Tea Ceremony

My host mom took me to tea ceremony at her friends house. A lot more complicated than just eating a snack and drinking tea. You have to bow while kneeling at the front door of the tea room before you enter, then bow to the flower arrangement, the tea kettle, the little table thing holding the implements.

After all that you kneel seated while the person makes your tea. While she's making it you eat some sweet dessert stuff (I had some mochi like stuff and then some sugar candies). After you get your tea place it to the person next to you and bow saying osaki ni...literally the word for previous, meaning you'll be drinking your tea now. You then proceed to turn the tea cup three times in your hand clockwise and then you drink it. This goes on until everyone has had tea and then you bow and thank the person who made it.
...And this is just the process of being the guest and drinking the tea...its a whole 'nother ball game when you make the tea.

I learned that its really painful to sit like a Japanese person...I cant do it for such an extended period of time cause my feet start hurting, and then my legs start cramping. It wasn’t all bad, they let me sit cross legged when I couldn’t take the pain…gah!

But yeah…twas fun, and complicated. And apparently Im a very fast learner. Everyone was impressed at how quickly I picked up what to do (though I dont think it was that bad. I just kinda copied what everyone else and bowed to everything in that room...haha). After the tea ceremony we got some bento lunch boxes and had tons of delicious yummy food and then at the end, the tea sensei brought in presents which she gave away in a raffle-esque type style. I won me some tea powder…other people won tea cups and bowls and stuff.

(P.S. Didnt take those pictures...they're off the internet. This was my first tea ceremony and I didnt know if Id be able to take pictures so I didnt take my camera...it turns out I could...the sensei kept taking pictures of everyone)