Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

    We decided to brave the typhoon passing through today and venture out to the World Tea Festival being held this weekend here in Shizuoka. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it's held here every year, but this is the first time I've actually gone.
  Basically, it's a big exhibition-style venture, with tons of booths from various tea companies throughout Japan and around the world. (Who knew they made Ceylon Banana tea??) I also had no idea that it would be quite so crowded there! Whether that was due to the typhoon and people having nothing else to do, or if it's that way every year, I'm not sure. My guess is that it's usually pretty busy though, since the vendors give out free tea samples, sweets, etc, and there's nothing that draws a crowd around here more than a free sample does! We made out pretty well in the loot department: 2 clear file holders, a bunch of tea-infused candies, 3 or 4 samples of green tea, and 2 tea strainers. Not bad for a rainy afternoon!
     Besides the exhibition booths, there was a main stage with tea-related skits being performed, and on another floor, a bunch of tea ceremonies using various teas from around the world (China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, to name a few), but we didn't attend one of those since they required advance payment. I did like seeing the awards for new tea-related products, however: green tea cream cheese, a pen-type device that you could use to make powdered green tea portable, tea sold in a wine bottle (??), and green tea cream soup, to name a few. Too bad they didn't have samples for any of those!

                                            Sign outside the Granship hall   

                                           One of many displays

                                  Fresh Japanese sweets rolled in powdered tea







                                The vendors' floor

                                    Green tea sweets for sale