Monday, September 11, 2006
Tea and Hibernating Bears
For my birthday when I lived in Japan, my friend Sharon decided I needed to be more British, so she gave me tea. One tin was Earl Grey, the other was Muscat. I had no idea what Muscat was, but it smelled nice, and it tasted good, so I figured I just hadn't heard of it before, and maybe it was a British thing imported to Japan.
This morning, I was trying to describe what kind of tea it is to someone else, and I didn't really know how, so I googled for it. What Google revealed to me is that "Muscat" tea appears to only exist in Japan; in other places in the world, it seems to be known as "Darjeeling." I'm not sure if they're exactly the same thing, since I don't have any Darjeeling here to compare, but this explains why no one ever seems to have heard of it. I will be sad when it is all gone. ("Muscat" is a kind of grape, by the way.)
In my search for the tea description, though, one of the things that turned up was the Forest Inn Nikko Teddy Bear House, because it has a tea room with Muscat Tea listed on the menu. In the information about the Teddy Bear Shop & Tea Room, you will find this notice:
Thus concludes my sick-day entertainment for the morning.
For my birthday when I lived in Japan, my friend Sharon decided I needed to be more British, so she gave me tea. One tin was Earl Grey, the other was Muscat. I had no idea what Muscat was, but it smelled nice, and it tasted good, so I figured I just hadn't heard of it before, and maybe it was a British thing imported to Japan.
This morning, I was trying to describe what kind of tea it is to someone else, and I didn't really know how, so I googled for it. What Google revealed to me is that "Muscat" tea appears to only exist in Japan; in other places in the world, it seems to be known as "Darjeeling." I'm not sure if they're exactly the same thing, since I don't have any Darjeeling here to compare, but this explains why no one ever seems to have heard of it. I will be sad when it is all gone. ("Muscat" is a kind of grape, by the way.)
In my search for the tea description, though, one of the things that turned up was the Forest Inn Nikko Teddy Bear House, because it has a tea room with Muscat Tea listed on the menu. In the information about the Teddy Bear Shop & Tea Room, you will find this notice:
*Tea room and Teddy Bear shop will be closed from January to the begining of March because of bear's hibernation.Now I really want to go. Heh, I also now note that it is located in Tochigi, where Chris used to live. Such a small world.
Thus concludes my sick-day entertainment for the morning.
