Tea Adventures in Tokyo, 1st Week of April 2015
Even though I have a blog for my trip in Tokyo, I wanted somewhere to post about my day of ‘tea searching’ and I’m not going to write bout tea on my blog so I decided to leave a post here:
As a tea enthusiast I was pretty excited about coming to Tokyo for the second half of my student teaching because green tea has a history in Japan. However I realized quickly that obtaining tea here isn’t the easiest process.
First problem I encountered was that searching ‘tea’ in Google maps will not pull up tea shops like it would in the states. Most tea shops don’t have websites and are registered under Kanji (Japanese characters) which makes them hard to find for someone who does not know Japanese.
Depending where you are, traveling on foot you might see a tea store every block or two. Within a week I mapped out a handful of tea stores I wanted to check out.
The first one I purchased at had only four items with English on it out of 60+ so I played the guessing game and ended up with a floral matcha, bancha, and some oolong tea (Even though it’s not Japanese I was out of oolongs and that is not allowed).
https://instagram.com/p/1AArFxxYHH/?taken-by=sinhatin
The more expensive packages of tea include food items. This one here came with red snow crab:
http://s14.postimg.org/naiddp31t/100_1282.jpg
About 20 feet away is an appliance store that had this area I liked: http://s14.postimg.org/ezwk5v7ht/100_1288.jpg
If a store sells plates and bowls, chances are they sell teapots and teaware.
To keep myself from buying too much tea I have a limit so I had to wait a few days before I could buy more. During that time I bought all sorts of matcha product. Matcha can be found mixed with about anything here. Matcha pocky is one of my staples right now because a box of four packs is about $2usd which is much cheaper than it would be in the states.
Two of my favorite items have been these:
http://s14.postimg.org/qve8wx7ld/100_1393.jpg – Waffle with matcha filling
http://s14.postimg.org/yx2hetqcx/100_1403.jpg – Soft oreos with matcha filling
The weekend came and I told myself that April 4th I would go to Lupcia… so I did. I’ve never been to any of their locations so this was exciting. Stepping into the store immediately intimidated me. This store had over 250 teas in stock (yes, I counted because I was amazed). Thankfully Lupcia has English on their packages which really helped.
This was my first visit, I shall return, and I ended up with:
http://s14.postimg.org/5vy55f5wx/100_1407.jpg
Sakura black tea
Honey & Pear Houji Cha
Tsugara (Japanese apple) green
and my prized Momo Oolong Super Grade (Taiwanese oolong with Japanese white peach)
That was supposed to be the end of my tea buying of the day but I passed an outdoor tea shop ran by one man and ended up buying 100g of his second best Hojicha for about $5usd (he has some really good deals) http://postimg.org/image/o0omtofxp/
There’s so much more I could talk about but I want to keep it brief.
If you have any questions about tea in Tokyo, want any specific pictures, or any other request let me know and I will do my best to provide you with what you desire.
You could have tried the basement floor of large department stores. They usually offer numerous brands, numerous types of tea, ranging from green to black teas, inexpensive to ultra-expensive, Japanese, Indian, Taiwanese, Chinese teas, and tea specialty stores will often have a “shop in shop,” where whole sections of the floor are devoted to different tea suppliers. They also might have several tea salons within the store. During weekends, many department stores will also be handing out free samples of the tea in paper cups. Mitsukoshi, Takashimaya, Matsuya, etc, in Nihonbashi, Ginza, Shinjuku and various other locations.
If you are looking for tea ware, famous makers will also have “shop in shop,” in department stores, again ranging from inexpensive to ultra expensive.
I have been visiting a lot of those Japanese stands in department stores which are more like inside strip malls to me (which I really like).
I generally find a tall multistory building and browse through the floors to see what’s there and tend to always enjoy myself. The only problems I run into is not being able to read anything.
Very nice, it looks like you had a great experience!
In case you want to go for a drink, I recommend Chachanoma which specializes in Japanese teas. It’s located in the Omotesando area of Tokyo and I think you’ll easily find it if you google it.
Regarding the snow crab picture, that isn’t tea. It’s seaweed for cooking. The other cans also have spices for cooking, and some include tea as an ingredients.
I haven’t visited a Lupicia store yet but would love to do so.
What an adventure! I spent a few years living in Asia and thoroughly enjoyed it. Spring is such a beautiful time there— enjoy!
You might be able to get a translation app for your phone – a few of them convert text in real time now so you’d just hold your phone up to the package and read it in English.
I’ve compared prices at multiple markets now and I’m really disgusted at the way that people are exploiting Japanese products online…
A bag of matcha kit kats runs about $2 and matcha pocky can be $1 to $3 depending on size and type.
I feel very bad for people who are paying absurd prices for matcha chocolate products…
Other products are the same way: I paid less than $4 for these three items https://instagram.com/p/1K08G0RYGO/?taken-by=sinhatin
Matcha Kit Kats are $8 & the Look Chocolates are $7 at the nearest Asian market to me. It’s absurd!!
Happens all the time in Japan for off shore based products. Teas from Mariage Freres for example. The same tea, from the Mariage Frere wholly owned retailers in Japan will cost you 1.5x sometimes even over 2x the price from France. To control the prices, Mariage Freres France restricts and will not ship teas to individual consumers in Japan.
That honey and pear Hojicha just sounds amazing! I am so glad you are having a good time!
I was in Tokyo in January and looking at your blog/photos makes me miss it soooo much! Visit Kyoto if you get a chance, they have beautiful pottery. I ended up buying lots of tea pots/accessories while I was there :)
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