Hello FEA! As I write this, Tomorrow will be my last day of school before Christmas break! I can’t even begin to express how excited I am to get to travel and see things like the snow in Gifu, and the Illumination lights in Nagashima! For now, I want to show some pictures from a trip I recently took to a temple in Shin-Sakae.
As part of my Traditional Japanese class, we are taken on excursions to learn certain aspects of Japanese culture. On our last trip, we traveled to Shin-Sakae to participate in a traditional tea ceremony. We were also given the opportunity to play certain Japanese instruments. Overall I found the tea ceremony to be both delicious and relaxing. The main downside was that my legs were quite numb from sitting in a folded position for so long! Also, I was given the opportunity to make a cup of tea called “Matcha”! the process was very meticulous and detailed. The sweet we ate was made just for us and is called “Okashi”. Okashi is normally always eaten with matcha during a tea ceremony.
So, here are the many photos I took of the temple, shrine, tea ceremony aspects, and of me and my fellow international student’s attempts to play Japanese instruments!
They made a sign for us!
And here is my Okashi! It’s so difficult to explain the taste! A very sweet sticky sort of treat!
Here is the main part of the temple! A beautiful golden shrine! I took many pictures of it. So detailed, and so beautiful!
Needless to say, these flute-like instruments were not easy to play!!
One last shot of the beautiful golden shrine ;)
ALSO, just a quick fun-fact, but the kanji of the year 2016 is ้ (Kin) which means gold!
I hope all of the other students have a wonderful holiday, and I’ll see you all in 2017!!!