Notes taking

Doesn't this remind you of school days....

Now doing this...

Sushi Making

Moi recently went for a sushi making course. hahahahaha! It was rather fun though due to the time constraints...nothing much was really "taught" during the course. =P The instructor made it sounds rather simple. The rice used must be the sticky California Japanese type short grain rice. After cooking, mix half a packet of Sushi rice powder (sushi no ko) as shown on the right. The recommendation proportion is about 3 teaspoons of sushi powder to 10oz (approximate 1 cup) of rice. But it's really up to personal taste and preference. Would recommend you to add in the powder sparingly step by step and taste it till your desire taste. The use of sushi powder is a new technique for Moi since previously I was taught to use with the Japanese liquid vinegar which is much tedious and taste is more difficult to control.

Sprinkle the sushi powder evenly over the cooked rice and mix them thoroughly while fanning the rice to cool it down. When mixing, it's important to mix the rice with those wooden flat spoon using a cutting and folding motion to avoid crushing the rice and causing the rice to mix into a paste. Well, you might be wondering why bother to fan the rice to cool down the temperature instead of just cooling down the rice and use it later. This is to ensure that the sushi rice will retain the right amount of moisture to be sticky enough and yet not too warm to become pasty.

Well after the tedious part of making the rice, the rest is rather simple... as per below...

Sushi roll

Take note to use the less shiny part of the nori paper (seaweed) to put the rice on and spread the rice evenly close to the bottom of the nori paper but with a fair bit of allowance at the top. Well rolling the sushi inside the sushi mat, be sure to hold it firmly to compact the rice nicely. Wet the blade of the knife before cutting the sushi, so that the nori won't be stuck onto the blade.

Our next try-out is Sushi-ball making. It's even simpler in steps without the nori. Just placed the ingredients as the bottomest layer and the rice on top. Then wrapped everything inside saran plastic wrap and twist it into a ball.

Sushi ball


Familiar faces??? ;-)


Our Sushi

Sado

Today I went back to study Sado after a long break of 3 years. AND YES!!! Was I happy!?? I was THRILLED! OVERJOYED!! DELIGHTED!! EXTREMELY HAPPY!!! \(^o^)/ I have learnt and been doing Sado for about 6 - 7 years before stopping as my Japanese teacher was not able to visit Singapore. But I have never stop yearning to practise again, to do Sado again. Thanks to ABC, I managed to get in touch with my new school teacher, Miura Sensei and was able to continue doing Sado again.

Went to take out all my Sado's barang-barang to practise and polish my rusty skills before going for class. kekeke! Just to show some of the very basic ones that I have....

Tea Bowl, Tea Caddy, Tea Scoop, Water Scoop, Fukusha, Washi, Tea Whisk

Erm.... Moi, not bedek bedek one, ok!! I got certificate hor. Don'ch play-play!!! *wink*

My certificate for 3 basic forms

I had a whole day of lesson today and was really glad to be able to refresh many new steps and able to indulge in that art again. Ureshikatta. *Beams*

一期一会 (Ichigo-ichie)

The scroll...

The phrase arise from the days of the Samurai where there was great turmoil and uncertainty. Before departing for a mission, all samurai would gather to drink a bowl of tea as one never know if they would be able to meet ever again... This gathering is treated like the last and became what is to this day kokoro of Sado (茶道の心).

“一期”refers to one lifetime and“一会”means only one meeting. Thus the phrase“一期一会”refers to the once chance once in a lifetime. In Sado, when preparing tea for the guests, the host should hold the heart of “一期一会”treating this moment and gathering as the last encounter. This term is also much repeated in budo (武道) to emphasize non-occurence concept. In a life-or-death struggle, there is no chance to "try again" and each stroke should be used as singly and decisively.

This is the same as philosophy as treasuring the moment during the previous Sado performance that I have watched at the Asian Civilisations Museum that I have watched in September.

In a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, all utensils, flowers, scroll, incense, tea powder, etc., are all specially selected by the host. Al details are worked out to the finest details by the host... I used to find my Sado teacher too "strict", picking on the nitty gritty of the steps. Since the philosophy of tea making lies in the heart of the host and not the steps why the fuss? With that my sensei replied that because if you have the heart, the sincere and geninue heart to prepare that bowl of tea for the guest, all the steps will come naturally and there won't be any mistake. All the steps are done for a reason behind. For e.g. the cleaning of the hands before making the tea is just a form. The host does not literally go and clean his or her hands. But it's more like the preparing and cleaning the heart to prepare the tea. The mixing of the cold water with the hot water after pouring in to make sure that the temperature from the top of the kettle to the bottom is even. The placement of the utensils towards the guest so that while waiting for the host to prepare the bowl of tea, the guest can enjoy looking at the utensils.

This paper is found beside the scroll. The first line from the right is abt the scroll, the second, the type of flowers displayed, the third line is above the vase, fourth line on incense holder,... the tea utensils etc. The host will write the type of utensils used and the makers. It is so detailed. Amazing.

The utensils...

シンガポール国立大学ー日本研究学科２５周年

Today I attended the 25th Anniversary of the Japanese Studies Department (NUS). It was interesting to meet students, teachers, staffs and head of dept from the very first batch till the present. The changes, the differences and the close bond that the department still has. It's really heart warming.

Felt kind of "old" among the Generation Z. Hahahaha! I was glad to be introduced to Miura-sensei who is the new Sado teacher at the Sado Club. Previously, it was another teacher, Hirota-sensei. I was fortunate enough to be able to receive her close attention and teaching during my learning at NUS previously.

I came in late so i missed the performance by Sado club. But fortunately I was able to catch the dance performance by the Buyo club instead.



I wonder how the girls kept their postures... and reframed from smiling and even batting their eyes.



EnshuRyu sensei, Miura-sensei receiving an award for her dedication in teaching students the Japanese tea ceremony and also another award for Kobori Enshu, our Grand Master of the EnshuRyu.



And my boss also received a special award for his dedication and contribution to the Japanese studies department. :D

Er...where's my award??? :-P

Moments

In doing Chado or Sado 茶道, great emphasize is always place on the procedures in making a bowl of tea. The whole ceremony is always carried out in a rather solemn and harmonious atmosphere where the host (the person making the tea) and the guests usually keep quiet exchanging little words only when necessary. Some will find it highly uncomfortable to enjoy a bowl of tea which takes about half an hour to make while sitting in seiza (sitting on knees) style.

In commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of Diplomatic relations between Singapore and Japan, there was a chakai (tea ceremony demonstration) at the Asian Civilisation museum today and tomorrow. It brought back fond memories of my days of learning the tea ceremony many years back.

The demonstration yesterday was known as the Showashiki and it emcompasses a whole procedure from flower arrangement, preparing the incense, making and drinking tea and writting down poems. The whole procedure lasted for 45 minutes but it was a very wonderful experience for myself. It was rare to see such performance in Singapore as usual the performance is only limited to the tea making procedure. I had witnessed a similar procedure in Japan many years back at my tea school - EnshuRyu.

Narrator at the ceremony spoke about enjoying this unique moment. The intricate movements of each steps in making the tea is with the host thinking for the guests and the guests thinking for the hosts. It's a mutual harmony among the people in the little tea room, and appreciation for each other's thoughts. Even if the same ceremony is perform again in another time by the same person with the same guest, the moment will be different. The tea will taste slightly different, the temperate of the room will be different, the mood of the person will be different, their feeling and thinking will be different, the environment will be different,etc. I felt she is so right... every moment in our life is unique and we can never repeat it. So we should learn to treasure every moment, cos it will be different and unique.

Here are some photos I took during the ceremony.

The host is preparing incense.

The host then proceeds to pass the incense to each guest to sniff.

This is an interesting ceremony because there is the use of Tana (Shelf) and there are 2 types of natsume (tea container) - one containing tea powder for making the koicha (Thick tea) which comes with a bukuro (bag) and another for containing tea powder for making ushucha (light tea). Actually till now I cant really tell the difference between the two tea powder. I believe strongly they are the same tea powder of smaller microns (extremely fine) is preferred for koicha.

The interesting part about this demonstration is that the guest got a chance to make tea too. A box with little tokens were passed around and a guest was picked to drink and another to drink the tea. Noticed it's another lady who is making the tea this time.

The host returns afterwards to clean the utensils after the performance and on request by the guest, she will be showing the utensils that she had used in this ceremony. During a tea ceremony, it's interesting to note that all the utensils are meticiously clean before and after the ceremony. It symbols the purification of the soul and the attentiveness of the host towards his guest rather than the physical cleaning.

In traditional Japanese table etiquette, after eating, it's a custom to return all the utensils back to its place including closing the lid for the soup bowl and placing the chopstick back in the tray, etc. And the cleaning of the utensils for the tea ceremony and returning back to their place itself is also a very part of the tradition of completeness.

Upon finish of the tea ceremony, the guests together with the host came together to make poems related to each flower arrangement that each individual made earlier. Traditional ink stacks was used. The guest was grinding ink from an ink stick and using a brush to write down her verse.

Each guest would also proceed to use washii (rice paper) to clean each brush and absorb the excess ink from the ink stack before returning to the host. Washii is something that guest must bring for eating okashii (sweets) that is served before drinking of the tea.

After writing down, the guests read it out loud and shared with the other guests.

The demonstration is done by School of Urasenke. The steps and procedures from the small details like folding of the fukusa (handkerchief use in tea ceremony) and chakin (tea cloth for cleaning of the bowl), walking, whisking of the tea, style and steps are all intricately very different yet very much similar in form and meaning from my school and of course with other schools.

Oh!! And i ran into a friend while watching the showashiki demonstration. She is going to perform on the 10th Sept 2:00pm at the same place. Ganbare!! Yoko!! p(^_^)q