Sake sisters are brewing it for themselves
For most of its thousand-year history, sake has been a man's world. Even as recently as 30 years ago, women were forbidden to enter some breweries, but today's pioneering lady brewers and brewery heads are teaching the industry to embrace its feminine side. As a ...
Kamozou: A traditional cure for the rainy-season blues
In this gloomiest of seasons, when the skies are leaden and the streets clogged with dripping umbrellas, we find there's only one recourse: Head for a favorite neighborhood eatery and hunker down, glass in hand. If we're anywhere near Kagurazaka and sake is what ...
Bringing nihonshu into the mix
Purists will surely balk, but some alcohol companies are hoping the sake cocktail catches on with a new generation, like the highball before it.
Thirst growing overseas for nihonshu
Last year more nihonshu than ever was shipped overseas. From Seoul to San Francisco, tipplers are saying kampai to sake.
Kamo-shabu Chikutei: Putting the duck into shabu-shabu
There's no mystery as to what's on the menu at Kamo-shabu Chikutei. Even if you didn't know that "kamo" means "duck," the lamps at the entrance with their stylized image of a mallard in flight give the game away. More of an eye-opener, though, is ...
Japan by the numbers (11.3.10)
As the temperature drops, we look at the numbers behind warm winter drinks, stay-at-home activities and fiery women.
Nozaki Sakaten: Fine sake served with enthusiasm
To enter the warren of low-rise, low-rent back streets southwest of Shinbashi Station is to venture well off the gourmet beaten track. These few blocks around Karasumori Shrine are known for carousing, not fine dining. But at least there is plenty of good sake ...
Nihonshu evangelist preaches heady mix of culture, taste
John Gauntner appreciates a great destination, but for him, it's really about the journey. With five books published on sake, and as the only non-Japanese to be recognized as a kikizake meijin (accomplished sake taster) for accuracy in sake tasting, Gauntner is widely considered ...
Brown rice befits chef's cake, beer
"He was a wise man who invented beer," said Plato. It wasn't his greatest line, but it sets this story up nicely: the tale of a talented man who sort of reinvented beer. Kimio Nonaga is the third-generation chef at Nihonbashi Yukari, a kappo ryori ...
"Spa for papa," rooftop beers in Kyoto and the world's largest sake fair
Spa vacation for dad's special day For Father's Day on June 15, the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo has prepared a gift ticket package that will give dads time to relax, get rid of their daily stress and check out how healthy, or unhealthy, their lifestyles ...
Kurosawa: Hand-rolled soba — the director's cut
The word tsu (connoisseur) is often bandied around when talking about Japanese cuisine. Originally denoting a general savoir-faire in worldly matters — most especially in the pleasure quarters — it is now widely used for those who know their food and drink. And yet a ...
You'd have to be drunk to be fooled by Japan's booze commercials
A few weeks ago the Asahi Shimbun printed a letter from a 59-year-old man who complained about a TV commercial for Kirin's Tanrei, one of those beerlike beverages known as happoshu. In the spot, world-famous alpinist Ken Noguchi is seen climbing a mountain, the ...
