Welcome to Gaia! ::

Heading left from the main square, you find yourself standing in front of a lovely teahouse, constructed in the traditional Japanese style. As her as the outside, its enterior is also designed in the Japanese manner, seating mats and cushions scattered around low cherrywood tables, with several separee's in the back. The separee's don't differ much from the main room, apart from the fact that they are filled with several additional luxurious velvet cushions. The colours vary from the leaf green of the surprisingly comfortable mats to the bright, nearly pastel green of the walls, with several details in emerald green, thus achieving an overall impression of freshness. Several sakura bonsai are also placed around the room, seemingly randomly, but actually composing a pattern if looked from above.

This is a place where students as well as the staff can relax and enjoy in their free time, chat with their friends or hide in one of the separees with their current subject of affection.

The Menu:

Japanese (green) Teas:
MATCHA
Matcha was traditionally used for Japanese Tea Drinking Ceremonies, and contains a relatively high caffeine level.
SENCHA
This is the every day green tea of Japan, and contains a moderate to high caffeine level.
KABUSECHA
A type of Sencha tea, which has a mellower flavor and a more subtle color than Sencha.
GENMAICHA
It is a blend of Sencha and roasted brown rice. The light brown hue has rich toasty taste and a normal caffeine level.
GYOKURO
Literally meaning "drops of jade", this tea is naturally sweet and contains a rather high caffeine level.
UJI
This is a very select green tea only grown in Uji Kyoto. It's lightly sweeter and gentler than sencha, yet deeper flavor than Gyokuro, with a refreshing aftertaste of sweetness.
FUKAMUSHI
One of the most popular Japanese teas in tradition, typically atringent in taste with lingering aroma and beautiful amber color.
TAMARYOKUCHA
This tea's flavor is sweet and mild, with a strong floral fragrance and flavor and a low caffeine level.
HOJICHA
Houjicha has the lowest caffeine level, but its unique aroma helps some people from sleepiness.
KUKICHA
Kukicha has a mildly nutty, and slightly sweet flavor. This tea also has a very low caffeine level similar to that of hojicha.
BANCHA
This tea produces a light yellow hue and a toasty taste. Bancha was the driniking tea for common people in Japan until Sencha was introduced sometime during the Edo Era.
KAMAIRICHA
A tea prepared through a different process than most of the Japanese teas, thus developing a sweet, mildly roasted flavor.

Other Teas:

ENGLISH BREAKFAST
a black tea blend usually described as full-bodied, robust, and/or rich.
EARL GREY
a tea blend with a distinctive flavour and aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit.

DARJEELING
an Indian tea, prized above all black teas, yielding a thin-bodied, light-colored liquor with a floral aroma. A sweet cooling aftertaste should be felt in the mouth.
ASSAM
an Indian black tea, known for its body, briskness, malty flavor, and strong, bright color. Used in many tea blends.
MASALA CHAI
a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. The base of the chai available here is the black Assam tea, spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and star anise.

OOLONG TEA
a traditional Chinese tea somewhere between green and black in oxidation. Oolong has a taste more akin to green tea than to black tea: it lacks the rosy, sweet aroma of black tea but it likewise does not have the stridently grassy vegetal notes that typify green tea. Its slightly bitter and strong taste dissolves in a sweet aftertaste.
JASMINE TEA
a Chinese tea, based on green tea or white tea. The resulting flavor of is subtly sweet and is therefore regarded as a less harsh tea for drinking.
PU-ERH (YOUNG)
an aromatic tea with a light but distinct odours of camphor, rich herbal notes, fragrance floral notes, hints of dried fruit aromas, along with some grassy notes to the likes of fresh sencha. May sometimes be quite bitter and astringent, but with a sweet aftertaste.
PU-ERH (AGED)
the aged variant of Pu-erh tea, known for its smooth flavour, with slight hints of bitterness, and lacking a biting astringency or any off-sour tastes.

CEYLON BLACK TEA
one of the Sri-lanka's specialtes, a black tea with a crisp aroma reminiscent of citrus.
CEYLON GREEN TEA
Ceylon green teas generally have the fuller body and the more pungent, rather malty, nutty flavour characteristic of the teas originating from Assamese seed stock.
CEYLON WHITE TEA
A highly prized tea, with a delicate, very light liquoring with notes of pine & honey and a golden coppery infusion. The history of this tea is that the tea was specially made for the Chinese Emperor and was only cut by virgins with golden shears onto golden plates and was never touched by hand.

Confectionery:

ANMITSU
chilled gelatinous cubes (kanten) with fruit.
AMANATTOU
simmered azuki beans or other beans with sugar, and dried.
BOTAMOCHI
a sweet rice ball wrapped with anko (or an, thick azuki bean paste).
DANGO
a small, sticky sweet mochi (), skewered on a stick.
HANABIRAMOCHI
a flat red and white sweet mochi wrapped around anko and a strip of candied gobo (burdock).
KURI KINTON
a sweetened mixture of boiled and mashed chestnuts.
MANJUU
steamed cakes of an surrounded by a flour mixture, available in many shapes such as peaches, rabbits, and matsutake mushrooms.
MONAKA
a center of anko sandwiched between two delicate and crispy sweet rice crackers.
RAKUGAN
a small, very solid and sweet cake which is made of rice flour and mizuame.
SAKURAMOCHI
a rice cake filled with anko and wrapped in a pickled cherry leaf.
SENBEI
Crakers made from rice, available in various flavours.
UIROU
a steamed cake made of rice flour and sugar, similar to mochi.
YATSUHASHI
thin sheets of gyuhi (sweetened mochi), available in different flavors, like cinnamon, and folded in a triangle around a ball of red anko.
YOUKAN
one of the oldest wagashi, a solid block of anko, hardened with agar and additional sugar.
KAKIGORI
Shaved ice flavoured with syrup. Available flavours: strawberry, cherry, lemon, green tea, grape, melon, sweet plum.

DANISH BUTTER BISCUITS
Slightly crispy cookies with a specific but not strong taste due to the butter and brown sugar in the dough mixture.
_______________________________________________
The shop owner/bartender is an NPC. You always get what you ordered.

Sobuku entered the tea house,he enjoyed the decorations but didn't payed to much attention.He sat down and ordered a Jasmine Tea he was to bored to read the whole menu.After he gave the order he asked the waitress kindly:Wouldn't you happened to have an White Jade tea???

Kaede followed Ren closely to the teahouse, watching the pleasant environment with content. She always preferred colder colours, like blue and green, for they provided a refreshing atmosphere that cheered her up - although no one could tell, for her expressionless mask always remained the same. Walking nearly inaudibely behind the headmaster, she noticed the head researched just the moment Ren adressed him, and she waited politely for his answer before joining him at his table. However asociable Kaede might seem, she was actually glad of extra company, and she was specifically interested in Caeles' researches, as she hadn't been idle in that area as well. She hoped that the head researcher wouldn't mind their company - but then as well, he might prefer the company of his multiple self, and Kaede surely wasn't the one to be intrusive. As the question had already been posed, she simply waited silently, standing half behind Ren, for an answer.

((shitty post, I know...))

((Damn, I really hate time zones... it means when I'm on, everyone else is already off....))

Caeles, muttering under his breath as he wrote, paused as he was tapped on the shoulder, looking up to see the headmistress. As she asked the question, Caeles went still for a moment before stating, "We have agreed... You may join us... Why is our hand burnt?" Placing the pen down on the table, the pale shinigami turned his hand over and stared at the fresh burn on his hand, most likely caused by the surge of energy created when he crushed the reiatsu stone. Shrugging slightly, the researcher ordered another tea and flipped to a new page in his notebook, designing what appeared to be a small box.

(For those who have seen Death Note, Caeles sits like Near. It's just far too hard to describe how he is sitting all the time...)

Ren nodded to the scientist in appreciation and set on the chair on his right. She looked at the unbelievably long menu and after a minute or two she was finally able to decide on what she was going to order.
"Excuse me! I'd like some Anmitsu, a pair of Dango and... cherry Kakigori, please. Oh, and a tamaryokucha tea, with two spoons of honey, three cubes of brown sugar and a drop of milk to flush it al down."
The waitress silently nodded at her, quite baffled by the Headmistress's wishes. Ren turned back to face her party at the table and smiled.
"I already ate lunch." she said, trying to explain the unusually small quantity of food she ordered.

Kaede sat down as well, joining the others at the table. She waited politely for them to order, and didn't even budge when she heard the headmaster's monstrous order. However, a pedant observer would notice that the corners of her mouth curved up as memories overwhelmed her at Ren's order. Herself however, she wasn't as fond of sweets as the headmaster, but she did love the delicate taste of black tea. She ordered a darjeeling tea, which she considered to be the king of the black teas, with only a bit of brown sugar and few drops of milk. When she recieved a cup of her beloved tea, she dropped her nose down in the mug, almost touching the liquid, and inhaled the scent deeply. She lifted her head again, and to anyone knowing her facial expressions, it would be clear that this was the expression of shere delight. Then, she focused her attention to the head researcher's words, trying to decipher something from his confused chattering with his multiple self, absent-mindedly stirring the tea with a spoon.

Ren looked at a clock in the corner of the tea house.
"My, my, is it morning already? I didn't even notice the time fly by."
She took a little strawberry red organizer out her her purse and flipped the pages open.
"Hmm... Kaede, it seems I am starting with the Dango house this year. I can't wait to meet your group. What do you think of them up until now, anyway?"

((I know, a lame excuse, but I had to respect the time skip))