01/10/10 Host mom’s house, afternoon - So much stuff keeps happening I feel like I have to write 10 entries a day to keep up with it all. After I finished the last entry I messed around with my blog for a while trying to be fancy with pictures and stuff and failing miserably. I couldn’t get the pictures to go where I wanted. Perhaps I will try again some time. I can do links pretty easily though. In the midst of trying to be smarter than the blog my host mom knocked on my door and said we would leave soon for the tea ceremony. So I threw on my dress pants and shirt and I put on the scarf she gave me as well. I grabbed Sai (my camera) and went downstairs. I wasn’t sure how we would be going there at first but it turns out she does have a car and we got inside it. She wears white gloves when she drives which is what public transportation operators wear in Japan. I thought it was awesome. I realized that she could have brought her car to pick me up yesterday but didn’t. I wonder if it was because she wanted to show me the way I would be taking to and from Nanzan University. That was pretty awesome of her. We picked up her friend on the way and then stopped for lunch at a really nice restaurant. I hadn’t realized we were having lunch too, so pleasant surprise there. The food was, of course, wonderful. I lost count of how many courses there was. I took a picture of all of them except the first one because I got a little excited when the food was placed in front of me and I sort of inhaled it. I kept downing tea too. :d At the very end they brought coffee out. I don’t like the taste of coffee but I love the smell. So whenever I get the opportunity I smell it. Whenever I am in a supermarket and we pass the coffee aisle I always stop and stand in front of the thing that dispenses the beans and just breathe deeply. It embarrasses my mother to death. She says, “Cathy, you crazy fool, will you STOP?!?!” It embarrasses my sister worse I think. She always says, “Will you stop getting high off the coffee???!!!!” They both tease me but when I started smelling my coffee cup my host mom and her friend thought it was charming that I was western and didn’t like coffee but liked to smell it. They agreed it smells amazing and there was no judgment from them at all. They were impressed that I ate every single thing that was put in front of me (expecting me not to like some of it) and they had to tell me not to eat the garnish off of stuff more than once. :d I thought I should have gotten points for not attempting to eat the dandelion off one dish… I told them that there are a lot of dandelions on my college campus back home (because I didn’t know how to say it was the University of Rochester’s official flower or whatever.) At any rate my host mom said, “You said that you eat anything and now I see it’s true!” (really rough translation) My French host mom made the same discovery last summer too. She said basically the same thing…except in French.

At the end of the meal we each took a turn going to the restroom. I definitely needed to use it, because of all the tea (it goes right through me for some reason.) In Japan you always put on a separate pair of slippers for the toilet room and they stay in there when you’re done. The ones in this restaurant’s restroom had a bell on each one so you jingled when you moved around. It was so Japanese I took a picture of them. My host mom paid for me and I caught a glimpse at the bill. It was 10,500 yen (about $105). It was a really nice place. Then we went to the tea ceremony. My host mom told me she has two stomachs, one for food and one for tea. I could have hugged her; she is so cool. I plan to cultivate a second stomach for tea too! I love tea and Japanese tea is so much better than the stuff I’m used to.

We arrived at the building where the ceremony was taking place. As soon as I came in my host mom started introducing me to everyone in the room. The one host guy was really excited that I was there. He kept asking me questions and gave me the “number one” ticket (“number one” is how you say “the best” in Japanese). They wanted me to sign in and write my name in English instead of Katakana (which are Japanese characters that are used to write foreign words and names). A lot of people took a turn trying to say my name. There were a lot of kimono-clad ladies. But most of the guests wore formal western clothing. We went to one tea ceremony in one room (sitting on chairs) and then a second one in another room (sitting seiza, traditional style). I sit seiza often because of Aikido class but the hostess made a long speech before it started. It was probably twenty minutes and I couldn’t really follow her Japanese. By the time we got our sweet (you always get a sweet before the tea b/c the tea is bitter) my legs were crying. :o So I did what some of the other guests were doing and pushed my legs out from under me and over to one side. Circulation is a wonderful thing. A lot of hostesses and guests asked if I liked the tea and I said that I love matcha (green tea). They were surprised that I drink it in America. I took a lot of pictures at the ceremonies and met another study abroad student who is staying with a friend of my host mom’s. She takes the same train to Nanzan as I do so my host mom suggested we travel together. I would love to go with someone, especially the first few times. This girl, and I have forgotten her name but I’ll get it again, has done the commute a few times already. My host mom invited her and the two ladies with her to her house (not sure who they were because they weren’t her host family. I miss things a lot; the language barrier is still pretty big. I am working hard to shrink it though.)

Back at her house she served us tea and little sweets made out of powered tea and sugar. I swear I thought I HATED all candy. But I have come to realize it is only the nasty slop in America that I hate. Japanese candy is fantastic (now I gotta be careful like everyone else, ah well). Somewhere in the conversation one of the ladies said the jacket she had on she got for 200 yen (like two bucks) at a 100-yen store. I had heard about the 100 yen stores in Japan (like dollar stores in the US) before coming here and I am definitely going to hit one up at my first opportunity. (Maybe I can find a kimono for cheap! :3) The same lady asked me what my hobbies were and I decided to say some of the Japanese related ones so I said Aikido, anime, and manga. The student didn’t understand what any of these were and me trying to explain them in Japanese wasn’t working. She asked me what they were called in English and I told her they were called the same things. We laughed. :P While we sat there I noticed for the first time that there was a TV with a big flat screen in one corner. What was fascinating about this TV was the fact that there was an enormous doily draped over it obscuring the screen. My host mom has a lot of trappings and I guess she doesn't always know what to do with them.

After we talked for a while, one lady said she had a guest coming to her house soon so she had to leave. The other lady and the student stood up too and my host mom and I saw them out. Then I went up to my room and changed out of my dress clothes and back into my regular clothes. Then I checked my email. Then I started writing this entry. More soon. 17:22 (J time)