Chinese medicine, this is a Kidney story.
The Kidney governs your deepest reserves of energy, the ones your body draws on when everything else is running low. Cold depletes it faster than almost anything else.
And what restores it? Warmth. Depth. Nourishment.
Foods like bone broth, miso, black beans, walnuts, black sesame. Slow cooked. Warm. Simple.
Not a quick fix. A return.
If the cold has been creeping up on you this winter, in your body, your energy, your mood, this is worth paying attention to.
In this instance, his body wasn’t failing. He had just been standing outside too long.
Rebecca Prša-Roszak 🌿 Doctor of Chinese Medicine · Five Element Dietary Therapist Seasonal Chinese medicine consultations online — link in bio
