The Hands-on Tea Ceremony Class

Date: Saturday, January 25
Venue: Minato City Life-long Learning Center

A total of 37 attendees, including those from the U.S. and Kuwait, learned the traditional “M otenashi” entertaining spirit through experiencing the tea ceremony exercise.

The program proceeded as follows:

1. How to walk, sit, stand up and bow
   The basic manners in tea ceremony can be boiled down to decent and graceful behavior. All attendees were trained in this exercise.
2. How to eat the “Hanabira Mochi,” a typical seasonal sweet to celebrate the New Year in Japan.
3. How to drink weak tea
4. How to fix tea
   Attendees experienced fixing tea by themselves after observing the instructor’s demonstration.

Major comments from the participants’ opinionnaire:

1. To fix “Matcha” green tea by myself was a precious experience. I also enjoyed interaction with foreigner participants.
2. I felt the merit of Japanese culture in the way people express thankfulness.
3. I appreciated the elaborate training in the basic tea serving manners.
4. It was an enlightening and pleasant experience although a bit hard.

Impression of MUA staff:
We very much enjoyed seeing so many attendees experiencing the traditional Japanese culture in an amicable atmosphere.

(Written by HIRAKATA Kazuyo., Vice President, and translated by TANAHASHI Seiichi, the PR & Internet Committee)