Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tea
436
The Tea Gardens of Shizuoka
The Way of Tea
Shizuoka, Japan
China and India may have been the only
places where tea grew naturally, but the
Chinese and Indians regarded the plant
(Camellia sinensis)
as mere medicine. It
took the Japanese to raise tea drinking to
an art form.
Japan's traditional brew is green tea, a
slightly different tea variety processed dif-
ferently from black tea—oxidized less, so
that more of the delicate juices remain in
the leaf. The first green tea seeds arrived in
Shizuoka province way back in 1241, when
a monk named Shoichi Kokushi brought
them home from his travels to Sung China.
With good pure water and a cool, moist cli-
mate ideal for tea-growing, this prefecture
southwest of Tokyo produces almost half of
all Japan's tea today. As the breadbasket,
so to speak, of Japanese tea, Shizuoka spe-
cializes in
sencha
tea, which comes from
earlier harvests and is exposed to more
sunlight while growing.
In Shimada, on the Makinohara tea
estate—Japan's first large commercial tea
plantation—the
World Tea Museum
(Ocha-no-Gou, 3053-2 Kanaya;
&
81/47/
46-5588
) is a good place to start any tea
tour of Japan. It has detailed exhibits on
tea, tasting rooms, tea ceremony rooms,
and a restored 16th-century Japanese tea-
house once used by Enshu Kobori, a great
master of the tea ceremony. The tea used
in classic tea ceremonies is powdered
green tea, or
matcha,
brewed following a
prescribed ritual and served with precisely
prepared foods; tea ceremonies can last
up to 4 hours and follow an intricate proto-
col (don't worry, in these educational ses-
sions your hosts will lead you through
each step). Even in abbreviated form, this
elaborate ritual becomes an exercise in
tranquillity, respect, and harmony—an
essential Japanese experience.
Visitors can try picking tea in the fields
before experiencing a traditional Japanese
tea ceremony at the
Kaori-no-Oka
Cha-
pia
(“Fragrant Hill” Teahouse) in Fukuroi
(7157-1 Okazaki;
&
81/538/44-1900;
www.
chiapia.net). (Picking is harder than it
seems—workers are supposed to pluck
only two leaves and a bud at a time.) The
tea factory here demonstrates an old-
fashioned manual tea process, which best
preserves the delicate flavor of quality
sencha.
Also nearby in the Suruga area,
Fore
Nakakawane Chameikan Hall
(71-1 Miz-
ukawa, Kawanehon-cho, Haibara-gun) is a
theme park focusing on Kawane tea. While
many of the attractions are more enter-
taining than informative (kids seem to love
the
suikinkutsu,
a type of Japanese garden
ornament that echoes gentle sounds),
there is an exhibit that teaches classic tea-
brewing technique.
Wind up your tour of Shizuoka in the
town of Kakegawa, at the historic Kakeg-
awa Castle. The castle is surrounded by
beautiful gardens, where the traditional-
style
Ninomaru Tearoom
is set like a
jewel—a great place to sample the local
tea.
0
Atami railway station (107km/ 66
miles SW of Tokyo).
L
$$$
Taikanso,
7-1 Hayashigaoka-
cho, Atami City (
&
0557/81-8137;
www.
heartonhotel.com/taikanso). $$$
Hotel
Century Shizuoka,
18-1 Minami-Cho,
Suruga-Ku, Shizuoka (
&
81/54/2840111;
www.centuryshizuoka.co.jp).
