HALSTON DARE

By Mel Hattie 11/5/18 Japan’s tea farms are one of a kind—relentlessly manicured and groomed, tea bushes kept exactly 40 years at which point their diminishing yields require replanting by newer, younger bushes. The easy waves and rows of bushes, rounded by cutting machines, offers an environment it’s hard to feel stressed in. Surrounded by calming green, in a tea paradise like Wazuka, south of Kyoto and in the heart of Japanese tea country, you’re presented with a side of Ja

It’s mid-January. Every time I leave my apartment, I’m met with the cold kiss of death on my skin—the dry winter wind. As I head from my apartment to the bus station, walk to work downtown, and then commute back home, I’m fighting a constant scarf-to-face-ratio battle, as I try to both see where I’m going, and keep wrapped up enough so that I don’t have to face the reality of the weather outside. Hydration—this time of year, it’s important.  And when it’s cold outside I’d muc