Chado: The Way of Tea
The coordinates listed above take you to the entrance of this facility. Use the hints to locate the container. You will be seeking a small container that represents what this facility offers. A code word is written on the log inside the container. Don't forget to sign the log and write the code word on your passport to get credit for finding this cache. **Please use stealth, muggles are everywhere!**
**This cache is placed with permission and is only available Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm. They are closed Saturday, Sunday and traditional holidays. There is nothing commercial here. This location provides cultural info to the public for free.
This center is an authentic tatami room and a Japanese tea room as well as a Japanese viewing garden. It provides educational space for Japanese language and culture, display space for beautiful Japanese artifacts and art, a site for demonstrating Japanese culture and traditions, a place to further friendships among those who appreciate and enjoy Japanese culture and a center for the community to participate in university programs.
The tea room provides some clues as to the true nature of the Chado ceremony. The tea room was built with great care to convey the style and functionality of a genuine Japanese tea room. Guests enter through the garden, which is carefully designed to put them in a peaceful frame of mind and convey the idea that man is being surrounded by nature.
A typical teahouse in Japan, althought built with great care and often at great expense, looks like a ramshackle, rustic hut. It emphasized simplicity and austerity. The door through which the guests enter is very small, so that they must almost crawl through. The idea here is that they are leaving all worldly things behind - even in the days of samurai, the men were forced to remove their swords and hang them on a hook, otherwise they would not fit through the door.
The entrance to the tea room at the Japan House is not as small as a traditional tea house, but guests still must stoop down to enter. Once inside, the room is bare except for a small alcove, braced by a rustic wood post on one side and decorated with a simple scroll and flowers. In accordance with Zen teaching, all that is not necessary is excluded. All that remains is simple, tranquil beauty.
Only the bowls and utensils needed for the ceremony are brought into the room. After the host feeds his guest some small sweets, the tea preparation begins. the water is boiled over a sunken hearth in the floor, and the host makes the tea, which is made from powdered tea leaves, and hands the bowl to the first guest. All of the movements are carefully scripted and in every step the ceremony emphasizes courtesy and respect.
For instance, when the host hands the bowl of tea to the first guest, that guest politely declines to drink and offers it instead to the second guest. In subtle moments like this throughout the ceremony, the participants display humility and courtesy toward each other regardless of what their station in life might be outside the tea room.