Full moon in October is known as a sign of mid-autumn in Japan, so-called “Chushu no Meigetsu”, which means a grace full moon in the middle of autumn.

A charm of the fantastic moon let me take a midnight stroll with subtle teas.

Awesome! How beautiful the contrast of amber and bright green under the fantastic moon!

A full moon far beyond cups of Oolong tea and Sencha green tea.

On Makinohara upland, we can see the views of bright tea plantation illumed by a full moon.

Tea plantations on Makinohara upland illumed by a full moon.

A full moon illumes tea plantations on the mountainside of Makinohara upland.

These views are also symbol of fall, as illustrated in Hanafuda card of August. Hanafuda card consists of 12 types of card symbolized each month in lunar calendar, thus the card of August symbolizes October in the present Gregorian calendar. (The day of full moon in mid-autumn is 15th August in lunar calendar.)

Being keen on seasons as Japanese do, Japanese love something specific to each season. (I guess Zen mind somehow contributes Japanese sensitivity for ephemerality of seasons.) In this season, a café of Japanese tea provides a confection symbolizing full moon and a rabbit preparing Mochi rice cake on the moon.

A “Wagashi” Japanese confection illustrating a rabbit and “Susuki” silver grasses, symbolized autumn.

The rabbit on the moon is derived from the shape of sea on the moon, which is similar to a rabbit. Unfortunately, the shape of lunar sea is different in each area on the earth, thus the shape similar to rabbit can be observed in only Japan.

In autumn, tea plants uptake and store nutrients in their sink organs such as tap roots and overwintering leaves, which act as source organs releasing their nutrients to new shoots in the next spring.
I hope tea plants uptake nutrients vividly from soil and will generate fine tea shoots in the next spring!