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makes the perfect accompaniment to traditional Japanese food, and sake pubs (see izakaya, Click here) generally also serve excellent seasonal fish and other foods to go with the booze. Sake is drunk chilled (reishu), at room temperature (jō-on), warmed (nuru-kan) or piping hot (atsu-kan), according to the season and personal preference. The top-drawer stuff is normally served well chilled. Sake is traditionally served in a ceramic jug known as a tokkuri, and poured into tiny cups known as o-choko or sakazuki. A traditional measure of sake is one gō (), a little over 180mL, or 6 fluid oz. In speciality bars, you’ll have the option of ordering by the glass, which will often be filled to overflowing and brought to you in a wooden container to catch the overspill. If you’re in company, the tradition is to pour for your neighbour first, and then be waited on by them in turn.

Sake is brewed during the winter, in the cold months that follow the rice harvest in September. The main ingredients are rice and yeast, together with a benign mould known as kōji that helps to convert the starch in the rice into fermentable sugars. Sake is categorised by law into two main classes: futsū-shu (ordinary sake, which makes up the bulk of what’s produced), and premium sake known as tokutei-meishōshu, further classified by the extent to which the rice is refined before fermentation to remove proteins and oils that interfere with the flavour of the final product. This is generally shown on the label as the seimai buai, expressed as the percentage of the original size to which the grain is reduced by polishing before the brewing process starts. As a general rule, the lower this number, the better (or at least, the more expensive) the sake will be. Sake made from rice polished to 60% or less of its original size is known as ginjō; rice polished to 50% or less of its original size produces the finest sake of all, known as dai-ginjō. Sake made only with rice and kōji (without the use of added alcohol) is known as junmai-shu, or ‘pure rice’ sake.

Sake is brewed in every prefecture in Japan, with the single exception of Kagoshima in southern Kyūshū, the traditional stronghold of the distilled drink known as shōchū (Click here), and there are more than 1500 breweries in operation today. Niigata and other parts of Northern Honshū are particularly famous for the quality of their sake, with Hiroshima and Nada-ku (in Kōbe) also major centres of the brewing industry. Almost everywhere you go in Japan you will have an opportunity to drink sake brewed just a few miles from where you are staying. A foreign visitor who shows an interest in the jizake (local brew) is likely to be treated to enthusiastic recommendations and the kind of hospitality that has been known to lead to sore heads the next morning.

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When ordering coffee at a coffee shop in Japan, you’ll be asked whether you like it hotto (hot) or aisu (cold). Black tea also comes hot or cold, with miruku (milk) or remon (lemon). A good way to start a day of sightseeing in Japan is with a mōningu setto (morning set) of tea or coffee, toast and eggs, which costs around ¥400.

JAPANESE TEA

Unlike black tea, which Westerners are familiar with, most Japanese tea is green and contains a lot of vitamin C and caffeine. The powdered form used in the tea ceremony is called matcha (see Japanese Tea Culture, Click here) and is drunk after being whipped into a frothy consistency. The more common form, a leafy green tea, is simply called o-cha, and is drunk after being steeped in a pot. In addition to green tea, you’ll probably drink a lot of a brownish tea called bancha, which restaurants serve for free. In summer, a cold beverage called mugicha (roasted barley tea) is served in private homes.

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CELEBRATIONS

When the Japanese celebrate, it must include food and drink, and lots of it, whether it is in a rural festival to appease the rice gods (themselves not averse to the odd glass of sake) or in the party-hard izakaya of the big cities. And it’s fun. Everyone seems