Another special day today …. This is the second of the ‘experience traditional Kanazawa’ events that I planned months ago. After booking the Geisha evening and Lady Baba, I found other traditional events happening in October. . . . Cue the credit card and the calendar.
These are all happening through the ‘Art of Geisha’ programme throughout Kanazawa which allows tourists to see the usually closed Tea Houses and allow them to interact with Geisha. First timers are not allowed to just enter a tea house, they need to be recommended by someone who has been going to the tea house for many years and is very respected ….. as I know no-one with those references, this programme is ideal for me.
This event is slightly different to the Geisha evening as this is a Tea Ceremony. Bonus - I could take pictures of this one!
The first part (Tea Ceremony) took place in the actual Tea Masters house. There was only 10 people in the first part as it’s only a small room. We are all now sitting on the floor watching the Master at work. His movements and actions are taken with care and absolute precision. Every move he makes has a reason. …. It is perfection and completely mesmerising.
We then get our own tray and cup to make our own Tea. It’s not as easy as it looks…. It’s all about how to whisk the tea.
After making the tea, we could eat the sweet and drink up…. Absolutely delicious.
We were then moved to another tea house where Geisha would perform for us. This Geisha area specialising in playing the flute …. And we had a lovely performance of Geisha playing traditional tunes.
Another Geisha came out to dance. Again, the moves were perfect and so precise
The Geisha that was dancing then came out with Taiko drums and played …. Again, she was amazing.
We then had a little time to ask the ladies questions but we all had so many questions that we went a bit overtime!!!
Again, Scott as waiting for me when we finished.
As we were in Nishi-Chaya, we were pretty close to the center of town. There’s a real mixed bag of shops here… we go from department stores to vintage shops to Daiso (100yen shop) to designer shops …. Tiffany, Rolex, Versace, Bulgari etc. We, being simple folk, found the nearest Tokyu Hands, my favourite shop, and wandered round there…. May have bought a couple of things … Shhhh.
It’s now getting a bit late, I’m hungry and it’s raining again, so we made our way home. Although we haven’t done that much, it’s still been an exciting day stuffed full of amazing memories.
Until tomorrow xxx
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