|
Having dragged myself to the Freemans Bay Community Centre at 7 o’clock on a Saturday morning in a half-asleep state, I was greeted by many drowsy-looking volunteers like myself. Yet, everyone seemed to have suddenly woken up as soon as preparation began. From setting up stalls to testing lighting and sounds, the place was soon brought to life.
As a member of our tiny Sado-bu (tea ceremony club), I proceeded into our designated workshop room with other enthusiastic volunteers. Tea bowls, silken cloths, utensils…item after item was revealed from the huge box that seemed like Doraemon’s pocket. The next task, was to put on kimonos. Having only worn kimono twice (a grand total of less than an hour) in my life, I was really looking forward to it. However, at the same time, I was not too sure if I could handle wearing that and flaunting elegance for as many as 8 hours!
Soon, it was almost the commencement of our very first tea ceremony workshop session. Peering from behind the door of our allocated room, I was amazed to see people actually taking an interest in this particular aspect of the Japanese culture and applying for the workshop! Woohoo! Time to share our passion for tea with everyone! It was a great opportunity to show that there is more to tea than gulping it down in less than 30 seconds – it is an art, a tradition to be appreciated.
As the narrator, I stood in the front of the room and smiled at the guests who came flooding in. Once everyone had settled, I began with a greeting in Japanese. Luckily most guests did not look like they knew the language, so they probably did not notice my strange accent!
Again, to my surprise, people were actually paying attention to what I was saying! One guest stood up in order to get a better view of the tea-making, and before I knew it, all the guests were up on their toes and pushing towards the front of the room. It appeared that everyone had begun to enjoy not only the drinking, but also the preparation of the tea in an unique atmosphere of harmony（和/wa）, respect（敬/kei）, purity（清/sei） and tranquillity（寂/jaku）. Moreover, numerous constructive questions were asked at the end of the workshop.
Phew! One session down, two more to go! I snuck out into the main hall during the break to get a glimpse of other exciting things going on at the event. From fishing water-balloons, writing calligraphy, trying on kimonos, paper-carving, to origami – various aspects of the Japanese culture, all packed into one cosy community centre. Not to mention special stage performances from groups such as Haere Mai Taiko (Japanese drums), Kaze no Kai (Japanese instrument), plus the Tokyo-based singer Kat! Did I forget to mention food? No event is ever complete without some delicious mouth-watering food! Of course, we would expect no less than the best of Japanese food at the Taste of Japan.
The other two sessions of tea ceremony went very smoothly as well. We, the volunteers involved with this particular workshop, then decided to celebrate the day’s success by holding a private tea ceremony for ourselves. What a perfect way to end a wonderful day! Still, I think that my greatest achievement of the day was wearing a kimono all day long, ha!
Photos: Dmitry Sergachev
|
|
