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 Japan much different than the hustling, mega-urgent lifestyle of the country’s capital, Tokyo.