Matsumoto: Home Tea Experience with a Local "Auntie"

Experience a private tea time in Matsumoto with a local guide. Visit a local shop, draw fresh spring water, and learn how to make tea. Write your name in kanji on a decorative envelope to take home.
Meet your guide, a warm local "Auntie" from Matsumoto who knows the town inside and out, for a private, small-group experience. Enjoy a genuine Japanese home-style tea time inside a beautifully restored 19th-century kura (traditional storehouse) in the heart of Matsumoto, plus a simple calligraphy experience.

Start by discussing your food preferences and what treats you'd like to try. Based on your answer, your guide will take you to a shop where local residents do their everyday shopping. Together with your guide, you'll pick out 2-3 treats to try, with her explaining the unfamiliar snacks, drinks, and local specialties along the way.

Then, arrive at the kura or the cafespace, a beautifully preserved storehouse building with thick earthen walls, where a private room is reserved just for your group. Before settling in, draw fresh spring water yourself from the building's traditional hand-pump well — a small, hands-on moment that becomes part of your own tea time.

From the treat you picked out at the shop, to the local spring water or fresh tap water you prepare, right through to preparing and finally sitting down to enjoy your tea — every step is something you do yourself, not something you simply watch. Your guide will gently guide you through small, everyday details of how tea is really made and shared in a Japanese household, such as cooling the water to the right temperature (yuzamashi) and presenting your cup on its own saucer (chataku), but the experience itself is yours to carry out from start to finish.

After tea time, your guide will turn your own name into meaningful kanji characters, chosen just for you, and hand you a traditional writing tool found in almost every Japanese household to write it yourself onto a traditional decorative envelope used in Japan for celebratory gifts. Your guide will explain the meaning behind the mizuhiki cords tied on the envelope, a small piece of Japanese culture most visitors never learn about. Take home your own hand-written kanji on this envelope as a one-of-a-kind souvenir — one you can even use for a real celebratory gift someday.

Para garantizar la disponibilidad de la reserva lo antes posible. Vale la pena reservar con antelación, especialmente si planeas el viaje durante la temporada alta, como los días festivos o los fines de semana.

Esta excursión se puede cancelar sin costo alguno hasta :tiempo de cancelación horas antes del inicio del viaje. Si lo cancela después de 24 horas o no se presenta en la excursión, se le cobrará el precio total de la actividad. El retraso en la recogida o en la salida se considerará como no presentarse.