We are writing on the eve of another winter season. This will be our twelfth winter in Nagano and, while we enjoy every season living on the slopes of Mount Kurohime, winter is special here -- marked by low temperatures and deep snow. Waking up to two meters of fresh white snow is not unusual. But we are prepared -- our snow plow is as big as a small car.
Tag: Japan
September 2023 Reviews
Jim and Mariko (along with Keiko) were in London during July and into August to help out with (and celebrate) the birth of a new addition to our family. Daughter/sister, Komaki and her husband, Andy, birthed a beautiful baby girl named Juneau. The new family lives in the village of Walthamstow, which is part of Greater London, and just 30 minutes on the Victoria Line to Buckingham Palace.
June 2023 Wine Reviews
The past two months have flown by as the Foster family converged on New York City to celebrate the birth of Mariko's first child, a little girl named Noa. We all had a great time including a picnic in Central Park and attending a piano concert at Carnegie Hall. Jim had ambitious plans to visit … Continue reading June 2023 Wine Reviews
December 2022 Wine Review
The snow has arrived at our home on the slopes of Mount Kurohime in Nagano. And this is just the first taste of what promises to be a long and very snowy winter. But that is why we have lived here for over a decade. And there really is nothing better than to sit beside our wood-burning stone and sample some local Nagano wines for inclusion in our monthly blog. This time, we are winding the clock back to the start of the pandemic in the Spring of 2020 when the rapid spread of the virus in Japan forced us to cancel plans for a series of wine-tastings and a wine dinner that we had planned for Friends of Nagano Wine in the Tokyo area.
November 2022 Wine Recommendations
We began our blog last month with a gloomy rainy scene from the front porch of our home in Kurohime. So, it is only fair to show what a difference a month makes. And Jim would match up a Kurohime fall afternoon in November with the finest days in the woods of New England or the forested hills of the Ardennes in Belgium -- both of which we have enjoyed many times. That said, sunny, brisk November weather in Nagano comes too late for the grapes -- which are harvested in October. The irony is that nothing goes better with a beautiful fall day in Nagano (or anywhere for that matter) than a nice glass of Merlot. So, we will be introducing three of these in this month's blog.
October 2022 Wine Recommendations
We are opening with this dreary video (click the screen to play) of a rainy October 8 morning in Nagano so as to give a real time glimpse of the challenges to producing good wine in Nagano. This year, we had record snowfalls in Nagano, cool weather in June and August that only rarely felt like summer--and cold, rainy weather throughout September and now into October . This video was taken around 9AM from our front porch: it was raining (you can see the puddles on the gravel driveway) and 10 degrees Celsius.
September 2022 Wine Recommendations
There is an old saying in English that "it is an ill wind that blows no good". Clearly, the global pandemic, waxing climate change and the precipitous collapse of the post Cold War global order fit the description of an "ill wind". But is there a "silver lining" in all this?
June 2022 Wine Recommendations
Jim's good friend and wine drinking partner, C.W. Nicol, passed away two years ago last April. Nic held a black belt in karate and worked briefly in the United Kingdom as a professional wrestler. He was a "bear" of a man, who seemed indestructible. And while he is now gone, his legacy, the Afan Forest Foundation and the 35 hectares of forest land that he brought back to life continues.
Friends of Nagano Wine 