Guilty indulgences in Japan

Besides drinking so much Japanese tea that it stained my teeth and I had to go to the dentist to get them cleaned, I have other confessions to make. Black tea is also to blame, or rather, I am because I love it too, usually with milk. Earl Grey, Assam, and I found Lupicia's 'Thé au Chocolat'. So yum, chocolate-flavoured black tea. I also found Mariage Marco Polo tea which is a firm favourite too. The flavour is like ; good black tea with medium body, no smokiness or maltiness, and floral and vanilla flavours. Perhaps citrus and spice too, I need to drink some again soon so I can confirm it. But for me it's the floral and vanilla top notes that really make it so wonderful. My one redeeming feature as a tea lover is that although I add milk to my black tea and red tea (which some say you shouldn't), I don't add sugar or honey or maple syrup etc. No sweeteners. But back to Japanese tea. Here you can buy bottled tea which is similar to iced tea (and you can buy some iced teas here too), but Japanese ones usually have no sugar and are low in additives. They sell bottled rooibos too. I love genmaicha but houjicha is nice. I am slowly growing to like matcha and I like weak sencha and bancha. They all taste different even though they are all just called 'tea' here. So if someone asks if I want tea, I ask them, "Is it genmaicha?" And so on. You can get genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice) with matcha powder in it. Oolong tea is popular here too, they call it ooloncha. It's often served cold in restaurants. I could talk more but that's enough for now I think. Anyway this is part one... Part two is about sweet treats here.