Nara: Tea Ceremony and Matcha Making in a Machiya

• Step into the stillness of a traditional Japanese house - a machiya in Naramachi, where a tatami tea room sits behind lattice doors and shoji screens. • Learn the basics of the ceremony and the thinking behind it, in a group small enough that you can stop and ask a question at any point. • Taught step by step: an explanation first, then practice with hot water, then the bowl you make for yourself. • Whisk matcha with your own hands and leave knowing how it is done, rather than having watched someone else do it. • See how a chasen is made - roughly 95% of Japan's handmade tea whisks come from Takayama in Nara, a short way from this room. • Ask your Nara-born host where to go next before you leave - the shops and lanes that no guidebook lists.