Travel to the wonderful island Yakushima and visiting the beautiful tea garden of Mankichi Watanabe

After going with the train from Nagoya to Kagoshima, which took really the whole day because of the earthquakes in Kyushu, we arrived quite late in Kagoshima, and had a really short night. Though, after waking up this morning with a beautiful view to the vulcane Sakurajima, we went to the harbour of Kagoshima, where to high speed boats leave for Yakushima. Arriving there, the exhausted feeling caused by the short night went away were fast, since it is everytime a fantastic day when the time has come to go back to paradise: The little island Yakushima, around 150kg south of the city Kagoshima.

In the tea garden of Mr. Watanabe: Marimo together with two customers (tea shop owners from Paris and Tours)
In the tea garden of Mr. Watanabe: Marimo together with two customers (tea shop owners from Paris and Tours)

Because the tea bushes are already in the right condition to be harvested, all staff of Mankichi Watanabe’s organic tea garden is working for the harvest and the Aracha production. Mr. Goto cares for the harvest together with one assistant, which brings the tea bags with fresh harsted leaves to the little production hall of Mankichi Watanabe. But before Mr. Goto begins with the harvest, the black nets for the shading of the tea bushes [ kabuse cha ] have to be taken away by two further helpers. In the organic tea garden of Mankichi Watanabe in Yakushima, during the first flush harvest season, only kabuse cha is to be produced.