Episode 376 - The Nectar of the Gods

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we're exploring the history of Japan's most famous drink: sake, or Japanese rice wine (though it turns out, 'sake' in Japanese doesn't necessarily refer to what we think of, nor is it actually a 'rice wine' in the technical sense). We're covering everything from tax laws to how to make your own sake using nothing but your own spit, so buckle up! It's gonna be a fun one.

Show notes here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:04.1	Audible has over 425,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android, Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:14.0	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership complete with credit for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:22.1	You can cancel any time and keep the free book or keep going with one of Audible's subscription offers. Go to audibletrial.com
0:28.4	slash Japan to claim your offer. This week I'm going to recommend Drink, a cultural history of
0:35.7	alcohol, by Ian Gately.
0:38.7	As we'll see in a moment, this is highly relevant to the topic of today's episode, and in general,
0:44.4	the history of alcohol and the history of drinking is one that's actually really
0:48.9	interestingly entangled with the broader history of humanity in a lot of fascinating ways.
0:54.2	Want to know how? Well, here's your chance. Go to audibletrial.com
0:58.1	slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 376, the nectar of the gods.
1:23.1	It is time, my friends, to tackle what I think is probably the most requested topic I've
1:28.2	gotten in the last few months, and I'm trying not to draw any conclusions about what you
1:33.1	all have been up to during your pandemic-related spare time here, but so many of you have
1:38.1	a lot of questions about the history of alcohol in Japan.
1:42.6	Now, here's the thing. There are, as anyone who remembers their first step into a liquor store back before they
1:48.4	knew anything about drinks, we'll recall, a lot of different ways people like to drink
1:52.8	alcohol.
1:54.1	I'm going to keep the focus tight here and only talk about a specific variant of Japanese
1:58.9	booze.
1:59.9	Specifically, we are focusing on sake, though
2:02.8	I might do a future episode on other Japanese alcohols if there's interest. And before we get
	...

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