Lost in Japan – Durkin’s Year Abroad

Re: Tomorrow

Tomorrow is, apparently, the most important day of my life in Japan. Or so my hostmother would consider it. Since September I’ve been practicing the lovely art of 茶道 (sado) or tea ceremony. Every monday from 7 – 9 we practice and, for the past month, usually 3 – 4 additional times per week. One might be able to accrue from my tone that I am at once both pleased to have the opportunity to study such a cultural art and simultaneously very tired of the consistency with which I practice.

But that’s all another matter. The simple truth is that tomorrow is the most important day of my life in terms of the tea ceremony. Tomorrow at the KKR Hotel in Osaka we will hold our お茶会 (ochakai) tea gathering from the hours of 10 AM to 3 PM. The ceremonies last for roughly 30 minutes and consist of viewing a haiku written by my host mother, eating delicious tea ceremony sweets, and then being served tea by the hosts. In our family there are three tea-servers– a delightful middle-aged woman, Nakahashi (sensei), a younger woman, Chikai (san), and myself. If you do the math there are ten one-half hour blocks in the aforementioned period, and as Nakahashi-sensei has been here the longest it falls on Chikai-san and I to do the bulk of the ceremonies… Probably 4 times each, or possible 3 for her and 5 for me since, accordingly, my white skin is a rare scarcity.

I didn’t mention that I get to wear traditional Japanese hakama, did I. Well, I do. Today is meant for the preparation of tomorrow and we are going to and fro the hotel in all manner of crazyness, with my host mother in her typical ‘forgetful’ mode. Pleasure of pleasures.

As a funny anecdote, I was conversing with my host mother the other day about tooth-care and why she doesn’t use toothpaste (this was the day after she had a gigantic piece of nori (seaweed) plastered across the entirety of her upper teeth from dinner until, presumably, she swallowed it while she slept (gross)). I was able to gain the valuable ‘rule of three’ that has been taught to her by her dentist which, if she follows, will allow her to neglect the use of toothpaste. The rule speaks such: “If thoust doth brushith thine teeth 3th times for 3th minutes every day, then thine teeth shall be katai (hard) and strong.” Ok, ok, I made up the phrasing on that, but you get the picture. I didn’t take the time to point out that in a similar manner, your teeth would be increasingly yellow from the tea you drink, chip from a lack of the fluoride strengthening measures found in modern dental care, and likely smell rather horrendous (all of these have occurred frequently).

As I wish to close this cultural lesson now I should note that 1) not all Japanese people are like this and that 2) I am not simply trying to be mean to my host mother, rather I find it to be incredibly funny. I am sure, in fact, that many of my customs and traditions are incredibly strange to her and she does, at length, laugh at me frequently for being so damn strange. This is my recompense, and if you didn’t enjoy the story then that’s just too damn bad. Let’s go do that tea ceremony, cause it is, in spite of my tone, quick enjoyable and relaxing.

皆さん、頑張ろう! (let’s do our best)

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