Best Things to Do in Japan for Matcha Lovers

Best Things to Do in Japan for Matcha Lovers

Hey, I’m Nika and today I want to talk about the ultimate matcha lovers guide to Japan. I’m a big matcha lover and I wanted my last trip to be more about tea. I have been to Japan many times in the past, but I hadn’t really focused on green tea and matcha on my trips there. And so this past time I went, I did want to focus on it. And I’ve learned a lot and I did a lot and I wanted to share all the different things you can do in Japan if you’re a matcha lover or a green tea lover. So I’ll be segmenting this video into different levels. Beginner level is level one, meaning you like matcha, but you don’t want your whole trip obsessed about it all the way to level four, which is like you went to Japan for the tea. So, let’s get into the different levels and talk about all the things you can do. [Music] Level one, beginner matcha. For you people who enjoy matcha but don’t want it to be your whole identity, matcha cafes and stores in Tokyo is like my recommendation. I’m just going to list a bunch of different cafes and restaurants and stores that have matcha or are focused about matcha in Tokyo specifically because this is probably a place most people travel to. And I’m just going to kind of talk about my experience and what I recommend you try and go and do. So the first is Nana’s Green Tea. This is a major chain all over Japan. They have like 80 plus stores in Japan alone and I think they have stores in the US and outside of Japan as well. So, this is by no means like a small mom and pop matcha place. It is famous for their matcha options, including parfets and lattes. I went to one in Shinjuku in like the restaurant floor, which I had mentioned before. Um, there’s a lot of restaurants on the top of department stores. Here, you can order everything on your phone, so you really don’t have to worry about English translations. You don’t really have to interact too much with people except paying and sitting down. At this place, I ordered a matcha parfait and latte, and it was really, really, really delicious. I enjoyed it a lot. The matcha latte was nice and thick and beautifully green and had a very like herbaceious flavor. And then the matcha parfait was just so cute and like quintessentially Japanese. When I went, it was like super packed with all the girlies having a matcha date with their friends and I thought it was just such a nice little cute experience. So, I would recommend going here despite it being a huge chain. It’s actually really good and I enjoyed it. The next cafe I recommend is called Matcha House in Harajuku. Again, multiple locations throughout Japan. So, by no means a small store. I had a matcha tiramisu, which they served in like the little sake wooden cups and I also had a matcha latte on the side. I love the really large ice cubes because it doesn’t dilute the matcha. The tiramisu was very, very good. It was so good that like when I came home, I wanted to like recreate a matcha tiramisu. I did and it was definitely not as good. I would recommend this as another option if you want to have a little matcha cafe experience. The next matcha cafe I would recommend is Iuku and Matcha. I went with my friend and we shared a single origin uji matcha flight. We were able to choose different flavors of matcha depending on flavor profiles which is really cool and they kind of had a chart and explained everything and it just felt a little bit more interactive because you were trying multiple matchas. I would recommend it for the matcha lovers, people who like want to know a little bit more about matcha but again don’t want to spend their whole trip focused on it. I also went to another department store matcha shop. We went to a restaurant cafe called Kyoto Uji Fujimo which specializes in incorporating uji teas into their meals. Most of the dishes somehow incorporate either matcha or hojicha into them and they feature both savory and sweet options as well as many types of drinks. This place was very unassuming in a large building but is a great option for people interested in tea but who aren’t going to make it out all the way to Kyoto or Uji. This was very interesting. We had two different matcha flights. We tried all the way from kocha to thin matcha latte and we tried all these different matcha desserts as well. I really enjoyed this experience. It was very immersive in terms of trying different types of things. I didn’t always like it. I I think kocha is maybe I don’t enjoy it as much. It was nice to to try this. It was a very nice and lovely experience. Those are the cafes that I went to and I enjoyed and I’d recommend. Outside of cafes or restaurants that serve matcha flavored things, I’d recommend some honorable mentions, which are going into the basement of department stores. They tend to have little matcha tea stands or stalls. One department store actually had an epoto tea stand. Kinis, obviously, they have matcha flavored products. You can try like matcha Kit Kats, matcha little sweets, matcha lattes in like pre-made containers. These are definitely not like the highest quality or highest tier like you would get at, you know, a nicer cafe. Totally fine, but you might not enjoy it as much. Also, throughout Tokyo, like a lot of restaurants, cafes, whatever will have matcha flavored things. Just keep your eyes out. You will find a lot of matcha. And also, there are so many that you don’t necessarily have to plan where you’re going. A lot of these places we just stumbled upon, so you can do the same thing as well. Moving on to level two. I would recommend for you intermediate matcha lovers out there to go to Kyoto and specifically to go to Kyoto’s Epipot flagship store. People who like matcha have probably heard of the brand Epipo Tea. Epipoto is one of the most respected tea brands in Japan. And if you are a matcha dabbler, you probably have heard of the brand. They are global. They sell in the US. I actually started my love for matcha through trying some of their matchas. I didn’t realize how good it could be before I started buying through them. So on my last trip while I was in Kyoto, I decided to make the journey to go visit the Epipo tea flagship store. So a little background about the brand. They have been in business in 1717 selling tees and ceramics and renamed their brand to meaning preserve one in 1846 after Prince Yamashina encouraged the shop to preserve one tradition providing high quality tea. They have their flagship store in Kyoto where you can buy ceremonial matchas. Browse their catalog of other teas including sencha hojijauro. I love their tea selection and you can totally tell how established they are with having a robust catalog with pictures in both English and Japanese. You could see their antique tea canisters and have a little break in their attached cafe. I when I went there bought a bunch of different matcha flavors based on quality and price. I wanted to try the cheapest level all the way to the medium. And I didn’t want to justify spending a lot on matcha, so I didn’t do the highest tier. Also, they had a Kyoto exclusive matcha that they only sell within Kyoto. So, I obviously bought that as well. And then I decided to grab a matcha in their attached tea room. I got the matcha soy latte and it was nice, but I’ve explained in another video in the past, I did find it to be quite expensive for the size and for Japan standards. I don’t know if I would do it again, but I think it’s a nice experience for like the first timers and especially if you make the trip all the way out there. I think it’s worth it. So, some honorable mentions also in Kyoto. Kyoto is like a tea hub. You can explore other historic tea shops. I just stumbled upon one walking down a shopping street. There are many, many more examples. I didn’t have much time in Kyoto. So, you can also explore on Google Maps and discover that as well. You can also look for tea rooms or tea ceremony shops in Kyoto. that’s also has a deep rooted history with the tea ceremony. So, I would recommend if you really want to learn a little bit more about the tea ceremony culture to kind of get one of these lessons or tea ceremony like experiences. Moving on to level three. So, for you level three lovers out there, I would recommend that you go to Uji, which is considered the heart of matcha. It’s a town about 45 minutes south of Kyoto by train and has a history deeply rooted in the creation and development of tea like senchauro and matcha. And throughout Japanese history, Uji tea held a very very high status. Now many people associate it with high quality matcha. People who drink matcha a lot, they might see brands that say from Uji Japan. This is that place. When I went to this place, it was a 45minute train ride, but the train ride was gorgeous in a small little train and you got to see the countryside. So, even though it did take a long time to get there, I thought it was totally worth it. It was 45 minutes from Kyoto. It was also around an hour and some change from Osaka. So, if you’re staying in either of those cities, it’s a really great place to adventure to. It is really kind of like a town dedicated to matcha. There are so many shops only selling matcha, restaurants that sell matcha flavored things. It is really a matcha lovers town. I would totally go there again. I really loved it there. It was a day trip that was very memorable for me. So, these are some of the places I would recommend that I went to. So, the first place we went to was Nakamura Tokichi Honen. This is a restaurant cafe as well as a tea store. We only went to the tea store and it was super packed and busy in the restaurant section, so we didn’t want to wait and we also didn’t have a reservation or anything, so we just went to the tea shop and I bought two types of matcha, like a lower tier and a medium tier. The staff was really nice. They were also really informative if you had questions about different types of tea and everything like that. We we did engage with them a lot. I would recommend this place just it’s just a beautiful beautiful place. The next place I went to and would recommend is called Itto Qon. They are also a store and restaurant cafe combination. Thistoon is a very very famous brand and it’s so much so that I actually bought the rement like miniatures of this store before I knew this store even existed. And it was so cute. We actually went to the restaurant for a little bit but we went near the end of the day so it was kind of completely sold out. all the things I wanted to try there, including a matcha curry, which looked so delicious, and a matcha parfait. They were all sold out, which is kind of a shame. It again is a very popular place. I bought a bunch of different matchas as well as other green tea flavored items. They do tax-free and it’s a big tourist location. There is a lot of people there. I would recommend bringing your passport and just enjoying and having a good time. I bought these three different matchas right here. I do want to make another video like comparing the three and what flavors and all that stuff. I’m by no means like a matcha expert. I just like it and I dabble. I would really recommend going to this place. The next place is called Fukuan Uji which is the Uji Tea Factory. This has been all over social media. You are able to sign up for matcha grinding classes. They’re kind of like a more immersive matcha experience. And you have to make sure you get a reservation in advance. We actually did ours online. So, this matcha grinding experience, this cost around 2,000 yen. In this class, we actually ground the matcha from leaves in the old-fashioned stone mill. This actually took quite a long time. And once it was ground, we collected everything into a sieve to separate the large pieces from the matcha powder. And apparently, they’re still using the stone mills when they’re producing in factories, but there was like a mechanical element like this. Then with the matcha that you ground yourself, you were either able to make a matcha avocado or you were able to make a traditional matcha with a little okashi on the side. It was quite interactive and it was nice to see the whole process from literal grinding to consumption. I don’t know if I would do it again, but for a first time experience and for the price being so cheap as it was relatively speaking, I think I would recommend it. There are, I think, a little bit more immersive experiences that cost more. I did just want to try it and see if it’s up to the hype. It’s nice. I wouldn’t say it’s like as amazing as social media says it is, but again, I think it depends on your love for matcha and if the people you go with also want to do it. I highly doubt some people in my life, if I were to travel to Japan with him, would want to do this. So, keep that in mind. Some other things to consider about Uji, Japan, as this is a town really focused on matcha. There are also other tea shops and interesting tea flavored foods we explored as well. I would just recommend exploring on Google Maps or IRL to find places you normally wouldn’t go to. That’s what we did. For us, we had two matcha flavored snacks along the way. The first being a matcha gyoza, which in reality, you can’t really taste the matcha. It’s just a green gyoza, but it was a nice little savory treat for us. At the end of all the trip, we had a matcha soft cream at a little shop near the train station. It was a lovely little pickme up at the end of the day after walking all day. I would just recommend exploring, enjoying, eating what you can, eating what you want. Some other honorable mentions about Uji beyond the matcha. It is a gorgeous town with a lot of history. The Tale of Genji is based off of this. So, there are many things to do outside of just matcha as well. And it was a very beautiful town to visit. Overall, I really really recommend going to Uji if you like love matcha. I think it was a fantastic experience. If I ever go to Kyoto or Osaka, I would do it again. People who like matcha, love matcha, you got to go. You got to go. Level four. This is for the people who really want their experience in Japan to be about tea. I recommend going out of your way to do a tea farm tour in the countryside. So, we actually did a tea farm tour in Shizuoka. Shizuoka is Japan’s largest tea growing region, known for its perfect conditions for growing tea with its rich soil, mild climate, and special coastal fog. It’s about a 2-hour drive or 1-hour shinkansen trip from Tokyo. Many farmers offer tours where you can pick tea leaves, learn how the tea is processed from steamed to dry, and you get to enjoy and taste fresh tea straight from the source. And it’s one of the most immersive ways to connect to tea. It’s just it’s so cool to be close to where something that you enjoy every day is produced and created and like see the people that are actually involved in its creation. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I mean, I just really thought it was fantastic to meet these farmers who’ve been doing it for generations. We went to some tea farms where they had been farming tea for like 700 years, which is just like absolutely incredible. And I think that’s just so beautiful to be around this place with so much history and so much passion, too. It is a little bit more rural, so you do have to plan well in advance to get here. And a lot of these tea farms are in the mountain side. If you can’t get there usually by public transportation, you probably need a car or some other service. I know you could probably do this with a guided tour service. Um, but me and my friend just drove there together. It was truly like one of the of a lifetime experiences. So, if you ever do go to Japan and tea is a really big priority to you, I would highly recommend this experience. All right, so that’s all of my matcha travel wrecks from level one to level four. I hope you learned something. I hope you try some of these recommendations if you do manage to get to Japan. And if you have done some of these things before, let me know in the comments below what you thought of them. Thanks so much for watching. Thanks for getting this far in the video. And I’ll see you in the next one. Bye. [Music]

I love matcha! If you’re planning a trip to Japan and love matcha, this is your ultimate guide. On my last trip to Japan, I decided to make matcha and green tea a priority so I visited many matcha cafes in Tokyo, went to Kyoto to shop at the iconic Ippodo Tea Flagship store, journeyed to Uji’s historic tea town, and even ventured out to tea farms in Shizuoka! Hopefully this video will help inspire your next Japan trip!

✨Matcha Stops in this video:

0:37 Level 1: Tokyo Matcha Shops + Cafes

4:55 Level 2: Kyoto’s Ippodo Tea Flagship Store + Tea House

7:20 Level 3: Uji Matcha Town + Grinding Experience

12:29 Level 4: Shizuoka Tea Farm Tour

🍵 Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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