Serving tea in Japan is an elaborately choreographed ritual. In this abbreviated Cliffs Notes version, you purify the tea bowl, tea scoop and tea whisk, retrieve a ladleful of boiling water from a cauldron atop a smoldering charcoal pit, whisk a scoopful of powdered green tea into a frothy concoction, turn the bowl 3 times to show your respect to the guest and serve. The whole ceremony takes a good 30 minutes, the entire time performed sitting on top your folded legs on a stiff tatami mat. On average, it takes me about 5 minutes for my legs to go completely numb, 10 minutes for gangrene to set in, and after half an hour or so when I’m finally allowed to stand up, another 10 minutes for the excruciating pins and needles to go away before I can actually stand up. Somehow I don’t want to ruin the serene ambiance of tea ceremony by attempting to rise at the end and instead pitching headfirst into the charcoal pit.

Thankfully, you can also perform tea ceremony “Western style” seated on a chair in front of a lacquered table. Like this fusion of East and West, the handcrafted wood chairs from Maruni Wood Industry Inc. blends the shape of Western-style chairs with the simple, sleek Japanese aesthetic. This 80-year-old company uses a complex wood bending technique to create graceful curved chairs and dining table sets, ergonomically designed to be as comfortable as they are stylish. The chairs from Maruni are so elegant, they could fit seamlessly into the décor of a traditional Japanese teahouse…good news for me, great news for my blood circulation.