Tea has a long history in Japan. It has become part of the Japanese culture.
One can tell this by the many words and expressions that have the Chinese character for tea: 茶 (cha).
Here are some examples:
Chaban (茶番): a farce.
Mucha (無茶): This literally means “tealess”. But the main meaning now is absurd, unreasonable, or excessive.
Ochame (お茶目): playful, mischievous.
Chakasu (茶化す): to make fun of.
Chaju 茶寿: 108th birthday. The character for tea contains two characters of 10, which add up to 20. And also two characters for 8 and one for 10, which written in Japanese (八十八) is 88. This adds up to 108.
Cha wo nigosu (茶を濁す): It literally means “to make the tea muddy”. It’s used to refer to the act of giving an evasive answer, or avoiding the subject.
Ocha wo hiku (お茶を挽く): This refers to grinding green tea into a powder, but now it means being idle because there are no customers.
Ocha no ko saisai (お茶の子さいさい): Ocha no ko means candy to be had with tea. Saisai has no meaning, it’s just used in songs. Together, the meaning is the same as “piece of cake”, something that is easy.
Chabashira ga tatsu (茶柱がたつ): “The tea column stands up”. If a tea stem is floating upright in your cup, it’s considered to be a sign of good fortune.
Nichijosahanji (日常茶飯事): Everyday occurrence. This word includes the Chinese characters for tea and rice, meaning things that you normally do everyday.
Heso ga cha wo wakasu (へそが茶を沸かす): Boil tea on the navel. It means that something is ridiculous, and/or funny.
