Tea Ceremony

Here is a throw back to something we did about halfway through our time in Japan this year. I didn't get around to blogging about it then because we were so busy with other things, and I wanted to include some photos that I had from the time before everything was digital. Gasp! Obviously those photos were not accessible from Japan. 

When I first lived in Japan way back in 2004, I somehow found myself studying the traditional Japanese tea ceremony with my school friend Yuki and another girl called Mona. The three of us would gather, I think every second Sunday, at Yuki's house and get dressed in kimono. Our teacher would arrive and we would each have turns practicing. 

2004: Mona, Yuki, Paula and our Sensei

It was generally a pretty fun way to learn, because you got to drink the tea and eat the beautiful Japanese sweets (wagashi) that came along with it. 

I wasn't particularly great at it, but the learning was fun, and I got to pick up the skill of dressing in a kimono as well. My teacher is still teaching and when she heard that we were over in Japan, she invited us to have tea ceremony at her house. 

There are a huge number of variations of tea ceremony, and we started this one with a trip outside to prepare ourselves with this lovely water feature in the garden. It had been filled with ice cold water and there was a whole ritual of hand washing, mouth washing and then also washing the bamboo scoop before the next person could use it. 

We then entered the tea room where my friends made us tea one at a time, and we ate the delicious sweets. 

Then we had turns making tea as well. I was proud of the girls for giving it a go. 

I also had a turn. It was funny because my brain couldn't remember any of the routine phrases I was supposed to say, but my body remembered all the movements for scooping the tea, closing the box, pouring the water and mixing the tea. 

My friend Mona was practicing a different type of tea making, so we all (well, the girls opted out of the second cup) had more than enough tea and then finished with the tea ceremony went to the living room to have more cool drinks (it was hot, humid summer) before leaving. So much tea and polite Japanese. The girls were exhausted at the end, but it was a fun experience.