Japan 2026

 We headed out early this morning since we had a couple of stops before arriving in Kyoto today.  Our focus would be tea, both the cultivating and the drinking. Our first stop was at an organic tea farm.  We first learned about tea and what distinguishes one from another.  I always assumed that there were different varieties of tea plants but this is not the case.  A combination of which leaves are harvested and how fast the tea is roasted leads to the varieties that we see.  The top three leaves of new growth are the imperial pluck and is used for green, matcha and oolong.  Tea begins to oxidize as soon as it is picked so the length of time between picking and roasting takes the tea from green (processed soon after picking) to black.   After our education session we went out into the fields to pick tea.  Today we were picking the light green leaves just below the top three leaves to make bancha tea.  We spent about 20 minutes gathering ...

 Today was probably my favorite day on the trip.  We got to visit two places doing their craft the old fashioned way and may be the last of their kind. First we learned about making soy sauce.  This business is owned and ran by an older woman who is still practicing making the sauce by hand in older wooden barrels.  It actually takes quite a bit of time to produce soy sauce at the quality level she’s doing.  Soy sauce is made from soybeans, wheat, and salt.  Koji (we’ll learn about making that in a couple of days) is used to break down the soybeans.  The wheat is also broken down by Koji.  We also learned about the different kinds of soy sauce and were treated to a lunch where we got to sample several of them with food.  Of course we all had to buy some from this lovely woman and will savor the deep umami flavor on our food at home. For the afternoon we visited a rice farm.  I know you’ll think I’m exaggerating but rice is grown everywhe...

 The rain continued in Nara probably as a result of the typhoon off the coast.  This did not dampen our spirits even though it did slightly alter our plans.  After a delicious farmhouse breakfast with fresh fruit, breads, yogurt and a vegetable soup, we headed to a restoration center. Nara is considered one of the oldest areas in Japan and will hopefully soon have the distinction of being a world heritage site.  The center showed how some of the historic sites are being restored.  Since it was Saturday there weren’t craftsmen doing restoration work but we were able to see what the work entails. For lunch we stopped at a sensa noodle restaurant.  The bowls centered around the very thin noodles complimented by a variety of additions.  You could get it either hot or cold and I chose hot with beef and enoki mushrooms.  The broth was delicious and the noodles so thin and tasty. After lunch we visited the Ohmewa-jinja Shrine.  When we arrived we st...

 Japanese knives are known throughout the world and some of the best. Today we are going to explore a couple of workshops where the knives are being made the old-fashioned way in a fire and forge. At our first stop this morning we were invited into an older gentleman‘s workshop to watch him forge a knife. He starts with a piece of metal that will be heated to a very high temperature in his oven and then he will beat it into a shape that will ultimately be a knife. He also will take two kinds of metal and buying them together in order to make a very strong knife. He does have an automatic machine that pans the blade to make it very thin. After the first process, he then has to take it over and cut it into the shape that he ultimately wants. He does not do the sharpening at his shop, it is sent out to another location. The knife handle is also put on someplace else. He was very generous to let us try some of the forging techniques that he uses. He did have knives for sale that he had...