These ladies were our hostesses. The tea house was is over 150 years old and it used to be a sake factory. Now the city owns it and uses it for civic events such as ours. The picture doesn't do justice to the beauty of their kimonos. I was also impressed by their ability to sit on their knees. I lasted only a couple of minutes!!
They started out by giving up these beautiful sweets. The tea often takes the theme of the season and so ours had an autumn theme. I use the term sweets lightly--the leaf was actually filled with bean paste and that isn't very sweet. The pink wafer wasn't either, but I liked them both. The stick was used to cut the leaf as it was too big to put in your mouth all at once.
Each part of the tea ceremony is a mediatation. I was told that you can spend your whole life mastering the ceremony. It was serene and beautiful to watch as she made tea.
These are the cups I drank from. They are themed according to the season or the celebration. I don't have a picture of it, but we were taught that there is a certain way to examine your cup after you drink--bent over on your hands and knees. Meg said it was because the cups can be very, very expensive and since you're on your knees anyway, you just bend over and keep the cup close to ground so you don't drop it. Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling, but it totally made sense.
They let us try whisking the tea. I had such a nice time and the ladies were so funny. Several people in my group wanted to take pictures of the backs of the obis because they had great needlework on them. The ladies were laughing and covering up their bottoms--they didn't want their "backsides" to be the focus of the pictures. It was so cute and funny--ladies are the same everywhere!!
Again, my pictures couldn't capture just how wonderful the setting was. There was a traditional Japanese garden outside and the air was crisp and cool and it was perfect. The tea was a good flavor--a lot of the green tea I'd been served had a fishy smell to it and so I didn't care for it but this was great tasting.
It was a nice way to end the afternoon and it did kind of relax me which I needed since I was getting a little anxious about the homestay. Dr. and Mrs. Endo picked me up around 4.
1 comment:
I am a friend and somehow relative of Estelle's, and she sent me this blog that you have written about Japan. My name is Sharron and I just returned from India, so I know we share a love of travel. We have been to Japan for a little over a week and experienced many of the things you write about. The gentle, wonderful women, the precision of every little thing, the clean and orderly cities and villages, the feng shui, and the love. Thank you for going to so much trouble to write this up, and you encourage me to make an actual blog with pictures and all. I just write it up and e-mail it out each day on my Blackberry, but it's so much fun to share.
Thank you, Sharron
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