Tsumago-juku, the historical town

This weekend, we also went to Nagiso spa resort. On the way, we stopped by Tsumago, which is an old post station in Nagano prefecture. Now it has been touristy, and they have restaurants, cafes, and gift shops in the historical-looking street. It’s like Magome where we visited in the last summer.

Big tea store, Mikuniya-zengoro

This weekend we went a shopping mall in Gifu prefecture, called Kakamigahara Aeon. I found a big tea store, Mikuniya-zengoro, there. They have huge selections of English, Chinese and Japanese tea. They of course have standard types of Japanese tea from different regions, but also have some unique Japanese flavored teas, such as cherry green tea. I bought Yame-sencha from Fukuoka prefecture (90g 1050yne) and Uji-gyokuro from Kyoto (50g 1050yen). I’ll report you someday how the testes are like.

The best of bottled green tea, “O-i, ocha with umami of gyokuro”

Hi, everyone! Last night, I went to a supermarket. I’ve bough Japanese confectionery on impulse. It was sakuramochi, which I’ve introduce on this blog the other day. I also found a bottle of green tea, “O-i, ocha with umami of gyokuro”. I had never tried it before, so I bought it.



After dinner, we placed sakuramochi on kaishi, and the tea into a cup with saucer. Although they were cheap sweets and tea from a bottle, don’t they look nice? I had a sip of tea first. I wanted to taste the tea well before my mouth was contaminated by sweetness of confectionery. “O-i, ocha with umami of gyokuro” didn’t have much aroma, but I think this is one of the best bottles of green tea I ever had. It was very mellow. It sure had umami, but I thought the hallmark of this tea was the sweetness. It had very rich and nice sweetness that I had never found in bottles of tea. The bitterness was very mild. The modest bitterness brings out the sweetness more. After having sakuramochi, by the contrast of sweetness, it was difficult to enjoy the sweetness of the tea, but the comfortable bitterness of the tea stood out. I really enjoyed the tea and sakuramochi.


“O-i, ocha with umami of gyokuro” is a blended tea of sencha, tencha(the ingredient of matcha) and gyokuro. It has less caffeine than ordinary tea. I’ve done tea tasting for other brands before. Namacha was my best then. But now I think “O-i, ocha with umami of gyokuro” with rich sweetness will be my best. I would sometime like to taste the both Namacha and this tea at the same time, and make sure.

Good matcha from a tea shop in my town

Yesterday, we had another tea lesson. When I was placing matcha into natsume, I noticed that the aroma of matcha was richer than usual. I find a smell like seaweed in the matcha. It’s probably similar to the aroma that gykuro has, and I think it comes from umami. Our master usually buys matcha for the lessons once or twice a month. Yesterday's matcha was new one. It may be fresh grinded one at the store. The taste was very good. We thought it was better than usual, and loved it. I think fresh is better for matcha, and it's better to buy fresh matcha little by little from store.
Our muster buys it from a small shop in our town, called Kokaen. They have tea gardens and produce matcha in Nishio, or the tea garden owns Kokaen. I’m not sure. Anyway, Nishio in Aichi prefecture is one of the biggest matcha production regions in Japan. I think this outlet shop form Nishio tea farm sells good quality matcha.

Scooping Mathca from natsume

In natsume, matcha should be naturally heaped up like a small mountain.



When you scoop the matcha in temae, you should scoop it at far side of natsume in an across straight line.



After use, the matcha should be scratched at the far side and have a cliff.

Sweets of the day, Feb.24 Sakuramochi

Sweet on Feb 24 lesson was Sakuramochi, which is rapped with cherry leaf. You can eat it with the leaf. Sakuramochi is popular in the spring, and one of the most favorite confectioneries. I especially love the pink sticky rice cake part. When I was a kid, I snitched just the rice cake when my mother was cooking sakuramochi. It is so good.

Matcha latte at Gusto

The other day when we went to Gusto, Hiro had matcha latte. I tried a ship of it. It was sweated and the foam on the top was fine. It was milkier and milder than matcha latte at Mos burger. Hiro liked this sweet matcha latte!

Matcha latte at Mos burger

Today we went to a hamburger shop for dinner. Mos burger is one of the popular hamburger chain stores in Japan. I like them because they have originality, and value quality rather than selling cheap.

I had matcha latte that wasn’t sweated. It had substantial matcha flavor with rich bitterness. It was rich and premium. I liked it, but it would be much better if it had more milk.

Black bean tea at Gusto

The cold weather is coming and going these days, here. I’ve bet that snow season is over, and I changed my snow tires to regular ones this weekend. How is the weather like in your town this season?










We liked Gusto, so went there again this weekend. This time I tried sencha and black bean tea.



Sencha was from Sizuoka. The leaf was looking good for this reasonable restaurant. The aroma was okay, and the taste was nice. I could not find so much umami, but it had a good distinctive bitterness. Somehow, the tea brewed yourself tastes better than tea just served.






I had never seen black bean tea. It looked like coffee beans, and had roasted soy aroma. The brewed tea was brown, and the taste was mild and did not have bitterness. It tasted like watery coffee. Oops, watery coffee does not sound delicious, does it? I didn’t mean that. It was pretty good. Let’s see, I could say it was similar to hojicha and had rich soy flavor and faint sweetness. I liked memorable roasted flavor.


I had hamburger in stew with rice and miso-soup.

Flower of the day, Dec. 16 – Feb 17

Here are flowers displayed at our tea lessons. All of them are Camellia. Our master has different kind of Camellia trees in her backyard.

Dec.16












Dec.28










These are the flower and rice bale ornament at hatsugama on Jan 6.












Feb.1











Feb.3










Feb.10











Feb.17

Japanese green-tea online shops

Where do you purchase your green tea? At tea shop or supermarket in your town? Or at online shop? One of our customers from Sweden told me that it's difficult to find good tea stores in Sweden. It seems most tea stores there don't know how to handle tea. How about teashops in your country?
I don’t usually buy my tea on the internet, so I don’t know any good online green-tea shops. But, I though Japanese tea shops could know how to handle tea better than some green-tea shops oversea like in Sweden. So, I looked for online teashops located in Japan that have English website and do international shipping. I thought I could find some shops that are not popular internationally yet, but appear on Japanese internet search. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find that kind of teashop. I could find some online shops offer international shipping, but most of them don’t have their English site. Here are a few tea shops in Japan I found, which have English website and international shipping.

IPPODO >>> http://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp/en/index.html
They are a tea retail shop from Kyoto. They have nice informative webpage.

Yamechanosato >>> http://www.yamechanosato.com/index.html
They are located in Fukuoka prefecture where is well known for Yame tea. They produce tea themself. Please find a “English Here” button at the upper right on their home page. It will translate the pages.

I’m sorry that I am not responsible for the products or services from the listed websites. Please visit them if you are interested in. You might or might not find good Japanese tea (^-^)

Tokoname teapot artist, Yokei

Tokoname is one of the poplar ceramic production regions for teapots in Japan. There are many skilled craftsmen there. It is said that Tokoname teapots are well designed not only for beauty, but also for utility. The details determine the quality of teapots, such as the angle of handle, shape of spout tip, strainer, and fitting of lid and body, which are well-done with Tokoname teapots.

Let me introduce one of artists from Tokoname. It is Yokei. He studied at a ceramic school in Seto. His father was also a teapot craftsman in Tokoname. After graduation, Yokei worked with his father, and was trained. Now he is one of experienced teapot artists in Tokoname.


Here is a good example of Yokei’s work, Yohen flat teapot. He creates great yohen pattern, discoloration of ceramic. After first firing, he adjusts and finishes the fitting of lid and body, then he fire the teapot again with rice husks. The rice hanks create the beautiful yohen. Each piece has unique yohen hue and pattern. It is the one of a kind, and makes each teapot special.
Ordinary teapots have a hole on lid. He places two holes for balanced design to this spacious lid. The holes give interesting accent to the teapot. Other details like spout or strainer are also carefully crafted.

Yokei’s products at our shop, Everyone’s Tea
Yohen flat teapot by Yokei
Yohen fukurogata teapot by Yokei