Japan Navigator

Interested as I am in various aspects of sake (nihonshu), from the production process to actual consumption, I also like to read about my favorite drink. Here are some of the best websites and blogs about sake I have found.

h

In the first place we have the website “Sake World” of sake-guru John Gauntner, who has also written several books (”Sake Handbook“, “Sake Companion“) on Japan’s national drink. The excellent website not only contains information on types of sake and the sake making process, but also all the articles John Gauntner wrote on the subject in the Japan Times, as well as an archive of his sake newsletter. In short, the best resource I know!

(Unfortunately not on the web with his own site is Philip Harper, the only Westerner to actually become a master brewer here in Japan. He, too, is the author of two excellent books on sake, The Insider’s Guide to Sake and The Book of Sake. But you can find the articles he writes in the Japan Times on the Japan Times website.)

In second position should come the multilingual sake site of the JAL, with its many introductions of individual breweries throughout Japan. Thanks to the financial power of the airline, it has also been beautifully designed. You feel like immediately setting out to visit these romantic breweries, but unfortunately, the only information lacking is in how far these breweries are open to visitors (and if yes, how to get there…). After all, small breweries have few staff and are very busy in the winter brewing season…

The Joy of Sake organizes tasting events in the U.S. and also has some interesting general information on its site.

Also individual bloggers have discovered the joy of sake. Robert-Gilles Martineau writes Shizuoka Sake, The Cream of Japan, a drinker’s journey of discovery into the sake of the prefecture where the author makes his home. He is visiting all the breweries in Shizuoka and writes tasting reports on all sakes. Via the links on his site I discovered other individual sites, both in Japan and the US: Tokyo Foodcast, The Sake Diaries, Tokyo Through the Drinking Glass, Nihonshudo NYC and Urbansake.com. These sites are all brimming with enthousiasm for sake, several of them are written by people who are promoting sake in the United States, such as Urbansake.com’s Timothy Sullivan, who was one of the persons elected”Sake samurai” in 2007.

Finally, here are some breweries with good English sites: Daishichi Sake Brewery, Mukune, Tamanohikari, Kikumasamune, Kikusui, Gekkeikan and Kizakura… to name a few major ones, whose sites also have information on sake production or the history of sake.

Do you have any other suggestions?