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Even in Japan, most people have never seen the inside of a sake brewery. While a few breweries

do offer tours, many don't. And only the workers who make the sake really see the whole process.

So, the brewing of sake can seem mysterious and almost magical. Hannah Kershner is an American

journalist who's been working in Japan for six years, writing about food and craft. When

we heard that Hannah spends her winters helping out at a small sake brewery, we asked if she could

take our listeners inside. Not only do we get to peek at how sake is made, she brings us

an underdog story about the head brewer and owner, Fumiyaki Matsuda. The brewery is in Yamanaka Onsen,

a small hot spring town in Ishikawa Prefecture. It's up in the mountains near the sea of Japan.

Hannah literally wrote a book on the town of Yamanaka. It's called Waterwood and Wild Things. Her

experience at the sake brewery started as research for a chapter in that book.

In 14 generations, the brewery had never employed a foreigner or a woman. So, Hannah says it took

...