Pictures from the Hakone trip

Lalique Museum
It was surrounded by greenery. It was a nice place to visit. We didn’t have a time to stop by, but it had a nice restaurant.
Lalique Museum website >>> http://www.lalique-museum.com/eng/index.html








Owakudani
It is the volcanic landscape in Hakone created 400 thousand years ago.
Owakudani website >>> http://www.owakudani.com/modules/mw_top/index.php?ml_lang=en









Hakone Museum
It was a small museum. I was not interested in their exhibitions, but they had excellent gardens. The moss garden was beautiful. It had a sober allure. There was a café in the corner of the garden. We had matcha at the café while we enjoyed the beautiful view. I have rarely had good matcha out, but the matcha was nice there. Even though it was still little thin to me, the flavor was nice. I forgot to take a picture of the matcha with the garden. Sorry.
Hakone Museum website >>> http://www.moaart.or.jp/hakone/index.html

Tea at Senkyoro in Hakone

Hakone in Kanagawa prefecture is one of the most famous hot-spring resorts in Japan. We stayed at Senkyoro in Hakone. Their hot spring water was mucky white and had the smell of sulfur. It was my favorite type of water. Senkyoro and their outdoor bath were in woods. Having a soak in the soft sunlight filtering through foliage was so relaxing. This is the view from our room.



The welcome tea was served at Senkyoro. It was sencha with little sweet. Tea cup had a lid. It was a nice tea.



A tea set equipped in the room consisted with a teapot, cups, saucers, tea leaves, and electric kettle. There were two kinds of tea leaves, sencha and hojicha. I didn’t have either of them during our stay, but the sencha leaves looked good with its profound color.



Senkyoro webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.senkyoro.co.jp/index.html

A retro glaze from Seto

My town, Seto has a long history of ceramics. There was a very popular glaze used in Seto in the beginning of Showa period (about 80 decades ago). It is an ash glaze, which has kannyu (cracking) on soft beige. It was popular for the versatile color for other colors of table wares. Many products were made with this type of glaze in Seto. The glaze gives a well-rounded ambience to products, and can be appreciated for tea wares.

Available for sale >>> http://www.everyonestea.com/product/120/

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)