Journal
Can you bring matcha and incense on a plane?
Security, the airline and customs each have a say, and most answers online cover only the first. Matcha, a bamboo whisk and incense, item by item, and why declaring them...
Can you bring matcha and incense on a plane?
Security, the airline and customs each have a say, and most answers online cover only the first. Matcha, a bamboo whisk and incense, item by item, and why declaring them...
How to learn the Japanese tea ceremony
A visitor's session lasts forty-five minutes; the people who serve it have studied for decades. Where to find a teacher in the US, what lessons cost, what you buy, and...
How to learn the Japanese tea ceremony
A visitor's session lasts forty-five minutes; the people who serve it have studied for decades. Where to find a teacher in the US, what lessons cost, what you buy, and...
Is making matcha at home cheaper?
A home latte costs about $2.10 with the right powder and about $5.45 with the wrong one. The cost per cup, including the two things most comparisons leave out.
Is making matcha at home cheaper?
A home latte costs about $2.10 with the right powder and about $5.45 with the wrong one. The cost per cup, including the two things most comparisons leave out.
Is a tea ceremony in Japan worth it?
What a visitor books is a 45-minute introduction, not the full gathering tea people mean by the word. Judged as that, a good one is excellent value. Prices, lengths and...
Is a tea ceremony in Japan worth it?
What a visitor books is a 45-minute introduction, not the full gathering tea people mean by the word. Judged as that, a good one is excellent value. Prices, lengths and...
Do you drink matcha out of the bowl?
The bowl is wide because the whisk needs room, not because the tea is meant to be poured somewhere else. You drink it from the bowl.
Do you drink matcha out of the bowl?
The bowl is wide because the whisk needs room, not because the tea is meant to be poured somewhere else. You drink it from the bowl.
Where to buy matcha in Kyoto
The tea is excellent and the choice is unmatched. But in 2026 several of the best-known houses cap how much one customer may buy, and one raised prices by up...
Where to buy matcha in Kyoto
The tea is excellent and the choice is unmatched. But in 2026 several of the best-known houses cap how much one customer may buy, and one raised prices by up...
Tomari (とまり) is an old word for a mooring — the place a boat ties up for the night. A bowl of tea is meant to be the same: a few minutes to put the day down. You do not need to know the rules to begin.
Who chose this
I choose everything here by hand, in Japan. I practice tea rather than simply selling the tools for it — I am not a tea master and I do not claim to be. I am a practitioner, which mostly means I have ruined enough bad whisks to know what a good one feels like in the first second of holding it.
Nothing is drop-shipped and nothing passes through a third warehouse. I pack each order in Tokyo and post it from Japan, ceramics double-boxed by hand. If something arrives broken, write within 7 days with photographs of the piece and the box, and I send a replacement or a refund; there is nothing to post back unless I ask. Who writes and chooses all this, and the longer version of why this shop exists.