00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody! Welcome to Niigata. This is Minami Uonuma. This is where they make some of the best rice in Japan, Koshihikari rice. And this is Aoki Shuzo, a sake brewery. What's in front of us right now is called a yukimuro (snow storage vault).

00:26 John Daub: Yukimuro is a way of natural snow refrigeration. They've been using this system for a thousand years, going back to the Jomon period. But it was very popular in the Edo period, especially as sake became popular here. This brewery started in 1717, which is mind-boggling to me. We're going to get a chance to look inside their yukimuro, which is a really unique treat because they don't often show visitors inside.

00:59 John Daub: There are a lot of advantages to using yukimuro instead of normal electric refrigeration. This way, there's no vibrations. Electric refrigeration causes temperature fluctuations as the power goes on and off, which impacts the taste of the sake. But with yukimuro, the temperature stays constant 365 days a year.

01:40 John Daub: Later on today, we're going to see another yukimuro from this area. It's a great way to compare them for different purposes. Yesterday, we opened one that looked like a bank vault and discovered some foods. Because the humidity is higher than a refrigerator, it makes the sugars in the food sweeter and more flavorful. So this natural refrigeration has benefits beyond being environmentally friendly.

02:18 John Daub: So I'm going to get my mask on and we're going to go inside. There's the old brewery over there, and you can see we're surrounded by snow. Yesterday, we had a really big snowstorm. Today, it's nice and sunny and warm. How you doing, Mike? Roylances here? Expect to see you get drunk. Oh my gosh. And Danny, happy birthday to Danny who's 31 in Montreal, 31 years young. Let's go inside. Leave your shoes at the door. And I guess they have these boots that we can wear.

03:16 John Daub: Already, I can see bottles of sake. These shoes are really small. Oh, I'm in pain. It is kind of cool in here, but it should be. Wow, that's a big one. These are the 2-liter bottles here. Very nice. Going to be shipped all around Niigata and Japan. That is a lot of sake. I'm definitely going to be going home with a couple of bottles of those. You can get them inside of Echigo-Yuzawa Station. They have a really good sake store inside the Shinkansen station. So when you come to this area, you don't have to carry around the bottles. Just pick it up at the station. It's actually one of the biggest sake shops in this area too.

05:31 John Daub: As we wait to get into the yukimuro, we see above the door here, they do have a kind of shrine. Japanese sake is considered to be the drink of Japan. So it does have a very special purpose in ceremonies and all sorts of religious rites. Beyond this door is the yukimuro and we can't get in because they took a group in there earlier.

06:41 John Daub: All right, now it's our turn. So if this door doesn't close, the other door won't open. That's how it works. We're in kind of like this buffer zone. As this door is closing, once this door closes, we can open up the other door. Abracadabra. There's more layers to the onion. The snow is surrounding the entire building. This is the fans that are coming from the snow.

08:43 John Daub: So I just wanted to show you inside of the freezer first. We have to wait for this door to close before we can open it up here. The snow is coming out. This is where they put the snow. You can't see it unless you press the button. Oh! That is a lot of snow. This is all tons and tons of snow that insulate the yukimuro, where they store the sake, so it naturally stays cold. That is incredible. It's kind of like boarded up as though it's some sort of Indiana Jones thing. There must be tons of snow. And whoa! That mountain goes all the way up there!

10:52 John Daub: They store inside this building, and what this acts as the natural refrigeration. That snow that they collect during the winter actually stays in there 365 days a year. So in the height of summer, it doesn't matter if it's like 100 degrees outside Fahrenheit or 35 degrees Celsius, it'll stay insulated and cold. That's keeping the inside of the storage area chilled as well. A constant temperature year-round, and that makes the sake taste better because there's no fluctuations in the temperature. The other thing with yukimuro is the humidity is 90% inside because of the snow. And that also means that it's really good for aging beef and vegetables and things like this. It gives it more flavor from saccharification, which is an increase in the sugar content, which brings up more natural flavors as well.

12:20 John Daub: I'm learning all about this too, just with you. I'd say like a few months ago, I never heard about yukimuro. So I'm kind of curious about this cultural part of Japanese food industry. All right, let me take you outside because the lag is heavy.

13:01 John Daub: All right, welcome back to the outside world. Sorry about that. The insulation in there, it's like a vault because they really are doing their best to keep it. I'm surprised that we had some signal at all, but I hope that you could get a chance to see inside what it sort of looked like inside of the yukimuro. Now, if you're interested in yukimuro, you can go to the Yukimuro Store. I'm sure I'll be able to take you there. Each way that they do this is different. Traditionally, they would build a mound of snow and then use straw to insulate it.

14:00 John Daub: Next up today we're gonna be going to another yukimuro, Japanese natural snow refrigeration place where I believe that they're storing vegetables—somebody said it's gonna be mushrooms. I'm kind of excited to check that out. If you are interested in these cultural live streams, I did ask in a poll what kind of content you wanted to see and cultural was number one. This actually combines food with culture. And if you want to learn a little bit about Japanese sake, the way that it is stored is really really important. So yeah, click that thumbs up button.

15:08 John Daub: We had just gone inside but it looks like this is some kind of Yeti, abominable snowman. There is an author in this area that had written a book about the abominable snowman and they decided to embrace that character and put it on this door. He's carrying sake. If I was an abominable snowman I would be drinking sake too. As I said the link for this location is in the description and this is Minami Uonuma in Niigata not too far away from Yuzawa. This is a good abominable snowman—it's actually not an evil creature, he helps people not hurts them.

17:25 John Daub: All right so all of you were in that picture too. We'll see if I could get that on Instagram for you because you're in the picture too. This is a really famous shuzo (sake brewery). They opened it up so the inside of here that's where the yuki (snow) is with how they bring it—they truck it into the yukimuro. So this is the snow—it's like a little... so this 400 ton of snow inside of here. No this is not an indoor skiing place. They put this in on the 16th of February—the snow here so it's new snow. I touched it. 365 days it for a year it's gonna stay like this that's incredible.

19:16 John Daub: They have a modern way to keep this refrigerated—doors and doors and the trucks actually will unload the snow in here. They pile it up over the storehouse but this building here that you see just bottles up that chill and gives them an icebox kind of system naturally for a year and then next February they just get more snow and it's free—sort of, you have to put the snow in there but it's a lot cheaper than an electric bill that they would have to pay. We're live in Niigata in Minami Uonuma—this is where many consider the most delicious Koshihikari rice.

20:18 John Daub: Hey Kataya was in the house. Are you going to get some sake for the daimyo boxes? I totally would except um I think the U.S. government frowns on alcohol being sent to those boxes. Amazake though might be something else—amazake (sweet fermented rice drink) has no alcohol in it. Yesterday we had a really strong snowstorm. In fact when I woke up this morning it was blue skies like it is right now—absolutely stunning. This is the city of Uonuma. No manhole [inaudible]. And we're at the Aoki Shuzo or Aoki sake brewery here in Niigata.

21:42 John Daub: Her cousins live here in Niigata so we're gonna have to go and visit the cousins. This is the sugi-dama (cedar ball)—do you see this that it's green when they put it together and when it turns brown's color that means that the sake is done. Just a traditional thing you'll see it in front of traditional sake shops, older sake shops that are selling sake—breweries have these in the front of it and it's dressed out in kind of a Shinto look to it. I'm not much into tours because tours are in Japanese and I have to translate everything. But the history of this place goes back as I said—Aoki Shuzo it started in 1717 so it's over 300 years which is incredible.

23:17 John Daub: See the pole there measures how high the snow is and you'll see them in the mountains and up in Hokkaido for sure. In fact the snow gets so high in Hokkaido they don't have poles they have bigger poles with arrows pointing down because the snow gets up so high so they have to get the poles above that. They do have two brands here. This brand here Kakurei—I know this brand, Kakurei is a very famous sake brand. That's the original one if they have the 300th anniversary so you can find that here. There's a word there that says wa (harmony) and means harmonization and this is a way with snow and rice coming together in a perfect harmony like ebony and ivory—rice and snow—and this makes their iconic taste. I'm probably going to be picking up a bottle of this at Echigo Yuzawa Station.

25:41 John Daub: Tokyo does not look like this so I'm quite happy to be here. Hey there's the Yamazaki bread truck. It's like Wonder Bread. In fact, I think that that's the Wonder Bread girl, isn't it? Sake typically will come in a 720ml bottle. So it's not quite one liter. And then there's 1,800ml bottles. And that's almost two liters. Those are quite big. That's a typical what you would buy at the store. And then they have even bigger barrels. That's used for more ceremonial things. Where they'll take those barrels and then they have parties where they bash it open. And then they take spoons of it and drink. That was like a dream of mine, actually. I always wanted to buy one of those and then crash it open and then just invite a bunch of friends and have a sake party. But I have yet to do that.

27:45 John Daub: I'm not too interested in the tour. I kind of like to do my own thing. But for those that are joining us right now, we're at Aoki Shuzo. This is the live stream. And inside, we just took a look at this. Last week, they added in the snow. And this yukimuro, which is natural snow refrigeration, is the way that they chill their sake in this natural way. And they've been doing it since the beginning in 1717. And that's inside where that abominable snowman is. I just put my foot in this snow. I signed it. Just wanted to destroy something beautiful.

29:03 John Daub: The air here smells like my breakfast. It's because of the mask. But if I get away from the people, I can take off my mask and then smell the fresh air as it was meant to be. There's like a chilled sweetness to it. Today is super warm. And almost everything that fell yesterday is going to melt today. But the air is sweet. It is so different than Tokyo. You can taste it. That crisp mountain Niigata Mountain air. Very nice. Any questions that I can answer regarding yukimuro? We're going to have a chance to take a look at another yukimuro this afternoon.

30:01 John Daub: So much snow makes a man happy. Imagine going up there. That's Hakkaisan I believe. Hakkaisan is also a very famous sake maker. I believe that mountain is Hakkaisan. And the water from Hakkaisan does come this way. I had a chance to drink this water up there a little bit up the mountain in a mountain stream. You can drink it naturally. You don't need to purify it or anything. And it was perfectly balanced pH—right in the center. And that's what makes the sake here so famous and so delicious in this region. And why Niigata sake is world famous. Hyogo is the biggest. Hyogo and Kyoto are the two biggest producers. And I believe Niigata is right behind them.

31:22 John Daub: This is a Kakurei branded truck. That's the label for their Kakurei sake. Hey Nicholas. Nicholas has now made the first official donation to a sake barrel kickstarter. Actually I'm really thinking about this now. And then we would have a sake barrel t-shirt which would say Only in Japan on it. I actually can see this happening. We'll take it to a small town and give the locals a drink of it. Nicholas you're a genius. Let's buy some sake. Let's bring some hope and make a fun day out of it. I'd probably take the money and donate it to charity or something. The fireworks project that we started—I didn't make any money off of that. Last year's project was all for the fireworks makers. So Kai and I didn't take anything out of that except for travel costs.

33:39 John Daub: So the sake barrel one maybe we could raise some money for a town up in Fukushima or something. That would be really really cool. I know that there's an orphanage up there that could definitely use some help. But I don't think the orphanage would want to drink the sake. Actually I wear more than one mask because this mask is more comfortable. But it's purposeless because it's for pollen and stuff. So I have no problem with wearing two.

34:39 John Daub: Forklifts are cool. I can think of so many useful purposes for a forklift besides lifting stuff. I used to work in a warehouse. But they would never let me touch the forklift. Even after hours. They said there's no way, John, you're getting in a forklift. Warehouse job—I worked it every summer. It was really really hard. But you get to know the people in the warehouse and they're all pretty cool. It really is a team in there. As long as you work hard and get stuff done, people kind of like you.

36:29 John Daub: Where are you going next? To Mokshidori? Is it lunchtime? It's almost time. Alright, follow that bus. Who wants to go on a field trip, click the like button. It is actually getting close to lunchtime. But I'm not that hungry. The hotel breakfast was not too bad. Bonus time because you clicked the like button. We're going to take a look at Uonuma. This is the Yuzawa Uonuma area.

38:12 John Daub: Oh look at that. That's nice. They're letting us in. No we're not! We're going to miss this light. We missed the light. Where'd the bus go? Who let the bus out? This looks like one of those lights that take 10 minutes too. That's a different Aoki. Oh, so my wife's name is Aoki. There's a lot of Aokis in Niigata and apparently Kanae's maiden name is Aoki. So that's kind of funny. And her family is originally from Niigata. The Aoki family is strong in Niigata. We lost the bus. This is like one of those traffic lights that takes forever. Wait for it. Got it! Go, go, go!

40:28 John Daub: Oh, this is an older street. Country road. That's a magic bus. It's gone. This road is beautiful. Looks like a really historical area going back to the Edo period. A lot of old buildings. So we're in Uonuma, which is in Niigata, the Yuzawa-Niigata area. We just looked at a yukimuro, which is a natural snow refrigeration. Now we're going this direction on a field trip. In-your-face mountain. That is so... That is indeed an amazing view. I'm looking at it with my own two eyes, and I feel like I'm never going back to Tokyo now. Why would I do that? Oh, sorry, Kanae's there. My wife is there. She's watching. I'm coming home. Don't worry. Don't panic.

44:11 John Daub: We found the bus. Oh, this is the sake place. I guess they sell the sake here. I'm gonna find out how much a barrel is. You're coming with me because you don't have a choice unless you shut this off. And you know you want to know what happens next. Jedi mind trick. Open the door. Oh, it worked. Second breakfast is here. Look at all the sake. Where do I find the barrels? Oh, there's Kubota. That's a very famous brand in Niigata. So they're selling more than just Kakurei.

47:01 John Daub: Kakurei 15,000 yen? That's about $100 for that. This is the most expensive. Junmai Daiginjo. That's the top sake. Most sake don't give this a sample. The smaller bottles with the abominable snowman, they come out to 440 yen. But if you're looking for the higher price, the Junmai Daiginjo, which means that the rice has been polished down to under 50%, meaning they threw away 50% of the rice, but the outside of the rice actually contains a lot of the impurities. So you want to polish down the rice and get to the starch. If you polish it down to even like 30%, the sake gets sweeter because you're just getting the starch.

48:44 John Daub: The big bottles, 1.8 liter is 2,500 yen, 2,750 yen with tax, I believe. That's good to know. So you do save money by buying bigger, but Japanese sake, if you do like the drier ones, then you don't have to pay as much. Japanese sake, once you open the bottle, you should drink the whole thing within about a month. And definitely refrigerate it after you open the bottle. But Japanese sake is not the same as whiskey. It's more like beer. After you open it, drink it. That's why the bigger bottles are more for parties not for drinking alone. That's why I often will buy two 720ml bottles instead of a big one because I know that I can't drink a big one. I don't have that many friends.

49:49 John Daub: They use the newspapers to wrap it. That's pretty cool. They use just typical Japanese newspaper to wrap it and then they wrote on the newspaper. Oh, they have craft beer. There's the rice craft beer. They use Koshihikari rice to make beer. That's kind of good. And down here, if you can't drink a full sake, they have kanzake (canned sake). Like cup noodles without the noodles or the soup. And this is umeshu (plum liqueur) which is made from Japanese plums. You can make this at home but sometimes they'll use special recipes and add things into it like aging them in Japanese cedar barrels where the taste of the umeshu will take on kind of a woody taste to it.

51:11 John Daub: So I'm gonna buy most of my sake at Echigo Yuzawa Station. I don't need to buy it here. I'm not gonna buy it because I gotta carry it. So I'm buying it at the train station. Kanpai. Wow, that's really good. It's not a Junmai Daiginjo but it does have some characteristics to it. There's a dryness to it. The more you drink sake, the more you don't want it to be so smooth. You want more characteristics to it. A little bit of a grit to it. That's really good. Snowman.

54:00 John Daub: For me, I think this one would be if you're just traveling, you might as well get the Junmai Daiginjo. This is actually $50 and I'm gonna get one of these at the train station to take back for Kanae's dad and to try. I'm gonna be taking to another yukimuro very shortly. I wanted to introduce you to this word, yukimuro. I actually, before I came here, I didn't know much about yukimuro and only really understood what the word meant a couple of months ago when they asked me if I would be interested in this project. And I am. This is very much part of Niigata's culture, especially here in the mountains.

55:11 John Daub: So if you have any questions, leave me a comment in the video comments below. And I'll try to answer them about it. But the city of Yuzawa really wants to promote this as a tourist attraction. And I'm kinda helping them out to kinda figure out, is this a good idea? And I kinda like it. If they can incorporate food and booze into a tour, I'm all ears and mouth. How is the car park cleared of snow each day? I showed you yesterday. Do you see these right now? These are the spray water out. So there are pipes underneath the ground that have warm water that pipe out of it. And the water just flows and it melts all the snow. In fact, there's another line of the water that breaks it all up. And that cuts down the amount of shoveling because there is a lot of shoveling. Thanks so much for watching. Nicholas, I like your idea. We're gonna see if we can make that happen. See you in the next live stream in a couple of hours.