IRUMA, Saitama Pref. -- Despite global warming and technological developments in agriculture worldwide, still some things have never changed. Just ask tea farmer Toshiharu Kato.
Every year, Kato begins picking the tea leaves on his farm in Iruma City, Saitama Prefecture, around hachiju-hachi ya in early May -- just as tea farmers have been doing for generations. Hachiju-hachi ya is the 88th day after risshun (Feb. 4, the first day of spring according to the Chinese calendar), and it is traditionally the day when farmers would begin planting out seeds and transplanting.
All of the leaves harvested in the couple of weeks following that 88th day make up the year's shincha(new tea), which is believed to be the most flavorsome tea. However, those picked in the season's opening days are considered to be the highest quality of all -- and are certainly the most valuable.