Kawamotoya Chaho (川本屋茶舗)

The Kawamotoya name dates from 1897, when Kawai Tama and Okamoto Nabe opened a shop under it in Shimbashi, Tokyo. In 1910 the second owner, Kawai Tarokichi, opened a dried-goods shop on Isezakicho in Yokohama selling katsuobushi, sugar and tea, and the family has traded at the same address for more than a century; the fifth generation runs it today. The shop sits at 6-146 Isezakicho, three minutes on foot from Koganecho station on the Keikyu line or Bandobashi on the subway, and fifteen from JR Kannai.

The tea is house tea rather than named gardens, and it is priced that way, tax included. A hojicha roasted in the shop is ¥918 for 70 g, with the same roast in 15 tea bags at ¥1,404; a Shizuoka genmaicha with black soybean and matcha is ¥918 for 200 g; the konacha that sushi shops pour, made of sencha and gyokuro dust, is ¥1,620 for 200 g; cold-brew bags of deep-steamed Kakegawa sencha are ¥1,296 the 25; and a Japanese black tea made from the Benifuki cultivar is ¥1,080 for 70 g.

The other half of the counter is the dried-goods trade the shop was founded on: bonito flakes, nori and seasonal gifts, plus the house line of Yokohama Isebura pound cakes and a matcha gateau chocolat that a national television programme featured in September 2026. The shop also supervises a matcha café on the eleventh floor of Tokyu Plaza Ginza in Tokyo. Isezakicho closes on Sundays; orders are taken by phone, and online orders ship free from ¥6,480.