Hi everyone! Tran here, former intern #141, now back as assistant manager #12!
It’s been two years since I’ve completed my internship and as you know, “many things happen” at Obubu and boy has many things happened indeed.
This first month back was a little bit of me just reliving my intern days, mostly doing tea tours while adjusting to the changes that have occurred since I’ve left. Luckily, since I’ve been here before, it wasn’t so hard to settle back into life here at Obubu.
It was definitely nice to reunite with old familiar faces as well as getting to finally meet Katrina and Pau who I’ve only ever talked to online or heard so much about. Of course this goes without saying, but I also got to meet my other three lovely co-assistant managers who I’ll be spending the rest of this year with.
Starting off the month strong, Akky-san so kindly welcomed me back with a nabe party, as it was still pretty chilly in March.
It was also during this month that I had my first farming experience back on Aoimori with none other than Miwako, which brought back so many memories from two years ago. To top it off, snow flurries began to fall as we were trimming the tea bushes, and it just made this first farming experience back even more special.
Also, here at Obubu, we have a monthly photo contest that all the staff and interns participate in, and although I never won during my internship time, I’m happy to announce that I FINALLY won the first month that I came back and got the coveted prize: a hug from Kayo-san.
In continuation with finally doing things that I wasn’t able to do the first time around, here in Wazuka, we have an elderly man who is known as “the takoyaki man” who sells takoyaki in front of Miyakou every Saturday. During my previous time here, we (my co-interns and I) were never able to catch him, but this time around, during my walk around town, I was finally able to get my hands on some takoyaki from him and thus, another thing checked off my list of things I didn’t get to do the first time around.
Of course, who would I be if I didn’t do any baking as soon as I returned to Obubu? Immediately within one week of me returning, I made not one, but two desserts to welcome our new batch of interns who arrived not too long after me. The only downside of sharing a house with so many people is that I stayed up until 2am preparing these desserts because I decided to make whipped cream by hand so I wouldn’t wake up my housemates, and let’s just say that’s probably the last time I’ll be whipping cream by hand… Anyways, without me knowing that it was Josh’s favorite dessert, I decided to make a matcha mille crepe layered with strawberries alongside a hojicha mousse with a genmai biscuit crumble mixture. Then towards the end of the month it was Nicole’s birthday, and being the hojicha lover she is, I baked her a hojicha cake layered with strawberries and hojicha whipped cream to end my baking for the month.
All in all, it was an eventful month with so much more to come, so stay tuned for more adventures!