Helloooooo everyone and welcome to my first Assistant Manager blog! My name is Nicole and I am Assistant Manager #10 at Obubu. I was born in Aotearoa, New Zealand, lived in Australia for twenty-one years, then in Iceland’s Westfjords for a year, and then back to Aotearoa and then finally, here I am in Wazuka, in Kyoto Prefecture.
I arrived with two of the other Assistant Managers, Marilena (AM #11) and Mia (AM #9), but we were still missing our final link, Tran (AM #12), who wouldn’t join us until March. I came down from Tokyo, so I came the long way but it was more familiar that way because I had come this way before. I came from high summer in Aotearoa, so the cold was a little less welcome. Snowy prefectures streamed by as the Nozomi twisted through the landscape and finally, Kyoto’s main station, with the Kyoto Tower like a beacon of memory and hope.
Getting to Obubu from Kyoto main station was somewhat of a feat, or at least it felt like that in my jetlag addled mind. I was greeted by the wonderful Miwako-san and found myself almost starstruck, as I had been keeping up with Obubu for the better part of a year, and she is basically an Obubu Celebrity at this point.
Mia had already arrived but Mari didn’t arrive until later in the day, right in time for our glorious welcome party. Whilst we were incredibly jet-lagged, all having flown in the day of, we were still incredibly excited to be there and everyone we met welcomed us warmly. Our welcome night set a wonderful tone in terms of the warmth of the Obubu family, with staff members, assistant manager senpais et stagiaires all taking the time to get to know us and introduce themselves. We were serenaded, both by song from Joshua (#188), and by Eva (#187)’s scrumptious homemade pesto and matcha tiramisu, and went off to bed with full hearts and tummies.
Our time at Obubu started both swiftly and a little sluggishly, with the winter chill still hanging on. There was a lot to learn, but we had each other and the unwavering support of those around us. We had our training wheels on for a while, especially when it came to tea tours, guided by our kind and patient senpais Alix, Katrina, Mac et Marcello.
Now, the intricacies of brewing, driving the winding path to Monzen and knowing how to respond to the sometimes tricky questions of tea tour guests is second nature, but in the beginning it took a little getting used to. We were always supported by our senpais, two of whom left us in the early spring and another later in spring.
Everyday at Obubu is different. Every working day, every day off and all the time in between. Every working day starts with morning meeting, unless you are hanging out with Akky-san for Akky-support, which means everyday starts with a cup of tea surrounded by your team for the day. Days off see walks around Wazuka, trips to nearby cities (now made easier with our Obubu bus), and time spent with other managers and interns.
Tea is omnipresent and at times, omnipotent. There is nothing that cannot be solved by sharing a kyusu of tea. Tea tour guests often go through an experience during the tour that I also can personally relate to–the realisation that the reason you have maybe failed to enjoy a cup of tea is because there are so many elements that make a cup perfect for an individual. Shaded teas turned out to be the ones that appeal to me the most, with my first taste of Kabuse Sencha rearranging every preconceived notion of tea I’ve ever had. The fragrance, the texture and nuance to a cooler brew of Kabuse Sencha is like nothing else, and I cannot recommend enough brewing teas at a lower temperature to bring out new flavour notes.
Whilst our riverside Sakura trees are slow to bloom, the changing seasons brought new colours to the landscape around us. Just like how the tea plants come out of their dormancy period in March, the hills began to brighten with shades of green as the warmer weather finally began to bring around the beginning of spring. Spring, which means tea tours, harvesting, processing and most importantly, Akky-support and welcoming new interns.
I’ll check back in once the craziness of spring has eked into the bright heat of summer, hopefully with more stories, experience and tea knowledge!
Thank you for reading – and speak to you soon!
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