Anyway, we all got tea sweets and the woman there taught us the correct tea ceremony etiquette (and I was proud because I actually remembered all of it from studying it before) and then we got to make our own tea and drink it. It was pretty awesome. And then they had a big exhibit of tea utensils which we wandered through for a little bit, and I got to explain what everything was, because no one else knew anything about tea ceremony (including the Japanese people). MY KNOWLEDGE OF RANDOM FACETS OF JAPANESE CULTURE HAS FINALLY PAID OFF!
Anyway, I was explaining to my conversation partner about moon bowls (essentially tea bowls made out of a black, glossy material, so if you're drinking water outside, you can see the moon's reflection in the bowl).
Conversation partner: Wow, you know a lot about this!
Me: それほどでもないけど。。。**** (Not that much...)
And then she started laughing at me.
Me: [flustered] Um, sorry, um, um... Did I pronounce something wrong?
CP: [still laughing] No, no, that was just really Japanese.
Me: Um, sorry?
CP: No, no, don't apologize. You're just really good at being modest.
Me: Um.....no, not at all?
CP: Exactly.
And then one of the guys told a "that's what she said" joke in Japanese, and the Japanese students stared at him and wanted to know what he meant. And then the rest of us suddenly changed the subject.
And then I went home where it was 90 friggin' degrees. Oh well.
Something kind of amusing that I keep forgetting to mention:
About two weeks ago, I was eating soba for lunch with my host mom and my little host brother. (It was a Sunday, so we were all at home for lunch.)
Host mom: You eat really quietly, don't you?
Me: Um, yes? Sorry?
HM: It's okay to make noise.
Little host brother: [slurps noodles loudly to demonstrate]
HM: It's probably rude in America, right? You can't slurp spaghetti, can you?
Me: No, not really. It's better not to.
LHB: [continues slurping noodles loudly]
HM: Well, it's okay to make noise when you're eating Japanese noodles, okay? So don't worry about it.
Me: O-okay.
LHB: [NOODLE SLURP]
Something else kind of funky:
I've found that Japanese people will avoid making physical contact whenever possible...except when it comes to my hair. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I've turned around to find some random person petting my hair. It's actually kind of creepy. At least in the U.S. people (usually) ask before they touch.
Lessee, what other exciting things have been happening? I'll be teaching my class tomorrow. I'm probably going to spend the rest of this evening preparing for it. It shall be a class so epic that it will live on in infamy as the most epic class EVER.
Oh, and I got back my content question homework sheet I submitted for the student-taught class yesterday. It had "FANTASTIC! [picture of a happy bunny] You understood all the sentences, didn't you?" written in Japanese across the top. (The only time my regular sensei has drawn anything on my homework was one time when I submitted a sentence for grammar practice that was something like, "While Aya is a quiet, shy person, her sister sings loudly on the subway." My sensei drew a terrified bird face. It was kind of brilliant.)
In any case, I'm going to go prepare for my class tomorrow. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to this~~~ It's been so long since I got to teach anything. It will be nice to have new victi-, erm, students.
じゃ、また明日ね！
*Urasenke is one of the two big tea ceremony branches in Japan. I forget the name of the other one, but it's nowhere near as famous, so that's probably okay.
**Chado = tea ceremony. Cha no yu is the same thing. SO MANY NAMES.
***A type of powdered green tea that's used in tea ceremonies.
****YES, OPAL, IT IS A QUOTE FROM DURARARA!! THANK YOU, IZAYA, FOR TEACHING ME USEFUL PHRASES. Now go away before I throw a vending machine at you.
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