Uji a.k.a. Matcha Town a.k.a. Home of the Best Green Tea
Anything in Japan! ^__^
May 5, 2012
Guys, I have an announcement to make:
I LOVE GREEN TEA.
Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yesterday I went to Uji, the green tea capital with Andrew. It’s famous for its many temples and shrines,
especially Byodoin Temple, its Tale of Genji museum and statues that are
scattered around the Uji Bridge, and, of course, for its green tea. And boy, does it have green tea. Not only green tea but there are many green
tea-flavored foods to be found in
Uji. There’s green tea soba noodle
dishes, green tea soumen noodle soups, green tea udon noodle dishes, green tea
crepes, green tea candy, green tea soft serve ice cream, green tea parfaits,
and just green tea in any form that will sell well to tourists. Like me, ha ha.
We took the Keihan line train to Chuushojima, transferred to
another Keihan train, and got off at Uji station. We immediately went for the bridge and after
crossing it, we found a statue of a lady from Tale of Genji. Ok, so I’ve never personally read the Tale of
Genji, but I know it’s a super big deal as a work of literature. Despite that, I did enjoy the statues, and
visiting this town helped peak my interest in a bit more so that I might want
to read it once I get home and have all of summer break to do so. According to Dr. Hulvey back at UF, the Tale
of Genji is the best work of literature ever so apparently, this is a must on
my “to-read” list. :P
After posing with the statue for a picture, we could
immediately see the famous green tea street that leads to the Byodoin
Temple. Once we crossed the street to
our left to it, I was bombarded with a very strong scent of green tea. The green tea aroma was just EVERYWHERE. It was really nice. All the shops and restaurants had their
specialty menus out, free samples, and their green tea soft serve ice cream
machines out. It was super cool to walk
down this street, for a green tea lover like myself.
Eventually we got to the end of the street and wandered a
bit down towards the river for an awesome view, and then we backtracked a bit
in order to get in on some Byodoin action.
It cost 600 yen to go inside the temple grounds, and it’s a reasonable
price. Most temples and shrines just
have the temple and some smaller temples/shrines and pretty foliage. These temple grounds did, too, but the
entrance fee also gave you free admittance into their museum that contained a
lot of really neat Buddhist artwork and (recreated?) temple pieces like the
phoenix that rests on the roof of the temple up close. You could pay an extra 200 yen to go inside
the Phoenix Hall, but I was cool with not going. I just took pictures of the outside, and then
just used my awesome zoom on my video camera to sneak some peeks into the
interior. Muahaha
After the temple and lots of picture-taking I ate some green
tea zorasoba for lunch while Andrew had a meat udon noodle soup and a
chocolate/vanilla ice cream cone. Andrew
doesn’t actually really like green tea stuff all that much, but he came with me
to enjoy the town anyways. :)
We then wandered around a bit, hung out by the river and the
island in the middle of it with a pretty big stone pagoda, and saw another
shrine and another Genji statue, and just cruised around. It was a really nice day with really nice
weather, and since it’s finally spring, all the flowers were in bloom including
the wisteria blossoms, which are in season now.
Super pretty! And, of course,
because it’s Kyoto, the town itself is super traditional and just really nice
to look at.
Thus, I definitely recommend visiting Uji, especially if you
like green tea. It’s got Kyoto’s antique
and clean feel, a lot of shrines and temples, a Tale of Genji museum and
statues, awesome views from the bridge and river, and just a lot of culture and
historical pieces.
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