I started this blog a long time ago. I have been waiting for the perfect photo for it. Finally, the other morning, I got my photo. When you read the meaning of the word, you will understand why this has taken some time to achieve. “The interplay between light and leaves when sunlight shines through…
When Sake Reflects Nature
Hanatome Sake is unique in flavour and has been a favourite of Super Sake Boy and I for quite some time. It has a delicious acidic complexity and when the Sake Mistress announced that the ninth session of Taste with the Toji would be with Miyoshino Jozo, makers of Hanatome, we were excited. Not only…
A Taste with a Twist from Takayama
Throughout the series of Taste with the Toji events that Super Sake Boy and I have been attending since April, it has never failed to amaze me that regardless of what kind of sake the Toji (head brewers) are brewing, or what kind of kura (breweries) they are brewing in, a hundreds of years old…
Aliens, Hot Wheels and Blues loving Koji- Mioya Shuzo
The eighth session of Sake Mistress Simone’s Taste with the Toji on-line sake events found us in Ishikawa at Mioya Shuzo, with Kuramoto (president) Miho Fujita, and Toji, Toshi Yokomichi. I am reasonably sure when Miho-san was explaining the story of how she became president I was the only participant in the session that completely…
RAKU- A sublime dining experience.
When I looked up “best Japanese restaurant” in Canberra, Raku was the obvious front runner, with many people extolling its virtues. I always look up the best local Japanese when we travel, as we love eating Japanese food and I am always interested to see how other places do it differently. We are lucky in…
Sake By The Sea
On the 1st June our Taste with the Toji Session 5, hosted by the lovely Sake Mistress, Simone, took us to the idyllic seaside town of Ine, in the north of Kyoto Prefecture, to a wonderful quirky brewery as unique and as lovely as the Toji who makes the sake there. Mukai Shuzo has been…
Punks Not Dead… And Nor Is Sake
Last Sunday night we had the pleasure of virtually visiting an extraordinary sake brewery in Japan that is definitely the rebellious teenager of the sake world. Miyoshikiku Shuzo is situated in Tokushima, in Shikoku, and the sake is as charismatic as the Toji, Ryoichiro Mamiya. This event was the 6th in the Taste with the…
Gozenshu…Taste with the Toji with an ancient twist
Last year, somewhere between sitting our WSET Level 3 exam and receiving our results, Super Sake Boy and I had the privilege to be asked to pour sake at the Melbourne Sake Matsuri. It was a great deal of fun. It was also an excellent learning experience and we had the opportunity to work alongside…
Another exceptional sake experience…Taste with the Toji- with manga and a frog
From the moment we heard that Simone, the Sake Mistress, was hosting another Taste the Toji session, this time with Rumiko Moriki of Moriki Shuzo, we were excited. Super Sake Boy and I had met Rumiko-san and her husband, Hideki-san, at an excellent afternoon at Tamura Sake Bar in Melbourne. Hosted by Black Market Sake,…
Taste with the Toji- an online, lockdown, sake experience like no other…
My friend Simone, the Sake Mistress, is a clever and creative being. She was on a trajectory when COVID-19 hit and we were on our way to sip much sake and tour breweries together when international travel was pulled from current reality. She is a sake educator, but also has a hospitality background, and hosts…
Uniquely Japanese- Kuchisabishii 口寂しい
This unique Japanese word may be more relevant at the moment, as we are all spending a lot of time at home and some of us are struggling with lack of social contact and boredom. I was tagged in a kuchisabishii meme by a lovely friend of mine, who is in an apartment in Manhattan,…
Guesthouse Soi- My Home Away From Home
My first time travelling in Japan was just over five years ago. We travelled for a month and I tried to see as much as I could. We stayed in Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kamakura and had booked to stay in Hakuba. We also stayed in Kyoto. For only four short days. We had loved Tokyo,…
