Autumn natsukashii

Hello autumn, and hello again to the Obubu family across the world! Maren AM #18 here for another seasonal update.

As I write this blog post, the higanbana flowers are blossoming vibrant red alongside Wazuka’s ripening rice fields. The colours of our countryside landscape change dramatically throughout the year, and now we’re passing from a season of vibrant deep greens into the yellowing and drooping of rice stalks, the neon red of those spider lily flowers, and the orange of leaves on trees before they drop.

It’s been a quieter season on the tourism and farming front, and that has allowed for some much needed rest and reset. I’ve also had a chance to take some small trips, a highlight being a visit to Hiroshima to explore the beautiful Miyajima island and reunite with my co-intern Julien from three years ago. If you’ve ever wondered about the various routes Obubu interns take after their internships – Julien is now the manager of a knife shop and restaurant in Hiroshima!

Together with current AM David and fellow intern Lukas, the four of us renovated the upstairs of our sencha factory into what is now our cafe – and now that we’re in the time of year that our internship took place, the natsukashii is hitting hard! As the nocturnal soundscape of Wazuka shifts, the rice grows heavy, and the colours across our landscape evolve, I’m reminded of all these changes happening during my own internship in 2023. It’s a heavy emotional experience sometimes, reliving these changes three years later as a different person in a very different time of my life. But some things never change – I am still in awe of this place, of the people here, and of this opportunity to learn so much while living and working in such a singular environment.

3 highlights of summer’s transition into autumn:

• Cooler mornings, evenings, and nights – long walks after work in the stunning sunsets, and sleeping with my room’s doors wide open
• Rediscovering nama yatsuhashi – my favourite sweet from my first ever trip to Japan at age 14 that I had completely forgotten existed!
• George’s tea & cacao in Peru lounge – this was an incredible opportunity to learn about a tea producing region I knew very little about, and to try some truly incredible teas

3 things I look forward to this autumn:

• Momiji! My Obubu internship three years ago ended just as the autumn colour change was truly getting underway, so I’m excited to witness it fully this year
• Passing on some of my AM knowledge & experience to our newly arrived AMs
• Launching Japanese Tea Basics online! The education team have been busy working on this project for the past few months and I’m excited to finally share it with the world!

Seasonal non-standard brewing recommendation:

In our tea tours, we show guests the dramatic flavour transformation of kabuse sencha depending on your brewing method. We contrast a low-temperature long first infusion with a high temperature short second infusion. But lately I’ve been really enjoying going straight in with hot water first, around 85 C for 1.5 minutes. This is making for a really punchy wake-up brew that shows a robust, well-rounded flavour with a little less delicacy and more body than you might expect of a shaded tea. A really fun experiment!