Surrounded by the red leaves, it's hard not to stop and enjoy.
This is from inside the grounds of a small tea house near Okazaki Castle. The tea house sells overpriced bowls of matcha to tourists, but they also offer classes training people how to preform tea ceremony. And there are a few traditional tea rooms for those lucky enough to be invited to a tea ceremony.
I am friends with an older Japanese woman who has been training to do tea ceremony for many many years (as with any of these traditional crafts, you have to do it for decades before you might be considered skilled at it, let alone a master). She often invites me to tea ceremony, so I am lucky enough to enjoy it on a fairly regular basis.
The tea house grounds are always well maintained and always lovely, but my favorite season to visit is in autumn when all the Japanese maples that are packed around the grounds turn fire red.
As much as I enjoy the warm bowls of matcha inside, it's hard not to linger out here enjoying the leaves.
(BTW, is anyone else having problems posting to Steemit? I couldn't post my daily haiku yesterday morning, nor could I post this photo last night. Now this morning I have tried posting this five times. Will it work this time...?)
Don't miss the other great photos in the Beautiful Japan photo series!
#1 - The Shogun's Keep
#2 - Gate to the Shogun's Shrine
#3 - The Golden Torii
#4 - Across the Universe
#5 - To Walk With You Under the Cherry Blossoms
#6 - I Once Knew This Place
#7 - Okazaki Tenmangu Shrine
#8 - The White Walls of Zui'nenji
#9 - Curious Kitsune Watches
#10 - Meeting Place of the Kitsune
#11 - What a Blur
#12 - The Watcher at the Shrine
#13 - Giant Torii in Road
#14 - Resting Leaves
#15 - The Family that Drinks Together, Stays Together
#16 - Fire in the Sky
#17 - The Streets of Takayama
Thank you for reading. :)
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I post one photo everyday, as well as some misc posts such as haiku, videos, more Japanese history, and so on. Let me know if there is anything about Japan you would like to know more about or would like to see.
David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time.