Ichi go Ichi e
Apr. 28th, 2004 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isaOne moment, one opportunity. In other words, plucking the flower.
So I got to go to Japan House, which I'm completely hanging over the heads of everyone here. Chalk it up to being a James Scholar and not having classes on a Wednesday afternoon. So yes, I was somewhere cool for once. So let us commence with the exposition.
Took the bus from Wright/Armory down to PAR/FAR and then walked for about five or ten more minutes to get to the Arboretum. So, yes, it was far, far, out of the way of any place that I've been on campus before. Like it's barely on the map of the university. It's very peaceful, and definitely I want to go back and take a walk in the arboretum, just because it's about as close to natural and peaceful that I'm gonna get in good ol' Shampoo Banana. If I have to stay down here after my finals are done, I'm so going back there. Alone. With friends. It doesn't matter. Hmm... it's a good place for a picnic.
Japan house has very old-school Japanese traditional feel, even though it's very modern (built in '97 which makes it a young little university building). There are two gardens. A tea garden, which has various plants and statues, and then a little dry garden, which is mostly these white rocks. We were warned ahead of time that we would be expected to take our shoes off, and sure enough, yep we did. They had little cubby holes to put shoes in, and a bin of (hopefully) clean socks that people could put on if they weren't wearing socks of their own. There were some slippers there as well.
The guide leads us through into the main room, and shows us a video tour of the place because there's 27 of us total and thus we can't actually get a good view of everything in person. Anyway we learn about the whole history behind Japan house, and a bit about the ceremony itself and that there's about 800 ways of serving tea total, and people are lucky if they can do 2 or 3 well. The guide then shows us some of the instruments used in the tea ceremony: A ceramic jar of cold water. (The hot water kettle is already in the room) A spoon, a whisk, the jar of tea, and the bowls.
Anyway, the people doing the tea ceremony, an older woman and a younger one both dressed in traditional kimono are very practiced. Both started in high school and know at least 50 forms of the Tea Ceremony.
It's very elaborate and very formal. First, the hostess brought out the jar of cold water, followed by the tea, and then the spoon, the whisk, and the ladle and a jar for the used water. A sweet, which is eaten right before the tea is served along with a folded piece of paper are passed around.The hostess starts by wiping the already clean utensils with a folded cloth that she keeps in her obi. With each object, she refolds the cloth so that a clean side is always touching the object. Then she puts water in the bowl and dips the bamboo whisk in it several times, and each time examines the whisk to make sure that none of the tines are broken.
Afterwards, she starts making the tea. The powdered tea leaves in the jar is placed in there to look like a mountain, and the tea has to be scooped out so that it looks like a valley. And supposedly the guest of honor can check this. Hot water is then ladled into a bowl (a.k.a. Teacup, but it looks like a bowl) and the tea is measured in and then whisked together with the water to make a froth. The hostess then serves the guests, the guest of honor first and then down the line. Somewhere before this, the guests are told that they can eat their sweet, which tastes... dunno like a weird version of the biscuit part of the pocky. It's like a fortune cookie though not as sweet.
Getting back to the subject...
Anyway, the hostess presents the tea to the guest, and they both bow to each other. The guest then sets their bowl to the left and bows to the person next to be served as an apology for taking the first drink. The person bows back as sort of a way to say that it's okay. The guest then takes the bowl in a special way, left hand under with the right hand on the side (I think) and drinks their tea. The tea is not like the tea that we're used to here. 'Tis much stronger and frothy. There's sort of a fishy taste to it kind of, but it's subtle and not bad.
The tea ceremony is silent. No one except for the guest of honor is allowed to talk, and even this is to only ask about the tea and it's all very tea related.
No, it's not really a place to let loose and have fun. It's very ritualized, very symbolic, and very peaceful. The whole ideal of the tea ceremony is one of tranquility. All the cleansing at the beginning symbolizes the hostess cleansing themselves psychologically and leaving their troubles at the door. The guests too, would normally be asked to wash their hands at an outside fountain. Everything is about going into the ceremony cleansed and just leaving the outside world behind.
Wa (Harmony) Kei (Respect) Sei Purirty Jaku Tranquility. Those are the four basic principles of tea.
And away from that lovely little essay....
My philosophy on protesting, and how to really get my respect. Don't do it on a day like today. It's nice, it's warm, and of course if you're gonna go outside and have a strike, you might as well have a picnic. What I want to see in my strikers is some dedication. I want to see them there in the worst of weather holding their picket signs in the air and generally suffering for their cause.
Also, don't use bongo drums. Especially when taking a quiz. So guess what happened in psych today? Hmm...
And what's weird is that today on my way to FAR/PAR, I ran into someone who recognized me from Smith. Like my old elementary school Smith. Apparently, I was in her class or something, though I don't know who she was specificly. So now I have someone whom I've known in first grade, someone I've known from Aurora, and those random people from that one place I went to high-school. That's weird.
So other than the obscene amounts of meetings I've had today (2), nothing else interesting happened.
Over and out.
So I got to go to Japan House, which I'm completely hanging over the heads of everyone here. Chalk it up to being a James Scholar and not having classes on a Wednesday afternoon. So yes, I was somewhere cool for once. So let us commence with the exposition.
Took the bus from Wright/Armory down to PAR/FAR and then walked for about five or ten more minutes to get to the Arboretum. So, yes, it was far, far, out of the way of any place that I've been on campus before. Like it's barely on the map of the university. It's very peaceful, and definitely I want to go back and take a walk in the arboretum, just because it's about as close to natural and peaceful that I'm gonna get in good ol' Shampoo Banana. If I have to stay down here after my finals are done, I'm so going back there. Alone. With friends. It doesn't matter. Hmm... it's a good place for a picnic.
Japan house has very old-school Japanese traditional feel, even though it's very modern (built in '97 which makes it a young little university building). There are two gardens. A tea garden, which has various plants and statues, and then a little dry garden, which is mostly these white rocks. We were warned ahead of time that we would be expected to take our shoes off, and sure enough, yep we did. They had little cubby holes to put shoes in, and a bin of (hopefully) clean socks that people could put on if they weren't wearing socks of their own. There were some slippers there as well.
The guide leads us through into the main room, and shows us a video tour of the place because there's 27 of us total and thus we can't actually get a good view of everything in person. Anyway we learn about the whole history behind Japan house, and a bit about the ceremony itself and that there's about 800 ways of serving tea total, and people are lucky if they can do 2 or 3 well. The guide then shows us some of the instruments used in the tea ceremony: A ceramic jar of cold water. (The hot water kettle is already in the room) A spoon, a whisk, the jar of tea, and the bowls.
Anyway, the people doing the tea ceremony, an older woman and a younger one both dressed in traditional kimono are very practiced. Both started in high school and know at least 50 forms of the Tea Ceremony.
It's very elaborate and very formal. First, the hostess brought out the jar of cold water, followed by the tea, and then the spoon, the whisk, and the ladle and a jar for the used water. A sweet, which is eaten right before the tea is served along with a folded piece of paper are passed around.The hostess starts by wiping the already clean utensils with a folded cloth that she keeps in her obi. With each object, she refolds the cloth so that a clean side is always touching the object. Then she puts water in the bowl and dips the bamboo whisk in it several times, and each time examines the whisk to make sure that none of the tines are broken.
Afterwards, she starts making the tea. The powdered tea leaves in the jar is placed in there to look like a mountain, and the tea has to be scooped out so that it looks like a valley. And supposedly the guest of honor can check this. Hot water is then ladled into a bowl (a.k.a. Teacup, but it looks like a bowl) and the tea is measured in and then whisked together with the water to make a froth. The hostess then serves the guests, the guest of honor first and then down the line. Somewhere before this, the guests are told that they can eat their sweet, which tastes... dunno like a weird version of the biscuit part of the pocky. It's like a fortune cookie though not as sweet.
Getting back to the subject...
Anyway, the hostess presents the tea to the guest, and they both bow to each other. The guest then sets their bowl to the left and bows to the person next to be served as an apology for taking the first drink. The person bows back as sort of a way to say that it's okay. The guest then takes the bowl in a special way, left hand under with the right hand on the side (I think) and drinks their tea. The tea is not like the tea that we're used to here. 'Tis much stronger and frothy. There's sort of a fishy taste to it kind of, but it's subtle and not bad.
The tea ceremony is silent. No one except for the guest of honor is allowed to talk, and even this is to only ask about the tea and it's all very tea related.
No, it's not really a place to let loose and have fun. It's very ritualized, very symbolic, and very peaceful. The whole ideal of the tea ceremony is one of tranquility. All the cleansing at the beginning symbolizes the hostess cleansing themselves psychologically and leaving their troubles at the door. The guests too, would normally be asked to wash their hands at an outside fountain. Everything is about going into the ceremony cleansed and just leaving the outside world behind.
Wa (Harmony) Kei (Respect) Sei Purirty Jaku Tranquility. Those are the four basic principles of tea.
And away from that lovely little essay....
My philosophy on protesting, and how to really get my respect. Don't do it on a day like today. It's nice, it's warm, and of course if you're gonna go outside and have a strike, you might as well have a picnic. What I want to see in my strikers is some dedication. I want to see them there in the worst of weather holding their picket signs in the air and generally suffering for their cause.
Also, don't use bongo drums. Especially when taking a quiz. So guess what happened in psych today? Hmm...
And what's weird is that today on my way to FAR/PAR, I ran into someone who recognized me from Smith. Like my old elementary school Smith. Apparently, I was in her class or something, though I don't know who she was specificly. So now I have someone whom I've known in first grade, someone I've known from Aurora, and those random people from that one place I went to high-school. That's weird.
So other than the obscene amounts of meetings I've had today (2), nothing else interesting happened.
Over and out.
