Eat, drink, travel Japan.
Japanese rice wine — breweries, regions, tastings, food pairings.
Can you day-trip a sake brewery from Tokyo and actually be back in Shinjuku for dinner? Yes, and you do not need a JR Pass, a tour guide, or a single word of Japanese to make it work. The harder question is which brewery, because the answer reshapes the day. A 90-minute Ozawa Shuzo tour … Read more
The brewer at Matsumoto Shuzo poured the first cup, watched my face, and said: “Kyoto sake is not Niigata sake. It will not punch you. It will sit beside what you eat and let the food do the talking.” That sentence rearranged how I drink in Kyoto. I had been chasing the bigger, drier, mountain-rice … Read more
Ask for sake in Japan and you’ll often get a slightly puzzled look. The word doesn’t mean what you think it does. In Japanese, sake (酒) is the umbrella term for any alcoholic drink, beer and whisky included. The thing tourists order at sushi counters and the thing brewed from rice and water and koji … Read more