Someone thinks you might like Sake Sumo.

Hey there! Someone thinks you might like this travel blog / newsletter.

Which is nice of them.

They could have sent you a video of a monkey eating chocolate ice cream.

Instead, you are here.

Welcome.

Sake Sumo is a journal about Japan, sake, food, travel and occasionally biting off considerably more than I can chew.

My name is Jason. Welcome to the internet. Well, this part of it anyway.

I’m originally from Australia but have lived in Osaka, Japan, since 2011.

I’ve spent a fairly ridiculous amount of that time travelling around this wondrous country.

I work as a photographer, tour leader and curator, helping put together small-group food, sake and cultural journeys around Japan.

That means I get to spend time in places that most visitors don’t necessarily get to see — sake breweries, tiny restaurants, fishing villages, workshops, farms, the sides and tops of mountains, and the occasional bar that kinda seemed like an excellent idea at the time.

I take photos and make what I think are films along the way.

I also have a Master’s in Gastronomic Tourism from Le Cordon Bleu and I’m an accredited Advanced Sake Professional.

Which all sounds terribly serious.

Thankfully, Sake Sumo isn’t.

So what is Sake Sumo?

It’s not really a travel guide.

It’s not a sake magazine.

And it’s definitely not another list of the 10 BEST HIDDEN GEMS IN JAPAN YOU MUST VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE.

It’s a journal about actually being here.

People. Places. Photography. Food. Sake. Travel.

And what happens when you wander off the obvious route.

Sometimes that’s visiting a picturesque village in the middle of winter.

Sometimes it’s eating something out of the ordinary in a six-seat restaurant.

Sometimes it’s getting on a bike and cycling around an island.

Sometimes it’s getting your festival on, climbing a mountain, catching a ferry or ending up in a local bar.

And recently it meant spending more than two and a half months walking around Shikoku on the 88 Temple Henro pilgrimage.

Eeeshh.

That was supposed to be a walk.

It grew into something considerably bigger.

There were temples, typhoons, turtles, mountains, blisters, lot's of crabs, far too many convenience store ice-creams and some adventurous side quests.

That’s really what the Sake Sumo Journal is about.

Going somewhere and seeing what happens.

Why Sake Sumo?

I’ve spent years travelling around Japan for work.

I curate Japanese sake and food tours. I lead guests around the country. I photograph it. I write about it. I eat and drink my way through a rather unreasonable amount of it.

But Sake Sumo is where I get to tell the other stories.

Not necessarily the famous places.

Not necessarily the places you’re 'supposed' to visit.

But more about - the people you meet.

The little grandma shops.

The strange detours.

The food that you remember for days.

That hidden bottle sake somebody pulls out from underneath the counter.

The things that go wrong.

And the places that make you think:

I need to come back here. Again.

Want to come along?

Sake Sumo is 100% free. (Unless you want to contribute.)

Put your email in below and whenever I have something worth sending, you’ll get it.

No daily emails.

No ten-part automated welcome sequence. Although there is a thing where you need to click to verify your email — sorry, I can’t help that. It keeps the spammers and AI mongrel bots at bay.

No Japan travel hacks.

No ‘these are the things you wish you knew but didn’t’…

No Tickey Tacky Tocky Influencer Garbage.

Just stories, photographs and dispatches from wherever I happen to end up next.

And if the person who sent you here knows you as well as they think they do…

you’ll probably like it.

Welcome to Sake Sumo.

Not sure yet?

Fair enough.

Have a read first.

Start here.