Eating fondue
The water is glassy as I gaze over Lake Geneva from the window of the train. On the other side, the view includes a terraced landscape of grapevines in the Lavaux area, which is the result of planting vines in every possible location in a mountainous region. Across the lake, the mountains have eluded me for my entire visit, but today are just barely visible. This is in stark contrast to my last visit when the breathtaking view consumed me each time I glanced through a window. Although the weather didn’t exactly cooperate this trip, my weekend here was better than I could have imagined.
Coming back to Switzerland to visit D, an old friend from Texas, and his wife Manon is one of the few things I wanted to do prior to moving back to the USA. As the days draw closer to my imminent departure, I’m beginning to realize it might be the only personal trip I’ll be able to take. My departure is only a short month away now.
Eating raclette
D runs his own dojo teaching Aikido, so I had high hope for a long, relaxing weekend. They definitely delivered! We soaked our weary bones at Les Bains de Lavey, gorged ourselves eating fondue, and raclette, and attended a Japanese tea ceremony that D is learning to perform from his sensei. All attendees were mindful of the ultimate goal of relaxation.
D performing Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony was quite interesting. It seems there are 1000s of variations, this one being the simplest, but beautiful and eloquent none-the-less. Each movement has a meaning and no doubt my uneducated ways broke every rule but no one brought my mistakes to light. This ceremony reminded me of a Chinese tea ceremony I went to in China when I was there for a month in 2000. I would never begin to say that they are in any way alike, but some of the traditions seemed similar, like the meticulous cleaning of the tea set before use. For the Japanese ceremony I was a fascinated participant with little to no knowledge of what was occurring around me. I am lucky that when I was in China I documented each step, it seems just for this day. Here is my tea ceremony experience in China:
“We walked from there across the street to a tea house called Gu Cho Cha Fang. I learned the proper "tea culture" here. This was a quaint little place that was absolutely gorgeous with swimming fish in bowls, Chinese paintings, and delicate tables within an open aired courtyard area.
This is the tea culture. You start off with a teapot, a tea holder (for when the tea is done, you don't want to leave it in with the leaves), some small cups, some tall cups, a strainer, a tea board which you put all this stuff on, and some tongs to touch everything with (no hands!).
The steps:
1) Light incense to promote peace and comfort, calm down and relax. Be happy.
2) Display the tea leaves to the guests.
3) Talk about the water. It should be fresh from a mountain steam.
4) Place the tall cups into the smaller cups.
5) Clean the inside of the teapot by pouring in boiling water.
6) Pour the water from the teapot into the tall cups which are situated within smaller, shorter cups.
7) Place tea leaves in teapot.
8) Pour water into the teapot, making sure you are pouring from a high distance in order to clean the tea leaves.
9) Swirl the top of the teapot around in the overflowing teapot to clean.
10) Pour water over the top of the teapot to increase the temperature of the teapot top so it matches the temperature inside the teapot.
11) Pour the water out of the cups (that already have water in them). The first filled teapot is never to drink; it is only to clean the tea leaves.
12) Hold the tall cup with tongs and pour the water inside of it into the smaller cup.
13) Clean the rims of the tea cup in the bottom cup’s water.
14) All of the steps before this were for cleaning. Add more water to the teapot and steep for one minute only.
15) Pour the new tea into the tall teacup filling it up only 70% of the way. Continue filling up each cup up to 80% one by one after that.
16) Put the small cups on top of the tall one covering it.
17) Turn over the tall cup (topped with the smaller cup) so that the small cup is now on the table.
18) Pull off the tall cup, spilling the tea from the big cup into the smaller cup.
19) Admire the scent of the tea remnants in the tall cup.
20) At this point you may drink the tea. You should hold the cup with three fingers only and drink the whole cup in exactly 3 sips (once you see the size of the cup you will understand how this is very easy).
We sat for several hours drinking tea and eating congee. The tea ceremony and the atmosphere were wonderful. The congee was pretty boring. After that we went to the Laozi Stone Statue. He was some philosopher from a long time ago. I've never heard of him. But the statue was cool.”