Hasedera temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture

Another stop in Kamakura was at Hasedera temple. It was not my favorite rustic type of temples, but s a very nice temple to visit. The garden was carefully maintained and beautiful. It was a little earlier for the season of Hydrangea, but I found many different plants, so the garden will be enjoyed throughout the year round, from season to season. The garden was not only the feature of Hasedera. It had some other things to see and enjoy. There were the huge statues of Kannon and Amida, a path in the trees you can stroll around, a nice looking café, and a cave with many Buddha statues. The admission was 300 yen.

From the left
1.Huge Amida statue　 2.The view from the path 　3.Cafe 　4.Garden

Hasedera webpage >>> http://www.hasedera.jp/

Pictures from the Kamakura trip

Sorry today’s post is not related to tea, just some pictures from the Kamakura trip.

There are shopping streets in the downtown. There were gift shops, cafés, restaurants and Japanese-style confection stores. It was interesting area to visit.



We visited Tsuruokahachimangu shrine. It is a popular place for tourists, but It was not so appealing to me.



We saw a couple having a Japanese Shinto-style wedding at Tsuruokahachimangu. They looked happy. My best wishes for their future happiness together!



We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Matsubara-an, which has been remade from an old folk house into a restaurant. So, it has a very traditional look. Our table was in a tatami room. We loved the house and dishes! I can recommend this restaurant to you.

Kisen-an in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture

We went to a trip to Kamakura and Hakone in Kanagawa prefecture. The first place we visited was Jomyoji temple (admission fee 100yen) in Kamakura. The reason that we visited Jomyoji was for Kisen-an, which is a traditional Japanese house with a nice garden. The house and garden are not big, but Kisen-an has unpretentious graciousness and peace. It is a kind of café, so you have to order tea to get in. Their menu is simple. They only have 500 yen or 800 yen matcha tea set. The either tea set comes with a bowl of matha and confectionery. We ordered 800 yen tea sets. We took off our shoes, and got in the tatami room. We sat and waited for the tea while viewing the garden. This is my favorite garden. I can say that Kisen-an is one of the top three my favorite temples or shrines that I have ever visited. I like very beautiful greens of the garden, and the small tree on the hill in the middle. I love the open-designed architecture toward the garden, which makes a unity with the nature.

Shortly, a lady brought our teas and sweets. The confectionery was so good. The sweetness and texture was very pleasant to the palate. It was one of the bests I have ever had. The matcha was quite thin to me. We enjoyed the peaceful tea time. After we had the tea, we stayed there while and admired the garden. There was a suikinkutsu in a corner of the garden.　Suikinkutsu is a device in gardens to enjoy reverberating sounds of water drops in a big jar installed under the ground. You could hear the periodic beautiful dripping sound from a bamboo pipe placed on the suikinkutsu. We were very much satisfied with the visit.

Nice pictures of Kisenan >>> http://r.tabelog.com/kanagawa/A1404/A140402/14001772/dtlrvwlst/5189/

A tip of controlling water temperature

I have been talking about contorting the water temperature on the past three posts. The points were...

For sencha
Boiled water > Teapot > Cups = 70-80degrees C (158-176F)

For gyokuro
Boiled water > Teapot > Cups > Water cooler = 50-60 degrees C (122-140F)
By taking more time at each step, you are able to even make around 40C (104F) water.

These are just rough guides. The result will differ by the room temperature, amount of water, or tea wares. So, here is a tip for controlling temperature. It is…

Telling the temperature by touching the vessel.


I use a thermometer almost every time when I prepare tea, and found out my own guide of the temperatures. Here is my sense of the temperatures when I hold a tea ware like the picture.

80 degrees C (176F): Very hot, so I cannot hold it, or could hold it only for a second.
70 degrees C (158F): Still hot, so I can hold it only for a couple second.
60 degrees C (140F): The heat gets milder, so I can hold it about 5 seconds.
50 degrees C (122F): Warm and comfortable, so I can hold it indefinitely.
40 degrees C (104F): Lukewarm, slightly warmer than human body.

You will be able to do it with a little practice. Until your hands learn the temperatures, use a thermometer when you preparer tea. Measure the water temperature with the thermometer, and let your hands remember the feeling of the temperature by holding the vessel. It’s not difficult, and you will be able to do it soon.

Once you can tell the temperature with you hands, you are one step closer to the Japanese tea master!!

*Be careful not to burn yourself with hot water or hot tea wares when you practice.

Controlling the water temperature for gyokuro

The correct water temperature is 40-60 degrees Celsius (104-140 degrees F) for gyokuro. It should be higher temperature for low-grade tea and lower temperature for fine tea.

I did some tests for cooling the boiled water for gyokuro.

It’s sunny today. The room temperature was 22 C (72F). The test was for 80ml (2.8oz) boiled water with a small teapot and two small cups.









1. Pouring 80ml (2.8oz) boiled water into two small cups, leaving it about 30-40 seconds
2. Pouring the water from the cups into a small teapot, leaving it about 30-40 seconds
3. Pouring the water back again from the teapot into the same cups, and leaving it 30-40 seconds
4. Measuring the temperature of water in the cups

80ml (2.8oz) boiled water >
2 small cups (30sec.) > small teapot (30sec.) > the same 2 cups (30sec.) = 60 degrees C (140F)
The result was 60C (140F). It was not bad. So, you can put tealeaves into the teapot, and pour the 60C (140F) water from the cups into the teapot to brew the tea, now.

Personally I often use little cooler water than 60C (140F) for gyokuro. I wanted to get around 50C (122F) water. I’ll show you some other examples with different steps I tested.

80ml (2.8oz) boiled water:
Waited longer
2 small cups (30sec.) > small teapot (30sec.) > the same 2 cups (2min) = 55 degrees C (131F)
Waited longer2
2 small cups (30sec.) > small teapot (1min.) > the same 2 cups (1min) = 55 degrees C (131F)
Two more steps
2 small cups (30sec.) > small teapot (30sec.) > the same 2 cups (30sec.) > the same small teapot (30sec.) > the same 2 cups (30sec.) = 53 degrees C (127F)
Two more steps and waited longer
2 small cups (30sec.) > small teapot (30sec.) > the same 2 cups (30sec.) > the same small teapot (30sec.) > the same 2 cups (1.5min) = 49 degrees C (120F)


Some gyokuro tea sets include a water cooler. It is a vessel used just for cooling the hot water. If you don’t have one, you can use a small pitcher as a substitute for it. Here are some tests with a small pitcher (as a water cooler).










80ml (2.8oz) boiled water:
Small teapot (30sec.) > 2 small cups (30sec.) > pitcher (30.sec) = 55 degrees C (131F)
Waited longer
Small teapot (30sec.) > 2 small cups (1min) > pitcher (1min) = 51 degrees C (124F)
One more step
Small teapot (30sec.) > 2 small cups (30sec.) > pitcher (30.sec) > the same 2 cups (30sec.) = 50 degrees C (122F)

**Conclusion**
It is easier to make the around 50C (122F) water with a water cooler. You can have the correct temperature of water for gyokuro by transferring the boiled water among three vessels (teapot, cups, and water cooler).
*Do not wait too long at the first step. The ware might get too hot to hold.


In addition
I did other tests for different amount of water with different utensiles.

100ml (3.5oz) boiled water
Small teapot (30sec.) > 2 small cups (30sec.) > water cooler (30.sec) = 57 degrees C (135F)






40ml (1.4oz) boiled water
Small teapot (30sec.) > 2 extra-small cups (30sec.) > water cooler (30.sec) = 48 degrees C (118F)

Controlling the water temperature for sencha

The correct water temperature is 70-80 degrees Celsius (158-175 degrees F) for sencha. It should be higher temperature for low-grade tea and lower temperature for fine tea.
Do you use just cups to cool the hot water, or the teapot and cups? Or do you have a water cooler?
I did some tests for cooling the temperature of hot water with a teapot and cups by pouring the water from a vessel to vessel. The room temperature was about 23 degree C (73F), and it was a cloudy humid evening.

There are three steps at the test.

1. Pouring boiling hot water into a teapot, and leaving it about 30-40 seconds.
2. Pouring the water from the teapot to a tea cup (or cups), and leaving it about 30-40 seconds.
3. Measuring the temperature of the water in the cup (or cups).
I did this test with different amount water and tea wares, to see if I always get the correct temperature, or how these differences affect to the results.

For 4 servings

520ml (18.3oz) boiled water:
Large teapot > 4 large cups = 75 degrees C (167F)

320ml (11.3oz) boiled water:
Medium teapot > 4 medium cups = 72 degrees C (162F)

For 2 servings

320ml (11.3oz) boiled water:
Medium teapot > 2 large cups = 75 degrees C (167F)

160ml (5.6oz) boiled water:
Medium teapot > 2 medium cups = 71 degrees C (160F)

120ml (4.2oz) boiled water:
Small teapot > 2 medium cups = 72 degrees C (162F)

For 1 serving

430ml (15.7oz) boiled water:
Large teapot > 1 Extra large cup = 78 degree C (172F)

320ml (11.3oz) boiled water:
Medium teapot > 1 Extra large cup = 78 degree C (172F)

120ml (4.2oz) boiled water:
Small teapot > 1 large cup = 73 degree C (163F)

80ml boiled water:
Small teapot > 1 medium cup = 68 degrees C (154F)

***Conclusion***
In most cases, you can get the correct temperature (70-80C, 158-175F) for sencha by pouring the boiled water to a teapot and to cups (or a cup) in the room temperature around 23 degrees C (73F).

You can adjust the water temperature by going through the steps faster or slower. I took about 30-40 seconds to let the water cool on each step in the tests. You can decrease about a 4 degrees C (7F) by leaving the hot water in the cups for another minute.

With the steps in the test, now you can have about the correct temperature water for sencha. You put the tea leaves into the tea pot and then pour the water back from cups to the tea pot to infuse the tea (^-^)

Try this with your tea wares. It is good to know the rough standard of the temperature with your own tea wares. It will help you to prepare better tea!


**For your information**
If you prefer higher temperature than what I had on the test, maybe you could skip the step for the teapot, and pour the boiled water directly into the cups.

Cooling water only with the cups

430ml (15.7oz) boiled water:
1 Extra large cup = 89 degree C (192F)

320ml (11.3oz) boiled water:
1 Extra large cup = 88 degree C (190F)

160ml (5.6oz) boiled water:
1 large cup = 85 degree C (185F)

80ml (2.8oz) boiled water:
1 medium cup = 85 degrees C (185F)

Controlling the water temperature for Japanese tea

A tea lover from Slovakia asked me how to control the water temperature for sencha and gyokuro. He wants to cool down boiled water to the correct temperature with the tea wares by pouring the water from a cup to cup. And he wants to do it without using a thermometer. I understand that it is difficult to get the right temperature.
I know that many people in Japan don’t usually use a thermometer for tea preparing. I guess the people think so much accuracy is not necessity for just brewing tea, and can tell rough temperature by their experience. But, I use a thermometer almost every time I prepare tea. Because I’m doing a tea related business, and want to learn more about tea and the water temperature. I can say that you can drop about 10 degree C (18 F) by transporting hot water from a vessel to vessel. But it is just a very rough guide, and the results are very much depends on the situation, especially following the three elements.
1. Room temperature
2. Amount of water (servings)
3. Tea wares (size, figure or material)
So, I cannot give you one simple answer to this issue. But I can show you some examples on the next post, and I’ll give you a tip in the end. Have a good weekend!

Two important lessons for the tea ceremony 2

These are the pictures from the tatami room for the second tea gathering we joind.

The other lesson that our master told us for the tea ceremony was…

The second lesson: Behave depending on the time and situation
What we learn and practice in the lessons are just a basic. It is not always right just strictly to follow the procedures that you have learned and practiced. You have to think and behave depending on the time and situation in a tea ceremony. The attitude of improvisation is necessary, our master said.

Here is an example that I experienced in this tea ceremony regarding to a bow to the next guest to me.
We have learned and been practicing in the lessons, making a bow to the next guest, right after your tea is served. It has the meaning of “Excuse me for going before you “.
However, the situation was a little difficult in the actual tea ceremony. Several assistants worked in the ceremony. The assistants brought teas from the preparation room, and the teas were served at almost the same time to every guest. So, when I received my tea and bowed to the one of the assistants who brought my tea, I saw the next guest was almost receiving her tea from another assistant, and was going to bow to the assistant. Then I was supposed to bow to the next guest, but she was kind of busy for receiving her tea. Now, what? What would you do? Do you just bow to her as you learned? Here is the moment when the right attitude of improvisation is required.

Our master said that there is not only one answer, and I could have got through with a quick, brief bow to the next guest, or even could have skipped the bow. As our master said, it is not always right strictly to follow the procedure.

What I actually did was that I moved slowly and waited until the next guest was through with receiving her tea. Then I made the bow to her. I’m not sure if my improvisation behavior was smart and correct.

I kind of realized that we are practicing the temae over and over in the lessons for the attitude of improvisation in tea ceremonies, or for our daily behavior, and not just for remembering the procedure. This tea ceremony was very worth to me.

Two important lessons for the tea ceremony 1

The other tea gathering we joined was Omote-senke style in an ordinary tatami room. It was a large room (about 30-mat room), and indigo carpets were laid for the place where guests seat. There was a tobacco set to indicate the seat for the main guest (the picture on the right).

Our master told us two important things for this tea ceremony, and I actually experienced the lessons.

The first lesson: Don’t be the main guest
The main guest represents the all guests, and communicates with the host and the host’s assistant mainly. It is a very important and honored role. An experienced or senior person should play the main guest. Our master told us to not sit on the seat for the main guest, and don’t be the one.

I think our master is enough experienced, but even she hesitates to be the main guest. This is an episode when we waited for the ceremony at the waiting place. We were the first party waited there. Then, other guests came after, and encouraged us to be the main guest. They were elderly ladies and look very experienced. So, our master declined it at being polite. But they really insisted. We talked for a while passing up the main guest. I kind of saw the significance of humility for Japanese. Eventually, our master reluctantly played the main guest in this tea gathering. She did performed the role very well in style.

I’ll write about the second lesson in the next post! See you tomorrow!

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!