This vacation mainly involves three levels of sightseeing: (1) on our own, (2) private guide, and (3) group tours. Very few of our vacations, just in terms of how they've panned out, have involved group tours, and even those were only groups of 6 or 8 people, total. They have usually consisted of a driver, a guide, and like 2 couples besides us, traveling around in a spacious, air conditioned van.
The group tours here, though, are different. They are on buses and consist of about 40 people of various nationalities and ages running behind a guide - through shrines, around palace grounds, etc. At each stop we have less than an hour to see the sites, ask questions, clamber over each other and around multitudes of other visitors to take pictures, and to sprint around trying to buy souvenirs before the bus leaves. While I appreciate the opportunity to see many different things in a short amount of time, let's just say the group tours are not my favorite.
But.
While our morning consisted of "fun, quickly and efficiently," our afternoon involved a private tea ceremony in a local Kyoto house. It was just us, a private guide, and a very generous local woman who opens her house to select visitors and teaches traditional tea etiquette. It was fascinating.
Tea, in all of its global forms, originates from China. Even the famous green tea trees in Japan were brought, via seeds and seedlings, from China centuries ago. Eight hundred years ago, a Japanese man (there's no possible way I can remember his name and I'm too tired to look it up, sorry) formalized the Japanese tea ceremony. This formalization set the standard, literally, for the entire procedure as it is practiced today, from the tea preparation, to the exact placement of all utensils, to the script performed by the host/ess and guest(s). Japan has held on tenaciously to these practices, so much so that Chinese scholars now - in a twist of irony - visit Japan in order to learn traditional tea etiquette.
The host/ess enters the room, always right foot front, and exits always left foot front. The first part of the ceremony is a sweet treat, distributed to the guests who hold them until the host/ess, later in the ceremony, issues the invitation to partake of them. Our sweet treat was a light bread pastry filled with sweet bean jelly/paste.
The host/ess then purifies herself (her spirit) and the tea utensils. The guests generally do not talk during the tea ceremony, as each stage is part of the experience, including watching the host/ess, smelling the tea, listening to the water pour from the kettle, and listening to the stirring. Up until the end of the Edo period, tea was conducted by and reserved for men of high status. It was very popular even with Samurai warriors. However, after the Edo period, tea ceremonies were absorbed by women, who mainly (but not exclusively) conduct them now.
Formal teas are served only in special tea rooms (like this one) that are only big enough for four tatami mats. There is no artificial light. Traditional Japanese green tea is a powder that is ground from baby green tea leaves. The leaves are hand picked from trees, then they are placed into pots for six months. Unlike today's Chinese tea (and most other global teas), Japanese green tea is not fermented. It is ground. Therefore, when we drink it, we ingest the actual plant, which is full of nutrients and vitamins.
Every step of the ceremony, as I mentioned earlier, is scripted. This includes what the host/ess says to the honored guest (in this case, because of our seating arrangement, me), what the guest then says to neighboring guests at the table and then to the host/ess, as well as the proper way to bow, the proper way to hold the cup, twist it, drink from it, signal that you are finished drinking from it, then admiring its design before putting it back on the floor.
The ceremony lasted about two and a half hours and has been one of the highlights of the trip. It was incredibly intimate, served in someone's home, and the people are so hospitable. And it didn't involve fish.
What a cool experience! (And by the way, I felt for Greg with the 11-course meal, eels and all. My stomach started roiling just reading about it).
ReplyDeleteWhenever we end up on a tour bus, inevitably there are one or two people whom James develops an intense loathing for and he can hardly focus on anything else. It's a fascinating process.