After the Autumn harvest, and having had the chance to process the autumn moon tea and plenty of Bancha, we headed to the fields to do some trimming work. Trimming quickly became my favorite filed work activity, it is a bit more technical than harvesting or other activities. It requires a lot of attention to not damage the bushes by cutting too low. The opposite is also the case, as then we don’t get the benefits of extra branching on the bushes for the next period.
During the winter, a low time for tourism in Wazuka, we focused on creating the new experiences that will be offered from March together with artisans from Wazuka. Those included tea hand rolling with Kenta-san, pottery with Atsuko-san, wagashi making with Ishida-san et traditional mochi pounding with Toshi-san. We got the opportunity to test flight those experiences during the winter and gain experience for the time when we would assist those artisans later in the year.
Another fun activity we got the chance to do is helping with the creation of tea bush wood ash glaze. Unfortunately, there are many abandoned tea fields in Wazuka, over time, they get quite untamed and grow out of control. Growing thin, competing for light, the bushes grow long and thin. Usually encroaching on any available space like pathways or roads. One of such fields is next to our Monzen field, which you can visit during a tea tour. That is also the field where we grow our Okumidori matcha and one of my personal favorites, Saemidori Gushing Brook. Equipped with sharp knifes and a couple of small saws, we cleared part of the road and the parking lot, and we took those branches to Atsuko-san studio to be transformed into tea ash glaze.
Even though winter is perhaps the most calm season regarding fieldwork activities, it is the busiest one when it comes to construction projects and other creative activities. We did a lot of construction preparing our second floor factory for opening thanks to our kickstarter campaign. Thank you for helping us to create the space of our dreams! We also did a lot of work on our parking lot, which had around 70% of its space taken over by weeds, and some lumber abandoned there for many years. We cleared the space, flattened it and built a new water gutter. Now we have a huge parking space that can even welcome a couple of buses for when we have big tours coming in.
The other more creative projects we initiated during winter and the one I was more directly involved in was the creation of the Assistant Manager Education or AME for short. This could not have been possible without the help of my senpai Jean and fellow assistant manager Sarah and all the staff members. To which we asked many technical questions. If you decide to join the Assistant Manager program, or you become an Obubu Ambassador after the stage, you will be able to get into that educational program as well!
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