As promised, we’re back again for two straight weeks of live interviews straight from Aoyama Sake Flea, the bi-annual celebration of sake and craft culture, hosted in collaboration with Tokyo’s iconic Farmers Market @ UNU (United Nations University).

This week, Sebastien and Justin are first joined by Dimitry Bulakh, director of twelv., Japan’s (the world’s!?) first premium organic sake bar, located here in Tokyo, as well as founder and director of Far East Grocery, specializing in organic teas from throughout Japan and across Asia.

Dimitry has settled on a significant fine cross-section of two worlds that are much more closely related than they may appear at first glance. We chat with him about how he is utilizing both these worlds to create amazing beverage experiences as twelv., what it means to focus on “organic” or “natural” sake, the shared histories of both tea and sake, and what these two incredible beverages (and their corresponding struggling industries; at least in Japan) can learn from one-another in order to shape an exciting future for both.

Next up, we delve into the relationship between tradition and innovation in the world of sake with two inspiring producers that are attacking the concept full-on from completely different ends of the spectrum.

Here, Christopher Hughes steps in as we’re joined by Katsuhiko Miyasaka, next in line for the throne at Miyasaka Brewing Company, producers of the internationally renowned and revered Masumi brand sake. Since his return to the brewery after a stint of work in various fields and international adventure, he’s proactively taking the roots of Masumi and leveraging them to create sake, promotion, and events that are designed to bring the Nagano brewer’s traditions to an entirely new generation of sake lovers.

Alongside Katsuhiko we also have Fumi Yasuda, the young and ambitious international sales representative for WAKAZE, one of Japan’s newest sake breweries that is crafting brews unlike the world has ever seen. Initially collaborating with breweries across Japan to prove their concept and shock the sake world to attention, they’ve now established one of Tokyo’s only sake brew pubs, Whim Sake and Tapas, where they now craft their own experimental brews, as well as doburoku and original lines of sake. They have their eyes set on opening a brewery in France in 2019.

It’s a packed episode this week, and we’ll be back AGAIN next week with more interviews and insight from…someplace new!

Note that the next Aoyama Sake Flea is scheduled for the Spring of 2019, on March 30-31. Stay tuned here for updates! And be sure to swing by the Farmers Market @ UNU if you find yourself wandering Tokyo over any weekend and are looking for some fantastic food, beverage, and people.

As always, @sakeonair is where you can find us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can also find us on Soundcloud and YouTube very soon.

Send your questions, comments, show ideas, and kind words to questions@sakeonair.com

It also helps to leave us a nice review so that we can further share the sake love with more listeners like yourself.

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association and is a joint production between Potts.K Productions and Export Japan.

Thanks for listening.

Kampai!

Our theme is “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air

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Over the next couple weeks (yes, we’ll be going weekly for a short stint!) we’ll deviate a bit from our standard format, but that’s because we have something special lined up!

The fine folks at Aoyama Sake Flea, the bi-annual celebration of sake and craft culture, hosted in collaboration with Tokyo’s iconic Farmers Market @ UNU (United Nations University), reached out to the Sake On Air crew to see if we might be interested in hosting a few live shows at the festival.

You had us at “Sake”. (And “Festival”!)

Hosting four live recordings over two days, we brought in a number of really fascinating guests, both brewers, as well as those championing sake through a number of unique and different avenues all their own.

This week, we’re sending you the first 2 sessions from day one of the festival. For the first half of the show we’re joined by Masaki Yamada, events coordinator for the Farmers Market @ UNU, along with Akiko Shibata, president of Tokyo Sake-ten and head of business development for Niigata sake producer, Myoko Shuzo. Together we explore the nature of the farmers market in Tokyo and its role in bringing people together with sake producers and creating a culture around sake for a new generation. Now in its 9^th incarnation, Aoyama Sake Flea is now gearing up for its round 10, scheduled for March 30-31 in 2019 – and they’d love to integrate international brewers and artisans for the next round! To all those championing sake abroad, listen up on how you might be able to take part in one of Tokyo’s most homegrown, community driven sake festival that puts the producers at the forefront.

For the second segment, we’re joined by none other than the talented and inspiring Nancy Singleton Hachisu, author of the recently released, Japan: The Cookbook, as well as the game-changing, Japanese Farm Food, and the lifestyle staple, Preserving the Japanese Way. We managed to coax her away from the farm (and work on her next book!) in Saitama to join us for a mid-day “Kampai!” to discuss, not only her new book and recent projects, but primarily how she views the role of sake in cooking. Now when we say “sake”, remember that in Japan, “sake” refers to all varieties of alcohol. For our purposes, we focus primarily on the sake that our listeners all know and love, as well as spend a good amount of time delving into the magic of mirin, as well. Not to mention the delicious and versatile offshoots from the world of sake, such as sake-kasu, amazake, rice koji, as well as sake crafted specifically for culinary purposes.

Links for some of the products and producers that Nancy mentions are below:

– Mikawa Mirin

– Yamaki Jozo

– Terada Honke

– Imayotsukasa Shuzo

– Kidoizumi Shuzo

– Great “ryori-shu”, or, additive-free and naturally brewed “cooking sake”, like this one from Okidaikichi Honten, makers of the fantastic Shizengo line of sake. (Sorry, not much English info available…)

– Black Market Sake

Part 1: Farmers Market & Aoyama Sake Flea (w/ Akiko Shibata & Masaki Yamada)

2:19-20:05

Part 2: Bettering our Food with Sake (w/ Nancy Singleton Hachisu)

20:30-49:08

Your hosts for these special outings this time around are Christopher Pellegrini, Christopher Hughes, and Justin Potts. (We try to keep good rotation around here in order to keep things fresh.)

As always, @sakeonair is where you can find us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can also find us on Soundcloud and YouTube very soon.

Send your questions, comments, show ideas, and kind words to questions@sakeonair.com

It also helps to leave us a nice review so that we can further share the sake love with more listeners like yourself.

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association and is a joint production between Potts.K Productions and Export Japan.

Thanks for listening.

Kampai!

Our theme is “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

EP 2 – State of the Industry: Japan

How in the world did we get here? Where exactly are we? Where is all this headed?

These are the themes that Christopher Hughes, Sebastien Lemoine and Justin Potts share, ponder and discuss on this episode of Sake on Air.

From tax laws to land reform, market perception to distribution, we try to apply a bit of context for the current state that the sake industry (in Japan) is in.

Looking strictly at the numbers, things appear a bit dire.

But looking at what’s been taking place here on the ground in recent years, there’s nothing but excitement as to how far the industry could develop, the shape it could take, and what sake has the potential to become.

Here’s the thing: this is a massive topic.

Here’s the reality: there’s a bit of rambling.

Here’s what we’d love: for you to let us know specifically what you’d like to know more about.

If you are interested in and care about what sake has in store for the world (we hope you do!), mail us at questions@sakeonair.com and tell what you’d like us to find the answers to. What about the state of the industry interests you? What are you curious about?

Give us the questions, and on a future episode, we’ll give you the answers. As this is our final warm-up(ish?) episode, we’re already planning a follow up on the topic. For the next round, instead of making it our episode, we’d rather make it yours.

@sakeonair is where you can find us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can also find us on Soundcloud and YouTube very soon.

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association and is a joint production between Potts.K Productions and Export Japan.

Please subscribe and maybe after a couple more episodes, once we’re up to speed and have ironed out the kinks a bit, you’re more than welcome to leave us a nice review to help us share the sake love with more listeners like yourself.

Thanks for listening!

Kampai!

Our theme is “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More