Tamashima , Kurashiki City , was once a port town that prospered through Japanese trade. The tea ceremony, which was introduced from Kyoto, spread to merchant houses, and many homes were equipped with tea rooms. In Tamashima, where history and tea culture live on, ""Watashi no Ochaji Waka"" has opened, where you can casually enjoy an authentic tea ceremony. Experience hospitality limited to one group per day!
2025.05.15-
Table of Contents
- What is ""Watashi no Ochaji Waka" "?
- The welcome drink is sweet amazake.
- Antique pottery collection
- Relaxing seating
- Beautiful gardens
- Tea ceremony arrangements
- Delicate kaiseki cuisine
- Enjoy an authentic matcha experience without being bound by etiquette
- Conclusion: Experience the Japanese spirit in Tamashima
- Access to ""Watashi no Ochaji Waka""
What is ""Watashi no Ochaji Waka" "?
" "Watashi no Ochaji Waka", " which opened in Tamashima , Kurashiki City in March 2025, is a restaurant where you can enjoy authentic kaiseki cuisine made with plenty of fresh local ingredients and carefully prepared matcha in a relaxing atmosphere.
This luxurious restaurant, which only accepts one group (maximum of five people) per day and requires a reservation, is imbued with the owner's warm desire to allow visitors to experience Japanese tea culture to their heart's content. After retiring from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the owner, Mr. Sato, created this wonderful space using the Toyotomi knowledge and outstanding cooking skills he had acquired over many years of work, as well as his deep experience in the tea ceremony, which he continued as a hobby.
The welcome drink is sweet amazake.
As we passed through the entrance, we were first shown into the reception room and treated to a cup of warm amazake. Amazake contains no sugar whatsoever, highlighting the natural sweetness of the rice and giving it a gentle taste that is very easy to drink. Amazake is highly nutritious and is said to be so good for the body that it is also called a "drinkable IV drip," and it seemed to soothe the fatigue of travel. After enjoying the amazake, we moved to the next space while looking at the menu for today's kaiseki cuisine.
Antique pottery collection
The reception room is decorated with many pieces of precious, historic tableware, beautiful vases, and tasteful ornaments that the owner, Mr. Sato, has carefully collected over the years. Just looking at each of these pieces enriches the soul. The kaiseki cuisine that follows also features rare tableware selected to match the changing seasons. The beautiful harmony between the food and the tableware is one of the great attractions of this tea ceremony.
Relaxing seating
The Japanese-style room where you can enjoy your kaiseki cuisine is furnished with traditional tatami mats, but also has comfortable table seating. Normally, at a full-scale tea ceremony, the shoji screens are closed to create a tranquil space, but here, the owner has left the space open, wanting guests to relax and enjoy the view of the fresh greenery in the beautiful garden.
Beautiful gardens
From the windows of your table seats, you can enjoy the view of a beautiful, carefully tended garden. The vibrant greenery is soothing to the eyes, and the tranquility is so great that you will forget you are in the center of Tamashima. You can spend a special time feeling the beauty of nature in every season.
Tea ceremony arrangements
During the tea ceremony, in the winter, water is boiled in a hearth set up in the Chuo of the room, but in the summer, the hearth is covered with tatami mats and the area in front of the tokonoma (a decorative shelf-like space found in traditional Japanese rooms) takes center stage instead. When kaiseki cuisine is served, a hanging scroll is displayed in the tokonoma, but when it is time to drink matcha tea, the scroll is removed and replaced with a beautiful flower arrangement unique to the season. In this way, the space for the tea ceremony changes with the seasons, allowing visitors to feel the delicate aesthetic sense.
Delicate kaiseki cuisine
The kaiseki meal began with rice, miso soup, and sashimi (rice, soup, and appetizer). The rice was " Asahi rice," a specially cultivated rice from Soja City, Okayama Prefecture . It is a special delicacy, grown with less than half the amount of pesticides and chemical fertilizers than usual. The tofu in the miso soup was from Peanut Tofu, a long-established tofu store in Tamashima. It has a deep flavor, made from a seasonal blend of white and Aka. The sashimi was fresh flounder caught in Yorishima in the Seto Seto Naikai Sea, marinated in kombu. The original flavor of the ingredients was concentrated in the dish. It seems that all the vegetables used are also locally grown.
Simmered food bowl
The next dish was kuzu-tataki (crustacean shad) of the luxury fish, Ako, caught in the Seto Naikai. Its refined flavor is similar to that of conger eel, but it is easier to eat and has a deeper flavor. The locally grown vegetables were also perfectly boiled, allowing you to enjoy the original texture and flavor of the ingredients. The dish is said to date back to the Meiji period, and is decorated with seasonal lilies on the outside and butterflies on the inside of the lid. I was impressed by the richness of sensibility of people in the past, who enjoyed the beauty of the seasons through all five senses.
pottery
The grilled dish is fragrant sawara kinome-yaki. It is soaked in a soy sauce-based sauce and goes well with rice. The dish is served on Imari from the Edo period. The beautiful painting that evokes history further enhances the food.
Cooked dishes and salads
The stew consisted of seasonal new onions and chicken meatballs, garnished with colorful Moroccan green beans. It was a taste that could only be experienced at that time of year. The salad was a white dressing made with hassaku oranges from the local Tamashima region and local vegetables. The refreshing acidity of the hassaku oranges added an accent to the dish, making it very refreshing.
Chopstick washing
The chopstick washing was a simple soup with no ingredients and a faint lemon scent. It left my mouth feeling refreshed and heightened my anticipation for the next dish.
Hassun
The hassun dish featured an innovative dish of pickled mamakari fish, a specialty of Okayama, tossed in cream cheese. It was my first time trying this dish, but the unexpected combination was exquisite and addictive. You can discover new charms in ingredients unique to Okayama. When served on fragrant scorched rice together with the komatsuna sauce, the flavor was enhanced and it was exquisite! As someone who doesn't drink alcohol, the yuzu cider served in stylish Wajima-nuri lacquerware was a pleasant surprise. Drinking from a cup that I'm not used to using on a daily basis was a fun experience that gave me a sense of the extraordinary. The ceramic vessel is Imari, and although it has a picture of a birdcage, there is no bird on it. The playful design, which asks you to "imagine," made me feel the depth of Imari.
* Ko Imari : Porcelain made in the area around Arita Town , Saga Prefecture Prefecture, during the Edo period (from the early 17th century to the mid-19th century), which was also exported overseas and gained popularity.
Yutou (water bucket) and pickles
The yuoke is like a warm porridge in a soba choko. The pickled radish has small hidden knives, which are said to represent "wiping away evil spirits." The incense bowl is a rare fan-shaped Bizen Pottery.
Seasonal sweets
The kaiseki meal concludes with seasonal fresh sweets with a beautiful rose motif from Tamashima's long-established Japanese sweets shop, Shotoen. At this point, we leave our seats and wait in the adjacent reception room for the matcha tea to be prepared.
Enjoy an authentic matcha experience without being bound by etiquette
Once the matcha is ready, we return to the Japanese-style room. Usually, matcha is prepared in the kitchen, but this time, the owner, Mr. Sato, made the tea right in front of us. The sound of pouring hot water and the tea whisk echoed pleasantly in the quiet space. The carefully prepared matcha is brought to the table, and the kind words "Please enjoy without worrying about the etiquette" ease our tension.
When you take a sip, the rich aroma and refined bitterness fill your mouth, creating a truly blissful moment. You can drink it all down to the last drop, making a slurping sound.
When we had our matcha tea, the hanging scroll that had been displayed during the kaiseki meal had been replaced with a seasonal flower arrangement. The flowers on this day were purple orchids, elegantly arranged in a simple Bizen Bizen Pottery dish, and their beautiful appearance was soothing to the soul.
Conclusion: Experience the Japanese spirit in Tamashima
Tamashima is a place where the historic tea culture is deeply rooted. "Because there is tea, there are sweets that go well with it, and there are shops that sell tools." This is an area where such authentic culture still lives on. ""Watashi no Ochaji Waka"" was started as a new attempt by Sato, who wants to connect this wonderful tea culture to the future while enjoying it as the times change.
Please come and experience this special space and Japanese aesthetic sense and warm hospitality. Many reservations have already been made, and some days are booked up for several months in advance, so if you are interested, please contact us as soon as possible.
*How to get to the store: Car navigation systems sometimes point to the wrong location. Please head towards Tamashima-dorimachi Shopping Street, turn in the direction of the arrow in the photo, and you will see a red postbox as a landmark.
Access to ""Watashi no Ochaji Waka""
["Watashi no Ochaji Waka" ]
Address: 3-3-10 Tamashima , Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture
Phone number: 090-2524-0297
Opening hours: Friday to Sunday (reservations required)
Tea ceremony start time: 11:00 a.m. (approximately 2 hours)
Price: 10,000 yen (tax included)
Parking: Available
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