It will be a great chance to try our best Uji Tea available. I believe you will be delighted with its taste and aroma. For the Tea Sets, these are worth having one at your home. Best to extract Uji Tea at your home, but also best for gifts to your important person.

I was pretty busy at the end of last year through January this year. I spent couples of days with my parents and friends in Osaka and Kyoto. Ways of spending new year are like:

• Eating Soba (buck wheat noodles)
• Eating Osechi (special menu only eaten when celebrating new year)
• Eating Zouni (soup with rice cake)
• Going to Hatsu-moude (going to temples and shrines to wish good fortune)
• Giving Otoshi-dama (giving children some money)

Pretty neat huh?

Just an hour ride on a train from Tokyo, Mt. Takao is the best place you can visit to enjoy this natural painting. Mt. Takao marked 3 stars in the Michelin guide, one of the world’s famous tour guide book. And yes, 3 stars is well deserved.

When you imagine Tokyo, what color do you see? I believe most of the people will not say green. Mt. Takao will break that! Full of nature, gourmet and shrines. This place preserves ancient Japan, not filled with skyscrapers like now a days…

Same as last time, today many trains stopped by this typhoon and people on the way to the office stuck in the train stations. Well, I decided to work at home

There is no reason to go outside when typhoon is raging.

I ate pretty gorgeous parfait whose price was 930yen.

IYEMON Parfait

 And when you order tea ,Tea and Houhin-teapot come and you make tea yourself.

Houhin and Tea

Houhin Teapot 1

Houhin Teapot 2

I recommend you go to  “IYEMON SALON”  if you are passing by.
 ”IYEMON SALON”  is near the corner of Sanjo and Karasuma streets.

Google Maps “IYEMON SALON”

IYEMON Parfait

The View from Sanmon

 This is the place that Ishikawa Goemon who was a legendary bandit in Japan exclaimed “What a view (Zekkei kana)! What a view (Zekkei kana)! The spring view is worth a thousand gold pieces, or so they say, but it is too little, too little. These eyes of Goemon rate it worth ten thousand!” in the kabuki ,” Kinmon Gosan no Kiri” (“The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest”).
I came up there, then I agreed this is a wonderful view.

The gate of Nanzenji temple

 However,the people who visit this place is little. I have no idea why does not everyone visit here.
The day was rainy, top of the San mon is very quiet. Without thinking, I sat in meditation (“Zazen”). It cost 500Yen to come up the San mon. This is good value! I recommend.

The top of the Sanmon_01

The top of the Sanmon_02

We drove a car for about a half of its way to the peak and then started to walk then. As altitude getting higher and higher, temperature will get lower and lower. Not only temperature, but density of air will be thinner and thinner that some people will suffer from altitude sickness. Climbing Mt.Fuji is not so easy.

But when we overcame this challenge, we can see the most beautiful sunrise

In Japan, there is a culture to eat eels in “Doyou no ushi” day. “Doyou no ushi” day is a day defined in Japanese traditional calender. This year, July 19th is the day. In this day Japanese people rush to eel restaurant to have eels. Exciting, isn’t it?

This culture is made by Gennai Hiraga, a famous inventor in Edo period. People in Edo period did not eat eels in summer, and so the owner of eel restaurant asked Gennai how to sell eels in summer. Gennai’s idea was to make advertisement saying “Today is ‘Doyo no ushi’ day”. By this advertisement, people rushed to that eel restaurant believing that eating eels in “Doyo no ushi” day will help to gain power to overcome hot days in summer.

Today, it is proven that eating eels really help to gain power. Eels contain vitamin A and vitamin B a lot. So let’s eat eels and be healthy.

The Gion festival is one of the three main festivals of Japan. And it is most beautiful festival of Japan! The festival peaks on the 17th July, when 32 beautifully decorated floats (Yamaboko floats) parade through the city. These Yamaboko floats are described as a “moving museum”.

Though I repeated visits to this festival, every time I am impressed by this festival’s beauty . If you visit Japan in summer,please visit the Gion festival in Kyoto!

The scenes of Gion festival at the corner of Oike and Shinmachi streets.

Naginata Float

Naginata Float

Naginata Float

Festival's Musicians

Mantis Float

Owakudani is a volcanic valley, and is a source of hot springs in Hakone. Hot water flowing and steam rising is the best view you can see there.

Popular taste of Owakudani is Kuro-tamago (meaning “black egg”), which is a boiled egg made by hot spring. Iron contain in the hot spring make the color of the egg shell black.

Taste of this egg is just like a normal boiled eggs… Nothing, special. One thing special is that this egg costs 100 Yen (about 1 US Dollar). So expensive for an boiled egg. Well, this is just a memorial thing to get and not to really enjoying the taste of the egg itself.