Tea Ceremony and Tempura

One Older Woman's Kindness

So this will be a short one and my third and last one to put up today...but just after the ICU Festival we had a holiday (mainly so that they could clean up the campus before classes started again) and so me and Steph spent our holiday in an interesting way; and I thought it might be interesting to let you all know about it...

So a few weeks ago (I believe I wrote about it in one of my blog entires actually...) there was a Moon-Viewing party held by a local international club in honor of the international students at ICU, and so me and Steph went, but ended up getting lost and showed up an hour late. Well anyways, when we showed up late; this older woman came up to us and helped us get settled, found us some seats and some food and told us what we'd missed, etc. It turned out her name was Yuzawa (last name) Etsuko (first name) and she was part of a Tea Ceremony club that had come to the Moon-Viewing party to serve tea and to teach some of the international students about Japanese Tea Ceremony. She let us attempt to make our own tea and taught us the rules of a drinking Japanese tea; and sat and talked with us for quite a while, despite the fact that she spoke NO english and our Japanese is quite limited. About halfway through the conversation she mentioned that her house was an old-fashioned Japanese style tatami-mat house, which are kind of rare in Tokyo these days, and she invited us to come and see her house some time and we exchanged phone numbers.

Well, being the rude, ignorant 20 year old that I am, I never called her. I know, I'm horrible. It was one of those situations in which I wasn't sure if she'd actually meant it or not; though I don't really know why, obviously she was sincere and gave us her information. I think I was more just nervous about it and my formal Japanese language ability is pretty rudimentary. But after a few weeks of having not ever called her, she actually called me and re-issued her invitation to come and see her house sometime. So I nervously managed to say yes formally and set up a plan for me and Stephanie to come to her house on the holiday after the festival.

So now we come back to the 3rd where we met Yuzawa-san at the train station and followed her on a short walk to her home, which truly was amazing. It was built in the 1920's/1930's and was a full-fledged Japanese traditional style home with tatami-mat rooms; a bonsai garden with a koi pond, and a separate bathhouse. Unfortunately my camera decided to have some slight malfunctions right then so I didn't get many pictures. I was quite bitter about that.

So after we exchanged the gifts we'd brought with us, as per tradition, she made us tea and told us she had planned for us to visit her neighbor, who was the Tea Ceremony teacher, and to observe an actual tea ceremony. But in order to do so we had to wear kimono, so she dressed us in her own kimono and helped us get ready, then took us over there to be served tea as official guests in the Tea Ceremony.

And let me tell you; me and Stephanie were horrible guests. We basically broke every rule there was; without knowing it. There are so many rules to follow; like finishing your snack before taking the first sip of tea; or turning the teacup twice clockwise before taking a drink; or slurping on the last sip to show your appreciation; or touching the bottom of the cup to show your admiration for the artist who created it, etc. We kept messing up. But Yuzawa-san was right next to us the whole time showing us what to do and the other older women there were really kind and sweet. It was something that you'd usually never get to see as a foreigner; and I was really honored that they went through all of that trouble for us.

Not only that, but after coming back to the house and changing, Yuzawa-san cooked us an entire Tempura spread meal for lunch that was absolutely amazing. Her granddaughter; a first year in high school, came over and had lunch with us as well; and then we all went to the nearby park to visit the shrine. Afterward walking around the park and shrine for a while, we had coffee and juice at a cafe, which Yuzawa-san paid for, and were led to a small snack shop in the northern part of town that's famous for its cookies; and Yuzawa-san bought us each a bag of cookies to bring home with us before parting with us at the train station.

She was truly one of the nicest people I've met here and was so sweet to go so much out of her way for us; though she said that it was fun for her; since she lives in her home all by herself now. Her husband passed away a few years ago; and while her grandchildren used to visit her all the time; they don't have as much time anymore because they're in high school preparing for exams. Her granddaughter was amazingly sweet as well and was genuinely interested in all of our stories and helped us correct our bad Japanese.

I really wish I could meet with her again but I don't think I'll have time before I leave for the States again in two and a half weeks. I'll most likely send her a thank you letter and gift of some sort but I still feel like I wish I could do more for her. In any case it was an amazing day and she was truly very kind, and I'm so happy she decided to call me even when I didn't call her in the first place. I really can be very dense sometimes....

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