2013

Wellington Sakai Association

Contents2 - ConversationA new initiative has begun to hone your language skills

3 - Report on another big yearRosemary Jones reports another busy year for WSA..

4 - Marathon runnersYes, plural - as WSA sends two runners to compete in the annual marathon.

6 - Youth workshopCameron Oldfield writes about the youth workshop he initiated to get young people involved in sister city activities.

8 - Tea ceremonysome words to come

PO Box 7215, Wellington www.wellingtonsakai.org.nzWellington Sakai Association

Jim BARneS, who has been very involved with WSA and many other Japanese activities for a very long time, resigned this last year. He held

the positions of president and secretary of WSA as well as having been on the WSA committee for over 15 years. Jim has retired from his job and has decided to move to the south island. in appreciation

of his years of service WSA ask the WCC to present him with a Certificate of Appreciation. This framed certificate was given to him by Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. Jim was touched by the gesture and delight-ed to receive the recognition. The committee also held a farewell dinner for Jim in march this year.

Jim Barnes’ farewell

At Jim’s farewell dinner from left, Akiko Collins, Melda Townsley, Jack Jones, Rosemary Jones, Jim, and Christine Jones.

Junior high visitors On July 29, 2013, Celia Wade-Brown, the mayor of Wellington, hosted a reception for a group of Sakai junior high school students. every sec-

ond year, Sakai students are hosted by Wellington and newlands College students who were hosted in Japan the previous year. The Wellington Nakano Educational Soci-ety organises english lessons, cultural experiences, and more for the visitors. Speakers emphasised the long term benefits of the personal relationships formed between the students and families from the two cities.

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DuRing 2013 Japanese conversation nights (chatting nights) were intro-duced by Wellington Sakai Associa-

tion, Wellington Jet Alumni Association and the Japan Society of Wellington.

The evening begins with a chatting session between 6 and 7pm where participants speak as much in Japanese as possible.

At 7 pm the groups join together and one person from each group shares an interesting story with everyone. At the end there is a break for nibbles.

Participants are grouped according to their

level of proficiency in the Japanese language and native Japanese speakers move between the groups and help out on the night.

each session has a theme such as friends, food etc. The main aim of these evenings is to promote friendship with other Japanese or-ganisations, as well as providing opportunities for people to get to know each other, sharing experiences and learning more about the Japanese culture. These evenings have been a great success with numbers of attendees reaching capacity on every evening.

The organising groups are hoping to con-

tinue with these evenings in 2014.

By Christine Jones

JkaiWA - Japanese conversation evenings

Christine Jones and Melda Townsley

Rosemary Jones, Christine Jones, Bill Nathan and Donas Nathan.

WSA members at dinner.

On September 10, after the An-nual general meeting, WSA held a dinner at Kazu restaurant on Tory

Street. The dinner was an opportunity for the members to get together and experi-ence some genuine Japanese food, drink and service. The menu for the evening consisted of traditional Japanese dishes, including: edamame beans, seaweed salad, sashimi, chili miso tofu, takoyaki, spicy soft shell crab, teriyaki chicken and seared nigiri sushi.

Traditional dinner follows AGM

The new committee comprises:

President - Rosemary Jones

Vice president - Bill nathan

Secreary - michelle Vanlooy

Treasurer - Christine Jones

Committee - Melda Townsley, Donas Na-than, Stephen gale, Faye Zhang, nic Keating.

WCC representative - Aiko Collins.

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President’s reportThe Wellington Sakai Association has had another busy year. Since our last Agm which was held on Tuesday 11 September last year, your committee have held a number of functions and participated in many events. As the list is too long for me to report on every event, i shall report on a few highlights of the year.

Farewell giFt to amBassador

He Ambassador Hideto mitamura came to the end of his official duty in October 2012. WSA had suggested to hold a farewell dinner in his honour, but he declined because time was getting very short before his departure. So on behalf of WSA i presented him with a small maori carving as a farewell gift at the Japan embassy on 2 October. it was well received and he was very appreciative.

Jim Barnes’ Farewellmany of us would know Jim well. Jim has

been very involved with WSA and many other Japanese activities for a very long time. He has held the positions of president and secretary of WSA as well as having been on the WSA com-mittee for over 15 years. it is with great regret that we have lost Jim from our committee, as he was such a loyal and reliable committee member. Jim has retired from his job and has decided to move to live in the south island.

To express our thanks to Jim for his years of service WSA requested the WCC to present Jim with a Certificate of Appreciation. This framed certificate was presented to Jim by Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. Jim was touched by this gesture and was most delighted to have received this recognition. Our committee also held a fare-well dinner for Jim in march this year.

2013 sister Cities ConFerenCe – tauranga

This year the Sister Cities Conference was held on 13-15 March at Trinity Wharf Hotel in Tauranga. Melda Townsley and I attended. The theme of the conference was “Connect Locally to Succeed globally”. A well known TV personality Te Radar was the MC. He was humorous and witty and kept the conference running smoothly.

The opening speaker was Tony Christian-sen - a motivational speaker who gives talks all over the world. He gave a very inspirational talk and made a presentation in video clips showing how as a nine year old boy, he lost both his legs in a railroad accident. With sheer perseverance, determination and energy, he demonstrated how, despite the handicap, he has accomplished a full life and can be such a role model for all of us.

The conference was a three day event and the programme was rather full, consisting both professional and social events. One event we must mention is that WCC, with a number of Japanese organisations in Wellington won first prize in the Cultural, Sport or Recreation Category in the Air New Zealand Award. The project submitted was the 2012 Japan Festival which was held in September. Our 2012 an-nual magazine has published a full report on the Japan Festival already.

wellington international relations poliCy

On 3 may, the mayor held an international relations policy meeting at the Council cham-bers. There were about 30 people in attend-ance. The meeting discussed ways how we can develop relationships, and make connections internationally to promote business and trade for Wellington.

Cultural diFFerenCes Between Japan & nZ: impliCations For Business

On 15 may, Professor Susumu Yamaguchi gave a most interesting talk on the above topic. He is a professor of social psychology of the University of Tokyo, and a visiting researcher at the Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research at Victory university. His work on control orientations shows that the art of influence in Japan is often by subtle use of secondary or indirect control. Westerners typically rely on primary control (changing external circum-stances) and often get frustrated when they try to do business in Japan, where there are many obstacles to change. Contrary to typical Western conceptions, primary control in Japan involves indirect control, including subtle at-tempts to influence power holders who can actually change external circumstances.

Another full year for WSAWSA Diary & Events – Sept 2012 to Sept 201311 Sept: WSA Agm – 2012

2 Oct: Japan Society & farewell to Ambas-sador Hideto mitamura

5 Oct: Senshu marathon meeting

12 Oct: Senshu marathon meeting at WCC

15 Oct: WXA Agm & combined Christmas dinner

8 Feb: Senshu marathon meeting & dis-cussion on Air nZ Awards.

4 Feb: Chinese New Year Market Day & WSA newsletter distribution

5 mar: Japan Society Agm

8 mar: Senshu marathon runners debrief-ing

12 mar: Farewell dinner for Jim Barnes

13-15 mar: Sister Cities Conference at Tauranga

14 Apr: WXA BBQ

16 Apr: Presentation

3 may: WCC international Relations Policy

15 may: Prof Yamaguchi lecture

25 may: Senshu marathon presentation

27 may: Japanese Conversation nights

13 June: Atomic Bomb Peace exhibition

14 June: Japanese Speech Competition

27 June: Japanese Artist exhibition

29 July: Welcome reception for the WneS exchange students

30 July: John Shelton’s visit to Thorndon School

31 July: SCnZ youth development work-shop in Parliament

2 Aug: Farewell to JET group

8 Aug: Jkawai

15 Aug: JkaiWA debriefing

29 Aug: minoh House reception & presen-dation

5 Sept: Tea Ceremony demonstration

10 Sept: WSA Agm & dinnerContinued on the next page

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“Some Western researchers have a roman-tic view or exotic view about east Asians,” he said. “They have preconceptions that Asians are different. i agree, Asians are different from Westerners to some extent but we are all human beings and we share a lot of things universally. i don’t mind talking about the dif-ference between the east and West.”

wnes exChange programmeOn 29 July, mayor Celia Wade-Brown held

a welcome reception for a group of Japanese students from Sakai who came to Wellington as part of the WNES programme. There were about 20 people including teachers and offi-cials in the group. guests included representa-tives from the Japanese embassy, WneS, WSA, Sister Cities nZ, home-stay families, councillor Paul Eagle, director Derek Fry, and the inter-national relations team.

The programme included speeches from the mayor, Smita Shangarpawar who is a rep-resentative from WNES, Toshihide Fukami, education supervisor, School Planning Divi-sion, School Education Department, Board of education Secretariat.

i was given the task of mC and at the end of the speeches, the Sakai students put on a couple of musical and dance items which were enjoyed by all.

senshu marathon eventThe Senshu Marathon is a very successful

event that WSA supports annually. each year we go through the process of advertising to invite marathon runners to apply. We receive many applications and after the process of vetting the applications and interviewing the candidates, we select the best to represent WSA and WCC in the marathon in Sakai City Japan. This year we were able to select two candidates who completed this task very well indeed.

Stephen Day and Michelle Van Looy were the two candidates and they did Wellington city proud. On their return, they made a presentation at the Scottish Harrier Club on 25 may promoting the event which attracted a great number of marathon runners who have expressed an interest to apply for this event in the future.

peaCe exhiBition – post wwii

in June this year, we held a meeting at WCC with Komiko Duxfield, who is the president of the Auckland Japan Society. We discussed the possibility of holding an exhibition of photo-

graphs in Wellington to display the horrific effects of the atomic bomb used in Japan dur-ing WWII. The objective of this exhibition is to promote peace internationally by showing the younger generations the horrors of the effects of the atomic bomb. Planning of this event is on-going, and a firm date for the exhibition will be advised later.

Japanese speeCh Competition

On 14 June i attended the Japanese speech competition which was held in Wellington College. The competitors were all high school students from a number of schools in Welling-ton including Wellington College, Wellington High, Samuel marsden, Scots College, Hutt Valley High and more.

The Japanese language standard was very high, and the competition was judged by a panel of four judges. i felt every student did very well, and their schools can be very proud of their students’ performances.

Japanese artist exhiBitionOn 27 June, i attended an exhibition by

Japanese artist Yukari Kaihori held at Toi Poneke on Abel Smith Street. Yukari is a resi-dent of Wellington and she had a number of paintings on display. This exhibition attracted quite a number of visitors.

sChool prinCipal’s visitJohn Shelton, a school principal from

Japan, came to Wellington on 30 July. He had expressed a wish that he would like to visit a nZ primary school, in particular he wanted to know how our primary schools conduct their computer programmes. Christine Jones managed to arrange a visit to Thorndon Pri-mary School. He was very impressed with their computer programmes and overall the general standard of our education. After the visit, both melda and myself took him to lunch. melda also took John around to show him a bit of our Wellington scenery. John was very impressed and very appreciative of our efforts.

Conversation nightsThis year WSA decided to establish a

new activity which would be of interest to members and the general public. After some discussion meetings with members from JETAA, we thought it would be a good idea if we conducted a new activity called JkaiWA – Japanese Conversation nights. many of our WSA and JETAA members have been to Japan,

either for holidays or to study or to work, and on their return are keen to keep their Japanese language in practice, and this activity would provide them with this opportunity.

We held our first session on August 8, and over 40 people attended. With help from JETAA members, we divided attendees into groups according to their Japanese language level, and each group had a leader who guided and helped the group with their conversation. We start each session at 6 pm and finish at 7:30 pm when a Japanese supper is served. everyone said it was a very worthwhile activity and they are all keen to continue. We intend to hold these sessions once a month at the Japanese information & Cultural Centre.

Farewell to JetOn Friday 2 August, i was invited to the

Ambassador’s resident to farewell the latest contingent of JET students and teachers who were embarking on their exchange programme in Japan. This programme is very popular and well supported. There were over 30 students and teachers participating in this programme.

tea Ceremony demonstration

The tea ceremony demonstration was held on 5 September at the Japan Embassy. This is a wonderful cultural programme for the general public to observe. There were about 50 people in attendance, and everybody also participated in this cultural activity.

agm & dinner at KaZuOur AGM was held on Tuesday 10 Septem-

ber providing a good opportunity for members to get together. A Japanese dinner was ar-ranged at the end of the Agm at Kazu Restau-rant. As a token of thanks to our members for their support, the committee subsidised the dinner costs.

ConClusionAs we can see from this report, the year has

been very full, filled with a variety of sporting, educational and cultural activities. All these programmes can only be achieved with our members’ support. Therefore I would like to take this opportunity to thank our committee members for the co-operation and hard work they have displayed in the last 12 months, but above all, i would like to thank all our members for supporting our association in making all the above events possible.

rosemary Jones, Qsm, president – wsa

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MAYOR Celia Wade-Brown pulled out both Stephen Day’s and my name as participants in the Sen-

shu marathon.

From the moment we landed in Japan, via Kansai airport, to the time we departed, we were treated as honoured guests, by individuals and the Sakai City staff

We met Mayor Takeyama and other Sakai City staff at the council offices where we exchanged gifts and business cards. We received a nice glass paperweight with the tumulus engraved into it. Hopefully the mayor liked the Hobbit book.

The opening ceremony and reception in the evening began with meeting the mascots each city had (which explained the cartoon characters on the marathon literature).

Race day. We travelled to the start of the marathon by bus and were taken to a waiting area. The weather was perfect; not much wind, fine although a little cool (two degrees Celsius).

My race went to plan. The support we were given along the route was fantastic. There were people cheering, playing taiko drums and heaps of school children waving flags. I completed in a time of 3:22.27, a new personal best.

The Mayor and supporters congratulated me and handed me a towel and cup of miso (soup).

The following day was packed with some memorable experi-ences. We visited mikunigaoki kindergarden where the children had the opportunity to ask us questions, sing, perform a play and practice serving a traditional tea ceremony. After a lunch of takoyaki (octopus), we turned our hand to wagashi making.

in the evening we attended a welcoming ceremony held by the Sakai/Wellington/Berkeley Sister Friendship Cities Council. We were overwhelmed by every-one’s kindness and generosity. Alfonzo, Doug and myself gave our thank you speeches and Stephen decided to sing a tradi-tional maori waiata. A traditional Japanese song, Come on Spring

SAKAi is, as the tourist brochure might read, a city of contrasts. Perhaps the most obvious contrast to Kiwis is the

mix of old and new. The old is best repre-sented by the tea ceremony. Sakai is home to the tea ceremony - where 400 years ago the tea master Sen-no-Rikyu perfected its art. its minimalist structure captures the qualities of peace, contemplation and zen patience. We had the opportunity to partici-pate in a tea ceremony, kneeling on tatami mats at a tea house at Nanshuji Temple where Sen-no-Rikyu perfected his art.

meanwhile nearby outside, and on the corner of virtually every street, were vending machines with bright lights offering coffee-in-a-can. if there is a ritual in Wellington that approaches the Japanese tea ceremony’s hunt for zen perfection, it is long blacks at a cafe. even i, a lifetime coffee abstainer, looked

upon the Japanese vending machine coffee-in-a-can as an assault on culture and community.

massive tombs to ancient emperors, equivalent, as we were often reminded, to the feats of the ancient egyptian pyramids, remained hidden behind moats and imperial privacy, unknown to much of the world. Meanwhile garish, flashing pachinko halls screamed out for visi-tors. This constant contrast between ancient history, on a scale barely comprehensible to pākehā Kiwis, and bustling big-city modernity hit us on nearly every corner.

Sakai claims itself to be the Venice of Japan. i have never been to Venice so i cannot verify that claim, but unexpectedly, it reminded me

ever so much of another harbour city; Rotterdam. Like Rotterdam, Sakai’s modern city has been rebuilt from scratch after the Sec-ond World War. And, like Dutch cities, cyclists weave through the streets, massive irrigation schemes hold back unwanted water, and canals interlace the landscape. The flat plains and the cool winter temperatures added to this sense of Dutch familiarity.

The warmth and sincerity with which everyone embraced us left us without doubt that many in Japan place a high

Marathon musings – Wellington sends two to competemiChelle van looy stephen day

Continued on the next page

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premium on cultural exchange. international exchanges in new Zealand, through tourists, trade and immigration are com-mon enough that we probably do not appreciate their value as acutely as we could. Japan, with its history of closed bor-ders and its much less multicul-tural population, does not have that same luxury to be blasé. Sakai, one of the few ports open to trade during Japan’s period of closed borders, has a particular history of valuing international exchange, both

culturally and commercially. That was evident at the Mikunigaoka kindergarten we visited, where the teachers were keen that their students be exposed to international influences, including visiting marathon runners!

The debt we owe for the incredible opportunity to travel to Ja-pan, and share meals, accommodation and adventures with friendly, generous Japanese families cannot be paid back financially. I hope though that it might be, in part, written off through this cultural exchange in the currency of friendship.

was sung in response. We got to meet our host families properly for the first time.

Tuesday it snowed! Apparently it only does this a couple of time a year in Osaka. Wrapped up warm, i was ready for a day that was filled with learning about the history and traditions of Sakai; including a tradi-tional tea ceremony and a visit to the tomb of emperor nintoku from the 3rd century AD.

Wednesday was a free day with our host family which we spent visiting Kyoto. We had a full on day travelling on trains and taxis, visiting three temples including the famous golden Pavilion.

my experiences in Japan have been very positive and i feel very lucky to have been given this opportunity of a lifetime. i must say a huge thank you to Kevin, Christine and Aiko for all their organisation and support leading up to the trip. Also to the resident photographer and translator, minoru.

Tauranga 13 - 15 March 2013

Connect Locally to Succeed Globally

THe Sister Cities new Zealand (SCnZ) annual conference attendees were warmly welcomed by mayor Stuart

Crosby at the comfortable and well equipped conference location at Trinity Wharf. The weather was fine and the programme was arranged to give attendees opportunities to enjoy sharing ideas and gathering use-ful information during formal and informal

discussion.

All will remember the uplifting, humorous and bitter-sweet talk given by the motivational speaker, Tony Christiansen (pictured right) who, as a nine year old, suffered the loss of his legs in a train accident. With perseverance and energy he has made a full life for

himself and gladly shares this with others.

Te Radar was an engaging and thoroughly professional mC who kept events moving with wit and just the right touch of sensitivity. All enjoyed his love of nZ history, his story telling and ability to fit in with the diverse gathering.

The ‘Connect’ theme was il-

Reflections on SCNZ conference

Continued on the next page

(above) Visiting athletes pose for a photo with Sakai city officials and (below) Stephen and Michelle with some members of the Sakai Wellington Association.

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On 31 July 2013, the Wellington Sakai Association attended a workshop hosted by Sister Cities new Zealand

(SCNZ) at Parliament. The workshop had the aim of informing more young people about the work of SCnZ and encouraging them to get involved in its programmes in their local communities.

The target audience was mostly university-age students (19-24), as well as people from relevant government departments like the Ministry of Youth Development and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Workshop was opened by SCNZ director Cameron Oldfield, who talked about his experience as a young person working on a board, inter-generational communication and how to attract and motivate young people to get involved in their community.

This was followed by a presentation from three Lower Hutt high school stu-dents who had taken part in sister city exchanges with Tempe, Arizona. They talked about hosting students from Tempe and seeing how others saw new Zealand’s culture, land-scape and environment. They then discussed their time in Arizona, and the differences from their own home life.

An interesting point raised was that at the same time they were over there, Tempe was hosting students from their other sister cities

in France and Germany. This meant that the Lower Hutt students had the opportunity to learn about other cultures too. it was fantastic to hear about how the students had made friends for life, had a greater understanding of other parts of the world and how they now had

the desire to do more travel and see the world.

The workshop was concluded by Hon nikki Kaye, minister of Youth Affairs who com-mended the work SCnZ does in connecting young people around the world and develop-ing leaders. She shared her own experience of her time overseas and the friends she has made around the world.

After the presentations there was an op-portunity to network with each other and the presenters. Food and drinks were provided.

Youth development workshop

lustrated by local, national and collaborative initiatives. With the formation of Auckland as a super city we heard of their 30 year vi-sion to become the world’s most livable city. Auckland now has 19 sister city relationships.

The importance of connec-tions with China was highlighted when we were reminded that China has 100 times the popula-tion of New Zealand. The friendly connection of sister cities was always promi-nent but their underlying commercial signifi-cance of trade and business advantages, was the desirable outcome.

The Air NZ Sister City Award dinner was a lively and well organised function. The venue was decked out as a south seas resort with men wearing Hawaiian shirts and the women wearing leis. Again, Te Radar kept the evening moving with his amusing anecdotes between courses.

The Annual General Meeting was better

conducted this year than in some previous years. Hiromi morris was elected president unopposed, Judy Livingston was elected vice president and Gwen Meyer, David Bolam-Smith and marcia Jones were elected to the board.

Changes to qualifying for charitable status resulted in a change to SCnZ’s objectives. in-dividual sister cities could support charitable activities but this is no longer an objective of the national body. Other changes occasioned more discussion. in classifying three groups of voting eligibility there was some confusion over the right of members to vote in differ-

ent categories and also on the apportioning of multiple votes. This needs further clarification. eligibility to stand for the SCnZ board now permits only one per-son from any given organisation to be eligible for election at any given time. This is to ensure that any person elected is a current member of SCnZ and has active involvement and/or interest in the work of the organisation and that

fair geographical and organisational represen-tation is maintained.

Attendees were introduced to some of the outdoor attractions of Tauranga with an early morning walk around and/or up the mount. This was an enjoyable and, for some, a chal-lenging experience.

We completed the conference with a re-newed determination to connect locally and to succeed globally.

- melda F townsley

Cameron Oldfield (above) with some of the speakers and (left) Nikki Kaye

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www.city.sakai.osaka.jpFor information about Sakai

In may, the Wellington Sakai Association at-tended a talk by a visiting

professor from Tokyo Uni-versity, Susumu Yamaguchi (pictured), hosted by the yJnZBC and the Japanese Embassy. Dr Yamaguchi spoke about the cultural differences between Japan and new Zealand and their effects on the business relationships between the two countries. His presentation centred on the differences in con-trol orientations and collectivism vs. individualism.

Control orientations vary across cultures because people desire to control themselves and their en-vironments and develop different strategies for control based on prev-alent values. Japanese have different approaches to control compared to westerners and do not like to exert direct control on others.

An example he used was the Rakugo story. in this story a master is annoyed by his disciple who is singing too loud. instead of issuing a direct command to stop sing-ing, he says: “How well you sing a

song!” For a moment the disciple is proud, taking his master state-ment at its face value, but quickly realises the true meaning of the message (Kojima, 1984, p.972).

This means that entering into busi-ness transactions with Japanese, it must be understood that they

will not try to directly control the discussion, but some of their behav-iours will be indirectly controlling behaviours, and some subtle behav-iours are their way of saying things that westerners would directly state.

Dr Yamaguchi also explained that Japan has a collectivist culture, which means that they place a great-er emphasis on group harmony than they do on themselves. This means Japanese are more likely to engage in activity or purchase a product if other members of their group’ are also doing it. For example, many Japanese stock brokers, list their most popular funds on their homepage and not their highest performing funds.

Thirty nine participants gathered at the residence of Ambassador Nogawa in early August to farewell the 2013 JET participants. It was a happy and stimulating event with addresse by the Ambassador and Grahame Morton, director, North Asia Division, MFAT. Emma White, president, JET

Alumni Association proposed the toast and assured them the Association’s support when they felt far from home. Other speeches were made by JET participipants Kathryn Reeves, Tara Gimpel and Adam McConchie.

Yamaguchi presentation

No ordinary cup of tea

WSA members attended a tea ceremony at a specially designed room in the Japan information & Cultural Centre where they were shown the intricacies of the

ceremony – one of the most elaborate tea-serving rituals in the world and one which originated in Sakai.

Performing the ceremony requires years of training and practice and must be performed in the most perfect, polite, graceful and charming manner possible incorporating four basic principles: wa, kei, sei and jaku or harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity.

Tea gatherings are either informal (chakai) or formal (chaji). A chakai is a simple affair including sweets, and thin tea while a chaji is more formal and includes a full-course meal, sweets, thick tea and thin tea and sake, and can last up to four and a half hours.

Students of the ceremony must be familiar with the produc-tion and types of tea, with kimono, calligraphy, flower arranging, pottery, incense and a wide range of other traditional arts in addition to the school’s tea practices. even guests must know appropriate gestures and phrases and how to act within the room.