24 hours in Tokyo is not nearly enough time. However if you find yourself in that predicament, I highly suggest taking the time for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony at Chazen.
24 hours in Tokyo
Call me crazy but yes I went to Tokyo for 24 hours. Less than 24 hours if we’re being technical. Flying to Thailand from Los Angeles with my airline, I had to layover in Tokyo anyway. After a bit of back & forth with the husband, I finally got him to agree to pitstop in Tokyo. For 24 hours. I get it. He has already spent a great deal of time in Tokyo already and our holiday was 3 weeks in Thailand/Cambodia, not Japan. Point is, I was happy to take the 24 hours and I did it without complaint.
Sushi, Karaoke, Japanese Tea Ceremony
The reason I’m not writing a 24-hours in Tokyo blog post is because I my experience was unique. We have good family friends that live in Tokyo so all I had to do was tell them that we were coming and they planned everything. Knowing my time was limited, had 3 things I really wanted to do – sushi, karaoke room, Japanese tea ceremony. Our friends did not disappoint! They joined us for sushi dinner and karaoke while we went to the tea ceremony by ourselves the next day before heading to the airport.
Sushi Maru
For the record, while everyone else in my group are sushi lovers, I am sushi light. I just graduated from California rolls to basic sashimi last year. Still, we couldn’t go to Japan and not have sushi (we had ramen too).
Our friends took us to Sushi Maru and it was everything we hoped it would be. This coming from a non-sushi lover.
Karaoke Room
I’m NOT a karaoke person. I’ve done it a few times…in a group on stage but in general I don’t like to sing karaoke. But something about karaoke in a private room in Tokyo sounded very appealing to me.
Private room, personal waitress, unlimited singing, heck they even brought us microwaved popcorn! I cannot wait to try this back here in the States.
Chazen Japanese Tea Ceremony
Rie Takeda
Conveniently located in Ginza next to a theater Kabuki-za, Chazen is easy to find. After taking the elevator to the 5th floor of a small building, we were warmly greeted by our tea ceremony master, Rie Takeda.
We did not request a private ceremony so there were 5 other people in addition to the 4 in my party. We were an International group of us 4 Americans, 2 Hungarian women, and 3 Chinese women. Rie conducted the entire ceremony in English. The tea ceremony was educational from the start.
After group introductions, we watched a short video explaining the history and significance of the Japanese tea ceremony and specifically matcha tea. We took our turn at grinding up matcha.
Tsukubai
From there we washed our hands in the “tsukubai” outside on the balcony before taking off our shoes and climbing through the small nijiriguchi to the authentic tea room.
Now the fun started. Rie served us delicious Japanese treats and we ate while she walked us through the traditional Japanese tea ceremony and matcha making. The treats were almost too pretty to eat!
Then it was our turn. One-by-one we all made our own cup of matcha. I think the general consensus is that Rie’s matcha was much, much, better.
Less than an hour later we were out the door off to a ramen lunch before heading to the airport to fly to Bangkok. My overall consensus? I like tea but I don’t love it and I’m not a huge matcha fan. Having said all that, I had a wonderful experience! Rie was so sweet. I would highly recommend visiting Chazen when in Tokyo!
Have you been to Japan?
My overnight accomodations in Tokyo were at Hundred Stay – Tokyo Shinjuku. You can find my TripAdvisor review here.
11 comments
Oh wow, this looks like such a fun trip, especially the tea ceremony and the delicious looking food! I’ve never been to Japan, but it’s on my travel bucket list for sure!
wow you sure know how to make the most out of 24 hours! I would love to visit Tokyo! I’ve never been but it’s definitely on my bucket list! Let’s hope soon enough!
You fit in a lot for 24 hours in Tokyo! I love sushi, so I would go crazy here and try everything! The tea ceremony is really interesting, and it’s nice you fit in a cultural experience too. Matcha is definitely an acquired taste!
I’ve been to Japan two times and I’ve never been to a tea ceremony. Chazen seems like a great place and it says a lot that you enjoyed it even though you are not a matcha fan. I’ve never actually done karaoke either, even in the United States. It seems like you managed to pack a lot into just a short amount of time–very impressive!
I love sushi (and Japanese cuisine) so that would be number one on my list. I am salivating here looking at that sushi platter. That tea ceremony is so interesting too! What a great authentic japanese experience!
You’ve done a lot in less than 24 hours! I was in Tokyo for 36 hours before but unfortunately one day was raining so I had to limited myself to only few things. That karaoke and tea ceremony looks like a lot of fun! I regret not trying sushi while I was there! I love eating it but my husband not so much so I just tried different food. But still Tokyo is so fascinating and I hope Ill get to go back one day and explore more!
24 hours is not a lot of time but it looks like you made very good use of it. I can’t even imagine eating sashimi in Japan yet! So looking forward to it and the tea ceremony. WOW. So beautiful! And of course, one has to do karaoke when in Japan 🙂
My friend recently ventured to Japan, but I doubt if he attended the tea ceremony. I agree. Something better than nothing, 24hr better than 0hr! I’ve taken quite a few day trips so I can vouch for the amount of things possible to do in 24 hrs!
This is one heck of an experience. I’d love to attend a tea ceremony too. Let’s see if future takes me to Japan.
The traditional Japanese tea ceremony sounds interesting. It must have been a great experience learning about the tradition with a hand on. We love playing Karaoke all the time at the family get-togethers. Sounds like you had a lot of fun.
This is the one of the best planned less-than-24-hours I’ve ever come across. You did what you really wanted to do without cramming in too much stuff. Kudos! The tea ceremony does look quite serene, and something I would love to experience whenever I make my way to Japan.
You have utilized your less time so fruitfully and done lots of unique things. I have never attended Japanese tea ceremony, and would love to go for it one day. I loved that little place, where you take footwear out and enter the place bare-footed. This ceremony looks pious and peaceful. Singing at karoke bar must be a fun.