Green Tea Forum

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to Japan this spring and I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good tea shops to visit/buy tea from. I will be for sure in the Kyoto/Uji area and I'm pretty sure I will be able to get to Shizuoka so if anyone has been to or lives in Japan I would appriciate any recommendations of good tea stops.

syntheticpanda · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 198

Tsuen tea shop! I don't know much at all about Japan, but from what I hear that one should not be missed. IIRC, it's the oldest surviving tea shop in Japan.

Chip · Posted: Mar 05, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject:

I have heard of Ippodo which is a TeaHouse/shop in Kyoto I think. Not as old as Tsuen, but still very old and traditional.

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

Just got back from Tokyo after having the great pleasure of visiting the Ippodo shop in Kyoto and Tsuen's on the Uji River (I had to work in a mini tea pilgrimage though traveling with unenlightened coffee drinkers). Ippodo was a very nice tea shop with a lot of very helpful and pleasant store clerks dispite the fact that I knew very minimal Japanese beyond tea lingo. I sat down and had a pot of their Sencha Hosen which was very good. I really liked how they did in-store tea there, you got a little kyusu with 10g. (!) of tea in it and then they just gave you a big airpot of boiling water and a little clock and went over how to cool down water and timing and everything. I honestly got 6 good steepings with that much tea (and I'm usually a "3 steepz 4 lyfe" gang member Cool

); I noticed that more leaf is used than I'm used to at the other tea shops that I had samples in as well. Tsuen's was really awesome and about as picturesque as one could imagine, the Uji-gawa with the mountains in the background is like an old wood print in real life. I had my first bowl of matcha accidentally at Tsuen when my cohorts ordered "houjicha" with some confusion and got a big frothy bowl instead. So I, twist my arm, had to sit looking out at the river with a pot of sencha and two bowls of matcha all to myself. Anyways, I purchased some mid-priced sencha at Ippodo and two mystery bags at Tsuen (one karigane in an orange bag, and one sencha that the store owners insisted was very good when I pointed to it); looking at their website I think the karigane might be "otori" and the sencha looks like the "asakaze" but I'm really not sure. I'll report on the flavor after I try them.

olivierco · Brown Belt Joined: 01 May 2007 Posts: 68 Location: France

Are these tearooms expensive?

Ryan · Sensei Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 475

Greenisgood, thanks for sharing, sounds awesome!

I happen to drink some Hosen this morning actually, a very good tea. Though, I don't use the 10 grams they recommend!

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 112

Yeah man that was a lot of tea, the first steep was pretty intense, still good but like sencha extract.

They weren't that expensive, around 400 yen ($4) for some in-store tea and most sencha 100g's were around 1500 yen. So the bulk tea was pretty reasonable, and I'm fine with paying $4 dollars to drink 6 steeps of good sencha at an old tea shop in Kyoto.

Hushfield · Brown Belt Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 49

If there are people who live in the Tôkyô area, or have been there, what are your favorite tea spots there? (I'd be very interested to hear about places in or close to setagaya-ku.
Thanks in advance
H

wehayley · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 194

I'm just going into the planning phase of a trip to Japan and am very interested in almost anything (insights and info) anyone is willing to share. I'm thinking late Spring, 2009.

Chip, I realize your post was some time back, but what is IIRC?

I'm also thinking of heading off toKorea while in the area. I lived there for a year back in the early 70s and it would be great to revist some old haunts... anyone spent any real time there - specifically north of Seoul?

kenny.kor · White Belt Joined: 24 Feb 2008 Posts: 33

I've always gone completely south of Seoul in Korea. I would check out the DMZ. That's about all I know of that's north of Seoul. There really isn't a whole lot to do north of Seoul. I think the areas might be more famous for sam gyup gae and other food like that.

I've never been to the Kyoto area so I can't say anything about it. But I would definitely get a JR rails pass for 7 or 10 days and take a trip to Oosaka, they have really great food (noodles) there.