Sampling sake at Nihonshu Stand Moto izakaya. Let: A brimming sake glass. Opposite: Neon on the streets of Shinjuku
WHAT IS SAKE?
Sake is, essentially, rice and water, with an alcohol content of around 15%. It’s brewed like beer, rather than distilled like spirit, and there are five major types, ranging from ‘ginjo’, which is smooth and fruity, to the unpasteurised ‘namazake’, which is fresh and sweet and only available in Japan.
FIRST, A CONFESSION. BEFORE
I set out on my quest to ind the perfect sake, everything I knew about the drink could be written onto the side of a chopstick. At best, the sake selection on a drinks menu in Japanese restaurants at home in London provided a brief distraction from the more important business of summoning chicken katsu. I knew it was made with rice, but how was I meant to drink it? Like a shot? Ice-cold like vodka? At the end of the meal like a digestivo?
Clearly, let loose on the streets of Tokyo, a crass amateur like myself would need some guidance. I enlisted the help of Daniela Baggio Morano, a half Japanese, half Italian guide with a particular mission to help visitors make sense of the city’s sometimes bafling food and drink scene.
We meet in the district of Shinjuku on a rainy night, when all of Tokyo seems on the move, scurrying through the splashy streets under transparent plastic umbrellas like a sea of giant, misplaced jellyish. The wet streets relect the neon signs ixed to every bit of building, lashing advertising slogans or the latest J-pop video. Promoters stand in the doorways of shops, bars and strip clubs, their sales pitches lost on the sodden, preoccupied passersby.
Resisting their calls, too, Daniela leads me into a modest basement shopping centre and into an equally modest izakaya, or pub: Nihonshu Stand Moto. Eight customers stand at the horseshoe-shaped bar, bags and briefcases neatly stacked into baskets at their feet. We take our places beside them, and conical glasses promptly appears in front us.