Teahouse, Ear cleaning and Children in Large Balls

Today consisted of another wonderful cultural adventure. After moping around the room all morning Erin proposed a trip to a teahouse. Using the knowledge that teahouses usually accompany temples we got out the map, chose a temple that was easy to get to, and gathered a group to venture there. Our vehicle of choice was of course our newly acquired bicycles and off we went up first ring road, dodging motor bikes, taxis, pedistrians, and other bicylists. We arrived at what we thought was the temple to find a park full of Teahouses and kiddie carnival rides. Erin and I were at once amused by the kid craft stand where we watched the kiddie potters and picked up some Olympic character crafts, while the boys headed off to pick out a Teahouse. When we were finally ready to join them we found out they had not only found a teahouse buy also an ear cleaner. Hmmmmm... well thats interesting. As we headed over to the Teahouse of choice to investigate we discovered a small child inside a large ball trying to move around a pond. Quite an interesting form of day care, but I suppose rather effective. Erin and thought it looked fun and would some day like to try it ourselves. We finally found the boys at a nice local teahouse, ordered our tea, and precieved to get our ears cleaned too. And not just your normal daily cleaning with a q-tip, this was a full out cleaning including a scapel, a small chimney sweep, and a tuning mallet. I don't know exactly the whole process, but it sure felt very wierd in my ear. However, my ears were squeeky clean afterward and I could hear the grasshoppers chipping in Washington. The whole ordeal was definitely a cultural experience.

From there we left the park to get back for a group meeting, yet to find the temple--that will have to be another trip. None the less it was a great afternoon full of new cultural experiences.