The best cherry blossom production area in Japan: Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture
A project to pick cherry blossoms and leaves, make tea and deliver them to the world.
We are looking for support volunteers!
You think cherry blossoms are for watching! Actually, in this volunteer activity, we pick cherry blossoms and leaves!
Details:
Date and time: Friday, April 15, 2022, Saturday, April 16, and Sunday, April 17, for three days (You can participate for just one day if you’d like!)
Time: 9:00 – 18:00
Meeting place
By train: Odakyu Line Shibusawa Station 1F South Exit Rotary https://www.odakyu.jp/station/shibusawa/
Please let us know if you would like to participate by car.
Participation fee: Free
What to bring:
- Clothing, belongings, etc.
- Your pack lunch
- Water bottle (Tea and sweets will be prepared during the break, but please bring it if you need it)
- Gloves, shoes that can get dirty, layers so you can regulate body temperature, hats, awnings
- Clothing for rain or shine (support for drying cherry blossoms in the tea factory)
Precautions
※The contents of the support volunteers will be the operation support of 1 cherry blossom picking outdoors, 2 cherry leaves picking, 3 cherry blossoms and leaves drying work at the tea factory, 4 above work.
※Hand picking cherry blossoms and leaves may be done at high places, so people who are good at high places can have a great experience. If you are not good at it, you will support you as much as you can.
※It is also a corona disaster, so if you are not feeling well, please decline to participate. Also, please manage hygiene such as masks and hand sanitiser at your own risk.
What’s the reason for recruiting the support of volunteers at this time?
Actually, Japanese cherry blossoms are secretly becoming very popular all over the world!
Obubu is a group of tea farmers in Wazuka-cho, Kyoto, whose mission is to “Bring Japanese tea to the world.”
We have been delivering tea in Japan and overseas by mail order for 18 years.
Why are tea farmers picking cherry blossoms?
Did you think so?
Actually, when we deliver tea overseas at Obubu Tea Garden, we received many requests from overseas customers for “cherry blossom tea”.
In order to respond to that demand, we have been selling traditional Salted Cherry Tea https://obubutea.com/shop/sakura/sakura-tea/ for about 15 years.
Then, we heard many people saying, “There’s no big image of cherry blossoms,” or “Isn’t there any sweet cherry blossom tea?” we started to receive a lot of requests.
In order to respond to that request, we decided to produce and sell Sweet Cherry Tea https://obubutea.com/shop/sakura/sweet-sakura-tea/
We have been listening carefully to all the requests regarding Cherry Blossom Teas and we heard more requests of neither salted nor sweet but the original flavour. Springtime interns helped us hand pick cherry blossoms from the mountains in Wazuka and we have been drying them in our tea factory with a shelf style tea dryer then combining it with one of our Sencha’s.
Sakura Sencha https://obubutea.com/shop/sencha/sakura-sencha-25g/ this way, at Obubu, we make tea with the input of our drinkers and do what we can do every day by consistently trying to bring “Japanese tea to the world”.
Finally, the cherry blossom green tea has also become very popular, so we will start a cherry blossom project in collaboration with Ono, Hadano City, the best cherry blossom production area in Japan, and Takanashi Tea Garden!
So, I have a question for everyone!
Did you know that Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture produces the largest amount of cherry blossoms in Japan (about 80% of cherry blossom production in Japan)?
Actually, until September 2021, we didn’t even know at Obubu Tea Garden!
Due to the progression of what our customers are asking for, we wanted raw cherry blossoms and leaves, or dried cherry blossoms and leaves, so when we contacted the manufacturer of salted cherry tea, which we had a relationship with Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, they said that the production area of raw cherry blossoms was Hadano. We found the source!
Even though Hadano City is the largest producer of cherry blossoms in Japan, I learned that its popularity is low, and the production of cherry blossoms is decreasing due to aging and urbanization.
I think it’s exactly the same situation as Wazuka tea and Uji tea in Kyoto. We would like to collaborate on this, and we have been able to start the “Kanagawa Prefecture Hadano Cherry Blossom Project” with the cooperation of Mr. Ono, Mr. Takashi Sugimoto, the owners of the tea plantation, and Mr. Takanashi, a tea farmer in Hadano. We started it!
Eventually, I would be very happy if you could give me support to tell you “Japanese tea to the world” while promoting the cherry blossoms and tea of Hadano, the best cherry blossom production area in Japan.
We look forward to your participation!