A four-day world tea festival opened Friday in the nation's major tea-growing center of Shizuoka.
The World O-Cha Festival, subtitled "Exploring New Possibilities for O-Cha (Tea) in the 21st Century," is drawing some 500 tea ex- perts from 20 countries, organizers said. Twenty famous teas from 12 nations are on show.
The festival features exhibits ranging from the latest tea-producing technologies to Japan's traditional "way of tea." There will be demonstrations of the tea ceremony and a lecture by Sen Soshitsu, the head of Ura Senke, a 400-year-old school of the tea ceremony.
Shizuoka hosted a separate "national tea summit" Thursday and Friday.