I jumped at the opportunity to sit with previous AMs. I was very excited to hear what they took away from 10 months of being at Obubu along with how it shaped them. I chose a few questions that would ignite conversation and then kept the conversation going.
It was fun to hear so many commonalities between everyone’s experience! Unfortunately I can’t include the audio in the blog but please enjoy some brief summaries :)
Woo Jae
“We were exhausted every day, like, covered with the dirt, the dust and… Yeah, but after finishing all that, looking at the Hojicha House clean. It was like, ‘Oh, man,’ like, ‘we, we went through a lot, and then we made it possible.'”
“It kinda made me feel like, like, so, oh, this is what it likes to, mm, like, uh, to, to live a life. Like, so, like, like live a good life.”
Woo-jae (who goes by Justin) holds a foundational place in Obubu’s history as the farm’s very first Assistant Manager (AM)—a role he actually suggested and helped define after completing his initial three-month internship. Transitioning into the AM position allowed him to deepen his connection to Japanese tea following a fast-paced, immersive introduction during the busy spring harvest. His experience as an assistant manager was highly versatile and deeply hands-on; it felt like an extended internship but carried the added responsibility of mentoring incoming interns and helping them adjust to life in Wazuka. From field farming, weeding, and tea deliveries to assisting with group tours and spearheading the intense, massive renovation of the Hojicha House, Justin was involved in nearly every facet of the operation. Ultimately, he describes his time as an AM as a “life-changing” milestone that provided him with a supportive, family-like community, a lifelong appreciation for tea, and the self-confidence to pursue his subsequent career endeavors around the globe.
Sarah Mazza
.Obubu is basically this build-up of intern contribution. So I remember seeing the wall in Obubu house and being told this was painted by an intern and seeing how- everybody puts a little brick to build what Obubu is. I felt like I wanna keep, being part of this and keep contributing to thismagical tea world in a way.”
“I was the kind of person that before doing something needed to learn and read and perfect it mentally- before doing it practically. And that, of course was very much challenged by Obubu in the sense that you learn by doing. You have to smell the leaves, touch them, and, and that comes with, with time and with doing. .You get to do it, and then your body learns it. And then eventually- your brain will catch up.”
Sarah Mazza served as an Obubu Assistant Manager from 2023 to 2024 after transitioning from her internship. Her core responsibilities included managing tourism and tea tours, handling intern selection, and directing videography, video editing, and live-stream production. She also actively engaged in farm operations by leading intern teams during the spring and autumn harvests and processing tea in the factory. The immersive experience instilled a hands-on “learn by doing” mindset, boosted her personal confidence, and redefined her relationship with tea to emphasize its identity as an agricultural product.
Nicole Griffith
“At the end of the day, it’s about the interns and, it is also about tea and supporting and just, being there for, like, Akky San, making sure you’re putting on a best face for him kind of thing. Yeah. Bringing your strongest arms… but yeah, it is- Like it is, end of the day, it’s just like it’s about the interns and, like-… just keeping everybody, like, alive and, like, safe and happy.”
“I think previously I was like, ‘Wow, I’d love to, like, live in Japan,’ and now I’m like, ‘No, do not catch me living in Japan.’ Like, I’ll retire there maybe.”
During my conversation with Nicole, she reflects on her time as an assistant manager. She shares her insights into her responsibilities with intern selection and scheduling, her transition into Obubu where she discovers a deeper love for tea, and her perspectives on the farm’s operational and safety standards. She reminisces about the deep emotional bonds formed with fellow interns, her playful “beef” and mutual respect with Akky-san, and how the experience permanently integrated tea into her daily life and future aspirations in New Zealand.
Alix Kergutuil
What’s funny as well is, like, in my, like, normal life, I’m not a scheduling person. I’m very much like, ‘Go with the flow, whatever. Whatever happens, happens.’ Like, I don’t book trains in advance, and then they’re super expensive. But then, I don’t know, at Obubu I was like, ‘This is my new personality now. I’m scheduling.
I think the destroying the base part, that was really fun. We put death metal or something. … And we’re just destroying. … And when, when we had to rebuild, we were like, ‘Oh, actually we don’t know how to do it.’ Actually, yeah. It turns out we just wanted to take it apart. We didn’t want to put it back together.”
Alix Kergutuil’s year-long tenure as an Assistant Manager at Obubu Tea Farms bridged her academic background in agricultural engineering and food science with an immersive life experience in rural Japan. Originally inspired to apply after witnessing a university classmate’s transformation on the farm, Aliks arrived with minimal prior tea knowledge but a deep appreciation for regional products and terroir. Serving as one of only two AMs during her term, her experience became a holistic, full-picture journey across the changing seasons—one that balanced intense logistical responsibilities like intern selection and scheduling with a deeply tactile, sensory devotion to tea harvesting and processing.
Doug Kretz, Intern #216