Baisa Nakamura — Restaurant in Uji

Amazing tea tasting place. Pricey, but the experts are experts. They know their tea and you can have conversation with why the tea pots are structured in unique ways and what specific tea leaves they are for. They also talk about how water (and temperature of the water) can change the tea quality as well which was super interesting to hear. You can tell they are passionate about tea and it's practices.

Also the tea leaves they have is really high quality. Some are hand picked and goes through hands on process. Meaning when it is steeped, you can actually see the tea leave completely intact which is pretty rare in tea manufacturing process (this hands on quality makes the tea quality soar and hence, those specific tea are rare and expensive). But, they were open to showing this to the customers.

Tea tastes changes after 3 steeping process depending on what tea you ordered so I recommend you sit through 3 steep process or how...

Fantastic shop to try authentic Japanese green tea. The staff is very kind and take the time to explain all sorts of things about the tea you're drinking. Several different and unique kinds of tea available, both hot and cold. Can highly recommend their 'Nitro' cold special tea, as well as their set of 3 different teas; trying the different kinds of tea is a great experience. The store has a beautiful modern interior. Cannot recommend enough, there's a reason why this store has received nothing but 5 star reviews. Detailed English...

This place serves up a modern Japanese tea tasting experience in contrast to the many shops on Byodoin Omotesando (平等院表参道). The staff here are really enthusiastic about tea and the process, such as enjoying the aromas of the various stages of tea pouring. The shop equipment makes this place look a bit like a laboratory which adds to the feeling that you're experimenting with the tea itself. I was able to try several unique varieties and have conversations about them with the staff as they do...