Umami Mart

We are beyond excited to announce yet another collaboration event with our neighbor The Trappist. Baird Beer, a brewery from Numazu, Japan will be visiting for one night only, taking over 10 taps at the Trappist! Mr. Bryan Baird himself will be here from Japan, along with John, who works at the brewery as well. […]

Menya Musashi’s namesake is one Miyamoto Musashi, regarded as one of Japan’s greatest swordsmen and creator of the two-handed swordfighting technique niten-ryu, which translates to “Tarantino Wet Dream.” According to legend he never lost a duel in over 50 years as a wandering warrior — which I am inclined to believe since back then you […]

Meet Ryu Sasakura, a dashingly handsome, deeply empathetic, incredibly talented bartender, back in Tokyo after a short stint in Paris. So starts off the captivating J-drama, BARTENDER, which aired in Japan in 2011 for a short eight episodes. I watched them all in a week, I could not stop! After being dismissed from his glamorous […]

Yoko and I first met bartender Tomokazu Kai in 2010, when we helped present an event with Suntory Whisky called the Tokyo-SF Bartender Salon. The event was held at Prizefighter bar in Emeryville and was meant to bring bartenders from Japan and the Bay Area together to present and talk about cocktails and bartending techniques. […]

Yoko and I were lucky enough to be invited to Gifu prefecture in central Japan to visit specific cities that are known for producing knives, ceramics and wood products, and tour their factories. We had a wonderful three days in different parts of Gifu, looking for new products for Umami Mart, while enjoying the regional […]

Instead of reaching there via a Wardrobe route, Nagoya is about a two-hour bullet train ride from Tokyo. It is the third most populous city in Japan, with 2.3 million people living within 11 square miles. Car geeks may know Nagoya as Toyota HQ. Gamblers may take note that it is where pachinko was born. […]

My trip to Kyoto was awesome for many reasons. Temples, new friends, raw nature, or scenes like this one, just three boys feeding hawks like a flock of seagulls. Despite its rural look this is in the heart of Kyoto. And there was this: My couchsurfing host just happened to live within walking distance of […]

We are having a blast in Japan, gallivanting through Gifu, Kyoto and Osaka. This trip, we’re not even stopping off in Tokyo, so we can concentrate on all the riches of these western regions of Japan. Kyoto was hot and sticky, and we found cool reprieve at our friend Masayo’s restaurant, Kiln. It has been […]

Our main objective for our trip to Japan (besides noodles and ekiben) was to visit the many factories where they make the bar and glassware we select for Umami Mart. We wanted to go straight to the source, and meet the people behind the products. This ended up being far more fruitful than we could have […]

Male bartenders in Japan are full of themselves. There, I said it. From the few “star” bars we visited during our trip to Tokyo, I felt miffed by the arrogance and general unfriendliness of the bartenders. What is up with that? Where is the hospitality? People say that you have to keep going to these […]