I am like sooo cultured

This evening I got myself a big wodge of Japanese culture. I went to green tea ceremony, and not just the school club, but a proper one with adults and kimonos. I was actually quite nervous about it, so in the afternoon I joined the students practicing in the school tatami room and learnt all the words and actions. Then I dashed home and wolfed down some harusame soup and rice, leapt into the car and headed to Morioka.

I arrived still feeling quite full from my dinner, and was faced with this....

Somehow I had failed to notice the fact that there was also food involved, so I politely sat down to my forth meal of the day. It was actually very nice and quite light. The fish was yellow tail and even being a big lover of fish, I was still impressed. The pink thing in the rice is a piece of pickled cherry blossom, which tasted a lot better than it sounds. Then we had a yummy dessert of cherry blossom sponge wrapped around anko (red bean paste). The only downfall was it was then wrapped in a leaf, which I dutifully ate - not sure if I was supposed to or not though.

This lady in her nice kimono made tea and we talked about the Chinese poem on the wall behind her and flowers, and drank tea, and it was all going very well. Then someone mentioned that I had been in the tea club at school. At that point they decided it would be a good idea to have me make the tea. Now for anyone that has never seen tea ceremony, this is an intricate ceremony with loads of very precise and ordered movements, none of which I can remember. My little heart was beating full pelt, but with the help of the lady I made it through it and made two reasonable cups of tea.

It was actually after that that I made my only faux pas of the evening. After the ceremony, they pass around the little pot with the tea powder in it so everyone can look at the design. I stupidly forgot it has power still in it and turned it on its side to look at the pattern, so when the next person opened it, all the powder that had got stuck between the lid and the pot fell out all over the place. Very bad.