Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

Hi, this is Mark again for the July 19th blog. Today started off early in the morning with us dragging ourselves out of bed to get ready for another long excursion through the countryside of Japan. At 8:15 we started our journey by going to JR Kyoto station to catch a train to Wazuka which is one of the largest matcha-producing regions in Japan. After taking multiple bus and train rides through the lush mountain we finally found ourselves greeted by Hiro-San our super energetic tour guide from Obubu tea farm. 

The tour of the farm first started with us walking through the tea plantation, seeing the tea plant, and plucking off some tea leaves. We then followed the tea leaves to the factory where the tea was steamed, cooled, and dried to the right moisture content. For matcha, the dried tea leaves will then be shipped to different a factory to be ground down to the fine green powder that we associate with matcha. After a brief tour of the factory, we were brought to the second-floor lounge where we got to learn and taste test different types of tea produced in Japan. We got to try hojicha which is roasted green tea, genmaicha which is tea mixed with roasted rice, kabuse sencha which is tea harvested from tea plants that are shaded from the sun, wakoucha which is Japanese black tea, and finally okumidori matcha which is matcha produced from okumidori cultivar. For different types of tea we tasted we also got to learn how to best prepare each type of tea: what the best temperature for each tea type is, what the optimal steeping time would be, and what brewing method you could use.

For lunch we got a chance to try ochazuke, green tea poured over rice, provided to us by the tea farm. The tea that got put into the rice is a very strong tea with an intense bitter flavor but when paired with rice the taste becomes much more balanced. We also have a myriad of side dishes to pair the rice with ranging from picked vegetables to nori seaweeds and miso paste.

After lunch, we traced our step back toward Kyoto stopping at Uji, the famous matcha merchant town, where for the whole afternoon we got the chance to roam around the town and explore different attractions inside it. For some of us, we decided to head to Byodo-in which is a Buddhist temple that is on the back of 10 yen coin and is also one of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Adjacent to the temple there is also a museum that houses various Japanese national treasures including Praying Bodhisattva statues, Byodo-in temple bell, and the twin phoenix statues which are depicted on the back side of the 10000 yen bank notes. 

The surrounding town of Uji also is a fascinating city where matcha leaves its mark in every facet of the neighborhood. Walking out from the temple along a gently flowing river during the late afternoon I came across multiple shop front selling various kinds of products made from matcha. Under the roof of Japanese-style buildings products ranging from matcha tea-making sets to food flavored with matcha can be seen being put on display.

After a long way of traveling, we arrived back at Kyoto station with me, Daniel, Racheal, Mandy, and Logan splitting off to find dinner within the department store attached to the station. After going up multiple sets of escalators we finally reached the 11th floor of the building where a wide array of restaurants were presented to us. After some back and forth we decided to go to the, not so, Italian restaurant. The atmosphere of the restaurant itself was quite lovely with the main theme for the interior design being that of an Italian countryside but surprisingly there is also a map of France and a picture of the Eiffel Tower hanging on the wall. My meal, chicken steak, comes out on a sizzling hot plate topped with rosemary with an accompanying sauce on the side. The chicken itself is very juicy and tender which when served hot has made for quite an enjoyable eating experience.

After the meal we decided to go up to the observation deck on the building’s top floor to enjoy the sun setting on the beautiful city of Kyoto, ending the day with a beautiful view.