An annual two-day outdoor tea market known as “Yoshidayama Dai Chakai (Yoshidayama big tea party)” was held on the site of Yoshidayama shrine in Kyoto.
It reminds me of “Kitano Dai Chakai” hosted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a preeminent daimyo in 16th century, in Kyoto. While it must have been extravagant for Hideyoshi to show off his power, the current version of tea party is more down to earth, which I prefer. Tea farmers and tea shops from various places including Kyoto, Nara. Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kochi, Shikoku and Shizuoka in Japan gathered.
We enjoyed more than 300 kinds of tea in total from about 40 stands. They are not only Japanese green tea, but Japanese black and Japanese oolong, Chinese tea, Korean tea and more which made me excited. The site is not that convenient, and people need to go all the way to the site. Even so, the market seemed to be busier than last year.
I went there as one of the customers, but I ended up working as a staff member for a tea farmer I know, ha, ha. It was just temporarily, but I was surprised to see his tea selling like "more than" hotcakes!
On that day, I took a German tea friend who just arrived in Japan the day before the event with us. Also I met some tourists from overseas who enjoyed Japanese tea there other than non-Japanese living in Japan. I bet anyone both at home and abroad, and both tea-lovers and non-tea lovers are able to find a tea you like.
Unfortunately, I was too excited and busy to take enough photos....:-(
