A day of Green Tea picking "Hachijuhachiya"

The eighty eighth evening ,summer comes close .
In fields, in mountains, fresh green leaves are growing.

88th evening is the day counted from the first day of Spring called Risshunn(立春). The fear for late unexpected frost will be gone around the 88th evening. It's a popular old lore in Japan to start tea picking.


























Eagerly awaited time of Green tea has come again.
As it's a ritual of early summer for me, I went to Wazuka tea town located in the mountain side (south) of Kyoto prefecture.
This beautiful town up on the mountains are producing a lot amount of famous tea called "UJI TEA".
Although the sales volumes are rely on the popular name of Uji tea for now, they are trying hard to familiarise the name of Wazuka tea.

This year ,we picked teas for governmental competition .
We had to pick more than 20kg of tea leaves which is such hard work because we are only allowed to pick soft and fresh top part of leaves.(up to third leaves )
On the process of making tea,80% of the content moisture will be dewatered. A lot amount of tea is needed to complete a small packet of Tea.






































Sky is high, birds are singing.
How beautiful it is to work in a field.
Breeze in the valley cooling our face and bring the comfortable fatigue.
This made our dietary life more joyable and we can get very peaceful sleep.
I've been to so many places in Kyoto and Kyoto prefecture, yet, there are so much more places and things to explore.
I dream to meet those beloved teas to appear in my tea cup soon.
That is sure, I will find beauty of nature and breath of earth within a taste of green lake in my tea cup.



Comments

pascal said…
It seems to have been a very enjoyable experience !
How could participate ? Can everybody join ? I would like if I could ... :-)

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