Girls Getting To Like The Rough Stuff

[Mulboyne]

MDN: Kobe drop chosen as Japan's prime 'cup sake'

A sake brewed in Kobe and targeting women drinkers has been selected as the finest 'cup' sake in the country. Brewer Sawanotsuru's fine sake Hitohana Gurasu was the Grand Prix winner of the Japan Sake Champions Cup 05 held in Tokyo over the weekend. "Cup" sake is the name given to lower quality rice wine usually consumed directly from the glass in which it is sold. It is strongly associated with heavy drinking, older men, but the Grand Prix winner is targeted at women.

These "cup" drinks are definitely being marketed to female drinkers. One tachinomi chain in Tokyo runs two bars, Buchi and Buri, which serve these drinks and are aimed primarily at women.

[katakori]

damn! i am a woman...

[Taro Toporific]

damn! i am a woman...

No, I'm your bitch.
Here's theproof.

[kamome]

One tachinomi chain in Tokyo runs two bars, Buchi and Buri, which serve these drinks and are aimed primarily at women.[/i]

Note to Japan noobs: probably a good place to go for eye candy and pick-ups.

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: New 'shochu' liquor distillers to be allowed
TOKYO — The government plans to allow new entrants into the production of aromatic "shochu" distilled liquor by easing licensing regulations for the first time since the liquor law was enacted in 1940, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Tuesday. The National Tax Administration is set to relax its rules, with conditions, for manufacturing aromatic shochu liquor, which is traditionally made with such ingredients as rice, sweet potatoes, barley and buckwheat, the major business daily said.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Aromatic redo raises 'chuhai' sales
Sales of canned chuhai, or shochu-based cocktails, are seeing a sharp expansion, with its image evolving from seedy to chic. Chuhai used to be the down-market drink of choice for middle-aged men on tight budgets, but much of the recent sales increase is coming from demand among young women...more...

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Standing firm for tradition

...[U]ntil recently, tachi-nomi bars were often viewed as an embarrassing holdover from the hardscrabble days of postwar reconstruction. Favored by low-ranking Shinbashi salarymen, shitamachi diehards and manual laborers on the periphery of the brave new Japan, they were haunts of predominantly blue-collar clientele. After all, why stand if you could afford to sit down? In the last few years, though, that question has been stood on its head: Why pay more when it's just as much fun to stand?
...However, the real revolution in tachi-nomi is that it's no longer an exclusive male preserve. The new wave of bars is not merely women-friendly, but many are actually owned or run by women. For that reason, many are shunning sake and shochu in favor of wine. And, distancing themselves from all stigma of salaryman low-life, they call themselves (in Japanese) "stand bars."
...Perhaps the finest example of this new-generation tachi-nomi is Buchi. It's a sleek, chic, contemporary place on the outer rim of Shibuya's Shinsen-cho district with a plate-glass front, decor of steel and wood, and walls of midnight blue. Big enough to hold 30 or so at time, it manages to combine the casual ambience of a European cafe with the attention to detail you expect at a quality Tokyo restaurant. Buchi's dynamic young owner-manager, Hisae Iwakura, says her only goal was to create the kind of place she herself would like. "There are so many career women now, and they want somewhere to hang out in the evening," she points out. "Unlike many other places, I'm not jumping on any bandwagon. I want to create a place that will last. So that's why creating a nice interior was so important. And that's why all the counter staff are women."
...Iwakura is not only a trained sommelier, she has the equivalent qualification in sake tasting. That is why she has put equal emphasis on wine (18 bottles on the go), sake (30 varieties, all fine jizake packed in the kind of small 180-ml jars usually associated with rotgut one-cup sake) and hard liquor (70 shochu plus 200 whiskeys and other kinds of spirits).

Captain Japan and I have propped up the bar at Buchi and the sister bar Buri in Ebisu (see first post in this thread). Recommended.

[Mulboyne]

I think we get the idea now...

Japan Times: 'Cup sake' goes down well with the trendy
Sake is finding a new fan base for "cup sake," drunk straight from the single-serving container it is sold in. The boom among the younger generation is countering the traditional image of "oyaji no sake" (old man's sake) for the drink sold in 180-ml bottles or glass cups with metallic pull tops. The industry is hoping this trend will spark growth in sales and put an end to sluggish business seen in recent years...more...

[Mulboyne]

Telegraph: Tokyo's trendy new bars throw lifeline to the sake industry

Sake and shochu, traditional Japanese drinks that were once derided as old-fashioned and the tipple of boozy middle-aged men, are enjoying a boom among trendy young drinkers. Sales of sake, often described as rice wine but actually brewed from the grain, have fallen for years and the industry was in danger of dying out as its customers aged. But suddenly fashionable bars specialising in sake have sprung up all over Tokyo, attracting new and younger customers. Many, such as Buchi, in the popular Shibuya district, are tiny, with standing room only. But their stylish decor makes them a far cry from the dingy sake dens of old...more...

[Mulboyne]

Seattle Weekly: Shochu - Coming to a bar near you

...Shochu is also catching on in a few larger U.S. markets, like Los Angeles. Thanks to a loophole in California's booze laws, shochu that comes in under 25 percent alcohol is available in establishments that only hold a beer and wine license. This allows for shochu cosmos and lemon drops, without the costlier licenses and insurance—and shochu makers abroad are quickly modifying or creating their products to slip through the loophole. The lower alcohol of shochu has an upside for bartenders, too. Bartenders are liable for the overimbibing of others. Whereas two gin martinis can put some patrons in the danger zone, a shochu substitution cuts potency by a third...more...

[Mulboyne]

Now that tachi-nomi bars are ubiquitous in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the wheel has come full circle and a new tachi-kui sushi bar has just opened in Shibuya's Center Gai.



There are still a number of standing sushi bars around town but they used to be much more common. They seemed to die out as more fast food options became available and the kaiten chains began to dominate the low-end sushi market.

[Mulboyne]

Tachi-nomi just got a bit bigger. "Stands" in Shibuya is the new idea from the company that brought you Royal Host and Shakey's Pizza. It's designed by Uichi Yamamoto who was responsible for LOTUS in Jingu-mae.