*gets cultured*
Two cultural events this past week: ikebana (flower arranging) Wednesday afternoon, and sadou (tea ceremony) Thursday. I can personally vouch for the relaxing (or at least distracting) effects of the former; on a day where I spent most of the morning on the verge of panic (for reasons I'm not going to get into, since they seem to be more or less resolved), I found that fiddling with the angles of flowers did a good job keeping my mind busy on other things. My artist side must have enjoyed being let out for a bit.
The tea ceremony wasn't nearly as fun, unfortunately. First, the tea was bitter (it's supposed to taste like that; it's meant to keep you awake, not please the palate). And I still have no idea how the servers sat like that -- drop to both knees, then flatten the tops of your feet against the floor and sit on your heels -- because some part of my legs felt strained or crushed no matter what I did. (Thankfully, they only made us sit that way while we were actually being served, which encouraged me to down the stuff fast. -_-)
The tea ceremony wasn't nearly as fun, unfortunately. First, the tea was bitter (it's supposed to taste like that; it's meant to keep you awake, not please the palate). And I still have no idea how the servers sat like that -- drop to both knees, then flatten the tops of your feet against the floor and sit on your heels -- because some part of my legs felt strained or crushed no matter what I did. (Thankfully, they only made us sit that way while we were actually being served, which encouraged me to down the stuff fast. -_-)