Hello, I’m Katy, from the United Kingdom :-)
With much gratitude I am happy to say that I was part of the Spring internship 2026 here at Obubu. It is hard to believe that this time in my life is wrapping up as I write this in the tatami floored tea room opposite Glenda, Doug and Kenji, our silent writing session broken by the sound of laughing about particular memories we are trying to recount for the purpose of our blogs. These are the people, including the rest of my cohort, I had not known at all 3 months ago, and now we regard the time we have left together incredibly precious. When I zoom out of this tea room, the world of Wazuka shows itself to me in flurries of green, tiny roads winding to secret tea fields, the blue glow of the one beloved Lawson in town, all hugged between walls of mountains that have their own patchwork of forests. It feels like this place has been personified, Wazuka has cemented itself as a central character to this internship, alongside the people I live, work, and laugh with everyday. I realised something was special about this place when nothing about my life was the same only a couple days in to starting at Obubu. It may sound like an extreme, and in truth there are extremes to the way your life has to shift here. But they are not negative shifts, in fact, they are abundantly rewarding. This venture to Wazuka was encouraged by the many puzzle pieces of my life over the past year falling into place for heading to Japan on a working holiday visa. I had previously been living in London & a small town in west midlands after graduating with a design degree, and had been perpetually trying to find my footing since then in between free. During all of life’s changes, a reliable way to feel grounded was to brew something warm to drink and bring my senses towards that one moment. I also found solace in keeping my hands busy during the act of cooking for others, which transpired into appreciation for placeholders of community within food such as family run restaurants, old greasy spoon cafes.
When a time for drinking tea presents itself, it usually is about more than what was brewed. In the company of others, having tea together can ricochet a wealth of conversation as well as provide a quiet connection that holds you present in that little moment in time together. When enjoying it alone, you are very much also holding space for yourself, and discovering whatever respite it may provide during your day. There may be a very particular place, time of day, or table setting you best enjoy it in, there may not be. What I’ve discovered, in all its facets, tea’s ritualistic nature can be as loud or as subtle as you’d like it to be in your life. The art of tea being a very individual, and yet easily communal experience, is what draws me closer to it. I am curious to understand how it has a place in people’s lives in different cultural contexts, and what regional history has birthed different types of tea. As a very sentimental It also may go without saying, the various types of tea ware and trinkets that are companions to the tea drinking experience bring some sort of joy to my day I cannot explain.
Some of the most important aspects of this internship revealed themselves to me in the form of sights, sounds and smells. It was hard not to notice the seasonal changes of spring into summer- first came the sakura season that brought it’s beautiful peppering of pink petals across the river, which then became a flurry of pink covering most of the usual pathway I would frequent on walks. I remember hearing the first frog in a distant rice paddy after getting off the bus with Ambre and Fiona, and them both saying it was pretty much a sound that beckoned summer. I have indeed heard frogs every night since then, and they have been joined by cicadas, along with the summer warmth. Relentless, summer warmth, but a welcome reminder that the rainy season, konbini ice creams, and late night walks will soon follow.
So with that being written, this internship provided a beautiful opportunity to nurture all this curiosity, with knowledge from something innate or completely from the ground up. I had the pleasure of feeling completely lost and overwhelmed in a sea of people that were happy to teach me or learn with me- all of whom that made this experience all the more memorable. I can’t articulate how special it is to have fostered such a strong connection with my fellow co-interns, the staff and the assistant managers here. This blog post has the potential to be much, much longer than it needs to be if I were to write about every memorable experience I’ve shared with people here, so I will do us all a favour and wittle it down as much as possible.
Core memories included
- Rides in the back of the keitora, up Aoimori in the early morning
- One of the first adventures outside Obubu to Kifune shrine, going to an onsen for the first time and sharing a sleepy dinner in the bath house afterwards
- Planting baby tea trees
- Sakura season, walks along the river with friends and admiring the petals (also discerning what the difference between cherry / plum blossoms were)
- Being part of the first harvest of spring with Riikka, Akky-san and Garance.
- Marusya’s Easter Sunday dinner, with beautiful homemade breads and borscht
- Movie nights in the tea room
- Oolong needle flipping outside the factory with french music hits on a speaker, additionally being avalanched with leaves
- An impromptu trip to Obama to simply have tea on the beach, with a pit stop to see the bright green moss of Sanzen-in Temple