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May 19 2011 9 Comments

Green tea harvest

Green tea plants aren’t an uncommon sight in some parts of Tokyo, and in nearby Saitama Prefecture, there is an absolute abundance of them. Disappointingly though, they don’t appear to have any scent. Or at least none that I’ve ever noticed.

However, passing a tea field during what was presumably the year’s first harvest (or ichiban cha), made for a completely different experience altogether. For starters, the machine in use was a fairly interesting looking contraption, but it was still nowhere near as surprising as the fragrance from the just-cut leaves. A smell that was really quite startling — one of incredible, mentally still reproducible, freshness.

Japanese green tea harvest

Categorized: Food and Drink, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carrie says

    5/19/2011 at 12:39 pm

    Interesting. Not how I imagined a tea field.

    Green tea was an acquired taste for me, but gotta be honest, I still prefer coffee!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      5/19/2011 at 7:03 pm

      Same story for me really, but after smelling the freshly cut leaves, I wanted to drink green tea. Immediately!

      Reply
  2. NihonBurp says

    5/19/2011 at 5:25 pm

    Quite interesting how in Japan older people are still employed quite regularly. Over in the UK it seems as soon as people get close to retirement age they disappear from the job market. As ever lovely picture

    Reply
    • Lee says

      5/19/2011 at 7:04 pm

      Thanks! Yeah, the age of some farm workers I see is staggering. Presumably they have been farmers all their lives, but still…

      Reply
  3. paul schuster says

    5/19/2011 at 10:21 pm

    is that a gasoline powered harvesting device? any fumes along w/ that tea scent?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      5/19/2011 at 10:38 pm

      Pretty sure it was, but luckily I got the scent from the bag of freshly cut leaves that they left at the end of each row, which were thankfully free of any fumes.

      Reply
  4. Tom O. says

    5/20/2011 at 1:39 am

    Hey Lee.

    I heard that there was some radiation detected on a field of tea down in Kanagawa near Yokohama. Do you know if any was found in Saitama? My family lives in Saitama so I’m just wondering.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      5/20/2011 at 8:12 am

      Not as I know of Tom. At least not yet. And if there is, hopefully it’ll be well with the safety levels.

      Reply
  5. Troy Worman says

    5/20/2011 at 3:48 am

    This is certainly not what I imagined a green tea field to look like. But now I am curious.

    Reply

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