About Japan from... post boxes, Chatsubo in Uji

In Japan many of the mundane objects, encountered on any street corner, can offer nice details about local history, festivals, traditional local products or even local foods and delicacies. I wrote many times about the Japanese artistic manhole covers and their touristic interesting graphic content. Offering similar information are the... post boxes.

Here is one very uncommon post box, photographed in Uji, Kyoto. It is shaped like a chatsubo, a traditional earthenware jar used to store the tea leaves. And its shape draws attention to.. the tea leaves, of course, because Uji is the place where tea was first cultivated in Japan. And today, the Uji tea is renowned throughout the country for its extremely high quality...