The past two months have been busy busy busy. Aside from working the two jobs, I also took on Japanese classes on top of the Mandarin classes I’m already taking. Purely suicidal. I’m actually amazed I’ve gotten through two months of this schedule without passing out from sheer exhaustion. Well, there is another month left…hehehe…we’ll just wait and see.

Anyway, last Tuesday in class we had a special tea ceremony presentation, or 茶道 as they call it in Japanese. It was actually very cool seeing how it was done. Obviously, we weren’t in an actual tea house nor were there nice tatami mats laid out, BUT we still managed to make do with with the crappy classroom setup (i.e. bolted tables).

Our sensei (ごめん, I forget his name) is a student from the 和敬清寂 tea ceremony school. He started by giving us an introduction to the tea ceremony practice and explained the ideas of tranquility and peacefulness behind it. He said that tea ceremonies can go on for over four hours, but since it was already late at night, he graciously trimmed the time down to about 10 minutes. =)

While everyone took a seat on the side, sensei rolled out straw mats in the centre and took a seat opposite of another student in the class. The ‘guests’ are usually offered meals or sweets before the tea is served. In our case, it was a dish of small sweets. Afterwards, sensei began preparing his utensils to serve the tea. Each utensil (お茶碗 teabowl, 茶杓 teascoop, and 茶筅 whisk) are meticulously cleaned using the 茶巾 chakin. The chawan is also thoroughly rinsed before the tea is actually made. Once this is done, green tea powder is added and the tea is mixed until it becomes frothy. Then it is ready to be presented to the guest.

I couldn’t see this part too well from my angle, but the ritual begins with the host and guest exchanging bows. Then the guest will begin drinking the tea, rotating the chawan to avoid drinking from the front. After a few orderly sips, the guest will wipe the rim of the chawan before rotating it back to its original position. Bows are exchanged again and the tea ceremony is complete.

Sensei was very nice and prepared more tea for the rest of us to enjoy. I’ve never had tea from a powder before so I was a little surprised at how strong the tea tasted (even though I was expecting it to be much more bitter). 先生、どうも ありがとうございます

Even though this ceremony only took 10 minutes, I still marveled how much of an art form it was. I definitely want to try attending a tea ceremony the next time I’m in Japan. But for now, I’ll have to make do enjoying the tea from the thermos!