Training and Tea

May 21, 2014 

(I really like alliterations. Have you noticed?)

Since my last post, I've been thinking more and more about how practical the study of aikido is to daily life. I'm a theatre major, so I've been pondering the importance of a unified mind and body as an actor. Of course we wouldn't use that vocabulary in an acting class, but the same principles apply to both aikido and theatre: you need to understand your body, know where to draw strength from, feel what's happening in the mind and body of your scene partner, control your energy, use the energy of those around you, remain aware of your surroundings... Studying aikido can only help with all of these concepts! 

For the first half of the day today, we continued training and practiced these principles further. We specifically focused on respecting your opponent instead of trying to control him/her. I so wish that I could reach through the computer and show you exactly what I mean. Some of these exercises make no sense to me until I actually do them and feel the difference! 

Yesterday's class was very physical; lots of rolling on the floor and getting up and down and up and down. I woke up very very sore, so I was glad for a more relaxed day today! We spent a long time doing something called "kiatsu". Kiatsu is also hard to explain (blogging about this experience is much more challenging than blogging about sight-seeing in Tokyo!). It's sort of like a massage. 
You don't knead muscles; you just place your fingers on certain spots on the body and try to send energy there. It doesnt immediately feel great like with a massage, but it has long-term healing effects. The founder of aikido healed his own stomach ulcer with kiatsu, and a sesei yesterday really helped a sick girl on our trip! It sounds weird, and I wish I could explain it better. Hopefully, as I continue to train, I'll start to understand it more myself and I'll be able to ease your skepticism in future posts! 

After our training session for the day, we had lunch (the food here is so unreal delicious) and then broke into two groups for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony! 
I have been pumped about the tea ceremony for weeks! Did you know that one of the earliest schools of Japanese tea ceremony is from the 1500s? America wasn't even founded until late 1700s! These people were doing this tea-serving choreography while Colombus was sailing the ocean blue! That completely blows my mind. 
The ancestral home where the tea ceremony took place isn't far from the dojo. We had to split into two groups since the tea room is small and the home is so old that there was some risk we'd break through the floor. I was in the first group. 

in front of the ancestral home where the ceremony took place

Once inside the beautiful old building, we removed our shoes, put on white socks, and filed into a small tea room. Normally, both the tea maker and guests would kneel (or "sit seiza" as they say here) during the entire ceremony, about an hour. But, since we're weeny foreigners with weak knees (seriously, try sitting seiza for as long as you can; your feet will fall right to sleep... and it hurts!), they allowed us to sit cross-legged. Since I was wearing a dress, I opted to sit on my hip, which was actually incredibly uncomfortable after a while. I would've complained aloud, but the very old man who made the tea sat in seize the entire time without batting an eyelash, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and whine about my knees later to my blog (Dear readers... Ouch. -Lizzie). 
The actual ceremony is beautiful. Every little detail is given tons of attention and done very intentionally. The tea maker moves so slowly, precisely. It doesn't look like he's done it a hundred times; it looks like he's very specifically chosen this performance just for this audience, and we are the most important audience he's ever had!
On top of that, the tea is delicious. I love green tea anyway, but this is frothy on top from the whisking he does, and it's the perfect temperature! 
Even the way we were to drink it was choreographed. We were to pick up the bowl with our right hand, place it in our left palm, rotate the bowl to the right twice, and drink our tea in three and a half mouthfuls. Another student noted that I was a pro at drinking my tea in the perfect three and a half mouthfuls. Must be in my blood! 

When the ceremony was complete, we spent some time talking about how certain principle of aikido were used in serving and drinking the tea. We had to use proper posture in order to hold the bowl correctly, the tea maker extended his energy through the whisk as he prepared our drinks... things like that. Really interesting to think about how we could all use aikido training in daily life! 

After the training and tea ceremony, we were all done for the day. Since then, I've spent the day getting caught up on homework, blogging, and hanging out with my classmates. I had better get to bed now! I've got another full day ahead of me tomorrow: more aikido training and a calligraphy class! (Not sure how I can make an alliterative title out of that just yet... Thoughts? Post in comments?)