New Year's Kitsuke

Josh and I put on our kuromontsuki yesterday and did a quick photoshoot for New Year's since I have to work both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I hope you enjoy the photos! Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas! メリクリスマス！

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you have a happy and safe holiday. Here's a picture of our Christmas tree (which barely fits in our tiny apartment):

メリクリスマス！

Helpful Resources Added!

I've started working on a section of the website that will have helpful information for the kimono-wearer.

The first section - Kitsuke Basics - is up, and I will be adding to it frequently. Under that section, I currently have a list of kimono and obi types as well as komono (all with pictures) and an obi and kimono compatibility chart.

 Please check back to see more additions!

December Tea Ceremony

Yesterday was our last tea ceremony practice for the year. Since the next time we meet will be our New Year's chaji, our sensei had us practice koicha. For those of you who are unfamiliar with tea ceremony, there are two ways to serve tea: usucha (thin) or koicha (thick). Usucha is less formal; koicha is the most formal. What makes the tea "thick" or "thin" depends on the amount of matcha. For thin tea, you use about 1 1/2 scoops of matcha per person. For thick tea, you use 3. Thick tea actually has a sludge-like texture! Also, for thin tea, each person is served in a separate bowl, but for thick tea, everyone sips from the same bowl (cleaning the rim in between guests, of course). Only a few of our members are advanced enough to serve koicha, so the rest of us needed to know how to be a proper guest. The sweets this week were this wonderful little cakes of matcha, white chocolate, and cashews. I could have eaten the whole thing by myself!

I admit, having never done koicha, this was much more involved and difficult than usucha! I am hoping I will remember everything for chaji!

After our lesson on koicha, we did some one-on-one practice. Josh and I are still beginners, so I practiced bon temae (tray ceremony, an abbreviated version of the regular usucha ceremony). I still need much work! Josh is better than me, so he practiced the full temae. I snapped a couple shots of him after I finished my temae.

I finished up the lesson by being the main guest for another group member. Josh got a couple pictures while we practiced.