I just arrived at Narita Airport on Japan Airlines Flight #5 from JFK. I’ll have a brief layover in Tokyo before continuing on to Fukuoka, the largest city in Kyushu, the island where 90% of authentic shochu is made.
Last summer I spent 5 days in Kyushu and 5 more in Okinawa, trying more than 200 shochus and Awamori in a very short span of time. That was just a taste of what’s to come. I’m now headed to Kyushu for the prime imo shochu production season. Last summer I didn’t realize nobody made shochu in the summer time (it’s too hot) so I saw a bunch of idle distilleries. This time I get to see produduction!
Over the next 3 weeks I’ll be visiting with distillers in Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Saga, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, and Kagoshima prefectures. I’ll visit the famous Kuma River Valley where 28 kome shochu distillers produce the best rice based spirits in the world. I’ll travel to Iki Island, the traditional home of mugi (barley) shochu where I’ll also get to try some of the best seafood Japan has to offer. I’ll spend a few days in the deep rural villages of Miyazaki Prefecture, where soba shochu is made – and home of some of the best sweet potato shochu available in the US. This should prove to be a big step forward in my shochu education.
Finally, I’ll spend my last week in Japan working as a shochu intern at Yamatozakura Shuzo in rural Kagoshima. I visited this distillery last summer and fell in love with it. You will too.
I’m going to update daily on Kampai.US, tweet, instagram, and facebook this trip thanks to a pocket hotspot so please keep an eye here to see how all of this goes.
Kampai!
Awesome! Can’t wait to read your daily updates!