Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

Hello everyone! I was very excited to do this blog post because we went to Uji today! We went on a bus with our class and then went to Obubu tea farm to go on a tour, learn about the process of tea and do a tea tasting. When we first entered the farm I saw a art piece of a little man picking tea leaves with his fingers and thought it was very cool, you can see the reflection of him in the water and I I really liked the art style. 

The guides took us up to the area where the tea bushes are and gave us our first tea to try, we learned later that it was hojicha (my first time trying it as a tea) and I really liked it. They explained that they recently trimmed the bushes and we had a lot of excess leaves on the ground that will be used to fertilize the bushes for the future. There were these little white bugs that were all over the place and i’m pretty sure they were called fairy flies. They were really cute and one of them went on my skirt, I went to go touch it and it jumped off super quick!

The tour guides explained a bit about the types of tea they make, how they are interns that stay for a few months and live in the houses nearby, and some other logistics about shading the plants. We then went inside the factory to see how the process of breaking down the tea leaves and twisting them together works. He showed us different machines and we saw big bags of tea leaves piled up. There were many different machines and the entire process takes around 4 hours. As I was walking out I saw a smaller room with matcha being grinded down which was an elegant green color. 

It was then time for the tea tasting and brewing. One of the guides was giving us another presentation more about the process of the tea in between the time of the brewing and showing us how to do it or just giving us different teas to try. We tried many different teas ranging from green tea, black tea, fruity tea, to matcha. We had people at our table work on brewing it or making the matcha and it was a fun experience. The matcha was my favorite. We were able to have samples of the leaves and powder to smell as well. 

We had a nice lunch prepared for us and I was able to get really nice stamps in my book. We went to the shop and a lot of people bought tea or T-shirts. Tea.. T- Shirts… Hahah… Okay anyways… I got one that had Obubu tea on it with the bushes on the back and it’s super nice. 

It was then time to depart for Uji! I was pretty tired at this point so I just wanted to have a relaxing afternoon by myself. I went to a hojicha cafe and tried a hojicha latte for the first time and it was wonderful. I think it may be in line with beating matcha. 

I then went to a few matcha stores and walked around 30 minutes through Uji and saw lots of scenery and houses, which was very pretty. The matcha brand I was most excited for was Yamamasa Koyamaen. It was very professional when I went inside, no pictures allowed, you follow specific instructions and lists based on your preference, and it was cash only. They even gave me free origami and a postcard for coming in! In total I got one whisk, 1 hojicha container and 7 matcha containers. A pretty nice haul. 

I got dinner with Doris and Faith after in Kyoto station at this beef katsu place and I was honestly pretty dissatisfied. I went to a beef katsu place before and they are supposed to cook it medium rare and then you can make it cooked more based on your preference, but when I got the meat at this place it was almost mooing fresh at the farm. It was just so raw and I had to cook it so much and it was just weird tasting. I ended up trying pork buns at 551 Horai and they were SO good. The bun was nice and soft and the pork was seasoned so well. Overall great end to the night after that terrible beef katsu.