Chanoyu keiko (practice), commonly called 'ocha no keiko', begins with sitting in a tea room and drinking a bowl of usucha (thin tea; one and a half scoops of powdered tea are stirred after adding hot water).
The guests sit in a line, with the shokyaku (principal guest) nearest to the tokonoma (alcove), then the jikyaku (second guest) and the sankyaku (third guest). They sit 8 sun (24cm) from the border of the tatami. The tea bowl and kaishi paper on which to put sweets are placed in this space.
Now, before practicing how to drink tea it is necessary to practice how to receive sweets.
The host first puts namagashi ('main sweets') into a food container called a jikiro and places a sweet pick (kuromoji) on the lid.These he brings to the guests seated in the tea room. After this, he offers higashi (dry sweets) on a tray to the guests.
The main guest places the food container and the dry sweet tray on the other side of the tatami border in front of him in the kamiza position (towards the tokonoma), and then observes the host's temae (tea preparation).
The host brings in the utensils to prepare thin tea and goes on with temae. He puts hot water into the tea bowl, examines the tea whisk (chasen), and purifies it by swishing it in the hot water. This is called chasentoshi. When the host has begun chasentoshi, the guests receive and pass around the omogashi and higashi sweets.
We should follow the correct procedure for taking sweets and for drinking thin tea.