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🇯🇵 Understanding Shochu: Japan’s Best-Selling Spirit You’ve Never Heard Of
The Japanese have been making shochu for about five hundred years. That sounds ancient, until you remember that sake has been around for at least 2,000 years. By Japanese drinking standards, shochu is practically a startup. Shochu’s origin story is different, too. While sake grew up around gods, emperors and temples, shochu grew up in…
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🍶 Understanding Sake: The Drink That Explains Japan
Sake has been part of Japanese life for more than 2,000 years, which makes determining exactly who invented it a little like identifying the first person who looked at grapes and thought, I wonder what happens if I leave these unsupervised in a bucket. What began with rice, water and fermentation became something much bigger than…
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🇯🇵 What to Drink in Japan: A Sip-by-Sip Guide to Japanese Drinks Culture
If you want to understand a country, don’t just visit its museums. Go stand in the drinks aisle of the nearest grocery store. Watch what everyone else is drinking. Order something you’ve never heard of. I’ve spent more than twenty years studying wine and spirits, and whenever we travel, I am obsessed with what I…
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🌋 Mt. Sakurajima: Between Eruptions
We are docked in Kagoshima today – the southernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago. Extremely windy today, but the sun is out – a good laundry hanging forecast. Kagoshima is home to Japan’s most active volcano, Mt. Sakurajima. Her last major eruption was only about three weeks ago. Dammit. I would have loved to photograph…
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🛳️ A Day at Sea: Sportsing on the Lido Deck
Sometime around 2am, our ship went through the Strait of Kanmon, a narrow waterway separating Japan’s Honshu and Kyushu islands. And, courtesy of some lingering jet lag, I was awake for it. So, I got up and snapped a photo as we passed under the bridge. The iPhone 17 Pro Max handles low light remarkably…
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🇯🇵 The Beppu Hot Springs: Welcome to Hell
Steady rain today. ☔️ We’re with the herd this morning. The ship did a great job making sure everyone had an umbrella. A golf umbrella. So, the whole herd is armed with umbrellas, and no one has peripheral vision. It’s umbrella bumper cars. So far, I have been poked in the face, the ear, and my…
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🇯🇵 Kochi Castle: What Goes Up Must Come Down
Ken and I were exhausted last night. Can’t decide if it was jet lag or a Kobe beef coma. Probably some of both. We’re in Kochi, Japan today. Arrived into port this morning to a very colorful, musical flag-waving welcome. Ken: This song slaps! 🎶 Me: I can’t believe you just said slaps. Kochi Castle We…
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🇯🇵 Kobe: Sake & Beef, with a Side of Shinto
Today’s theme: Sake and beef with a side of Shinto. We spent the day in Kobe, which is famous for two things: beef and sake. Rather than join the ship’s excursion herd, we hired a guide so we could go at our own pace. Sake Brewery Museum We started our day at the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery…
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🇯🇵 Tokoname: Home of the Luckiest Cats in Japan
A quick note before I get started: Many of you have reached out about the major earthquake in northern Japan today. Our current location is in the south of Japan (see map), well away from the affected area. And one of the safest places to be during an earthquake and tsunami is at sea. So we are just fine. Thank you for checking…
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🇯🇵 Embarkation Day & What I Learned About Laundry in Japan
Embarkation day. Ken and I were both wide awake at 3am. Jet lag clearly isn’t done with us yet. And once we were awake, we were starving. Emergency granola bars to the rescue. At breakfast this morning, I tried aloe yogurt. Yes, aloe. It tasted exactly like a skincare product. Ken: “What did you think it was…
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🇯🇵 A Full Day in Tokyo: A Watch, a Knife, and a Tea Ceremony
Oh, it’s been a DAY. Buckle up! Slept for 10 glorious hours last night. Like some kind of teenager. Feeling much more human today. We only had one full day in Tokyo before boarding our ship, so I wanted to maximize our time. Tokyo is the largest city on earth – 37 million people in…
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🇯🇵 First (Jetlagged) Impressions of Tokyo
We just returned home from a 2-1/2 week trip to Asia – a Regent Seven Seas cruise that started from Tokyo, traveled around the southern half of Japan, then to Seoul, and Shanghai. We covered 2,942 nautical miles – about like going from New York to Los Angeles. Lots to unpack. I will share my travelogues…