The first tea gathering in Matsuo style

The first tea gathering we joined was Matsuo family tradition style in a proper tea room. It was an only proper tea room in the building. Other gatherings were held in ordinary tatami rooms or conference rooms. The tea room was not an outside individual tea house. It was on the third floor in the building, and had an alley leading to the room. The alley had a little waiting space. We waited there until our tea ceremony was ready. Twelve guests got in the tea room (*six-mat room). The room was not big or bright. It was kind of crowded. Another party joined in the same gathering was a group from a tea school, I believe. Most of them wore kimono and knew the manners for the guest. The ceremony began with a bow by all participants. As the host was preparing tea, a host’s assistant did greeting and had some conversations with guests. The assistant explained about the flowers, art, sweets and some other utensils used in this ceremony. In the meantime, the sweets were served, and the tea for the main guest was ready. Usually at most tea ceremonies, the host prepares the teas for only a couple of the primary guests. The teas for the rest of the guests are usually prepared in a preparation room, and assistants bring into the tea room and serve them. It is done as the same in this ceremony. An assistant came to me, and placed my bowl in front of me. I received it with a bow. I had the bowl of tea with the manner that I learned in the lessons. The tea was just okay. I loved the tea in our lessons better (^_^;) After **viewing the tea bowls used for the main and second guests, the ceremony was over. My impression was that the ceremony was rapid. It was much faster than I expected. I guess it is because most of participants were experienced, so the ceremony went very smooth and quick. The whole ceremony was done in 20-30 minutes. It was shorter than our temae at the lessons.

I could not notice any big difference between Matsuo (this tea ceremony) and Omote-senke (what I’m learning) in temae. I think I was kind of nervous, and busy following my procedure for a guest. I hope as I do more practice and have more experience, I will be more relaxed and enjoy tea ceremonies.


*In Japan, a size of rooms is usually defined with a number of tatami mats. The dimensions of a tatami mat are about 90*180cm.
**At tea ceremony, premium tea bowls are used only for primary guests. Sometimes, the tea bowls are passed on to the rest of guest, and give them a chance to admire the bowls.

Seto citizens’ tea ceremony

It was a busy weekend. The most memorable event was a tea ceremony. The citizens’ tea ceremony was held at the cultural center in our town, Seto. Hiro and I went to the tea ceremony with our master. This is for the first time for Hiro, and my second time to join a tea ceremony, and we both were so excited. Some participants were wearing kimono and some were not. And some seemed experienced, and some didn’t. This is a reasonable, casual tea ceremony that anybody can attend. The Advance ticket was 800 yen for two drinks. At the cultural center, five – six rooms were prepared for the tea ceremonies. We could visit any two rooms with the ticket. I’ll write it more in the next blog. See you tomorrow!

We started using the brazier.

We have been practicing temae with the sunken hearth, which is for the winter style, basically used between December to April. (A picture for the sanken hearth is on the right.) Now it’s in May. So, we started to use a brazier instead of the sunken hearth in the lessons from this month. The positions of each utensil and your sitting direction are different between the winter and summer temae. I’ll always confuse the temae in the beginning of a new season (^-^;)

Gyokuro set at Sagano-yu

It’s a sunny, windy day here. Today, I want to talk about the gyokuro tea set that we had at a café, Sagano-yu in Kyoto. The tea set comes with tea leaves in teapot, hot water, an hourglass and a little dessert, and you blew the tea yourself. This type of teapot is called shiboridashi, which is a small teapot specialized for gyokuro. It doesn’t have a handle. So it's similar to houhin, but Shiboridashi does not have a mounted tea strainer. You pour the tea from the little aperture between the lid and body. The tea set was 800 yen. I think it is pretty expensive for one small shot of tea, but it's gyokuro. I waited for 3 minutes after poured hot water (about 40ml / 50 degrees C) into the teapot.

Hiro and I sheared the shot of gyokuro. It was nice, and we both loved it. The tealeaves after fist brewing looked like in the picture blow.

They provided another hot water for refill, second brewing. The flavor got weaker on the second brewing, but still had the distinctive umami of gyokuro. I tried the third brewing, but the nice umami was gone.

Sagano-yu, a café in Arashiyama, Koyoto

We had tea at a café in Arashiyama area in Kyoto, called Sagano-yu. The building was originally an old public bathhouse, and it was renovated into a café. So, you will find signs of the nostalgic aspect in the building. From our seat, we could see bamboo trees in the terrace. It was a nice, cool café with white-themed interior, and I loved them. We had a gyokuro tea set, matcha latte, and matcha parfait.

Sagano-yu webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.sagano-yu.com/

Koryuji in Kyoto

On the Kyoto trip, we also visited a temple, Koryuji, which is located close to the Kyoto Studio Park. At the temple, brilliant green of trees was impressive. They have a very famous Maitraya statue, which is first designated as a national treasure of Japan. It was displayed in a hall with a comfortable dim illumination and nice air condition. The hall was almost like a museum. Some other Buddha statues were also displayed in the hall, and some people were calmly walking around and appreciating the statues. There was a space with tatami mats in front of the Maitraya. Some people sat and were meditating there. We did the same as well. Koryuji had a calm and peaceful time with Japanese national treasures and important cultural properties.


Picture of the Maitraya statue (Wikkipedia) >>> http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Maitreya_Koryuji.JPG

Kyoto Studio Park

We went to Kyoto on this spring vacation. It is about three hour drive from here. We visited Kyoto Studio Park, where actual period movies and TV dramas being filmed. Their outdoor set looks just like the Edo town. You will almost confuse being in a real ancient town. We joined a short tour for the outdoor sets, and enjoyed some events held in the park.

Kyoto Studio Park webpage >>> http://www.toei-eigamura.com/?c=2

Playing with a sword at a gift shop

The park was crowded

Back-alley in the town

Tea set for gyokuro

This is a tea set specialized for gyokuro, which Hiro’s grandfather used to use. The teapot is hohin type. It is a small teapot with no handle. A tea strainer is mounted on this teapot. The teapot holds about 100ml (3.5oz), and teacups hold about 20ml (0.7oz)/each. They are very small, aren’t they? Look at the picture on the right. This hohin teapot is only as big as a regular tea cup. This tea set includes a water cooler, which you just pour hot water into it, and cool the water. You don’t have to have this kind of specialize tea set. You can prepare gyokuro with a small kyusu (side or back handle teapot) and cups, but smaller will be better for gyokuro as you see here.

We have a spring holidays week in Japan! So, I’ll have a little break from this blog. See you in a week!

Gyokuro, Japanese premium green tea

Gyokuro is prepared with lower temperature and much smaller portion of water than sencha (the most common green tea) preparing. The magnificent allure of gyokuro is the abundant umami. The umami flavor is appreciated as the distinctive quality of Japanese tea, which doesn’t find much in English or oolong tea. English and oolong tea which prefer for their great aroma are prepared with boiling water to bring the aroma out. On the other hand, about 50 degree C water is used to infuse gyokuro for the best umami.
Gyokuro is produced with similar processes as sencha’s. The different process is a cover culture. The tea plants for gyokuro are covered to avoid direct sunshine for about twenty days after new shoots of leaves sprout. Young tea leaves naturally have a lot of umami (or Theanine, amino acids). Theanine change into bitterness (catechin) by the sunlight. Therefore, the covering makes tea leaves that a lot of umami remains in.


The picture is Uji-gyokuro from kyoto (50g 1050yen) that I bought at a Big tea store, Mikuniya-zengoro. Gyokuro look like Sencha tea leaves, don’t they?

Hiro wore kimono at the tea lesson

The generation of my grandparents used to wear kimono. Typical young people in Japan don’t ware it. There are not so many occasions to wear it nowadays. The young generations may or may not have one set of kimono, and they probably don’t know how to put it on by themselves. Hiro is one of them, but now we are taking The Way of Tea (or sado) lesson. Formally, you have to wear kimono at the tea ceremony. This is a good opportunity to learn about kimono. Putting kimono on for men is not so difficult, but you’ll need some practice for women’s kimono.

I have a set of kimono, but not for tea ceremony. So, I didn’t wear it this time. Hiro didn’t also have kimono for tea ceremony. For yesterday’s lesson, my mother lent Hiro her kimono, and helped Hiro to put it on. Hiro will learn how to wear it, and need practice for a while.
Kimono made Hiro change. The way she walk and her attitude looked better with kimono. I guess, maybe because kimono is pretty tight, so you cannot stride, and Hiro had to do things in style. Anyway, we loved kimono and enjoyed the lesson with it.

Hojicha latte at Starbucks

About a couple month ago, I saw a signboard of hojicha latte when I walked by a Starbucks. Hojicha is Japanese roasted tea. You can find matcha latte at many places in Japan, but I’ve never seen hojicha latte before. Since then I’ve been curious about the mysterious drink. And we finally had a chance to try it this weekend.



The hojicha latte had foam on the top, and I could see a teabag in it. When I brought the cup to my mouth, I smelled a nice hojicha aroma. The taste was pretty lighter than café latte, and more like English tea with milk. But it was definitely new, which I’ve never tasted. The latte was slightly pre-sweated, and not too milky, and didn’t have much bitterness as cafe latte. I liked the hojicha latte. This will be my new alternative on Starbucks menu. After I drank all the latte, I noticed that the teabag was big, bigger than I expected. (In this picture, it doesn’t look big by a wide-angle lens of my camera, sorry) I want to know the recipe, and try it home.

Akafuku café

When we went to the flower exhibition, we had tea at Akafuku café in Matsuzakaya department store. Akafuku is a popular sweets maker originally from Mie prefecture. They are popular for their Akafuku-mochi, which is a confection, a rice cake covered with sweet been paste. At the café, the menu was simple. It was just Akafuku-mochi, matcha, and shaved ice. They all come with hoji-cha. We both love Akafuku-mochi. What we had were a set of matcha and 2 pcs Akafukuu-mochi at 440yen, and another set of hojicha and 3 pcs Akafuku-mochi at 280 yen. We thought they were very reasonable. There was even a more reasonable set for hojicha and 2 pcs Akafuku-mochi at 190 yen. Nowadays, a cup of cafe latte costs around 370yen. We were very much satisfied with Akafuku-mochi and the price. The cafe is very good for a quick and casual tea break. We loved the café, and definitely want to come back every time when we come to Nagoya!

Akafuku website >> http://www.akafuku.co.jp/english/akafukumochi.html