31.Aug.06 in Kyoto

Today (Thursday the 31st of August) we met up with the Japanese guy we met in Nikko, named Hiroshi Nose, who lives here in Kyoto. We started the day out by eating cereal and fruit in our room at the semi-swanky Mitsui Garden Hotel and we arranged to have lunch with Hiroshi (who speaks only slightly more English than we speak Japanese) at a soba place near the old Imperial Palace. We then went out to a Japanese tea school/museum called Urasenke, where they had a student there teach us how to perform the simplest Japanese tea ceremony, chado, which required us to carefully clean the tea-making utensils (a bamboo spoon, a ceramic bowl, a bamboo whisk (see video 1 below), an iron kettle, and both a wet and dry cloth. There's a special way you fold the cloths to clean the utensils, and a special way to hold them and everything. You have to fold the dry cloth carefully, wipe the spoon exactly three times (no more, no less), holding the spoon in the right hand and the towel in the left, going in a specific direction. You have to then re-fold the towel and wipe off the bowl, rinse it with hot water, rinse it with the wet cloth, wash off the whisk, etc. It was all very complicated and strict, but the funniest part was that neither Justine nor I could fold the towels properly even after the teacher showed us 3 or 4 times!

Then, after everything is cleaned, you put two scoops of this powered tea into the cup, pour in some hot water, and whisk away. You want to create big bubbles in the tea first, then break them up and make small bubbles (see video 1 below). When it is all done being made, you drink it and then clean everything again! It was actually very fun and super instructive... the teacher/student answered all of our weird/annoying questions like "is there a different ceremony for different kinds of tea" (the answer is yes, but they're all more complicated) and "how long have you been studying here" (3 years!!) and "why do you have to line everything up in the center of the plate at the end?" (because it makes the tea table look nice). Other people in the museum came over to watch us make tea, and if anyone ever visits Kyoto, they simply MUST come here to make tea. It really was that good, and it was only 400 yen per person, which is about $3.50, and it comes with a snack and tea!


First up is a video of Justine whisking her Japanese Matcha tea.


Next, a video of us grinding tea leaves to make the powder for the ceremony. In the video, you'll catch a glimpse of Hiroshi (older dude with a beard) and of the student who taught us (wearing the Kimono).



Now... about Hiroshi. To remind you, we met Hiroshi when we were in Nikko at the Toshogu shrine, which is the shrine and burial site of the Tokugawa Ieyasu (the guy that unified Japan). He was chatty, even though he didn't know much English, but gave us his number in Kyoto and said to call him when we arrived. Which we did. We were looking forward to seeing him and having a contact in Kyoto, and he took us out for a very nice lunch (which he insisted he pay for), then drove us over to the palace here in Kyoto. J and I wanted to make reservations to see the palace gardens, and I guess Hiroshi thought he was going to spend the rest of the day with us, too, perhaps not realizing that the tours would take place another day. Instead, he took us to his house, which was full of weird Americana stuff (like Pepsi and Levis ads). Let's just say that I'm glad we didn't end up as part of his collection (and we refused to drink his Kool-aid)! I'm making it out to be worse than it really was. Although it was a bit weird and uncomfortable (because we didn't know what to expect), he was very genuine and generous. Hiroshi then took us to a very nice Zen garden near his house (see a video here), and since we brought him something from Takayama (a hoba miso set), the next day, he insisted we meet with him to receive a gift from him, which was 2 very cool Japanese fans and some friendship charms.

Well, until next time, BHT readers, this is Mike and Justine signing off, in sight of Mt. Fuji!