This is chinese tea leaves. It’s called ” 普洱茶、Pu’ercha. ” Pu’ercha was fermented at least 3 years until it make good taste. Tea leaves were wrapped like a ball one by one, so that you can make a cap of tea, one portion easily using one ball.
What a cute Chinese tea leaves balls!!
I bought in China Town at Kobe(神戸市), where city of Hyogo prefectures today. It took about 2h to ride rapid express train from Kyoto where I’m living in city. Probably you know, Kobe has been built the city as a harbor since 1868. This year it was so important year for Japanese to open the door to communicate with abroad. Before 1868, Japan national indication of business was not completely communicate with abroad from approximate 1600 to 1868. It’s called Tokugawa era.) In particularly those days, only Dutch and Chinese could go over border, therefore Japanese had been affected by learning of Chinese and Dutch than any other countries those days.
So, Just it was 1868, there was special coo by some of the warriors and Samurai who had spirits of renew the national indications. Finally the politics broken by them and Japan has started opening the door toward foreign countries since 1868. First opening harbors where were Kobe, and Yokohama (it’s the city near Tokyo). Did you know the Tokugawa era?? (You can feel the era watching movie Last Samurai acting by Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. Ken Watanabe is the most famous actor in Japan. Last Samurai was made by Warner Brothers Co. 15years ago.)
What a cool his appearance is in acting Last Samurai!! Ken Watanabe(渡辺謙 age 56) started learning English when he got the chance the acting on Last Samurai, his age was 43years old at that time. His preparation of learning tearm was only 5monthes! He is one of few Japanese actors who can speak English well. And he is my favorite Japanese actor.
Therefore Kobe has atmospheres of foreign countries and there are so many import and export Co Ltd near by harbor. In currently we can find so many Chinese, Korean, and from east-Asian around Kobe. I had lived in Kobe since 2007 to 2010, I could feel the atmosphere of positive energy the city captured and the people who lived were always kind to me and had soulful minds. I think that the people near by harbor, like Kobe, Yokohama, often open their mind toward surrenders than any other prefectures.
Entrance of Chinatown in Kobe city
So I want to go to Kobe if I got consecutive holidays or got time to relax. To relieve my anxiety and stress from working at hospital, I also think that we must need to have a break time to fly another sky and smell roses, you know. In Kobe, it’s just very shin day and lately summer breezes coming from the sea. There are so many Foreigners, it suits the atmosphere of exotic mood in city of Kobe. I’m listening to Bossa Nova tracks made by Brazilian artists I found 15years ago while writing this post, it makes me feel hurtful and kindly mind.
I think that I don’t care about the Good Music is always good whether it made by Japanese or not, age, gender, kind of genres… We had the greatest materials from Legend of the artist, he said that “ I would hire one if he could play like Lee Konitz, he had green eyes with red breath, it would be OK for me.” -Miles Davis-
This mood, at afternoon in Kobe, I definitely like it.
By the way, I went to the Tea shop in China Town because I wanted to buy the Chinese or Taiwanese Tea and try to taste it. There are so many shops which sell the Japanese green tea, however we can’t find shop of Chinese tea (leaves or ingredients) a lot in Japan. Fortunately I found one of the Taiwanese Tea shops in Chinatown, I asked the recommendation of the tea. The very beautiful lady answered to my questions but she wasn’t good at using Japanese well, I couldn’t understand her answer mostly. So I tried to talk by English to communicate with her although my English is definitely broken. She could speak English so fluently and she answered my questions, like difference of these tea taste or how to import from Taiwan to Japan, and how to make the tea. I was so amazing because I could talk with her used by English which is our second language than I expected. And she said to me, “I was learning English from friend who are British in Taiwan, there are so many opportunity to meet foreigners who speak English than in Japan. I got the skill of using English while talking with friend over and over again.
I has been trying to get ability to speak Japanese well but it’s so difficult because Japanese word or sentences always changes how to talk when I speak toward senior or younger. And although I could write Chinese characters because I’m Taiwanese but I have to write Japanese word, like Hiragana and Katakana, you know. “ And she kept talking to me, “ It’s easy to learn English than you expecting because the grammer is so simple and don’t have to memory the words or sentences a lot because when we talk with each other, we don’t use difficult words definitely, right?? I think that generally Japanese have shy minds, that’s main reason why Japanese couldn’t speak foreign language well?? How do you think about that??”
Like she said to me, Japanese including me don’t tend to open our mind to strangers or foreigners as well. But Japanese have to learn English from junior high school, this is responsible learning by National indicates to learning in Japan. We has learning English since 8~10years, but we can’t use foreign languages mostly. Why can’t we use the foreign language? I think that reason why is how to learning English mostly writing and reading it than hearing and speaking. She tough me that the important things to get abilities of using language. I have to do with minds when I study English like” success been 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”.
As for me, my goal to speak English, I’d like to talk with people who use English as second or third language. That’s really good for me to understand our cultures and minds even if we could speak fluently or good pronunciation. I experienced the precious moment talking with her, what made me exert myself learning English more and more than ever.
kei nakamura 