Lawn Mower

Quick! Think of associations for this word……Lawn Mower….ok…grass, hot weather, fresh cut grass smell, summer, tall ice teas, beer, sweat, weeds. Hmmm…I didn’t hear the word cute in that collection. Here in Japan the lawn mowers are a little different. Small, narrow, tiny, in a word…..cute. Please note in the picture that my sandal is in front of it just for comparison. It took me well over an hour to “mow” the lawn and I had to dump that bag probably 8 times! In comparison, I probably could have used a regular lawn mower, finished the job in 15 min. and dumped the bag once. The problem ….real lawn mowers cost approximately 7 times as much…..

Tsuramai Park Tea Ceremonies

Ah…spring….blossoms, fresh air, sunlight and….tea ceremonies. It’s a special time in the Japanese yearly cycle of festivals and one that should not be missed.
Once again we found ourselves at Tsuramai Park, though this time the skies were merely cloudy rather than smoggy. Though the rain fell all night long, the day proved to be dry.
Scattered throughout the park were large tents (just in case the rain returned). Inside benches, platforms and other props for preparing tea were set up. Each included a small area that was elegantly decorated; it might be a simple flower arrangement or a bit of landscape, taking in, of course, the natural setting of the park. The irises were in bloom, or at least a good number of them were, so many of the items incorporated irises as the theme for the day.

Kimonos

The women were not to be outdone by the setting. They all wore elegant kimonos and carefully picked their way through the various paths to attend the different tea ceremonies representing numerous schools.

Tea Ceremonies

The ceremony varied a bit. Instead of sitting on the ground with the hostess, we sat upon benches, covered with red cloth, set around the hostess. While the hostess made the ceremonial cup of tea, other members of the school made and passed out tea to all of the people who were watching the process of making the tea. It is a very stylized and rigidly adhered to process, with each “school” having slight variations in hand movements and proscribed equipment. Each movement is done individually; there is no setting down the bowl while you are reaching for the tea pot. It can be relaxing to watch them work.
It takes YEARS before you are allowed to participate in the formal tea ceremony. The first year you are an observer only, in fact, you can come but not to do anything at all. The next year you can help out a bit…answering questions, collecting tickets, watching the line. The following year you MIGHT be able to help with passing out the dessert plate. It’s quite literally years before you even help with passing out the tea that someone made in the back.

Making tea

However, if you’re naïve and trusting, you just might get conned into making tea. They had a special, small area behind the main tent. It included a small table with the red tablecloth, small decoration and the tea pot/tea and such. Marjon (my ‘friend’) said “oh gee, I wonder what they’re doing here”. Well, we went to look and found a woman making tea under the VERY watchful eye of the master. She did quite well (to my untutored eye) and drank her tea. Lo and behold, when she finished, it turned into “gee, Karen. Why don’t you do it?” Needless to say I got to sit and try to make tea, with everyone looking on and all directions in Japanese. It was fortunate that Tomi-san had shown us how to do a simple ceremony so I could understand a bit of what was said but still…..it was difficult but fun. Turns out Marjon had been tempted into the same area last year so as the new person…she thought it should only be my turn!!!