お茶

last weekend i was invited to an incredible festival, which celebrated the first tea leaves of the green tea season. it was undoubtedly one of the most memorable adventures i've ever had. the festival was held in a quaint town, who's green hills & picturesque views of mount fuji made for an unsurpassable day. the festival had an abundance of different tea related activities, nearly all of which, i experienced.

• picking: i filled a small bag with tea leaves, which was a simple task considering the field had rows & rows of kelly green bushes, all with ready-to-be-picked leaves. absolutely beautiful!!!
  

• tempura: after my bag was stuffed to the brim, i brought it to a man who deep fried the leaves. yes--i ATE my freshly plucked, little blades. never had i ever before indulged in green tea leaf tempura, & it was... interesting. my student, kohana, loved the fried leaves, despite their bitter taste. 

• preparing the leaves: with the remnants of my pick, i actually made green tea. well, i did the first step of the intensely long process. you must consistently "roll" chopped up leaves on a large table, in order to remove the moister. there were a few men working at the table & i tried to help out, but never imagined how difficult it was! i only rolled my leaves for 10 minutes & was absolutely exhausted. later, my friend told me, those men roll one batch for over 6 hours in order to remove all the moister. crazy, neh!?!?

miss y'all dearly...wish you could've experienced this with me. x