Japanese Tea Ceremony and Keishu-En Garden - Nagasaki, Japan

Last month, Will (@slickwilly) and I had the pleasure of exploring Japan. 

During our trip we stayed with my good friend Lara, and her husband John in Sasebo, Japan. Lara and I have been friends for a long time and it was such a joy to see her and catch up!

As part of our visit we went to the Yoko Museum and Garden teahouse in Nagasaki, Japan. Here we got to experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and explored the beautiful surrounding gardens.

Teahouse (Mifune-Jaya)

In the teahouse, or Mifune-Jaya, we all gathered around a set of traditional tea making utensils. Specifically we each had a bowl, bamboo whisk, container of high-end Matcha powder and a bamboo spoon.

The ceremony can be summed up in a few steps:

1. Take two big scoops of matcha powder with the bamboo spoon and put it into your bowl
2. Take the bamboo whisk and spread out the powder along the bottom of the bowl
3. Add hot water (our guide noted a specific mm count but I would say about 4 oz)
4. Quickly whisk the mixture until your bowl is nice and frothy
5. Loudly slurp your tea and enjoy it with a sweet snack!
6. Note: When drinking make sure to turn your bowl so that its design is facing towards your friends or guests. (I recall that about two clockwise turns are recommended)

@slickwilly was a natural; this is his frothy tea:

but I got it on the second try 😋

This tea was yummy! A bit weaker than expected but still very good, next time I'll try bigger Matcha scoops. I also enjoyed the sweet treat that was included. 😊

Photo of us enjoying the tea courtesy of Will  @slickwilly:

The Garden (Keishu-En)

Keishu-En is a  free-flowing style garden surrounded by a big pond. [This one] was designed by Kinsaku Nakane, known as one of the most gifted garden designers in history.

After the tea ceremony we enjoyed the surrounding gardens, including a lovely waterfall and koi pond. 

View of the observation tower and tea house from the opposite hill:

John, Lara, Will and I enjoying the cascading garden hills:

Shot from the top of the garden observation tower:

Yes I did pack this outfit especially for a moment like this 😉

Photo courtesy of Will @slickwilly

Here is a larger shot of the koi pond and small waterfalls:

Panorama of the koi pond courtesy of @slickwilly:

Cheesing in front of the falls 😎

We had a fabulous time here just enjoying the weather, each others company and beautiful gardens. Hopefully you could get a sense from the pictures of how well maintained it all was, absolutely flawless!

Thanks for reading and if your visiting Japan I recommend a visit here!