During the afternoon at the Tokyo National Museum, I had the chance to participate in a Japanese tea ceremony. Although I had been a part of a few tea ceremonies in the past, this was my first time to have every step thoroughly explained along with a brief history of the tea ceremony tradition. The museum garden has five tea houses and we got to enter the oldest and largest. The Okyo house was built in 1742 and donated to the museum in 1933. It is a typical Japanese tea house made from wood, paper and straw.
To begin, we took of our shoes, entered the very old and beautiful tea house and sat around the room. Most people sat indian style or on their knees but I sat on a tiny stool since they warned us that we would be sitting for an hour. We had a short introduction and then our traditional Japanese sweets were delivered to us. At this point we were given a written sheet of instructions on how to complete the tea ceremony, which I've shared below:
"When the sweet is delivered to each person, do not take it until the volunteer asks you to do so. You take up the sweet goethe with the paper underneath and put it on your left palm. Then, cut the sweet into two or four pieces by the wooden stick provided and pierce one sweet with the stick and convey it to your mouth. The stick is the scent wood and can be used as cutter and fork. You can take it with you.
When tea bowl is delivered to you, you bow to the carrier. Take the bowl by right hand and put it on your left palm. Then turn the bowl two times clockwise and start drinking tea in three sips. The reason why you turn two times clockwise is that when the tea bowl is delivered to you, the front part of the bowl is facing to you. As the front part of the bowl is sacred, you turn the bowl avoiding to drink from the front part. This shows your humility.
We hope you are enjoying this atmosphere surrounded by nature, isolated from the no noise of urban civilization. This stillness and nature will be important ingredients to enjoy the good taste of Japanese tea. How was the taste? The sweetness of the cake will be neutralized by the slight bitterness of the tea. We believe you could enjoy the harmony."
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