small basement bar out the back end of Sapporo Station. He serves 30–40 types of jizake with some meticulously prepared izakaya fare. Both the food and drink menus change with the season, but when I visited Nagashimasan recommended the mouth-watering kaki to gorgonzola hoiruyaki (oysters and gorgonzola cooked in foil, 650 yen) with a potato salad (500 yen) and the “Kita Sekai” (北世界), a fruity, slightly dry daiginjō from Nippon Seishu. Nippon Seishu has a different sort of history to the old family businesses you will often find on the main island of Honshu. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Hokkaido was Japan’s New World, a land of opportunity (and bankruptcy) where business capital flowed freely across all sorts of bright ideas for developing the frontier. Nippon Seishu was a product of that business environment, emerging from a co-operative venture between seven local sake makers in 1897 and then a formal merger of eight companies in 1928. It is now a large company pumping out extensive ranges of miso and wine as well as sake, but a clear-sighted view of the future of sake seems to have brought a greater commitment to high-quality sake production. Its main sake brand is “Chitosetsuru” (千歳鶴), but “Kita Sekai” was a premium sake project close to the heart of Nippon Seishu’s old master brewer, Wataru Tsumura. Unfortunately, Tsumura-san died suddenly before he could see it to fruition, so it bears the signature of the current master brewer, Kazuyuki Satō. “Kita Sekai” is almost impossible to find on the open market.
DIRECTIONS: Sapporo Station, North Exit. Immediate left out of the North Exit. It is in the basement under the AU mobile phone shop and is directly opposite the Hotel Crest.
Akaoni 赤鬼 03-3410-9918 www.akaoni39.com
2-15-3 Sangenjaya, Setagaya ku, Tōkyō, 154-0024
〒 154-0024 東京都世田谷区三軒茶屋 2-15-3
Open: Weekdays 5.30 pm–12.30 am (last orders 11.30 pm); Saturday 5 pm–11.30 pm; Sunday and national holidays 5 pm–11 pm Booking recommended? Yes Credit cards? No English menu? No Table charge: 500 yen
Akaoni is probably the best-known premium sake pub in Tōkyō and the range of more than 100 types of sake easily justifies its reputation. It first opened in 1982 and has been a major force in the rise of jizake. Manager Nakamura-san says the sake market has changed radically: “In those days sake was not a young person’s thing at all. We now get very knowledgeable young people in here, and they are driving changes in sake. Overall, sales have gone down in Japan, but if you are offering good sake then you are actually seeing popularity going up.” With sakes like the junmai ginjō “Kameizumi CEL-24” (亀泉 CEL-24, 650 yen) in stock, Akaoni has clearly got nothing to worry about. It may sound like a Star Wars droid but “CEL-24” is actually the name of a yeast known for producing fragrant and acidic drinks. This unpasteurized “Kameizumi” is fragrant, fruity and sweet (-10 Nihonshudo). Many drinkers will prefer it served cold so that the sweetness does not become overwhelming. Another unpasteurized sake, “Kozaemon” junmai ginjō (小左衛門純米吟 酉襄), from the young brewing team at Nakashima brewery in Gifu prefecture, offered a total contrast: clean and clear. Quite a few sake and spirit makers all over Japan play music to their fermenting alcohol in the belief that it influences the fermentation, but at Nakashima, according to “Et-chan” of the excellent www.tokyofoodcast.com web-site, they play hip-hop. It is not clear whether this is for their own enjoyment or the yeast’s. The sake world is getting younger!
DIRECTIONS: Sengenjaya Station (Tōkyū Den’entoshi Line). Go out of the central gates of Sangenjaya Station and take North Exit A. Walk straight ahead across the side road, then cross the main road to Big Echo Karaoke. Bear right toward the Carrot Tower. Go left just after the bicycle park, right at the T-junction and right again at the end of the block beside the car park.
Amanogawa 天乃川 03-3344-0111 (main hotel reception) www.keioplaza.co.jp/rb/bl05.html
Keio Plaza Hotel, 2-2-1 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō, 160-8330
〒 160-8330 京王プラザホテル 東京都新宿区西新宿 2-2-1
Open: 5 pm–10.30 pm Credit cards? All major cards
English menu? No Booking recommended? Yes Table charge: 577 yen
Koji Maruoka, the sake sommelier (kikizakeshi) at Keio Plaza Hotel’s Amanogawa sake bar, compares trying a new sake to meeting a new person. “Often people who are very forceful or a bit different will put you off when you first run into them. They might not seem like your sort at all, but once you have got to know them, you grow to like all their differences. You love them because of their differences.” He says some customers at this stylish 10-seat sake bar arrive determined only to drink very dry sakes served very cold. “A lot of that has come from the shōchū boom. People want very clean, cold tastes.” Another type of customer wants their sakes boiled until dead. “In truth, the best temperature depends on the particular sake. It is going to be in a moderate temperature range. The style of sake that best suits the moment is also going to depend on what you are eating it with.” During my visit, Maruoka served a three-food plate (chinmi omakase sanshu, 2100 yen), which changes every day and may vary in price. Our plate featured tōfu, the classic drinking snack shiokara (salted and fermented seafood) and a dish made of cream cheese and sake kasu (the rice waste from sake making). Maruoka-san recommended an “Okuharima Jyōho” (奥播磨誠保) junmai kimoto sake, a pure rice junmai sake, from his constantly changing line-up of around 30 sakes, which he tries to source from small kura rather than the big players. “Okuharima Jyōho” is a fascinating pick. It is a kimoto sake (see page 41). The rich, almost milky tastes represent a step back to a time when all sake was produced by a back-breaking process of mashing rice by hand. It is extremely hard to get hold of. The two expressions released so far by Shimomura Shuzō of Hyōgo prefecture have sold out almost immediately. Maruoka also recommended a “Retsu” (洌) junmai ginjō from Kojima Sōhonten in Yamagata prefecture. Kojima have a reputation for very dry, clean tastes. Most sakes at Amanogawa cost in the region of 900 yen and are served in 90 ml measures. Maruoka-san will sometimes serve two 45 ml measures of different sakes.
DIRECTIONS: Shinjuku Keio Plaza Hotel, Main Tower, Second Floor. From JR Shinjuku take the West Exit, straight up Chūō-dōri. The hotel is on your left and is hard to miss.
Buchi ブチ 03-5728-2085
1F Nomoto Biru, Shinsenchō 9-7, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō
東京都渋谷区神泉町 9-7 野本ビル 1F
Open: 5 pm–3 am Credit cards? Most major cards
English menu? Yes Table charge: No charge
Let’s be honest, some premium sake pubs can be intimidating. The staff and customers are almost always incredibly friendly if you actually take the plunge, but everything that makes these places picturesque and appealing—the grizzled
