Shared Seattle Memories and a Fun Morning with Dan and Julie
I felt an instant sense of closeness to Dan when I heard him say, “I’m from Washington state.” This is because 19 years ago, Naoko and I stayed in Seattle, Washington for a year. When I said, “I was taking Teaching English as a Second Language at Seattle Pacific University,” Dan replied, “My son lives two blocks from Seattle Pacific University.” What a coincidence! I thought it would be a lot of fun to spend today’s tea ceremony workshop with Dan and his wife, Julie.
Unfortunately, it was raining so we couldn’t go to my tearoom garden, but we enjoyed the garden with the stone water basin from the tea room. During the tea grinding experience, Julie became interested in tea leaves, which led to a lively conversation about black tea and Starbucks coffee.
Dan and Julie showed great interest in the tea ceremony. They listened intently to my broken English, nodding their heads without showing any frustration. The workshop continued with them asking various questions.
After the workshop, we all gathered in a Western-style room and enjoyed Matcha ice cream. When I asked Dan, “When are you going back to the United States?”, he replied, “Tomorrow.” When he said, “I’m glad I was able to participate in the tea ceremony as the culmination of my trip to Japan,” my wife Naoko and I were truly glad that we had started the workshop.
