Hello everyone! It’s Jean again. On my previous blog post, I shared about my arrival at Obubu in Japan and everything I’ve been up to on my first month. We are now at the end of May, and it is time to share with you some of my adventures. May is the month of the spring harvest. It’s a very busy time for tea farmers and it is also a very busy time for our tea tours. Luckily, at Obubu we are armed with a passionate and energetic team ready to take on challenges!
The spring harvest is the perfect time to enjoy the tea fields in Wazuka. Days are sunny and bright but it’s not too warm yet. In Japan, tea farmers shade their tea bushes to increase the sweet and umami compounds in the leaves. Using the harvesting machine is so much fun. You need to coordinate as a duo to control the height of the machine and which kind of tea leaves you are harvesting. It feels very satisfying to collect the leaves as the bag fills up like a treasure chest.
Once enough leaves are harvested (around 120 kg of fresh leaves depending on the season and the type of tea), we are going to the tea factory for the processing. Processing is so exciting. Assistant managers learn how to process their own teas. So far, I’ve been learning how to process Sencha, Gyokuro and Yanagi Bancha. I hope to become independent for the processing as soon as possible. But there is so much to learn! Especially since Obubu produces a lot of different teas. Fortunately, Hiro-San is an amazing teacher for harvesting and processing.
I traveled a lot on weekends this month. We went to the seaside in Wakayama together with interns #145 Jia En from Singapore and #146 Sarah from Italy. We had so much fun on the beach and ate ice cream in front of the Wakayama Bay.
We also went to Uji to visit the Asahiyaki pottery shop and gallery where the Asahiyaki family has been handcrafting Matcha bowls and tea ware for 16 generations. We tried two kinds of the favorite Matcha of the Asahiyaki 16th generation brothers accompanied with a beautiful maple leaf shaped wagashi sweet.
In May, we welcomed new interns to the team. Interns #147 Sophie from the United-Kingdom, #148 Jack from the United States of America and #149 Thomas from France. I am so happy to welcome new interns! Hopefully, they will enjoy the internship as much as I did back then.
Time to end the May’s blog post :’(
But don’t worry, I’ll be back in June during the rainy season to share more! See you soon.