Tea Ceremony

A couple of weeks ago, one of my students at Shogai University invited me and my family to come to a tea ceremony that she was going to be participating in. I was only told that it was not the usual powdered green tea and that is was a loose leaf tea ceremony. We were also told that it was several small cups of tea that we would drink along with some sweets.



Sunday morning, Miho and her daughter arrived at our apartment to pick us up at 9:30am. We then headed off to Nozato (an area in Himeji, near where I go to Ikebana class every month). Once we arrived, we went inside and headed upstairs to the first tea ceremony location.

We walked along these rocks to reach the Tatami room (Japanese tea room with Tatami mats for the floor)



This was part of our group waiting to go in to the other room. You first go into this room to look at the decorations and bring your mind to a calm place. (Toraya-san, Mitch, Sara, RJ & Hino-san)

These were the decorations in the first room.



When it was time to go into the other room, we were ushered up front because it was obvious that we were guests of someone.


This is the tea master who prepared the tea for us. The tall white thing in the middle of the picture was a fire that held the pot of water on top to get hot.



These were the sweets we were presented with. The green one was like a sponge and the blue one was powdery and the pink one was waxy.


The tea was then poured into the tiny cups and placed into a "leaf" holder (saucer).


When they present you with your tea, they place their finger tips together and touch hands and bow. RJ was trying to be polite and do it back.
You receive 2 rounds of this tea. The second tea is not as strong as the first tea, which I think is a good idea.


Sara trying to perfect her hands and bow.


This is Shigeko. She is my student at Shogai. She was so kind to us during the ceremony. She spoke to us in English and explained what was happening. It was wonderful!



Then we were able to go to other tea ceremony. This time we sat on regular chairs.
She is preparing the tea for us.
These are the sweets for this ceremony.
The 3 layered sweet is made from white bean paste (I think) and hydrangea.





The other tables set up near ours.
She is wiping the bottom of the cup before it is placed in the saucer.
The cups are so cute and small.
My favorite part was watching Sara be so dainty with her tea cup. She LOVED it!
Once again, a second serving of tea.



It was a great tea ceremony. I am so glad that we were so lucky to be invited to this ceremony.