Goodbyeee winter, hellooooo spring!
As long as we waited for the spring season, it came and left in a blink of an eye just like the fleeting sakura season that was brought with it.
The cake making continued to flow from March into April as Pau and Miwako had birthdays during this month, just a few days apart even. For Pau, I made a hojicha strawberry cake, but *vegan*. Truthfully, I was super worried about how this cake would turn out because I’ve never made a vegan cake before, but everyone said they enjoyed it and I was honestly just happy Pau would be able to enjoy some cake for his birthday. Although I was here to celebrate Miwako’s birthday during my time as an intern, I was sad that I didn’t have time to make her a cake for her birthday during that time so I made sure that it happened this time around. For Miwako, I made a matcha strawberry cake using our excellent grade matcha powder.
As April came to an end and May rolled around, there was a super special day that I was so lucky to be a part of and that day was “Hachiju Hachiya”, which signifies the first day of the spring harvest season. On this day, I was joined by two previous interns, Saya-san (#132) and Marie (#129), and we harvested yabukita leaves from Shimojima.
Having done my internship during the winter period, I never got to see any of the machines in action, so when they were turned on for the first processing night of the season, it all felt so surreal. From watching the steam flow from the steaming machine to hearing the hum of the rolling machines and the rhythmic sounds of the shaping machine, it brought out such a sense of joy in everyone just watching and hearing the factory come to life.
The following week, we started harvesting from Aoimori in which I got to help process the first natural sencha of the year with Miwako and Chihiro (#190). It was only once we reached the final drying that we found out that we were using a little bit too much fire for the drying machine, but truthfully, the tea still turned out well and was appreciated by everyone.
Another memorable processing mishap that happened this season was once again from the leaves we harvested on Aoimori. We came up after a rainy day to harvest and although we did our best to get rid of all the rainwater that was left on the leaves before harvesting, it wasn’t enough. While steaming, the leaves gained even more moisture and ended up clogging up the pipe that transfers the leaves to the leaf container. Hiro-san had to take apart the tube and afterwards I had to hand feed the leaves through the pipe to make sure they wouldn’t get stuck again. This is all to say that every day is an adventure and there is always something new to learn here at Obubu.
Towards the end of the month, my birthday came around, and it was probably the most memorable birthday I’ve had. This came with a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I was able to reunite with my co-intern Andri (#142), who I haven’t seen in two years. Together, we started off the morning doing Akky support harvesting okumidori on Monzen. In the afternoon we returned to the fields to harvest which meant only one thing: processing party!! I never would have thought that I would come across a second person who shares the same birthday as me, but here enters Garance (#199). When we first talked about it, I thought she was just messing with me, but it really turned out that we shared the same birthday and that really made the day even more special. To round out the night, Marilena (AM #11) ever so kindly made Garance and I each a hojicha cheesecake (which was so yummy), Katrina (AM #8) bought some fireworks (bringing out the excitement and kid in all of us), and of course no processing party is complete without a little dance party, these small moments while being surrounded by such great and caring people really made this birthday one to never forget.
After a full month of harvesting and long processing nights, the spring harvest season rolled to an end and my luck continued as I was able to do the last harvest of spring season with Akky-san. It was really a full circle moment that allowed me to really reflect on the busy spring season.
All in all, it was a busy couple of months, but all the hard work was actually really rewarding work especially when it yielded some pretty good tasting teas. Time really flies when you’re having fun and let’s see what fun the summer months bring!