Fukujuen Uji (Uji Tea Factory) — Restaurant in Uji

I attended a matcha-making class and unfortunately found the experience underwhelming. The staff seemed more focused on cleaning up after the previous session than engaging with our group, despite us arriving on time. Instructions were very minimal—after briefly showing us the tea leaves and how to use the grinding machine, we were left alone for about 10 minutes with no further guidance or context.

The room was nearly empty with just the four of us, which could have been a great opportunity for a more personalized experience, but sadly it felt rushed and impersonal. There was no background shared about the history or cultural significance of matcha, which I had hoped would be part of the class. Toward the end, more guests arrived late, and the staff seemed to be rushing through the process again with them before returning to cleaning duties.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this experience unless you’re just looking to briefly grind tea leaves and whisk a bowl in silence. If you're genuinely interested in matcha or Japanese tea culture, I suggest finding a well-reviewed tea ceremony...

Wanted to do something cultural and chanced upon this place online which I made a booking a week prior for the match making and Hojicha roasting. Both on the same day with lunch in between. It is really educational and good to bring kids for the activities. They also offer ceramic painting and other tea ceremony as well.

The instructor was really patient and kind showing us how it’s been done and class size of 8 people. For the match making you can choose to drink the match or with ice cream. For the Hojicha making there was only 2 of us on that session and after the roasting we were able to taste and how to brew the Hojicha which we have been doing wrong our whole life. Bath sessions was paired with a sweet bean dessert to go along with our Macha/Hojicha.

There is also a shop on the first floor to buy their products and education area on how tea leaves are harvested. Really good educational place and would recommend...

My friends and I stopped by this place to just check out the tea, not knowing it was a museum. We were all pleasantly surprised and as we browsed the matcha flavored snacks, we were offered samples of the matcha pudding, candy and waffles. They were all tasty and bought them all. When we left the store, it started to rain and our group didnt have umbrellas. We planned to just wait out the rain, under some trees just outside the store, when a worker(or owner, it was an older gentleman) asked in broken English if we had umbrellas. We said no, and that we were just going to wait for the rain to lighten to go back to the station. The worker said to wait, and came back with 5 umbrellas! We were shocked and accepted the gift and promised to return them; he said to not return them and sent us on our way. We are very grateful for his generosity, even when he didn’t need to check in on us after we...