Episode 144. This week, we “think pink”! Hanami is the Japanese tradition of picnicking under cherry trees in full bloom. It’s a treasured seasonal pastime in Japan that is carefully tracked and timed for friends and family to enjoy blossom viewing at its peak. The cherry blossoms represent the fleeting nature of beauty and how it is worthwhile to stop and admire these natural displays as they will soon fade and flutter to the ground. Traditionally, sake is enjoyed under the trees as well, with especially lucky vibes should a blossom petal float into your sake cup. Timothy tells of his experience in Japan when he enjoyed hanami and also about the day he knew for sure that hanami season was over. Before its too late, let’s enjoy hanami together! #SakeRevolution

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Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy

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Skip to: 01:49 Hanami: Cherry Blossom Viewing

About Hanami
“Hanami (花見, “flower viewing”) is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; flowers (花, hana) in this case almost always refer to those of the cherry (桜, sakura) or, less frequently, plum (梅, ume) trees. From the end of March to early May, cherry trees bloom all over Japan, and around the second week of January on the island of Okinawa. The blossom forecast (桜前線, sakura-zensen) “cherry blossom front” is announced each year by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and is watched carefully by those planning hanami as the blossoms only last a week or two. In modern-day Japan, hanami mostly consists of having an outdoor party beneath the sakura during daytime or at night. “
SOURCE: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami

Typical Hanami Party in Japan

Timothy’s Cherry Blossom Video from Japan

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End of the Line: When Cherry Blossoms are over

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Skip to: 14:26 Sake Tasting: Ryusei Ryofu Kimoto Nama Junmai Ginjo

Ryusei Ryofu Kimoto Nama Junmai Ginjo

Classification: Junmai Ginjo, Kimoto, Nama
Brewery: Fujii Shuzo (Hiroshima)
Prefecture: Hiroshima
Seimaibuai: 60%
Rice Type: Yamadanishiki
SMV: +6.0
Alcohol: 15.5%
Brand: Ryusei
Importer/Distributor: JFC (USA)

view on UrbanSake.com

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Skip to: 27:17 Show Closing

This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!

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John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s First Sake podcast, and I’m your host, John Puma. From the Sake Notes, also the administrator over at the internet Sake discord, and the lead mod at uh, Reddits r slash sake community.

Timothy Sullivan: 0:37
And I’m your host, Timothy Sullivan. I’m a Sake Samurai, sake educator and the founder of the Urban Sake website, and every week John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake. And doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand.

John Puma: 0:53
Ah, Tim, how, how are you? What, um, what have you been up to? Anything interesting? Uh, the seasons are starting to change. Uh, I don’t know if that means anything to you.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:01
Yeah. You know, I just, uh, had a trip to DC.

John Puma: 1:05
.Aha.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:06
Some of the beautiful cherry blossoms they have there. Have you ever seen the cherry blossoms in DC It is unbelievable.

John Puma: 1:14
I have not, uh, my, my only real run-ins with cherry blossoms. Uh, so we do have some in queens, believe it or not, at Flushing Meadows Park, which is very, Near to, my home. they have cherry blossom trees there and I have gotten to see them. I saw them, uh, actually during the pandemic was when I went to go see those, uh, cuz that, that, nothing like that to get you to go and look at nature. And, I also happened to be in Tokyo once, kind of not, not when they were in full bloom, when they were kind of starting to bloom many, many years ago. And it was, it was very nice.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:49
They are beautiful. And you know, e I think everyone knows that cherry blossoms are associated with Japanese culture, but did you know that there’s a connection between sake and cherry blossoms too?

John Puma: 2:04
I, I’ve had a lot of sake that has, uh, cherry blossom references in the name and on the label. Uh, but beyond that, not really. Tell me about this.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:13
Well, there’s. Cultural phenomena in Japan called Hanami

John Puma: 2:20
Hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:21
Hanami, which basically means cherry blossom viewing. And we should talk first about the cultural meaning of cherry blossoms in Japan.

John Puma: 2:33
All right. Yeah. Tell me all about I, I’m ready to learn. I want to know about cherry blossoms in Japan. I know it’s a thing, but I don’t know why it’s a thing, and I don’t know how big a thing it is.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:43
Yeah, it’s a huge, huge munus thing. It is it, there are, first of all, there are calendars online every year that let you know when the cherry blossom. Blooms are going to peak throughout the country. So wherever you’re living, you can check this calendar. They’re all over online and you can see when the cherry blossoms are gonna bloom. Now, the importance of cherry blossoms kind of tie back to a sense of beauty, but impermanence in Japanese culture like the cherry blossoms are some of the most stunning visuals you can get in nature. But they’re very fragile and they don’t last for a long time.

John Puma: 3:31
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 3:31
So you have to appreciate the beauty while it’s there. Stop and take notice and enjoy and soak in the beauty. But be aware of the impermanence. In the fleetingness of that beauty too. In a few weeks they will be gone and there’s no recapturing it, so it’s a bitter-sweet. Sentiment and it is very central to Japanese culture, I think.

John Puma: 4:02
Wow. All right.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:03
So what do you think of that? Is that, is that too sad?

John Puma: 4:05
No, it’s not too sad. It’s a, there’s a little bit of melancholy there. I’m not gonna lie to you, Tim, but I think that’s important. I think you described it, it’s in my mind, I think you described it really well, to, to the best of my understanding of, of what it means and, and, and where it fits, and Japanese culture. Uh, it is. Really, I’ve seen a lot of video. I’ve seen photos. It’s, it’s stunning to look at when, when you’re seeing, uh, it’s, it’s practically snowing. Uh, um, sakura is, when it’s happening, um, when it’s at full bloom and there’s not a lot else like it, it’s really something to see. Now you mentioned the viewing parties, have you had, the pleasure of attending one.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:46
I have,

John Puma: 4:48
Ooh.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:48
in Japan for a year, I got to experience the whole. Like a three week period of cherry blossom mania.

John Puma: 4:57
Oh, wow.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:58
when the blooms start to come out, everyone gets very excited when they hit their peak, when the trees are all blooming and glorious and just exploding with blossoms. People do. Organize friend groups, organize hanami parties where you’ll actually go out and you’ll picnic under the trees, spend time watching the blossoms, being together, enjoying the, it’s, it’s outrageous beauty of these trees. It’s like unbelievable when there’s a whole grove of them and you’re gathered together with friends. And I lived more out in the countryside, so it was. Not crowded. And I think in Tokyo there’s certain areas where you’re just like jammed up with all these people and it’s not as enjoyable. But out on the countryside, you can find a grove of cherry trees and picnic underneath them. And you mentioned the pedals falling and it’s very, I’ve heard it’s very good luck if you have your sake cup and a petal falls into your cup while you’re sipping your sake.

John Puma: 6:04
I mean, it’s bad luck for that particular sip, but, uh, perhaps it is good luck, in a more meaningful way. I’ve had friends who, I’ve heard their stories of when they want to get like a big group of people together to have one of these parties, they’ve gotta send somebody to the park super early and like reserve the spot because, um, those go quickly and they’re not Exactly, you can’t exactly flag and reserve it without, you can’t, you can’t just go online, and pick a spot under one of the trees. That’s not how it works.

Timothy Sullivan: 6:30
Yeah, in the big city there’s a lot of competition for the prime picnicking areas, for hanami, and like I said, out in the country, it’s a little more chill.

John Puma: 6:40
Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 6:41
But I, I will tell you the bittersweet side of my story. Um, I, I was, you know, living in niigata, the cherry blossoms started to bloom, and I had a wonderful hanami picnic with some friends. I got some amazing 4K video of these blossoms trying to again, you know, capture the, IM impossible to capture beauty. And, you know, a few days went by and you kind of get used to the, the glorious of it, driving around the countryside. And then one day I went to work and I came out of work, uh, for my lunch hour and there had been a rainstorm.

John Puma: 7:20
Oh.

Timothy Sullivan: 7:20
And the car I had what looked like it was covered in polka dots because all the blossoms had been hit by the water. They were at nearing the end of this three week cycle, and the car was be speckled with all the pedals, and the tree was kind of stripped and it was the moment of impermanence. It was the moment of goodbye to the beauty. I remember I took out my phone and just took a picture of the car and was like, this is it. This is the, this is the other side of that, that outrageous beauty. And it was a very, Interesting moment. I’d heard about Hanami and cherry blossom viewing and the meaning of it in Japanese culture. And then I got to experience the whole cycle as a first timer, like seeing it all for the first time and living with it. And it was really, really amazing. So, uh, I got, I feel like I got the full circle experience for sure.

John Puma: 8:23
Yes, it is fleeting and it’s gone. But don’t forget, it’s also part of a cycle of rebirth as well, so it’s not forever. They’ll be back next year. And I think that’s always important to remember, um, because I’ve never been to one and I just keep telling myself, I’ll go next time.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:36
Okay, Simba. It’s, it’s the circle of life.

John Puma: 8:38
It’s a circle of life. Exactly. Yes.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:41
now in, in modern Japanese culture. I think that the idea of Sakura has been, or the idea of cherry blossom has been, uh, marketed way too much. Don’t you think? Like there’s Sakura lattes at Starbucks?

John Puma: 8:59
are Sakura lattes. Everything is pink for the, for the entirety of spring in Japan. It’s very, uh, one might say overdone, but it’s definitely, they’ve, they’ve taken it and they’ve run with it. That’s what I’m gonna say.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:13
Yes. Yes. you know, I think the key point from, from a sake point of view is that it is a time to come together sake. Drinking under the cherry blossoms, hoping to get a pedal to fall your cup is a cultural touchstone in Japan. I

John Puma: 9:30
Mm-hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:31
it’s, it’s a real, uh, activity. There’s other types of viewing while drinking sake too. There’s moon viewing.

John Puma: 9:40
Ooh.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:41
There’s, uh, snow viewing and there’s this cherry blossom viewing, so

John Puma: 9:47
viewing. Hold on a second. Hold the phone. I, I, that sounds like fun to me. I, I can get in for some snow viewing.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:53
Yeah, that’s called Yukimi, Yukimi so literally snow. Snow viewing. Snow viewing. Yes. And uh, Tsukimi, Tsukimi is moon viewing. So if you have a beautiful fu full moon, you can sit on your, your back porch or sit outside and watch the moon reflect in your, your cup of sake. And it’s. Beautiful and poetic, but cherry blossom viewing is probably the most famous sake drinking activity in Japan, I’d say.

John Puma: 10:28
Oh, nice, nice. Yeah, I, one of these days I need to do, it’s a, it’s, it’s gonna be on my Japan bucket list, uh, to have some sake. Under the trees and, and aim my cup at the leaves coming down so I can get the luck. That’s, that’s how luck works, right? You, uh, you fake it and you,

Timothy Sullivan: 10:48
Well, you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. That’s what I

John Puma: 10:51
you go. That’s exactly it. Yes. Yes, yes. actually, I think we have a mutual friend who’s their first sake experience was at one of these parties.

Timothy Sullivan: 10:59
Oh my God. Who? Who’s the lucky rascal?

John Puma: 11:03
actually, listener and patron, Mark Hunter.

Timothy Sullivan: 11:07
Oh wow. First sake experience was under the cherry

John Puma: 11:10
was under, under the cherry blossoms. Yeah. He, um, his first sake experience was that I, that seems like a really great way to get introduced to sake so for these sorts of parties, are they, are they bringing like a lot of sake, is everybody bringing a bottle? Like, how does this usually go?

Timothy Sullivan: 11:25
Well, I think alcohol’s kind of the main point. So people of drinking age who are on the younger side probably have beer or chuhai or some other thing. And the most traditional thing to drink is sake, sake Consumption, as we’ve said on the show many times, is going down in Japan, especially with younger people, but it is really traditional and you do, you do see people enjoying sake. It could be something like one cups or it could be a more elegant. Premium or super premium sake. up to everybody’s individual enjoyment. But there’s usually bento boxes, Sakura mochi sweets. So there’s Sakura themed, uh, desserts and, uh, sweetss that you can buy in Japan, and you often see those. I’ve seen people wear rose colored glasses doing hanami viewing as well.

John Puma: 12:16
Yeah,

Timothy Sullivan: 12:17
It’s a very festive, fun picnic atmosphere. And in Japan there’s no prohibition on drinking in public, so you can enjoy sake or your other alcoholic beverage in the park. And in general, people are pretty respectful of each other. And. Japanese culture is pretty respectful of other people’s space, so it doesn’t get too rowdy, I don’t think. But for the most part it’s, just a really fun way to get together and celebrate spring and that beauty of the cherry blossoms.

John Puma: 12:55
I did mention, the front of the show that I had seen the cherry blossoms here in Queens, but you know, as you pointed out, there can’t drink under those, not legally. Uh, if I were to do that and, and I got caught, I’d be, I’d be in some trouble because unfortunately, we have some really strict, uh, laws in the US about, uh, public drinking. Don’t get me wrong, they’re there for a really good reason, but unfortunately it means that our viewing parties are a little bit more restrained.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:26
I, I wouldn’t know anything about this personally for myself, but, uh, I would never, ever recommend that people put sake into an Evian bottle and bring that to a park in the US that that would not be something I would ever do.

John Puma: 13:42
Okay. And that would be you, you’d, you’d go so far as to say that’s a bad idea?

Timothy Sullivan: 13:47
I would say that’s a bad idea. Definitely don’t do it. It’s not recommended.

John Puma: 13:52
All right.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:53
It is notable that sake and water do have the same color in, in, in most cases. Just saying

John Puma: 14:02
All right. Good to know. Good to know. Uh, these are excellent observations that you’re bringing to the show, Tim. I really appreciate it.

Timothy Sullivan: 14:08
Do, do with that what you will.

John Puma: 14:10
I, yeah, I think I just, might. Unfortunately, with the Evian bottle, it’s a lot harder to get the, the pedals to land in your drink though. It’s a, it’s a, the difficulty level skyrockets when, when the opening is so small.

Timothy Sullivan: 14:23
Well, we have, we all have trade offs to make.

John Puma: 14:26
Yes, it’s true. Small price to pay for having some sake at your, um, Sakura viewing party here in New York, so speaking of sake, and this being Sake Revolution, we’re not just talking about what it is like to drink sake under the trees. We are also going to be sipping on some sake ourselves because that’s what we do around here. Uh, so today we have a sake from one of my favorite places in Japan to visit Hiroshima. and this is called, Ryusei Ryof Rio Fu. And uh, this is from a brewing company called a Fuji Brewing Company. and this is a Junmai Ginjo Nama Kimoto. And that, I think that sounds really interesting. I’ve seen Ryusei sake, uh, a little bit here in New York, a little bit in Japan, here and there. They have a reputation for being a little bit on the dry side, but more recently we’ve been seeing a lot more Kimoto from them, and I think that they. Leaned into that as kind of more of a house style, over the last couple of years. I think that’s interesting. Also interesting that this is a nama. So I’m excited to see what happens with this. I’m gonna run down the stats real fast, as I mentioned, we’re dealing with a, a Kimoto nama Junmai Ginjo. the rice variety here is Yamadanishiki. It is milled down to 60% of its original size. The, sake meter value. That measure of dry to sweet is plus six so that reputation that they have for being a little on the dry side, it’s here. Um, now having said that, this is again a Kimoto and so we’re seeing acidity and we’re seeing acid. At two, which is, relatively high. I think, and then the alcohol percentage is, 15 and a half percent. So a nice amount to be sitting under the trees with, don’t you think, Tim?

Timothy Sullivan: 16:24
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

John Puma: 16:26
By the way, this bottle and this label are. Very nice. I like what they did here. So the, the bottle is slightly tinted, a very light blue. and then the label, it looks to be, uh, very similar in color to, to the bottle itself. Right?

Timothy Sullivan: 16:44
Mm-hmm. So the background of the label is a light blue, picking up on the glass color of the bottle, and then right in the center is a medallion, a circle of like silver leaf.

John Puma: 16:59
Yeah,

Timothy Sullivan: 16:59
So like a, a silver foil

John Puma: 17:02
Yes,

Timothy Sullivan: 17:02
circle shape, and then there’s an impression. The paper is raised with an impression of a dragon,

John Puma: 17:11
Yeah, it looks great.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:12
very, old style dragon that kind of starts in the foil center and kind of drifts off to the side winding and yeah, so it’s super cool, very

John Puma: 17:24
Mm-hmm. Enough chit-chat about this sake let’s pour it into the glass and, begin talking about it. Okay, so we have the, uh, Ryusei Ryofu Nama-Nama in our glasses. And, one thing I’m picking up on this, when I look at it in, uh, up against my screen with a, with a white background, is that it is a little off white, very slightly off white.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:55
It’s just, yeah. A little golden color to it.

John Puma: 17:58
mm-hmm. Off, off, white, off clear. It’s not, not exactly clear. Yeah. Go me. And let’s take a sniff at the nose here. Mm. So, The first thing that when I, when I put this up to my nose, I, that acidity is like, I’m like, oh, you can smell, you can practically smell it, right? But when you, uh, swirl it, I am getting some really interesting aromas too that are kind of, um, mixing things up a little bit in an interesting way. Almost like a, like a cotton candy almost. Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:36
One of the tasting notes I read for the sake said that it has a hint of grapefruit.

John Puma: 18:43
Interesting, interesting. And that is that for aroma or flavor?

Timothy Sullivan: 18:47
For aroma.

John Puma: 18:49
Well,

Timothy Sullivan: 18:49
And if you think about like the, how grapefruit can have a little bit of that bitterness to it.

John Puma: 18:56
hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:57
Hmm. I can see. Where that’s coming from.

John Puma: 19:01
I, don’t know how much of this is the power of suggestion, but I think I get it.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:05
You think you get it?

John Puma: 19:06
I really love the aroma on this. It’s super fun. It’s just a really nice, uh, you know, it’s, it’s fruits that we don’t usually get. I think the acidity makes it, um, you know, the acidity that, that, that aroma. It’s weird to say like this in aromas to acidity, but there, there is, and, um, I think it’s just making everything a little bit brighter on the nose. It’s, it’s a really fun thing to, uh, to take in.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:32
It’s interesting and it’s different,

John Puma: 19:35
Yes.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:36
unique to dig into. And I like the idea of like grapefruit, something with a little bit of. Subdued citrus and a little bit of bitterness and, just really interesting aroma, it, it’s interesting because it’s not overtly one category. Like very often we smell a sake and it’s like overtly fruity and there’s very little discussion.

John Puma: 20:02
yes, we know, we know what to expect when we got that tropical fruit. It’s like, oh, there’s some pineapple, there’s, you know, mango, whatever. Cantaloupe Not always, but often cantaloupe. But I think that recently, um, and it might, I don’t know if it has anything to do with a trend or if it’s just what we’ve been choosing to taste on the show, but we’ve been getting some sakes recently that are fruity, but different fruit. And this is another example of that. It’s like, it’s still fruity, but it’s different and interesting and, and, uh, they’re branching out and doing something unusual, which I like.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:31
Yeah.

John Puma: 20:32
All right. You ready to have a sip?

Timothy Sullivan: 20:34
Yeah.

John Puma: 20:34
All right, let’s. Hmm. Well this is interesting.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:40
Hmm

John Puma: 20:41
Yeah. I wanna preface by saying I really like this. It is definitely doing some, some different, uh, different things and I, I like what they’re doing.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:55
Most nama sakes are not Kimoto usually,

John Puma: 21:01
Right.

Timothy Sullivan: 21:02
and I’m feeling like this is an interesting marriage or mixture of traditional NAMA flavors. But it’s also lower alcohol for a nama. It’s 15 and a half percent namas are usually 17 or so, and it’s got that Kimoto earthy vibe going on too. So it’s a great mixture of some NAMA elements and some Kimoto elements.

John Puma: 21:27
Yeah. And. It’s, um, it’s not one of those situations where the, they’re clashing or, or, or fighting for dominance or anything like that. It’s just ta it’s really tasty and it, I, these, these two things, you know, the nama elements and the Kimoto are, playing well together in my opinion. And I don’t. I don’t, as you mentioned, we don’t see a lot of, of sake like that. Same idea. You don’t see a lot of like, nama Yamahai. Right. This is, it’s very unusual. but this is really working for me.

Timothy Sullivan: 22:00
For an unpasteurized, nama sake, it’s pretty light bodied because of that lower alcohol, and it’s not exceptionally sweet either. It’s feels like, more dryness coming through.

John Puma: 22:17
Yeah, it is. Um, it is dry. Uh oh, it is on the dry side, I should say. It’s not, I mean, this is a, a a plus six. I don’t know if it’s, um, a plus six with a, within a city of two. So you would think it would be even more aggressively dry tasting, but, I don’t, it’s dry, but it’s not like dry. It’s not like bone dry. It’s not karakuchi dry, you know? at least not to me. What do you think?

Timothy Sullivan: 22:45
No, it’s not super dry. It’s really interesting. It’s light. It’s light and dry. Like it’s got a lightness to it, you know? That’s what keeps tripping me up.

John Puma: 22:54
It’s it’s light and also nama and a Kimoto and light. I don’t associate the word light with either of those things.

Timothy Sullivan: 23:00
Exactly.

John Puma: 23:01
Yeah. Oh, this is real good. I’m really enjoying this, I had never had this particular one before. Uh, I don’t know, have you, this is

Timothy Sullivan: 23:09
no, this is my first time.

John Puma: 23:11
All right. I like one. We get to have new sakes on the show. This is fun. Yeah. So can you, can you imagine yourself, you know, under the tree with this kind of sipping away a

Timothy Sullivan: 23:19
sure can. I’m holding my cup out right now, hoping for the cherry blossom to fall

John Puma: 23:24
Uh, I don’t think there’s one in your apartment, sadly, unless you’re, you’ve been holding out on me and you got tree, then, that’s just kind of over your setup.

Timothy Sullivan: 23:33
Well, John, you know what we should do? Is that. You and I both live in New York City and we’re tremendously privileged here to have some great cherry blossom orchards around town. There’s one on the upper West side here. There’s one at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. You said you have one out in Queens, is that right?

John Puma: 23:52
I do, I do. Right over by the tennis stadium where they do the US open.

Timothy Sullivan: 23:57
That’s awesome. Maybe we should get some premium Evian and head to the cherry blossom and experience this as best we can in New York. The, the cherry blossoms have not bloomed yet in the city, so we are ahead of the curve.

John Puma: 24:15
Yeah, maybe. Maybe that’s the move. Maybe that’s the move. you think, uh, maybe we can get Scott and Myshell, they might enjoy this as well. We’ll get some little, some bentos like we can eat, right. We’re allowed to eat in public. Right. Okay. Good.

Timothy Sullivan: 24:29
We can

John Puma: 24:30
In the park. I meant we’re allowed to eat in the park because, you know, sometimes they have like restrictions. You’re not even allowed to have like food and stuff like that, you know?

Timothy Sullivan: 24:37
Yeah.

John Puma: 24:39
Sounds good. I’m

Timothy Sullivan: 24:40
Yeah. So when I used to live at my previous apartment, which was also on the Upper West Side, but down by hundredth Street, there wasn’t a. There wasn’t a grove or a collection of cherry trees, but there was one cherry tree on 99th Street that I would always walk by on my way to the subway and I would check it every day, and I kind of adopted it as my own. Local cherry tree

John Puma: 25:11
All

Timothy Sullivan: 25:12
When it, when it blossoms, it is just amazing. It takes over the whole block and you just have to stare at it cuz it’s so beautiful. And it was my local cherry tree that was just closest to my apartment and it was on the way to the subway, so I would always walk by it. And when. The cherry blossoms start to come out this year. I always make a point to walk down to 99th Street and check it out, walk by, say hello to my, my former adopted cherry tree. There’s no place to sit down and have an evian or anything like that, but it’s wonderful just to stop by, say hello and. See the beauty of these trees when they’re in blossom. So I encourage everyone, if you’re in a part of a country that has cherry trees, when they start to blossom for the hanami season, for the Sakura season, please check them out, say hello, and uh, it’s, it’s a real thing of beauty and a great lesson from Japan to, uh, enjoy what we can. And acknowledge the impermanence of beauty. Right.

John Puma: 26:22
Yeah. Yeah, that was very well said, Tim. Thank you.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:26
Alright, good. Well, we hope that people will really enjoy cherry blossoms wherever they can see them. And of course, if you get the chance to go to Japan and experience them there. That is just the best and really, really special

John Puma: 26:47
That’s again, that’s on the list. That’s on the bucket list. Now, I must experience this at some point well, Tim, thank you very much for coming this week and, educating me and all of our listeners at home on the, the wonders of, Sakura viewing parties and Evian

Timothy Sullivan: 27:08
yes, uh, Poland Springs is also recommended.

John Puma: 27:12
Oh, okay. Well, I. Why did you say so?

Timothy Sullivan: 27:17
Well, John, great to taste with you. I look forward to our own. Hanami viewing here in the city in a few weeks. And, uh, special. Hello and thank you to our patrons as well. We want to say thank you for supporting our show. If you’re interested in joining our community on Patreon, all you have to do is visit. Patreon.com/SakeRevolution to learn more about supporting our show.

John Puma: 27:42
Yeah, we’ve got a couple of tiers over at the, Patreon site and you can find one that suits you, and while you’re looking at different sites, you can also visit sake revolution.com where you will find some very, very interesting and detailed show notes. Tim, I hope you’ve got some photos from your, uh, viewing party that you went to. Um, can you also upload the 4K video?

Timothy Sullivan: 28:05
I sure will. You know, I will!

John Puma: 28:07
All right. So that, if that, if that doesn’t get you to go check out the show notes, I don’t know what will actual footage of one of these events happening,

Timothy Sullivan: 28:15
And, and the car. and the car where I experienced,

John Puma: 28:19
is there a video of the car? Just the

Timothy Sullivan: 28:21
no, just a photo. But I do have video of the blossoms in full bloom.

John Puma: 28:25
Excellent. Excellent. That’s gonna be a lot of fun to take a look at. I haven’t seen this video, so I want, I I am, I’m ready for it. So, thanks again everybody for, for stopping by and listening, now it’s my favorite part of the show where we all take our glass and we raise them up. Remember to keep drinking sake and

Timothy Sullivan: 28:42
Kanpai.