Drinking - Motorcycling Japan

Do not drink and ride!

Japan has strict drinking laws. And no restaurant is allowed to sell you drinks if you pull up in a vehicle. If you park across the road, civilian vigilante guards are likely to spot you. There's only one way to enjoy the alcoholic delicacies of Japan: Leave your motorcycle parked at your hotel.

The national drink is Sake, and there are 10,000 different lables. The top brew is Dai Ginzoushu, which is made of the essence of rice grain. For the best sake 60 % of the rice grain is polished away leaving only the best and most fragrant core to be fermented and brewed. Sake matures in drums at 16° Celcius similar to the way wine is cellared in France. As a patron told us in a Sushi-Ya in Otaru, top-grade Sake should neither be drunk hot nor cold, but Jo-On, or cellar temperature. Granted, no Gaijin would ever be expected to understand such finesse. But try it out! The next time you are in a Japanese restaurant, Izakaya or put order your Sake Jo-On and the world will come to a stop.

In Yuzawa, where Japan's best Sake is supposed to come from, we inquire about visiting a Sake brewery and eventually find Kimura Sake Brewery. Mr. Kimura, the owner, personally welcomes us on a rainy day and shows us all around his brewery. It's late September and the rice harvest is not yet in, so Mr. Kimura has time. He allows us a sampling of his best and we leave his brewery with a bottle of fine Dai Ginzoshu, high-level sake, for Yen 3780.

The most impressive way we were served Sake was at Ari-No-Michi, or at "The Ant-Road" restaurant in Tokushima. The Sushi-Ya-San first placed a narrow glass into a wooden cup and poured the Sake until it reached the brim of the glass, then he continued pouring as the reaches the brim overflowed into the wooden cup, and again continued pouring until also the cup was about to overflow with the precious liquid.

The other great passion we developed was for Japanese Whiskey. Some of the best single-malt distillates come from Nikka Whiskey Distilling Co., its Yoichi and Miyagikyo whiskies. Suntory Ltd. has an attractive selection, too, including Yamazaki and Hakushu whiskeys.

Drinking is a serious pass-time for people in the evening. It is not uncommon to see a patron empty a large bottle of Shochu all by himself. Also women indulge in beer and Sake, and on the whole Japan is refreshingly honest, pragmatic and tolerant about alcohol consumption. I like that.

Which does not go to say that there aren't unhappy situations. In Takayama, a most picturesque place in the Japan Alps, we stumbled into a bar named Desolation Row, as in a Bob Dylan song. Ken the owner played one great vinyl record after the other and insisted “This bar is a mistake”. We ended up comforting each other until 2 AM, and in the end we had difficulty making Ken accept money for the wine and whiskey.