Welcome to beautiful Sydney. Sometimes from work what we need is a break. Right now is one of those moments. I feel like I am trying to step over a little stream but the effort is greater than if I had attempted to swim the Murray River. So here I am at the metaphorical river bank watching the water flow past.

Recently, actually a couple of Fridays ago, I paid a visit to Chatswood city, north of Sydney. It’s a real hub for things Japanese and as such they have a wonderful department store called Japan City. And what’s really cool about the place is their restaurant section. It’s done up to look like an intense version of a traditional Japanese food street. At the front there is an orange Japanese gate called a Torii and at the very end of the lane there is a tea bar serving some alright tea. Not the greatest but the waitresses are Japanese (most important) and there is a view of the pedestrian mall outside.

It’s nice to go there and chill out over a pot of tea. But sometimes I wish they had those really nice fresh green tea (matcha) mochi cakes I remember from my first trip to Kyoto, Japan. Those cakes were made fresh, were still hot and unlike the typical round ones you get from the supermarket, these were flat and triangular.

The only mistake I made when I was eating them is that I drank a can of hot coffee. It should have been a can of hot tea! Oh well, such is life. You learn and move onto bigger and better things. That is the Tao. A quick hop over the little stream and a big mug of tea!

For Japanese Green Tea, visit Teas.com.au for purchase/order.