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Event Description
NODATE at Innisfree Garden
In old days, our Japanese ancestors may have sat outside backyard making a
tea and looking up at the bright red color of Japanese maple leaves falling
from a tree twirling with autumn breeze. That was how they enjoyed the
nature - simple yet magnificent of universe, and life. Imagine, sitting on
top of a small hill in the Innisfree Garden looking at a pond through tree
lines while a host wearing traditional Kimono making a cup of Matcha tea for
you. All you hear is a whisper of water and birds . The harmony and
peacefulness was something you don’t realize, until now, what’s missing in
your busy daily life. Nodate - a tea ceremony set up outside in the natural
environment is to enjoy the moment of serenity and to respect the beauty of
the nature. Just like Japanese ancestors did...
We had planned this Nodate tea ceremony since last year. After our months of
effort - rewriting proposal 3 times, meetings, a long-waiting site
inspection finally made in June, practice and rehearsals which we found were
never enough - finally came to this day we dreamed for so long. There were
times we experienced so much frustrations and became inpatient due to
difficulties in communication for which things didn’t move as smooth as we
wished. Today’s weather forecast was strangely looking like as if it were
reflecting our mood - expecting rain and 80 something degrees in
temperature. The preparation was far from perfect since delayed badly as we
had to change the location at last minute in order to seek for shades. By
the time it started, we definitely needed peace. Then, sun was out…
The early autumn light coming through leaves touched our face. When the
breeze ceased, it felt like the whole world stopped. The water on an old
pond looked so calm and the deep blue signified the tranquility… The
atmosphere was something you could never forget. Truly inspirational, and
that was all about Nodate.
We wanted to present this Nodate to express our appreciation to our
community and Arts Mid-Hudson as well as other organizations and individuals
who have supported us throughout a year. It wasn’t always easy for us to
provide so many programs with such little numbers of volunteers with limited
budget as well as technicality issues, but we worked very hard. We are very
proud what we do and our great volunteer team. Our main server, Yuriko-san,
had brought her 9 wonderful family members as guests. Thank you! And, many
many thanks to Millbrook High School Japan Club students who helped us
today, and to our member, Georgia-san, who had called them and made sure
they would be there for us. Not just the guests who attended but also those
students, I truly hope, may realize one day they had shared with us our
ancestor’s moment of old time.
Midori Shinye
Project Leader
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