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.
Where you'll be, what's covered, and what to bring.
A room in our share house in Hirakata, Osaka — three bedrooms for up to four apprentices, with kitchen, bath, washing machine and Wi-Fi. Futon and sheets provided. You may opt to share a room (same-gender on request).
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.
This is a cultural and educational programme. Apprentices 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.
Apprenticeship sessions run March–July and September–November (first or second half of the month), plus early December — dates are flexible. For the two-week and one-month paths, we'll have a short online conversation before we confirm; the retreat is by reservation. When you write, include your name, desired dates, a short self-introduction, your learning goals, whether sharing a room is OK (same-gender on request), and any dietary needs. The ¥10,000 registration fee covers application handling and isn't refundable.