- Host: teishu (亭主)
- Guest: o-kyaku-sama (お客様)
- Thin tea: usucha (薄茶)
- Thick tea: koicha (濃茶)
- Procedure for making tea: o-temae (お手前)
- Lesson: keiko (稽古)
In Japanese, an 'o' preceding a word is an honorific. For example, the word
mizu means water. To be polite, however, you would refer to someone else’s water, perhaps when asking what they would like to drink, as
o-mizu. You would not refer to your own water this way. Similarly, the word for guest is
kyaku. When referring to someone else who is your guest, you call that person
o-kyaku-sama, whereas, for example, when thanking your teacher for your lesson when you are a guest yourself, you would say
kyaku no o-keiko arigatou gozaimashita. The
-sama suffix is similar to the
-san used when addressing or referring to people by name (e.g. Morita-san, Yamaguchi-san, Suzuki-san, etc.), except it is even more polite. All customers in Japan are addressed in stores, banks, etc. as
o-kyaku-sama, though it is not otherwise used in normal conversation.
