During my sliver of free time between lessons, I was in the middle of "taking it easy," when I suddenly remembered my report for Tea Ceremony, due in today and barely started! I belted something out and was a tad late to the class, only to discover I'd been misinformed and it was actually due in next week - d'oh! As for the class itself, I knew I had three weeks left until the end of term, but the point was rather driven home to hear this week described as the penultimate lesson. It proceeded smoothly, this week's sweets were shaped and coloured to resemble persimmons, and we had two rounds of tea. The second round was a different kind of tea (sencha) than that we usually drink (maccha), loose-leaf and served in small cups resting in saucers shaped like leaves. In terms of taste it was closer to the varieties of green tea we know in the West. As a keepsake of my enjoyable times in this class, I may say "Osake joudai itashimasu" instead of "kampai" ("Cheers!") when drinking, but ask me why this is funny the next time you chance to meet me in person.
Classical Japanese wrapped up the day as per usual - this week we studied adjectives. That probably says something about the complexity of the language that there are so many different kinds of verbs it took us almost three months to cover them all. Of course, these lessons too are soon to come to an end, but since I can continue this course (which I can't do for the Tea Ceremony) next year I don't feel quite so nostalgic. In other news the exam timetable has been released - it looks like very easy going, only two exams to deal with this time around, though of course I have essays and the like to hand in as well. So all in all not a bad day; tiring, yes, but in the kind of way that speaks of satisfaction with having got things done.
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| Have I mentioned this before? Lemon Honey - I was intrigued and knew I must try it! It tastes a bit like marmalade, but lemony. |
