Sheffield Japanese Tea Seminar- 27th September, 2013

Another pair of happy London underground stairs and we are on the way to Sheffield. The true steel city, where rain never stops, or so we thought. Sheffield, though, greeted us with a bright sunshine and a bunch of Japan Society committee members ready to help in the tea seminar. Having misplaced a connector between a laptop and a projector, we thought we may be in trouble with the tea seminar. Luckily Fiona, the president of the Japan society, gave us a hand not only arranging the kettles, without which no tea would have been possible, but also lent us her laptop so we could make the presentations.

Having heard that more than 50 students signed up for the event, we were extremely happy and a little concerned if we will have tea cups for everyone. Sheffield has one of the strongest Japan research centres in the UK, so no wonder so many students got interested in joining us for a cup of tea and learning about what tea is like in Japan. As the event was at the university we thought it would be fun to have some interaction, so Minami became our translator for the day, Liz took up photographer`s role, while Fiona and Louise helped out with serving tea.

Having students help with translating from Japanese to English, was really helpful and Matsu-san could explain about tea in way more detail. Most of the students were on a Japanese studies course, so I bet they were glad to listen to Matsu-san`s talk too, even though Kansai dialect may not be the easiest to understand. When asked who would want to come to our place, a lot of students raised their hands. So for what we know we might have a few new interns very soon;]

Thank you to the Sheffield Japan Society and SEAS administration for their help in organizing and promoting the event. We hope we can come back soon and say everyone is welcome to visit us on the tea farm!

Don`t forget to follow our adventures in Europe.