Japanese Riga: food, tea, art and sakura for travellers

The city is small. The thread is short. That is what makes it pleasant to follow slowly.

Where can you eat Japanese food in Riga?

The name travellers usually meet first is Shōyu (Japanese for soy sauce), a ramen shop with a Michelin Bib Gourmand. A bowl of ramen before or after a ritual is an easy, unhurried pairing.

Around it, a few more names come up when people look for Japanese and Asian cooking in the city: The Catch, Unagi Inu, Yakuza, COD and Stage22. Each has its own character and its own menu, and menus and hours change with the season. Our advice as hosts is simple: look at their own pages before you go, and book a table in advance on Friday and Saturday evenings.

A small note on timing. A Japanese lunch and a head spa ritual sit well together, but leave an hour between them. You arrive lighter and unhurried.

Is there a tea house in Riga?

There is. Tējo is a tea house with tea ceremonies. In the dark months it becomes a natural pause between a museum and the evening.

Tea in Riga is not only a Japanese or Chinese custom. Latvians have their own winter herbal teas, gathered in summer and kept for the long nights. A tea house visit is a good way to feel how the two traditions meet here, on the east of Europe.

Tea also closes every ritual at our studio, as a small tea ceremony. If you like it, you can add Ceremonial Chinese tea for 10 €.

Where can you see Eastern art in Riga?

The Art Museum Rīga Bourse holds a collection of Eastern art, alongside its European rooms. It is about 17 minutes on foot from the studio. A calm museum, well suited to a grey afternoon. Give it one to two hours and do not rush the Eastern rooms: porcelain, lacquer and small objects reward slow looking.

What is the Riga-Kobe clock?

Riga and the Japanese port city of Kobe are tied by a long friendship, and the Riga-Kobe friendship clock is one of its quiet signs in the city. It stands near the Art Academy. Its two dials show the time in Riga and in Kobe side by side.

It is not a grand monument. It is the kind of detail you notice only if you know it is there, which is exactly why it belongs on this route.

When do the sakura bloom in Riga?

Sakura (Japanese cherry trees) grow in Uzvaras parks. The trees were planted in 2012 as a sign of the friendship between Riga and Kobe. When they bloom in spring, locals come to walk under them as people do in Japan.

Kobes dārzs (the Kobe garden) carries the same friendship into a green space. It is a Japanese-style garden made together with Kobe.

Both Uzvaras parks and the Kobe garden are on the left bank of the Daugava. They are not a walk from the centre: take a tram or a bus.

If you are visiting in November or December, the branches are bare and the park is quiet. It is still worth the trip. In Japan, a garden in winter is not empty; it is resting. The northern dark here can be read the same way: a season for slowing down, not for sadness.

How to plan one Japanese day in Riga

A simple order, built so that you never hurry:

• Morning: the Art Museum Rīga Bourse and its Eastern art
• Late morning: a walk to see the Riga-Kobe clock
• Lunch: ramen at Shōyu or one of the other Japanese kitchens, booked in advance
• Afternoon: a tea ceremony at Tējo
• Late afternoon: a head spa ritual, then a slow evening
• In spring: add Uzvaras parks and Kobes dārzs for the sakura, by tram or bus

The ritual sits best at the end. After it, the evening needs nothing more from you.

The ritual for this route: Aqua Face & Head Relax

Aqua Face & Head Relax follows our water method, Mizu-uta (song of water). Warm water, slow hands and quiet are its materials. It is also one of the two rituals the studio suggests for a first visit.

Every ritual begins with a scalp diagnostic; we do not work without it. Then comes a head massage, by hand and with devices and combs, care chosen for you from Davines and Limba, aromatherapy, a hand cream-butter and a tea ceremony at the end. We work with the person, not the symptom, so the products are chosen for you on the day.

The levels:

• Basic, 105 min, 75 €: the core of the programme
• Premium, 120 min, 90 €: plus hand and foot massage
• Deluxe, 135 min, 105 €: plus hand and foot massage and a body scrub

Travelling as two? Each guest has their own programme, and the room is yours. See the ritual on its page, or book Aqua Face & Head Relax for your travel day.

This is a ritual of care and calm, not a medical treatment. If you have hair loss, itching or flaking of the scalp, we advise seeing a dermatologist first.

The idea behind the studio is Omotenashi (the art of true hospitality): the host anticipates what the guest needs before the guest has thought of it. In a city where the sun is rare in winter, we like to think it still rises here.