Japanese Tea Ceremony

Before I had the awesome surprise of my Momma showing up, I had planned to attend a Japanese Tea Ceremony with my good friend Kaylie. Luckily, it fell while my Mom was here. I was super excited to take her, because I knew she could drink the tea I knew I wouldn't like would like the cultural significance. We boarded a tour bus (so not my thing) and headed to Naha, Okinawa's capital. 

The ceremony class was in a local Okinawan home. On our way in, we had to trade our shoes for wooden sandals.

They made for treacherous walking on the garden path.

Next, we had to wash our hands and rinse our mouth with water from a reservoir in the garden.

Now for the tricky part: Crawl through that door while kicking off the wooden sandals!

Handing out the rice and sugar treats.

This treat was pretty tasty, but a little too sugary for me.

Next, it was time for the thick tea, a concoction that tasted like blended grass mixed with algae covered lake water. Delicious!

Kaylie's reaction mirrors what we all thought when we drank it: Smile politely while thinking 'this is SO gross, don't throw up!'

You had to hold the bowl a special way, probably so you didn't drop it while reacting to the flavor!

Yep, we drank that ! The bowl had to be passed from person to person with a specific ritual of cleaning the rim and turning the bowl numerous times.

The next round of sugary treats!

Yum, sugar covered brown beans....

Kaylie is super excited to try the "thin tea".

It was much more bearable, came in a pretty bowl, and still tasted like a more fat-free version of blended grass.

We each got our own bowls for this one, more for each of us!

After the ceremony, proper bowing techniques were demonstrated. Two little girls in our group jumped up to participate. It was the cutest.thing.ever.

Our tea-drinking group, tummies full of sugar and thick tea.

 Overall, it was such a cool experience! If I went into all the details, you would be reading for a few days. The ceremony was full of cultural lessons, biblical applications, and awkward moments. I would recommend the experience to anyone visiting or living in Okinawa!