Tea and Monks (Kyoto Half-Day Tour)

Daitoku-ji is where the tea ceremony was by perfected by the most influential tea master in Japan's history, Sen no Rikyu. His delicate taste set the standard for all tea masters who followed. As this monastery is still a place for monks to engage in the serious study and practice of Zen contemplation, only several of the temples do allow visitors, and they happen to have some of the most exquisite stone gardens in all of Kyoto. One of these gardens, located at Daisen-in, is the reason why I became interested in Japanese gardens and eventually ended up moving to Japan. After spending time immersed in the Zen atmosphere, we will take a short walk to Imamiya Jinja, a shrine that Kyoto inhabitants have visited to pray for good health since almost as long as Kyoto has existed. We finish our time next door to the shrine, with Japanese sweets and tea at a shop that has been serving the one and only item that's on the menu for 1, 000 years.