Tea with occasional Hammers

Early in the day we went to talk to a local business owner about his IT and E-commerce infrastructure. He had some pretty tight security.



But not all his employees were uptight. One in particular was a right jolly fellow.


I wandered around a little and found the room where they make the ID's for the verification purposes mentioned above.


After a great lunch in the company cafeteria, staffed by some very jovial ladies, the Mitsuke Rotary members took us into the country to a historical museum that everyone was calling my confusing names like 'archives' and 'folk materials' but really it was a museum of farming implements from the surrounding area. I learned that even mukashi ni, in old times, it was Hammer Time.

We left the museum as a Middle school class was on their way in to get a view of their past and went on down the road to a little house in the middle of a sea of ta; rice fields.

As it turns out this was a Tea House. It was the real deal too. The owner had retired from a lifetime of salary work and travel and built the house we were in to take up the spare time he had. He decorated it with all the implements he had acquired during his travels, and hired some attendants and a Tea Master. Now we reap the benefits of his labor.



All in all it was an experience that I won't forget. Our hostess's kimono was beautiful, as you can see.



Even the surrounding grounds were lovely; accented by the rain falling messily into the ponds and rice fields around us.


The Mitsuke Rotary Club is having a welcome dinner for us this evening, which I am sure will be absolutely fantastic, so time to clean up and get presentable.