By Aya OtaA kakigōri specialty establishment, which was launched by a young American guy has become the topic of conversation. The name of the place is “Bonsai Kakigōri” – it is a kind of name that gets you interested, and makes you want to see and try. “I wanted to replicate delicious kakigōri, whi...

By Keiko FukudaAlhambra is a residential area in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles. Many Chinese mericans live in this town, and shops and restaurants are concentrated around the traffic light where Main Street and Garfield Avenue merge across, and the area is getting eveloped in a high speed recen...

By Kosuke KujiThe International Wine Challenge (IWC) started the Japanese Sake Division since 2007, with one “Champion Sake” selected every year from around the world. The first champion sake “Kikuhime” from Ishikawa prefecture to the 2017 winner “Nanbu Bijin” all gathered at the high-end casino hot...

By Elli Sekine In a corner of a shopping center in the suburbs of San Francisco, there is a café decorated with flowers and plants, looking like a caf...

By Yuji Matsumoto I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a lecture targeting salesmen for a wholesaler of Japanese food products in the U.S. The attendees handle various Japanese food products including sake. The theme of the lecture was not so much about the consumer’s question of “Which sake ...

By Aya OtaThe very Japanese-looking façade of a restaurant that stands out on a busy street called the “Restaurant Row” in Times Square’s Theater Dist...

By Keiko FukudaLittle Tokyo, the long-lived Japanese community, located in the east of downtown Los Angeles, is flourishing like never before. Up to 15 years or so ago, one rarely saw non-Japanese people walking in the area. However, now, not only Japanese Americans, but also many other Americans wh...

By Kosuke KujiThe Annual Japan Sake Awards announced their winners: Nambu Bijin Brewery, and Nambu Bijin Brewery – Basenkyo that simultaneously won the Gold Medal two consecutive years. The Nambu Bijin Brewery won the Gold Medal 12 times in the last 13 years, while Nambu Bijin Brewery – Basenkyo was...

By Elli Sekine “Yume Sushi”, a famous popular sushi restaurant located in the Alameda District, which is on the east side of the bay across the Bay Bridge of San Francisco, closed its doors last fall and is still being missed by many people. Yume’s owner entrusted the next phase of his dream to Chik...

Experience and knowledge are indispensable for sake tasting, but doing many tastings absent-mindedly does not help.Many tend to think that a person must have an excellent sense of judging taste (to have people think that way is very flattering), but that isn’t necessarily so. Also, those who wish to...