Tea Time

I was at a tea ceremony on sunday. I have to say it was a fantastic experience, if you don't count the fact that I had to eat three small japanese cakes that day. I don't like cakes that much, not even western cakes.

I got invited to join the ceremony when I was at the shodo lesson. The ceremony was held in a tea house near Kichijoji. Though the whole happening was quite formal, the atmosphere was more relaxed during the ceremonies than what I expected. And everyone seemed to be happy that an alien wanted to learn this way about Japanese culture.

Every detail in the ceremony was well planned and had a story in it: cakes, dishes, flowers, calligraphies - all. Here's a picture of the first cake, which was reasonably easy to swallow, two that followed this one in other ceremonies were tough ones. The obento box they served for lunch was excellent. Hah hah, this sounds like went there to eat. I might go to another tea ceremony, if I have a chance - I just have to come up with a trick to make the cakes dissapear with out me eating them.