Sip matcha by a garden, no ceremony required
Some Japanese gardens have a teahouse where you can drop in for a bowl of matcha and a small sweet while looking out at the garden. There is no ceremony to follow and no booking needed; staff bring the tea and you simply enjoy it. You usually sit on tatami mats, so expect to take off your shoes.
A teahouse inside Jomyoji, ranked fifth among the five great Zen temples of Kamakura, facing a dry garden of raked gravel and rocks. Walk-ins are welcome, and it is a short walk from Hokokuji, the temple with the bamboo grove, so the two make an easy pair.
Wakuya, in Miyagi, is where gold was first found in Japan, in 749, and this museum tells the story of that discovery. Its teahouse, Kuganean, looks onto a Japanese garden, and first-timers can simply drop in for matcha and a sweet. The teahouse is closed from December to March.
This teahouse overlooks Gyokusen-inmaru Garden in Kanazawa Castle Park, a garden first laid out in 1634 and recreated in 2015 that uses the castle's stone walls as part of the view. Matcha comes with jo-namagashi, delicate sweets shaped by hand for the season. Walk-ins are welcome unless it is booked for a private group.
A teahouse in Tokawa Park, a large riverside park at the foot of the Tanzawa mountains in Hadano, west of Tokyo on the Odakyu Line. Drop in during tea-serving hours for matcha by the garden, after a walk with views of the mountains.