Our first weekly quiz consisted of thirty questions on the names of various tatami mats and dōgu, directions and steps in the tearoom, and the like. I got 29 of them correct; an encouraging start. During second period, an American teacher named Hlawatsch who teaches Japanese history to international students at a local university gave us a crash course on the 14th century Ashikaga shogunate. We’ll see Hlawatsch-sensei once a month, and we’ll be tested on the information he gives us in lecture as well as on the copious reading he assigns. Our senpai have warned us that these tests aren’t easy.

After a lunch of croquettes, we had our last afternoon of warigeiko, the initial practice in component skills like folding the fukusa that are common to every temae. I could probably stand to sit through another month of this. Hamana-sensei is increasing the pace at which he introduces new terminology. Today we used the lacquered trays that function centrally in the temae we’ll start tomorrow: the simplest preparation, in which most of the required implements are brought out on a tray and the host pours hot water from a little kettle rather than drawing it from a bigger vessel with a bamboo dipper. Hamana-sensei expects us to remember the name of the tray shape (yamamichibon, because the top edge of the tray’s (bon) rim undulates gently like a mountain (yama) path (michi)); the lacquer technique; the red accents on the black tray (tsumagure: like nails painted red); the kinds of tea bowls used; the flowers; the scroll; the pebbled texture of the kettle (arare: hailstones).

We finished our chores and had another dinner of unidentified breaded meat, then went to the girls’ dorm. One responsibility I’m being groomed to inherit is the writing of letters on behalf of the Midorikai group. We owed a thank-you to Oiemoto for the dinner on Friday and one to Daisōshō for the tickets to Miyako Odori, and a birthday card for Daisōshō as well. I wrote the note to Oiemoto in English, Tanawat helped out by writing the other thank-you in Japanese, and Anita, who is the current letter-writer, made the card.

That didn’t leave us with much free time before bed. But that’s seems to be the way life here works.