Rooting for Tokyo Sake

Happy New Year! How did you enjoy your New Year' Eve and holidays? I wish this year would be a good year for you all.

Two or three years ago, I personally began wanting to introduce Japanese tradition and culture to the world in English by using my translation skill, and I feel like this is my obligation. So, I think I myself should learn about Japan and understand it so that I can explain about my country well to people in the world.

Without deep thought, I started wearing kimono. Then, I changed my stance on sake. Before, I was simply drinking it like other alcoholic beverages, but, now, sake for me is something to taste with utmost care because I want to explain this amazing beverage to others and recommend some sake that I think is nice. From then on, I often went for various sake-related events with wearing kimono.

Last year, I started writing English blog articles that treated kimono and sake as keywords to steadily introduce Japanese culture and tradition to the world.

Recently, I have received a response from an overseas reader, thanks to my patient efforts. (He is a resident of New York and sake lover who has recently started learning how to wear kimono. We had exchanged some E-mail messages and have links to each other's blog sites. One of his blog articles shows a photo depicting him as a happy guy who was agitating a yeast starter tank in Asahi Shuzo in Nagaoka City of Niigata Prefecture at the URL: http://www.urbansake.com/sake-blog/japan-2008-asahi-shuzo.html

By the way, there is "Tokyo Jizake" community in the mixi SNS. This is a community for those who love Tokyo sake. The manager of the community is quite an enthusiast for Tokyo sake. Watch the video below to know how she is enthusiastic about Tokyo sake.



In a nutshell, she is complaining about the difficulty in buying Tokyo sake in the central area in Tokyo including the 23 wards. Actually, it is difficult to find liquor shops that carry Tokyo sake in the central and eastern areas in Tokyo while there are many such liquor shops in the western part, where most of the sake breweries of Tokyo are operating.

Being moved by her eagerness, I decided to work together with her to root for Tokyo sake and established the Tokyo Sake Site (http://tokyojizake.web.fc2.com/) in November of the last year. I received positive and favorable response about this Web site from many people. At the beginning of this year, one of like-minded friends contributed writing to this site (the translation is to be placed soon in an English page of the site). This year, I would like to use this site as a means of expressing opinions of sake consumers and recruit people who enjoy Tokyo sake through this site to root for Tokyo sake with them together.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you will enjoy my blog articles also this year.


Today's Sake
Nontaro (Sakuramasamune)
I was treated to a glass of this sake by the owner of the restaurant where I often drink sake. This was very dry sake with strong alcohol, and it tasted soft when it was drunk on the rocks.
By the way, the brewery of this sake is famous for Kyokai yeast No. 1 and the discovery of Miyamizu, reputed mother water of Hyogo Prefecture, by the Sixth head of the Sakuramasamune brewery.

Seimaibuai: 70%

Alcohol: 25 - 26%