Monthly Archives: December 2015

Local Food Festival in Tokyo Dome City! – You can find multihued food from all over Japan

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Local food festival so-called “FURUSATO Maturi” will be held in Tokyo Dome City.
We can enjoy a variety of local foods from all over Japan, of course, Japanese tea produced in Shizuoka also.

Shizuoka tea and related products will be provided by the group of highly-motivated farmers so-called “Makinohara Ninteikyo”. In the page introducing sellers, you can see the image as below.

TokyoDomeCityMakinohara

*Japanese character meaning

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As for the farmers introduced in the page of “Tea farmers”, Ito-san will join this festival on 8th and 9th. He will welcome you with high-grade loose leaf tea and his nice gentle smile!

Other prominent tea farmers also will join the festival and welcome you with their nice hospitality, OMOTENASHI mind. I hope you will enjoy all in the festival, especially tea products from Shizuoka and communication with Shizuoka tea farmers.

 

—Details—

Period : 8th-17th January 2016
Open time : basically from 10:00 to 18:00 (at 8th 11:00-21:00, 13th-15th 10:00-21:00)
Place : Tokyo Dome City
Entrance fee : 1,600yen for 1day-pass, 1,100yen for evening pass.
Venue map : As for how to go the venue from the nearest stations, please see the surround map. The venue is “Tokyo Dome”, captioned as No.1 in the map. As for the map of its inside,  the map of the venue is depicted in the webpage of Tokyo Dome City. (Unfortunately, this page is described in Japanese only.)
Access : The access map depicted in the webpage of Tokyo Dome City. (Fortunately, this page is described in English.) For searching the way to the nearest station, it is useful to search by JNTO Travel Planner. On the below part of the link page, you can see “-> JNTO Travel Planner”. Please click it and then, please input or select station name for departure and final destination.

As for how to use JNTO Travel Planner, please see the page “Guide for trips“.

 

New year sale “Hatsu-Uri” in Odakyu Machida

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In Japan, the traditional event of new year sale so-called “Hatsu-Uri” is performed at the beginning in January in many retail stores. Tea products, of course, are sold in “Hatsu-Uri”.
As for more information about “Hatsu-Uri”, the webpage of JapanVisitor is recommended.

In my personal opinion, the atmosphere in “Hatsu-Uri” makes sellers more spirited and customers more exited! In Japan, there is a proverb meaning “Setting one’s ambition at the beginning of a new year is the key of the successful year”. I guess we may be exited by our hope or ambition for the new year in order to achieve a successful year by making beginning days better.

Some tea farmers in Shizuoka will join the new year sale.

Hasegawa-san will join the new year sale held on Odakyu dept. Machida in Machida city, Tokyo.

In “Hatsu-Uri” we could enjoy communication with Hasegawa-san, more spirited than every time.
If you have some time, it is recommended to enjoy communication with Hasegawa-san and shopping tea products. Machida city is not so far from Tokyo station. It will take about less than 1 hour to go to Odakyu Machida branch from Tokyo station.

If you would like to get some souvenir, “Tsuyuhikari” is the most recommended! Hasegawa-san said “I could produce one of the best “Tsuyuhikari” in 2015. The amount of Umami content was higher than every year by 1 or 2 points!” In fact, tasting “Tsuyuhikari” of him realized me his comment is correct and made me surprised by so much delicious taste of it!

 
How to access to Odakyu Machida branch
Based on the webpage of the store, Odakyu Machida is in the building of Machida station.
As for how to make railway plan, please search using “JNTO Travel Planner”. (At the below part of this link page, we can look “-> JNTO Travel Planner”.)
If you would like to go from Tokyo station, please go to Shinjuku station by JR-Chuo line, and exchange to Odakyu-Odawara line. It will take 35min from Shinjuku to Machida.

Shizuoka tea tourism as a “EverGreen tourism”! – A type of green tourism

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If you are interested in green tourism and Japan, I’d like to recommend Shizuoka prefecture in Japan, the kingdom of Japanese tea, as a candidate for “EverGreen tourism”! *

 

Tea plant (the scientific name, “Camellia Sinensis”) is a species of evergreen plant, so we can see the deep green color of lush tea plant even in the autumn and winter time.

In the autumn time, we can enjoy one of the most beautiful and fantastic scene in Japan, the contrast of deep green of tea plants and autumn color of red, yellow or orange of seasonal plants as below.

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Especially, Shizuoka is the most recommended site! Shizuoka has a variety of tea gardens located in diverse geography such as plateau, hillside, slopeside of the mountain, riverside and so on.

For example, on the plateau, the sea of tea plantation fills our view.

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On the other hand, at the slopeside, a wealth of multihued plants could feast our eyes.

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In addition, we can get the view of Mt. Fuji through tea gardens.

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In this year, it is still warm compared with every year, thus plants still keep autumn tinge.
Perhaps, it will keep for fewer than 2 weeks. So it is the last opportunity to enjoy the autumn of Japan as a green tourism in this season. So anyway, we can enjoy “EverGreen tourism” through the year!

I hope you will enjoy Japanese autumn atmosphere with tea plants, and in addition, enjoy Japanese tea or related products in tea shops. I’d be grateful if you find pages of “Tea shops and products” and “Guide for trips” useful as a guide for your tour.
*Now the map for Makinohara tour is being prepared. I’m planning to add other activities we can enjoy with green tourism, such as lunch, seasonal events, cultural programs, heritages and so on.
I’d be happy if you refer to the guide map of Makinohara city in Shizuoka or the other useful websites.

 

*Disclaimer : Here, I mean “EverGreen tourism” as “A type of green tourism, to mainly visit the sites where we can enjoy evergreen plants”. Although there are a lot of companies that have its name containing the word “evergreen tourism” worldwide, I never intend to make someone confuse or misunderstand. I would just like to intend a play on word.

We can get Shizuoka tea of fine quality in Tokyo “Ocharaka”

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Hello, tourists in Japan! If you are planning to buy some souvenir, Japanese tea is recommended! Especially Japanese tea produced in Shizuoka is one of the best quality and the most recommended one! From 27th to 29th Dec., we can buy Shizuoka tea of fine quality in Tokyo. The name of the shop is “Ocharaka” in COREDO Muromachi, located in Nihonbashi Muromachi in Chuou-ku city in Tokyo. If you would like to visit the shop, please see the below part of this page “How to access to the shop”.

In the term between 27 to 29 Dec., Nagata-san and CHAKURA will sell their tea products.
Nagata-san got the award for tea production from the minister of agriculture in Japan, which means the quality of his tea products is so fine! Tea gardens of his family is located in Kanaya area on Makinohara plateau.
CHAKURA* is the group of young tea farmers belonging to Kikusui tea plantation and factory cooperation.
*The link page described in Japanese only (a header image of its page is shown below). We can see outlook of tea products and faces of tea farmers.

Chakura_HeaderImage

 

I was so much impressed by their prominent attitude for tea cultivation and production! I hope you could feel their passion and enjoy communication with them and shopping of tea products!
How to access to the shop
Site: In the first basement of COREDO Muromachi
Useful page: https://31urban.jp/lng/eng/muromachi.html#access
(In this page, we can see the way to the shop in English)
Address: 2 chome-2-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuou-ku city, Tokyo 103-0022
Search: If you have a PDA, iPhone or something like that, please search “coredo muromachi ”, google map will depict the way to the shop. Anyway, the best way is seeing the page of COREDO Muromachi described above.

As a candidate of Christmas present for your loved one!

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Drinking hot tea with sweet chin music provides the most comfortable time in the winter time. Giving a loose leaf tea of fine quality as a Christmas gift would result in happy time with your loved one or family.

Theanine, amino acid specific to leaves of tea plant, has various spiritual benefits, such as a stress relief effect, relaxation effect, improvement in concentration, upgrade of our sleep quality, and so on. In addition, aroma of fresh green and slightly sweet flavor could create the romantic atmosphere.

So, it is a great opportunity to buy a unique Christmas present for your loved one or family. Japanese tea would be one of the best candidates! As for Japanese tea, especially Shizuoka tea, there are many features suitable for Christmas mood, such as aroma and taste of fresh green, natural sweet flavor due to roast, good aftertaste..etc.

Hopefully, I wish you will spend a so nice time with Japanese tea in Christmas day!

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Autumn tinge tinging the doorbell of winter time

Gallery

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This gallery contains 15 photos.

Colorful leaves and flowers make us happy! We can enjoy autumn crimson and yellow along with evergreen tea plants in Makinohara plateau, especially on its terrace sides. Cold dry air and sunshine create fantastic scenes and beautiful landscape. Tea leaves … Continue reading →

Information for theanoholics worldwide

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Tea is one of the most attractive drink all over the world.
It contains various active ingredients, such as theanine, catechin, many kinds of vitamin (especially high V.C.), saponin, caffeine, and so on.

Orinigal term “Theanoholics” means the holics of tea due to a multiple of attractive features of tea made from leaves (shoots) of Camellia Sinensis.

Human being have created hosts of tea drink which include tea made from leaves of Camellia Sinensis and tisane (drink made from plants other than Camellia Sinensis). Every infusion, every ingredient plants have positive effects for human health.
Above all, tea is considered to be the most beneficial to our health thanks to a wealth of functional ingredients and a variety of taste and flavor of tea.

Perhaps, it seems that there are millions… billions of theanoholics worldwide. This blog provides various information about various tea (mainly Japanese tea) and Shizuoka Prefecture, the kingdom of Japanese green tea, for such theanoholics.