Visiting a Japanese tea farm had been on my bucket list for years. After getting into specialty coffee, I had a deep-dive into specialty tea not that much long after. So coming to Japan not only meant checking out all those cafes – traditional and new -, it also meant for me to walk through tea fields, learn more about and taste green tea and matcha.
After a quick Google search I found Obubu Tea Farms and went there for a day trip and tea tour in April 2018, coming from Kyoto. I even remember that I called my best friend on her birthday that very same day spent in Wazuka, a small village in rural Japan.
And I knew immediately I wanted to return and dive deeper into Japanese tea. I can’t remember if I already knew about the internship program at that time, but it took another 9 months until I took the leap and sent in my application.
The adventure begins…
Getting accepted as an intern on a tea farm by tea professionals and tea enthusiasts was exciting being a coffee professional. I guess I convinced them with my genuine curiosity and openness for Japanese tea and Japan in general.
2.5 months later I hit Japanese soil again. Japan a country that accompanies me for two thirds of my life already. I’ve spent many weeks and months in Japan, yet this time was different. For the next 85 days I was on a mission to learn more about tea from leaf to cup.
What I didn’t know at the time of my arrival, staying at Obubu should turn into one of the most challenging, especially physically challenging, times, yet the best time I’ve ever had so far in my life – we’ve had so much fun together!
Internship at Obubu Tea Farms
The internship program at Obubu started more than 10 years ago initiated by a foreign female, I believe she was from the states.
Interns at Obubu are involved in every part of working at a tea farm, from harvesting, shading/unshading tea bushes, processing to brewing to packaging teas, doing tea tours for tea tourists who visit the farm frequently – just like I did in the spring of 2018 -, and working on their own projects. I got to practice my food photography skills, wrote blog articles, and did Instagram posts for the Obubu IG account.
Typical day in the life of an Obubu intern
Mornings
I was getting up around 7 AM each day (or earlier if it was a farming day), had my breakfast at 7.30 / 8 AM. Then we had staff meeting at 9 AM, and were prepping for tea tours from around 9:30 AM, unless no groups had registered beforehand.
Middays
Tea tours took place between 11 AM and 3:30 PM, including joining the group for lunch at a local restaurant that serves green tea soba noodles – Yumm! We then helped clean up after tea tours until 4:30 PM. We also had walk-ins occasionally, couples or small groups that one of us interns usually took around. Oftentimes these were somewhat of a disturbance of our regular schedule, yet they turned into a fun experience quickly getting to know the people who had landed at the farm.
Almost every day we had an internal tea discussion at 5 PM, where one of the Obubu staff taught us more about Japanese tea, when we tasted different teas from Obubu and other tea regions of Japan, e.g. Shizuoka or Kyushu. After that time was mostly spent replying to emails or doing other internal work or working on our personal projects. I usually had dinner around 7-8 PM, mostly prepared by myself, unless we decided to cook together or eat out as a group – the local Okonomiyaki place was delicious.
Evenings
After 8-ish pm I’ve had private time, and bedtime whenever I felt like going to bed. For me this usually was around midnight – even on challenging farming days, since I decided to do a daily vlog on my personal IG account that’s still available in my Story Highlights and which took me quite some time each day to upload the vlog and any additional stories I wanted to share from the day that had just passed.
Every intern had a weekly schedule combining field days, inside days, which could also involve light construction work, and tea tour days. For those we were wearing a simple Japanese style outfit for tea tours, and when hosting guests.
Days off at Obubu
On my days off I took several trips outside of Wazuka, either alone or together with the other inters. As a group we went to famous tea pottery town Shigaraki and attended a pottery class, as well as a trip to matcha town Uji.
On my solo trips I went mostly went what I love the most – cafe hopping, e.g. to Kyoto and Osaka. I also got to visit Yamazaki distillery – I’m a big single malt whisky fan and enjoyed the tour and whisky tasting at the distillery a lot.
All of the above are fairly close by and accessible by train and bus. A little while back Obubu successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign that involved the establishment of a regular bus service between Kyoto and Wazuka. Obubu tea farms now is much more accessible than it was in 2019 when I did my internship, thanks to the Obubu tea farms shuttle bus.
My personal gains
I learned so much about tea, I couldn’t all grasp it, yet alone digest it during those three months. Not only in the regular tea education classes, but also during the day everyone at Obubu shared their wisdom and knowledge with us. Plus I got to learn the Sencha-do, the traditional Sencha tea ceremony from a local lady.
At the very beginning I joined the annual handpicking and hand-rolling event. The most precious and expensive Japanese green tea and the freshest crop of the new tea year (shin-cha) there is. Towards the end of my internship I got to attend several day trips together with the group of the Tea Master Course, mostly to Kyoto attending a tea tasting and the matcha grinding facility.
I also learned more practical things around tea – processing tea leaves for example. Us interns were positioned at the steaming machine and had to feed it with the harvest of day. During events I also got to grind matcha using a stone mill and frying fresh tea leaves, just like tempura.
In town we had a sweets maker who taught us how to make sweet treats that can be served with tea, such as Dorayaki, warabi mochi, shiratama-dango. And I was learning how to use tea as an ingredient from Obubu staff as well as my fellow intern Hajar, who now is a well-known pastry chef in Casablanca, Morocco. We both enjoyed our creation-sessions, Hajar would make some pastry or sweet treat and I’d be the one taking photos of it with my DSLR.
And my personal fails or the downside of being an intern
I am a freelance content creator and writer and had some assignments while I was staying at Obubu. That brought some additional duties to my schedule especially on my days off. But I managed.
I was facing some health issues during my time as an intern, spring allergies and skin rashes mostly that took up some of my wellbeing while staying at Obubu.
I got to make my own black tea batch for an internal challenge among the staff and other interns at Obubu… and messed it up, and felt so bad about it, too. I remember the thought I had, I’m not even good enough to make black tea. At the time I was quite insecure and were facing many self-doubts. Know that feeling? This is a great example that no matter where you go, you’re always taking yourself and your personal baggage with you.
If you’re ever considering to learn more about Japanese tea, hands-on, I highly recommend attending the internship program at Obubu. It was definitely one of my most fond memories and experiences yet.
Curious about some recipes with tea? I did some experiments with whipped matcha dalgona and share the recipes in an article.
