Japan - Day Ten

Our final morning in Kyoto and we are on our own! The official tour has disbanded and we have these precious minutes to fulfill final desires. And for my hubby, that means finding Japanese green tea.

Credit to my Mr. Dawdler for locating this lovely old tea shop called Horaido and the delightful gentleman displayed a deep wisdom about proper brewing and tasting (perhaps following in the footsteps of many generations of tea masters - there was an older man in the back of the shop who we guessed might be his father or grandfather)

He also read us a beautiful passage from Three Cornered World

“For the man of leisure there is no more refined nor delightful pursuit than savoring this thick delicious nectar drop by drop on the tip of the tongue. The average person talks of ‘drinking’ te, but this is a mistake. Once you have felt a little of the pure liquid spread slowly over your tongue, there is scarcely any need to swallow it. It is merely a question of letting the fragrance penetrate from your throat right down to your stomach. On no account should it be swilled round the mouth and over the teeth, for this is extremely coarse.”Gyokuro” tea escapes the insipidness of pure water and yet is not so thick as to require any tiring jaw action. It is a wonderful beverage. Some complain that if they drink tea they cannot sleep, but to them I would say that it is better to go without sleep than without tea.”

As it turns out, the book is a delightful story about an artistic voyage and I am most grateful to the tea master for his introduction to the story of Kusamakura (original title) which means The Grass Pillow and is the standard phrase used in Japanese poetry to signify a journey.