Tea Time at 8:00

A Japanese Tea Ceremony, to be more precise.

A note came across the internets, asking me to attend a Japanese Tea Ceremony. My colleague had been studying the Tea Cermony longer than he was studying the English Language. This fact impressed me greatly and I felt honored to be invited. The only request was, "Preferrably, you would bring the white socks." No Problem. Before leaving for Japan, I pretended to be the Nicholas Cage character from, "Leaving Las Vegas", and bought new packages of T-shirts, underwear, and socks - both dress & "white" socks. My plan was to minimize the amount of laundry I had to do, not drink myself into a coma like Nick did in the movie. Anyway, I had plenty of brand new white socks. I grabbed a pair of socks and kept them in my briefcase for a week before the Tea Ceremony, so I would not forget them. When the day arrived, one of the people who was also invited forgot the white socks and had to buy a new pair during lunch time. I should have put two pair of socks in my briefcase!

Before I continue, I should tell you that I do not know the Japanese names for all (OK, any) of the things that were a part of the ceremony so the descriptions may not be spot on. One thing that will be spot on is the description of how my knees felt.

More than 20 of us entered the Japanese room - with white socks - through a ring made of green shrubery. This, perhaps, evoked a spring time theme, where we could pretend we were entering a Japanese garden:

...not everyone wore traditional dress

Unfortunately we had to sit on our knees. Mine happened to snap just like when you spread those balsa wood chopsticks that are joined together at one end. This happened more than once, by the way; pretty much any time I tried to move my legs.

We were served sweets while the tea was being prepared:

...those chopsticks were cool!

We had to bow to our server when we were presented the sweets, which was no problem because I lost the feeling in both of my feet at about this time. These things tasted pretty good; the center was filled with a sweet red bean paste. By the way, the people who presented the sweets did not prepare the green tea. After eating the sweets, the tea was being served:

Not.My.Knees.

At this point, I was worried that I would not be able to stand up ever again, and I drank the team presented to me. I did my best to mimic everyone else by holding the bowl with two hands, and drank it quietly. There were several people ahead of my who made a wisping sound as they finished their tea. I found out later that this sound is expected and is a duty of the guest to demonstrate their fondness for the tea. Later, it was also explained that the bowl should be turned twice to the right before drinking the tea so that our lips would not come in contact with the center marking of the bowl. After drinking, we also should have turned the bowl twice to the left before placing the bowl back on the floor.

At this point we were allowed to sit cross legged on the floor, but this didn't help very much; my knees still made that cracking sound. The Tea Ceremony was officially over, and we were able to take a close-up look at some of the equipment that was used:

All of the equipment was made of traditional Japanese materials. I chose to ignore the electrical cord running from the heating element. We were also able to ask some questions. It turns out that the procedures used to make the tea were very carefully done and took many years of study to master. Much of he equipment is also made by the students.

It was great to take part in Japanese culture. There's much more detail to the ceremony than what I provided. If you are interested, wikipedia has a detailed article on the origins and details of the tea ceremony. The only negative part: I had to use my arms in order to exit the room; my feet were not talking to me. I did manage to put my shoes back on and hobbled home while feeling blessed that I could take part in this ceremony.