Sweet of the day, Slippery confection Aug 19

Hello, everyone!

This is the confectionery from yesterday’s lesson. I think it is a kind of yokan. This confectionery consists of two layers. The bottom layer is sweet bean jelly like ordinary yokan. And beautiful clear layer lies on top of it. The top layer has some soft freckle stuff and sweet beans. I think it expresses a waterscape. This sweet was very slippery, and it was difficult to pick up with chopsticks. When everyone handled it, they pretended to be calm but actually were so serious underneath (^_^;) Hiro and our master really liked the taste. I enjoyed the cool atmosphere from the appearance. I think it’s pretty nice to enjoy sweets in season.

Take care!

Green tea for a summer gift

Hi, everyone! There is a gift-giving custom in Japan. The summer gifts are called "ochugen", and the year-end gifts are "oseibo". We present gifts to someone who has done something for you like a teacher, a boss, relatives or business contacts. Green tea is one of popular item for ochugen or oseibo.

We are not exemplary people to follow this custom, but at least we want to present the gifts to our tea master. So, the other day we went to a tea shop in my town to look for the summer gift for her. The tea shop has a lot of selection of tea, sencha, hojicha, matcha, genmaicha, oolong, and so on. I always get little excited in the large selection. They even have many choices for sencha. We got two packages of tea, fine sencha and kabusecha. Kabusecha is a nice tea; it’s like in between gyokuro and sencha. I hope our master will like them.

Take care!

A new-style Japanese cafe

Hi, everyone!

The other day, we found a cafe of Japanese tea. It was not rustic, more contemporary style. These days, this kind of café is getting popular. I've always wanted to go there. My understanding is that traditional cafes are place to enjoy Japanese sweets, and tea just comes with them. So there is not much choice for tea. But this new style cafes is a place to enjoy Japanese teas, sencha, matcha and hojicha. So they have some different kinds of tea brands you can choose from.

We ordered green tea cheese cake, green tea ice-cream, and iced sencha (yame tea from Kyushu). We loved the sencha. First, I liked how they served the tea. It came with wine cooler and wine glass. It looked cool, and we could enjoy the tea cold through the end. I was also surprised with the rich aroma. Usually, it’s difficult to enjoy aroma with iced-tea. But this cold water brewed tea had rich and full-flavor. I really enjoyed the delicious iced tea in the relaxed atmosphere. I want to come to this kind of cafe again!

Take care

Trip to Nagano and Gifu

How are you doing, everyone?

We went to a trip to Nagano and Gifu. There was a lot of nature.


I had zarusoba noodle again. It’s my favorite.

Visited Tsumago, which is an old post station. Now it has been touristy, and they have restaurants, cafes, and gift shops in the historical-looking street. It was interesting place to visit.

We found a place that you can try to make soba noodle at next to our hotel!! It was much fun than we expected.

Even it was little vary in thickness, I think we did good for the first time(^-^)

Sencha came in a yunomi cup at a cafe way home. The café has very nice Japanese garden with white gravels and beautiful green moss. It was my favorite style garden. I don’t find many cafés that has such a nice garden.

Have a nice day!

Flat water pitcher for summer

How are you everyone?
This week we’re having a summer vacation. I’ll miss about a week of this blog, and come back on next Mon of Aug 18.

Yesterday we had a lesson for this week. We practiced another new item, flat water pitcher. It’s a big flat water pitcher used in the summer, and it stays in the tearoom all through a temae; is not brought in or taken out with the host. This flat pitcher has a lid that can be folded half to open.








I thought flat pitchers has a cooler atmosphere than regular water pitcher, because it can hold plenty of water and has larger surface. I guess it is the reason for that flat pitchers are appreciated in the summer.

See you on next Mon. Enjoy your summer!!

Handling chopsticks beautifully

How are you doing everyone?

Aren’t you satisfied with just useing chopsticks skillfully? You would look much smarter if you know manner of how to hold up and put down chopsticks. Today let’s take a closer look for handling chopsticks when you have sweet at a tea ceremony.

1. Hold the end of chopsticks with your right hand and pick them up

2. Hold the middle of the chopsticks with your left hand from underneath

3. Rehold the chopsticks to the regular holding position with your right hand

4. Take one of the sweets with chopsticks with steadying the bowl for sweets with your left hand

When you put the chopsticks back to the bowl, do the backward steps. Have a nice day!

Younomi tea cup at kaiten-zushi (belt-conveyor sushi) restaurant

Hello, everyone.

Last night we had a dinner at a kaiten-zushi (belt-conveyor sushi) restaurant. The tea was powder green tea, which is the same kind of tea from another kaiten-zushi restaurant. But the cup was better, here. This restaurant has big thick younomi cups like regular sushi restaurants. Sushi younomi cups with Japanese characters written are pretty popular. The name of restaurant is written on this cup.

Have a good day!

Flower of the day, Kaido Aug. 5

How is it going everyone?

We had another lesson last night. The flower was kaido, Malus halliana. Our master didn’t like how big these leaves are. I also thought it will be well-balanced figure if the leaves are little smaller. I didn’t know how big the leaves of ordinary kaido should be, but now I’m looking at the internet for kaido. Right, they are much smaller.

Take care.

Iced matcha latte at home

I sometimes enjoy matcha with milk and sugar. Iced matcha latte is easy and delicious. When you get tired of iced café-latte, try this out! It will be your alternative.

Put 4-5 scoops of matcha with a tea scoop into a tea bowl, and sugar if you want.
Actually, I use synthetic sweetener, not sugar. It dissolves easily in cold water and low calorie in addition. Sugar may not dissolve well, so it’s better to add syrup in the end instead of putting sugar here.




Mix the matcha and cold milk with a tea whisk
It is easier to mix with small amount of milk (about 100ml) first, and add more milk (another 100ml or so) after. Immediately rinse the tea whisk with running water really well; remained milk component can be a cause of getting mold.




Pour into a glass with ice cubes



Have a nice day!

Flower of the day, Jul 30

Good morning, everyone! Finaly the rainy season is over!! The Japan Meteorological Agency announced the end of the rainy season yesterday. I feel that it’s going to be hot today. It’s only eight in the morning but there is scorching sunlight outside and cicadas are buzzing on a high note.

Great trees for noisy cicadas at a little shrine in our neighbor .



This is flower from the lesson on July 30. The arrangement was a little gorgeous and elegant, don’t you think? I thought I rather like it. I forgot the name of the vase and flowers, sorry.

Take care and enjoy your summer!

Sweet of the day, arrowroot confectionery Jul29

How was your weekend?

This was the confectionery from the last lesson. It has sweet been paste inside and covered with confectionery jelly. This is one of our master favorite.

The first summer came since we moved to this place in last Oct. In Japan there are summer festivals held all over the place in this season. There was another festival in my town on the last Saturday, and firework display was held. We weren’t expecting, but this year we could see the fireworks from our front yard!! Next year, we might invite some friends and enjoy the fireworks over beer and barbecue. Doesn’t it sound nice?


Have a nice day!

Glass tea bowl

How are you doing everyone?




This week lesson we used a glass tea bowl. The tea bowl brought cool in the tea room. I really liked this tea bowl. I think it is quite gracious in the coolness from the clear glass texture and the airy silver sparkles. Glass tea bowls are usually used in the summer. It shows the Japanese preference for things in season, I think.

Have a nice weekend.