THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606180138
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 125 lines
TEA TIME IN Japan calls for more than fine china and silver spoons.
It involves a woven straw mat, a wooden whisk, ceremonial bowl and an olive-green powder ground from the leaves of tea picked while it's still green. And it calls for an overseer, of sorts, trained in the ancient art of the tea ceremony.
Yasuko Tachibana, an intern this year at Hardy Elementary School in Isle of Wight County, just fits the recipe.
She paid tea school tuition, studied for three months and invested in an expensive ceremonial tea set so she could bring that part of her culture during a visit to America through an international program based in Tokyo.
``The tea ceremony is reserved for very special occasions,'' Tachibana told a first-grade class at Hardy. ``This tea is very, very special. We usually do not drink this tea.''
Removing her sandals and kneeling on the mat, Tachibana bowed three times over the bowl, carefully stirred hot water into the powder and asked the children to follow her lead.
The ceremony is meant to cultivate inner tranquility and the ideal frame of mind toward nature and man, according to one of Tachibana's textbooks from tea school.
``I never drunk tea on the floor before,'' one youngster observed as he lifted a plastic cup to his mouth and made a face at the bitter taste.
Tachibana, 20, arrived in Smithfield in April, after months of preparing in her native land to enter the International Internship Program. She graduated in March from a two-year college, attended tea school and studied Japanese art forms such as origami and flower arranging.
She has studied English for seven years. Like other program interns, she hopes to return home to teach conversational English in a kind of after-school program popular in Japan.
Interns from the program, which promotes peace and international friendship, have been in more than 30 countries worldwide since it began in 1979. This year, there are about 90 in the United States - five, in addition to Tachibana, in Virginia. Among them is Hozumi Hayashi at Independence Christian School in Virginia Beach.
Tachibana lives in Yokohama with her parents and a brother, who graduated from a university at the same time this spring that she graduated from college. Her father, she said, has a small meat shop near their home. Her mother helps in the shop, and she also is a licensed kimono maker.
``Well, I have never been to United States and never left Japan for long time,'' Tachibaba said in a March letter to Hardy's Betty Hanlon. ``So, the most anxious point is English. I'm weak in speaking English, so my English may make you irritated. But I'm trying to accustom myself to English. If I'm in trouble, please help me!''
At Hardy, she is teaching Japanese geography and languages. There are three sets of alphabets in the language, one based on Chinese characters.
And she has learned from the children as well.
``I enjoy everything about my new life and teaching at Hardy,'' she said, near the end of the school year. ``I enjoy teaching the Japanese culture and language. I can learn lots of things from children now, especially English.
``Every day, children ask me some questions about Japan, but sometimes I cannot answer. Because, when I was in Japan, I had never thought about such a thing.''
Tachibana, petite and with a quick smile, seems to relate naturally to the children at Hardy, said guidance counselor Art DeGroft.
``She's just about the same height as some of our fifth-graders,'' DeGroft said, smiling. ``I think that has made it easier for her to talk with the kids, to communicate with them.''
Tachibana said she was inspired to visit the United States by a college friend who had spent a year in this country as a high school exchange student.
``I fine here,'' Tachibana said. ``Every day, I enjoy. I like Hardy children because they are so kind. I like their hugs. I have never been to a foreign country. These people are good to me.''
She is staying with DeGroft's family during her nine-month, unpaid internship. She's undecided about plans for the summer, but she may visit a friend from her hometown who is living in Texas.
When Hardy students return to school in September, Tachibana will take up where she left off, teaching the children about her homeland. Her contract with the internship program requires that she remain in Virginia through the end of the year.
She has been impressed, she said, with the discipline of the students in the American school, especially their behavior in the hallways.
``No,''she said, making a running motion and shaking her head. ``In Japan, no lines. But the kids are not so different. Some rowdy. Some quiet.''
Degroft said, ``The teachers and the students love her.''
Tachibana said, ``I am not sad,'' but she misses Japanese food and Japanese bathrooms. ``We have a bathtub full of water. No showers.''
The tea ceremony, she told the children, is held only on holidays and very special occasions. In Japan, if you want to honor a guest in your home with the special tea party, you must hire someone trained in conducting the ceremony.
``In Japan, no sugar. We eat a sweet before drinking the tea,'' she said, as she passed out small pieces of chocolate to the students.
``You eat. You drink,'' she said, smiling as she demonstrated. ``You like?''
Margie Utley, a third grade teacher at Hardy who previously taught a unit on the Japanese language and culture at a magnet school in North Carolina, has especially enjoyed having Tachibana in the school.
``The children have been so excited about having another culture in the school,'' Utley said. ``We've covered everything from language to writing to folk tales. The experience has been an immersion into Japanese food, language and culture.''
And the visitor from Japan who has made the experience possible can't wait to get back to work this fall.
``I like the students and teachers and staff at Hardy - sometimes even better than those in Japan,'' she said. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 7 of The Citizen for this date.] ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
FIT TO A TEA
Jason Peters is slightly suspicious of his Japanese green tea.
Caroline Gwaltney is amazed at the taste of the tea.
Kourtney Timm listens to her teachers before taking a sip.
Staff photos, including the cover, by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Yasuko Tachibana conducted the tea ceremony meant to cultivate inner
tranquility and an ideal frame of mind toward nature and man.
``The tea ceremony is reserved for very special occasions,'' Yasuko
Tachibana told a first-grade class at Hardy. ``This tea is very,
very special. We usually do not drink this tea.'' by CNB