Japan - Cup Obsession

Since I went to Japan for the first time, I turned into a crazy tea drinker, both associating green and red tea to sweet memories of the places I visited and the people I met. Everytime I drink Sencha, I mean fresh, good sencha, that actually has a crazy bright green color, I am reminded of my host mother, in Tamana, who actually had the best green tea I ever drank. Fresh sencha is quite bitter and one usually needs to get used to it before liking it - I suppose we can compare that to people getting used to coffee, since green tea has about as much different kind and tastes, and origins as coffee does, on top of the fact that both of them are quite bitter, and help stay awake. My brother for one, never really liked the green tea I brought back from Japan. However, being there, most people you get to know will have tea with you to start a conversation, so the drinking of tea is quite mandatory, whatever one thinks of its taste. Thus, I think my brother has had his quota of green tea drinking for all his life in those three weeks we spent travelling. I love how he valued japanese people and did not want to offend them by refusing tea being poured over and over in his cup. 

On our first day in Tamana, my host city, I think we had tea five times with different people in 2 hours, including the refilling of both our cups....

With my love for tea, also appeared my love for teawares and the delicate feeling fine china gave me. Thus, I always admire greatly shops that actually took the care of having special tea wares for their customers. I usually take pictures of those in stores I particularily like... and in Japan that was almost everywhere. That's why I decided to blog on that, Japanese tea wares, with the tea they served and the impression I got of the place...

Kumamoto Castle

I had tried to get my brother to drink Matcha at home, with the low quality one I bought from the times I went to Japan before, but the taste was never quite what I remembered. One of the reasons is that it is difficult to evaluate the temperature of the water precisely, and Matcha requires a specific temperature so that one can enjoy the taste. If I remember correctly, green tea needs to be at 80 degrees celsius and Matcha between 50 and 60, depending on the amount of matcha powder put in the bowl. Anyways, my brother never liked those I made for him. 

I made him try one on our very first day in Japan, at a little stand in Kumamoto Castle, where a beautiful old lady was making them for tourists. He actually did not dislike it, which surprised me, but still did not get any more cravings for drinking it later on the trip. At least I got him drinking one, once. 

Most matcha ware have their own history, and people well versed in the field know of the famous makers by watching the bowls and the signatures at the bottom. I am no expert, so I simply admire the work...

Hirayama Onsenn - Yu no Kura

There is a place, in the first Ryokan we went at, where we can actually make japanese style pottery and paint on it, and they use their own wares in the traditional restaurant where food is served for customers - both people renting rooms and people coming for the baths. Japanese style ware for japanese green tea, like I took, and japanese-modernized style ones for people who take coffee, like my brother (this was our first breakfast in Japan and my brother had no reason to get green tea, as there was only the two of us at the breakfast table... so here started the endless Japanese assumption that my brother and I were a couple travelling together).

Neighbour of Oomuta

On the second day of our arrival, Miyako took my brother and I to a place to make Ramen with her daughter which was a little ill and had taken off school especially for this. Since Japanese schools are quite strict with school, even though she was ill for real, if people from her school saw her going around town with her mother and guests, they would look down on Miyako for being a bad mother, so we ended up going to a nice little tea shop to have a break in the afternoon. The shop was some half an hour away from Oomuta, Miyako's city, and we went there so that people would not recognize us. Really, japanese and losing faces....

Anyways, I really looooooved the place. They had amazing sweets. I can never get enough of Japanese sweets. I do not remember the name of either the town, the coffee shop of the dish I took however, stupid me. Just note that the dish on the right was not ice cream. It was a sandy sweet dry dish I fell in love with... shame I have bad memory for names...

Note here the tea cup that is a nice mixture of modern West fine china with Japanese traditional designs.

My brother took coffee again at this place :P I like the fact that while he took coffee, which is absolutely not japanese, his cup actually was made in a more traditional material than mine teh he

Oomuta - Miyako's place

Isn't this cup beautiful? this one was a cup Miyako had at her place, with cute strawberry and flower patterns. I had a single portion of instant coffee in there. Funny how while I love actual good quality coffee, I got so used to drinking asian instant coffee that either of them taste really good to me. Sometimes I actually crave for their cheap coffee while at home while drinking our strong Ethiopian coffee beans.

Kyoto Station - First meal

It was a long train ride before we reached Kyoto station from Fukuoka and we did not get a proper meal on the train so we were famished when we got there. After getting our luggage cared for until we could check-in at our Kyoto downtown house, we went down a mall to get lunch. I don't remember the name of the place -surprise surprise - but it is not that bad, because the meal was not that good. It looked cute, sure enough, but the curry rice omelet's chicken was full of weirdly crunchy fat which I disliked very much. However, as you can see, the cup I had my red tea in compensated for the poor quality meal. Who would be upset when looking a this cup?

Kyoto

A Rabbit CUP!!!! <3 This one was from the Shirotama-Dango house we went to on our first days in Kyoto, and got the dango set with drawings made in komugiko.

Red tea in a store we went to grab a snack before going to our appointment to make japanese style pottery. We ate weird looking but tasty pastas, and I got a simple white teacup, that made a nice pictures only because of the japanese style sweet I had bought earlier in the day. Really, Japanese sweets are awesome with tea, be it green or red.

Kobe

You saw this picture before. Here again, this one is not for the cup itself, but for the content. I wish I was able to make such nice things out of coffee....

Fukuoka - Tenjin Core

Ok, trying to remember where this one is from......Oh! So this one is mixed up, but I am too lazy to change the order of the picture. It was at the beginning of our trip, in Fukuoka, at a nice Americanized place with a nice Whisky selection we went to for my brother's cigarette-alcohol break. Loving the details.

Tokyo

On our last day in Tokyo I went to a sweet shop with Mamiko, to meet up with François that had gone to have a drink on his own while we went window shopping. I really liked the cup of this one, even if the quality of the porcelain was not the best I had during the trip. The cup was a bit heavy and thick. Still, there was a cute milk container, so whatever, it passed the test.

Frankfurt

The last cup I had - appart from the ugly airplane cups - on our trip was at Frankfurt airport, where we had breakfast. I found it a bit childish for the style of the restaurant we were at, but I personally totally buy that style.

Homemade Japan

 This is the final result of the cup I made in Kyoto - the one on the left is my brother's - that got sent to us a bit after we came back from our trip. We made the shape and chose the colors, but since they needed to be cooked twice, we did not personally apply the paint. I am still super pleased with the result and the cup looks awesome with japanese tea in it.