Today in Kyoto we were graciously hosted for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. I normally don’t drink caffeine because it makes my brain and muscles buzz. But in the name of cultural experiences, what’s some green tea? The history and process of the tea ceremony is very intentional, with pauses to reflect on and be grateful for the items involved - the tea spoon, for example. There is also mutual respect for the host and the guest. One way to show this by turning the tea cup (bowl sized) with hand-painted image out to show the host, so that the artistry can be appreciated. The ceremony is usually quiet and done seated on the floor. Our host explained a wall hanging with painted Chinese characters. The symbol ‘5’ represents how when 5 planets align, it is the only time ever that it happens exactly like that. And this was a metaphor for how this particular coming together of people - the guests at the ceremony from various places around the world, and the host - had come together. And it would never, ever, be exactly the same, even if with the same people another day. As they say, you cannot step in the same river twice. It evoked a strong feeling of gratefulness for the opportunity and the specialness of the host.
We didn’t plan to do karaoke immediately following the tea ceremony but it was just a few blocks away. What incongruence! As it was the late afternoon, there were mostly teens just out of school. The prices go up at night, and I imagine the crowd diversifies in age. You rent your own karaoke room with mirrored walls and food & drink on-call like at Sonic. The room seated 12, but we were two, and thus needed to really fill the room with personality. Not a problem. We couldn’t figure out how to turn the background music down so the solution was to sing at the top of our lungs. Madonna, Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Wiz Khalifa, Journey, Taylor Swift, and Walk the Moon have never sounded so … unrecognizable. But it was a blast and Nathan’s (singular) dance move somehow works for all of these songs.
