National Geographic Traveller (UK)
A SEA OF CLOUDS
KUROI, TAMBA
An early wake-up call and tough mountain walk are worth it to witness this spectacular natural phenomenon, where an ocean of clouds stretch out across the horizon
My eyelids barely flutter. It’s 4.30am and they don’t want to be disturbed. I’m leaving my futon at Keisen — a traditional Japanese guest house — to hike a mountain before the sun has so much as stirred.
Dragging myself outside, the black sky above me is dotted with stars. We’re hiking to see the ‘sea of clouds’ — a rare phenomenon that, when seen from above, resembles the waves of the ocean. Our head torches guide us until we reach a clearing in the thick woods, halfway up the mountain. The sky, so dark a mere half an hour before, has transformed into a canvas of spectacular oranges and blues.
As we reach the peak, a group of locals are there to greet us; they’ve been coming here in time for sunrise every day for 12 years. We meet Tsuneoka San, an 71-yearold woman who’s brought small cakes filled with bean paste, and her friend, Oda San, armed with Thermoses of steaming coffee. They greet me affectionately and I take a mug, cupping it between my hands for warmth. Last year, Tsuneoka San tells me, she travelled solo to Peru to climb Huayna Picchu. Another friend, Takemura, picks up a conch, “to call the sun,” she explains. We stand silently and watch as daylight breaks, light glinting off the peaceful beauty that is the sea of clouds.
“It’s the sea of clouds that makes the produce here so special,” Aoki, master brewer at Yamana Shuzo Brewery, tells me later that day as I sit with him in the distilling room. The tanks that surround us are filled with rice that — after being steamed for two days — will stay in there for six months. Yamana Shuzo Brewery has been open for 300 years, and Aoki has been here for 52 of them. “I learned everything I know about brewing here and became a master brewer 40 years ago,” says Aoki, who also makes his own sake.
The rice used to make sake is grown from spring to autumn. I’m here just before the harvest starts, as winter is drawing in. “The colder months are perfect for making sake because the air and water are so fresh,” he continues. “It’s the fog from the sea of clouds that really helps with this. It cleans all the impurities from the atmosphere and also lowers the temperature.”
Aoki explains how sensitive rice is to temperature, and of how moved he was by Greta Thunberg’s UN talk praising fresh air and clean environments. “Sometimes I think about retiring, but that’s too easy. Making sake the traditional way without machinery, and keeping the culture alive — that’s my destiny, and I need this environment to do it.”
It’s been a long and rewarding morning. I’m glad I opened my eyes for this.