Sake fights fallout of Japan's triple disaster

[AsahinaKimi]

Five for the road: A lineup of Tohoku brews at Mitsuya Sake in Nishi-Ogikubo, Tokyo. The brands are (from left) Daishichi and Kokken (Fukushima), Tsuki no Wa (Iwate), Urakasumi (Miyagi) and Dewazakura (Yamagata). MELINDA JOE PHOTO

By MELINDA JOE
Special to The Japan Times

After surviving the double disaster of the magnitude 9 earthquake and towering tsunami that damaged more than 100 sake breweries in northeastern Japan on March 11, sake producers in Tohoku thought that the situation could hardly get worse. But when the media reported that the stricken reactors at Fukushima's No. 1 nuclear power plant had begun to leak radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, they realized that some of the biggest difficulties were yet to come.

Spirited away: Suisen Shuzo in Iwate Prefecture was one of many breweries destroyed by March's tsunami. KYODO PHOTO

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[Ian David]

1. A couple of those are my favorites :( n/t