Hyogo Cultural Christmas Party

Today I went to Hyogo Prefecture Government Cultural Centre in City Beach to attend their Christmas party. It was my first time to sell my bagels and sweets in public and it was fun!

When I arrived this place everyone was so kind and speaking Japanese.  It was a nice cozy atmosphere.  People started to gather up around 3pm, including kids wearing yukata.  They enjoyed chatting and playing with Japanese toys until the special guest Camellia Cha (aka Anne Norman) started to play shakuhachi.  The sound of shakuhachi was so beautiful that everyone shut their mouths and listen to its music.

After the shakuhachi, she started to read her book, “Curiosi-tea”.  I was amazed by her story, about teas around the world, history of Japan..  It was really interesting.  She used to stay in Hyogo 23 years ago and then visited around the famous tea factories and tea field throughout Japan, includes Uji in Kyoto and Shizuoka.  She speaks Japanese very well too.  

I brought some bagels, New York style cheese cake, green tea cake, almond fingers and macadamia cantuccini.  I was with Chigusa, from Wasabi & Green Tea, and she sold many kinds of tea, including sakura black tea, kamairi-cha (pan-roasted tea), and ginseng tea.  She was doing free tasting as well, and everyone enjoyed it very much.  I really loved the kamairi-cha, which the tea leaf is made in Japan by a Japanese person, in Chinese-tea way.  Hearing about all the good stuff about tea, I really thought I should drink tea regularly! 

I sold out all the bagels (because it was a Japanese event, green tea flavor sold very quickly) and more than half of the sweets I brought.  I should have brought more bagels!  Thank you very much and I enjoyed this event from the beginning to the end 🙂