Tuesday, January 27, 2009

茶道 Japanese Tea Ceremony


Today is second day of Chinese New Year, I tried a new event 茶道 Japanese Tea Ceremony. My Japanese Sensei invited me and my friend Tamako chan to her house. Her friend is holding a tea ceremony to introduce this Japanese culture to people.

First, we were asked to eat okashi(sweet/candy/chocolate) , then we were taught how to turn around the bowl and drinking tea. Nihon go (Japanese) sensei told tea master that I couldn't take much caffeine so they prepared a different tea ( mild) one for me.

Later , we were taught how to make tea, folding the Chakin (茶巾). It was difficult to fold the chakin. We were told , it took nearly 1 week to learn how to fold it by another student who showed us. I was fully focus in attending to the tea ceremony so I dind't take any photo. The student who showed us is a guy. All along I thought tea ceremony is a lady's hobby because I never heard from Jap guy friends that they go tea ceremony. :) Today, Japanese teacher told me tea ceremony started by man. I discussed with my Japanese teacher , we both agreed Tea ceremony is a very high cost hobby as you need to have many Kimono ( which is super expensive !! ) plus the fees to learn tea ceremony. Ladies and men wear kimono in tea ceremony.


To learn more of this Japanese tea ceremony : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony
http://www.holymtn.com/tea/Japanesetea.htm

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