Tea

The International Tourist office in Matsue has a small tea house built in where the way of tea is explained and occasionally tea ceremony held. Tea culture is very alive in the city and so it was not surprising that Hideki invited me to a delightful tea shop downtown. I enjoyed my matcha and 2 delicious dangos so much that we went shopping after wards. Matsue is not only famous for its way of tea but also for WAGASHI, the traditional fine confectionery that goes with it. The problem with this kind of sweets in Japan is their short shelf-life. So soon both of us were turning the pretty boxes of sweets on the counter of the delicatessen shop for the relevant dates. As we did this on a big scale I wondered what the shop assistant would think of us and asked Hideki to explain to her my reason, which he did reluctantly after a while, with the result, that the girl joined us and found suitable ones at last.




Later on we had a quick visit of the castle grounds when we were called to the Tourist office where a present for me had been handed in by the mother of one of the girls.Unfortunately she was not in when we arrived and I was asked to draw an OMIKU-JI instead, which read as follows:

"Thank you for coming to the castle town Matsue!
Please enjoy the beautiful view from Matsue castle tower and you will find happiness in Matsue!!"

This was a charming idea of the girls and I could not believe my luck when I won a lovely set of chopsticks. I protested at first, but was told there were blanks as well.
so this was one of my lucky days...