Tea party at Cajovna Myoun

When the Obon was about to finish, I organized a tea party with some tea specialist at
My friend's Cozy tea cafe Cajovna Myoun.
http://myoun.digi2.jp/indexen.html

I invited.
My admired sensei from Tsubaki-do
http://blog.tsubakido.com/

my friend from En
http://teaceremonyen.com/eindex.html

and a lovely family from Nara Shinju-an.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/shinjyuan/


When I went to Kyushu with German tea specialists last month,
I had a fortune to meet wonderful tea farmers and people who related to the food industries of Kyushu.

I could join a big Food conference in Kyushu .
A person I met from NHK (Japanese version of BBC) told me about the Maboroshi noTea.
Maboroshi means illusion which represents a very precious thing
He told me that this tea is unreachable expensive but it's worth trying .

It could called coincident or meant be, I ended up has brought to the tea farmers who grow this special tea in Hoshino village , famous tea town for Yame tea.
They treated stranger like me so generously and served me the best tea in Japan.
They won the best prize for" Tea of the year in Japan" last 5years in a row.
I stayed there very shortly and wished to buy one , but no, I could not afford it sadly.
Just before I leave, the lady Tateishi san started putting several tea into the paper bag.
And this is unbelievable, she gave them to me .
Even the Maboroshi no Tea was in the bag.

I left this beautiful village through rice patties with tears on my cheek.
Kyushu, is amazing. people were incredibly kind and generous.

when I came back to Kyoto, I wanted to share this special tea with people who would appreciate the preciousness of this tea.
So then I invited my friends and my tea sensei for the gathering at unique and cozy Czech style cafe newly opened few months ago.

The house is very old Japanese style but the idea comes from the tea cafes in Czech.
One of the owner of this cafe Cristina told me this is beautiful part of the Czech culture.
They serve various kinds of tea from all over the world ( No coffee and alcohol.)
People go there to relax and read ,sometimes having to nap.


We started with small entree a a home made rice porridge(fermented rice) by E-jun(the other owner of this cafe).




















Then we started talking about tea, zen and a lot of things.
When we tried the best tea in Japan from Tateishi san , we lost the words from the scent of it .
It was not a smell of tea only, but something else, the smell more like a flower or fruits,,,
Under the subtle bitterness, we could feel the deep sweetness and flavors. It remained on our tongue and memory for a long time.































Then we had a chazuke for the end.






It's a simple and healthy way of eating rice in Japan.
(put pickles and other things on the rice then pour the hot tea)
E-jun brought the Takuan(pickled radish) and other pickles he made over the last winter in the temple of Gifu.
I brought the miso I made last November.
Our feast tonight was so simple and complete vegetarian.
But we all thought there would not be anything richer than this feast.
Because it is not just food and tea. Joyful time we share and the foods with hearts inside.

Night was getting deeper,
We listened the Shakuhachi he played and have let ourselves flow into the wind of sound.