2014/02/15

HitoTema - a little extra time and effort -

In Japanese, there is a word tema, which literally means “hand and time”. It refers to “time and effort” in English.

Nowadays, people living in this busy world tend to prefer doing quicker and easier to taking time and effort. I have to admit I am the one of them. I often choose something quicker and easier.

But when it comes to tea, the story is different. Many choose bottled or instant tea even when they drink at home, but I make tea with using a teapot and tea leaves like all tea-lovers do so.

“Now, what shall I have? Black tea, green tea…In case of black tea, which one??....”. This is how my teatime starts. What I want to drink depends on time, mood and who drinks with. Then, boil water, warm a teapot, put some tea leaves into the pot, wait till a kettle sings, sometime wait another time for boiling water to cool down (for some Japanese green tea), pour the water into the pot, and steep it for a while.

For some, maybe many nowadays, this process seems to be troublesome. Even some of my friends who are not into tea say, “Do you boil water every time you make tea? What a troublesome!”, “If you make tea with a teapot, you have to wash it, right? No, not for me!”………..Oh well, it is not a big deal for me. Ready-made things are convenient sometimes, but I believe that “hand and time” creates warm feelings.

Again, I also choose something quicker and easier for some/many cases. We are living in very convenient and developed world. That’s even more reason that I also would like to keep doing “a little extra time and effort”, hito-tema.

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