Trip to Japan House

Yesterday (the 18th) I was taken to a sort of workshop/demo/guided tour of a tea ceremony at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Japan House (which they also spell 日本館). We took the twisty-turny, pretty Japanese-style garden path to get to the right door (it's amazing how much of a nice longish short walk they were able to achieve). Then we took off our shoes, put them in cubbies under benches and those of us who came in flip-flops (like me) put on their temp socks.

An interesting thing to note is that among the displays in the entrance area (which was pebbled by the way) where you take your shoes off were two high shelves. There were all kinds of books on Japan and books in Japanese on them. I don't know if you can borrow them or if they're just for display, but it stood out. Emphasizing it as a place of learning, I expect. And also giving a different level to the sense of place.

Then we went through a quick tour led by a guide in traditional Japanese clothes, sat on the chairs in front of the stage/tea room for a smidge while we were told some more things. After that, it was time to head up onto the tea room, where there was a stage with tatami mats -- and paper sliding doors from the Urasenke (裏千家) school of tea. (Which according to our guide cost $3,000. They have to have been the most expensive doors I've ever sat near.)

Floor plan of Japan House based off of memory, and only slightly inaccurate.
There were also restrooms too.

Once we were all seated, the ceremony/tutorial began. It involved a dry sweet (higashi or 干菓子) and then thin tea (usucha 薄茶). The higashi was a ball of wasanbon, with a diameter of a dime, I would hazard. At first it didn't really taste like anything except that maybe it had been in storage, but I started to roll it around my mouth, and guess what? It reminded me of microwave popcorn butter. Not that that's a bad thing, I've always found microwave popcorn quite tasty. The higashi also didn't melt like I was expecting just pure sugar to melt... I wonder if there was some rice flour mixed in. Or it was just because I held it one place for a bit and it formed a paste, I dunno.

A little faint, it's the wrapper of my higashi.
It's made of a very loosely woven sort of paper.

As for the matcha, it tasted like matcha. Which I also have no complaints about. My bowl (cuz apparently you get one for this part of the ceremony?) was a muted gray with a dark brown (I think) line around the rim, and some crackling on the bottom -- the outside decoration was some strokes of the (I think) same color as the rim. You can tell I'm super observant. Among the various instructions we were given about the right way to drink our tea, we were told it was good to inspect our tea bowls after finishing, including the "tea stamp" -- what's left in the bottom after you drink the tea.

After the ceremony, there was a Q and A, before someone came back and said they had to get the next group in soon. So we looked around at the displays a bit, signed the registry, returned our temp socks (there was a basket), and collected free papers (sometimes bilingual, and at least one time just in Japanese), some of which had been put on our chairs. One of the people I was with gifted me with a a tea ceremony bamboo whisk (chasen or 茶筅) from Japan House's inventory of items. Then we followed the garden path, where a shakuhachi (or 尺八) player was performing using music sheets written in old style Japanese notations.

The path eventually led back to the door that was the closest to where we'd parked. So we went out for "Japanese" food. (Hibachi, to be precise).

Mah bamboo whisk. Very traditional.
There's writing on the back label about how to use it... in Japanese. 

References:
None this time, but here's a link to Japan House.

Japan House | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

It's got all kinds of information, so have fun. :)