I realize now that I never posted about the Sakura Festival back in March. It was quite lovely. We got there at 10am, and the morning air was cool and refreshing. We had already spent a day cleaning previously, so there was a manageable amount of preparation to do. I was only able to snap a few photos, as I was extremely busy in the tea house all day (10am - 5pm)!
Something really wonderful is all of the friends I was able to see throughout the day, although I was only able to visit with each of them briefly. We ended up serving about 100 bowls of tea throughout the day and performed 2 demonstrations. There were times when the teahouse was absolutely choked with visitors, and it grew quite hot as the day progressed, but we all worked very diligently. Our sensei had prepared boxes and boxes of sakura mochi and other wagashi (wet sweets). They were beautiful and delicious, but quite unfamiliar to most of the visitors. Some of the children made funny faces when presented with them. It was charming to see the change of expression when they realized that, "Hey, this is good!" Hopefully they learned a good lesson about giving new food a try (one that I myself have only recently learned).
I was quite nervous about the tea demonstrations. I had a particular burning passion to do well, as I had invited a lot of people and wanted to show them the beauty of tea ceremony. WELL, the president of our club was explaining what was happening during each presentation, and she is such an engaging speaker. My mind kept wandering over to what she was saying and away from the task at hand. I forgot one of my lines the first time (O Shimai Kudasai - please end the ceremony -- pretty important!), and poor Josh, who was preparing the tea, was left draining the kensui for a prolonged amount of time. Whoops! >_< The second time I was determined to do better, and did not make any grievous errors. My legs did fall asleep both times though - perhaps because I was so tense? I had to literally position the flats of my feet on the floor with my hands to exit the room the first time, as I had no feeling in them whatsoever. The second time I was a little better prepared. Since I was Shoukyaku/first guest, I had a bit of time after drinking my bowl of tea to relax. I shifted my legs out to my left to let some blood flow back into them, then drew them back underneath me after a few minutes. My sensei noticed this (!) and told me I did it very gracefully and discreetly. It is a compliment I dearly treasure.
In her infinite kindness and thoughtfulness, Tamura-san had brought food and drinks for us, and served us lunch with a spicy tea and late afternoon snacks. This was an absolute highlight of the day. Everything was SO DELICIOUS. The onigiri had some sort of little miniature potatoes in it -- I've never had such good onigiri before. We were all quite exhausted, and it was very nice to sit down with everyone in the mizuya for a break.
This was a very special experience for me. It was only my second time in the Toshin-an, and although I know I made mistakes, I learned a LOT from my day spent serving the guests who came. I can only hope that as a beginner, I did not get in the way too much. ;)
I have one large freelance project in the works, one small freelance project, and a few in the queue. It's really taken off, and I feel quite lucky to have so much work.
