Tea ceremony in Zuiganji Temple

Friends of Kak Intan who are now also friends of mine, Tokonaga-sensei and Fuji-san visited me last Saturday for a chit-chatting and making up for a long lost time between us. It was almost 8 months that the three of us last met.

Fuji-san then invited both of us to witness a Japanese tea ceremony in Zuiganji Temple the next day. Thank God the ceremony started in the evening, after iftar. If not I would not have the gut to go because the first day of fasting was usually testing for me.

Wearing a yukata, kimono for summer season that I bought end of summer last year (at a discounted price) off we went after the Maghrib prayer. The yukata had to be put on by Fuji-san because I don't have a slightest idea of how to do so, though this was my third time wearing yukata.

Fuji-san and I

Tokunaga sensei and I

Zuiganji Temple is located nearby the Tokushima-shi. The tea preparation had started when we arrived. I was in awed of the garden surrounding rather than with the tea presentation itself. It was a simple ceremony where every attendee sat on a wood benches and witnessed the processes of preparing the green tea. More information on the ceremony can be found in the Wikipedia. For a 300yen fee (paid by Fuji-san for the three of us) we were served a sweet rice cake and three sips of green tea (macha) served in a tea bowl (chawan). The original ceremony is more tedious as the one that my Japanese host mother (of Hiroshima) had for me in her house last year.

Fuji-san then showed us her newly bought house and treated us for Italian meals that night. I reached home almost 10 pm, feeling excited and happy. At the least expected moment, someone will always shows up at my door and brings me happiness. A work of God.