Tea and Washi, two Traditional Japanese Arts

My Second Tea Ceremony, and Washi-Paper Making with Rasuta, the Jamaican baby

So here's the last of my three-part blog catch up here (I'm rushing to finish these before I go back to the U.S. for a split second tomorrow and the next day to see my mom graduate, and then returning to Japan to class next week). I'll go over our field trip to experience Tea Ceremony in Tsuru and then my excursion to Nana's hometown of Minobu where I got to make Japanese paper.

Tea Ceremony, this time without Yuzawa-san

My first experience ever with Tea Ceremony in Japan was with Yuzawa-san, a kind older lady who took me and Stephanie under her wing last semester at ICU (there's a previous entry about it). But this time we were taken to experience Tea Ceremony in Tsuru at a local town recreational center, where a local older women's tea ceremony club performed/taught us the tea ceremony process and we served as customers for their tea ceremony. (Why is it that I have only experienced this custom with older women in Japan...never with younger women, though I know ICU and Tsuru University both had tea ceremony clubs...)

First let's talk about seiza. Seiza is that kneeling position you always see Japanese people sitting in, and that foreigners can rarely do for more than a minute. It involves sitting directly on your shins, and it hurts. Lately in modern days a lot of younger Japanese people also have a hard time with it, but in traditional Japanese culture it was something you just got used to growing up in Japan. Tea Ceremony requires you to sit in seiza the entire time (but luckily these older women were understanding and said that if it hurt too much to stop and take breaks). I was surprised; thanks to training with my Japanese friends over the past year and at the koto club lately (oh yeah...btw, I joined two clubs here in the last week. The Koto Club; I'm learning how to play the Japanese Koto (its what Stephanie played at the ICU School Festival last semester) and the Badminton Circle (though I've only gone to it once so far. And my badminton partner Yuuhei was really hot, I mean really hot. And I got paired with him randomly twice. yay. sorry, this tangent is over now...)) I was able to do seiza straight for almost 10 minutes. Then I had to take breaks but I was relatively alright the whole time. The girls all were relatively okay. The guys were another story...they couldn't do it. Steven almost fell over trying to get up at the end. Poor guys.

We were shown the proper way to sit, to receive the tea, to eat the snacks, to bow (all the way to the ground), to drink the tea, to admire the pottery, everything. The tea was so unbelievably bitter, but so unbelievably fresh. It was delicious but so bitter that I almost couldn't drink it all. Then at the end the older women let us try mixing and making the tea on our own, but what we didn't know is that we'd have to drink another cup of tea afterwards. Poor Krystle couldn't drink the second cup; I had to gulp mine down.

We left soon after taking pictures with all the older women in the traditional tatami room and after thanking them for their time. We ended the day with a curry party for Ayumi's (Krystle's Japanese tutor) birthday, and then ended up doing a fashion show of Japanese styles (for the study abroad students) and American styles (for the Japanese tutors). This has nothing to do with Tea Ceremony but I don't want to write a separate entry about it, I'm too lazy and I just realized I forgot about it until now so its going right here; but we all basically became our Japanese-fashion alter-ego's thanks to Kiyoko's tutor Guchi, and the tutors all became their sexy American counterparts thanks to Kiyoko's wardrobe and her skills with makeup (seriously, Kiyoko is unbelievably good at it). Leave it to Guchi and Kiyoko to give us a fashion show.

Washi with Rasuta

So who's Rasuta? The Jamaican baby? Of course he's not actually Jamaican, he's Japanese. But his name, Rasuta, comes from a Jamaican Reggae singer that Nana's sister Shiori likes. He's a year and three months old and is louder than any baby I've ever met, but has the most adorable laugh you've ever seen and made me miss him as soon as I came back to Tsuru.

I went to my Japanese tutor, Nana's, hometown of Minobu with her for two days over Golden Week. Golden Week is a week-long holiday break in May that most Japanese get off of work and school and spend on vacations and trips. I spent two days of mine with Nana in Minobu, about two hours from Tsuru, but still in Yamanashi Prefecture. It was still the countryside, but way more beautiful than Tsuru. Its surrounded by a river and has this beautiful lush green mountain range surrounding it, and is close to the Japanese Southern Alps Mountain Range. Me and Nana took the train from Tsuru to Minobu and were picked up by her mom, probably one of the most cheerful people I've ever met. And the most generous. She was one of your typical, worrys-a-bit-too-much moms who's always sweet and knows just what to say in any situation. She works in a factory for Fuji-Q-Highland souvenirs (a nearby amusement park) and made sure I went back to Tsuru with a box of Fuji-Q-Highland snacks and water bottles, as well as food and tea for my empty refrigerator as she was sure I wasn't eating enough.

Nana's mom lives with Nana's oldest sister, Maki, who's a hairdresser, in a nice, wide, open apartment in Minobu. Nana's sister, Shiori (same age as me) just recently got married and had a son, Rasuta, and her and her husband moved into a different apartment in the same apartment complex as Nana's mom and Maki, so Rasuta and Shiori are always over at Nana's mom's apartment, and Nana's mom helps Shiori raise Rasuta. I never got to meet Shiori's husband but as soon as I entered the apartment there was Rasuta, standing at the entrance. He was scared of me a bit at first, but as soon as he recognized his aunt Nana and noticed me laughing, he calmed down and before long he was chasing after me around the house laughing just as he was with everyone else in the family. Ah he was so adorable! He was really very loud, and energetic for a one-year-old, but so adorable that it didn't matter that he woke me and Nana up the next morning by jumping on us and crying.

We spent the first day there with Nana's high school friends, Chi-chan, Ayana, and Chiba-san, who took me to Minobu-san, a famous temple in the area that's known as a famous Buddhist priest training temple. We attempted to climb the steep staircase but gave up after the first set (we're all out of shape) and took instead one of the two alternative paths. One of them is called Otokozakura (the men's path) and one of them Onnazakura (the women's path). We took the Men's path upward (a bit shorter than the women's path) and saw the newly restored Minobu-san temple and pagoda. One of the Buddha's bones is said to be stored in the White Hall behind the Temple, and its so beautiful that I don't doubt that its true. We prayed at the temple (I prayed for health....aka not to get the Swine Flu while I go back to the U.S. this weekend for mom's graduation and get stuck at Narita Airport coming back into Japan next week) and I bought a fortune before we left by the Women's path and did what all girls do when they're having a reunion; went shopping.

After ice cream and mall shopping and purikura photos (photo booth photos in Japan, look it up on Wikipedia), we had kaitenzushi (Sushi that comes around on small trays on an automatic conveyor belt and you just pick it up) and more desert before heading back to the apartment. I got to meet Maki then, and she showed me a Japanese magazine featuring Nicole Richie (Maki loves Nicole Richie). That started us going and for another two or three hours into the night we talked about American pop culture, my study abroad experience, and Maki and Nana's mom's lives. After talking about Johnny Depp, Shiori promised to bring over Rasuta's baby Pirates of the Carribean costume the next morning, and sure enough we woke up the next day to Rasuta with dreadlocks and a pirate hat.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Nana's entire family LOVES Disney. I'm not joking; Nana's mom's apartment was COVERED with Disney memoribilia; everything was Disney. The plates, the bathroom towels, the blankets, the tv stand, etc. Now I know where Nana gets her love of Disney. But it was just so cute how much the mom loved Disney. I told them all to come to CA so we could go to Disneyland together. I hope that happens someday, or that I at least get to see them again someday.

The second day Nana's mom and family took me to a Japanese paper (called Washi) making place nearby where you can make your own Japanese paper. I made a paper lantern out of Washi, and tried to decorate it only to fail horribly with my artistic skills (where did Mom's artistic gene go when she had me?) But at least its cute. Nana's mom paid for everything, including lunch, and then after hearing about my mom's graduation, she bought my mom something at the Washi Place as a congratulatory gift. She kept giving me things all weekend, and my powers of refusal were nothing compared to her powers of generosity. So I came back to Tsuru loaded with stuff. Once again I lose to Japanese hospitality, and I'm left feeling grateful and guilty.

After saying a sad goodbye to Rasuta and Shiori, Nana's mom and Maki drove me and Nana all the way back to Tsuru through INSANE Golden Week traveling traffic, and what is usually an hour drive took four hours by car (I hope they got back okay....). They dropped me off at my apartment and told me to look after myself and come back again. Truly some of the nicest people I've ever met; as soon as I closed the door of my apartment on them I missed them, and especially Rasuta. Japan is making me realize how much I love kids, and I've been considering lately why I want to be a college professor when I could so easily be an elementary school teacher or something...

Okay, so that's it for my catch-up blogs; I'm sure I've skipped over stuff but that's to be expected. Tomorrow I go to the U.S. for a few days before flying back and trying to catch back up on class as well as returning to volunteering at IkiIki Plaza (which I do now every Friday) and Koto Club and Badminton Club, as well as volunteering at the Elementary School teaching English every Wednesday. So wish me luck with all my busy schedules! Oh, and its also been decided that I'll be taking a short three day trip to Seoul, Korea at the end of May with the other girls here (minus Betsy). Look forward to those entries!

---

---