Tea Ceremony Experience with Singaporean High School Students

2023/11/29

・On November 20th, I experienced tea ceremony with the Singaporean students for the first time. I had tea and wagashi there. It was a very nice time but we did not have much time to talk with the Singaporean students. Next time, I want to communicate with them and I want to ask them about Singaporean culture.

・It was my first time to do a tea ceremony. Seiza (a formal and traditional way of sitting in Japan) was hard but the tea and wagashi (a traditional Japanese confection) were very delicious. The sweets were in the shape of a flower and it was very good. The Singaporean students seemed to enjoy Japanese tea ceremony. I wanted to talk with them, but we didn’t have much time so I could not. I felt seiza was hard, but tea ceremony is a very beautiful culture of Japan. I hope to experience it again.

・I experienced a great time at the Japanese tea ceremony with the people from Singapore. I had never experienced Japanese tea ceremony before. It was very difficult to sit in seiza. I couldn’t do it, but they could do seiza. I was surprised. Wagashi was very delicious and sweet. The Singaporean students were saying that it was very sweet and delicious too. The tea was a little bitter. The teacher taught us many things about the utensils like a tea bowl and a pot.

・It was the second time ever being at a Japanese tea ceremony, and it was a great time for me. At first, a sado (tea ceremony) master was explaining the history and concepts of sado. It was a little challenging to sit in seiza, but I have learned names of the apparatus and utensils used when making tea, the proper way to enter and exit the room. However, the most shocking information for me was that it is prohibited to step on the black lines on the sides of tatami, and I was being cautious of it the rest of the time. After the lecture, we were given wagashi of a beautiful sakura shape, and later drank matcha. I believe it was a great opportunity to learn about Japanese tradition.

・In the Excel class, we learned tea ceremony with the Singaporean people. We ate wagashi and its color was pink. It was really tasty. After we ate wagashi, we drank tea. We whisked tea powder and hot water in a bowl. It was not sweet tea and it was so hot. I thought the Singaporean students liked the tea ceremony. It was like a reward because we could eat tasty wagashi but my legs hurt from sitting in seiza.

・The experience of doing tea ceremony with the Singaporean students changed my image of tea ceremony. First, I thought tea ceremony was very polite. However, when I saw the teacher whisking tea very fast, I was astonished. It was my first time doing tea ceremony, and my experience made me recognize that I still have things I don’t know about Japanese culture. Wagashi was very beautiful. I was happy to see students from overseas learning about our culture. It was a memorable experience.