Nihonshu 日本酒, or sake as most people know it, is found in most bars and restaurants in Japan.
I generally lean towards atsukan 熱燗 which is hot sake but last night at Sushi in Shibuya I went for the cold stuff, served in a masu which is a wooden, box-like cup.
Whenever it’s served in a masu it’s also accompanied with a saucer underneath as it’s tradition to overfill the cup, great value for money.
As you can see it’s necessary to get you head right into the cup to kick things off, some salt placed on the corner first makes for a tasty sip.
Nihonshu is not all that strong, this was about 17%, it’s gets things though going that’s for sure … and things went downhill considerably as the night progressed, lucky i didn`t have to get up for work today.
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
That second pic has
“fuck tomorrow”
written aaaall over it
Looks like good fun!!! Diving into the culture head first…literally
I wont lie … i pulled up very rough the next day! Probably had something to do with the rest of the grog consumed that night, not just the Sake.
I have always wondered about the wooden cup. It boggled my mind that sake would be served inside of it – it just didn’t seem ergonomic enough – so I always imagined there would be a cup resting inside. Way to think inside the wooden box, eh?! I became a big sake fan while I lived in Japan, especially atsukan. Something about it seems so comforting. It’s the calm before the storm.
LOVE Atsukan!
first pic looks like an overflowing bath!
i was looking for the 3 girls sitting it it like the cover of the book ‘pink box’.
love the second pic…all eyes on the gaijin! lol
heres a copy of the pic i got off the web
http://www.iambo.com/blog/archives/pink%20box.jpg
GREAT find Chuck!!!
@chuck:! lol, you wins some internets today! ^_^b BTW, I personally like sweet japan-made umeshu, though it costs too much in our neck of the woods.
ahhh i love sake
I want to try that sometime, looks like fun! What does it taste like anyways?
It`s pretty strong to taste …. the cols stuff bites you at first, heat it up and it`s smooth as silk.
I’d bet sake is never served this way in Japanese restaurants outside of Japan. Not to the ones I’ve been, anyways.
I`m looking forward to trying a few Japanese restaurants outside of Japan just to see what they`re like.
That looks tasty indeed! I like a good sake every now and then, sadly we are pretty starved for choice here in Newcastle with only one shop stocking any from what I’ve found.
Nihon-shu is excellent, though I prefer it cool. There are many breweries in Kobe, where my wife is from. But here in England it’s quite tough to find in off-licenses (liquor stores) and supermarkets.
I’ll be looking now i’m back in OZ.