Japanese Tea Ceremony Held on Desert Sands at Expo’s Jordan Pavilion, Visitors Enjoy Twist on Traditional Experience

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:34 JST, September 12, 2025

OSAKA — A tea ceremony was held on desert sands inside the Jordan Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo in Osaka on Thursday.

The special “Kenkon Chakai” ceremony was organized by Osaka Prefecture’s Sakai municipal government to share tea ceremony culture with visitors from Japan and abroad.

Visitors were served tea made by members of the Osaka Metropolitan University tea ceremony club.

Red sands from Jordan’s Wadi Rum desert cover the ground at the pavilion, which has become a big attraction at the Expo.

The ceremony took place in a part the pavilion that simulates the experience of being in a desert under a starry sky, and the students were able to demonstrate their otemae (matcha tea making) skills. Surrounded by a softly illuminated fantastic atmosphere, the students explained to visitors that the word “kenkon” in the name of this ceremony came from the Zen phrase “Itteki kenkon o uruosu,” which means that one drop of water enriches heaven and Earth. They then offered the visitors matcha tea and traditional Japanese sweets.

“It felt special, experiencing Japanese culture on desert sands,” a 29-year-old woman from Taiwan said. “The matcha tea was delicious and had a rich taste.”