Ashigaracha Labo

Since 2011, Masami Ishizaki has operated the small non-profit, Ashigaracha Labo, dedicated to educating consumers about Japanese tea, and tea from the Ashigara region in particular (Cities of Minami Ashigara and Odawara where Yunomi was previously based).

For the last several years she has also been renting tea fields from the region's aging tea farmers to try her hand at tea cultivation. She has been at the current location in Ogikubo, Odawara, and is cultivating Yabukita tea leaves without the use of pesticides with her son and the NPO's supporters.