At first glance, handmade tea is very intimidating. In Wazuka, hand-picked and hand-rolled tea are the most expensive senchas in Japan. Because of its high price, only the masters are allowed to touch the tea during this process. Nevertheless, you can make your own handmade tea at Obubu, and it is actually quite simple. Whether […]
Hello! I’m Cameron, intern #160, here to tell you about how I got the chance to make my own black tea by hand. We got up early to hand pick our tea, getting to the field about about 7 in the morning. We used Aoimori 青い森茶畑 (Blue Forest) tea field, an all natural tea field […]
Hello everyone! It’s me, WJ Justin! Coming back with updates from February to March. It feels like time flies so fast! February and March passed in a flesh! How was your February and March? Well, for me, I think it was very intense with a lot things happened at Obubu. And, I would like share […]
Hello everyone! My name is Jean, and I am working as an Assistant Manager at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms in Wazuka. I am also a former intern at Obubu. You are presently reading my first blog post! Yaaaaaay! This blog will be about my life in Japan and what Obubu has been up to. You […]
The best cherry blossom production area in Japan: Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture A project to pick cherry blossoms and leaves, make tea and deliver them to the world. We are looking for support volunteers! You think cherry blossoms are for watching! Actually, in this volunteer activity, we pick cherry blossoms and leaves! Details: Date and time: […]
Good morning(*^^*)Ladies and gentlemen, it’s me, Akky!How are you doing?It’s getting warmer these days and the pollen is flying and flying.My nose just won’t stop running today!Well, this time we will continue with the previous re-planting project 😊 I put in the bamboo last time and then backfilled it.From here, we can start replacing the […]
Hey, everyone! How are you doing? Autumn is well on the way! Winter will be here before you know it! The cold weather has arrived😱! It’s so cold! It’s cold in the morning and evening, but it’s cold during the day too! The weather was kind of gloomy all day long. We’ve started harvesting the autumn bancha tea! The second harvest season […]
Hey everyone, it’s Marie from Obubu, it’s been a while! Japan has been very hot recently! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your time wherever you are on earth! It’s the middle of July this week, and the second tea harvest is almost over…! Time flies by…this year too, since spring, all […]
Today was a day of support for Akky-San in a rare moment of sun during the rainy season. We harvested the tea in the Somada area, which is at a higher altitude than most of the Obubu tea fields. The view from here is fantastic and it is a very pleasant place to harvest tea. […]
The research our staff member, Moe-chan did with Professor Lee Jolliffe when she was in Canada about Japanese Tea and Tourism has been published as one of the chapters in the book, Responsible Rural Tourism in Asia. She originally came to Obubu as an intern in 2018 during a year off from her university to […]
This time, we are harvesting our Autumn tea on a clear sunny day. Claire, originally from France, will be graduating tomorrow from her internship at Obubu, also helped with the harvest. I thought she might be a bit sad to see her working in the tea gardens for the last time, but she was as […]
Akihiro Kita, the President of Obubu Chaen, has been a tea farmer and processor for about 25 years including his training period. From the emotional encounter with a cup of Kabuse Sencha Tea by experiencing a part-time job at a tea farm in Wazuka, Introduction to Japanese Tea Akky 16 years ago?! He dropped […]
Today, I interviewed one of the interns, Andre from Indonesia who has been here since Spring to talk about Indonesian tea industry! But first, let me introduce him a little bit! Andre was born and raised in a tea family who runs a tea trading company with a history of over 60 years in Sukabumi,West […]
In May the Spring Harvest is well under way! The terrain is very steep at the top of the mountains, so we will carefully harvest the plants while paying close attention to foot placement! The harvesting machine weighs about 10 kg. As the harvested leaves are blown into bags, the weight of each bag is about […]
DEEP CUT?? Hello and thank you! How is everyone doing? Here in Kyoto it’s so cold in the morning and at night but gets really hot during the daytime. Each year the tea harvesting season starts earlier and earlier – I wonder when this year will start … […]
Welcome Everybody! How are you doing ? Replanting is about to end! Creating a path for the tea truck in the middle of the field ~ Remove the large stones while smoothing out the fine unevenness of the ground! When you dig up the soil, the stones come out of the way and it gets […]
Today is a sunny day and the staff and the intern all planted baby tea trees. The variety is called Saeakari and it is the first time we are planting this cultivar! This is going to be a gyokuro tea field, so we will set up more shading shelves for this. We are making it […]
This blog post is the creation of one of our amazing previous interns Carly De La Cruz. She came to Wazuka to learn about tea and she delved into the rich history and culture with fervour. It’s always a pleasure to see people so passionate about tea and so keen to learn more about how […]
10 years have passed since Obubu tea farms started the tea club membership system and supported by tea club members! It has been 10 years since we started our Tea Club Community and we are planning various new additions to renew the tea club membership system for the next 10 years! Totaling 35 countries! What […]
Foreword Early in 2020 we had the pleasure of welcoming Ryuiti Izawa, a Japanese Masters Student, who studies tea at Shizuoka university. We are all so glad we were able to meet him and learn more about the details of tea genetics and diversity within it. He has written this blog post about his time […]
Hello everybody! ~ ^ _ ^ How are you?! This time we will show you the second stage of replanting! In the last time, where the tea plantation was, we dug out the soil and installed drainage pipes! , I am digging a ditch with the excavator! Originally, this was a bad place […]
Hello everyone! It’s already January, aren’t you feeling under the weather with more cold and warm days? This time, I did the cutting with the help of our intern students! First, we cut the elongated tea branches and leaves directly from the field with scissors, this becomes the base of the cuttings. Take the branches […]
In September last year we started out our Autumn Harvest season with a harvest and production of our Autumn moon sencha. The field we harvested may be recognisable to some of our tea tour guests! We started the day by headed into the fields at 8:00am and made our way through the rows of […]
Hachijuu-Hachiya, the 88th Day 八十八夜 The 88th day of traditional Japanese calendar, which falls right around May 1st or 2nd, is famous as an important date for farmers, and especially tea farmers. For several hundred years, the 88th day has been considered the best day to start the spring tea harvest. Those tender new shoots […]
During tea tours, we are often asked whether there are different types of plants for different teas. Read on for the answer! Tea Cultivars A cultivar is a group of plants that have been bred by farmers for desirable characteristics. Cultivars can be more or less suited to weather conditions (frost hardy or early […]
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