Green Tea | SHIZUOKA TOURISM

Service: Very friendly and attentive
Equipment & Facilities: Impeccable cleanliness. Washroom outside the Darden inside Sumpu Park (equipped for physically-impaired visitors)
Prices: very reasonable
Strong points: top-class local tea. Beautiful wagashi. Splendid Japanese park.English pamphlet available. English-speaking staff.
Entirely non-smoking

If you visit Sumpu Park in the center of Shizuoka City you ought to visit one place secluded inside for a true Japanese experience: Momijiyama Japanese Garden and its tearoom!

If you come to the right time of the year you will be welcomed by flowering cherry trees!

Once past the entrance where you can book tea and wagashi cake at the tea room walk along the wooden platform to reach the inner Japanese garden.

The general view of the park, an ever-changing landscapes according to the seasons!

Beautiful pond with Japanese carps!

Take your time and walk around!

Plenty of flowering trees along the seasons!

This part of the garden was design to represent Mount Fuji looming over green tea fields!

The tea room!

Water well!

A look at the “engawa/surrounding hall” on the right of the tea room!

Inside view!
You are invited inside as soon as a seat is available and upon producing your ticket you will be served either sencha tea or macha tea with a wagashi Japanese cake.

You can put your bag under the table!

I personally asked macha tea!

My Wagashi Japanese cake represented a rape flower and plant!

Good news for vegans and vegetarians!

The macha was served in beautiful bowls!
Mine was decorated with wisteria!

Some of my friends had ordered sencha sets!

With a different type of wagashi Japanese cake!

We were all served houji cha before leaving!

A peaceful corner!

Check the tea selection on sale!

Take your time to enjoy the park before leaving!

MOMIJIYAMA JAPANESE GARDEN IN SUMPU PARK, SHIZUOKA CITY

Access (inside Sumpu Park):
5 minutes on foot from Shin-Shizuoka Station on the Shizutetsu Railway Line
10 minutes on foot from JR Shizuoka Station
15 minutes by car from Shizuoka Interchange on the Tomei expressway
Shizuoka City is one hour by Shinkansen Bullet Train from Tokyo and two hours from Kyoto

Opening hours: 09:00~16:30
Closed on Mondays (if Monday is a National Holiday, open on Monday and closed on Tuesday).
Closed from December 29th to January 3rd
Check admission fees at entrance
Interpretation services by citizen volunteers are available on reservation in several languages. For further details contact the Parks and Green Areas Division of City Hall at (054) 221-1121 or the Tea Room Office at (054) 251-0016

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

So Good Sushi Restaurant in Nice France
Navigating Nagoya by Paige, Shop with Intent by Debbie, BULA KANA in Fiji, Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pie
rre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento,

Must-see tasting websites:

-Sake: Ichi For The Michi by Rebekah Wilson-Lye in Tokyo, Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Another Pint, Please!, Beering In Good Mind: All about Craft Beer in Kansai by Nevitt Reagan!
ABRACADABREW, Magical Craftbeer from Japan
-Whisky: Nonjatta: All about whisky in Japan by Stefan Van Eycken
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

Non gastronomy must-see sites by Shizuoka Residents

HIGHOCTANE/HAIOKU by Nick Itoh in Shizuoka City

Mr. Bunji Itoh/伊藤文治 in his fields in Hirano/平野, Shizuoka City

“Organic Tea will become a new norm within the next 10 years.”
Organic tea is still rare in Shizuoka Prefecture which produces no less than 45% of the total tea crop in Japan.
The Prefecture counts many famous brands, one of which is Honyama/本山 grown along the Abe/安部 and Warashina/藁科 Rivers across Shizuoka city up to the Japan Southern Alps.

Entrance sign in front of Bunji Itoh’s registered organic tea fields in Hirano

Bunji Itoh is the 3rd generation of a tea growing family and the 2nd generation at their company, Marufuku Tea Co. Ltd./丸福製茶株式会社.
10 years ago he pioneered organic tea in one of his tea fields in Hirano, up the Abe River near Utougi/有東木, the birthplace of wasabi.
Last year the Shizuoka Prefecture decided to promote its tea in Europe and Bunji Itoh was awarded an Official Organic Tea Recognition Licence in Germany for two kinds of organic tea!

So the other saw a real expedition of ours ride all the way to his fields located at almost 1,000 meters height!
The members of our expedition were (on the picture not featuring me):
Aya Itoh/伊藤彩, his younger daughter, Asami Itoh/伊藤麻実 his older daughter who, besides helping her father, runs her own business at Saiko Chyaen/彩香茶園, Mr. Bunji Itoh/伊藤文治 himself, Mr. Chaminda Jayawardana, a Sri Lankan Tea Merchant and Grower at Lumbini Tea Factory (PVT) Ltd. who had come at the International Tea Event held in Granship, Shizuoka City and who had been invited to join us all by my friend Nahoko Imai/今井奈保子, owner of Teebom Co..
Interestingly enough, except for Mr. Itoh, everyone was fluent in English!

It was actually a great drive along the Abe River and along the wasabi fields!

You quickly understood that the culture was organic as the lane sanking between the tea trees was covered with very healthy moss!

Mr. Itoh grows two kinds of organic tea, Yabukita/やぶきた which is cultivated from grafts and Zairai/在来種 which is grown form the seeds.
The whole area covers 60 ha at high altitude at foot of the Japan Southern Alps.

Stupendous vista from the same fields.
These are not clouds but mist, a major reason for the quality of the tea.

Flowers could be seen (they are of the same family as the camelias) blossoming from the base of the trees.
Chaminda remarked that they would never let them grow back in Sri Lanka where leaves are basically picked all year round, whereas here in Shizuoka they are picked only four times a year.

The area is replete with streams and falls providing clear and pure water not only to keep the fields wet but also to keep the insects away (the trees are watered three times a week to make all insects drop to the ground where they will become organic fertilizer!).
As for fertilizer, Mr. Itoh utilizes only organic matter, mainly composed of grass mowed on abandoned golf courses and let to ferment for three years before being spread between the trees.

There are plenty of damage on the leaves proving that the culture is organic!
The above picture shows downy mildew/炭素病.

Blister Blight/ブリスタ・ブライト.

For a closer view.

Fungi/カビ.

All these problems have to be taken care of in a natural manner.
No wonder a lot of farmers opt for the easy way.
But although Mr. Itoh grows other tea with a minimum of pesticides and artificial fertilizer, he believes he is on the right path with organic tea!