Time for Tea

First stop of the day was a Japanese tea ceremony. We were in a small group with four other girls from Hong Kong. One of the many features of the tea ceremony is that you kneel for it, but our hostess said it was ok to sit as we were comfortable. Maybe I'm starting to look my age as she asked me if I'd like a little seat!! I declined. The tea ceremony goes back centuries and was originally participated by men only, it was used to discuss business, politics etc. Just 150 years ago women were allowed to participate.

The tea ceremony is marked by four basic principles: Harmony (wa), Respect (kei), Purity (sei), Tranquility (jaku). In the tea ceremony, every movement, every step and every moment is precisely defined and we were encouraged by our host to 'be in the moment' , a sort of mindfulness. Our hostess first made tea for us, and then we each made tea for ourselves. We also had a sweet each to accompany the tea. It's a matcha tea, and admittedly it's flavour is fairly bitter and I'm not a fan, but I didn't want to offend the hostess so drank both bowls and said it was good. The sugary sweet , mochi, balanced out the flavours.

This afternoon we went to Osaka Castle. Again, Osaka Castle featured a lot in the Shogun series, so it was interesting to learn about some of the actual history attached to the Castle. It covered a huge area, although today so many of the outer buildings no longer exist. For a small fee you could try on a war helmet and costume, I tried to persuade Chris but he wasn't keen!! 🤣