Three ways into a tea farm in the mountains of Nara — where tea has grown without pesticides or fertiliser since 2015. Stay a night, stay a fortnight, or stay a season.
We grow tea the way the mountain allows, and make it by hand through the turning of the year.
Yusando is a small natural-cultivation tea farm in Tsuge, in the Yamato Highlands of Nara. No pesticides, no fertiliser — since 2015. Our work is tea, but it is also a way of living: 自然茶道, the natural way of tea, drawn from Laozi and the spirit of 本然無作 — to act without forcing. These three paths are how we open that life to people who want to learn it from the inside.
Each is a step deeper. The shortest is the easiest way to know whether the longer ones are for you.
Walk the tea fields and pick with the season. Sit for a bowl of natural tea. Eat at our farmhouse café, brew side by side, and talk by the hearth into the evening. The whole of Yusando, held in two days.
The way in — and the best way to feel the longer paths before you commit.
Live and learn through a full arc of the season — picking, processing, brewing, ceremony, and farm work — while sharing daily life in our share house. Hands in the leaf on experience days; the rest of the week is yours.
Our flagship. Apprenticeship in the old sense: you learn by standing beside the maker.
Everything in the apprenticeship, carried across more than one season's tea — and room for a project of your own: translation, film, writing, whatever you bring. Time enough for the place to change how you see things.
The bridge. If the path leads to staying for good, we'll talk about real work, on a working visa.
When you come decides what you make. We work tea nearly all year, and rest with the land twice.
Tell us when you'd like to come and we'll tell you which teas you'll be making.
Each month is split into two halves. The first half starts on the 1st, the second on the 16th. Up to 3 participants per half. No sessions in August or January.
申し込み状況 ― 毎月1日スタートの前半と、16日スタートの後半。各回定員3名。8月・1月はお休みです。
Updated 27 September 2026. The Deep Immersion (one month) uses both halves of a month. Tell us your preferred half in the form below and we'll confirm.
Three experience days in the tea farm, four days that are yours.
一週間の過ごし方 ― 茶畑での体験日が週3日、残りの4日は自由に。
Where you'll be, what's covered, and what to bring.
A room of your own in our share house in Hirakata, Osaka — three bedrooms for up to three participants, with kitchen, bath, washing machine and Wi-Fi. Futon and sheets provided.
Rice and two meals on each experience day, from us. Meals on your free days are your own to arrange.
Three experience days — Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. The rest of the week is yours for travel, rest or study.
Tea fields in Kamifukagawa-cho and our base in Tsuge — both in the hills of Nara.
On experience days we drive you out by car. On free days, Kyoto, Uji, Nara and Osaka are each within about an hour by train.
Natural cultivation, picking, processing and brewing — plus agriculture-welfare work, community exchange and Japanese lessons.
Work clothes, hat, gloves, boots, towel, water bottle, rain gear, sunscreen, insect repellent and your own toiletries.
No smoking indoors, shared spaces kept tidy, valuables your own. We'll settle check-in and check-out together.
Tell us in the form whether you hold a driving licence. If you have an International Driving Permit, please bring it with you.
We carry only a simple, basic insurance policy for the programme. If you need more coverage, please take out overseas travel insurance before you come.
Feel free to take photos and share them on social media. We may also use photos we take during the programme on our website and social media — if you'd really rather we didn't, just let us know.
This is a cultural and educational programme. Participants take on no work, no quotas, and no obligations — you come to learn and to live, not to produce.
Visitors on a short-stay (tourist) visa are welcome for the cultural and educational experience. We don't arrange visas, so please confirm your status allows it before you come.
Hoping to stay and contribute for the long term? That's a different — and very good — path: real work, on a working visa. Tell us, and we'll talk it through together.
Tell us a little about yourself, the path that calls you, and when you'd like to come. We read every message.
Questions before you apply? Message us on WhatsApp — scan the code with your phone, or tap the button.
Message us on WhatsApp