A 2-day/1-night trip to enjoy tea at KAI Hoshino Resorts KAI Enshu|Recommended Model Course
Shizuoka Prefecture accounts for about 40% of all tea plantations in Japan. With a mild climate suitable for tea cultivation and techniques handed down over the years, the prefecture produces high quality tea as the number one tea production area in Japan. There are many famous tea-producing areas in the prefecture, including Hamamatsu, Makinohara, and Shimada, and each area, whether flat or mountainous, is rich in individuality. Tea stores, Japanese tea cafes, and tea experience spots are also popular.
Hoshino Resorts KAI Enshu, located in Tateyamaji hot spring on the shore of Lake Hamana, offers tea-themed hospitality for your stay. Here is a model plan for two days and one night to enjoy tea in a way that is unique to the region where it is produced.
Points of the model course
- Experience the tea production process at the attraction
- Pick up souvenirs at a tea store that produces its own tea
- Enjoy tea soba noodles and tea sweets at a Japanese tea café
Day 1
Shimada-Kanaya IC on the New Tomei Expressway
Short drive
11:30 KADODE OOIGAWA
Green Tea Experience to find your favorite flavor
Green Tea Tours" takes about 20 minutes and can be reserved at the ticket vending machine on the day of the tour. Participants will receive a special miniature tea cup (ochoko) as a gift.
Located next to Monde Station on the Oigawa Railway, this is an Experience-type food park for green tea, agriculture, and tourism. In addition to a marché featuring fresh vegetables, fruits, green tea, and other agricultural products from the Oigawa River basin, there are also a variety of other Properties, including restaurants and a tourist information center. The "Green Tea Tours" is a popular attraction where visitors can learn about tea in a fun way. Visitors can transform themselves into "tea leaves" and experience the "steaming," "rubbing," and "heating" of the tea leaves, and at the end of the tour, they can compare four different kinds of green tea. Taste teas with different flavors and aromas to find your favorite tea.
On the premises, there is a Restaurant featuring local vegetables, burgers and ochazuke (rice with green tea), and a tea house, making it a convenient place for lunch or a break.
- KADODE OOIGAWA
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62 Takeshita, Shimada-shi, Shizuoka MAP
9:00-18:00 (Varies by area. Please check the website for hours of operation of each restaurant)
2nd Tuesday of the month, and other occasional holidays
Admission free, Green Tea Tours and Green Tea B.I.Y. Stand: 500 yen each
0547-39-4073
Check the website for departure times of Green Tea Tours.
Approximately 60 min. by car
15:00 Hoshino Resorts KAI Enshu
Enjoy a tea-filled stay in Japan's number one tea-producing area
Located in Tatezanji hot spring on the shore of Lake Hamana, all rooms overlook Lake Hamana. The hotel offers a variety of hospitality that can only be found in Japan's number one tea-producing area, such as tea-related events and an outdoor hot spring with floating tea balls. Enshu cotton pongee, a traditional craft, adorns the interior of the hotel. The KAI Local Flavors menu, featuring seasonal delicacies such as eels, a specialty of Lake Hamana, is also well known.
Recommended Guest room: KAI Signature Rooms "Enshu Tsumugi Rooms
All rooms have a "tea counter" with an induction heater and sink, allowing guests to fully enjoy tea before bedtime or when waking up in the morning, with tea leaves and tea utensils to suit the time of day. The room overlooking Lake Hamana is a warm and inviting space decorated with items from Enshu cotton pongee, a traditional fabric of Hamamatsu.
15:30 Enjoy a cup of tea for every occasion
Enjoy tea and a spectacular view in your Guest room
Pairing tea leaves and tea utensils is an important part of brewing a delicious cup of tea.
At the tea counter, tea leaves, tea utensils, and tea cakes are available for three different occasions: upon arrival, before bedtime, and upon awakening. For arrival, there is an aromatic "Koshun" tea to help you take a break. Before bedtime, when you want to relax and unwind, you can taste the flavorful "Saeakari" tea.
16:00 KAI Cultural Discovery
Rediscover the charm of tea with "Bicharaku no Omotenashi
Experience the four seasons and the new tea season
At "Bicharaku no Omotenashi" (Bicharaku's Hospitality), named after Japan's number one tea-producing region, Staff/staff members who are well versed in tea will show you how to brew tea and what it tastes like. Shizuoka tea, carefully selected together with tea farmers in the prefecture, is rich in flavor and aroma. Visitors can learn about tea while having fun by tasting tea at different times of the year and comparing the different types of tea produced in different regions.
17:30 Dinner
Enjoy KAI Local Flavors of fugu and eel
The "Fugu Una KAI Local Flavors" features fried fugu (blowfish) and unasuki (sukiyaki with eel).
Dinner is the "Fugu Una KAI Local Flavors," featuring torafugu, the king of fugu, and Hamanako's specialty, eel. The appetizer is "
19:30 Hot spring
Enjoy a relaxing time at Tateyamaji hot spring
Hana-no-yu" outdoor hot spring made of Japanese cypress. The "Ochadama (tea leaves) beauty bath," in which baskets filled with tea leaves are floated in the outdoor hot spring, is well-reputed.
Two types of hot springs are available to relieve travelers' fatigue. The "Koto no Yu," which has an outdoor hot spring and an indoor bath made of hinoki cypress, allows you to enjoy a pleasant bath with the breeze from the lake. The hot spring is a sodium-calcium chloride high-sodium salt hot spring with high heat-retaining effects.
21:00 Ochake (tea ceremony)
Enjoy "tea" and "sake
Proposing a new way of drinking with a marriage of tea and sake
As is typical of a tea-themed inn, the evening entertainment includes "ochake," a combination of tea and sake. You can enjoy combinations that incorporate the seasons, such as fresh tea and gin, or matured tea and rice shochu in the fall. Enjoy a blissful time as you reflect on the first day of your trip.
*Services are subject to change depending on the season.
Day 2
07:00 Morning tea
Wake up to a cup of tea
Bicharaku Lounge," a luxurious space overlooking Lake Hamana and tea fields
The lounge overlooks the Tsumugi tea fields in the courtyard and Lake Hamana beyond. Spend your morning with a cup of tea from the tea cellar or tea stand in hand. Start the second day of your trip with a cup of morning tea, which is said to increase your good fortune.
08:00 Breakfast
Breakfast in a tea box" at a tea house
The "Tea Box Breakfast" is a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. The Hamanako soup with scallion and scallion seeds is also delicious.
After morning tea, a "local breakfast" featuring local delicacies awaits you. The first thing that catches the eye is the wooden tea box used to store tea leaves. Inside, tea leaves are laid out, and you can taste dishes rich in regional colors with a subtle aroma.
10:00 Hamanako Tea Picking Exercise
Hamanako Tea Picking Exercise" Refreshes Body and Mind
Gymnastics takes about 15 minutes. Breathing deeply in the tea fields will make you feel refreshed.
The event is held in front of the Tsumugi Tea Field, which is decorated with tea trees and azaleas. Based on basic stretching exercises, this original stretching session includes movements that remind one of picking tea, such as looking out over the tea field. After the exercises, the body warms up and becomes energized for the day ahead.
15 min. by car
12:00 Marutama Tea Making
Bring back safe and secure tea as a souvenir
Herb and green tea (3 packets) 500 yen. Mini packets and tea sweets are also available.
Located along Hime Kaido (Prefectural Road 261), the motto of the tea store, which handles all aspects of tea cultivation, production, and sales, is "making tea we want our children to drink with confidence. They cultivate environmentally friendly tea using no herbicides and less pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The teas are mainly deep steamed green tea, but also hojicha, genmaicha, and Japanese black tea are available in leaf and tea bag form. The sophisticated packaging is also attractive and makes a great souvenir.
- Marutama Tea Manufacturing
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7172-917 Nakagawa, Hosoe-cho, Kita-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka MAP
9:00-18:00
Sunday, Holidays
053-522-0517, toll free 0120-120517
Approx. 13 min. by car
13:00 Ocha-no-Oto
Enjoy soba noodles at a café offering a variety of famous teas from all over Japan
No Oto no Chasoba (tea soba) (with tea). Available all day.
Located in a quiet residential area, this wooden house with lush greenery is a cafe specializing in Japanese teas. The cafe offers about 30 varieties of tea selected from all over Japan, including black tea, fermented tea, and other teas from Shizuoka, such as "Tenryu Koshun" and "Morimachi no Ocha". Light meals and sweets using tea are also popular, and the "Nootono Chasoba" is highly recommended. The tea soba served with matcha green tea in the dipping sauce is deeply flavorful, and the aroma and taste of the tea spreads over the palate as it glides down the throat.
In addition to seasonal sweets and "Koicha no Kakeki" (thick tea cake), seasonal sweets such as shaved ice with matcha, hojicha, and black tea are also on the menu. All tea leaves served at the café are available for purchase, so you can enjoy fine teas even after you return from your trip.
- Tea Room Sound
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5-25-1 Handayama, Higashi-ku, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture MAP
10:30 - 16:30 (L.O. 16:00)
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (open if the day falls on a national holiday)
053-443-8750
Greenpia Makinohara
Experience picking tea in a vast tea plantation
Experience of picking tea leaves is rare, as there are only a limited number of places in the production area that offer this service.
The tea complex Property is located in "Makinohara Grand Tea Garden," known as one of the largest tea-producing areas in Shizuoka, the tea capital of Japan. The "Tea Picking Experience," held every year from late April to early October, is particularly popular among the various tea experiences offered. Just standing in the bright green tea fields is a refreshing experience. You can take home the tea leaves you picked with a recipe, so why not taste the fresh tea leaves in tempura and other dishes?
The factory, where visitors can freely observe the tea processing process, is also a must-see to learn more about tea. The "Ippinkan" store sells a wide selection of teas, including sencha (sencha green tea), black tea, health tea, and green tea sweets, all made at the tea factory.
- Greenpia Makinohara
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1151 Nishi-Hagima, Makinohara City, Shizuoka Prefecture MAP
Open 10:00-17:00
December 29-January 3
Admission and factory tour are free. Tea picking experience: 1,000 yen for junior high school students and older, 800 yen for elementary school students (includes a recipe for the tea leaves you pick).
0548-27-2995
Please check the website for details on the tea picking Experience, such as the time of year, hours, etc.
MAP
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Hoshino Resorts facilities nearby



