Season 1. Episode 20. Do you know where to find the “Country of Beautiful Sake”? If you answered Japan’s AKITA prefecture – you’re right! Akita is a rural and rice-proud prefecture in the far north of Japan. This agricultural hub produces a lot of rice and a lot of sake. Timothy explains his encounters with one of the most famous foods from this region – Iburigakko. No Joke, this smoked, pickled daikon radish is one of the most perfect sake pairings you’ll ever find. From there, our hosts go on a deep dive into the culture and into two sakes from Akita – Akitabare Shunsetsu and Amanoto Tokubetsu Junmai. It’s fun to discuss how these sakes with similar stats come across differently on the palate. You can taste the pride in their rice and rural heritage. Although John and Timothy are missing Japan and bummed they can’t travel there now, this won’t stop them from planning their next trip. Get out your JR Railpass as Akita is now high on the list.

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

Skip to: 02:54 About Akita

Mentioned in this episode: Iburigakko, one of the best “otsumami” (sake appetizer) that is native to Akita prefecture.

Skip to: 16:13 Sake Tasting: Akitabare Shunsetsu Honjozo Nama

Akitabare Shunsetsu Honjozo Nama

Brewery: Akita Shuzo
Classification: Honjozo, Nama
Acidity: 1.4
Alcohol: 14.5%
Prefecture: Akita
Seimaibuai: 62%
SMV: +2.0
Rice Type: Gin No Sei

View On UrbanSake.com

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Skip to: 18:39 Sake Tasting: Amanoto Tokubetsu Junmai

Amanoto Tokubetsu Junmai

Alcohol: 16.2%
Classification: Tokubetsu Junmai
Prefecture: Akita
Rice Type: Gin No Sei
Seimaibuai: 55%
SMV: +4.0
Acidity: 1.5
Brewery: Asamai Shuzo
Sake Name English: Heaven’s Door
Importer: Vine Connections (USA)

View On UrbanSake.com

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Skip to: 30:19 Show Closing

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

John Puma: 0:21
Hello, and welcome to Sake Revolution. America’s first sake podcast. I’m your host, John Puma from TheSakeNotes.com. Also the administrator of the internet sake discord and an all around sake nerd.

Timothy Sullivan: 0:34
And I’m your host Timothy Sullivan. I’m a Sake Samurai, sake educator, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website and together John and I will be tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our very best to make it fun and easy to understand. So John, do you know what I’ve been doing a lot of recently?

John Puma: 0:58
You have not been grilling on the fire escape, right. That’s something that we talked about and decide that would be a bad idea.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:04
No. I’ve been planning out imaginary itineraries to Japan. We cannot go to Japan right now because of international travel restrictions. And I miss Japan so much.

John Puma: 1:20
I really do too. And this is actually kind of embarrassing, but, my wife and I do the same thing, but we actually like make spreadsheets and be like, okay, well this date, we’re going to give you here and we’re going to do this. And yeah, it’s how we’re getting through it’s. this is how we’re doing it. It’s a healthy crutch.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:37
Well, traveling in Japan is just so much fun.

John Puma: 1:42
it is.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:43
Yeah, I love the bullet train. It’s so easy to get around and you can get from one place to the next very quickly and it’s comfortable and clean and it’s just so great.

John Puma: 1:54
and you can drink on the train, which is great to drinking sake. Of course,

Timothy Sullivan: 1:58
Oh, absolutely. You can get a little bento box and it’s your cup sake and it’s fantastic. now I want to go even more. Thanks a lot, John.

John Puma: 2:09
Well, you brought this up, this isn’t my fault.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:11
So what prefectures have you visited in Japan?

John Puma: 2:14
Well, most recently, I think we talked about this on the show. we went to, Hokkaido and Yamagata and then over the Tokyo. Cause I like to always end my trip with a nice. Week or so in Tokyo, but I do want to get out and see other parts of the country. And this is the first time that we ever went North. Like I’ve never gone anywhere. I went to Sendai once for like one afternoon, but I’d never done like a multi day trip North of Tokyo. It was really interesting.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:46
Yeah. There’s a lot of interesting places in the North. yeah. Have you been to Iwate?

John Puma: 2:52
No, I actually have not.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:54
What about one of my favorite places? What about Akita?

John Puma: 2:59
that is on the list. I keep this going to happen the next time we go North and it’s going to be, it needs to be in the winter time. Cause I want to experience all that snow, but gonna happen.

Timothy Sullivan: 3:08
Well, Akita is an amazing place. Let’s talk about it a little bit. I have been there. I’ve done a few tours through Akita visiting some different sake breweries. And if there’s two things that people in Akita are proud of, one is their sake and one is their rice.

John Puma: 3:29
Yeah, I think that when Chizuko was on the show, she was telling us how proud of the local rice that they are and how growing up that was something that was ingrained in her.

Timothy Sullivan: 3:39
Yeah. She’s of course from Akita, that’s her, home prefecture. And, I really learned a lot about Akita from her. They have a very famous food from Akita. it’s called “iburigakko” and it is smoked daikon pickle

John Puma: 4:01
What?

Timothy Sullivan: 4:03
you know, daikon, right.

John Puma: 4:05
I, yes. now number one, I have not heard of this. Just clear the air. Cause you asked if I’d heard of it. so no, daikon. So it’s a pickled radish?

Timothy Sullivan: 4:17
Well, have you ever gotten Japanese food? And there are these little yellow crunchy bits of daikon on the side. Yeah, those little yellow, Things that is daikon pickle. So it’s, they take a daikon radish and they pickle it and it turns kind of a yellowish color. And what they do in Akita is they take those pickled daikon whole like big, long ones and they put it in a hut. And they light smoke and they smoke it for several days and the outer layers become darker in color and smoky, and the smoke permeates the entire pickle and then they slice it up and they serve it as an otsumami or as a sake appetizer. And it sounds crazy, but I’m

John Puma: 5:05
Yes, it does sound very crazy.

Timothy Sullivan: 5:08
it is delicious. And one way that Chizuko taught me to eat iburigakko was by putting some cheese on it. So you have the little daikon pickle that’s smoked and you put a little piece of a camembert cheese or a brie cheese, a creamy cheese and eat it. Oh my God. It’s so good. And it pairs beautifully with sake.

John Puma: 5:31
Now you’ve seen it. It sounds to me like you’re getting a little nostalgic for this food. is this, can you get this locally? Is this like a thing that you can, that any place in New York makes?

Timothy Sullivan: 5:43
Nobody here makes it, but I have had it here in New York, It has to be specially imported from Akita. All

John Puma: 5:52
right. Well,

Timothy Sullivan: 5:53
If you travel to Akita and you go to the different train stations it’s like the number one thing that people want from Akita. So all the gift shops and souvenir shops have pickled smoked daikon, ready to go.

John Puma: 6:07
that is, I would never have thought of. Pickling. I mean, I wouldn’t have thought of pickling it, but I certainly wouldn’t have thought I would have thought of, uh, smoking a pickle that’s inter or smoke smoking a pickled product.

Timothy Sullivan: 6:22
Chizuko told me that she had like a special connection. a friend of her second cousin knows this little old lady who makes the best smoked pickles. And she does it in this little hut. And you know, she’s on a little waiting list to get the smoked pickles.

John Puma: 6:37
there’s a smoked pickle waiting list because of course there is. All right.

Timothy Sullivan: 6:44
we don’t have any to taste today, but trust me,its amazing.no amazing. And if you ever see anything on a Japanese food menu about iburigakko or smoked daikon pickle, you have to try it. it’s amazing with sake.

John Puma: 6:59
I have to. All right. this is a command from the Sake Samurai.

Timothy Sullivan: 7:03
Yes. So where is our Kita located?

John Puma: 7:07
well, it looks like I just missed it. it’s just North of Yamagata. If I would have aimed a little bit higher. I would have accidentally ended up there and been very surprised. but yeah, it’s, it looks like it’s nestled nicely between Yamagata and it looks like Aomori on above to the North

Timothy Sullivan: 7:24
That’s right. It is in the far North of Honshu or the main Island of Japan, but it’s on the sea of Japan side. So on the sea of Japan, there’s, Niigata which I’m familiar with. There’s Yamagata above that, which you’re familiar with. And on top of both of those prefectures is. Akita. So it is very far North and it is on the sea of Japan, not the Pacific side of the Island. It’s a relatively small prefecture and it is very well known for agriculture as well. So there’s not a lot of developed industry. there’s a lot of farm land and a lot of agriculture. So that’s why the rice plays such an outsized role in everyone’s life there, I think because they’re really proud of their farming and their rice.

John Puma: 8:08
And when you have a place that’s proud of their rice, you’re going to have a place that’s proud of their sake. I’m assuming.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:15
Yes. Did you know that they even have a term to say how proud they are of their sake? It’s called the Bishu o Koku, which means, which means country of beautiful sake.

John Puma: 8:33
All right. they’re kinda, that’s a giving themselves. No, that is not. That is not humble.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:39
They are putting it right out

John Puma: 8:40
That is not a humble brag. That is very overt.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:44
The country of beautiful sake. And there are about 37 active sake breweries. In Akita right now, but it’s one of the top producing prefectures as far as volume goes.

John Puma: 9:00
Uh, I don’t know if we get a ton of sake from there, a ton of those, you know, of that massive amount. But, whenever I’m in Japan, a lot of the trend setting, the hip sakes are often from there. And I always find that to be very interesting and it makes me, it always makes me curious about going to Akita one of these days. but again, just, it just hasn’t had the opportunity yet.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:25
well, we’re going to put it on both of our imaginary itineraries for our next imaginary trip to Japan.

John Puma: 9:32
And then we can have our imaginary, on location, sake revolution episode from Akita. That’ll be

Timothy Sullivan: 9:38
As we always say, because we can travel again, as soon as we can get together again, we’re going to take our microphones here, there, and everywhere, but Akita is definitely high on the list.

John Puma: 9:49
Yeah, very much so, So when you went over there, did you actually take the Shinkansen up or over, or did you fly in?

Timothy Sullivan: 9:56
Nope. I very rarely fly domestically inside Japan because I love the bullet train so much. So I took the bullet train when I went to Akita and I was there in the winter. And let me tell you, it is a snowy place. So the snow is very deep. And, it’s very picturesque place, lots of mountains and, very beautiful, really good food. Really good rice.

John Puma: 10:25
Ooh. I’m getting a little jealous here. that’s interesting that you usually take the train. I actually find myself taking domestic flights very often. And that’s mostly just because it’s a, sometimes a little bit quicker. And the experience of flying in Japan is very different from the experience of flying in America in that. you’re through security and moments. They don’t really mind if you have drinks on you. Even if they are an open beverages there, they just slap a sticker on it. They move it to the other side of the security barricade and you go through and then they hand it back to you when you’re done and they’re, and then you’re, and then you can bring it on the plane with you. It’s not even a, it’s not even a concern. so yeah, that’s interesting. I have done the trains though, and they are one of the most unique and interesting things about going to Japan.

Timothy Sullivan: 11:18
Absolutely. The trains are always on time, which is really. Cool and fun. If you’re running late, it’s not cool or fun, but if you’re on time, it’s very cool and very fun.

John Puma: 11:30
but they’re also frequent, which is good. If you’re running late.

Timothy Sullivan: 11:33
absolutely. And one of the reasons I love to take the bullet train in Japan is because you can get the, the rail pass. So as a foreigner, have you ever done that? Yeah. You can get an all you can ride jr. Rail pass jr. Stands for Japan railroad, I think. And you can get a pass that lets you take any train except for a very few exceptions and you can just ride wherever you want to. And you just show this magic pass and they’ll let you through the gate. You can get on any train you want to. It’s fantastic. And Japanese people are always jealous of the tourists who have this magic pass to get on any train. They’re like, wow, what is that?

John Puma: 12:14
I mean, yeah, it’s a really great way to promote tourism and to help foreigners who like would maybe be a little nervous about spending to go to places in Japan that they maybe hadn’t been before. This is like, well, no, it’s included just go. And it really encourages that kind of thing. Encourages experimenting with different parts of the country, which I think that a lot of people go to Japan. They have like maybe one or two places that are stereotypical. It’s like, Oh, these are the places you go to in Japan. And then they don’t go anywhere else, but being like, Hey, here’s this pass? It’s, you know, you’re, if you’re going to go, if you’re you go from Tokyo to Kyoto and back that the price of that by itself pays for the pass. So if you w yeah, so why not go everywhere else while you’re out there? It’s great. It’s wonderful.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:00
I don’t think Akita is high on the list for many tourists who might be taking their first trip to Japan. They want to go to Kyoto or they want to see Mount Fuji or something like that. But. people who maybe have been there a few times and they’re looking for a different experience. I’ve even heard that there’s farmer homestays, where instead of staying in a hotel, you can stay with a farming family and they’ll put you up in their house and they’ll cook for you that evening. It’s like a little homestay hostel type of thing. That sounds really great to me. They’ll tell you about no.

John Puma: 13:35
I don’t know if it’s my style.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:38
I think it’s great. You get to meet the locals and you get to stay in a farmhouse. And

John Puma: 13:43
That’s the part that I wasn’t wild about. Staying in the farm house

Timothy Sullivan: 13:48
yeah. John, are you five star luxury all the way?

John Puma: 13:51
No, I am not five star luxury all the way, but there’s a, I’m just a little shy about farms sometimes. That’s all. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Timothy Sullivan: 14:01
You know, all this talk about Akita is making me crave Akita Sake.

John Puma: 14:06
Well, I hope you brought some because I did,

Timothy Sullivan: 14:11
Oh, I’ve got, I keep the sake too. W

John Puma: 14:13
look at that.

Timothy Sullivan: 14:14
God. So, John, what I keep that sake. Did you bring to taste today?

John Puma: 14:19
I brought, Akita bought AKitabare, Shunsetsu, which they call these spring snow. And this is Tim. This is interesting. This is. A Nama Honjozo yeah. And it seems a little exciting. a little different from my usual sake. I don’t think it’s going to be, as fragrant as my usual selections. So you guys, I can branch out. Yeah, there’s a, honjozo Nama. The, seimaibuai is 62%, which is very interesting. It’s a very unusual number. And the rice type is called gin no sei, which is something a little bit local. What about you?

Timothy Sullivan: 15:03
I have a. Very interesting sake. The brand name is Ama Noto.

John Puma: 15:10
Amanoto

Timothy Sullivan: 15:10
I’m Noto. This is a Tokubetsu Junami, this is from Akita and, the rice is also gin no sei!

John Puma: 15:18
Hey, you don’t say

Timothy Sullivan: 15:20
and our rice milling is 55% and the, Nihonshudo, that measurement of sweet to dryness is a plus four. So I expect a very lightly dry body and an acidity of 1.5. So very middle of the road for the acidity as well.

John Puma: 15:38
my Nihonshudo is plus two and acidity is 1.4. So we’re not venturing far from one another here.

Timothy Sullivan: 15:45
Yep. And the English name for the sake that I have. Amanoto. They call it heaven’s door.

John Puma: 15:53
All right. That’s nice. And I said, I’d mentioned mine is, spring snow, which I don’t know. Does it get cold enough in Akita that there was snow in the spring?

Timothy Sullivan: 16:04
I think there’s snow in the spring. I think they named it that from experience.

John Puma: 16:10
Well, I imagine they would know better than we do.

Timothy Sullivan: 16:13
All right. So I’m curious about yours. So why don’t you go first?

John Puma: 16:17
All right. Let me open this up. So right off the bat, the aromas, not at all, what I was expecting, I thought I was going to get almost nothing. From this cause because of its Honjozo Nama nature, I guess some Nama should have clued me in that there would be a lot more aroma, but I wasn’t thinking about that. It’s actually a little bit fruity. This reminds me just a tiny bit of how I felt about the aroma on a Yamagata Honjozo. That we had in a previous episode from Gassan Ryu, where there is some restrained fruit on it. It’s not overwhelming, but it is very fresh. And it’s got that almost like almost that light, fruity addition, like, little fresh cut grass, a little bit. Very nice. And then we taste it. This is very interesting. This is very unique. I don’t think I’ve had a sake that tasted exactly like this before. It’s extremely light and. It’s got a nice little finish and it’s got some sharpness on it. A nice little dry finish. Yeah. This is a really nice, like warm day Sake. And I’m not just saying that because I’m in my, apartment with the air conditioning off in August.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:10
well, I think the Honjozo Nama unpasteurized combination is something that’s really rare. It’s not common at all.

John Puma: 18:17
no, not in the least. And this is just very smooth and crisp and it has a nice little dry finish to it. I really am. I’m really liking this. I didn’t know what to expect going in. I have not had this okay. Before, and I’m really enjoying it. Tim. What about your Amanoto?

Timothy Sullivan: 18:39
Alright, so I’m going to open this up, right? right.

John Puma: 18:57
What do you have there?

Timothy Sullivan: 19:00
This is going to sound strange, but it actually smells a little spicy,

John Puma: 19:04
Okay.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:06
peppery

John Puma: 19:07
Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:07
Yeah. I mean, not overt. It smells very good, but it, instead of being floral or fruity, it feels like it’s a little bit savory or spicy, a very gentle aroma. It’s not a very overt, it’s more restrained. I don’t have a light aroma and let’s give it a taste. So it’s, definitely dry. And there’s a back note of earthiness here. There’s a little bit of umami and it tastes like, a little bit of cooked rice or steamed rice. There’s a ricey note on the palate. there’s a little bit of umami. There’s a bit of fullness to it, but it’s all handled with a very deft hand, very nice balance to it. but instead of being, you know, fruity or floral, this is more ricey. And I think from the kingdom of beautiful sake that is so famous for their rice. This is a very good representative, sake, I think. when I envision a Kita sake, I think of something that is very similar to this profile. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this sake, so it’s really fun to revisit it.

John Puma: 20:30
Nice. This is I’m really thoroughly enjoying this. The more I sip on it. It’s. Kind of building and changing a little bit as I have more of it and early seeing how my perception of it does change. And like, it’s, I totally understand why they’re calling this spring, snow now. It’s so, just light and delicate and it’s, you know, when I hear about snow with it, I now I’m like, Oh yeah, I can totally associate this with snow. It’s very light. And. Chill.

Timothy Sullivan: 21:04
Well, I’ve read a few things about the brewery I’m tasting here today. the brewery name is Asamai. Asamai brewery. Yeah, Amanoto is the brand name. It was founded in 1917. And they are a rice growing brewery. So the rice used to make the sake is actually grown by the brewery. And, you know, in the wine world, estate grown grapes are pretty common where the wine maker is going to grow their own fruit. But what a lot of people don’t know about Japan is that most sake brewers do not grow their own rice. this is kind of the exception.

John Puma: 21:48
Are there some laws regarding growing your own rice and the rice and needing to buy from rice growers?

Timothy Sullivan: 21:56
I think what you’re thinking of, there’s a law that the rice has to be graded before you use it. So you don’t necessarily have to buy it from somebody else, but there’s this organization in Japan, called the J a it’s a cooperative that. Grades the rice. So, Oh, I lost sake. Rice must be graded before it’s sold. So it needs to go through this grading process. But as a sake producer, you are allowed to grow your own rice. So it’s not against the rules, but the rice has to be graded.

John Puma: 22:29
Alright. Mine. I keep the bought a, the name. Yeah. The brewery is just Akitabare brewing company. and apparently on one of those labels, there is a phrase, a Koshigi Jun Tsukuri which is the old way. And so apparently that’s kind of the. the thought process and the philosophy of this, of this brewery is to kind of do things in the old way. They don’t really do a lot of modernization. They try to do things as traditionally as possible. they do, you know, small trade offs apparently here and there. But I think that, you know, a company is probably doing things a little bit old fashioned. That’s pretty cool.

Timothy Sullivan: 23:18
Well, I’m retasting mine again. I’m retasting and the rice, as it’s warming up just a little bit in the glass, the rice flavors are coming forward even more so, but it does not lose its balance. It is still so balanced and delicious, but the savory ness of that rice is coming out a little bit more really delicious. This is not usually the type of sake that I go to automatically, as you know, I like really clean, crisp, and light sakes. This has much more depth than that, but, thinking of. The sake producers, the brewers at Amanoto, also growing the rice. It makes perfect sense that they want to brew a sake in a style that showcases that rice and almost like puts a frame around that rice flavor and says, this is what we’re about. And it’s so cool to taste that in the glass, like know that the people who brewed this sake also made the rice and you can taste it. it’s just fascinating.

John Puma: 24:25
I have been to, some sake breweries, obviously none in Akita that. Grow their own rice. And one of the things that they get out of that at least that they had to say to us was that for them creating sake begins in the rice field. And so they’re cultivating that rice with a specific intent and that they want to make a sake. That’s going to have a specific end tasted mind. They’re going to start by, making sure that the rice they’re growing is getting XYZ nutrients. And not having ABC nutrients in order to make the, you know, shape the shinpaku in a specific way and make this sake the way they want to without having to work so hard to do it without having to mill so much so to speak, which I always thought was very interesting.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:12
Yeah. You know, a lot of families in Japan, out in the country, they may have a little plot of land or a little paddie and families in rural Japan often might grow one or two patties of rice just for their own consumption. It’s just like, you know, in the U S you might have a garden out back and you might grow some vegetables. But I think a lot of sake brewers, the master brewers who make sake are so interested in their craft and so dedicated to their craft, that they study the art of rice growing as well. I know several master brewers who also grow rice on the side, maybe not to supply their whole brewery, but they so want to study those intricacies of rice that you were talking about how to get the shinpaku a certain size or how to. Create the best rice they can for their particular sake. So it really taps into the craftsman culture of Japan, craftspeople dedicat themselves so fully in Japan to whatever they’re doing. If it’s making sake or, Ikebana flower arranging or whatever they’re doing, they really dedicate themselves heart and soul don’t. They.

John Puma: 26:25
they do. And I think it’s interesting and it’s a Testament to the way that they. kind of the way they see things. And when they do things the way they think they should be done, I think is you and I, so these, the way we’re describing these sake and the way that we’re experiencing them seems to be quite different. And these sakes are made with the same rice from the same prefecture. and. These are quite different. Like, you know, yours, your yours is coming off very earthy and minus this dry crisp, just extremely light sake.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:59
Well, one thing that could explain that, John is that yours is an alcohol added style sake and mine is a junmai pure rice style. So that’s one thing that I think layers a little bit of difference on the styles of sake that we have.

John Puma: 27:14
Right. And this is also, as I mentioned earlier, this is unpasteurized, whereas yours has presumably been pasteurized twice. Yeah, I really, and finding myself just in love with this sake. It’s so good. And it is not my usual style, but there’s something really nice about it.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:35
I couldn’t agree more. I’m having the same reaction to my sake, this kind of ricey, but balanced sake. This is not my usual style, but it is really fun and super enjoyable. And it just. It is so flavorful that there’s just a lot to savour when you sip it really delicious.

John Puma: 27:58
as this one warms up, getting a little bit of rice on this end. Not like a, not overwhelming, not just, you

Timothy Sullivan: 28:07
know,

John Puma: 28:08
not Niigata levels of ricey-ness, as I always say that. People that love Niigata sake. they always tell me I’m wrong. but very like, you know, I think you use the phrase once I really enjoyed that was, someone has a bowl of steamed rice in the other roo wafting,

Timothy Sullivan: 28:24
Wafting rice Aromas.

John Puma: 28:25
Except that’s like the flavor version of that. It’s just a very subtle hints of that steamed rice. Very nice stuff, though. This is, Very much exceeding my expectations for it. That’s fantastic. Well, John, I think there’s no doubt about it. Akita is on our to do list. Isn’t it? We’re never going to finish. We’re never going to get done. Although, you know, you know, once they allow us to go back to Japan, I’ll do an episode, every prefecture in the country. I don’t care. I want to have a good time. I want to go back. I want to enjoy all of the local sake. I want to go to all of the local izkakyas. I’ll even visit a few breweries with you.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:05
Well, John, you know what I want to do? I want to take you to. A farmer’s homestay hostel and we’ll do an episode from the Akita countryside interviewing ma and PA farmer from rice farmer from Akita how about that?

John Puma: 29:20
Oh, okay. So it’s only rice farming. These farms that they’re going to is just rice.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:25
No, there’s all kinds of farms, but we’ll go to, we’ll go to a rice farm homestay. we can get all of our rice questions answered in one,

John Puma: 29:32
In one in all in one shot. All right, good. And I’ll can I run my hands through some, ginnosei and a that’ll be a nice bookend for this episode.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:42
Absolutely. Well, we were our to do list for future episodes is growing longer and longer.

John Puma: 29:48
growing longer and longer, and, subject to this pandemic subsiding, but we’re going to get there. We’re all going to get there.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:55
I have a lot of hope for the future. I am not feeling down. We’re going to be in Japan before we know it.

John Puma: 30:03
That’s right.

Timothy Sullivan: 30:04
So Akita was really enjoyable. Wasn’t it?

John Puma: 30:07
yeah, our virtual, tasting tour. Yes, it was wonderful.

Timothy Sullivan: 30:10
Yeah. I’m a big fan of Akita and I hope all of our listeners out there will try Akita sake really soon.

John Puma: 30:16
I definitely need to get out there one of these days.

Timothy Sullivan: 30:19
Well, thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. We really hope you are enjoying our show. If you’d like to show your support for sake revolution, one way to really help us out would be to take a couple minutes and leave us a written review on Apple podcasts. it’s. One of the best ways for you to help us to get the word out about our show.

John Puma: 30:38
That’s right. and if you can’t do that, make sure you tell a friend and then subscribe and then tell your friend to subscribe. This is how we get a lot of people subscribing, subscribe, wherever you download your podcasts. and then every week when we release a new episode, it will magically show up on your device of choice. Cause we don’t want you to miss an episode. You don’t want to miss an episode. You don’t want your friend to miss an episode. So subscribe and you won’t.

Timothy Sullivan: 31:04
And as always to learn more about any of the topics or the sakes, as we talked about in today’s episode, just visit our website at SakeRevolution.com for all the detailed show notes.

John Puma: 31:17
and if you have a burning sake questions that you need answered. We want to hear from you, reach out to us at [email protected] so that you can hear your question answered on the air. So until next time, please remember to keep drinking sake and Kanpai