English club and tea ceremony lesson

So one of my elementary school teachers invited me to go to her English club meeting and tea ceremony lesson yesterday.

The English club meeting was held at her parent house- which was AMAZING. It was a really big and nice place (really fancy) and it had a great view of Sakurajima. They even have a Japanese style tea room and garden!

Anyway, the meeting itself was really fun because the members were all very interesting and animated people. There was an American guy there who had lived in Japan for quite some time now and I talked to him quite a bit. Coincidentally, one of the woman in the club is doing a big college (graduate school?) project on Salinas' sister city relationship with Kushikino. She was delighted to find out that I am -from- Salinas and I have been involved in the sister city association. We had a lot of good conversation and had a very delicious lunch.

After that, the teacher that I work with and I went to the tea lesson. The tea ceremony teacher is/was an English teacher, so she spoke very good English. She was really fun to talk to and I really enjoyed meeting her. It turned out that she is a big fan of Steinbeck and has even visited Salinas and Monterey! She was also very delighted to hear that I am from Salinas. (Two in one day- crazy!) I had three cups of delicious tea and dragged myself around the floor on my knees (Japanese tea ceremony style) and they hurt like crazy. All and in all, I was a pretty awesome experience.

I guess some aspect of the tea room changes each month along with the seasons and such- so I think it would be cool to go each month.

I hope to participate in the English club and visit the tea ceremony teacher again.

Anyway, here's a picture-



By the way, I finally updated my photo album. Check them out.