Reunion

I'm getting to spend time with my college roommate, Yoko, for the first time in 10 years. I was very nervous to see her again... would she still like me? Do we still know eachother after not writing very much over the years?

On Friday, Joy, Matt, and I went to visit her at work. 3 sweaty American tourists in a really nice office with a terrific view of the Imperial Palace. It was so good to see her again, but I was still nervous. She showed us around her nearly deserted office, and then we all went to Tokyo station so she could help us exchange our Japan Rail passes.

The next day Joy, Matt, and I said good-bye to our KASA/Mix group, and took the train to Yokohama (where Yoko lives). She and her husband Keiji picked us up at the station and then took us to their Chado lesson.

In the US, we usually call Chado "Tea Ceremony", but as Yoko pointed out, it really would be better called Chado (just like any martial art is called by it's original name: Karate, Jujitsu, etc.) and described as "the way of tea". The main point of Chado is to have a tea gathering which is a socail occassion... that means that although one who studies chado is studying a traditional way of making and sharing tea, it is not just a ritual performed solely for the sake of ritual. The word "ceremony" conveys too much stuffy seriousness. Yoko and Keiji's Chado lesson was fun. Their instructor was nice and had a sense of humor (we gave her some red sox pencils, and she pretended to think they were chopsticks).

By the time the Chado lesson was over, I was much more relaxed. I was so happy to be with Yoko and Keiji, getting to see what is important to them.

More later.