How about some Japanese Green Tea?

   Chinese Trumpet Vine is in full bloom here and there. 

This is the Green Tea field in Kyoto, which is well known as the most fragrant Uji tea with the highest quality. I visited this tea field with my friend. We arrived at the field around 3 pm after an one- hour drive.

                                                                                                      ( Wazuka village in Kyoto)
The fields extend all over the hillside slope.

You can see the fresh green field this side. Over there is the field which has just been harvested the other day.

We wanted to walk up in the fields but could not find a path to go up as it was our first time to visit there. We walked along the foot of the Green Tea fields, looking up the fields under the blue sky for a while.

After some time, we found a small building, which was a local meeting house for villagers to gather in. We entered the building and met one middle-aged man who works at the local town office and some local women. They warmly welcomed us, and the women served cups of fragrant green tea for us. Kindly enough, the man drew a detailed map of path in the fields for us.

Thanks to his map we finally got to this path, and walked up step by step in the summer freeze.

 

Looks like the field is reaching to the sky!!  We kept walking up the field with our cameras.The fields that have been producing the Uji green tea for 800 years, handed on from farmers' hands to hands, make me think of farmers’ hard and diligent work.

                             

                                        

                                                   

                            

Do you see many fans standing?

They protect help the green leaves from frost. The temperature often goes down in early mornings and fog cover field. The fans work hard to shake off the cold air.

                                            

 

The time was quickly passing. About two hours later, we heard someone calling from the foot of the hill. "Hey, are you still here? Hurry uuup! The sun will set in no time!” Surprisingly he kindly came to find us on his motorbike.

Special thanks to the locals for your warm hospitality today!

                These  tea and sweets are for my blog friends !

The timing of the harvest or the different processes in making leaves lead to the different tastes of teas.

    Very sweet Japanese cakes on a Japanese  antique lacquer plate.         

This teapot and cup were made by Tachikichi , which seems to have been produced sometime between 1960 and 1965. My mother in law gave me.

Shigaraki Pottery

One of the traditional Japanese potteries. This handmade teapot and cup have been my favorite since I bought 30 years ago.

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