Day 26 Tea Ceremony

Day 26 Tea Ceremony

by Donna Charles on Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 3:50am

Today i feel excited I'm going with Teresa to watch her and her tea ladies do a tea ceremony. I do some laundry to keep my self busy till 10 till 10 when I am suppose to meet Teresa at the bus stop with the fish on it. Called and talked with a couple of my grandkids and wrote them letters and sent BB a paper Japanese doll that's dressed in a kimono and Josh a pack of Pokemon trader cards. Kay my sister in law has not been well and we wanted to send her something from Japan. I had bought a handkerchief from the flower park we had went to this past weekend. The handkerchief has beautiful wisteria on it which is a flower that Kay likes. : -) I got up to go to post office quickly before my laundry was going to be done. I stood up and noticed that there was a red light blinking on the phone. Didn't know if the phone always did that and i just now noticed it or not. Decided better call front desk and ask them. Called them and had to tell 3 people before someone answered my question. Come to find out someone had left coffee for me. Hummmmmmmmmmm???? I went down to pick it up and didn't know if I heard them wrong, or it was a cold cup of coffee that Marlon brought them to give me at 6:30 this morning or exactly what i was going to get when they gave it to me. The minute the front desk girls seen me they handed out a container of Taster's Choice decaff coffee ???? I ask them who dropped it off and they didn't know. Things that make you say HUMMMMMMMM????? The container has been opened and used so I don't know but I took it back to my room and picked up the letters to go mail.

I walked all 3 of the letters to the post office and mailed them off. : -) Hope all are happy when they receive them. I had to hurry back and get laundry out of dryers and folded getting close to time to go to bus station. Brought my umbrella looks like rain. ; -(

While waiting for Teresa thought I'd go quickly to the train station and get me a latte. I no my way around some so no problem. Got my latte and as I was waiting for it to be made I noticed that they had toast. OMG I'm thinking I don't have time to get back in line and order that because I don't have that much time. Guaranteed come in the morning i will have a piece of that thick sliced toast with butter. YUM YUM......: -D

Get back to the bus stop and Teresa is not there yet but soon after I got there I saw her coming out of the train station. We chat for a minute then the fish bus pulls up and we take our ticket and get seated. When the bus drops us off Teresa guides us to her sensei's house which isn't far from the bus stop.

We get to her house and go inside but not before taking our shoes off and leaving them at the door. Upon entering her home I notice she has decorated in traditional style Japanese with low tables and tatomi mats for flooring which is how all homes are measured. The size of a totomi mat is uniform so when you tell someone how big your home is you actually tell them how many totomi mats wide an long it is. Once inside we are greeted and Teresa gives me a present to give to her sensei I should have thought about bringing a gift but I didn't thank Goodness Teresa covered my butt. : -D

We talked and then her sensei invited us into the living room where we sat on the floor on cushions, there was a low table which we sat under that had a beautiful quilt under the table that laid on top of your legs. Now this is really neat, the minute I put my legs under the blanket I could feel heat. Wow I lifted up the blanket to get a closer look and there was a heater in the floor and you could put you legs down far enough to not have to sit on them. GREAT love this idea, met her husband who has been retired for one year and seems to be loving it. We talked for a while and then got up because the ladies had things ready to start the tea ceremony. I was directed to take a seat on a bench by the which was located on the right side of her. I sat down and was quiet and just observed what was going on around me. Boy talk about feeling nervous when I have no idea what is going to happen next or what if anything I will be doing.

During the ceremony I was brought a tray that had 3 pieces of candy on them shaped in beautiful shapes filled with bean paste. I used the chop sticks on the tray and picked up the one that looked like a bird. I sat it down beside me and was told to pick up the tea napkin in my left hand and use the wooden pick to cut it with and eat it. Well of course I was nervous all eyes on me, and I picked up the napkin with the pretty bird and about dropped the bird. It went into the air and I caught it, OMG that really did not happen did it. Well yes it did and I could say was sorry, sensei said good catch and the ceremony went on. I was directed to eat the birdie and while i was doing that one of the ladies was making my green tea by going through what seemed like 50 steps before Teresa brought over the cup. She sat in front of me and I took the cup from her turning it twice so the print on the bowl was facing me. I was then told you drink it in 3 drinks then hand it back. I did as I was told thank goodness my turn is over wow.........

This ceremony continues until all ladies have made a cup of green tea for everyone in room. Sensei's grand daughter who is 2 is learning the tea ceremony also. She did not make tea of course but she did the pastry part!! We are all done with the ceremony which lasted about 2 hours.

Its lunch time now and we are ordering lunch out. Choice was odon noodles or rice with chicken and onion. Teresa and I both ordered the rice dish and Teresa paid for it. The doorbell is ringing and they answer the door its the delivery man with the food. OMG he has these beautiful dishes on a wooden tray and the ladies start bringing the bowls in and sitting them on the table:each bowl had another bowl on top to keep the food warm. : -) I still can't believe the delivery service brings your food in glass bowls and also the chop sticks. Life is Good!!! We all finally sit down and eat the table looks so lovely with all the nice things they put out when setting the table. All together we sit down Japanese style and eat our rice/noodles with our chopsticks. Company is great as is the food : -) afterwards we have green tea and the cakes with bean paste in them that Teresa gave me to give to sensei. During our tea the guy came back to pick up the bowls how cool is that?

Its time to put on the kimono now and the sensei directs me to the sunroom where she is going to put my hair up. She proceeds to put all my hair up and use some pretties in it also. ; -) Hair is all up and looking good. I now am putting on the undergarment which looks like a house robe. She points in the direction of the other room and tells me to take off my pants in which I did. I am now standing in front of all the ladies and being dressed in the kimono. WOW there are lots of elastic bands and belts holding this thing together in its proper place. Finally I am fully dressed in the kimono and can hardly breath everything is tightly placed and looks like a sensei dressed me. The band around my waist is beautiful as is the bow she has made in the back of the kimono.

Lots of pictures were taken and afterwards;I was asked by the sensei about my experience of today. I told her and got choked up. I know its hard to understand but my emotions were running wild. I honestly felt so honored to be her and get to see this special tea ceremony and just be with this group of women. I talked the best I could to tell them how much i appreciated all they done for me. : -)

I got the kimono taken off and am now dressed in the clothes I came in. Forgot to mention that its raining so hard you can hear it hitting off the roof of the house. So glad I brought my umbrella gonna need it to get to the bus stop. Teresa and i head to the bus stop and hope we can make it there before the bus leaves. We both put up our umbrellas and walk swiftly towards the bus stop. We see the bus already at the stop and pray he waits for us. Lucky us he waits for us and we are now on board the bus tired and out of breath from running. Nice we are on the bus and smiling that we are warm and dry. Teresa and I are at the fish bus stop where we got on at and we are heading in different directions to get home. We hug each other and part our separate ways.


At hotel waiting on Marlon he doesn't come home till 7:30 and we are to meet in the lobby at 8pm to go eat dinner with the group. I guess Utsugi is going to eat dinner with us Thursday!! I can't wait as I really like him !!! Tonight we went and ate uakitori with our group; had a wonderful time. Walked home and am now back in the hotel and out of the rain. End to a great day : -)