It’s a little scary to admit, but two-thirds of my Assistant Manager journey at Obubu is already behind me.
Writing these blog posts always gives me a chance to pause and sort through everything that’s happened. And honestly a lot has happened. Sometimes it feels like processing all these experiences takes longer than living them, because the stream of tasks, situations, adventures, and people here never really slows down.
I’m writing this from the café. Across the table sits Monica from Slot 3—she’s also my mentee. Together we’re preparing for an interview with a candidate for Slot 4, the final internship group of 2026. This time, our Assistant Manager team has complete responsibility for selecting the new interns, which feels exciting.
After finishing the spring harvest, June began with a feeling of exhaustion. I wouldn’t even call it physical—it was mostly emotional. May is wrapped in a kind of tea-induced euphoria where everyone happily gives 110% for the sake of producing the perfect green sencha needle. The energy of Slot 2 helped keep everyone’s enthusiasm balanced, and I can now see how thoughtfully the internship calendar is designed. Just when one group starts running out of energy, another arrives full of excitement.
June was packed with memorable moments: Slot 1’s graduation, the tea festival in Kyoto, and my personal trip to southern Japan to see tea growing in volcanic soil near Sakurajima. The farm only felt quiet for about one week: between Slot 1 leaving and Slot 3 arriving.
Slot 2 did an amazing job mentoring their kōhais, even while preparing for their own Ambassador exams.
Although Jennifer wasn’t actually my mentee (hi, Leah!), we still ended up working closely together. As Social Media Leader, I have my own long-term project: a marketing campaign focused on sencha. Jennifer decided to dedicate her personal Ambassador project to supporting mine, conducting quantitative research among tea drinkers in the United States.
You can still contribute to the research! I’ll leave the survey link and of course you’ll send it to your USA friends and family right? 🙂
Since I don’t have a Japanese driver’s license, I’ve spent less time working directly in the tea fields this season. But honestly, at this stage of the program I’m becoming much more fascinated by the behind-the-scenes work the kind that most visitors and even interns never notice, but Assistant Managers get to experience. Long-term projects. Organizational systems. International shipping. Legal procedures. The invisible structures that keep everything running.
Besides, I think I already earned my share of brutally hot plantation shifts during the summer of 2025. Now I genuinely enjoy watching the new interns discover what a Japanese summer in the tea fields really feels like.
I’ve also had the pleasure of working closely with George. He has an incredible ability to make any project feel relaxed without making anyone take it less seriously. Together we’ve written Obubu’s newest video project, and filming starts tomorrow.
I’m nervous. I’ll be filming, editing, and promoting the entire project, and it unexpectedly brings me back to my university years studying film directing. At some point I stopped writing scripts and making films because I believed that a twenty-year-old simply hadn’t lived enough to have anything meaningful to say. Now, with George’s encouragement, I feel much more confident trying again. And if I don’t know how to do something… well, there’s probably a YouTube tutorial for it. 🙂
Another project that brought me back to an earlier version of myself was making black tea together with the interns. You can actually watch our livestream from the factory during the drying stage. I’m really grateful I got to spend those 48 hours with Dhvani, Tomáš, Jennifer, and Madeline.
Last year my tea was made from the Okumidori cultivar harvested in August from the Aoimori field. This year it’s completely different: Saeakari, harvested in June from the Erihara fields. The result is an incredibly sweet wakoucha with a beautiful golden liquor. I am gonna send some home together with gifts for my family.
Hiro-san often describes the Assistant Manager journey as the growth of a tea seed. Right now we’re at the stage where the seed has sprouted and the young shoot is stretching toward the sun.
That’s exactly how it feels.
Every week I see more confidence growing within my fellow managers—not only in their expertise at Obubu, but also in the clarity with which they talk about their future after the program. We’ve slowly started mentioning that the final third of the program is approaching, along with the arrival of the next Assistant Manager team. Ambre and Fiona keep asking me not to talk about it.
But I’ve always believed in starting the process of saying goodbye long before the actual goodbye happens. That way there are fewer regrets. Fewer promises left unfulfilled. Fewer trips left untaken. Fewer words left unsaid.
I truly value our manager team. They’re not just colleagues anymore they’ve become people I can genuinely rely on.
P.S See you in the next blog… assuming I don’t completely melt in this unbelievable Japanese summer heat. And as always don’t forget to like, share, and follow Obubu wherever you happen to find us online. 🍃