Tokyo · Central Tokyo
Chazen
Chazen is a tea room on floor 5 of the Ginza Apollo building, next to the Kabukiza theater. On the building's ground floor there is a noodle restaurant, and that is the sign for the entrance. It opened in October 2015 as a tea room for visitors from outside Japan, and it has another branch in Asakusa.
The session lasts 45 minutes. You hear a short explanation of the history of the tea ceremony, watch the teacher prepare matcha, whisk a bowl yourself and serve it, and drink it with a Japanese sweet that changes with the season. The guidance is in Japanese and English, there is no dress code and nothing to bring. There is no age limit.
You take nothing home from the session. Matcha, bowls and whisks are sold on site separately. The sweet and the matcha are not under kosher supervision, and the website does not list the sweet's ingredients. If you keep kosher or vegan, ask in advance, or skip the sweet.
Good to know
- The tea room has tatami flooring and you may not walk on it barefoot. If you come in sandals, bring a pair of socks.
- If sitting on the floor is hard for you, ask for a chair when you book.
- Cancellation for a shared session: half the price from seven days before, and the full price on the day before and on the day itself. For a private session the half starts two weeks before.
- Photos for personal use are allowed. Video is not. If you are late, let them know right away and join in the middle.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Chazen.
- HereChazen
- 1 min
Ain Soph Ginza Food
A fully vegan restaurant since 2009, right next to the Kabukiza theater.
- ~4 min
Coffee in Ginza: an old-school kissaten Cafe
If you skipped the hotel, sit down here.
- ~4 min
Ginza Mitsukoshi Food Garden Food
The underground food floors of the Mitsukoshi Ginza department store: wines, sake, tea and packaged sweets for gifts.
- ~5 min
Ginza Akebono Honten Food
A Japanese sweets shop born right after the war near the 4-chome crossing, as a stand for sweet bean soup in winter and shaved ice in summer. Today mochi, dorayaki and seasonal yokan.
- ~5 min
Kyukyodo Ginza Shopping
A house founded in 1663 in Kyoto as a medicinal-herb shop, which began making incense around 1700 and has been in Ginza since 1880.
- ~5 min
Ginzabashi (Kinokurashi Ginza) More to see
You pick a wood from more than 20 kinds, set it in a jig and shape it with a Japanese hand plane, sand it and oil it, and take the chopstick
- ~8 min
Cafe de L'Ambre Cafe
A cafe that serves only coffee, since 1948, with its own roasting and cloth-filter brewing. Closed on Mondays.