The Flavor of Green Tea

I love Japanease tea very much.
We enjoy having different kind of tea in each season.

For example,May is a season of new tea leaves.
We can enjoy it for a few weeks of a year.

In summer time , cold barley tea(Mugi-cha) is very popular.
When I drink it,I feel "summer is comimg!".
In cold season, I often drink toasted(roasted) tea.
It has caffeine-free.

Sometimes I visit IPPODO tea shop at Teramachi-Nijo to buy tea leaves.
They have many kinds of green tea in Uji.And we can try some tea
which we are interested in there.

It is not only that the taste of tea depends on a quality of tea leaves ,
but also depends on the way to serve like a water temperature.
I try to serve tea carefully.


The green tea of the left side is Sen-cha,which is green tea of new leaves(Shin-cha).
We will enjoy it until around middle of June.
The another one is roasted tea.We call it Hoji-cha.




This dark green colored tea is cold &sweet macha tea.
When I was a child,I loved it very much and
it is one of the popular summer cold tea.

The light colored green tea is cold Gyokuro tea.
Gyokuro is a little bit thicker than Sen-cha.
The taste is very rich & mild.It is one of my favorite tea.

Golden week-japanese holidays in May


I had 5 days holidays between May 2nd and 6th.
In this week,many japanese people go traveling around or visit hometown.

I spent the time to go to BBQ,invited my friends, visited firend's house
and went shopping to IKEA in Kobe.

These are the pictures when I went BBQ in Shiga prefecture.


At Ootsuchi Dam in Koga area(south-east side of the Biwa Lake)

This area is a famous for Ninja.
And it is also famous for green tea field.

May is the season of new tea leaves.
Tea fields in Uji(south of Kyoto city) in May
become a patchwork of beautiful fresh green
as well as this area.




It was a beautiful day !!





Salmon with onion&mashrooms



In another day ～

Here are the pictures of dinner, when I invited my friends.


Carpaccio of a flat fish


Coleslaw with breast chicken and japanese shiso herb



Steamed pork with japanese style sauce



Rolled cabbage-minced chicken and tofu meat
simmerd with kombu soup flavored sansho pepper



I also made others like a clear soup,flavored rice,
japanese style spring roll etc...


Pickles of chinese cabbage

I like to cook the western-japanese foods such as these dishes sometimes.

It is fun to arrange the western dishes flavoring with Japanese

seasonings!!