Tea Ceremony

Today Miki`s mom took us to participate in a traditional tea ceremony.  We were very lucky as it is only done twice a year, the next one being in fall.  From what I gathered, there are three versions of the tea ceremony ranging in formality/traditionalness.  They have different kinds of tea and sweets depending on the version.  We attended all three (Miki's mom and I the first and the last, and Greg and Miki's mom on the second round).  There was a pause in between each, although most often they are all preformed consecutively.  The first round we knelt in seiza position with your feet and legs folded directly under you.  You do not sit indian style, that is for old men I believe.  By the end of the ceremony my legs had fallen asleep and I couldn't actually stand up.  It sounds silly, but if you try and sit on your heals for over 30 mins you will realize how excruciatingly painful it is.  The sad part was that all the Japanese women were very use to this sitting arrangement and were all completely fine.  There were 60year+ women who sprung up afterwards while I was on the ground dying and thinking I needed to amputate my legs after! LOL  But the really old ladies got to use little stools.  I never thought I would be wishing to be an old lady!  The tea was served with lots of bowing and I just copied what everyone else did.  They served two sweets before the tea that we put on a specially folded little white paper.  They didn't really taste like anything delicious, there was a leaf shaped thing that tasted like a piece of old fondant, and a cream filled rice paper circle that was not my favourite.  I learned that if I don't like it, I can politely fold up the paper it was on and stuff it behind we where no one can see.  I did this for my unfinished stuffed circle.  The only problem was garbage cans in Japan are scarce and so you are forced to carry around your unwanted sweet all day trying to hide it politely.  Luckily I found a bathroom to dump the evidence.

The second round Greg got to sit in a chair and I thought that was royally unfair!  The third round was the most traditional and again I was obligated to sit kneeling down.  Luckily a woman took mercy on me and offered me her little cheat stool.  It is very tiny and only fir half my behind, but it is suppose to be inconspicuous so it looks like you are kneeling the whole time.  I took that stool graciously, though I felt a little bad she was going to have to sit the painful way.  I have a video of the 3rd tea ceremony, my camera stops just before the end because it was full.  During the tea ceremony there are some important objects people talk about and crowd around after.  I was very ignorant about the meaning, but took a photograph of it.  The objects included a duck figurine, a wall hanging/scroll, a vase with  one flower stalk in it, and a square canister of tea (I only understood it was unique because it was square as opposed to the common round shape).

Many women wore kimomos.  I tried to get some pictures, but people were moving so they came out a little blurred.  A nice lady offered that I come over to her house this Wednesday and she will let me try on a kimono!  I'm really excited for such a unique opportunity!

The man near the middle in black is the priest of the temple

First round

This was important though I don't know why

Waiting between the ceremonies

The third round in a traditional tea house

3rd round important objects, note the woman sitting on a stool

Sorry for the poor quality at the beginning of the video, I forgot that I can't shoot vertically like my real video camera.
VIDEO TO COME, FOR SOME REASON I CAN'T UPLOAD IT...SORRY!