Saturday Shenanigans:

A rather pleasant morning spent hanging out with Yumi and Mai once again (we are now quite the alternative nuclear family - mummy, baby, and grown English baby no.2).First stop was to see a tea ceremony which a friend of Yumi`s had very kindly asked me if I wanted to see.

Tea ceremony

Feeling like the great white foreigner that I unfortunately am here, we all squeezed into Miho`s tiny shop, where I sat and watched as she took me through the tea-making proceeds.A cultural must-see, the tea ceremony is steeped in historical and social symbolism, with each piece and action (often literally) making a respectful nod to some ancient tradition.Part of her shop was sectioned off into tatami matting, and again cut off with a folded divider, the walls decorated with various zen calligraphy signs.Miho, dressed in a beautiful and intricate tiny kimono, into which were tucked all of the requirements for the ceremony which she might need throughout (paper cloths, delicate fan), knelt in front of a beautiful cast iron tea cauldron. One by one she wiped and cleaned all of the tea-makng implements, the mug, the tea whisk, and the laquered tea holder, as well as the bamboo stick tea spoon.Folding and refolding a red silk napkin she held every time she wiped/cleaned, this took some time.

Presenting me with three tiny sweets of different shapes - buddhas, fish - to counteract the bitterness of the tea, she then set about preparing the tea itself.Placing a few spoonfuls of the bright green powdered Japanese tea into the teacup, she poured boiling water from the tea cauldron in, and then careful whisked the mixture until it foamed and frothed.She then presented the frothing tea to me.I was actually surprised to find that I enjoyed the bitterness of the tea, as it wasn`t unpleasant at all (I had been forewarned that not only could the tea ceremony be long and painstaking, but that the end resulting tea could sometimes be absolutely foul).There are, however, apparently two types of tea, the type that I drank, and a thicker, more bitter mixture. Which doesn`t sound so great!

Several cups of tea later (including one for baby Mai who I was amazed to see slurped the bitter mixture up, convincing me even more than I am already that the Japanese children have completely different taste preferences to that of British children), Miho then went through the entire cleansing process again, carefully wiping down each implement and replacing it in the correct position once again.

Talking to Miho about why she decided to learn how to become a Tea Master was interesting.She had visited the states for a year to work on improving her English (she also speaks good Spanish, which was a surprise to say the least!), and had realized that she knew very little about Japanese culture, so upon her return she had decided to learn how to complete the tea ceremony. It really is beautiful, and I would love to learn a little more about the historical and cultural influences behind the whole ceremony.One of many sources of fascination for me here in Japan!

Matsuri Festival in Oshiage

Following the tea ceremony, Yumi, Mai and I continued on our potter through the streets of Oshiage, where a weekend festival celebrating local gods was starting to get underway.I really am lucky in the time that I have landed in this city, as I seem to have stumbled on quite a few typical Japanese sights! So we meandered through the streets, stopping to see drums, and to ring the bell and post a quick wish at the temple wishing well.I also had a chance to see a fair few festival stalls, similar to going to a fair in England, where children were busily fishing for goldfish, buying ice sweets, cotton candy and quite a few things which you couldn`t pay me to eat…as it was we finally managed to try tako yaki (fried octopus patties) which served as my lunch!

Visual Folklore - visual ethnography

Having completely lost track of time as we had our lovely potter, I then had to race across the city for a meeting I had set up with Miura, a friend of a friend (an Australian/Japanese bi-lingual professor at the University of Japan) who has an incredible film production company called Visual Folklore.The company produces visual ethnographies - anthropological studies of other cultures/traditions/people all depicted on film, rather than the written ethnographies I used to read at University.Miura`s mission is to come to a further understanding of Japan and its history and culture, via a study of the other countries across the whole of Asia, including India, Nepal, China, Korea, Borneo and the Phillippines.I spent a happy couple of hours chatting to Miura about her work, over (more!) Japanese tea and cinnamon biscuits, sitting in the company`s studio, amongst the thousands of ethnographic books and films.A lifetime`s worth of fascination which I could only scratch the surface of during my quick visit.But extremely thought-provoking!

Food Fiend*

lTako Yaki - deep fried balls filled with octopus.Not as nice as I expected it to be as rather chewy….!