Mobile café in Hamamatsu Castle Park

I have already introduced some autumn leave viewing spots in Kyoto and Mori-mochi. So, I wondered if it was necessary to write about Hamamatsu Castle Park. However, it is the most convenient place to see autumn leaves if you live or come to the downtown. I went there today, wondering how they look like now. There were many people taking pictures here and there in the Japanese garden. It was very difficult to take pictures without including people. I almost gave up writing an article this time and finally came to a mobile café near the central lawn area. Its name is Tatazumi Coffee.

This café used high-quality coffee beans, however, I wondered if they had something without caffeine. According to their menu, they had decaf coffee, kuromoji tea, milk, apple juice and many other items in addition to ordinary coffee.

I asked the master what kuromoji tea was and if it was good because all I knew was the tea was from Tenryu, the mountain area in Hamamatsu. He showed me tea bags and let me smell at kuromoji. He explained that the tree of kuromoji is used for toothpicks served with traditional Japanese sweets to cut them. In English, it is called spicebush. I thought the smell of it was refreshing and ordered a cup of tea.

It was my first time to drink kuromoji tea, and I could hardly explain how it tasted. It wasn’t strong nor tasted bad, but I couldn’t find a word to describe it. The master said that it was like herb tea. Maybe he had also difficulty explaining the taste.

Before I left the place, I tried to take a picture of the café as the master allowed me to do so. But it seemed to be very popular, and many people were standing in a queue then. So, I took a picture just from this angle. According to their website, Tatazumi Coffee is open in the same place basically from Thursday to Monday.

After drinking tea, I felt refreshed and returned to the Japanese Garden to see if there were less people than before.

This place with a waterfall is a popular spot to take pictures.

As in the mountain areas, some maple leaves turned glowing red.

I went through bamboo trees

to go out of the gate.

When looking back, I found the sunlight on the hedge looked beautiful.

Though Hamamatsu Castle Park is just a city park and is not a real forest, you can still enjoy changing seasons and nature in it. While taking this picture, I heard some children shouting as they found squirrels. In this park, you can easily see them as they come closer to people. It’s a pity that it was impossible to take pictures of them as they moved so quickly on branches and jump between trees.