sssssssssssslurp!(its okay!)

bobei and I were able to attend a tea ceremony with friends last month. It was a wonderful experience, and helpful as it was in English(a little) and Japanese. It was held at a community center a few towns over. It was in traditional tatami room. We had to kneel, bow and then slide into it. This is proper tea ceremony etiquette. It is a practice from many years ago as you would not step on the lines of the tatami because the Samurai would hide blades in them! Ack! The room we were in was very bare and simple. Rooms for tea ceremony traditionally have a scroll, which you take time to admire, and a flower display, but not ikibana. The host of the tea ceremony explained to us that the flowers used for adorning a mantel for tea ceremony are picked from outside. The ones she used for the day had been picked from her yard-just wild violets and maybe some long clover, but so lovely. The hot water for the matcha was kept in a large iron kettle in a hole in the floor of this room. We were shown how to drink the tea; first tell the person next to you, "I'm sorry to go before you" in Japanese, then place the bowl on your left palm and lift with your right, turn the bowl 2 times, sip completely making noises to show your delight in the taste, turn the bowl 2 more times so the decoration of the pottery is facing you, take moments to study and admire the bowl, place the bowl back in front of you...something like that?!?! We were also given yummy yummy mochi wrapped in leaves(very difficult to eat politely because it stuck to the stick it was on, but oishiiii so!!). As you can see above, bobei loves matcha and so does her friend, Shuya!!! I was really happy to attend the ceremony but I was surprised as we shared introductions after partaking to find out it was my friend's first tea ceremony(she is Japanese) experience and also the first for some very very old Japanese people there! I was so surprised!! I feel so grateful to have so much access to Japanese culture even though it is not my native culture. I really hope to continue to pursue these kinds of experiences with our family and with friends here creating bonds. The truth is I don't know if or when we will leave Japan, but I want to soak up every matcha-filled minute I can.