Earlier this year, I wrote about my experience taking the Japanese Tea Foundation course, offered by the Global Japanese Tea Association. I enjoyed it so much that I enrolled in the intermediate course shortly after. That led me to apply for the Japanese Tea Master Course, an in-person intensive that takes place in Kyoto. I’m happy to share that I will be leaving for a two-week-long stay in Japan next month! It’s been a long time coming, so I thought it might be fun to share some of the many trials and tribulations I’ve gone through before this trip finally happens.
An Almost TV Moment
Back in 2017, I was contacted by a Japanese TV production company to film a segment for a show called ‘Who Wants to Come to Japan?’. If I were to be selected for the final airing, I would win a trip to Japan. I was working at Teavana at the time, but upper management denied my request to film in my store. Instead, the film crew came to my apartment for a very long day of talking about my passion for Japanese tea. I even made them a gyokuro omelet! We did a video call with some fellow tea bloggers, and I had a bunch of friends over to make matcha for them. After all of that, I never heard from the production company again.
My 2020 Vision Board
In January of 2020, my friend and I attended a vision board workshop at a local gin distillery. They had a bunch of magazines for us to clip things from, and of course, I carefully flipped through for anything tea-related. My board unintentionally had a theme that pointed to going to Japan. I decided that day that I was going to find a way to make it happen. Unfortunately, a global pandemic began a few months later and made it clear that I would not be going anywhere. That vision board still hangs on my office wall to this day.
iNFLUENCER tRIPS
In 2022, it felt like it might finally be possible to travel again. I even started trying to learn Japanese around this time so that I could be prepared. I had extensive conversations with two different companies that coordinate influencer trips. It sounded like a great opportunity to travel to Japan and curate a truly special experience for those who wanted to join me. Unfortunately, neither company was able to successfully help me plan the kind of tea-centric trip that I was looking for. They just didn’t get the vision, and also lacked the connections to the tea industry that were needed to pull it off.
What Going to Japan Means to Me
I’ve been writing about tea for nearly 17 years. Much of that time has been spent studying and learning about Japanese teas and culture. I have had the pleasure of traveling to events like the World Tea Expo, the Chicago Tea Festival, and the Toronto Tea Festival. In all of that time, I have never had the opportunity to visit a tea-producing country. I don’t have the words to express how much I’ve wanted to do that. Japan is a country that I feel particularly drawn to, so this trip is truly a dream come true. I’ll be documenting as much as I can to share here on the blog. I’ll also be sharing a daily diary on Patreon while I am there.
Have you ever been to Japan? Give me all of your travel tips in the comments below!
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This is so exciting!!! Can’t wait to read about your time in Japan, I’m sure it’s going to be a blast!
Thank you! I’m a bit nervous but very very excited.
I have a tea farm in Far North Australia. It is very cheap for us to travel to Japan (Tokyo or Osaka) from Cairns so I have been over a number of times. Our family hires a car and stays there for around 3 weeks. We usually fly straight to the island of Kyushu as lots of tea farms there (much to my family’s horror) but our last trip in May was to Hokkaido where there is only one tea farm due to the super chilly weather.
That’s so cool. Thanks for sharing!