We went to a tea ceremony gathering at a facility in Sengen Taisya in Fujinomiya City in Shizuoka. One of my friends has been doing tea ceremony for many years and she invited us to join this gathering. We tried three different kinds of tea ceremonies. Usucha which is most common, Koicha which is more formal and not as common as Usucha, . Usucha is relatively thin and Koicha is much creamier and thicker. For Koicha, higher grade tea is used and a bowl of tea is shared by a few guests. After drinking one must wipe the part where the mouth touched. It must be easier for beginners to start with Usucha. I personally like Koicha, though. I tried Chabako for the first time. Since this style is practiced on traveling, all of the utensils are compact but the type of tea is the same as Usucha.

We enjoyed many beautiful and probably very expensive things. Since we hold the cups to drink from and admire, we are not supposed to wear any rings or heavy jewelry at tea ceremonies to avoid scratching the utensils. Each room has a different scroll, flower arrangement and incense holder. Each item displays messages to guests from the host. I particularly enjoyed viewing the flower arrangement. Seasonal wild flowers were displayed. I heard some people feel like adding sugar to their green tea but I think the confectionery served before tea achieves a good balance. Different types of confectionery are served for each tea. For some, it was the first experience but they tried three different kinds at one occasion. We learned a lot and had fun in one day.

Our trip in Aomori was exciting – indeed rather too exciting for us.

We had a  lot of very unusual experience in Aoni hot spring. The first day We stayed in a place where only oil lamps are available. It was interesting but not easy.

We realized how much we always depend on electricity. The place is surrounded by nature. I was amazed to see the sky at night. I have never seen so many stars in my life. I was even scared by the stars. I felt like they were all going to fall on me ! It’s not an exaggeration.

The following day we went to the town. The city is called Kuroishi city.

That city has an old arcade called “ Komise “. It was made around 300 years ago . In winter, this area has a lot of snow so this kind of arcade has been quite useful. This area still has old buildings such as a sake brewery.

As we took a walk we found a nice old house. The entrance wasn’t wide but inside is very spacious. This house used to be a shop for the lord of this area ( Kuroishi Han )and was dealing with rice, bean paste, soy sauce and salt.

This building is designated as an important cultural property.

The owner of this property is a very knowledgeable, friendly and interesting person. She told us many interesting stories. Over a cup of coffee we talked about many things.

One of the interesting stories is about this “ Korori Jizou “

This Jizou or deity is said to help people pass away without suffering for a long time. This Japanese word, “ korori “ is a kind of onomatopoeia used often for describing someone’s sudden death without suffering in pain for a long time.

Everyone must die someday (in the future) and I guess everyone wishes to pass away without suffering, without causing trouble for one’s family.

The owner’s husband passed away many years ago. Since he had been healthy and nobody expected him to pass away so soon, when her husband passed away, she was very sad. However she thinks it was lucky for everyone.  She thinks this deity helped him to pass away in that manner.

In Aomori, to my surprise, almost all of the people have a spiritual counselor called “ kamisama”. This word literally means “ god “ in English but it’s not equivalent. Anyway the person called “ kamisama” looks the same as anyone else, I mean they don’t wear any special clothes or carry special spiritual

gear. But they can communicate with the dead. Once she visited “ kamisama” to have her husband’s spirit called. She was amazed to see when her husband’s spirit came on “ kamisama”, “ kamisama” started to behaved exactly like her late husband used to do. The “ kamisama” hadn’t seen him before and she hadn’t talked about him. During the session, the late husband said he is happy now and had nothing to complain about. According to “ kamisama” since the husband devoted himself to disabled people as a teacher, his status in the world seems to be high in ranking.

 Now I started to worry about my future, I mean after death. I have to do something nice for others !

We stayed at an inn on Lake Towada. I took this photo from the tea room of the inn after sunset.

We took a walk early in the morning along the lake. It was not very hot and the air was crystal clear. This lake is a caldera lake. In the 10^th century there was a huge eruption. The eruption was so big that the ashes of the eruption reached as far as Kyoto which is about 800 Km away. A priest of Enryakuji temple kept a diary . According to his record, it suddenly got foggy and they couldn’t see the sun or the moon clearly. He was also worried about mulberry that the ashes would harm his mulberry leaves. Did you know Lake Towada’s eruption is the second biggest in Asia ? The biggest one is Baitoushan which lies on China and North Korea. Baitoushan also had a big eruption in the 10^th century.

A few decades ago, this lake’s transparency was about 20 meters but its visibility declined so they took great care not to dump used water in the lake, however visibility hasn’t improved yet and now it’s about 9 meters. They don’t know why. For me the lake is very beautiful and romantic.

When I first I saw this lake I was struck by the power of nature. The lake is so huge and natural forests grow strongly. In Aomori “ Osorezan “ is famous as a power spot and so is Towada shrine. No wonder it has a special atmosphere.

It is said the oracles of this shrine hit it. On weekends, fortune telling sessions are also available. If you go up this trail, you can reach a view point.

It has a nice view but it’s from a 30-meter high cliff. The fortune teller goes down the cliff using an iron ladders and below the cliff, he / she ( I haven’t seen the person ) sees the clients’ fortune. Then the fortune teller goes up and tells the clients their fortune. Clients can’t go down the cliff. It sounds interesting. Next time I’ll go there on a weekend and try it out.

I have been longing for kamakura since I was a child. By kamakura I mean small houses made of snow (and not the historical city in Kanagawa, which I love, too ). It’s summer and pretty hot now in Japan but you can experience what kamakura are like. You can find one in a certain building in Yokote city where a kamakura festival takes place every winter. The day we were there, the temperature was above 30 C ( 86F ) and inside the building where holding the kamakura it is minus 10 C. You have to wear a wataire (a cotton stuffed) jacket before going into the facility.And anyone who has a weak heart should refrain from going in. In fact it was an interesting experience but we couldn’t stay there for a long time. Inside the kamakura a water god is enshrined. They give thanks to the god and enjoy baking rice cakes and drinking something hot. They set candles and usher the people into the kamakura. I hope to go to the festival sometime.

I discovered another interesting place in Yokote. But my camera’s battery was flat and I couldn’t take photos of the inn. About 50 minutes drive from downtown Yokote will take you to the inn where we stayed. The area is called Mitsumata hot spring. The facility is kind of old and nothing special but it’s really quiet and relaxing. The hot spring is pretty good and the food they serve is excellent. I couldn’t take photos of them but I’m going back to that place again and then I’ll take photos of them. They serve homemade buckwheat noodles and they still use a windmill to grind the seeds.

On our way to the Northern part of Tohoku we stayed one night in Niigata. Senami( Murakami City ) is located on the coast of The Sea of Japan to the north of Niigata City. There are many resort hotels since it has good hot springs and fresh fish are available. Above all many people admire the beautiful romantic sunset. Fortunately, the weather was perfect to view the famous sunset.

The sea was calm and water warm. Next morning I saw a man feeding Japanese gulls. The birds are very friendly and like this person. I talked to him and found that he can’t hear or speak. But we could communicate by sign language. Once I read in a book that people mostly communicate non-verbally and communicate verbally only 20%. I guess that’s true. I could tell that the man is a very warm-hearted person.

Murakami City is famous for its salmon. A man named Buheiji Aoto completed the method to incubate salmon about 140 years ago. That has greatly contributed to this area’s economy. A long time ago the Japan Sea?was very busy with trading traffic so we can see big old houses and warehouses along the coast. Today we find most of the leading ports on the Pacific Ocean sides, however.

We went to a festival at Daitsuuji temple. They exhibited and demonstrated “ Zoubihai”. “ Zou “ means elephant. “ Bi “ means nose. “ Hai “ means glass. Doesn’t  the lotus leaf looks like an elephant’s ear and nose ? Here’s the kanji characters which represent “ zoubihai”. All they had to do was to make a hole on the middle of the leave, since inside is a tube-like structure that can be made into a straw. Chilled sake ( rice wine) was poured onto the leaf ( glass ) and you can drink the sake through the lotus straw. Since this temple is at the foot of Mt. Fuji they served sake for the goddess of Mt. Fuji “Konohana sakuyano hime”. The gentleman who tried it is 100 years old ! He was wearing jeans and looked very young and healthy. Best of all, he seems to be curious about many things and that makes him young.

I tried lotus nuts. They sold a box lunch with these nuts. It is said that any part of the lotus can work as medicine but especially the nuts gives you energy. I can buy roots at supermarkets but I don’t think I can buy other parts. Now I started to think about growing lotus so that I can view and eat or drink various products afterward.

               Tea Ceremony Gathering

 Date :     August 22^nd Sunday

 Place :    Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha

 Fee  :    1,500 Yen

 Meeting point : JR Fujinomiya station 10:30 AM

Let’s enjoy having matcha tea in three different styles.

1.    Usucha : thin matcha and confections.

2.    Chabako : thin matcha and confections.

3.    Koicha :  Thick and creamy matcha is served. A bowl of tea is shared by three people. with confections.

Each ceremony takes about 30 minutes. Between each ceremony you might take a short break. Since this meeting isn’t a very formal one, people who are not familiar with tea ceremony can enjoy having tea. Don’t worry about what to do, the main point of tea ceremony is to enjoy a bowl of tea with the host.

Dress code :  Please bring white socks. We wear them at the tea meeting. Jeans are acceptable but it’s better not to wear something tight since your legs go to sleep when you sit on your knees. Also short skirts are not recommended.

If you are interested in this meeting, please e-mail us by July 30. If you miss applying by that date but are still interested, please contact us in case we can still fit you in.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us by e-mail.

We had zazen tours on 21^st and 27^th of June at Chokoji temple in Numazu. According to Reverend Matsushita, zazen is like doing the laundry. We accumulate lot of bad things inside of us such as anger, jealousy, grudges etc. We do zazen to rid these things from our mind and try to be in the state of “ Mu” or “ zero “. Proper breathing and posture are important. As we uncover ourselves, we can see things clearly and then we come to feel new energy to initiate something new or get some creative ideas. Zazen breathing affects people’s skin, too. No wonder many priests’ skin is beautiful. Probably another reason could be that the food they eat is based on vegetables. After a zazen session that was relatively long for beginners, we all felt refreshed.

Then we moved to the restaurant nearby called “ Garden Bells”. There we enjoyed Shojinryori ( vegetarian dishes ) followed by Zen temple style food. Eating itself is also training in zen so we are not supposed to speak while eating. Eating time is very short since we all concentrated on eating. When the course finished we came back to normal mode and enjoyed eating more food while talking. All of us were amazed by Garden Bells’ service and savory dishes. The menus on 21^st and 27^th were slightly different. Now it’s the humid and muggy rainy season in Japan but the food and drink were a cool balmy breeze.

On 27^th’s tour, after the lunch we took a short walk to Shoinji Temple. Hakuin, zen master, was the head priest of this temple. So it has Hakuin’s painting and calligraphy. Every year on April 29^th it is open to the public.

I’m going to organize zazen tours on 21^st and 27^th of this month. Most of us are beginners so our sessions will consist of two 20-minute sessions each time. One of the participants has already experienced zazen more than 25 times in the US. In fact Hakuin is very popular overseas although he is not as well-known here in Japan. He was from Numazu ( Shizuoka ), but many local people are not aware of him. I read books about Zen and I learned that zen is rather the study of the self. I think this is the thing we really need. As unexpected incidents can always occur, if we know how to stay calm we might work out our problems. I heard the famous basketball player Michael Jordan learned Zen. He could play really well under tremendous pressure and when he shoots baskets the air around him is unusually calm. Isn’t it cool ?  I’m really happy that many people showed their interest in this tour. After zazen, another attraction will be a vegetarian meal. In zen everything we do in daily lives are training; eating, cooking, taking a bath and cleaning etc. When I am tired of doing household chores or feel like complaining about it, I always try to remember this. Anyway I’m really excited. For those who can’t take part in June’s tours we are planning to have a session on September 26^th. The seats are limited so please contact us if you are interested in earlier time.

MOA Museum in Atami has many wonderful things on display. We can’t take photos of most them but there is an exception for some items. One of them is this the golden tearoom. This is a copy of Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s ( the ruler of Japan from 1590~ 1600) favorite golden tearoom. It is said Hideyoshi loved the tea ceremony. Tea master Senno –Rikyu who developed the art of tea ceremony to a higher level  – was under the patronage of Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi preferred expensive gorgeous things but Rikyu was said to be totally the opposite. This type of tearoom is typical. The small sliding door is called Nijiriguchi. Anyone must make their body small and be humble to enter the tearoom and in the room everyone was supposed to be equal. This is what I was told by a tea ceremony teacher. I forgot most of the things I learnt in tea ceremony class but I still remember this. Hideyoshi’s golden tearoom was designed to be taken apart, carried away piece by piece and then reassembled. He enjoyed tea ceremony even when he was at battle. Probably the moment of tea ceremony healed warriors and provided them with energy and concentration. Rikyu served Hideyoshi as a great tea master but later he made Hideyoshi very angry and Rikyu ended up killing himself by so-called Harakiri. According to a book, Hideyoshi didn’t mean to kill him. And many people made efforts to have Rikyu pardoned but Rikyu refused. To me Rikyu was very revengeful. He had been patient for long time under Hideyoshi and he must have thought “ enough is enough”. Am I wrong ? Please email me, Rikyu-san. One of the tea ceremony schools, Urasenke, is decended from Rikyu’s school and they serve tea for Rikyu on his memorial days.