You have probably noticed that Kampai.US has been very quiet over the past 18 months. We have a couple of excuses for that. First of all, our founding editor, Stephen Lyman, has been very busy writing his first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks.
Second, the site is being redesigned from the foundations up to be mobile friendly. This has taken much longer than expected, but we hope to have new content up very soon (beyond this post). However, this post isn’t about that. Let’s talk about the book!
The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks has now been published by Tuttle Publishing. It was released in the US on October 1, 2019.
The first half of the book covers Japanese alcohol traditions: sake, shochu, awamori, and fruit liqueurs (such as umeshu, or plum wine). The second half covers Japanese interpretations of western alcohol traditions that are popular in Japan: beer, wine, whisky, and cocktails. Complete with recipes, where to shop, and where to drink these amazing Japanese alcohols, this truly is a complete guide (if we don’t say so ourselves). As you can imagine, the writing on shochu and awamori in particular is among the most comprehensive English language writing on these obscure drinks.
It’s available on Amazon, but if you prefer to support your local bookseller, consider searching the title on IndieBound.org. At only $19.99 MSRP for a hardcover with lots of photography and great information, it’s objectively a great value (although we’re biased).
For more information, please watch the Author Video now up on YouTube.
Also, Stephen is on a mini-book tour in October with more events coming soon.
TOUR SCHEDULE
October 1 (Tokyo) Baird Nakameguro Taproom: beer & books 6-9pm
October 5 (Vancouver) Knifewear Vancouver: in-store signing 1-4pm
October 9 (Seattle) Hannyatou Sake Bar: Sake Pairing & Book Signing 6pm & 8:30pm seatings.
October 14 (Chicago) Izakaya Mita: Izakaya Party & Book Signing 6-9pm
October 18 (New York City) Sakaya: In-store Tasting & Book Signing 6-8pm
October 20 (Brooklyn) Brooklyn Kura: Reading, Q&A, Sake Tasting, & Book Signing 3-5pm followed by a walk around tasting at Kuraichi (Japanese specialty liquor store) 5-6:30pm
October 31 (Kumamoto) Glocal Bar Vibes: Meet the Author & Book Signing 8pm-midnight
Kanpai!