The Way of Tea

For the last few months, I have been studying tea ceremony at the Kyoto International Community House. We just had our class demonstration this week. The above picture shows the awesome Beginner students on the last day of class.

The class is intended to be a way for foreigners to immerse themselves in Japanese culture as well as a chance for Japanese to experience a cultural exchange. But, one thing that fascinates me (especially given the cross cultural harmony shtick) is that the class is roughly three times more expensive for Japanese students. Huh.

We are learning about the elements in a tea room, the tools needed to perform a tea ceremony, how to serve sweets and tea, how to eat sweets, how to drink tea, how to walk, how to enter and leave a tea room, and how to open/prepare/close a tea ceremony.

Each week, we have a new calligraphy scroll and a new flower arrangement placed in the tokonoma (scroll alcove) in the tea room. These items are specially chosen to correspond with the season/weather outside or to reflect an important truth. Our sweets are different each class too and similarly reflect the time of year. I expect that this week or next week, we will have a sakura (cherry blossom) themed class.

There are many detailed rules, prescribed phrases and gestures for both hosts and guests, but somehow it is still relaxing. My cool and fun classmates have a lot to do with that. In fact, I have enjoyed the class so much that I have signed up for another twelve week session.