Metz Japanese Tea Event – 6th September, 2014

After energetic tea-fueled jumping through the UK, we arrive to the next welcoming country, that is France. Metz being the home town of Lucilia Kobayashi, our host for several Obubu Euro Tour events, we were happy for a chance to visit it with tea. And it was not just any place that the event was held in, but an old movie theater –Salle Braun, that made the atmosphere a little bit more uplifting.

But having left Japan and the UK we have realized one issue – all languages we could speak were Japanese and English, so what to do in France? Lucilia was there to help us through the evening, translating form Japanese and English into French, and did an amazing job. But Matsu-san too had spent a couple of hours practicing French, so that he could make a short introduction – and the effort was greatly appreciated by the guests.

Most of the guests that joined us for the evening were form the Metz Lorraine Japanese Association, so they were interested in Japanese culture and knew about Japanese tea quite a bit. When asked who, had a tetsubin – iron kettle – at home, so may hands rose up that we just had to switch the topic and talk more about the tetsubin, it’s use back in the day and health effects of making tea in an iron tea pot.

In addition to meeting the event guests and making new friends in France, we also got to see Obubu Internship Alumna Diana, who is studying in Paris and had spent several hours on the bus just to come to Metz. A future intern Rosa too, had joined the event to meet us for the first time. Such a happy occasion to meet Japanese tea lovers and inspire the new generation.