Tea Ceremony
My name is Mitsuhiro Nakamura, I live in Tokyo. Head bartender of Peter: The Bar in The Peninsula Tokyo, it’s my title. As a bartender, I have over 10 years experience. I became a cocktail champion of three brands (Chivas Regal, Bombay Sapphire and Patron) in Japan and tried each global final in Spain, U.S, Mexico. But my life's work is one of the oldest Japanese traditions; “Tea Ceremony”. I have travelled all over the world, teaching others about the ceremony. In my opinion, Tea Ceremony is the foundation of Japanese hospitality service.
Tea Ceremony is the total art of Japanese culture. It began around 600 years ago. This art consists of Japanese style rooms, gardens, calligraphy, unique tools, traditional food, flower arrangement and nature in four seasons.
The master of the Tea Ceremony invites guests into a specially designed room and expresses hospitality in the process of serving green tea. The master of the Tea Ceremony expresses his appreciation and warmth through preparing the tea. The tea master also prepares traditional sweets, flower arrangements and tea which matches each season. The tea master makes green tea slowly and gracefully to make the guests feel relaxed and at ease.
When you pick a cup up, don’t reach for it straightly, do it by making a curve with your hand. This elegant movement is one of the tea master’s hospitalities.
Recently, people have started to look at the other side of the Tea Ceremony. It’s self-improvement. There are many kinds of making, it’s like a ritual. For example, a lady who has over 50 years of experience in Tea Ceremonies in Kyoto said she is “Still learning”. There is such a huge history behind the ceremonies, therefore, I will be modest and humble. I can’t say I’m perfect in my life. Never stop learning.
Today, I want to introduce Japanese traditional idiom called 一期一会"Ichigo-Ichie". However, I cannot find the exact English translation. Close English is “Treasure every encounter”. It means we have to serve a drink in the best situation anytime because we will never have this time again. I explained it in my seminar, “In this seminar, same audience, same panelists, same place and same time. It's just one time in our life. This moment will never happen again. It's a once in lifetime opportunity”. It’s one of the Zen words. But Japanese people think it unconsciously. We have to take care of the guest with this expression in mind, always,
Mitsuhiro’s hospitality mind and thoughts:
Where is the customer?
The customer should be in the centre always. In a Tea Ceremony, the Tea Master considers green tea, calligraphy and flowers, all for the guest. After that, he looks for their favourite items and calligraphy that has a message that is specific to the guest. However, the Tea Master doesn’t explain the details of this on that day, the guest has to notice his message.
As a bartender, we have to serve the customer's favourite drink, not the bartender's favourite drink. Now we focus on creativity, for example - a flashy appearance. We have to re-focus on the customer. We can make serving a drink an even more personalized service.
Predict the customer's next request:
Customers with various purposes come to a bar. Firstly, think about why they come to our bar? Secondly, we have to try to understand their purpose. And we take care of them by adjusting our service style. Basically, in Japanese culture we believe that “Non-verbal communication is the best hospitality”. It's the most unique point in our culture. For example, before a customer calls us, we predict the customer's request and modestly serve it. Because we focus on serving excellence without conversation. However, now our service style is changing little by little for internationalisation.
師匠はお客様 "The customer is a teacher"
Tea masters deeply consider the guest’s happiness, therefore the guest sometimes gives us advice indirectly. I often encounter it in the bar.
For example, you make a martini, but the customer says it's watery. Why watery? You look for a better way, better ingredients. You make an effort for the customer. As a result, the customer says it's tasty. This process means it's like a teacher and a student. In Japan, we take good care of the customer. Our job is to go beyond the customer's expectation of us.
What was the best service I ever received?
The best service I’ve ever received was during a Tea Ceremony school lesson.
A few years ago, I needed my profile picture for a magazine, so I decided to take the picture during a Tea Ceremony lesson that I had been learning for 7 years.
While the cameraman was taking pictures, my teacher assisted me, and she suddenly changed the Japanese calligraphy hanging on the wall behind me.
I didn’t notice the Japanese calligraphy at that time.
But two years later, I asked my teacher why she changed the Japanese calligraphy.
She said, “I knew you would ask. This is an idiom, which means a white ball will shine brighter if you polish it more. It expresses, through constant self-improvement, that learning can be forever.
I was amazed that she deeply cared about my future by passively using the Japanese calligraphy in the picture.
白珪尚可磨“Hakkei Nao Migakubeshi”
Hakkei refers to a white smooth ball: “Even if it is a perfectly smooth ball, the more you polish, the more it will shine.” There is no perfection and end to self-improvement in your life, learning can be infinite. Never stop learning.
Mitsuhiro Nakamura