Friendly Fukuoka – Tea Gathering and Tea Ceremony

During the first semester in Kyushu University I followed an introductory course to the art of Japanese tea ceremony. We did readings, presentations, listened to stories of the teacher but there was also the practical side of making tea, folding a special kind of napkin and serving tea and so on. The best part of this course were the field trips. One of the field trips was a trip to Nishijin to buy some supplies. I bought a tea cup, a tea whisk, a tea scoop and a set which included the aforementioned napkin, paper holders for sweets, a sweets cutter, a fan and a small bag. After the shopping ws done we went to an Indian restaurant where our awesome professor treated us. I received one of the biggest naan I’ve eaten to date.

So you think we were set for our tea ceremonies after having bought this stuff right? Well, you are right, but this was actually our second field trip. We went to one before buying the materials for a tea ceremony, so basically we were unprepared for our first field trip! The reason our teacher did this was to make us dependent on the others there and thus forced to make contact with the people around us. Our first field trip is a so called ‘Tea gathering’. It is different from a normal tea ceremony because it was outside and actually reminded me of a festival. There were big tents spread over the terrain of the temple, each tent representative of a different school of tea. In front of the tent you could buy a ticket. That ticket granted acces to the tea ceremony inside. Another difference is that these ceremonies were performed in front of a big group of guests while it is usually a small gathering. And we got to sit on normal chairs and tables. Anyway, there was only one ticket left for the next ceremony of my teachers’ school, Nambo Ryu, when I arrived so my teacher gave it to me and I left my classmates behind who were going to one of the later sessions. So I was thrown into the unknown, on my own. My first tea ceremony, without utensils, without support. The lady next to me was nice enough to notice I didn’t have the proper utensils and gave some of hers to me. In front of a few rows of guest there was an old lady in a kimono holding a kind of conversation with the guest of honor and explaining some things. Next to her was a lady preparing the tea, so doing what we would think the actual ‘tea ceremony’. That tea was also for the first guest (or guest of honor). All the others got tea and sweets that were prepared in the back room. Usually the first gets and the host exchange some words about the weather, season, decorations and the guest would say how good the tea was.

We were so lucky that our teacher could get us some more tickets so we could attend a second ceremony by a different school. They have different ways of decorating, folding their napkin, scooping the hot water for the tea and even drinking the tea. There are many subtle differences which was interesting to experience. I didn’t take any photos of the actual tea performances because it is not proper etiquette to do that and I stand out enough as a foreigner as it is. My friend did take a few photos though, so thanks to her I can show you a glimpse of the ceremony.

The day of the gathering was also the time of shichi-go-san festival, when families with three-, five- or seven year old kids go to the temple to thank for their healthy kids and pray for ongoing health. The kids get dressed in their prettiest clothes. Sometimes in kimonos, sometimes in tiny suits. it is so cute to see. And the traditional clothing for a tea ceremony is the kimono, so I saw many beautiful kimonos that day. As you might notice, the kimonos of these ladies are quite sober, not as brightly colored and decorated as the ones the kids are wearing or we can see on maiko (apprentice geisha) in Kyoto. That is because tea ceremonies are supposed to be a sober and relaxing event where boasting your wealth and possessions is not proper, so you need a simple kimono to match that thought. The older the lady is, the darker and less bright the colors get and the less decorations are on the kimono.

Made by my friend Kim Le

Priestess

Priest

And the last field trip that I joined was a tea ceremony, not a tea gathering like above. Although it was not a tea ceremony for entertainment, but a memorial tea ceremony in a tempel. It was to commemorate the death of the founder of the Nambo Ryu tea school. It started early in the morning with all the guests gathering in the main hall. There a memorial service was performed and a symbolic bowl of tea was prepared. It was much like any other memorial service or morning service of buddhist temples. The only problem was that is took a good hour if not more and I was sitting on the ground in the same position the whole time. I know now what pain and uncomfortable is. When the ceremony was over and I could finally feel my legs ago we could go to a warmed up room (because temples are cold and not heated) to eat a lunch box. We had to wait for our turn for the tea ceremony so we took some pictures outside the temple. I didn’t bring my camera this time, so I only took pictures with my phone. Anyway, soon round two of sitting in seiza (on the knees) began. This time the pain came much quicker especially because the room was so cramped I couldn’t move a muscle. It was actually so painful I started to feel sick and break out in a sweat. But all the Japanese in the room were doing fine so I had to put up with it. When we finally got the sweets and some tea I had some distraction. But I survived somehow. And by now I was dreading the third round. But there was a nice old lady who had seen my struggles so she had asked for a stool for me. So the third round I could sit on a small stool and I was so happy I could kiss the woman. And like that a long and painful day ended, but I was a lot more rich in experiences than I was before.

Friendly Fukuoka – Kimono Parade, Lantern festival, Rice harvesting, and Picking Oranges.

Hello everyone!

I finally started properly working on my bachelor paper and I attend seminars regularly for ISP, which means that I regularly move between two campuses of the uni. So I am flying around Fukuoka just to be in the right campus on time for the different classes and seminars. But this also means that I am even more busy than before, so please excuse my late blog this time around! A lot has happened this past month, so I will sum up the most important moments. There are lots ad lots of photos so enjoy!

On saturday October 18th there was a parade of women dressed in kimono, which is of course something we all wanted to see! So I went with a group of friends to the place of the parade, and there I unexpectedly met a friend from my home university! She was there for the Octoberfest, so after talking for a while we said our goodbyes. After the kimono parade, accompanied by traditional music also played by kimono wearing women, we went to the lantern festival. The station and a lot of temples near the station were decorated with a sea of lanterns and it was so gorgeous. This is one of those situations were pictures speak more than words I think:

The next day we went rice harvesting in Arita. We all worked together to cut the rice and then we had to put all the rice in a sorting machine which takes the grains off the stems. The important thing to remember when you cut the rice is to keep your thumb up otherwise you can say bye-bye to your thumb. Since we were a big group so we were done quite soon with cutting the whole rice paddy. After our hard labour we were rewarded with the best barbecue possible. There were local grown vegetables and local meat of the highest quality. I am seriously not kidding when I say these meats are sold for a close to a hundred euro when you get it at the supermarket. And I have to say, it was the most delicious meat I ever ate.

The farmers were also eating with us and were really nice. They also let us drink some sake made with the same kind of rice we just cut ourselves. It was definitely something! Afterwards we went to Kagamiyama (Mirror Mountain) in Karatsu where we had this wonderful view on the coast of Karatsu. The only downside of this place; SPIDERS! everywhere! And not those cute little ones, but huge ones with black and yellow dangerous looking colors. The fun part of this was that we had to hike all the way down the mountain through the forest, knowing these things were everywhere around us. I’ve had better times in Japan haha.

As if this day wasn’t tiring and impressive enough it was also the birthday of my dearest friend, so afterwards it was party time!

The next weekend we went plucking mikan, which is often translated as orange but the size and taste actually reminded me of mandarins, on saturday. It was not a JTW trip, but a private trip organized by a church group and I got invited by my friend. It was really nice because we went to the place by car and it was a while since I had a drive. I don’t know why, but sometimes there is something really relaxing about driving around with friends and just looking at the landscape. Anyway, the group was really mixed with very young children and elderly people and any age in-between, from all different countries.

At the place where we went plucking the mikan I was overwhelmed! The place was so big and it was beautifully situated in the mountains. The fact that it was a rainy day made the place even more beautiful. And mikan trees reached as far as the eye could see. We each got a plastic big which we could fill with as many mikan as we wanted. All the while tasting them of course! They were sweet and delicious. The trick is to find ones that are a little bit soft. Personally I preferred small sized ones with a dark orange color because they were nice and sweet. After we were done plucking them we all ate self made lunch together and moved on to the next place; a flower exposition at a temple.

Friendly Fukuoka – Nomikai, Game Centre and Oktoberfest

In the morning we had classes; ‘Miyazaki Hayao’s World’ and a gender class. Both or very interesting classes, especially the last one where we discuss a lot about gender roles and other things both in Japan and our home countries. After the classes my friend and I did some groceries and ate lunch together before preparing for a nomikai (drinking party) in the evening.

This was a rather funny evening because in the same room as ours was another party. It was a huge group of Japanese girls and boys around my age, or a little bit younger. The party was a birthday party for one of them who became ‘legal age’ which means that they can finally drink alcohol. So drinking is what they did, a lot! And not just normal drinking, but they were singing special drinking songs to encourage the people drinking to down their glass in one go, or they played drinking games. Anyway, they became more drunk as the night went on and they were so noisy.

I never knew Japanese could be this loud, we couldn’t even normally talk to each other. But that doesn’t matter because it was a lot of fun to see them enjoy themselves and the atmosphere was really good. When the JTW students also had had a few drinks it didn’t take long before the whole room was in chaos and everyone in the room started to drink and talk with each other. When it was time to go we had to pretty much run back to the station to catch the last train home, but it was worth it.

On Tuesday the typhoon that had caused some storms during the week already passed Fukuoka and most of the storm became quiet except for some cold winds. After classes we went to the popular スシロー again. I didn’t eat much sushi, but instead I enjoyed the cheap desserts there. Afterwards we went to take a look at the halloween costumes and did some shopping in a nearby shop. One by one people went home but my fellow Dutchman, my Filipino friend I decided to stay and go to the game centre. There we played some dancing games, which were quite difficult, and took purikura. Taking purikura with a boy is really interesting I have to say, and the results were hilarious. I just love Japanese game centers. They just have the weirdest games and there are usually many people so it feels very lively. The game centre back home are in the downfall, if present at all. Although with all the machines screaming at you it can be quite overwhelming as well. Actually, my ears start to hurt after a while.

The purikura machine that we used used the Dutch word ‘mooi’. Coincidence? I think not! It was fate that we chose this machine hahaha.

Oktoberfest started on friday, and of course we wanted to take a look there. I am not much of a beer person but I was curious to what the atmosphere would be like and that they would be selling. I didn’t even buy one beer (they were really expensive anyway), but I did buy some food that I shared with my friend. We tried pizza, garlic bread and a waffle. Except for the waffle all the food was really good! I was contemplating to go there again next week just for the food, but in the end I didn’t haha. Anyway, there were German performers there and the crowd was so into it.

It was an awesome atmosphere. People were singing and dancing and we joined them. We were there quite late so sadly it was already the last performance of the day. Even though we weren’t drunk we could still appreciate the lively and happy atmosphere and it was funny to be dragged into dancing the polonaise by some random people. I really liked experiencing Oktoberfest for the first time, even though it was a Japanese version of it. Afterwards the party was not over so we moved on the a bar for nomihoudai. I talked a lot with some people I hadn’t really talked to before, so it was nice to get to know them better. Some people decided to go to clubbing after the nomihoudai was over, but I wanted to go home because Oktoberfest and drinking in a bar was more than enough for me. Some people were very drunk so we all walked all the way back to the dorm with our bicycles at hand. And the dorm is actually surprisingly close to the city centre by foot.

Friendly Fukuoka – Nakasu Matsuri, Momochi Beach, Canal City and Showa Style Pub

On friday there was a matsuri, Japanese festival, going on in Tenjin. It’s something that most of us had always wanted to see, so of course we couldn’t skip it! During the day I didn’t do much though. So in the evening a lot of the JTW students and students went to the matsuri. During these festivals a portable shrine is usually carried through the city to the main shrine. Usually men do this, but this was a special matsuri where women had to carry the shrine. They wore some special traditional attire that I had never seen before. They looked so cool. When they were carrying the shrines they were shouting in unison and they looked so bad-ass. On the shrines there were standing four girls to encourage and keep the pace of the shouting and walking.

After they were gone some Japanese girl group gave an performance. It was funny to see because it’s such a typical Japanese thing to have crazy fanboys shouting and dancing with their lightsticks to a group of too cute underage girls. When they were gone a group of young taiko drummers gave a performance. And man, they were so cool! I wished I was that cool at that age. They played very seriously with a cool posture. When they were finished another group of drummers came up, but they also did some traditional singing and dancing along with the drumming. It was so beautiful, and very traditional. But during their performance we left to get food. We went to a pretty expensive izakaya but didn’t drink this time around. After dinner we moved on to karaoke (oh my god, maybe I am addicted), but only for an hour. After another satisfying evening we biked back to the dorm and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Cute little boy!

Saturday we finally went to the beach! There are a lot of beaches in and near Fukuoka and I had been looking forward to go there since, well….. since the day that I knew I would be going to Fukuoka. It took us a while to go there because we went by bike, but during the ride there we saw a lot of Fukuoka which was a big advantage. I really need to go exploring by bike more often because there are a lot of nice places to discover here. The beach itself was very big and with the pier it really had a wow-factor.

Sadly there was a typhoon on its way to Japan so the wind was very strong so it was too dangerous to go swimming. But the water surprisingly warm despite it already being october and the strong winds. I think it was even warmer then the water in Italy a few weeks back. I keep thinking about the sea and how badly I want to swim there! So instead of swimming we just stood there in the undeep water and got splashed by the high waves so my one of my friends and I ended up being soaked by the water anyway. No need for swimming. Most people felt cold because of the wind (which wasn’t that cold to me). I could have spent hours there but they wanted to leave and get lunch, so that’s what we did. We went to some Udon place and after that returned home with full bellies and a little bit tired.

Another day of classes on wednesday. They were just introduction classes though so I don’t know about the real deal yet. In the evening there was a lunar eclipse going on so we went to roof of one of the uni buildings to watch it. It took a long time, but it was beautiful to see. Someone brought a telescope too so we could view the moon in detail! Being there was really fun because it was my first time going up a rooftop here and the airplanes heading to Fukuoka Airport were so close to us! The whole moon-watching on a rooftop scene was just something really special in my opinion and it all seemed so Japanese to me, like I was in a Japanese movie or cartoon or something. And I got to talk to my friend Japanese friend who wants to go to Leiden University next year. But all that moon-viewing took long and we were really hungry afterwards so we hoppe don our bicycles and headed to スシロー, the conveyer belt sushi place it talked about in the post about my first week here (I think).

a friend took these photos with his cellphone

Thursday I didn’t have class because the only class I wanted to attend got cancelled. So we went to Canal City. It is a big shopping centre, but we didn’t go there for shopping. We went there for the food and the decorations! As the name says, there is a small canal in Canal City. There is also some greenery, statues and this time of the year a lot of Halloween decorations. It is really pretty and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shopping mall like that. There is also a cinema, planetarium and a theatre, so I am sure I will be going back there to check them out. We ate at Gindaco, a place that specializes in takoyaki. For my Dutch family/friends; they are basically savory poffertjes with squid in them and mayonaise instead of poedersuiker. Now you might be wondering, why does someone who hates seafood eat squid-hotcakes? Because they are freaking delicious of you take out the squid! I took out the big pieces of squid and gave them a friend, and what’s left is a delicious, hot, savory mini-pancake. It is sooo good, just like okonomiyaki.

Spiders!!

Are you sure we are in a shopping mall?

Making hotcakes?

Nope, it’s takoyaki!

First robot sighted!!

Fukuoka~

In Solaria Plaza I waited for my Japanese friend who I hadn’t met in two years. She lead me to a place where we would eat, but first we took purikura together (You know how I roll). Since she has a Japanese cellphone she can download the photos, so I can finally show you what purikura looks like, to give you an idea. She picked out an izakaya in Showa style. Showa is a historic period from the 1920s to the 1960s. The place was filled with old posters, food containers, lanterns, old tvs. The decoration was spot on and the atmosphere was just right. It was small but cosy. The prices are really cheap for an izakaya and they sell some popular dishes from that time. The yakitori for example was only 52 yen which is not even 40 eurocents. They even had some fried cheese dish which was so good and reminded me of kaaskroketten. I miss cheese! But this place has some awesome fried cheese to curb my cheese cravings. With one particular dish that a client ordered the whole staff started singing some song in really loud voices, it really added to the atmosphere of the place. And the staff was very friendly too. I think it is the best place that I went to so far. I am very thankful to my friend for introducing me to this place and the fun evening we had.

heavenly cheese on a stick.

And some purikura for the curious people;

Basically a photo machine which makes your eyes big and skin beautiful, and afterwards you can decorate with a lot of cute and weird things. Decorating is the fun part!

There’s already so many pictures and writings in this post that I will stop for now ! 🙂 Next week’s post will be more toned down as I had some quiet days when the typhoon came.