The Duke of Cambridge has experienced a simple but spiritual Japanese tea ceremony to mark his arrival in the Far East country.
William who is making his first trip to Japan, was served tea by a grand master who has performed the ritual for his parents the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Queen.
The second-in-line to the throne was taken to a centuries-old Tokyo teahouse and seated at a small table where he received the green tea, said to have life-prolonging properties.
Even before the Duke arrived on Thursday morning, there were
accusations from victims of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that he was being used as a stooge by Japan’s prime minister to promote his pro-nuclear policies.
When he arrives in China next week, there will be the equally delicate matter of repairing the damage done by his father the
Prince of Wales’s description of Chinese officials as “appalling old waxworks”, not to mention his determination to raise the
issue of the illegal wildlife trade in a country which is one of the world’s biggest markets for poached animal products.
