🥦Mizuo's Travel Blog🥦No.39 - Wazuka, Japan 🍵🍵🍵

Wazuka, a village of Japanese matcha tea Fre

Fresh new tea leaves 🍵🍵🍵

Wazuka, the home of Japanese match tea 🍵🍵🍵

Every time I go back to Osaka, there is a place I go with my mom. There is a Japanese tea village in Kyoto called Wazuka-cho. Before my father passed away, my father and my mom used to take a drive to this memorable place, I have heard. Although it takes less than an hour by car from Osaka city, you can enjoy a completely different scenery from the noisy Osaka city.

We come here when we are tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and want to feel a little air away from it all.

My mother's family has a tea plantation, and I have fond memories of visiting my grandparents' house during the Golden Week holidays when I was a child and helping my parents and everyone else pick fresh tea leaves. I guess the tea fields reminded my mother of her own parents' house, because when she saw the tea plantation, her legs became lighter and she started to climb up to the top.

Tea fields are often planted on small hills, and it is said that the best sprouts for tea leaves are produced where the dew falls in the morning. The sun shading the mountains a little is just right, and too much sun is not good for Japanese tea leaves.

It was a bit of a climb, and although it was a cold December day, it was enough to make me a bit breathless. From the top of the tea plantation, we had a panoramic view of the town of Wazuka. Uji tea is well known in Kyoto, but I love the more familiar Wazuka tea.

Wazuka did not seem to be putting any effort into attracting tourists at all, and even though it is in Kyoto, there were no tourists at all. If you want to spend a relaxing and quiet time, I thought it would be a good memory to come to a place like this.

After strolling through the tea fields, we purchased a lot of Wazuka tea by the store. There are many kinds of green tea such as Bancha, Sencha, and Matcha, etc. I love tea and prefer tea to coffee, so I bought many kinds of tea here. The price of tea is very expensive in Sweden, and while tea is reasonably priced, the price of green tea is surprisingly high, so I bought a lot of tea.

I thought about what I would do when I returned to my parents' house, but in fact, I did not do much of that. After re-writing the blog, I realized again that I went sightseeing with my mom in Kyoto to eat unagi, visited to the village of Wazuka to buy a large quantity of Wazuka tea, and visited my family's grave on the way home. I felt once again that happiness is found in such everyday life.

日本茶の里、和束

大阪に帰阪するたびにオカンと行く場所があります。和束町と言う京都にある日本茶の里があります。父が逝去する前、よく父とオカンがドライブで着ていた思い出の場所の様で、大阪市内から車で１時間以内で来れる場所ではあるのですが、騒音がうるさい大阪市内とは全く違った景色を楽しむことが出来ます。

わたし達の先祖墓がある霊園へ行った際に少し足を延ばして行ける場所と言うこともあり、喧騒に疲れる都会から少し離れた空気を感じたいときに来ることにしています。

母の実家は茶畑を持っていて、わたしが子供の頃はゴールデンウィークは家族そろって祖父母の家を訪れて、両親をはじめみんなで茶摘みを手伝った思い出があります。やはりオカンも茶畑を見ると自身の実家を思い出すのか、茶畑の棚田をみると足も軽く、どんどん登っていきました。

茶畑は小高い丘によく作られているのですが、朝方に露が下りる場所が茶葉によく最高の新芽が出ると言われています。それに、山に少し影がかかる程度の日光がちょうどよく、日差しが強すぎても日本茶にはよくないらしく急な坂に茶畑がります。

少し登ると１２月の寒空ではあったのですが、少し息が上がるほどの坂道でした。茶畑の頂上からは和束の町が一望できました。京都の宇治茶はよく知られていると思うのですが、わたしはこのなじみの深い和束茶が大好きです。

和束はまったく観光客誘致に力を入れている感じはせず、京都なのにまったく観光客がいませんでした。ゆっくりと静かな時間を過ごしたい場合はこの様な場所に来るのも良い思い出になるのではと思いました。

茶畑を散策した後は、売店によって和束茶をたくさん購入しました。番茶、煎茶、抹茶などいろいろな種類の緑茶がありますが、わたしはお茶が大好きでコーヒーよりお茶派なので、ここでたくさんの種類のお茶を買って帰りました。スウェーデンではお茶の価格がとても高くて、紅茶などは手ごろな価格で買えるのですが、緑茶になるとびっくりするほどの価格なのでたくさん買って帰りました。