On this episode of World of Travel, hosts Kolyn and Lindsey tour the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Alongside Masatsugu Odaira, the embassy’s Minister of Public Affairs, Lindsey and Kolyn go behind the scenes of diplomacy with a firsthand look at the embassy’s authentic Japanese tea house called Ippakutei. The tea house was built in 1960 to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the ratification of the Japan-US Treaty of Amity and Commerce, built in Japan and reassembled on site. As America marks its 250th birthday, Japan is marking it too, with a gift of 250 new cherry trees that echoes the roughly 3,000 sent back in 1912. Whether your gateway into Japanese culture is sushi, anime, or the samurai spirit of service, Odaira offers a traveler’s playbook for going beyond Tokyo and Kyoto to see and learn about Japan, the art of hospitality, tradition, and more.
AloJapan.com