Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean that it always comes smoothly or that it ever proceeds according to plan. In the sake industry, change usually comes slowly and begrudgingly. Sometimes, it comes too late. Sake breweries have traditionally been family-owned and passed down from father to son. If there were no sons, the first…
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Hitachino Nest is the world-renowned craft beer brand produced by Kiuchi Shuzo, a multi-generational brewery in Ibaraki that continues to brew premium sake–the beverage that it actually started with–along with other fine products like umeshu (plum wine) and, more recently, whisky. It’s restaurant in San Francisco, Hitachino Beer & Wagyu (featured in issue 15 of…
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Sendai, Miyagi is a party town. Its ample bars and boisterous streets at least give that immediate impression to visitors with a thirst for adventure and good sake. Even its residents would agree that eating and drinking in communal, celebratory fashion is not an unpopular pastime. This is a common characteristic of “gateway” cities and…
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When Hot Springs, Arkansas native Ben Bell, hoping to launch a sake brewery in his state, told Matt Bell that the area should be the Napa Valley of sake, that vision became a “north star” for the latter native son as well. This was 2016. Had these two very different individuals, who share a last…
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Tottori Prefecture, with its wealth of off-the-beaten-path adventures, rarely fails to delight travelers looking to experience rural Japan. As Japan’s least populous prefecture (~538,000 residents), it’s an unheralded escape from the sometimes overwhelming bustle of the country’s sprawling, densely populated cities. Large swaths of nature parks and preserves mixed with vast stretches of farmland occupy…
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I was in a hotel in Ichinoseki, Iwate when the 7.1 earthquake hit not far to the southeast off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture. It was an aftershock of the 9.1 earthquake that had struck a few weeks earlier on March 11th, 2011. Water in the bathtub which was filling at the time sloshed around…
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This warm prefecture that stretches across the southern coast of Shikoku might not seem like the ideal location to brew sake, yet Kochi’s 18 breweries churn out an impressive number of surprisingly light and dry varieties. With a distinctly different vibe from the more in-your-face profiles of most sake from western Japan, the dry and…
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The Japanese government, with little fanfare from its side, recently reopened the doors to tourism without the onerous restrictions we mentioned in our introduction last issue. Perhaps they simply wanted as little attention as possible drawn to the decision domestically. It’s still a controversial topic. Many want to revive inbound tourism and return to, or…
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Keith Norum is one of the more youthful sixty-year-olds you’ll meet, even in a country where so many people seem youthful in the later decades of their lives. He looks younger than his years, there’s vitality in his voice and expressions, and he gives every indication he’s eager to continue with his busy work in…
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Waking up in an unfamiliar place is a rush to the senses. In the right context, that stimulation to the brain can even manifest as a sensation, like a warm tingle of pleasure washing across your body. This description certainly doesn’t refer to the disorienting experience of unexpectedly waking up somewhere unfamiliar–like in a hospital…
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(Marina Giordano pictured at center; article by Alessandra Polina) Sake is a unique, complex beverage in which interest in the United States has grown over the past few years, but it is still widely misunderstood. Marina Giordano, a sake expert and educator, has made it her mission to demystify the world of sake and get…
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My neighbor emerged from her house recently dressed stylishly in bright spring colors. She was wearing her usual artistic jewelry and it was clear she was on her way somewhere. “Going to the beauty parlor?”, I asked. “I doubt there’s anything they can do for me,” she replied. It was funny because her reply was…
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By Charlene Peters Beer and pizza. Wine and pizza. But sake and pizza? If there was one person qualified to justify the combination of sake with pizza, it would be Marina Giordano, sake educator at Commonwealth Wine School in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Marina holds a WSET certification as a Sake Educator with a WSET…
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