Notes from Gifu

Saturday, November 3rd, was a special day for the tea ceremony community. Because of that, there was a special tea ceremony at Inaba Shrine, the biggest shrine in Gifu city.

We have gone to plenty of tea ceremonies before, but not like this one. For instance, at the teahouse in Gifu Park, we pay our four hundred yen and sit on a bench, they bring out the green tea and Japanese sweet, and we eat it. The price was 400 yen.

At Inaba Shrine, a group of us entered the tearoom and sat on tatami floor. Everyone sat in the traditional way, expect for my wife and I, who were offered small stools, which we accepted.

The stools were a lot more comfortable on the legs than sitting on one’s legs, but it made it difficult to do all the necessary bowing. We exchange bows when the teacher arrives. We exchange bows when a woman in kimono brings the Japanese sweets. We pick up the sweet with chopsticks and place it on a piece of white paper, eat the sweet, and then we exchange bows when a woman picks up the empty sweets bowl. We exchange bows when a woman in kimono brings the bowl of tea. After turning the bowl three times, drinking the green tea, and admiring the bowl, we exchange bows when a women pick ups the bowl. We exchange bows as we examine the antique tea ware. Then we exchange bows as we depart. There was a lot of bowing. The price for all this was 400 yen.