Japan 2025 – Tokyo – The Tea ceremony workshop – Part I

The tea ceremony workshop is practically the first thing we do as we arrive in Tokyo. We landed from Okinawa the night before and we still need to recover, so we all agree that we want to do something relaxing that will help us to recover from the fatigue.

We start then our Tokyo stay with a ritual, which equates to asking for a blessing at the beginning of our time in the capital.

The tea house we selected is in the same area as the Asakusa temple. We are a group of 4 people: Ylenia, Michelle, our Japanese friend Yuki and myself.

It is the Shizu Kokoro school: https://shizukokoro.com/

Not sure what Shizu means but Kokoro in Japanese means heart. I know because a friend of mine named her daughter Kokoro and explained the meaning to me.

We reach it, we ring the bell and we enter it. We take off our shoes and we are invited to enter a first room, where we are requested to wait and in the meantime we are offered sakura tea. We share the experience with other 4 New Yorkers, as the teacher performs the ceremony for small groups of 8 people. At the center of the white small bowl we have a sakura flower, that is edible. The taste is very delicate and sweet, very refreshing. I don’t eat the flower though.

We are waiting for the teacher to be done with the previous group. Finally, she joins us. Mika Soka Haneishi, 1st degree instructor of the Urasenke School of Chado. She is dressed in a beautiful kimono, with the white socks and red lipstick on her lips. On her right hand an elastic bandage as the one I used to wear when I suffered from tendinitis. After the welcome, she gives us a brief introduction about the history of the tea ceremony. I am surprised to learn that tea ceremony was born as a « men thing ». In fact samurai used to perform it to relax and reach mental clarity, as a sort of meditation to maintain their balance and their strength. It was only with the modern era that spilled over in the society and that women were admitted to it. I can’t help thinking it is at odds with Western mentality, where coffee is considered women’s stuff and men consider humiliating to serve coffee. The difference is striking.

Japanese refer to the tea ceremony as chado, which means more or less: the way of the tea.

The tea is made of the youngest tea leaves that grow in the shadow and therefore contain less teine. They are dried naturally and then molded.

Once we finish with the theory, we go upstairs to the first floor, where we are going to participate to the tea ceremony, make our tea and drink it.