I believe the last email I sent referred to visiting the Sensoji temple, the Imperial Garden and going to the electronic district. I’ll try to cover what has happened since then.
That night, we took another trip to the electronic district (you can tell we are fascinated by it!). The next day, we attended a tea ceremony in a small garden near one of the director’s house, and ate lunch in a department store. (I cover the food so much because several of you have asked about it!) This time I had a smothered pork dish with noodles. Sauce had mushrooms and noodles had a spoonful of applesauce.... very tasty dish. By the time we got back (tea ceremony was quite a ways away) it was mid afternoon and we were free to do as we wanted, so we checked out Ginza, the shopping area. Got a lot of ideas for when I return! The 200 US teachers on the other FMF program arrived and we visited with them.
Toyko at night...notice how clean it is.
Plastic food outside a restaurant.
Inside the Subway. The ceiling changes every 30 minutes.
Traditional tea ceremony.
All the above are the Tea Garden grounds and area. Very serene.
The original tea ceremony had its origins in the 13th century by Zen Buddhist monks, but Sen no Rikyu is the man given credit for making the ceremony very formal and into a fine art. Humility and poverty were the standards he passed down.
When you enter the tea house, you remove your shoes and walk in on tatami mats. The number of mats indicates the importance the tea ceremony is given in the building. Guests kneel on their knees in silence facing the kama, or tea kettle and the furo, or brazier. The room itself is barren of decoration, except perhaps flowers on the alter or a scroll on the wall behind the brazier. This is to have the guest focus on the event itself.
The host then enters, usually in a formal kimono, with the utensils and arranges them in an artistic and harmonious pattern. The motions of the performer are silent, economical, and precise. The host cleans the chashaku (the bamboo tea spoon), the natsume (the tea caddy), and the tea bowl, showing the guests that they are immaculate. If you are the guest, you then begin to notice that you are concentrating very hard on what is happening and not to the outside distractions of the world. You also notice that your legs are getting tired!
Once the tea is put into the tea bowl, hot water from the teapot is added. Then the chasen, or bamboo whisk, is used to stir and blend the tea into a froth. At this point, the host may also serve a sweet item prior to handing the bowl of tea to the guest, as green tea is very bitter. The bowl is handed to the guest after two precise turns, which should allow the decoration of the bowl to face the guest. Before the guest drinks from the bowl, they are to turn it two precise turns which moves the decoration to the front, facing the host. The guest then drinks all the tea from the cup, returns it to the host, who once again does the same precise movements until all the guests have had a drink, all from the same bowl, which represents a shared event. The entire process takes about 20 minutes to complete, and the guest usually leaves with a tranquil feeling.
Our Chanoyu was not a formal one, since our host did not wear a kimono. Yet, all of the other aspects were followed. Not only is the room tranquil, but so is the garden area that often accompanies the building. As we waited to be served, we strolled through the garden surrounding the building, enjoying the peaceful feeling of the area in the middle of Tokyo. Turtles are good luck charms, and the more and larger they are, the more luck the owner will have.
On Wednesday, we had a quick meeting with Kyoko Jones, who is one of the directors of FMF, about how we were doing, stipend, etc. After that, we took our final trip to the electronic district, and this time I bought a new Sony digital camera that uses a mini-CD, has 3.3 mega pixels, will take 700 pics on a disk or 10 minutes of video, and won’t be in the states for another 6 months - everyone can be jealous! (Even the Japanese in Sapporo are impressed by it!) Our partners came in this afternoon and that evening we had a formal reception where I finally got to meet one of them, AkikoYoshida, better known as Yoshi. She’s in her mid-30`s and teaches English language to her students as well as being the volleyball coach. I was glad to hear that she spoke the language very well and what she gets wrong I can figure out.
Japanese version of New York's Times Square
Traditional music at the reception.
That night, after participating in meetings where Japanese was mainly spoken, Yoshi invited me to meet her brother and sister-in-law for dinner. Her brother works for a British bank in the currency exchange and her sister-in-law is a mid-wife for the Red Cross. Her brother wanted to practice his English! We met them in Ginza, and Yoshi took me to a Japanese Paper Store.... very beautiful stuff! Then we went to a Sabu-Sabu Restaurant. They bring out platters of very thinly sliced beef and some veggies. You heat a pan of water (that contains a few spices) to boiling, then you dip the meat and veggies in the water to cook it...may sound a bit gross but it is very tasty. For dessert, we had a tomato sherbet.... admit that it wasn’t my favorite! Later, we went to a coffee shop and had coffee and cocoa. It was a very pleasant evening and I enjoyed the company immensely. I gave the couple a small box of American chocolates, and you would have thought I’d given them gold. They, in turn, gave me a lovely Japanese fabric fan.
 |
| Ed Jones (far right) explaining Tea Ceremony |
 |
| Melenda Day (in yellow) at entrance to Tea Gardan |
 |
| Yoshi (far right), her brother and sister-in-law |
On Friday, Yoshi and I took the subway and then the monorail to the closest airport in Tokyo to catch a JAL flight to Chitose-Sapporo, about a 1.5 hour flight. We went through the industrial district of Tokyo and I noticed something interesting about the parking. Imagine a box divided in half with 4 rows then imagine this made in metal. They park in the first lower box, then it rises up and a new empty box is available. This continues until all 8 boxes are filled with cars. A very efficient way of using little space yet getting the most out of it!
The flight took about an hour and a half, and when we arrived you could begin to see the mountains. I had heard about the beauty of the island of Hokkaido, but I was not prepared for it. This is a beautiful place! The temperature is running in the mid-70`s during the day with little humidity (yea!) and high 50`s to mid 60`s at night. We took another monorail from the airport to Sapporo station, where we were met by Mrs. Akiko Yamada, another English teacher (Sapporo has several mountains in it...nothing real big but still yet big enough). I was then driven to the Sapporo Guest House, which is HIGH on a hill overlooking the city in the old part of town. It is used to house educators from all over the world who are doing studies in Sapporo. The room itself is about the size of a dorm room, but has a TV and radio. About an hour after arrival, Yoshi picked me up by car and we went to an informal reception at a local hotel for dinner. About 12 of the staff and the vice-principal joined us...some of which did not speak English and some who learned a few words from Mrs. Yamada and Yoshi. They had LOTS of questions to ask about the USA, Oklahoma History, our schools, etc. They all seem anxious to learn, very friendly, and love to laugh. The rest of the staff couldn’t join us but I’ll meet them at a meeting on Monday morning.
Tomorrow (Sat.) Yoshi will pick me up for lunch at the Ramen noodle area of town (they’re made here), then we’re going to watch two of her students do Japanese traditional dancing. Mr. Koda and Mrs. Yamada will pick me up for dinner tomorrow night, then Yoshi wants to take me out to Karaoke...now, that ought to be a laugh! I’ll let you know how it goes!
No comments:
Post a Comment