Tag Archives: wazuka

冬: Assistant Manager Blog by Katrina [Winter 2025]

I’d always heard the legends about winter being the “quiet season” for tea farmers—when tea bushes lie dormant and the fields, along with the tea tours, rest under the chill of the colder months. Well… my winter turned out to be anything but quiet. It was still very much genki—lively, bustling, and packed with exciting activities. In fact, I might even say it felt busier than autumn, thanks to all the tea-related shenanigans we dove into.

Pottery Of The Earth

Bio: Hozan Tanii, a third-generation potter based in Shigaraki, is recognized as one of the leading innovators of Shigaraki-yaki ceramics. Born in Nara Prefecture in 1953, he is the kiln master of Tanikan-gama (谷寛窯), a workshop originally founded by his grandfather in Shigaraki during the early Shōwa period (1926–1989). In 1995, he built Shio-gama, the […]

Tea Business Cards by Josh 🍵

Joshua Caleb Ang #188 Singapore Instagram: @josh_lloyd_wright The Idea Having tea business cards was an idea by the exceptional Miwako Kita and Hirokazu Matsumoto, and was previously the responsibility of each intern to print and pack. However, most either did not have the time or were unaware of how to print and pack them. Therefore, […]

The World of Wooden Tea Utensils

My beautiful people! Eva here, winter intern #187! I am not yet colloquialy known as spoon lady, but I do one day hope to be. Back home, making different spoons and utensils out of wood was one of my favourite pass times and coming here I was super interested in learning more about the process […]

Winter in Japan – Assistant Manager Blog by Mac

As the first signs of winter creep into the valley, the landscape slowly transforms into a serene tapestry of soft whites and deep greens. Wazuka takes on a quiet beauty during this time and this winter has been no different. The mist rolls through the hills, tea bushes are dusted with frost and mountains are […]

秋: Assistant Manager Blog by Katrina [Autumn 2024]

Hey hey, Katrina here! I am back! In autumn 2022, I joined Obubu as an intern (#138), and while I was volunteering at the sister project Ikedoki in Higashi Sonogi last year, also made a brief return to Wazuka, where I had a great time getting involved in the construction shenanigans during the renovations of […]

Assistant Manager Blog by Alix [Autumn 2024]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my third blog about my adventures as an Obubu Assistant Manager! Autumn in rural Japan is the season of higanbana (red spider lilies), persimons, chestnuts, beautiful fall colours everywhere, and cooler weather (we finally brought out kotatsus in Obubu house!). It was also my third quarter at Obubu, marking my transition from […]

Assistant Manager blog WJ Justin [2023.02月~03月]

Hello everyone! It’s me, WJ Justin! Coming back with updates from February to March. It feels like time flies so fast! February and March passed in a flesh! How was your February and March? Well, for me, I think it was very intense with a lot things happened at Obubu. And, I would like share […]

Tea Adventures of Current Interns

Justin, Patrick, Katrina, Hannah, Alex, and Satomi-san here! During our internship, we went on several trips and tea-related festivals and events, both individually and as a group. Being located in the Kansai region, there are countless possibilities for discovering many different places in Japan. In this blog, we will tell you a little bit about […]

Crystal Geyser & O.S. 99 Experiments

Intern Tea Potato here with even more water experiments!   The Waters The two waters we’ll be experimenting with this week are Crystal Geyser and Onsen Sui 99. Crystal Geyser comes from the United States of America. There are several different springs from where the water is sourced, so it’s important to check the bottle […]

Sencha, Houjicha, Wakoucha, and Matcha

Mt. Fuji and Evian Tea Experiments

Hello hello hello! Tea Intern, the Tea Potato, here! We’re going to start a really fun and interesting journey today.  It involves *SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS* With water!  … Wait! Don’t go! I swear, this will be really fun. Water makes up more than 99% of tea.  If you’ve ever tasted a water that was awful, it […]

Tea Garden Update – I’m working on it!

Good morning(*^^*)Ladies and gentlemen, it’s me, Akky!How are you doing?It’s getting warmer these days and the pollen is flying and flying.My nose just won’t stop running today!Well, this time we will continue with the previous re-planting project 😊 I put in the bamboo last time and then backfilled it.From here, we can start replacing the […]

Welcome to Tea Planting!

Hello everyone!How are you doing?It’s getting warmer during the daytime these days!Risshun has passed and the tea season is just around the corner😄.This time it’s a planting change! Replanting is not about having dinner together ❗️….Plant again! The first is “the start time”.Due to the old age of the predecessor, Mr. Yabukita ↓. Some of […]

Summer Tradition in Japan

Original article https://www.obubu.net/oblog/31693.html?fbclid=IwAR0FGgixtwhcLXl7RlvJnHZTBv_L20j5LAfWpKUfHgX5wmEsT1446Q7yMDw Summer Tradition in Japan   Hello Everyone, Today I would like to introduce you to Japanese summer tradition.   Have you ever heard about Nagashi Somen? Nagashi Somen is one of the summer traditions in Japan.   Somen is a white thin noodle made from wheat flour. It’s usually eaten cold and […]

What is ‘sustainable agrictulture’ and a new Gyokuro tea field!

Akihiro Kita, the President of Obubu Chaen, has been a tea farmer and processor for about 25 years including his training period. From the emotional encounter with a cup of Kabuse Sencha Tea by experiencing a part-time job at a tea farm in Wazuka,   Introduction to Japanese Tea Akky 16 years ago?! He dropped […]

Summer Tea Hand Picking and Hand Rolling Event 2020

On Saturday, July 11, 2020, Obubu’s “Summer Tea Picking & Handmade Tea Making Experience” was held! Due to the influence of COVID-19 this year, Tea Loves from all over the world participated in the situation that it is difficult to participate from abroad! After the greetings and explanations on how to pick the shoots were […]

May’s Spring Harvest 2020

In May the Spring Harvest is well under way! The terrain is very steep at the top of the mountains, so we will carefully harvest the plants while paying close attention to foot placement! The harvesting machine weighs about 10 kg. As the harvested leaves are blown into bags, the weight of each bag is about […]

5 Ways To Reuse Your Tea Leaves

By Giedre Trumpiene Hello, tea lovers! This is Giedre. An exciting time of the year in a tea world, right? Amazing freshly pressed sencha aromas and flavours fill the air here in Obubu. This Friday, to switch things up, I would like to talk about what happens after brewing the tea. Sometimes it is so […]

An Old Tea Box Revival

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I think there are many people who are having troubles or are having a hard time due to the influence of the new coronavirus. I hope that these things will come to an end quickly. At times like this, everyone is amazed with the power of Japanese tea. For […]

Sweet Sakura Tea 2020

Sweet Sakura Tea Marie   Sweet cherry tea is also available this year!     What is Obubu Tea? Obubu Intern Raw Tea Sample Sakuracha This year, Obubu is preparing sweet cherry tea for spring! In Japan, cherry tea pickled with salt and plum vinegar is common and the most drunk, but for a few […]

Planting a Tea Garden

Today is a sunny day and the staff and the intern all planted baby tea trees. The variety is called Saeakari and it is the first time we are planting this cultivar! This is going to be a gyokuro tea field, so we will set up more shading shelves for this. We are making it […]

A brief summary of Japanese Tea – Carly De La Cruz

This blog post is the creation of one of our amazing previous interns Carly De La Cruz. She came to Wazuka to learn about tea and she delved into the rich history and culture with fervour. It’s always a pleasure to see people so passionate about tea and so keen to learn more about how […]