Chazen — Attraction in Tokyo

Visited Chazen on a weekday, Monday. We were a large group with 25 people. The booking was made months ago prior to arrival, and therefore, we had no wait time.

The location is on the 5th floor of the building, so to get everyone in our group up efficiently, we climbed the flight of stairs. It was not too bad climbing up. There is a lift - but it would have fitted only about one third of our group.

As per Japanese tradition, we needed to leave our shoes at the genkan (entrance) then enter the room.

As we were a pre-booked group, the zabutons (floor cushions) were already laid out for our group.

The staff were very knowledgeable about the tea ceremony and introduced to us about the history, cultural significance, and why things are done a certain way. Example: Do you know why you need to rotate the bowl with tea two times clockwise prior to drinking from the bowl? Visit Chazen to have this question answered!....and learn about many other interesting facts.

Apart from enjoying the maccha and wagashi, we were taught the etiquette of the tea ceremony.

Everyone learnt a lot from this visit, and if you would like to get an understanding of Japanese tea ceremony culture- Chazen is a good stepping stone to learn about tea ceremony.

Finally, did you know that it takes at least 10 years to study how to conduct a tea...

suitable for small children, or for those who have not yet tried Japanese sweets (nerikiri).

One helper is assigned to each corner table, but they only give explanations that are inferior to the basics.

You would make one sweet which is usually seasonal flowers but student have to choose one of two types of work from Penguins or surfboards floating in the waves (Unfortunately the sample doesn’t look like a professional made)

the helper lady assigned to us recited what the teacher had said. And they rush us.

When my friend, who can make matcha tea, ..was showing me shortly how to do and I wanted to do so but I couldn’t do because the lady kept watching us and telling to finish drinking .

I would not recommend...

Fun experience for families, couples and friends alike, that will give you a better appreciation of the effort and technique involved in making wagashi :)

It is a short workshop, 30-45 minutes. They give you two wagashi options to choose from (perhaps seasonally varied?) with a model sweet for you to copy. At the end, you are given a choice of crockery to display your 'masterpieces', and matcha to consume them with.

(note: A little light on the instructions but they were translating to English for us, the Japanese instructions may be more detailed. Friendly and accommodating staff!)

Do make sure you wear proper socks as you will be sitting/kneeling in a...