A Japanese tea house

One of the must see Japanese scenes is definitely the tea ceremony, the ceremonial way of preparing and drinking matcha, the Japanese powdered green tea.

There are many places where you can experience the tea ceremony, cultural centers, museums or private houses, but in my opinion the best place is an old tea-house (chashitsu) from inside a scenic Japanese garden - you will feel like the guests of a daimyo. That's the case with the chashitsu from this photo, located inside the Genkyu-en Garden near the Hikone Castle - it was built together with the garden in 1677 by Naooki Ii, the fourth lord of Hikone, especially to entertained his guests...