Japanese Green Tea and the Global Matcha Boom: The Shift from Drinking to Eating

The Golden Week holiday of early May now seems a long way off, but one of my best memories was picking tea leaves in a local tea field (ochabatake), making my own hand-rolled tea at home (temomicha), and enjoying shincha (新茶) brewed from the first or youngest leaves of the season (hatsu-zumi=初摘み). Shincha - literally "new tea" - is of unparalleled quality, bright green in colour with a sweeter taste than regular green tea, and characterised by a vibrant aroma and a hint of umami. As someone who drinks green tea every day - sometimes from vending machines but mostly in tea bag form - the taste of properly brewed shincha was something of a revelation; in Britain it would be the difference between a teabag in a paper cup (link) and a proper cuppa brewed in a pot. The pictures below show how to make the perfect cup of shincha: note the importance of letting the boiling water first cool to at least 80℃ before pouring over the leaves in the pot and also the short brewing time, just thirty seconds or so.

❶ Pour boiling water into cups or a special yuzamashi cooling pot ❷ Put a spoonful of tea leaves into the (unwarmed) pot ❸ Once the water temperature has dropped below 80℃ (70℃ for a sweeter cup) pour into the pot (kyūsu) ❹ Wait 30 seconds and enjoy!

While sencha (煎茶) - non-powdered green leaf tea - has traditionally been the mainstay harvest, recent years have seen a big shift to tencha (甜茶) - powdered green tea that is the raw material for matcha - thanks to the global matcha boom. According to the Japanese Association of Tea Production, tencha production almost tripled between 2008 and 2023. While sencha is grown without covering, tencha requires reduced sunlight so, as can be seen in the top left of the picture, tea fields need to be covered in black sheets as harvest time approaches. 

Picking tea leaves at Sugimotoen. A special thank-you to Kumiko for letting me join on the fly!

The demand for matcha has been driven by a shift from drinking matcha - think of the creamy, slightly bitter umami drink made popular by the tea ceremony - to eating products made from it. The trigger for this was not a Japanese company but an American one: Haagen-Dazs' 1996 introduction of green tea ice cream - made, in a stroke of genius, just like shincha, from the first leaves of the season (初摘み茶葉) - was a massive hit. Today, as the visual here and picture below shows, there are matcha cookies, cakes, chocolate, gelato, jelly, pancakes, parfaits, and even chewing gum, not to mention the various new types of drinks such as lattes, cola, cocktails, and smoothies. Packed with antioxidants, the health benefits - especially in comparison with coffee - are pretty undeniable: I honestly can't remember the last time I caught a cold!

Which brings me back to my own tea-making experience at home. After picking the tea leaves, and enjoying a green tea and yōkan jelly break with the other pickers, the owner gave me a quick introduction to the factory and explained the process of tea production. Put simply the leaves are steamed, kneaded, and dried, removing all moisture and leaving the kind of tea leaves we are familiar with. As this video shows, the principle is the same even when making hand-rolled tea (temomicha) at home, so I headed back with my 130g of fresh leaves and gave it a go. After repeatedly steaming (in the microwave) and kneading, I eventually got something resembling tea leaves, but they were still a little moist - the factory dries them in 80℃ heat for 20-25 minutes - and as a result the aroma of the tea was on the weak side. Any thoughts on green tea and the matcha boom? Let me know in the COMMENTS below!

Play to Win: Japanese Traditional and Modern Games

Even though it's only April, it already feels like summer in Japan, with temperatures pushing 30℃ here in Tokyo in the run up to the start of the traditional Golden Week holidays. There has even been talk of Japan's four distinct seasons disappearing under the threat of global warming; certainly, while summers have grown longer, spring and autumn seem to be over in the blink of an eye. For example, while wisteria usually blooms late April to early May, it's already been out for a while. 

Recently, I've been exploring the gaming scene in Japan, with a visit to a board game cafe in Shinjuku (pictured above), an escape room game in Asakusa, and a game and hobby shop in Akihabara, the centre of Japanese geek (otaku) culture. The big two games historically are Go (igo in Japanese) which came over from China around the 7th century - modern variants include Gomoku, Renju, Reversi, and Othello - and shōgi (Japanese chess), a unique 16th century Japanese invention that allows captured pieces to be reused. The latter is the most played board game in Japan, with an estimated 20 million knowing the rules and ia also very visible in the media: Sota Fujii, who became a professional shōgi player when an junior high-school student, is a national icon, newspapers carry shōgi puzzles daily, and there is even a dedicated shōgi TV channel featuring live games! 

An even older game is Sugoroku (双六), a 6th century creation similar to backgammon that morphed into a Snakes and Ladders type dice-based picture boardgame (e-sugoroku) popularly played at New Year. But probably the most interesting for non-Japanese players are the variants of karuta playing cards - from the Portuguese for letter or card - which involves matching one half of a card, which is read out aloud, with its corresponding pair. This can be highly competitive when played as a duel when players slap the matching card before their opponent - check out this video from the 64th All Japan Championships (第64回全日本選手権大会) held only a few days ago! Manga lovers may be reminded of Chihayafuru which played a big role in popularising competitive karuta. While the video shows Uta Garuta (hyaku-nin isshu=百人一首) featuring waka poems by 100 great poets, there is also a kid's version, with cards representing the 47 syllables of the hiragana alphabet. Great for learning Japanese!

But it is not all about tradition. Modern Japanese board games which have enjoyed critical acclaim overseas include the 2012 Love Letter, the classic 2014 Deep Sea Adventure, and the road building 2016 masterpiece Tokyo Highway. For a great overview of these three and traditional games as well see here. And for those in Japan, why not check out the gaming convention known as Game Market, which started in 2000 as a fan-run event and is now held in May and November at Makuhari Messe just outside of Tokyo? Another recommendation is the 4-day September Tokyo Game Show which, in contrast to the analogue focus of Game Market boasts mainly video game content, though it does include some board games as well as lots of cosplayers! In sum, the gaming market in Japan is booming, perhaps reflecting the fact that in Japan gaming is more than just entertainment - it’s a deeply ingrained social activity. What's your favourite game? Have you ever played a Japanese game? Let me know in the COMMENTS!

Bathing Culture in Japan: Public Baths, Hot Springs, and High-tech Tubs

My 4th year students graduated last week - dressing up in the traditional hakama (here) to receive their graduation certificate from the president - though it was a bit of shock to wake up to a heavy snowfall! Indeed, the weather has been very strange recently, 26℃ on Friday and 13℃ on Saturday. Nevertheless, spring is in the air, with the cherry blossoms now at their peak, after officially starting to bloom on the 24th. While many people are content to sit in the park under the trees and enjoy a picnic (known as hanami), a great way to properly enjoy the sakura experience is to take an evening boat ride under the blossoms on either Chidorigafuchi Moat (here) or Meguro River (here).

The awareness of the Japanese towards the changing seasons and their appreciation of seasonal foods is one of the reasons I love Japan, but for me perhaps the biggest draw of all is the bathing culture - nothing beats a visit to a hot spring (onsen) or even the local public bath (sentō). Of course, it's not realistic to visit these places every day so a fine substitute is the household bath which enjoys a level of technology that puts the British bath to shame. Earlier this month we had our bathroom renovated so I thought this would be a good opportunity to promote the joys of domestic bathing! The picture above shows the process of removing the old bath and installing the new one. One interesting point is how the bath is typically cleaned before it is demolished to show respect for years of use (this is also done before disposing of old cars or even used needles (here)! Respect for objects that have served one well is a nice custom but that doesn't detract from the joy of a new high-tech bath. Note that the new bath is not only lower but lacks taps too. As the control panel below shows, the bath in Japan is filled automatically and the temperature, height of the water, and even the length of time the temperature is to be maintained can be set. The most recent models even allow baths to be controlled via smartphone app from outside the home, so you can come home to a steaming hot bath after a hard day's work!

During the four-day renovation, I made use of a local sentō just down the road, actually a super sentō named Terme Ogawa which unlike the simple local neighbourhood public bath comprises a large complex of multiple baths and saunas as well as restaurants, massage, and relaxation rooms (map below). Regarding the difference between public baths (sentō) and hot springs (onsen), the latter use natural spring water while the former use boiled tap water - subsidised under the Public Bathhouses Law - explaining why sentō are often distinguishable by their chimney. The distinction is not clear cut however, particularly in the Kanto region, where super sentō like the one I visited often also describe themselves as "natural hot springs" (天然温泉). 

Map of "Super Sentō" Terme Ogawa (©Termeogawa) here

With the spread of private bathrooms from the 1970s, public baths plummeted in popularity and many went out of business. Data for Tokyo, for example, reveals 1968 as the peak, with 2687 sentō in the capital faling to only 444 in 2023. However, since around 2014, public baths have enjoyed something of a revival - in tandem with the sauna boom (sakatsu=サ活) - as a community spot or hub, especially among young people and foreign tourists. For example, last year, a new sentō tour named Sentorance Japan started with the aim of making sentō an "entrance" to Japanese culture: the tour includes a lecture on sentō etiquette in English followed by a bath. There are also a number of non-Japanese involved in preserving and restoring bathhouses such as Sam Holden and Stephanie Crohin. In terms of a specific recommendation, why not check out Denkiyū, a small sentō located in Kyojima, Sumida ward, which featured in the film Perfect Days? One thing you may notice in both public and private baths in Japan is a small stool which Japanese typically sit on while washing before getting into the bath. This is crucial - Japanese enjoy the bath for relaxation never for washing, and since they enter the bath clean usually reuse the same (clean) water for a few days before refilling. Certainly, British bathing seems primitive in contrast! Thoughts? Please write in the COMMENTS section.

Food Culture in Japan: Rising Prices, Buddhist Breakfasts, and Hospital Cuisine

February in Japan has seen record snowfalls in the North though Tokyo has only experienced a few flurries. It's still very cold though so keeping the aircon on high and snuggling under the kotatsu - a low heated table covered with a quilt - is definitely the way to go. But while people everywhere are struggling with soaring energy bills, the Japanese have been particularly hard hit after being spoiled by a long period of deflation - starting in the late 1990s and continuing for some 15 years - followed by very low inflation (0.5%) until relatively recently. Coupled with the weak yen and higher import costs, the result has been more and more people struggling with daily living expenses - what the Japanese call seikatsuhi (生活費) - amid price increases (ne'age=値上げ) in everything from energy to food (recent video here). Rice in particular has skyrocketed, with the price of a 5kg bag almost doubling for some brands. Just how many people are having a hard time was brought home to me the other day when I passed the Tobu Supermarket in Nishikokubunji, Tokyo, and saw a long line of people queueing round the block during a special 98 yen (52p/66¢) "lifestyle support" (生活応援）campaign. Personally, BritishProf now avoids buying carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce because they've just become too expensive.

For those looking to save money on food, one approach is to have a big healthy breakfast and eat less or even nothing later - many Buddhists, for example, practice fasting from noon to sunrise the following day. The Buddhist belief that one shouldn't take a life means that many Buddhists follow a lacto-vegetarian diet - no eggs, meat, or fish - though some Buddhists do eat meat and other animal products, as long as the animals aren’t slaughtered specifically for them. If you want to sample some Buddhist cuisine of the latter, less strict, variety, I strongly recommend the 18-dish breakfast at Tsukiji Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Tsukiji, Tokyo (reservations essential). While it does include duck, octopus, rolled egg (tamago-yaki), and salted salmon/pollack roe (ikura/mentaiko), for the most part this is vegetarian and includes rice porridge (okayu) and delicious miso soup. Unfortunately, even this breakfast has not been immune to the price rises: the once unlimited rice refills will no longer be free from March 2025 "due to the recent rise in the cost of rice and other ingredients."

As the Buddhist breakfast illustrates, Japanese cuisine typically consists of multiple small dishes creating a very balanced, varied, and nutritious meal. A friend of mine recently spent a week in hospital and given the terrible reputation of hospital food in the UK  I was curious if the Japanese did a better job. As you might have guessed, the answer was a resounding "yes", with typically 4 to 5 healthy dishes cooked from scratch (if a little cold) accompanied with nutritional information. For example, the picture below shows an evening meal of rice, deep-fried cutlet with cheese, seaweed salad, thinly sliced stir-fried radish, and roasted green tea comprising a very low 584 kcal - and only 2.2g of salt. Even better, each meal costs only 490 yen (£2.59/$3.28) - a big plus in these days of sky-high food prices.

While the emphasis seems to be on more "traditional" Japanese food, reflecting the fact that patients tend to be older, meals did include bread, pasta, keema curry, and even a chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day! For more detailed pictures and descriptions of typical hospital fare check out the link here; there is also a fascinating Guardian article comparing hospital food - including Japan and the UK - from around the world. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on healthy eating, Japanese cuisine, and hospital food in the COMMENTS!

Visiting "Little Edo" for New Year: Buying a Daruma Doll and Eating Daifuku in Kawagoe

A big akemashite omedetō (Happy New Year) to all readers at the start of 2025! While making new year's resolutions (新年の抱負=shin'nen no hōfu）is not as popular in Japan as in the West, a similar but rather unique cultural tradition centres around the daruma doll, a round, bright red, hollow paper-mâché figure representing the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma with a weighted bottom that enables it to bounce back when knocked down (like Weebles in the UK). This feature contributes to its popularity as a charm for good luck and encouragement, echoing the Japanese phrase nanakorobi yaoki (seven times down, eight times up) which signifies bouncing back from adversity and never giving up. When bought the eyes are usually blank (closed) and people fill in the left eye when making a wish or setting a goal and then fill in the other eye later when the wish is fulfilled or the goal is achieved - politicians typically do this at election time. Many temples hold new year markets selling these and I visited one of the biggest held at Kita-in temple (喜多院) - also known as Kawagoe Daishi (川越大師) - in Kawagoe City held every January 3rd.

Kawagoe City is located north of Tokyo, in Saitama Prefecture, and is often referred to as "Little Edo" - Edo is the old name for Tokyo - due to its many old buildings and retro Showa/Taisho atmosphere. Certainly wandering down the main street, surrounded by the ubiquitous food stalls encouraging you to snack as you walk, it would feel like stepping back in time, if it wasn't for the flood of foreign tourists (though to be fair, some do get into the spirit by utilising the many kimono hire stores). Walking along the main street I also spotted a daruma painting workshop in which participants can colour and draw the faces of daruma (the same shop has a delightful footbath cafe in the back which you should definitely check out). Other highlights include the Bell of Time (時の鐘=toki no kane), a bell tower which chimes four times a day and many buildings in the traditional kurazukuri (蔵造り) or warehouse style with walls finished with mud and plaster supposedly making them fireproof, damp-proof and even burglar-proof!

Street food is certainly a key point of the Kawagoe experience. Sweet potatoes (satsuma-imo=さつま芋) are probably the most famous of these and you can grab a bag of crisps, ice cream, or even sweet potato beer and coffee to sustain you as you battle the crowds. Sweet Shop Alley (Kashiya Yokocho=菓子屋横丁) is an area dedicated to traditional sweets and cakes and has a wonderful retro atmosphere. Another edible recommendation is daifuku (大福) - literally "big luck" - a type of Japanese sweet (wagashi) with mochi (chewy rice cake) wrapped around a sweet filling, typically anko (red bean paste) or fruit. Kawagoe has an amazing shop - prepare to queue - with paper thin mochi wrapped around a variety of high quality fruit such as strawberries, musk melon, mango, kiwi, orange and many more. The prices are astronomical - we paid ¥650 (over £3 or $4) for one strawberry - but the eating experience, where you use a fine thread to slice it in two and then savour, is probably worth the fee as a one-off cultural experience.

My daruma doll has one eye filled in, though since I wished for peace (a theme emphasised in the last post of 2024) I fear it may well be a while since I am able to draw in the right eye. In actual fact, the dolls are usually burned at the end of the year in a purification rite so it might remain with one eye closed (video here)! I could also have wished for a response to global warming though I might be waiting even longer to have that wish fulfilled - we still have not had any snow here in Tokyo, so no chance to build a yuki-daruma, the Japanese word for snowman (the Japanese snowman is typically two not three sections reflecting the shape of the daruma!). Finally, for those of you who have watched Squid Game, the Statues (Red Light Green Light) game is called Daruma-san ga Koronda (Mr Daruma Fell Down) in Japanese - go figure! If you have any wishes or goals for 2025, please let me know in the COMMENTS - I'll send a Japanese daruma doll to the best suggestion!

A World without Nuclear Weapons: The Nobel Peace Prize and Japan's Hibakusha

 
November was a super busy month for British Prof and it was the first time in a while that a new post didn't drop. My apologies. But don't worry, normal service is resumed! Here in Japan, Christmas is much more low key than in the UK - Christmas Day is a normal working day and the ads are not as ubiquitous - but the Japanese still enjoy Christmas shopping, Christmas cakes, and Christmas markets, not to mention amazing illuminations (see previous posts here and here). On campus, the Christmas tree lights are now up following a countdown light-up ceremony (点灯式) which included free hot chocolate for students. A nice touch was a "What are you going to ask from Santa?" (サンタさんに何をお願いしますか）display: aside from job-hunting and study goals, a common request was peace (heiwa=平和).

Thousands of origami cranes at the museum entrance

Those watching the news closely might have noticed that the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony was held in Oslo on December 10th with Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H- Bomb Survivors Organisation) receiving the award. According to the Nobel Peace Prize website, Hidankyo was awarded this year's prize “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” Hidankyo was formed in 1956 to promote the social and economic rights of hibakusha (被爆者), the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their motto is "no more hibakusha" and the Oslo speech featured a heartfelt plea to abolish nuclear weapons. The full speech given by 92-year-old Terumi Tanaka, co-chair of the group and Nagasaki survivor, can be read here. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed the origami crane as the symbol of the group, harking back to the story of Sadako Sasaki who developed leukemia after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and folded more than 1000 cranes in a futile attempt to prolong her life.

Picture in the Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall of the Castle Bravo Hydrogen Bomb Test which generated a mushroom cloud 34,000 meters high. It was said to be 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (© US National Archives)

The trigger for the formation of Hidankyo were the nuclear weapon tests conducted at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, in the Northwestern Pacific by the United States in 1954, which 23 crew members of the Japanese tuna fishing vessel "Lucky Dragon No.5" ( Daigo Fukuryū Maru =第五福龍丸) were inadvertently caught up in. The return of the boat to Japan, the burns and acute radiation poisoning suffered by the crew (including one early death), and the ensuing "radioactive rain" which fell throughout Japan and the Pacific mobilised the Japanese and prompted the birth of Hidankyo. Unknown to many locals, Tokyo has an incredible museum hosting the actual wooden fishing boat and featuring an array of artifacts, art, and historical materials. 

The boat itself was retired from service in 1967 and was abandoned in the garbage dump known as Yume no Shima, an artificial island built using waste landfill in Tokyo Bay. However, local citizens pushed the Metropolitan Government to preserve the boat and the exhibition hall was constructed in 1976. The boat is exhibited here "as an enduring symbol of protest against all nuclear weapons and testing." The museum is an incredible learning experience, with detailed bilingual information on the nuclear testing and aftermath, accompanied by huge maps, witness testimonies, artifacts (like the "Ashes of Death" pictured), and newspaper reports from the time. There is also information about the spread of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan and worldwide, including the Russel-Einstein Manifesto of 1955 and the first World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in the same year.

Reading about the Russel-Einstein Manifesto reminded me of the presence of Einstein in the award-winning film Oppenheimer. In Japan, reactions were mixed with some praising the film's "anti-nuclear stance" and others, including an ex-mayor of Hiroshima, criticising leaving out scenes of the atomic bombing in Japan. It was not released here until eight months after its initial global release and some cinemas posted trigger warnings (Universal's official distributor in Japan Toho-Towa opted not to release it, partly explaining the delay). The film was certainly a tough and uncomfortable watch, especially the scenes outlining the reasons for targeting urban population centres rather than less populated areas: the justification of "sending a message" to the Soviet Union was difficult to swallow given the terrible loss of life. On that pensive note I wish all my readers - indeed all humanity - peace over Christmas and into the New Year and pray that the experience of the hibakusha will never again be repeated. If you do have any thoughts, hopes, or messages, please send a COMMENT to share with readers all over the world.

Celebrating Autumn: Moon Viewing, Tsukimi Burgers, and Rabbits Pounding Mochi

Temperatures have finally started to fall in Japan, though having said that I am still yet to use the heater at home and the window remains open as I write this. The heat this year has indeed been unprecedented, with summer temperatures the joint hottest on record. Moreover, we are still waiting for Mount Fuji's first snowcap - which on average appears around October 2nd - making it the latest since records began 130 years ago. The snowcap is one seasonal marker in a country where people are acutely aware of nature and appreciate the changing of the seasons. Probably the clearest seasonal marker this time of year is the moon.

Full moon over Tsuda

In autumn, Japanese enjoy Tsukimi (月見), literally "moon-viewing", a celebration of the full moon (jyūgoya =十五夜) - also known as the harvest moon (chūshū no meigetsu=中秋の名月) - which traditionally falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month​ in the old calendar (September 17th this year - though the actual full moon fell on the 18th). As I have written before, various seasonal foods and decorations feature during the festivities. But while foods such as rice dumplings (dango), sweet potatoes (satsuma-imo), and chestnuts (kuri) traditionally feature, Tsukimi burgers have become something of a new tradition in recent years.

MacDonald's Tsukimi burger has been available as a limited autumn item since 1991. The story was that the McDonald's team developed a burger with an egg and intended to call it simply "bacon cheese and egg burger" but the president stepped in and insisted it be called the Tsukimi burger, much to the marketing teams' horror. However, the name struck a chord with consumers and today every burger shop in Japan - including KFC and Mos Burger - has their own variation, and even pizza and beef-bowl (gyūdon) chains have jumped on the bandwagon. This year's lineup, which is only available from September 4th to mid-October, can be seen here (short CM here). One new item on the menu this year is the Custard Pudding Flavour Tsukimi McShake with "golden hues to represent the moon" - which begs the question, what colour do the Japanese actually see the moon?

©copyright McDONALD’S (日本マクドナルド株式会社)(Link)

Whereas in the UK the moon is typically painted silver, blue, or white, in Japanese children's drawings the moon is often painted in yellow or orange, just like the egg yolk in the Tsukimi burger. The image of the moon as yellow or orange nicely illustrates how culture can have an influence on colour perception (previous blog discussion here). Admittedly the moon does tend to look orange or amber (just like the sun appears redder) when rising or setting, so maybe this has become the dominant image for the Japanese (and, yes, Japanese kids paint the sun red not yellow!).

To investigate more on how the moon is perceived in Japan, I visited The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan (皇居三の丸尚蔵館) in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo to check out their exhibition entitled Nature’s Splendor: Scenes of the Moon and Water (水の情景・月の風景), an exhibition "exploring the beauty of the natural world through the lens of two of its most admired subjects." Interestingly, the moon was coloured white in all the exhibits, which suggests the perception of it as yellow is either a modern invention or just for children. The highlight of the exhibition - also featured on the poster - is undoubtedly the set of three hanging scrolls called Snow, Moon, and Flowers (雪月花）depicting elegantly dressed Heian ladies admiring the most beautiful features of the season: snow in winter, the moon in autumn, and cherry blossoms in spring. The piece, completed in 1937 by Shoen Uemura, apparently took 21 years to complete.

As a final aside, eagle-eyed readers may have noticed rabbits featuring on the McDonald's Tsukimi milk shake; at the exhibition too, there was a vase, apparently created for Emperor Taisho's enthronement in 1915, featuring a circle representing the moon and a rabbit holding a pestle. Why? Well, rabbits are a common motif to symbolise the moon in Japan because when Japanese see the moon, they see two rabbits pounding rice-cakes (mochi)! Coincidentally, the word mochi-zuki (望月) means both full moon and also sounds like the phrase for pounding mochi, mochi-tsuki (餅つき), a Japanese tradition to greet the new year. For this reason, rabbits - which are considered creatures that ward off evil - and mochi feature a lot during Tsukimi season festivities. Can you make out the shapes of the rabbits when you look up at the moon? Let me know in the COMMENTS!