Uji Tea Heritage Guided Walking Tour

Before you go

Uji City's official tea walk is led by local guides, from JR Uji Station all the way to the front of Byodo-in.

Uji is famous as the home of Uji tea, which the city calls a well-known high-end brand. The walk passes tea fields cultivated by traditional methods with great care, the nagayamon gate of a tea master's house dating from the Edo period, a tea merchant's residence and tea factory from the Meiji period, and the machiya townhouses of tea-farming families, tracing the roots of the Uji tea that supported the town's development. Those tea fields and buildings are still standing in Uji's streets today. The tea fields, the nagayamon gate, the merchant residences, the tea factory and the farmers' townhouses are the physical remains of Uji's tea trade. The guides explain along the way how each place connects with Uji tea.

The route sets out from JR Uji Station, where walkers meet at the tourist information office in front of the station, then goes along Ujibashi-dori past the houses of tea farmers, tea masters and tea merchants, crosses Uji Bridge, passes tea fields, and reaches the World Heritage Ujiagami Shrine before finishing in front of the World Heritage Byodo-in — about 3 km and about 1 hour 30 minutes in all. The route may vary from day to day. The whole walk stays within Uji city.

The walk is listed by Uji City and run by the Uji Tourism Volunteer Guide Club, with local volunteers who know the area as guides. It runs once a day, in the morning only. As the city puts it, knowing Uji tea is the way to know Uji better. Anyone with a fever or similar symptoms is asked not to take part.