Good tasting water for tea

seasonal_JuneLast night I awoke to the sound of rain. It was a welcome sound as we have had a long dry summer. We are fortunate to be blessed in the Pacific Northwest with abundant water, good tasting water. Good water for tea starts here.

I have blogged previously about water for tea here. Because iron pots were long used for boiling water for tea, I blogged about the sound of boiling water here. Why has iron been the choice for boiling water for tea?
It is said to significantly change the taste of water. When brewing tea using water boiled in iron pot the taste of the tea becomes very mellow and sweet. In addition, thanks to the iron content of the kettle, the resultant water gives us additional health benefits.

“The chemical structure of water is part of the key that explains how water changes when boiled in a Tetsubin. The water molecule (H2O) consists of two elements, hydrogen (+)and oxygen (-).These elements carry both positive and negative electrical affinities or charges, just like a magnet. This is called dipole in Chemistry. These equal electrical charges, that exist on both oxygen and hydrogen, cause water molecules to constantly spin when in a liquid state . If they stop spinning, then water will become ice. Variable intensity of hydrogen bond allows the flavor and texture of water to change depending on the instrument utilized when boiling it. For example, if there is no mineral content in the instrument utilized to boil the water, for instance, a sterile glass beaker, the positive and negative charges of the elements of the water molecule will simply be attracted to each other and form their network or molecule through their hydrogen bonds. These bonds give water it’s characteristic viscosity and surface tension, but a plain or flat flavor. However, when minerals exist in the instrument utilized to boil the water, for example, the Tetsubin, the elements of the water molecule are attracted to the minerals from the Tetsubin instead. In fact, the affinity of the water molecule with certain types of minerals in the Tetsubin is stronger than those existing between the water molecules themselves. Minerals and water molecules form more stable bonds. This stronger attraction between minerals and water molecules also increases the viscosity and surface tension of the water. This effects our perception of the flavor and texture of the water itself, and most importantly, our taste buds can feel more taste, and a taste that stays longer in our mouths thanks to the stronger attraction of these hydrogen bonds and the metal ions of the Tetsubin. “ Japanese Cast Iron Kettle: Hojo Tea

Please go to this site, it has a lot of information on cast iron tea kettles (tetsubuin): history, how they are cast, how to care for them, and how the chemical composition of the iron content and the water interact.

I have always been told when you scoop water out of the kama, the best tasting water is at the bottom, and when you scoop water from the mizusashi the best tasting water is from the middle. This makes sense to me if there is boiling water, the impurities the action of the boiling water lifts them to the top. In the still water of the mizusashi, there will be some impurities that will sink, and some will float. Therefore, the best tatsting water will come from the middle. What do you think?

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End of July update – a Midorikai update

The graduation for our sempai and other students occurred and it was short and sweet. It’s going to be so hard to not have their daily guidance and advice here any more. It is an important right of passage, this passing of the baton, but it’s still hard because we will all miss them terribly. Also, that means we, our group of four, will be “in charge” and there is something about being in charge that causes anxiety. I was also reminded to not be too authoritarian in some of my interactions with others. This was a helpful comment to receive as I want to be a good leader and team member but not be a bossy leader. I will continue to learn how to toe that line to find the proper balance in leadership.

Sempai graduation party

A few days after summer vacation started, I went to the doctor again for pain in my right ankle. I received a compression brace to wear to help with the severe pain I’m feeling when I sit in seiza. Now I’m starting to feel minor pain when I overexert myself in general, for example when I walk too much. Luckily walking with good shoe support provides a healthy strengthening action, just as long as I don’t do too much of it. I’m glad that I will have a break from sitting on my legs so that I can use the summer to stretch and strengthen my muscles, ligaments and tendons in my ankles. We will see how my legs feel again in the fall but I am hopeful that the recovery period will be helpful.

Osaka castle

A week or so after the summer break began, I took a short trip by train to Osaka. Since my legs weren’t too strong I limited how much walking around I did. I visited the Osaka Castle (good view!), Osaka aquarium (amazing animals and tanks!), rode the Giant Ferris Wheel (glass bottom car!), went to a Hanshin Tigers baseball game (We lost to Tokyo 6-1) and also made a visit to Universal Studios Japan (Harry Potter world made me tear up with joy!). Going to a baseball game really made me think of going to see the Mariners with my dad by Amtrak train at the old Kingdome.

Universal

Peguins at the aquarium

The Tigers also lost terribly, which also felt like a Mariners game. 😛 I sat next to some nice baseball fans on the first-base side who were teaching me some chants in Japanese and they were very excited when we appeared on the Jumbo-tron. They definitely said they were glad they sat next to me and they helped me have such a wonderful time! I stayed two nights at a hostel and traveled around using the well-connected subway/train system they have. It was hotter in Osaka than it was in Kyoto, so I was quite relieved to get back to the high 80’s/low 90’s of Kyoto.

Tigers baseball game

In regards to the seasonal events I saw since I last wrote, the Gion Matsuri celebrations are going on all month. It’s one of the major Kyoto festivals and culminates in many parties in the streets and two parades of giant floats. It’s been celebrated since 970 to celebrate the spirits and gods ending a terrible plague that was ravaging Kyoto at the time. Many people would die in Kyoto during the summer months due to the factors that arise from high heat, poor sanitation and disease. There are hoko floats and yama floats. The hoko floats are massive and have a band playing music on them. The yama floats are smaller and don’t require so many men to pull them. All of them are pulled and none of them have any mechanical features. The boys in our group were able to pull one of the yama floats in the parade (Hachiman-yama) with two of our sensei. It was fun to see them out there. It looked like hot, hard work. Luckily, neither Tetiana or I were jealous of their ability to participate (women aren’t allowed to be in the parade), however, I could see why past Midorikai female students have felt very angry about this. The patriarchal-ness of this society can be quite grating on a woman after a while. Especially after spending so much time in Sweden, which is truly a country much more successful at bringing equality between the sexes.

Hoko float

Yama float

This will be the final post I make before the second semester begins in early September. I will be flying home for a visit to see my family in August. Thank you for continuing to read these stories and I will have more of them to share in the fall. I’m attaching more pictures than usual to tide you over. Sorry for all the selfies 😉
Cheers,
Karla

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Early July update – A Midorikai interlude

I can’t believe it’s been just three and a half months since I’ve arrived here in Kyoto! Our days have been so busy that it feels like both an eternity and a flash when I think over everything I’ve experienced! Thank you for continuing to read my posts/emails. I have been enjoying writing them and hopefully you are getting a glimpse of my life here in Kyoto. My first semester is coming to a close on July 15th and my sempai will be departing for their respective countries to return to their families and their lives. I’m receiving from them a mix of both excitement for being able to return to their families as well as nostalgia that the year has already finished. “The days are long but the years are short.” All three of my wonderful sempai have proven themselves to be patient, wonderful teachers who will inspire me to work hard and always try to be a little bit better each day. I’m sure the rest of my time here I will hear their voices in my head reminding me to do things a certain way. I’m nervous about becoming a sempai myself in September when the new kohai students arrive, but I am excited and hopeful for a harmonious group.

And now, for early July happenings:

Chinowa

June 30: Nagoshi no Harai at Kamigamo Shine

To say farewell to the first half of the year and pray for a great second half of the year, I visited Kamigamo Shrine for the Nagoshi no Harai ceremony. You do this by walking through a large grass ring, called a chinowa. If you want additional protection and to remove the evils that reside in you, you can purchase a piece of paper or a stick of wood that you can write your name and age on and that will be ritually purified by the Shinto priests in either fire (wood) or water (paper). I stayed of the purification process, and was struck by how lovely it was seeing the burning fires and the hundreds of little paper people floating down the stream. Also, since I’m a woman of the age of 32, I am in the midst of my particularly unlucky Yakudoshi year (it’s actually counted as age 33, because the Japanese historical charts began counting with age 1 when you are born). These unlucky numbers were important in the Heian period but still hold significance today and people often wear additional talismans and protection during these years. If you want additional information on Yakudoshi there is some great information on wikipedia. In the mean time, I bought a little talisman for 800Y that you carry around with you that is supposed to offer additional protection. At the end of the year, you return it to the shrine where you purchased it and they ritually dispose/cleanse the item of it’s impurities. I have it on my purse. I don’t know how much I believe in numerology and such things, but I thought it couldn’t hurt. 🙂

Ritual burning

July 5: Seichuki

Seichuki

Every year, the Urasenke family holds a memorial celebration for three deceased grand tea masters: Gengensai, Ennosai and Mugensai (also known as Tantansai). These three masters (11th,13th and 14th generation respectively) all made a profound impact on the survival and development of Urasenke during historically difficult times for Japan. They were very innovative and creative thinkers and were able to include a lot of new codified tea procedure and attract many new types of people to Chado. Now, you may notice that the 12th generation is missing from this list. Usually he isn’t given much credit for maintaining the Urasenke lineage. However, this year was the 100th anniversary of Yumyosai’s passing, so we were treated to many articles of dogu that he favored. I’m always a fan of the underdog, and so it was nice to see poor forgotten #12 be recognized! Everything went smoothly and it was a very nice event. I wasn’t able to take any pictures during this event, but this is a nice one of the group I moved with during the seki. We all look very nice in our summer formal kimono.

Tanabata

July 7: Tanabata

The second year students hosted an event for Tanabata, 7/7. This is based on a Chinese story about a weaver-maiden who fell in love with an ox-herder and who stopped weaving to be with him. The gods grew angry with their laziness, and so they separated them so only on the night of July 7th, if it’s a clear evening, can the two cross over and be with each other just that one night. Very romantic. The students did a lovely job combining modern with traditional. We each wrote a wish and hung it on a bamboo tree that they put in the tokonoma. They also had a beautiful idea of doing a synchronized tea serving, where it was a large seki (40 people spread out over 3 tea rooms) and we were separated by a cloth in the middle. They served two rounds of sweets, two “first bowls” of tea, and had two first guests (one man and one woman). Then when the rest of the tea bowls came out from the back, the host’s side timed themselves to move together to serve us! It was just beautiful. At the end of the event, the host removed the cloth divider and invited us to “cross over” to view the other side’s tokonoma and mingle with each other. It was quite enchanting and gave me a new appreciation for how beautiful paying attention to timing can be. They did a wonderful job. Here is a picture of me standing in front of the tokonoma with all of the guest’s wishes written on it.

Local tanabata event

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Suspended animation

I recently was invited to a chaji put on by one of my students.  It was a memorable event as all chaji are, and this one kind of blew my socks off.  While it didn’t adhere strictly to a Japanese chaji, the meal was exquisite with a Northwest twist of local fresh ingredients. The sweets were heavenly.  Everything was meticulously planned.  Seating arrangements were congenial, and the guests, many who had not been to a chaji before, were up for an adventure.  Over the course of the evening, people began to talk with other people sitting with them and bonding among the guests began to occur during the meal.  By the time tea was made, the sun had set, and the stars and candle light set the stage for one of the most captivating tea experiences.

It was an event when you go to a place where time doesn’t matter, there is only NOW.  But the rest of the world continues on totally oblivious to your suspended animation.  I was talking, eating, drinking and never noticed the passage of time.  When you come out of wherever you have gone to be totally present, sometimes it is a shock to come back to the world and realize that 3-4 hours have passed. In this case it was more like 6 hours.  It is a shock to think I haven’t checked Facebook the whole time I was there.  I didn’t follow the political campaign. I didn’t even check in with work. And while I came in the afternoon, it is past midnight now.

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes the mental state of flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” In addition, positive psychologists argue that achieving the flow state on a regular basis is a key component of happiness. That is, by learning how to enter the state of flow you can increase your productivity, be more creative, and be happier, all at the same time.

How to enter the flow state, the state of suspended animation?  Why attend more chaji of course!

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June update #2 – a Midorikai interlude

June 11: Hotaru Chakai

We had the honor of attending the Hotaru Chakai at Shimogamo Shrine. The natural beauty of this Shinto shrine with it’s proximity to the creeks and rivers makes it a great habitat for fireflies. Midorikai was invited to attend since Urasenke was putting it on and some of us went in kimono and in nice western clothes. Two of us were lucky enough to run into Daisosho-sama out in front of the shrine. He is always so gracious and generous. I can’t say enough how much he inspires me to be a better person. He treated us to ice cream cones from a stall where a past gakuen graduate was working. I’m reminded again of how small the tea world is! Everyone knows everyone! What another reason to continue to work on my Japanese. There were lots of fireflies to see and this was my first time ever seeing them. Quite amazing and magical.

Hotaru Chakai at Shimogamo Shrine

Hotaru Chakai at Shimogamo Shrine

Other highlights from mid-June:

  • A field trip to Nakajima Seikodo, a local scroll making and paper-mounting shop. It was a beautiful workshop with lots of old beams. A scroll takes about a year to cure and we talked about all the different types of scrolls and their formality.
  • Midorikai’s first cooking class with Sato-sensei. It went very well. We focused on the basics our sempai would need to master to work in the kitchen for the upcoming chaji, tea gathering. We younger students tried to pay as much attention as we could since we are unsure when the next cooking classes will be.
  • A field trip to Nishiki covered market with Murata-sensei to show our sempai where to purchase food items needed for the chaji. We kohai just walked around and tasted food samples. It was a pleasant morning, and again, trying to pay attention to everything.
  • Beginning to study/review the kazari temae, the tea making practices when you have special tea utensils that has a wonderful story that you and the guests have in common with each other.
  • Kodo (Incense) lesson with playing “listening to kodo” games. When you smell the incense, (this is called “listening”) and you have to decide if it smells like the other incense or if it’s unique. It’s a skill, for sure. But also people receive pleasure because you don’t only write your answer, you relate the answer back to literature or natural phenomena. For example, in the game of Kotoriko, your answers are reflected by the names of small birds. So if I think the third and the fifth ko are the same, then I would answer “asaridori” (foraging birds). If the 1st and 2nd match, I would answer “momochidori” *hundreds of plovers” and so on. The other ko game we played related to “The Tale of Genji” and had 52 possible responses that were the titles of the chapters from that old novel. Very fun!
  • A half-day lecture on conducting tea demonstrations outside of Japan in our home countries. Two English-speaking sensei (Makela-sensei and Hardy-sensei) helped us with this. Our sempai were the ones giving the speeches and we were the audience or the guests. It was a really great opportunity to practice and I look forward to practicing too. They gave great feedback and some pointers for next time. In Portland we are responsible for doing tea demonstrations with Margie-sensei sometimes, but often it’s because people are busy and collecting the feedback will really help us get better.

    Awesome small door at cafe

    Awesome small door at cafe

June 21: Fabric lecture

I gave this lecture it’s own section, because my sempai Kate is interested in fabrics and it made me think of her. The fabrics we use as humans are diverse to say the least. This lecture really only focused on the fabrics suitable for tea. We talked about the different threads and how they are woven (for example, plain weave 1-1 thread, twill weave 2-2 thread, or satin weave 4-4 thread). But I also wanted to record how the fabric instructor told us to evaluate and enjoy fabrics. These questions and observations can be applied when you are admiring ANY man-made object whether it be refrigerators to vases to bedsheets. The more you really look at objects and research about them, the better informed consumer and connoisseur you will be AND the more beautiful the world will seem around you. Here are the questions that he encouraged us to reflect on to really be able to SEE an object:
  • What is it’s name and all the names of the components? What is the shape’s name?
  • What is it’s history? Who designed it or manufactured it? What world events or historical trends may have shaped this object?
  • How is it made? Look closely. Does it look “well-made” or “poorly-made”?
  • How do the components interact (color, design, etc.)?
  • Study the base materials, what is it made from?
  • Touch the object. How does it feel to the hand?
  • Does it generate an emotional response? If so, reflect why.

June 23: Toinseki Chaji

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures during the chaji, like a good guest, so I am attaching some pictures of Toinseki from the day before during our cleaning / prep-work day. A chaji is the longest type of tea gathering. All of the things we are learning are supposed to help us host and be guest at these special tea gatherings. They have themes and are about four to four and a half hours in length from arrival of your guests to when they depart. It requires weeks, if not months, of pre-planning by the host and there are many selections to be made regarding food that will be served, utensils that will be used and creating a harmonious environment between both guest and host as well as amongst the guests themselves.

Toinseki tea room

Toinseki tea room

At the most you might have five guests. To host chaji successfully you really can’t be a procrastinator or a control-freak. It requires a flexibility and willingness to go with the flow, but also the forethought that you have planned for many outcomes. You don’t want to arrive at a venue to realize that you forgot to bring the fish from the refrigerator back home! Anyway, this was our first “real Japanese” chaji.
We may have attended chaji in our home countries but it’s hard to understand necessary adaptations outside of Japan if we haven’t gone through a real one. Yumiko, our sempai from Hawaii, was our host. She is the most experienced of all of us since she has been doing and teaching tea for 25 years and is incredibly passionate. She was a wonderful host and we all had a fabulous time. The meal was attractively presented and tasty having been prepared by our other two sempai in the kitchen (just two! They were pretty stressed!). The kaiseki meal, as I explained previously, has many courses and requires impeccable timing to make sure it arrives hot to the tea room and perfectly fresh/cooked. The charcoal laying temae were both lovely. The tea and sweets tasted delicious.
Toinseki garden

Toinseki garden

I’m hesitant to describe too much because I want it to exist in my memory. Everything in the room had a purpose and was there for a reason for us to admire, contemplate, discuss and enjoy. I will comment on some specific things. She had many references to fireflies, since we all attended the Hotaru chakai together earlier this month. The scroll in the tea room was “Kan” or Gate, which referenced the comings and goings of midorikai, she would be exiting and we had entered the gate. She used a rock as her miagawara, or furo plate, instead of the usual smooth one. She scooped her tea in the natsume in sort of a Z shape (instead of just straight down the side) to resemble a river and make us think of coolness.

Even though Toinseki is located on the outskirts of Kyoto, it really felt we were far away in the mountains somewhere with the little birds chirping madly in the green garden. It’s difficult to explain how calm and relaxing an event like this can make you. Being in the tea room, you can really leave the world outside and just exist in that space and time. It allows for quiet personal reflection and also that thrill you get when you discover something that you didn’t see before. In the darkness of the tea room, light and shadow had more meaning than normal. We noticed things much more with having no distractions. It was just us (four guests, one host), in the small 4.5 mat room, sharing a special, unique moment together. It really reminds me how often we forget to just live in the moment and not become distracted by the past or the future but just be here now. In the chaji, all of us made mistakes (this was our first time after all) but nothing too serious. It rained in the morning, so it was dry but still moist. We didn’t get devoured by mosquitos and the sun was out by the end of the chaji. My only complaint was that it was ridiculously hot in the tea room in my polyester kimono and it was sometimes difficult to concentrate when you are that hot and the sweat is just pouring off you. I really enjoyed it and I hope there will be many more opportunities to go to chaji while I’m here in Kyoto! I was the tsume, or last guest, and I was glad to have that part so I could stand and stretch my legs occasionally.

The day before chaji, cleaning the garden in my samue

The day before chaji, cleaning the garden in my samue

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