3 weeks on a tea farm

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in! 💌 

btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: 3 weeks on a tea farm 👩‍🌾 

never in my wildest dreams did i ever think i’d rock the farmer life. well, i embraced it while on a tea farm for 3 weeks in rural japan.

coming into my gap year, this farming internship was one thing i knew i absolutely wanted to do. not because i have a passion for farming, but because i knew it would be a unique experience that’ll serve me memories and growth that will last a lifetime. that’s exactly what it did, on a gold plate even.

this all sounds very cryptic. you might be thinking, “wdym you were on a tea farm ... what does that even mean?”

allow me to elaborate. 😇

i interned on the naturalitea organic tea farm, where in exchange for manual labour (weeding, harvesting tea leaves, cutting down bamboo, and more) as well as further developing their website, i received free accommodation, and vegetarian japanese meals daily. best of all, i received warm hospitality and care from the kinezuka family.

naturalitea is a completely organic, family-run local tea farm in fujieda, shizuoka, japan. we learned all about the delicate nature of harvesting high quality green tea — i was most impressed by the level of care and passion that went into each step of the process. i wrote a blog post back in september debating between coffee and tea, and i can confidently say my love for tea has grown exponentially after this experience. 🫖 it’s kind of wild that i was even able to comment on the quality of houjicha i tried in a kyoto café yesterday (it was nowhere near as good, and fresh, as the tea we harvested ourselves).

i spent the first half of the internship on the fields. we were hunched over bushes while picking away debris, crawling between tea rows and getting slapped in the face with spiderwebs, ripping through bamboo trees with chainsaws, and rolling out tarps to cover the tea leaves … to name a few tasks. can’t say i’m a huge fan of manual labour, it was tough, but there’s a profound satisfaction in reaping the fruits of your own labour. 🍵 manual labour is also strangely therapeutic — i can be completely mindless and let my body steer on autopilot.

the second half was spent developing naturalitea’s website. it was initially difficult for wholesalers (target customer) to navigate all the products being sold on the website without having to scroll through the entire website and its pages. so, i implemented a proper cataloguing system that details all of the relevant information without overwhelming viewers. it was a fun way to weave in tech elements into something like a tea internship in the countryside.

the opportunity to explore japan’s countryside in its most authentic form was phenomenal: staying in a traditional japanese home, waking up to the view of mountains filled with tea fields and cherry blossoms, and falling in love with the slow serenity.

rapid fire highlights from the internship:

• finding our favourite spot to read and relax at on our half-days

• seeing mount fuji from the tea fields and sitting on a highway for 3 hours just to capture the perfect view

• drop kicking bamboo shoots on the fields

• whenever kazuki-san would say, “it’s time for a break!”

• a day spent exploring like kids

• michiyo-san’s delicious cooking (i’m gonna miss those tofu burgers and yakisoba 😞)

• admiring the beautiful cherry blossoms everywhere

• convenience store runs.

• daily black 3s games followed by studio ghibli binge nights

• the people 💌 

so harsehaj, what did you take away from pulling out weeds from tea fields for hours every day?

try literally everything.

stop being so hung up on a perfect career to the point that everything in your life is calculated to help you progress professionally. explore, experiment, and experience serendipity! the craziest crossovers happen in life if you give yourself a chance to map out different paths. 🛣️ 

there is something to learn and cherish from any sort of experience. please, try it all!

daily opportunity + resource drops 🔍️  

• apply to be a delegate at the world bank group’s youth summit (due april 25th)

• product design internship @ ramp

• check out the young women’s leadership challenge for high school students

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teehee,
harsehaj ✌️

PS. if you have a question/topic you think would be interesting for me to reflect on, don’t hesitate to reply to my emails with any ideas you ever have. :)