The Japanese tea ceremony is called Chanoyu, Sado or simply Ocha in Japanese. The tea ceremony is a very special event in Japanese culture. The Japanese tea ceremony has a long history, varieties types as well as complicated procedures and equipments.
Japanese tea ceremony came from china. Japanese people adopted both Chinese practices of drinking powdered green tea and Zen Buddhist beliefs, creating Japanese tea ceremony. The experience of a tea ceremony can have three dimensions: a social event, an aesthetics event, and a religious dimension.
There are various kinds of ceremonies which have specific names according to the time of day and the season. For example, the first tea ceremony held in January is called Hatsugama that means boiling of the first kettle tea ceremony. In the warmer months, evening tea ceremony is called Yuuzari-no-chaji. And Asa-cha is the early-morning summer tea ceremony.
The Japanese tea ceremony has a series of protocols. First, the host cleans and prepares the tea serving utensils that including the tea bowls, tea scoops, and tea whisks. Second, the host prepares the tea by adding three scoops of green tea powder per guest to the tea bowl. Third, the host uses ladled to add hot water into the tea bowls and whisks tea. More water is added as needed to create a tea soup.
When you are a guest, you face a series of equipments. First, you stay in a waiting room until the host is ready. Next, you wash your hands and mouth from water in a stone basin and then enter the tea room. At the beginning you are served some